Yeast Washing Illustrated

[grndslm]

It's all about relativity, my dear Watson.

How would YOU feel if the temperature dropped instantly from 70-80 degrees to 35-40 degrees?? Shocked?

How would YOU feel if the temperature dropped gradually from 70-80 degrees to 35-40 degrees?? Sleepy?

Just think of yeast as little people that self-replicate when they're happy.

 

[jwalker1140]

I dunno. I've taken water straight from the fridge and tossed it into the fermenter plenty of times and I've never had any problems. I'm not saying you guys are wrong, just that my first hand experience has been different. But then, I'm also not adding 35F water to 80F yeast.

 

[HollisBT]

I dunno. I've taken water straight from the fridge and tossed it into the fermenter plenty of times and I've never had any problems. I'm not saying you guys are wrong, just that my first hand experience has been different. But then, I'm also not adding 35F water to 80F yeast.

Everything in brewing is very much a ymmv kind of thing, and if it works well for you then great and never let anyone tell you that you are wrong

Personally, I take more precautions than might be necessary just for the "what if"s or just in case's. yeast are very important for beer making, so I do what I think is necessary to make sure they are healthy and give me the results I want.

 

[storytyme]

Then, trying not to disturb the stuff at the bottom, fill up the larger jar that you boiled. If some of the stuff from the bottom gets in, it's not the end of the world.

Let this jar settle for 20 minutes or so, too. You'll notice some more stuff settling to the bottom again.

Then, again being careful not to disturb the stuff on the bottom, fill up the small Mason jars. Fill them all the way up.

The four on the left are the ones I did today. the one on the right is one that I did last February. It's just there to show the final product.

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..

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Would one of those jars be used for a 5 gal batch? 2 jars for 10 gal? How long can they keep in the fridge??

 

[msa8967]

So if I can use washed yeast for up to 5 generations and each washing yields enough yeast for 2 to 3 five gallon brews can I assume that I might get 32 brews at a minimum from one vial of healthy yeast? (2x2x2x2x2 = 32) This assumes making yeast starters and practicing good sanitation.

 

[Steven4est]

so 1 of those jars is equal to 1 little white labs yeast tubes? when he says add it to the starter, do i just add it to the wort in my primary or is a starter something separate i have to buy/make?

 

[grndslm]

Would one of those jars be used for a 5 gal batch? 2 jars for 10 gal? How long can they keep in the fridge??

so 1 of those jars is equal to 1 little white labs yeast tubes? when he says add it to the starter, do i just add it to the wort in my primary or is a starter something separate i have to buy/make?

Here you guys go!!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-revisited-318684/

 

[zeg]

To summarize the key point: no one can tell you how much yeast you have in your jar. It depends. You need to estimate it yourself.

In my experience, the jars have far less yeast than a white labs vial---I estimated 15 billion cells vs 100 billion in a commercial vial. But that's just my experience from one rinse. I think I had fairly low yield in that case, but I don't have enough experience to say that with any certainty.

Solid-packed yeast with no liquid content is about 4.5 billion cells/mL. I'd guess that typical condensed yeast from rinsing is probably 2.5 billion cells/mL. Depending on how well-rinsed, you probably have 15-25% non-yeast mixed in. If you believe my numbers, that leaves 1.9-2.1 billion cells/mL. So just measure your compacted yeast volume (easy way: fill an identical empty jar with water to the same depth as the yeast slurry, then weigh it in grams. That equals the number of mL of slurry you have)

This is crude, it wouldn't surprise me if it's off by 50%, but it should be in the right ballpark. Without counting directly, though, I don't think you can do a whole lot better. If you're trying to hit a pitch rate accurately, it'll be fairly hard. For a one-step starter, just take a conservative number to ensure that you err on the over-pitching side. If you have the patience, you can design a 2-3 step starter schedule that significantly reduces your sensitivity to the initial count.

 

[SoSublime]

Thank you for the great write up!

 

[TBaGZ]

So I just washed another batch of 1056. This time I poured it into half pint jars instead of pint jars, and I think that might have been a mistake. I don't think I am going to get enough yeast to settle out with such a small volume. Next time I think I will go back to pint jars, let those settle out, then decant and transfer remaining to half pints... I guess I will just have to use more then one of these half pints to do my starter.

 

[zeg]

half pint jars instead of pint jars [...] I guess I will just have to use more then one of these half pints to do my starter.

You could do that, or you could just do a few hundred mL "pre-starter" starter a day before you make the real starter. It's actually not a bad idea to do this with any rinsed yeast that has been stored longer than a few weeks. IIRC, the "Yeast" book suggests that using a low-gravity (1.020ish) wort for this can improve results with borderline viable yeast.

 

[msa8967]

How much will the hop profile from the previous brewed batch affect the yeast profile for the next brew session? Would it be OK to use washed yeast from an American pale ale (higher IBUs in the 40s) in a less hoppy blonde house ale (lower IBUs in the upper 20s) or should I try to stay consistent with the hop style of the previous brew session? I know that color and SG are important to consider in the next recipe used.

