New To Yeast Harvesting

[Arpeggiator]

Hi everyone,

Attempting my first try at washing/saving yeast. I read a couple of the yeast washing threads but still had a few questions about my technique. I just finished bottling a session ale and boiled a couple cups of water, let it cool, then poured it into my fermenter on top of the yeast cake. I gave it a few swirls then poured everything into a sanitized pitcher. I went about cleaning up my kitchen and came back to the pitcher about a 1/2 hour later. I was expecting the little bit of beer that I couldn't siphon out, and water to have separated from the yeast so I could decant all the liquid. this didn't really happen at all, in fact, it looked just as it looked when i poured it in the pitcher. So i decided to pour everything into 4 sanitized mason jars and a growler.

So my questions are, what is the best way to decant the liquid from the yeast before pouring into the mason jars? Second, If there is still a little beer from the previous batch, what effect will this have on the saved yeast? Third, the growler I used was only filled about 1/2 way, do I risk contamination from the extra headspace in the growler? Everything is sitting in the fridge at the moment and I plan on using the yeast in the growler this week assuming that I did everything correct. Thanks for the feedback, cheers and happy brewing.

 

[suprchunk]

You should try to leave most of the trub and other junk in the fermenter. Pour water in, swirl, let sit. When the stuff starts settling, try pouring off the cloudy liquid from the obvious sediment in the bottom, without disturbing that sediment to the best of your ability. Then let that jar sit until some more sediment is evident on the bottom. Pour the cloudy concoction off that deposit into your other jars. Put in fridge until you are ready to step them up in a starter. After it has been in the fridge for awhile you will have a very clear distinction between the yeast on the bottom and the liquid on top.

Just look at the illustrated sticky and it should be beyond obvious. That is a good writeup.