Yeast Washing Illustrated

[karmabrew]

I've got a question. I brew 5 gallon batches, should I just use 2 pint mason jars to store the washed yeast, or can I use the 4 like Bernie does?

 

[Rick500]

I brew 5 gallon batches too. I get three or four pint jars of harvested yeast per batch. I always boil four jars just in case; sometimes I have enough to fill all four, sometimes three.

 

[cookietruck]

i tried this. first time. from a 6 gallon batch of heavily dry hopped APA. boiled 2 quarts of water and let cool.
used star san for the jars/lids. one quart jars.

 

[michaeltrego]

Many thanks to Bernie Brewer for this method. I just tried it for the first time with minor mods.

- Boiled/sanitized 6 pint mason jars, and chilled overnight.
- Bottling day today - after racking and bottling, I add 5 pints of the sanitized water to the carboy and swirled.
- Save the 6th pint for topping up the others.
- Let the carboy sit for a few hours - NOTE - on its side, with the foil covered mouth of the carboy close to the sink.
- Hold the pints in the sink, and slightly tip up the carboy to fill the pints. This allowed for an easy, undisturbed, slow pour into the pints.
- Top up each with the remaining 6th pint.

What a money saver this will be -- 5 pints of healthy 1056 for my next series of ales -- fantastic!

 

[HalfPint]

Man, the boiling of jars and what not reminds me of my old shroom making days! Aww, those ****ake's were so good!

 

[Blackhawkbrew]

Is this what I'm supposed to end up with?

 

[HalfPint]

Is this what I'm supposed to end up with?

View attachment 13274

Yep. Whenever you want to make a starter (not completely necessary, but advised,) bring to room temperature, pour off 90% of the beer colored liquid, swirl around, then pitch.

 

[Blackhawkbrew]

That would be enough for a 5 gallon batch (1 half pint jar)?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

That would be enough for a 5 gallon batch (1 half pint jar)?

Sure. But use a starter.

Yep. Whenever you want to make a starter (not completely necessary, but advised,) bring to room temperature, pour off 90% of the beer colored liquid, swirl around, then pitch.

I disagree. Make a starter. No ifs ands or buts. make a starter.

 

[HalfPint]

Sure. But use a starter.




I disagree. Make a starter. No ifs ands or buts. make a starter.

No, I agree a starter is best. I have pitched without a starter and the beer turned out fine, but it took longer to take off.

 

[Bru]

I have a yeast cake which has been sitting in the primary for a few days - the beer has racked off it. Its been sealed and kept sanitary - how long can I wait before washing the yeast ?

 

[k2brew]

So... I was originally planning on brewing Sunday and was going to make my starter after work. However, something came up and if I don't brew tonight I have to wait until next weekend (not the end of the world, but I am trying to get this ready for Christmas and I like to bottle condition for a month so I really need to get this going).

My question is, if I make a "starter" as soon as I get home from work and I pitch it 6 hours later, is that enough time? This is the first time I have used my washed yeast so I am not quite sure how it will take off. Maybe I'll stop at LHBS on the way back and pick up a reserve pack of dry yeast just in case.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Cheers

 

[Jenks829]

I have a yeast cake which has been sitting in the primary for a few days - the beer has racked off it. Its been sealed and kept sanitary - how long can I wait before washing the yeast ?

Bru,

I don't have an answer to your question but I can tell you that I just did exactly what you said. I bottled a beer on Saturday (10/17) the sealed the carboy with aluminum foil and placed in my dark garage. It was no warmer than 70 this week and my garage stays cooler then the outside ambient temperature. I just washed the yeast from that batch last night (10/22) so I waited 5 days. I took a whiff of the carboy when I took the foil off and everything smelled fine. I realize that my nose is not a scientific instrument but my litmus test would have been: If it smells bad or anything NOT like yeast, I won't wash. If it smells like yeast similar to a starter/trub, then I will wash".

If I notice any discolorations in the weeks to come or find it produced a bad/infected starter, I will be sure to post to this thread and let you know.

 

[Bru]

Great - thanks. I ended up washing it and it looks and smells fine.

