Yeast Washing Illustrated

[BAK6E]

I'm going to make a video of the yeast washing process (inspired by this thread) that might be useful to some people. I have discovered a couple tricks that I like to use that simplify the process just a little... I have a WLP-001 California Ale yeast fermenting a batch of beer right now that I plan to rack off over the weekend (probably Sunday).

1. I boil a gallon of water and put it in a sanitized glass jar in the fridge at least overnight.
2. I rack my beer from primary to secondary fermenter. I generally ferment in a plastic bucket with no drain tap. I rack to a 5 gallon glass carboy for a secondary most of the time.
3. I scoop about half of the trub from the primary into a sanitized bottling bucket with a spigot.
4. I add my gallon of chilled water that has been boiled and swirl it around and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
5. I run about 1/2 gallon out of the bottling bucket spigot back into my gallon jar that has been resanitized during the 5 minute wait.
6. I let that sit for 5-7 minutes to let some more solids settle to the bottom.
7. I slowly pour the suspension into my jars (or leftover White Labs vials) that have been sanitized, cap them, and put them in the refrigerator.

This method doesn't vary significantly from the original poster's method, but employing the bottling bucket makes it a little easier to extract the sample. It also creates another item that has to be cleaned up. I also prefer sanitizing my glass containers with Star San rather than boiling them.

Does anyone think a video of this process would be of any use?

I'd love to see a video of this. I'm more of a visual learner myself. I've got an APA fermenting right now and would like to harvest the yeast from it this weekend.

 

[JMSetzler]

I will make a video from my next batch then. I washed yeast from my current batch on Sunday and did not have time to do the video. I shortened up the above procedure by one step though. I went straight from the bottling bucket with the spigot to my vials rather than letting a second settle occur. There is enough dead space below the spigot to allow the solids to settle. I filled four empty White Labs vials with my washed California Ale yeast (WLP-001) for future use. My next batch of beer is using a dry yeast (Nottingham) but I will probably save some of that too...

 

[thantos]

Hey All,
I am getting ready to try this for the first time. I have marked up a picture from Truckmans washed yeast in this thread just to make sure of which layer I am going after. I realize this is not in the Carboy but it should be the same!

 

[sparkyaber]

I have washed many different yeast strains, with great success, but I have a little question: I have one batch, a wyeast 1335 British ale II that the water above the yeast is extremely cloudy/hazy. All of my other batches have been crystal clear with a nice amber color. What is causing that one batch to be cloudy? These jars have all been in the refrigerator for over a month, so everything should have settled. What is that buoyant that it is staying suspended in the water? One other note, this yeast was washed from a fairly high ibu ipa, I tasted the water above the yeast, and it was very bitter. Could it be something from the hops that is making it hazy?

As for the pic above, yes, when that is in a carboy you want that nice little middle layer, but I don't think it would do any harm to get a small amount of trub.
As for calling the top part beer, that is questionable, maybe a light beer.....That should be the water that you add to the carboy to rinse (wash) the yeast.

 

[Droot]

I got this from the bottom of my conical. I drew a little trub off yesterday, so this must be pretty pure yeast. My first time all from reading this thread. Thank you very much.

sorry, its a cell phone pic.


I am going to suck the yeast off the bottom and put it in a boiled jar and boiled then cooled water. I am going to use sanitized foil and the screw on part of the top so it can breathe a little.

Next a stir plate......

Thanks again!
David

 

[edb]

So I washed some yeast my last batch but never put it in the fridge just completely forgot about it, before dumping it out I thought I would ask.

I'm sure the answer is yes but is refrigeration really needed once washing the yeast? Technically you can have beer sitting in a carboy on a yeast cake for months at room temps, whats the main difference when its washed?

 

[Rick500]

I think if it's under beer and had a cover if not an airlock, it's probably fine.

If it's just in water, you'll probably have less luck.

 

[thelorax121]

Awesome write up, I used this technique all the time now...

