When to put my harvested yeast in the fridge?

[aprichman]

Hey everyone! Just bottled up my first all grain batch - everything went pretty smooth although there seemed to be a lot of gas agitation during bottling today. Maybe I didn't get my tubing on tight enough - I should probably just invest in a bottling wand with a spring (the hair trigger one that came with my starter kit was a POS and leaked from day one).

ANYWAYS. I finally watched a few videos on yeast harvesting and couldn't believe how easy it looked. After "washing" my yeast with a pint of previously boiled water I let my carboy sit for 15-20 minutes. After the carboy rested I poured off the liquid into a large jar leaving some trub and other chunky looking stuff behind. I capped the large jar and let it rest for ~35 minutes. I saw a small amount of trub separation, a giant layer that looked like yeast, and a small layer of beer on top. I carefully poured the jar into 3 pint jars and capped them with canning lids, again I left a small amount of trub and liquid yeast behind.

Now the jars have been sitting our at room temp for around 30 minutes. Looks like almost all liquid yeast with a small amount of beer separating on the top. Now I'm wondering when to put these jars in the fridge? Can they go in right now? What is the best practice for harvested yeast?

Help is much appreciated

And of course a picture of my harvested yeast goodies

 

[photobru]

Congrats on the all grain batch! My bottling wand leaks too, so I use the tubing clamp I have to make sure I don't lose any beer.

Put the yeast in the fridge if you haven't already. You could have even put the large jar in the fridge and it would have separated faster.

Then when you're ready to make a starter for your next beer take them out a few hours before pitching to warm to room temp so you don't shock the yeast.

 

[KavDaven]

I harvest yeast too. I'm sure I've saved a hundred dollars a years doing so. I typically wait about 20 min at each stage. 20 min bucket rest, 20 min growler rest, then pour into 4 mason jars and off to the fridge.

LABEL the jars. Yes, label the jars with the yeast name and date of harvest. I have four different yeasts and twelve jars of yeast. If I didn't label, I'd pitch saison into a double IPA by mistake. Hmm. No. Currently, I'm in the middle of a year long exbeeriment to see how many harvests of 1056 American Ale yeast need to occur before the yeast just isn't 1056 American Ale. I'm on my 3rd generation and can't tell the difference from the original smack pack. Maybe 10th generation will taste like anus?