 

[Rick500]

Great - thanks. I ended up washing it and it looks and smells fine.

On any other forum, this would cause a lot of raised eyebrows.

 

[Blackhawkbrew]

I made a starter yesterday morning with my first yeast washing attempt and it's bubbling away right now

 

[kappclark]

Is there an optimum time period for a starter ? I have read 2-3 days are the best ..is a lesser time a violation ?

I was wondering this this weekend...I had planned to try to make a starter on Thursday night so I cld brew Sat or Sunday. Of course, I forgot to make the starter.

I guess it doesn't matter this weekend, since I took a direct hit at a birthday party last night, so no brewing anyway today for me...still in recovery mode..(but they all loved my beer )

Anyway, is there any plm with making a starter one day and brewing 24 hours later ? I should know by then if the yeast are viable, at least.

 

[HalfPint]

Is there an optimum time period for a starter ? I have read 2-3 days are the best ..is a lesser time a violation ?

I was wondering this this weekend...I had planned to try to make a starter on Thursday night so I cld brew Sat or Sunday. Of course, I forgot to make the starter.

I guess it doesn't matter this weekend, since I took a direct hit at a birthday party last night, so no brewing anyway today for me...still in recovery mode..(but they all loved my beer )

Anyway, is there any plm with making a starter one day and brewing 24 hours later ? I should know by then if the yeast are viable, at least.

I've done it a few times and it seems to work just fine. Shoot, I did it my last brew. I made my starter the night before the brewday and pitched it at around 4 pm the next day. My 5.5 gallons of porter was fermenting in 45 minutes!
I typically make my starters for medium gravity beers with 4 cups of water to 1 cup of light dme.
I boil that that for 15 minutes and cool.
I add 3 turkey baster pulls of washed yeast and let it rip.

Works every time for me.

If I don't forget to make a starter, I typically make one 2 days b4 my brew day.

Good Luck,
J

 

[freebd]

Is there an optimum time period for a starter ? I have read 2-3 days are the best ..is a lesser time a violation ?

I was wondering this this weekend...I had planned to try to make a starter on Thursday night so I cld brew Sat or Sunday. Of course, I forgot to make the starter.

I guess it doesn't matter this weekend, since I took a direct hit at a birthday party last night, so no brewing anyway today for me...still in recovery mode..(but they all loved my beer )

Anyway, is there any plm with making a starter one day and brewing 24 hours later ? I should know by then if the yeast are viable, at least.

last night about 7 pm I pulled some yeast that I had washed a few weeks back and made a starter with it...I started my brew and pitch my starter at 1 am that had taken off in only 6 hours...by 6 am the wort had a good start on the krausen and was churning along very nice...

 

[Blackhawkbrew]

I pitched my starter I made with washed yeast today at around 5:30 and I just checked it about a half hour ago and I had activity in the airlock! Now I'm wondering if I'll need a blowoff tube.

 

[DanPoch]

Sweet

Thanks for the refresher on yeast washing. Judging from my notes of 5 years ago, this is almost exactly what I used to do. Can't wait to try it again this week or weekend when I rack to secondary.

 

[RiverSwillBeer]

Hope this wasnt answered and I missed it .....

If I take and wash the yeast following the instructions given in this thread ... and fill 4 mason jars.... How much yeast is that in each jar.

In other words ..... wanting to make a say ... 250 billion cells in a starter .... what Im I starting with?

Thanks for any input.

 

[raenester]

Thanks so much for this great post. I'm getting ready to wash my first batch of yeast, from my Xmas Ale I'm bottling tomorrow and I have question that's not so much to do with the washing as it is with prepping the jars.

I just finished boiling my new mason jars and they came out with a white, hazy film on them. I scoured some canning forums and saw several places referring to this being common with water that has a lot of minerals in it. I live in San Diego and we have pretty hard water, so I assume these are just mineral deposits from the 20 minutes they spent boiling. The fix they suggest is to add some white vinegar to the water and that will get rid of the film. Obviously I can't do that if I'm using the water they are boiled in to suspend the yeast so my questions are:

1. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it mineral film? Or something to do with the new jars, maybe I needed to was them better?