 

[Droot]

This is what I ended up width so far. Putting some boiled and cooled water in with the beer helps the yeast settle out. Then I sucked em out with a sanatized turkey baster and put it in the jar with boiled and cooled water.

Look right?

These are just out of the fridge.



David

 

[CaliBrewin]

i dont believe i saw an answer to a question posted in the beginning of this thread.

is it ok to have some head space in the final containers of washed yeast?

thanks

-Zach

 

[Droot]

I ASSume no, if we boil the water to take the 02 out of it, I wouldn't want any in the headspace.

I am harvesting more today. . . I hope.

 

[WenValley]

I've read this entire thread. Thank You to those provided input. Very informative.

Quick question. It seems to me that it's a better option to wash and save yeast, rather than pitch onto an old cake. The advantages of washing the yeast is that you get four or five starters, and you've cleaned up the yeast so it's more pristine...

Or not.

I have a Simcoe IPA that's almost ready to keg, and I'm trying to decide if I want to wash and save the Wyeast so that I have four or five clones, or if I want to just pitch onto the current yeast cake.

I'm thinking that I want to wash, and save. Thanks to this thread, I think I can pull this off... (famous last words)

Thanks again.

 

[Droot]

Save 1/2 of the yeast, wash it and put it in 2 jars, re use the rest for your next batch. If its your first time, think of it as practice.

1/2 of slurry from a 5 gallon batch should be plenty for the next 5 gallons. I would aerate or use O2 in the new wort.

David

 

[WenValley]

Great suggestion Droot.

So I rack off the current IPA into a keg, add some cooled boiled water to the carboy, swirl like crazy and pour out into two gallon sanitized glass containers.

One container goes back into the carboy (?) and the other gets split into sanitized pint mason jars.

Is that what you'd suggest?

The yeast cake is in a carboy right now... Thanks...

 

[ChshreCat]

Before pouring it back in the carboy, I'd let it settle out and then decant off the yeasty liquid. That's the whole "washing" part.

 

[WenValley]

FWIW: I used a gallon glass jug that we use to make Sun Tea. The jug has a spigot about 1/2 inch above the bottom of the jug. I poured about a half a gallon of sanitized water into the carboy onto the yeast cake. Gave it a good swirl, and dumped that into the Sun Tea jug. I let that sit for 45 minutes or so. Once everything settled out, it was easy to just decant into the pint jars by using the spigot. The trub was below the spigot, and the yeast poured out with no problems. The beer on top just sank down as the yeast was drawn off.

The yeast is so concentrated that I'm going to just switch to half pint jars. Thanks to all that built this thread....

 

[thantos]

Gave it a good swirl, and dumped that into the Sun Tea jug. it was easy to just decant into the pint jars by using the spigot.

That is a freaking brilliant idea ! ! !:rockin:

 

[ChshreCat]

That's funny. I just picked up a sun tea jar last weekend for just this purpose.

 

[TXANM]

I guess I will resurrect this thread because of some recent issues. I have a SS conical & brewed a V2 of a recipe. I kegged my V1 of this beer & noticed a large deposit of "yeast?" at the bottom of the conical that was not coming out during my dumps. I took this deposit & pitched it directly into my V2 beer I was brewing. The fermentation took off but I only got down to a 1.024 FG. I don't think I had the yeast activity that I thought so it didn't fully ferment to my expected 1.012. Also, I have a horrible off taste.

1.) Was what I dumped mostly trub & not yeast?

2.) The yeast I did dump & attempted to wash shows some congealing effects still, has anybody used Whirlock tablets or Irish Moss & successfully harvested yeast?

3.) What are some good ways to get all the trub out prior to getting good yeast? Should I swirl the conical some so everything falls off the sides, or just quit worrying so much & just get over it?

 

[eschatz]

Just washed an English Ale cake off of a mild. I love being a thrifty bitch!

