Yeast Washing Illustrated

[TBaGZ]

Well my one gallon pickle jar didn't like being boiled. The bottom broke off clean. I ended up using a plastic pitcher that I dunked in some star san.

 

[wormraper]

well, I have 4 mason jars with washed 3068 sitting in my fridge that I did from my hefe batch 4 weeks ago. going to brew another hef this weekend. my question is... should I create a starter any longer in advance than a smack pack? like should I do it 2 days in advance to make sure it comes out of sleep being that the yeast has been in the fridge for 4 weeks or is 24 hours enough for it?

 

[GulfCoastGirl]

well, I have 4 mason jars with washed 3068 sitting in my fridge that I did from my hefe batch 4 weeks ago. going to brew another hef this weekend. my question is... should I create a starter any longer in advance than a smack pack? like should I do it 2 days in advance to make sure it comes out of sleep being that the yeast has been in the fridge for 4 weeks or is 24 hours enough for it?

Last week I brewed a Belgian Wit and A Hefe both (5 gallon batches) from washed yeasts (WLP 400 & WLP300) and that yeast had been sitting in my fridge for 2 months.

I did a starter (on a stir plate) 24 hours ahead of brew time and the yeast did just fine and took off with no problems. I did take the yeast out of the fridge about 2 hours before I made the starter just to let it come up to room temp. I don't know if that matters or not.... it just seemed logical to me to do it that way.

 

[msa8967]

I recently washed 3 batches of yeast and ended up with 10 mason jars with the bottom cm containing yeast. I know I should make a starter when using the washed yeast but in terms of determining the size of the starter how should I treat the viability of the washed yeast compared to liquid yeast I buy from the HBS?

Wil the washed yeast have a much lower viability and thus should I make a larger starter?

 

[pabloj13]

I recently washed 3 batches of yeast and ended up with 10 mason jars with the bottom cm containing yeast. I know I should make a starter when using the washed yeast but in terms of determining the size of the starter how should I treat the viability of the washed yeast compared to liquid yeast I buy from the HBS?

Wil the washed yeast have a much lower viability and thus should I make a larger starter?

The viability is dependent on when you harvested. You can use Mr Malty to tell you how many billion viable cells you have and then use yeastcalc.com to tell you what size starter(s) you need.

 

[wormraper]

quick question. I have 4 mason jars of 3068 yeast. say I use 1 or 2 to make a new batch. now I have 2 leftover. should I just wash the yeast out of the newly finished batch and use THOSE for my next batches or use the washed yeast leftover from my FIRST washing??

 

[pabloj13]

quick question. I have 4 mason jars of 3068 yeast. say I use 1 or 2 to make a new batch. now I have 2 leftover. should I just wash the yeast out of the newly finished batch and use THOSE for my next batches or use the washed yeast leftover from my FIRST washing??

I try to keep the older generations around for a while just to make sure the new ones are ok (i.e. not contaminated and washing went well) until my older generation starts to get a little bit up there in age.

So if I were you I'd use some of your newly washed yeast (assuming it's out of a decently low ABV, non-super hoppy beer) and see how that goes. Once your original stock starts to get old (4-6 months is what a lot of people do, though some have used past 1 year), I would use one of them to make a batch with a proper size starter. This way you can make your original vial last for MANY batches.

 

[msa8967]

Anyone know what each of these layers might represent in my yeast starters from washed yeast? I tried making my own starter wort from grain and then canning it so one of these layers might be hot break pieces although I tried to keep that out of the starter.

 

[pabloj13]

Anyone know what each of these layers might represent in my yeast starters from washed yeast? I tried making my own starter wort from grain and then canning it so one of these layers might be hot break pieces although I tried to keep that out of the starter.

The yeast is the creamy white thin layer on top of the trub.

 

[Brewitt]

The yeast is the creamy white thin layer on top of the trub.

Yep, that's the stuff!

 

[msa8967]

The yeast is the creamy white thin layer on top of the trub.

Unfortunately, this was my effort at trying to step up the amount of yeast I harvested from my first batch of washed yeast 10 days ago. I was really hoping that the visible yeast layer would be thicker. I have never seen that much trub before in using washed yeast in a starter.

 

[pabloj13]

Unfortunately, this was my effort at trying to step up the amount of yeast I harvested from my first batch of washed yeast 10 days ago. I was really hoping that the visible yeast layer would be thicker. I have never seen that much trub before in using washed yeast in a starter.

There's a lot of dead yeast in there too. What was the OG of your starter wort? It's still cloudy too, that layer will get thicker as more yeast crash out.

