Yeast Washing Illustrated

[mountain]

Thanks for this excellent writeup. Instructions are well written and helpful, and the photos made everything clear to this novice.

I washed the yeast from my first batch - Scottish 60 shilling, using a Wyeast British Ale 1098 - and pitched it into the second - a slightly modified Cream Ale. Both batches were kits from Northern Brewer. The second batch is bubbling away, so it must have worked!

 

[GNBrews]

What's the reasoning for using just the yeast that stays in suspension? Are the denser yeast colonies that fall to the bottom of the jar less hardy?

 

[PKsBrew]

Great thread, thanks for all the info. I washed the yeast from a pale ale last week end, followed the steps and what do you know...it turned out just as described. Now I have four batches of yeast begging to be used. Really excited about the $$ savings and wishing I had more capacity now! Thanks again!

 

[dontman]

What's the reasoning for using just the yeast that stays in suspension? Are the denser yeast colonies that fall to the bottom of the jar less hardy?

No, that is not the issue. You are not deciding between two strata of yeast. The trub which includes all of the detritus of the brew uncluding dead yeast, yeast hulls, and myriad other trash items are will fall out of suspension first leaving the live yeast still in suspension. This is only a lag of a couple of hours before the yeast itself will fall out too. So you want to catch it while the debris is sitting on the bottom and the yeast is still in suspension.

Oh yeah, there is a bunch young vibrant viable yeast that will be in among that debris that you will leave behind. Oh well. The important thing here is to get rid of the debris.

 

[Bender]

Will this technique work for yeast that has been in a wort with fruit added? I notice that the trub I wash out of a carboy that has had cranberry juice added looks and smells a lot different than the yeast from a batch with no fruit.

 

[petep1980]

Forget my question.

How do you fill up the jars? Syphoning or pouring?

 

[kcstrom]

Sorry if this question has been asked already (I skipped over the middle part of the posts in this thread).

Since the beer/yeast is getting diluted down with water before being poured into the jars and stored in the fridge, is there any concern about botulism being able to grow in the washed yeast mixture while it is in the fridge over a long period of time since the pH of what's in the jar is higher (less acidic) than the beer it was extracted from?

Thanks for this guide by the way. I've made a couple of brews now with washed yeast following this method.

kcstrom

 

[petep1980]

I did this last night. At $6.79/wyeast talk about a money saver. And supposedly yeast can last for 5 generations? Incredible. I'm also thrilled it seems if you can get them in a sterile environment (the boiled water you added to the trub) they'll last an incredibly long time.

 

[samc]

I have done a lot of yeast washing with Sourdough for bread & pizza baking but never with beer yeast. Some similar ideas going on and yet some major differences. Usually when you wash the Sourdough you are doing so to rid it of an infection or to revitalize it.

So here is my question which I did not see mentioned in this great thread, what is the temperature of the water you pitch into the carboy or fermenter? If it is straight out of the fridge, doesn't it shock the crap out of the yeast? Or are you letting the water come to room temp?

I read through the thread twice, don't tell me I missed it because that means my old eyes are due for a washing.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I have done a lot of yeast washing with Sourdough for bread & pizza baking but never with beer yeast. Some similar ideas going on and yet some major differences. Usually when you wash the Sourdough you are doing so to rid it of an infection or to revitalize it.

So here is my question which I did not see mentioned in this great thread, what is the temperature of the water you pitch into the carboy or fermenter? If it is straight out of the fridge, doesn't it shock the crap out of the yeast? Or are you letting the water come to room temp?

I read through the thread twice, don't tell me I missed it because that means my old eyes are due for a washing.

I usually pull the water out of the fridge as I am setting up to rack the beer. I can't tell you what it warmed up to in that amount of time, but I never had any issues.

 

[steelerguy]

Just wanted to thank you Bernie Brewer. Washed my Wyeast 1388 tonight from a Belgian Golden Strong Ale I made. Going to use it again next weekend when I make the Stone Vertical Epic 08.08.08 recipe.

Not only a good money saver but I am starter out with a lot more yeast and I am still going to make a starter for an insane pitch amount!

 

[dontman]

Just wanted to thank you Bernie Brewer. Washed my Wyeast 1388 tonight from a Belgian Golden Strong Ale I made. Going to use it again next weekend when I make the Stone Vertical Epic 08.08.08 recipe.