 

[Droot]

Last night I took my SMALLEST jar of washed yeast. There was only about a teaspoon of actual yeast (1056), maybe even less. I boiled a quart of wort I had canned and put it in the 1 litre flask. I shook the bejesus out of it lots of times as it cooled to add some 02. Pitched the little bit of yeast. Not much action this morning, but when I got home from work tonight, it had a nice head of foam on top. I shook it again and lot of Co2 came out of solution. I have some 8 oz jars that are 1/2 full of yeast. This is the BALLS!

This was from the jar on the left of post #430.

AND I ordered a stir plate a week ago. Just waiting........

David

 

[CaliBrewin]

wait a second, doesnt "swirling" the sanitized water+yeast cake in the carboy defeat the whole oxygen free liquid belief?

 

[pnh2atl]

I"ve got my jars boiling and I have a quart jar filled with my yeast from a Belgian Wit (which was so good we debated drinking it warm and flat). We are going to brew this same Wit this weekend so I'm about to save $6.95 on this batch and who knows how many ofter that.

You gotta love this site and the collective wisdom of all these brewers!

Nick

 

[CaliBrewin]

does anyone happen to know the answer to my question?

 

[Droot]

I can't answer your question. I did find out the yeast will separate out once the water is added. Otherwise you will be waiting the same as your bear to drop clear. I have a conical, so I put the boiled and cooled water in the collection jar, open the valve and let it mix. It separates, then I suck the yeast layer out with a sanitized turkey baster.

All I can say is so far it works. I proofed one sample and plan to use my first one in real beer soon.

I now have 9 jars of saved washed yeast under boiled and cooled water. Tonight I bought a dozen of 4 ounce canning jars. I can fit twice as many in the same space. Collecting more tomorrow night. I am saving some $s AND having fun.

Stir plate should be here tomorrow......

I got it bad........

Just another member of the asylum.
David

 

[Bernie Brewer]

wait a second, doesnt "swirling" the sanitized water+yeast cake in the carboy defeat the whole oxygen free liquid belief?

No. You don't shake it, you gently swirl it. You just want to move it around a bit to get the yeast in suspension, but not so much that you shake it and start introducing oxygen.

 

[ChshreCat]

It's also not as vital to keep O2 out at this point, if I understand correctly. You want O2 out of your beer because it will oxidize it. In this case you aren't making beer, just separating out the yeast. When you pitch that yeast into another beer, you're going to want to oxygenate it then anyway.

 

[Picobrew]

Ok I am planning on re-using my yeast for the first time and I could use a bit of help. I tried to do this before and ended up saving the yeast but not using it. I'm wondering a bit about the process and why I need to do it differently than what I did before.

After I siphon, I usually have a centimeter or so of beer left on top of my yeast, I can easily use this to swirl around and liquefy the slurry - no need for added water. Can I then just pour this whole beery mess into a sanitized cambro/tupperware and slap it in the fridge? I will then have one container with a mass of slurry in it. The plan is to then use that slurry (perhaps decant first?) as the starter for my Imperial IPA.

What am I missing here? What exactly is getting "washed" ? Do I need to remove the trub from the yeast through some kind of washing process? Also, should I make a starter using this slurry or just pitch the slurry.

 

[Yooper]

It you save trub and all, you get trub and all. it's probably ok if you use it up really quickly, but over a period of time it will break down.

When you do the yeast washing outlined in this thread, you get nice clean white yeast without trub and hops debris.

You should still do a starter, especially if you've been saving the yeast for a while. I've kept washed yeast up to a year or more with good results.

 

[Picobrew]

Ok... I am in a bit of a hurry, and want to use this yeast only a couple days after I harvest it. One thing that confuses me about all of this is how to estimate cell count volumes... The Mr Malty pitching rate calculator has options for Yeast Slurry - is that equivalent to what is left in the carboy, or is that equivalent to the yeast that is washed? How do I know how much to add to a starter to get the proper volumes?

If I wasn't so nervous about cleanliness, I would probably just pitch the new beer on top of this old cake, but I have never done that before and at least want to clean the Krausen mess out of the fermenter, that is why I am heading down this route.