my first yeast wash

[defenestrate]

well after thinking that i was going to mess yeast washing up royally, i decided to say eff it and give it a shot. i havent used the yeast yet, but as far as i can tell it went very smoothly and everyone should give it a shot!

here is a pic of the yeast with about an inch of beer left on top after cold crashing and racking.

here is a shot of the yeast cake left after the beer was poured off. i recommend cold crashing before washing if possible, it helps the yeast and trub settle quicker i think.

i filled 4 pint mason jars and 1 quart mason jar with water, covered them with water (along with the lids and a set of tongs) and boiled for 20 mins and then allowed to cool to room temp.

i added the water from the mason jars into the fermenter, swirled it well and let it settle for roughly 20 min.

i then poured off the suspended yeast into the quart mason jar.

this is the same mason jar after 20 min. as you can see, not much trub at all was transfered over and there is only a fine line dropped out in the jar. i then poured this off between two of the pint jars.

i repeated this again to give myself a total of 4 pint jars of washed yeast.

nice clean white yeast.

i dont pull much hot break at all into the fermenters (let them settle for 30 min after cooling) so i think that helped... and these were not dry hopped either. this went so smoothly i did a second batch the following day with the same results, i'm excited to set up a starter and see how it works!

 

[ajwillys]

Nice, congrats on the nice looking yeast. Every time I use a fancy liquid yeast I swear I'm going to do this... but then I always end up kegging on a day when I have about 30 minutes to get it done and just chuck the yeast... next time, I swear.

 

[defenestrate]

Nice, congrats on the nice looking yeast. Every time I use a fancy liquid yeast I swear I'm going to do this... but then I always end up kegging on a day when I have about 30 minutes to get it done and just chuck the yeast... next time, I swear.

this sure aint no fancy yeast... this is notty and the second batch i did is with us05 dry yeast aint so cheap nowadays... plus its good practice.

 

[mikebiewer]

Just curious. When you used the water that you boiled, did you cool it down before putting it into the yeast trub or did you let it cool down to an appropriate temperature?

Everything I've read or been told is to make it cold so you don't kill and or reactivate the yeast. Just curious as to your temp.

It looks nice though. I'm looking to do this with the EPA I have fermenting right now.

 

[ajwillys]

this sure aint no fancy yeast... this is notty and the second batch i did is with us05 dry yeast aint so cheap nowadays... plus its good practice.

Oh yeah, I hear that. Once I get the technique, I can imagine doing it for most of my yeasts, its just the $7+ yeasts that I really regret pouring down the drain.

 

[defenestrate]

i didnt cool the water down over night in the fridge which i probably should have, but i was impatient. i would say it was probably cooled down to 65 on the first wash and on the second wash i actually cooled the pot down in a snow drift for hours so it was probably about 40 for the second wash. next time i will boil the water a day in advance and just put the jars in the fridge to cool overnight.