Yeast Washing Illustrated

[Pappers_]

Because when you wash the yeast, you are only leaving it long enough for the carp to settle out but not the yeast. If you wait too long, the yeast will settle to the bottom, too.

When you make the starter, the yeast has had plenty of time to settle to the bottom.

 

[daugenet]

Yup you should be separating your yeast from the rest of the trub. Yeast is part of the trub. We are looking to keep only the yeast part of it.

 

[adamjab19]

A little late on this thread but thanks for the write up. I washed my first yeast, Scottish ale yeast, tonight and it seemed to go well. This is a nice way to get more bang for your buck!

 

[Beer_Guy]

I have been washing a batch of White Labs Dry English Ale Yeast WL007. It had flocculated into clumps and took quite a few washes to get it clean. On this last wash it had compacted into a tight white jello like layer with trash above AND below it. I was able to pour off the top layer and gently scrap off the stuff above it. I then added a little bottled water and gently swirled the jar to raise the yeast cake layer and suspend the bits below it and pour them off. I added a little more bottled water and shook the jars very vigorously to breakup the yeast clumps from the rest of the trash left behind. I poured it through a fine strainer and captured the remaining trash. The remaining liquid is very clean and after it cold crashes the yeast cake should be ready to store.

 

[nicadrick]

deleted

 

[HItransplant]

Because when you wash the yeast, you are only leaving it long enough for the carp to settle out but not the yeast. If you wait too long, the yeast will settle to the bottom, too.

ok.... tried this tonight after I racked my "baby mama" foreign extra stout over to secondary.

question---

how long is too long to let the trub settle.... do you want to pour immediately following first signs of settling?

Im worried I let it sit too long.

This is further complicated by the fact that I 'effed up a little bit when racking-- I was doing a little too much RDWHAHB. I had tipped the carboy to avoid sucking the trub.. but I waited too long and my siphon died before i had a chance to suck the last little bit of beer out.

I decided that it wasnt worth the infection risk to try reracking just that one or two bottles off the top so I just carried on with my yeast washing.. my jars look like stout, not all nice and clear.... and now im a little worried i washed too much and just have beer in my mason jars with a little dusting of yeast. This prompted the above question.

so, to summarize,

1. how long is too long to sit before decanting into the next step?

2. should I, now that my mason jars are filled up with what looks like beer, rewash whats left in the "first step" jar I poured into from primary? (assuming that I just decanted off the beer and left the yeast behind).

... sorry about the stream of consciousness post. Hopefully someone can help.

 

[BigB]

1. It would be a really long time to be too long. The yeast stay in suspension for quite a while.

2. I would leave it alone. Sure you may have some trub in the jars, but a little bit isn't going to hurt anything IMHO. My first attempt at this was with a stout as well. I rushed it a bit and got a lot of trub in my jars. But I used the jars approximately 6 months later and they were fine.

 

[HItransplant]

1. It would be a really long time to be too long. The yeast stay in suspension for quite a while.

2. I would leave it alone. Sure you may have some trub in the jars, but a little bit isn't going to hurt anything IMHO. My first attempt at this was with a stout as well. I rushed it a bit and got a lot of trub in my jars. But I used the jars approximately 6 months later and they were fine.

Thanks B.

Im not so worried about the trub, just the limited yeast... my jars dont have the nice thick layer I see in others pictures. Im just wondering if maybe my yeast dropped out and I left most of it behind in the first vessel (because I was being too careful not to get trub)?

does that make sense?

so now I have 4 jars of very dark liquid with just a little (2 mm) yeast, and my bigger vessel I t/f to first, with a inch of beer over a lot of trub and a 3-4 mm layer of what looks like yeast (slightly different color and density). Im thinking about rewashing this, not the other jars.

thoughts?

 

[BigB]

Thanks B.

Im not so worried about the trub, just the limited yeast... my jars dont have the nice thick layer I see in others pictures. Im just wondering if maybe my yeast dropped out and I left most of it behind in the first vessel (because I was being too careful not to get trub)?

does that make sense?

so now I have 4 jars of very dark liquid with just a little (2 mm) yeast, and my bigger vessel I t/f to first, with a inch of beer over a lot of trub and a 3-4 mm layer of what looks like yeast (slightly different color and density). Im thinking about rewashing this, not the other jars.

thoughts?

They all sound fine to me. Just sounds like the ones with very little in them have just very little trub. The one with the most, just has more trub but it definitely sounds like its not worth washing again... don't stress about this. Remember, it is in a sense, free yeast. Just be sure to make a starter like you would anyways with a liquid yeast. My first ones, all of the jars had a ton of trub and were fine. The funny thing is, is that I didn't think I had more than a mm of yeast in any of them, but they all feremented their next batch better than a brand new smack pack.

 

[LCTitan]

Haven't seen this one asked yet so here we go. This process works just as well if you are primary fermenting in the bucket correct? Should be a no brainer but I had to ask.