 

[Brulosopher]

How much will the hop profile from the previous brewed batch affect the yeast profile for the next brew session? Would it be OK to use washed yeast from an American pale ale (higher IBUs in the 40s) in a less hoppy blonde house ale (lower IBUs in the upper 20s) or should I try to stay consistent with the hop style of the previous brew session? I know that color and SG are important to consider in the next recipe used.

You might also consider checking out the link in my signature called "Yeast Harvesting: A Novel Approach?"

 

[storytyme]

I am excited about starting to wash/rince my yeast. About 6 days ago I followed the instructions from here and boiled the jars and water and put them in the fridge overnight thinking I was going to bottle the following day. Well that did not happen and they are still in the fridge. Are they still okay to use for washing/rinsing the yeast or should I dump the water and reboil everything? Thanks in advance.

 

[chanson16]

I am excited about starting to wash/rince my yeast. About 6 days ago I followed the instructions from here and boiled the jars and water and put them in the fridge overnight thinking I was going to bottle the following day. Well that did not happen and they are still in the fridge. Are they still okay to use for washing/rinsing the yeast or should I dump the water and reboil everything? Thanks in advance.

As long as they are sealed tight I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

[chanson16]

I made a 1.034 starter from some washed yeast yesterday and there are no signs of fermentation in the airlock nearly 24 hours later. I know that activity in airlock doesn't mean anything but there isn't enough wort to take a hydro sample. Any thoughts?

No krausen has formed yet. There are a few white dense clumps on top and I am hoping it is not an infection.

 

[chanson16]

Here is a pic of what is floating on top of the starter.

 

[Brulosopher]

Here is a pic of what is floating on top of the starter.

That's totally normal, the yeast is working. You seriously might appreciate my article here called "Yeast Harvesting: A Novel Approach?" It's about harvesting clean yeast from a starter. Cheers!

 

[chanson16]

That's totally normal, the yeast is working. You seriously might appreciate my article here called "Yeast Harvesting: A Novel Approach?" It's about harvesting clean yeast from a starter. Cheers!

So do you think I can go ahead pitch into my brew I am making tonight or should I let the starter ferment longer?

Also, I couldn't find your article but would be interested in reading it.

 

[Brulosopher]

So do you think I can go ahead pitch into my brew I am making tonight or should I let the starter ferment longer?

Also, I couldn't find your article but would be interested in reading it.

As long as your starter doesn't smell like burnt rubber, go for it.

My article is linked in my signature. Or you can search the Articles section of HBT... or click this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/yeast-harvesting-novel-approach.html

 

[chanson16]

As long as your starter doesn't smell like burnt rubber, go for it.

Would that indicate an infection? My question was more in line with pitching tonight being too early. Not necessarily being worried about infection.

Thanks for the link! I couldn't find it searching.

 

[Brulosopher]

Would that indicate an infection? My question was more in line with pitching tonight being too early. Not necessarily being worried about infection.

Thanks for the link! I couldn't find it searching.

Not an infection, but autolysis... dead ueast

 

[srattler]

Good write up....

 

[zeg]

I made a 1.034 starter from some washed yeast yesterday and there are no signs of fermentation in the airlock nearly 24 hours later. I know that activity in airlock doesn't mean anything but there isn't enough wort to take a hydro sample. Any thoughts?

No krausen has formed yet. There are a few white dense clumps on top and I am hoping it is not an infection.

Unless you watched the thing very closely, you may simply have missed the peak of its activity. It's such a massive pitch rate that it can burn through the sugar extremely rapidly. Your photo looks normal.

Also, note that an airlock on a starter is not generally recommended. The ideal is a foam stopper, a decent makeshift approach is a loose cover of sanitized aluminum foil. You're making yeast, not beer, so you want to keep it as aerated as possible to encourage the yeast to reproduce rather than ferment.

 

[high5apparatus]

I used washed yeast for the first time yesterday. Followed the sticky instructions here and the airlock was moving on my carboy while I was still cleaning up the kitchen.

I also drew off some wort at the end of my sparge to boil, bumped up the gravity a bit with corn sugar, then refilled my growler with what was left of the yeast after pitching to hopefully make more yeast.

 

[msa8967]

How successful is it to harvest lager yeast by using this washing yeast method? I have had plenty of success washing ale yeast but I am curious if washing lager yeast yields similar results.

 

[zeg]

I have so far made three lagers with yeast harvested from a single batch and it seems to have worked extremely well, though none has made it all the way through the pipeline yet.

 

[HollisBT]

I have so far made three lagers with yeast harvested from a single batch and it seems to have worked extremely well, though none has made it all the way through the pipeline yet.

Did you use the same washing process?

 

[zeg]

Did you use the same washing process?

Yes. I don't know of any reason that a lager yeast would need a different process. This method is actually probably more appropriate for those, whereas ales are frequently top-cropped (though since the method described here happens after fermentation is complete, that's not a direct comparison).

The only difference is that I did slow 3-stage starters with 1-2 day cold crashes, ending up with about 1.5 gallons which I decanted and pitched.

 

[HollisBT]

Good to know., I wasn't sure whether the floc gang characteristics or bottom feeding properties would effect the wash or not.


With lager yeast wanting to stay at the bottom, my logic pointed me to think that washing would be a bit more difficult, as the top portion of the wash might have a much lower cell count as the bottom.