Washing yeast and reusing

[ben2904]

Ok so for my first time I try to harvest my yeast out of two batches.
One is s-05 out of blonde ale that had a very nice and big yeast cake and almost no trub. I have a big jar filled with a lot of second time washed yeast.
The second is s-04 out of pale ale which is still settling for the first time.
My questions are:
1. If it gets infected, do I see it? How?
2. Trub is critical if I pitch to a new batch?
3. Can I use it without a starter? Because I don't know how to do it and I have no equipment for it.
4. How much washed yeast I need to use? With and without a starter.
I'll upload picture tommorow when the s-04 settle down. Anyway the s-05 just looks too good. Looks like many many yeast in there with a huge layer of it and like a 1mm of trub

 

[Yooper]

1. No. Unless it smells really bad or something, you won't know. That's what being as sanitary as possible is crucial.
2. No, not really.
3. No, probably not unless you pitch right away. If you store it for any length of time, you should make a starter.
4. Use mrmalty.com's yeast pitching calculator. It tells you how much slurry you'll need for the OG of the new beer and the age of the old yeast.

 

[ben2904]

1. No. Unless it smells really bad or something, you won't know. That's what being as sanitary as possible is crucial.
2. No, not really.
3. No, probably not unless you pitch right away. If you store it for any length of time, you should make a starter.
4. Use mrmalty.com's yeast pitching calculator. It tells you how much slurry you'll need for the OG of the new beer and the age of the old yeast.

Wow you made me worry now about the infection.....
So there is a big chance that if I made 1 tiny mistake I can ruin not only my washed yeast, I can ruin all my batch....

I dont know if I should take this chance....

Anyway I make a new batch next week or in saturday using the s-04. So I can throw away my s-05 or let it sit for a long time (this way if its infected I think I would smell it). The s-04 isn't seperating from the trub...what can I do? this is the second time I try to harvest s-04 and with the same results, no seperation.

and one last question, how can I make a starter with as much equipment as possible? I dont have a flask and no stir plate....


By the way I think I gonna throw the s-04 by anyway because the risk of infection AND I already bought a s-04 dry yeast..

 

[boydster]

Risk of infection is something to be aware of, not worried about. Awareness allows you to mitigate risk. Practice good sanitation and you will be fine. Saving the rinsed yeast for long periods decreases the viability, leaving you fewer healthy cells than if you use it soon after harvesting.

If you think it has already been contaminated, throw it out, but don't let that stop you from harvesting yeast in the future.

 

[eastoak]

Wow you made me worry now about the infection.....
So there is a big chance that if I made 1 tiny mistake I can ruin not only my washed yeast, I can ruin all my batch....

I dont know if I should take this chance....

Anyway I make a new batch next week or in saturday using the s-04. So I can throw away my s-05 or let it sit for a long time (this way if its infected I think I would smell it). The s-04 isn't seperating from the trub...what can I do? this is the second time I try to harvest s-04 and with the same results, no seperation.

and one last question, how can I make a starter with as much equipment as possible? I dont have a flask and no stir plate....


By the way I think I gonna throw the s-04 by anyway because the risk of infection AND I already bought a s-04 dry yeast..

you could use brand new yeast and equipment for every batch and still get an infected beer. many people reuse yeast, including commercial breweries. i'm not telling you to do this but i've used 6 month old yeast that i saved in a jar, straight into the fermentor without a problem. i wouldn't do that with anything less than a pint or so of old yeast but it's worked for me numerous times. i hate making starters and will use saved yeast or dry yeast before resorting to starters. having said that, making starters is easy with stuff you probably have at home right now. an apple cider jar, jug wine bottle or even a plain old wine bottle will work. 100g of DME in 1 liter of water will give you a good gravity (scale up or down from there). once the wort is cooled, pour into the jar, shake to aerate then pour in the liquid yeast, cover the bottle with foil. shake it every so often. done.

 

[ben2904]

but I cant make my s-04 seperate anyway....
Im not going to use the s-05 anytime soon, only the s-04...which is no seperating....

I sanitized the jars and water using boiling water in a pot, but the jars wasnt 100% clean (had some oily spots) and has labels on it. Will it be counted as not sanitized? even whne boiled?

