cms
Well-Known Member
(I am trying to wash yeast for the first time)
In anticipation of brewing today, I racked an amber into a secondary (to dry hop) and kept the yeast. I poured the yeast into a sanitized growler and stopped pouring when it looked like I was down to the trub (green and nasty in this batch - tons of unstrained hops). I let it sit (under foil) for a while and decanted the beer on top but nothing else seemed to be separating out. So I added some more sanitized water and waited longer (again at room temp). After several hours, I saw some 'banding' so I decanted the top, tried to pour the yeast into yet another sanitized vessel and stop before I got to trub. Waited a few more hours and could still not see any layers forming - just thick, greenish-yellow muck (not like the creamy white layers I was expecting).
So I was getting discouraged that I even had any other than gunk but I went ahead and boiled some DME, cooled it my flask and pitched my 'yeast'. That was yesterday. After an hour, I had a pretty constant head of foam (I kept swirling to mix it all up) and a little bit of layering (nasty green at the bottom, murky brownish goop in the middle, then some wort and then foam) I swirled all day yesterday and let it work overnight (I made a stir plate but it's way too aggressive - I need to get a potentiometer to slow it down). This morning, I put it in the fridge to get it to separate out but I'm pretty reluctant that I have a decent starter for pitching tonight.
At no point did I have a vigorous-looking fermentation, maybe only as much as 3/4 in of gentle foam.
In the 1L erlenmeyer flask, I have maybe 1/2 inch of what appears to be 'normal yeast'. the rest is green trub and wort.
Even if I can carefully decant to get just that yeast, I'm afraid this just isn't enough healthy yeast to bother pitching.
Should I just go get a new smack pack (this is 1056 that I'm working with, BTW) or is there some hope that this is decent to pitch (without stepping it up - I don't have time today)?
In anticipation of brewing today, I racked an amber into a secondary (to dry hop) and kept the yeast. I poured the yeast into a sanitized growler and stopped pouring when it looked like I was down to the trub (green and nasty in this batch - tons of unstrained hops). I let it sit (under foil) for a while and decanted the beer on top but nothing else seemed to be separating out. So I added some more sanitized water and waited longer (again at room temp). After several hours, I saw some 'banding' so I decanted the top, tried to pour the yeast into yet another sanitized vessel and stop before I got to trub. Waited a few more hours and could still not see any layers forming - just thick, greenish-yellow muck (not like the creamy white layers I was expecting).
So I was getting discouraged that I even had any other than gunk but I went ahead and boiled some DME, cooled it my flask and pitched my 'yeast'. That was yesterday. After an hour, I had a pretty constant head of foam (I kept swirling to mix it all up) and a little bit of layering (nasty green at the bottom, murky brownish goop in the middle, then some wort and then foam) I swirled all day yesterday and let it work overnight (I made a stir plate but it's way too aggressive - I need to get a potentiometer to slow it down). This morning, I put it in the fridge to get it to separate out but I'm pretty reluctant that I have a decent starter for pitching tonight.
At no point did I have a vigorous-looking fermentation, maybe only as much as 3/4 in of gentle foam.
In the 1L erlenmeyer flask, I have maybe 1/2 inch of what appears to be 'normal yeast'. the rest is green trub and wort.
Even if I can carefully decant to get just that yeast, I'm afraid this just isn't enough healthy yeast to bother pitching.
Should I just go get a new smack pack (this is 1056 that I'm working with, BTW) or is there some hope that this is decent to pitch (without stepping it up - I don't have time today)?
