Yeast rinsing question

[brianpablo]

I've rinsed yeast before but am stumped on my recent attempt to rinse from a batch of porter. In this case I racked to secondary, added water to the yeast cake and poured it off into three containers. Usually I see what people show in the "How to rinse yeast" videos, which is three layers of 1) beer on top 2) dead yeast cells/sludge at the bottom 3) the good stuff in the middle. From this image below you can see I've got not middle layer, just beer on top and sludge at the bottom.

Is this good to go? Can I pitch this? Do I need to rinse it again? Is this unusable crud that needs to get fed to the proverbial fish?

Thanks.

 

[m00ps]

I see 3 layers. There doesnt seem to be enough yeast for a full batch (assumign 5gal). Youll need to make a starter with it but it should be ok

 

[IslandLizard]

The yeast is mixed in with the trub on the bottom. If that's a 12oz jar, you have about 4 oz of trubby slurry. If it's less than a month old since you washed it, and kept in the fridge you can pitch it in a medium gravity (<1.060) 5 gallon batch as is. Otherwise or when in doubt, make a 2 liter starter from it.

Generally it's better NOT to wash the yeast. Just pour the reclaimed yeast/trub into 3 or 4 jars and let it precipitate in the fridge. At brewing time, take a jar out of the fridge, pour off most of the beer on top, let it warm up to wort temps and pitch the slurry.

If the yeast is old, you may want to taste some of the beer you poured off. If it tastes really bad, chances are the yeast is no better (autolyzed).