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Question reusing yeast. Does this look right?

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Delirious187

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This is my first time trying to reuse yeast. I've followed the directions I've gathered from this site using the washing technique. The yeast I harvested is White Labs Irish Ale WLP004. To me it looks like three distinct layers. The white creamy top, tan creamy middle layer and the bottom looks sandy. When I washed this yeast and put into this container the white cloudiness took several hours to settle to form that top layer. Definitely no 20-30 mins or an hour like I’ve read about. So my question is, is this yeast re-usable? If so which layer? Thanks!

IMG_20120306_192202.jpg
 
This is my first time trying to reuse yeast. I've followed the directions I've gathered from this site using the washing technique. The yeast I harvested is White Labs Irish Ale WLP004. To me it looks like three distinct layers. The white creamy top, tan creamy middle layer and the bottom looks sandy. When I washed this yeast and put into this container the white cloudiness took several hours to settle to form that top layer. Definitely no 20-30 mins or an hour like I’ve read about. So my question is, is this yeast re-usable? If so which layer? Thanks!

I'm thinking you may have missed a step. As I understood it -- and I'll admit I washed yeast for the first time this weekend, following those same instructions.

When you wait 20-30 minutes, you pour the still cloudy liquid off the gray-green stuff on the bottom (that's the stuff you don't want) into your half-pint jars. Seal and refrigerate. Then you get just the white stuff on the bottom.

Yes, the white layer is your yeast.
 
The top creamy layer is what you want. It helps if you have a large vessel to rinse it in. What you want do is swirl it all up and wait the 15 mins, let the trub settle like what you have in the bottom and pour off the good yeast that is in suspension. I would rinse this again an get that trub out of there.
 
Ahh gotcha. I was planning on decanting the top fluid down, leaving a little to help pour out the top layer of yeast into my half pint jars. I think I'll give your comments another try. Thanks for your help.
 
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