Not only a good money saver but I am starter out with a lot more yeast and I am still going to make a starter for an insane pitch amount!

Really, if you are starting with so much yeast, there does come a point where pitching more yeast becomes counterproductive. If yeast does not have to work at all to get up to production levels it has no opportunity to produce esters or to consume all of the oxygen in the wort. Instead it will only scrub oxygen and that is not as good.

I'm not sure about the Stone but with Belgian Strong you definitely want esters and you would not want to overpitch.

 

[ChillyP]

Doh!!! Washed some White Labs SanFranSicko Yeast tonight and skipped a step. I added water to the carboy, but forgot to let it settle before pouring it into my sterile jars. Luckily I set two of the 12oz jars to the side still filled with sterile water so I could do the separation. To keep the story short I did some on the spot transfers and now sitting pretty. Yeast looks good no turb!

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

It might be in here somewhere but I can't find it...how much yeast (in billions of cells) is in that little cake at the bottom of the jar?

I did find (from the Mr. Malty pitch rate calculator and an article) that a thin slurry is ~1 billion per mL and a thick slurry is ~4.5 billion per mL but I have no idea how thick a 'thick slurry' is. Do we just figure that we have 4.5 billion per mL at the bottom of the jar? Note that I'm just talking about total yeast cells not 'viable' yeast cells...that 'viability percentage' will be another estimation. I just want to get an order of magnitude here...not trying to get too accurate.

 

[bearduncle]

Could you go over the last step re: decanting? I'm not sure I get how much to pull out. THanks!

All that's left to do is label the jars and put them in the fridge. Then when it's time to make a starter, you just pull one out, let it warm to room temp, and decant most of the liquid out of the jar, give the rest a good shake, and pitch it into your starter..

 

[powderbock]

Do you store the yeast in the fridge to keep it cool , to keep it out of sunlight, or both. Does light matter when storing yeast? I understand why to keep it cold.

 

[mediocre]

Haven't had a chance to read this whole thread, but how long can you keep the washed yeast in the fridge for?

 

[jahdrummin]

Got a question... Brewed a British Brown Session Ale... Used Wyeast Brit Ale #1098

Washed yeast... did the whole process... got a little antsy... Is the yeast still going to be good to pitch that i washed, if there may be a chance of any hop or other particulate that didnt fully settle out when i got the solution into the mason jars>?

thanks guys for your help in advance

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I just did this when I racked my newcastle clone into the secondary. I had a couple things go wrong that normally don't but really... RDWHAHB.

Even if you pitch one of your jars into a starter and it doesn't become active well, you have at least three other tries!

 

[Piotr]

I wonder, which settings in MrMalty.com pitching rate calculator shall i use, when dealing with washed yeast slurry:

Non yeast percentage: 0%
Yeast concentration: Thick yeast (4.5) or Thin slurry (1)

??

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I've been trying to find out the same thing Piotr. For example, if you let a 'thick slurry' settle...how much of a yeast cake would you have and how much liquid above it? It's easy to eyeball the approx. volume of that yeast cake in the jar...would be nice to know how many billions of yeast cells per mL of yeast cake there are (not a slurry...the cake itself).

EDIT: I would think it's safe to say our yeast cake is at least as 'thick' as a thick slurry...right? It can't get much thicker than that unless you dried it out. So maybe figure the lower limit as 5 billion cells per mL of cake? Then the viable yeast cell count is a percentage of that.

One thing I've found that's helpful is to pour the slurry from the original fermenter into the second, smaller container and let it settle overnight. Then decant that...then shake it up and let it settle for 30 minutes and then pour into the jars. I get about 3x-4x more of a yeast cake in each jar that way. Maybe I was adding too much extra water (only 2 qt. plus the jar contents...and my 'smaller secondary container' is only 2 qt.) but I always ended up with a nice slurry leftover (after filling the jars) that I hated dumping down the drain. This just lets you concentrate the slurry before you put it in the jars.

 

[Superman3278]

I am gratefull for your post, I will give it a go and keep record.

 

[dontman]

these figures are actually possible to estimate prettty accurately. Once your jars have settled thoroughly you know very closely the amount of slurry you have in ml. The jars are scored with with mls right?