 

[msa8967]

My starter wort has a SG of 1.040 but the problem is when I brewed and canned all of this wort I forgot to add some yeast nutrient to this batch. I had the starter on the stirplate for 24 hours and saw activity with a krausen. Chilled thw wort for 24 hours to help the yeast drop out and was expecting more yeast to show up. Guess that's just beer being beer at times.

 

[msa8967]

I decided to pour off much of the remaining wort to get to the thin layer of yeast and trub. After adding the four contents together this is what I have now in 1 jar. I was expecting to find a thicker layer of yeast but didn't get that as a result. I am not sure why this washing is yielding a much lower yeast value than the other dozen or so I have done.

 

[milldoggy]

I decided to pour off much of the remaining wort to get to the thin layer of yeast and trub. After adding the four contents together this is what I have now in 1 jar. I was expecting to find a thicker layer of yeast but didn't get that as a result. I am not sure why this washing is yielding a much lower yeast value than the other dozen or so I have done.

I used to have the same result until I added way more water to the carboy then I thought I needed. When you decant, only yeast is in suspension and you can gently pour this off, leaving that trub behind. I usually used a half gallon pickle jar and 6 pnt jar to get 4 or 5 pnts jars of rinsed yeast.

 

[msa8967]

I should have mentioned that this was an effort to make starters out of my washed yeast that I thought had been healthy. I forgot to add any yeast nutrient in preparring the starter and thus ended with these jars. I did pour off the top half of this jar into 500 ml of starter with nutrient to see if anything forms using a stirplate.

 

[hepcat]

What a great thread! Thanks so much to Bernie for starting it. I am a fairly new home brewer and am definitely intrigued with washing yeast and using yeast starters. Having said that, I have only perused the first 20 or so pages of this 152 page thread and have a few questions which I'm not sure have been asked/answered yet so let me apologize in advance if they have but here they are:
I am currently using SafaleUS-05 dry yeast(rehydrated prior to pitching) for a brown ale I have fermenting right now and would like to know:

• Has anyone ever harvested and washed this particular yeast?
• And if you have, how did it work?

I want to make a strong, barley wine type ale (high OG) so want to make a starter for it and I really like the aforementioned dry yeast so want to use it for the barley wine in a starter.
I did see a comment from bernie that if you are using a dry yeast he would not bother with a starter and would just rehydrate a new/fresh package of dry yeast.
But, since I know I'll have a really high OG, here are a couple of other questions:

• Would it be too much yeast to use a fresh pack of dry, rehydrated yeast and a starter made with the same yeast(harvested from the batch I'm fermenting now)
• Or, would it be better(definitely easier) to just pitch a pack of rehydrated yeast?
• Or, pitch two packs fresh dry, rehydrated yeast only (due to high OG)...and this is for a ~5 gallon batch btw.

Any opinions/advice greatly appreciated. Cheers.

 

[pabloj13]

What a great thread! Thanks so much to Bernie for starting it. I am a fairly new home brewer and am definitely intrigued with washing yeast and using yeast starters. Having said that, I have only perused the first 20 or so pages of this 152 page thread and have a few questions which I'm not sure have been asked/answered yet so let me apologize in advance if they have but here they are:
I am currently using SafaleUS-05 dry yeast(rehydrated prior to pitching) for a brown ale I have fermenting right now and would like to know:

• Has anyone ever harvested and washed this particular yeast?
• And if you have, how did it work?

I want to make a strong, barley wine type ale (high OG) so want to make a starter for it and I really like the aforementioned dry yeast so want to use it for the barley wine in a starter.
I did see a comment from bernie that if you are using a dry yeast he would not bother with a starter and would just rehydrate a new/fresh package of dry yeast.
But, since I know I'll have a really high OG, here are a couple of other questions:

• Would it be too much yeast to use a fresh pack of dry, rehydrated yeast and a starter made with the same yeast(harvested from the batch I'm fermenting now)
• Or, would it be better(definitely easier) to just pitch a pack of rehydrated yeast?
• Or, pitch two packs fresh dry, rehydrated yeast only (due to high OG)...and this is for a ~5 gallon batch btw.

Any opinions/advice greatly appreciated. Cheers.

People are saying for an initial pitching with dry yeast to not bother making a starter because it negates some of the benefits of using dry yeast. However, by all means harvest that S-05 now that it is already in a batch. It will harvest well and you can use the slurry just as in any other beer. You should have plenty of slurry for a high OG barley wine. Use Mr Malty to calculate how much slurry you need. No need to buy more yeast if you've already got some in your fermenter.

