Problem washing WLP002 yeast.

[Schnitzengiggle]

I have washed yeast a few times now, with great success, however, I wanted to save some of the WLP002 English Ale yeast from my previous batch of an ordinary bitter I brewed.

The problem I had when following the same washing techniques that I have been using (successfully), is that this yeast is so highly flocculent that it didn't seem to want to stay suspended from the trub. I have 5 16 oz mason jars with very little yeast sediment in them. I poured all 5 jars of sterile water into the fermenter, and swirled it up, I let it rest for 15 minutes, and then poured the slurry into a sanitized 1 gallon container, swirled and allowed to settle for another 15 minutes, and then poured off the yeast into the 5 mason jars. Compared to previous washings of WLP004, and WLP001 there is very little yeast in the bottom of these jars inparticular.

Has anyone else noticed the WLP002 strain being difficult to wash, or at least not being able to obtain a nice thick slurry?

 

[enderwig]

With english strains, you have to shake the ever loving sh*t out of it with the water in it to break up all the curdled clumps. Add your water add shake till you think you shook too much, then let it sit for 10 mins and decant.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

With english strains, you have to shake the ever loving sh*t out of it with the water in it to break up all the curdled clumps. Add your water add shake till you think you shook too much, then let it sit for 10 mins and decant.

I thought too much aeration was partly defeating the purpose of boiling the water, since boiling removes o2 which helps keep the dormant and inactive in effect increasing storage time. I know the main reason for boiling is to sterilize the water, but oxygen promotes reproduction, correct?

I'm trying making certain that shaking the crap out of it isn't a bad thing.

 

[carnevoodoo]

I thought too much aeration was partly defeating the purpose of boiling the water, since boiling removes o2 which helps keep the dormant and inactive in effect increasing storage time. I know the main reason for boiling is to sterilize the water, but oxygen promotes reproduction, correct?

I'm trying making certain that shaking the crap out of it isn't a bad thing.

But if they're in water what're they going to eat? There won't be any noticeable reproduction.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Touché good sir

 

[nstorm1121]

It seems to me that you kind of need to do this the opposite... let the yeast settle out first, and dump off the trub. I'm having the same problem and it looks like that there is layer of trub on top of my yeast in my fridge.

I'm debating either just leaving it and dumping it off before I pitch, or else washing it again to get the trub out... anyone have any thoughts?

 

[kanzimonson]

Quite the thread revival here, but I'll chime in because this is the yeast I use on most of my ales. Basically, I gave up trying to completely clean out the culture. The trub always seems to settle on top. You could probably decant the trub-liquid off and then pour some more deaerated, sanitized water in but personally I'd rather minimize the amount of time I'm messing with it. I absolutely cringe whenever I have to open a container with yeast in it - I swear I can see the bacteria falling in! That's why I just leave the trub on top.

 

[Skyforger]

Yeah, a bit of trub never hurt me yet. Which is good, because it's pretty unavoidable with this strain, unless you want to do a streak-culture propagation or something.