Liquid for washing yeast

[Brew-boy]

When I harvest my yeast I always seem to have about 1.5 quarts of beer left in the carboy. Do you think it would be better to have the harvested yeast left on beer in a mason jar or water? I do not see the harm in the beer seeing that what it just fermented.

 

[mosyslack]

From what I have read (I have only washed yeast once) water is the better medium since after boiling there is little to no dissolved oxygen in the water. You want the yeast to take a nap essentially, so lack of O2 and any possible sugars is a good thing.

Someone else may be able to provide more insight.

 

[homebrewer_99]

What he said...

Reducing the beer on top (watering down) stops all fermentation from happening in the holding container.