yeast harvesting

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TheCollector

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So I bottled my 1 gallon batch and the added about 2/3 a gallon of boiled and cooled water to the jug, shook it up and it won't give me good layers to decant... Even got it in the fridge. Some still in the jug and some in 2 mason jars.. am I missing something?
 
Here's a pic of it... See it's got slight separation of the top 2 layers but not really clear lines. I'm gonna leave it in the fridge over night and try again in the morning

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The lighter colored layer is the yeast. Your jug is too big,imo. Try using a smaller one,like half gallon. I use a vlasic kosher dill,half gallon size jar for my yeast washing. I wrote an article on it in the articles furm at the top of the page that shows what I use.
 
the layers will form more noticably after a few days in the fridge. typically you don't wait for it to form layers for the rinse tho as you're allowing time for trub to settle out, not yeast.
 
Exactly. When you start to see a light dusting of the lighter colored yeast forming on top of the darker trub,pour off the suspended yeast into clean,sanitized jars & seal. They'll then settle out in the fridge. But don't forget to label the jars with yeast type,when washed,& how many times it's been washed.
 
So this is it after 24 hrs it settled well. I have 2 jars like this. Should I decant and combine the 2 jars and harvest more from the jug or do I have enough?

Thanks for your time!

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If it looks like there's more yeast to be had,I sanitize another jar & repeat the proceedure. I'm leary of decanting & combining too much myself for sanitation reasons.
 
Or you could follow woodlandbrew's suggestion and don't wash at all. He recommends just decanting the top liquid layer and pitching the slurry.

His analyses found about equal amounts of viable yeast in all three layers but the most bacteria I the top layer.

Google for "yeast washing exposed" and "yeast washing revisited" to see his blog posts. There's at least one thread about it here on HBT as well.
 
You basically want to keep what your decanting off the top each time to leave what has settled behind first or quickest on the very bottom. What you want is the first layer on top each time and what settles in the cloudy water when it clears. The more you decant the cleaner it will be but with less yeast though in the end but it will be just the yeast and not the trub.

Also that looks like 1/3 gallon of water. Seems like a lot still to wash for one gallon batch though. I would go with what you have in that jar for your next batch or decant it one more time and make a starter. You used liquid yeast?
Id recommend making a starter for those in your next batches, unless you have enough yeast in volume then it should be pretty viable if you use it in a month or so for your next batch depending what size batch you do. It still wouldnt hurt to make a small starter if you know how to for harvested yeast. I make starters for all harvested yeast no matter what, also the longer you have them sitting around or higher gravity wort-the more youll need to make a starter, at least a small one. You dont need fancy equipment to make a small or large starter either but do need to know the basic process that is pretty simple.

If you added 2/3 gallon of water that is too much did you pour some off then post the pic?
 
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