Techniques for Washing Brett

[pvault98]

Like most homebrewers I like both the cost savings and the increased quality of repitching yeast. I also harvest Brett from 100% Brett fermentations and get some really quality yeast from these beers. My method like many people is to add some "sterile" to the fermenter, swirl and pour off into another container. I let it settle for a day or two, decant, and then pour a second dose of "sterile" water.

After this settles, I use a stainless steel turkey baster to vacuum up the yeast and store in glass test tubes. This works great for Saccharomyces however the Brett forms a very solid clump and makes this method very difficult. Does anyone else use a similar method and have a good solution for this and can anyone else suggest a better means for collecting the Brett for storing? I am considering decanting all of the liquid since the yeast cake is so solid it is like gelatin and I can easily pour off all the liquid. I could then use essentially a sanitized spoon to scoop it up and dump it into the test tubes.

What methods do you guys use to wash and collect Brett? Is it different than how you collect Sach?

 

[smokinghole]

I just put a glove so I can sanitize my hand and the tube and I just scoop some yeast up and cap the tube. I don't think washing is that great or imperative. Sure you get rid of the dead stuff but you also wash/dilute away most residual nutrient that would keep the yeast healthier during storage. It needs proteins and carbohydrates to survive dormancy well. Think about it, commercial breweries don't wash their yeast. If anything they may do a citric acid washing but that is rare. They just pitch cone to cone often times or cone to "brink" to new fermentor. Few top crop because the modern conical fermentors prevents efficient top cropping. I tried washing once or twice 3-4 years ago. I found the effort not worth the end product especially when I took into consideration the downside to the washing.

 

[vagabondat02]

+1 to this ^. I usually just repitch onto half of a cake or so, and stash the other half in a mason jar. Anything I plan on adding to the frozen bank, however, I like to overpitch a little bit and top crop for clean yeast.

 

[Coff]

I dont wash any yeast anymore either, I agree it wasnt worth the time or effort. I just pour slurry into clean and sanitized polypropolene jars and store in the fridge. Has been working great for me for 3+ years now, and I usually will go 5 generations with sacch and even longer with bugs.

 

[Gus_13]

I don't have any experience with washing yeast. But I have been growing Brett and keeping it growing for months now. I just break off 50-100mL from each starter I do and then when I pitch I put that back into a starter to keep it growing. I had some Brett Brux for a while like that that took off amazingly and the flavors were fantastic. Washing just takes too much time for me. That's why I like splitting and saving some of each starter.

 

[TheZymurgist]

^This is what I do with all of my starters, for strains that I keep around. I make a slightly larger starter, and keep some of it, rather than worrying about harvesting from an already fermented batch. That way hop junk and trub aren't an issue.

 

[pvault98]

Cool thanks for the feedback on what you guys are doing. I am definitely going to just start scooping up the yeast. I have been using sterile water because I was under the impression it was better to not having any nutrients or oxygen since you want the yeast dormant and having available food and oxygen will encourage some minor activity and cause them to deplete their glycogen reserves faster. Any thought on this?

 

[Wahoo]

I'm suprised to hear you say that brett floc's so well. In my experience (only a couple of strains of brett brux) it's medium to low flocculating in comparison to most ale strains. About the same as a saison strain.

 

[pvault98]

I'm suprised to hear you say that brett floc's so well. In my experience (only a couple of strains of brett brux) it's medium to low flocculating in comparison to most ale strains. About the same as a saison strain.

Yeah I know...I was expecting the same thing. I am using White Labs Brett Brux and that stuff drops out quick every time I have used it and forms a solid mass at the bottom of my fermenter. Even when I made a starter straight from the vial it behaved the same way.