 

[boydster]

You need to clean before you sanitize. If it's not clean, it can't be sanitized. Even when napalmed. OK maybe that is a bit extreme, but really, if it's not clean, don't bother trying to sanitize.

I don't know what you mean when you say the S-04 isn't separate? If you have US-05 that is rinsed and you have it in jars with oily spots... well that is up to you to decide if you think it's OK to save for a while before using, but I would probably toss it and get the jars clean before trying to sanitize and use them to store more yeast (US-05 is cheap anyway, so why take chances if there is any question, right?).

You said you have a fresh packet of S-04. Rehydrate and use that for now. In the meantime, use something like PBW or OxyClean to clean any jars you want to harvest yeast in, and then immediately before harvesting, be sure to sanitize the jars with something like StarSan and fill them either with beer or with boiled and cooled (and thus, sanitized) water after adding the harvested yeast to keep things as sanitary as possible.

 

[sweetcell]

2. Trub is critical if I pitch to a new batch?

do you mean is it bad to pitch the trub from a previous batch? if so, yes - it's best not to pitch it and only pitch yeast, but that isn't always possible. a little trub isn't the end of the world (or of your batch).

3. Can I use it without a starter? Because I don't know how to do it and I have no equipment for it.
4. How much washed yeast I need to use? With and without a starter.

both #3 and #4 can be answered by http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

[ben2904]

You need to clean before you sanitize. If it's not clean, it can't be sanitized. Even when napalmed. OK maybe that is a bit extreme, but really, if it's not clean, don't bother trying to sanitize.

I don't know what you mean when you say the S-04 isn't separate? If you have US-05 that is rinsed and you have it in jars with oily spots... well that is up to you to decide if you think it's OK to save for a while before using, but I would probably toss it and get the jars clean before trying to sanitize and use them to store more yeast (US-05 is cheap anyway, so why take chances if there is any question, right?).

You said you have a fresh packet of S-04. Rehydrate and use that for now. In the meantime, use something like PBW or OxyClean to clean any jars you want to harvest yeast in, and then immediately before harvesting, be sure to sanitize the jars with something like StarSan and fill them either with beer or with boiled and cooled (and thus, sanitized) water after adding the harvested yeast to keep things as sanitary as possible.

Well, first of all let me explain about the jars. Is used to have oil in there and now it's clean but a little bit oily because it hasn't been cleaned properly. And it has labels on it, so is is sanitized of boiled? The water too?

And the s-05 jar has a nice big creamy colored layer of yeast, I can notice it.
But the s-04 jars just have one layer of turn mixed with yeast (it looks like it) and I shakes it several times and I have no separation.

Anyway I think I'll just get experienced with it before trying it for real. So now I'll use my packet of s-04 and I will not brew for a while. With this way I can be sure of being successful this time and next time I'll be prepared with new good jars.

 

[Yooper]

Well, first of all let me explain about the jars. Is used to have oil in there and now it's clean but a little bit oily because it hasn't been cleaned properly. And it has labels on it, so is is sanitized of boiled? The water too?

And the s-05 jar has a nice big creamy colored layer of yeast, I can notice it.
But the s-04 jars just have one layer of turn mixed with yeast (it looks like it) and I shakes it several times and I have no separation.

Anyway I think I'll just get experienced with it before trying it for real. So now I'll use my packet of s-04 and I will not brew for a while. With this way I can be sure of being successful this time and next time I'll be prepared with new good jars.

If the jars aren't completely sparkling clean and santized, throw them out. You need to be as sanitary as possible, even boiling the jars to kill microbes is not unreasonable. But if they are "oily", they aren't clean. Toss them.

Don't worry so much about separation and adding water. Just save the yeast you can in the future.

 

[ben2904]

If the jars aren't completely sparkling clean and santized, throw them out. You need to be as sanitary as possible, even boiling the jars to kill microbes is not unreasonable. But if they are "oily", they aren't clean. Toss them.

Don't worry so much about separation and adding water. Just save the yeast you can in the future.

i mean the yeast doesnt seperate from the trub - its one layer....
can i just pitch it all together?

 

[eastoak]

i mean the yeast doesnt seperate from the trub - its one layer....
can i just pitch it all together?

yes you can.