 

[hepcat]

Excellent thanks pabloj13.

 

[MirImage]

I just kegged a blonde ale and a cream ale. I screwed up washing the cream ale and only got two jars, but I don't think i'll be doing many more cream ales soon. Thanks for the Thread Bernie. Go Crew!

 

[jwalker1140]

I just kegged a blonde ale and a cream ale. I screwed up washing the cream ale and only got two jars, but I don't think i'll be doing many more cream ales soon. Thanks for the Thread Bernie. Go Crew!

You do realize that you can use your washed yeast in types of beer other than the type it came from, right? I'm not trying to be condescending. Just want to make sure you get the full benefit from doing this. Currently, I'm fermenting an amber ale with 1056, which was washed from a blue moon clone, which was washed from a cream ale. And on it goes. Props again to Bernie! This is an awesome thread.

 

[Peppers16]

Thanks for the guide. First attempt was a great success; re-pitched one jar straight away and was bubbling within a couple of hours.
In the jar I have in the fridge the water is yellow from the lager picked up in the trub. Should I decent and add cleaner (boiled) water or does a bit of malt not affect storage life at fridge temperates?

 

[Peppers16]

Great information! How long do these keep?

Palmer says a couple of months and discard when it turns the colour of peanut butter.
I like the idea someone else mentioned about pitching to starter and washing again to "reset the clock", but my only concern is if you rely on this too much you're selecting from a small population of surviving cells and might altar the characteristics of your yeast.
Not relevant, but interesting: Palmer advises against repeatedly washing from secondary because you're effectively breeding the least flocculent cells that are slow to clear. Artificial selection in action!

 

[MirImage]

You do realize that you can use your washed yeast in types of beer other than the type it came from, right? I'm not trying to be condescending. Just want to make sure you get the full benefit from doing this. Currently, I'm fermenting an amber ale with 1056, which was washed from a blue moon clone, which was washed from a cream ale. And on it goes. Props again to Bernie! This is an awesome thread.

Yes I do. The Cream ale yeast I used was WLP080 Cream Ale Mix. I don't think many people have used it on other styles of beer. The other one is saf-05 which I use a lot of.

 

[BPhad]

Yes I do. The Cream ale yeast I used was WLP080 Cream Ale Mix. I don't think many people have used it on other styles of beer. The other one is saf-05 which I use a lot of.

How did you like the WLP080? Was thinking of trying it on my next cream ale, I used Nottingham and 1956 on my first two attempts and they both were good.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

How did you like the WLP080? Was thinking of trying it on my next cream

I've used it on two separate batches and thought they came out pretty good.

 

[MirImage]

How did you like the WLP080? Was thinking of trying it on my next cream ale, I used Nottingham and 1956 on my first two attempts and they both were good.

I haven't tried it besides tasting samples but it was very clean. I wish I could have fermented it at lower temps but its hard for a low budget, apartment brewer in TX. I fermented in the high 60s.

 

[pabloj13]

I haven't tried it besides tasting samples but it was very clean. I wish I could have fermented it at lower temps but its hard for a low budget, apartment brewer in TX. I fermented in the high 60s.

I haven't tried it besides tasting samples but it was very clean. I wish I could have fermented it at lower temps but its hard for a low budget, apartment brewer in TX. I fermented in the high 60s.

Check out Nordeast's blog on Swamp Coolers. Very cheap and easy. It's what I do too.

 

[hepcat]

So today, I boiled some bottled spring water along with some jars/lids in my boil kettle, put the lid on while I let it cool down a little and when I went to take the jars out of the BK, I noticed some solid particulate floating on the surface of the water. Not 100% certain what it was but figure it's most likely remnant extract from the last brew day this past Saturday. I did clean/scrub the BK after brewing but thinking I just didn't get all the extract cleaned out of it. What ever it is, it was boiled for ~25 minutes and I went ahead and put the sterilized jars of sterile water into the fridge to use when I'm ready to harvest/wash some yeast from a batch that is close to done fermenting.

Think I should use this water or not to harvest/wash yeast with? Appreciate any/all feed back as always.

 

[HollisBT]

I would use it, it's been boiled donut should be good.

Fwiw, when I do a wash I just use sanitizer on my jars and lids. It's easier and safer than trying to remove full jars of water from a near boiling vat of water. I just boil the water I need for the wash beforehand and let it cool down, then I always have some sanitizer made up on the day that I transfer.