(BTW the yeast cake in the decanted jar IS the slurry.)

A refrigerated slurry that have very clear beer-looking stuff on top is very thick. Then, you can look at the layers if the slurry itself. The white layer on top is probably 90 % yeast. The darker lower layer is 10% yeast. so just take an educated guess of the % of yeast for the entire amount of slurry. It is interesting how these ratios change from batch to batch. I have harvested yeast that ranges from 80 % down to 30 %.

You should be pretty close. Close enough for our purposes anyway. Then it becomes surprising how quickly we get to proper pitching amounts.

 

[Piotr]

A refrigerated slurry that have very clear beer-looking stuff on top is very thick. Then, you can look at the layers if the slurry itself. The white layer on top is probably 90 % yeast. The darker lower layer is 10% yeast. so just take an educated guess of the % of yeast for the entire amount of slurry. It is interesting how these ratios change from batch to batch. I have harvested yeast that ranges from 80 % down to 30 %.

Actually, your post made things even more complicated for me. I taught, that we wash the slurry from one mason jar to another until we get rid of all trub and dead yeast, and the result is 100% clean yeast. My only concern was how thick it was...

Let's try to figure it out in other way:
How many ml of washed slurry do you pitch in an average ale 1.050? How many in lager ?

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I got half trub and half yeast on my first wash (but it's a nice, thick cake...at least 30mL of white cake). My second wash had no trub...but a tiny 5mL yeast cake in each jar. I've finally got it dialed in such that I get no trub (that I can see) and a nice, thick ~50mL cake in each jar.

However as dontman mentioned...that varies from batch to batch. Like I said earlier...now I decant the liquid in the fermenter (i.e. the cake plus added boiled/chilled water) into the secondary container and let it settle overnight...then I decant that (to drain)...shake it up really well and let it settle 30 minutes...then into the jars. There is the tan bottom layer in the secondary container but it all stays there...just clean yeast slurry in the jars.

So from dontman's post it looks like I can just use the 4.5 billion cells per mL number (i.e. the 'thick slurry' number)...which means my 50mL cakes are almost a perfect typical pitch in terms of number (not viability...a whole nuther estimation).

EDIT: thanks dontman.

 

[dontman]

which means my 50mL cakes are almost a perfect typical pitch in terms of number (not viability...a whole nuther estimation).

this is what I realized too when I started washing my yeast - that my jars contained pretty much the exact amount of slurry that Mr. Malty recommends on standard size beers and that I would not need the extra step of doing a starter from washed yeast.

Now on <1.060 ales I just take the jar out of the fridge on brew morning and let it warm up to room temp and it is ready to pitch when my wort is.

On really big non-belgians and lagers I still do a starter.

But on big Belgians I don't because I want the yeast to work a little when it gets into the wort. This creates more esters. which is desirable in a Belgian.

 

[mosquitocontrol]

Is there any reason not to just sanitize the jars and instruments in starsan rather then boiling all of them? I understand you should use deoxygenated water and that's why you boil it. But I'll need to use plastic for the larger jug so I'll starsan it. Will it kill the yeast in it or something?

 

[WortMonger]

Nah, Star-San acts like yeast nutrient once the pH changes out of it's sanitizing role. Here's a write-up I did that has some information on Star-San for you. It is some awesome stuff, and they are an awesome company.

 

[milldoggy]

Great article, washed my first batch of yeast from my primary. Looks close to the pics so far, only been in the fridge 10 hours.

Big Thanks

Has anyone thought about using one of those fat seperators used for gravy to drain trub off the bottom and leave the good stuff in the container?

Amazon.com: Oxo Good Grips Fat Separator, 4-Cup: Kitchen & Dining

 

[Beerrific]

I racked my mild today and harvested the yeast. My method: racked the beer, added 2 liters of sterile water, stirred up all the yeast/trub and poured it back into the liter jars. This is my normal practice, I will chill that overnight and usually see three distinct layers: beer on top, yeast, then trub on the bottom. The next morning I will pour the yeast layer into another jar. The yeast is usually noticeable because it is creamy white.

So this time the colors are throwing me.

This has only been in the fridge for a couple hours, but what do you think? Is the white on the bottom yeast or trub? Is the dark stuff yeast? This is wyeast 1968, it tends to be very chunky.