2. Do you think the jars (and the water in them) are safe to use? Or should I dump them and start over.

3. In future batches do you think it makes sense to boil them in a vinegar spiked water to eliminate the film. Then drain them, like you would for canning, and fill them with either separately boiled water or distilled water?

Hopefully I'm worried about nothing but I thought I'd run it past the hive mind and see what comes back.

Thanks again.

 

[mikeysab]

This is an awesome thread. We should all be saving a ton of money even if we wash only one time. I do have an issue with my first attempt, which brought up something that I didn't see in any of the pictures. I followed the instructions up to the point where I had to divide the slurry into 4 smaller jars. My daughter was sick, and I had to tend to her before I could divide the jar up. I figured I wouldn't get to it right away, so I threw the jar in the fridge. It's been sitting in the fridge for a week now, and I have three layers. One is a cloudy liquid layer, which gets clearer by the day, below that is a thick dark layer which has some dark sediment floating just above it. The third layer is a lighter layer, which looks like what you'd see in a White Labs vial. I'm guessing that the lighter thick layer on the bottom is the yeast, and everything else should be poured off leaving me with pure yeast which can be divided, or pitched into a starter. Am I correct in this thinking, or did I mess the whole thing up and should dump it. I did this with 2 batches on the same day, so I actually have 2 batches that I'd like to keep, but If I flubbed it, then I'll know for next time. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any answers

 

[craven_morhead]

Just a data point, I've had problems getting washed yeast to reactivate after over a month in the fridge. I've had good results with washed yeast less than 2 or so weeks in the fridge. Your mileage may vary. In large part, I've switched to pitching on top of existing yeast cakes.

 

[commonlaw]

similar question to mikeysab--This was my first attempt at yeast washing. It may be hard to see in the attached picture, but I think I failed in not disturbing the trub too much. You can see a lot of gunk at the bottom and a thin yeast layer--these were supposed to be my "final" jars. Can / should I sanitize some more jars in iodophor (while I brew today, it would be fairly easy) and then decant again? The jar on the far left looks better than the others--the rest have a distinct dark layer at the bottom and a thin layer of lighter color above that. Or should I just let it be? thanks for any advice!

 

[mikeysab]

yours is the complete opposite of mine. My dark layer is on top of the lighter layer. Don't really want to do anything till I get an answer from someone who knows about this stuff.

 

[ChillyP]

I've had some yeast that had a couple layers like yours. I took some disposable pippets I had from cynmar and collected a couple of samples from the layer that I knew was yeast and made a small starter. I then stepped it up till I had a big enough colony.

 

[commonlaw]

I decided to wash again by boiling some more jars, shaking up the old jars to re-suspend the yeast, waiting for some trub to settle, and then transferring. It looks like it came out much better. So it seems that if you still have trub, just wash again.

similar question to mikeysab--This was my first attempt at yeast washing. It may be hard to see in the attached picture, but I think I failed in not disturbing the trub too much. You can see a lot of gunk at the bottom and a thin yeast layer--these were supposed to be my "final" jars. Can / should I sanitize some more jars in iodophor (while I brew today, it would be fairly easy) and then decant again? The jar on the far left looks better than the others--the rest have a distinct dark layer at the bottom and a thin layer of lighter color above that. Or should I just let it be? thanks for any advice!

 

[Palefire]

So I tried this for the first time last week, and ... holy crap it was easy. So easy. Unbelievably easy. If you're reading this thread and haven't tried yeast washing yet because it looks difficult and complicated ... just do it.

Anyway, to save room in the fridge, I first used 2 quart-sized jars, let them sit for about 24 hours, then decanted into 4 4-oz jelly jars. As the pic shows, it's pretty much all yeast in there, no trub. But my question is: since these jars are pretty small, is the yeast in one of them enough for a regular-sized starter? Or should I combine the yeast into 2 jars? I'm honestly not interested in having to start with a smaller starter, then step it up (at least for a normal OG beer), since, well, that's more work than I wanna do. If that's the case, I'd rather just combine them.

EDIT: Oh, these have been sitting there for about a week.

What do y'all think? Thanks in advance for any advice!