 

[BigB]

Haven't seen this one asked yet so here we go. This process works just as well if you are primary fermenting in the bucket correct? Should be a no brainer but I had to ask.

Yep, its just a little more difficult to see the settling and to know when to transfer to the next vessel. So I add another step by adding all of the water to the bucket and then dumping that into a large glass jar. Or just wait at least 20 minutes then slowly pour off the top.

 

[HossTheGreat]

Well, here's my first attempt. WL German Ale Yeast from BM's Octoberfast Ale recipe. Washed on Fri (3 days ago) and here's what I have now.

 

[AugustDerleth]

Wyeast from American Amber Ale, there were two more but I pitched them into a batch of Pumpkin Ale last night and it is bubbling away like CRAZY. Thanks for the detailed walk-through OP!

 

[Beer_Guy]

When washed the trub I was having trouble getting it right until I figured out something.

I would add water and cold crash it and every time there was not a distinct white layer. The yeast and trub trash were staying mixed. I then tried doing it again with a little trub and a lot of water. This gave the trub trash room to fall before the yeast. The water would then be a light white color and the trub trash would accumulate at the bottom. I then poured off the floating yeast and dumped the last 1/2inch or so of floating trub trash. On high flocculating yeast like WLP007, I found I had to shake the snot out of it so it would breakup the clumps and stay floating longer than the trub trash.

From one vial of White Labs WLP001 I now have three+ times as much and have it frozen for future brews.

 

[HItransplant]

worked like a charm.. got 5 jars of the good stuff.

thanks OP for making this tutorial and for everyone answering questions along the way.

 

[BigB]

and have it frozen for future brews.

Did you mix the yeast with glycerin? I doubt the yeast will be alive or at least very viable after freezing.

 

[Beer_Guy]

Did you mix the yeast with glycerin? I doubt the yeast will be alive or at least very viable after freezing.

Of course. And it is in a non-frost free dorm fridge which stays around 15-20* when set to max cool.

 

[BigB]

Of course. And it is in a non-frost free dorm fridge which stays around 15-20* when set to max cool.

Cool, let us know how they do!

 

[Cabbie]

washing question: racking to secondary today and want to wash yeast, but forgot to prep mason jars and water till now. just boiled them and they are chilling in the fridge. racked beer to secondary and now primary has yeast cake sitting there (with airlock on top).

Is it ok to leave yeast cake there for a few hours while water in jars chills? How long should i chill the jars? usually i do day before i rack (dummy today)

thanks

 

[BigB]

Sure, you'll be fine.

 

[AugustDerleth]

Probably a stupid question. Is the yeast from a secondary fermenter viable for washing?

 

[The Drizzle]

Probably a stupid question. Is the yeast from a secondary fermenter viable for washing?

I'd imagine so, but I'd also imagine that they'd be the least flocculant of the batch. That's fine if you don't mind propagating a yeast that's less and less flocculant.

 

[HossTheGreat]

Probably a stupid question. Is the yeast from a secondary fermenter viable for washing?

A little while back Brew Strong did a show on yeast washing. They said you want to use only yeast from the primary because those are the most flocculant.

 

[AugustDerleth]

Thanks for your responses! I had already washed and stored the yeast out of the secondary, but I still have the washed from the primary of the same beer so I'll hang onto the secondary washed for a rainy day! Thanks---

 

[LesNichols]

without reading all 81 pages. Can you u screen out all the trub and so on from the the primary and then let it settle leaving only the yeast?lets say put in your clean water ,shake , then pour through a screen into you jar and let it settle just to remove all the big stuff maybe make it a lil easier not to pour any junk into you cleaned yeast? i hope this make sense?

 

[AugustDerleth]

Hmmm. What is the best temperature to maintain these samples at?

 

[Beer_Guy]

There is another thread here somewhere on how to Freeze yeast. That is what I do. It is supposed to last a LONG time that way. Where as fridge temp stored yeast dies off slowly.

 

[MikeRoBrew1]

why do you let is settle out and use just the slightly-yeasty-water instead of just scooping out the mucky yeasty goodness??? curious. Thanks for the great thread

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

why do you let is settle out and use just the slightly-yeasty-water instead of just scooping out the mucky yeasty goodness??? curious. Thanks for the great thread

You get all the other stuff in the trub (fermentation byproducts, pieces of hops, etc.) that you don't want to carry into future beers. Having straight yeast also helps you see how viable it should be, because dead yeast turn brownish while live yeast will be a white to off-white color.

 

[Beer_Guy]

why do you let is settle out and use just the slightly-yeasty-water instead of just scooping out the mucky yeasty goodness??? curious. Thanks for the great thread

Part of the muck is proteins which might degrade over time and cause off flavors.

On a side note; I have found in order to get the muck to settle out first and save only the yeasty water, the solution MUST be really thinned out. Once there is a layer of muck, I decant off the liquid and cold crash that. The cake in the bottom of the jar after this cold crash is really white this way.