Yeast Washing Illustrated

[bumstigedy]

Whenever you can sanitize by boiling, you should since it is more effective than chemicals. The bad stuff can't hide from the heat. You could sanitize with star San and would probably be just fine. Another consideration is that you have to boil the water anyway to add to the yeast so might as well sanitize the jars at he same time.

 

[winvarin]

I have a pressure canner that I use to make canned starter wort, so I usually kill 2 birds with 1 stone. When I make a batch of canned wort, I also can a few jars of just distiller water.

On harvest day, I pop the lids on the canned water and put them in a star San bath. The sterile water is used to rinse the yeast. Then I wipe the mouth of the canning jar with rubbing alcohol and flame it.

Rinsed yeast goes back in the jar and the star San sanitized lids go back in place.

I have never washed yeast from a batch to reuse. But I do grow yeasts from a vial and rinse/store multiple jars if I know I am going to brew several beers with the same yeast.

Though I don't see anything that would prevent you from using canned water as a sterile water source when rinsing yeast from the carboy.

 

[bumstigedy]

Boiling at atmospheric pressure doesn't achieve high enough temperature to sterilize. You have I use the pressure cooker o get to that temperature.

I agree that sterilizing would be better for longer term storage. The other thing to consider though is that the longer the yeast is stored the lower the viability,

 

[mtnagel]

Thanks for the info. Guess I need to add a pressure cooker to my xmas wish list (man this hobby is expensive ).

 

[HollisBT]

Boiling at atmospheric pressure doesn't achieve high enough temperature to sterilize. You have I use the pressure cooker o get to that temperature.

I agree that sterilizing would be better for longer term storage. The other thing to consider though is that the longer the yeast is stored the lower the viability,

Boiling will do the job for what we are trying to accomplish.

 

[HollisBT]

Thanks for the info. Guess I need to add a pressure cooker to my xmas wish list (man this hobby is expensive ).

No you don't, see above. You never hear about anyone using a pressure cooker to boil their 5 gallon batch of beer, do you?

 

[winvarin]

I agree. I only have the canner because my wife mentioned that she wanted to start canning vegetables. Seeing an opportunity for a SWMBO approved purchase that would also have a use in my brewery, I pulled the trigger before she could give it any further thought

 

[jeepinjeepin]

No you don't, see above. You never hear about anyone using a pressure cooker to boil their 5 gallon batch of beer, do you?

That's the difference between sanitize and sterilize. Sanitary is fine for a batch of beer that hopefully won't last long and will have acidity and alcohol to help protect it. Sterile is better when dealing with yeast, especially when storing small amounts for extended periods of time.

 

[TangoHotel]

I agree. I only have the canner because my wife mentioned that she wanted to start canning vegetables. Seeing an opportunity for a SWMBO approved purchase that would also have a use in my brewery, I pulled the trigger before she could give it any further thought

Win! I wish mine would pick up canning too!

 

[Malty_Dog]

Thanks again for this thread. Using my first ever washed yeast (WLP004 Irish Ale) for Jamil's Irish Red. Its bubbling away joyfully in primary. Took about 24 hrs to come to life in starter, but when it did it produced a lovely thick white krausen. Saved $6.75! Pretty cool to be able to do this. As someone else said, it also adds yet another dimension to this hobby which I am enjoying so much.

 

[TangoHotel]

Thanks again for this thread. Using my first ever washed yeast (WLP004 Irish Ale) for Jamil's Irish Red. Its bubbling away joyfully in primary. Took about 24 hrs to come to life in starter, but when it did it produced a lovely thick white krausen. Saved $6.75! Pretty cool to be able to do this. As someone else said, it also adds yet another dimension to this hobby which I am enjoying so much.

That's awesome! This is a great hobby. You can get lost in all the different aspects of it. Brew on!

 

[Peruvian802]

I just washed Nottingham yeast from my last blonde. It made 4 pints. I made my first starter as well and pitched it today. It blew off the airlock and I scrambled to the hardware store for some 1 1/4" OD tubing! Looks like it works. I like saving money.

 

[Bulls Beers]

I tried to wash yeast once a while back, but it didn't come out very good. I'd like to start again. My problem was, there was too much hops and sh it. To do it right, do you need to rack to a secondary, because I don't?

 

[el_caro]

I tried to wash yeast once a while back, but it didn't come out very good. I'd like to start again. My problem was, there was too much hops and sh it. To do it right, do you need to rack to a secondary, because I don't?

No need to rack to secondary.

 

[Djuhnk]

Any problem just dumping some trub right into a starter? I did this today and tasted some trub, noticed some hop bitterness but didn't bother washing. Guess I can't see why hops being in the trub would affect anything

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Any problem just dumping some trub right into a starter? I did this today and tasted some trub, noticed some hop bitterness but didn't bother washing. Guess I can't see why hops being in the trub would affect anything

A little wont hurt but the idea of washing your yeast is to separate your yeast from the trub.

 

[catdaddy66]

Quick question... Does US-05 flocculate high? I ask because I bottled my last batch (American honey ale) and quarter sized clumps of white material I assume is yeast. I thought 05 was moderate flocculation.

 

[sok454]

I think I will be trying this after I bottle the next 2 beers I'm brewing this weekend!

How long can you keep it in the fridge for?

Was kinda annoying spending 20+ on yeast this past week!

 

[tre9er]

I think I will be trying this after I bottle the next 2 beers I'm brewing this weekend!

How long can you keep it in the fridge for?

Was kinda annoying spending 20+ on yeast this past week!

Months on end, though viability goes down after the first few weeks.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

I think the key is no matter how long you choose to store them... Before using them make a big fat starter with the slurry. That way you know your good to go.

 

[tre9er]

I think the key is no matter how long you choose to store them... Before using them make a big fat starter with the slurry. That way you know your good to go.

The first few weeks you'll easily have 2b cells/ML. After that you get closer to 1b/ML. Too far down the road, yeah, I'd make a starter.

 

[mtnagel]

You could always make a starter just to build up cell counts and then refrigerate it to buy yourself sometime. Should last a long time way.

 

[grndslm]

You're pretty daring if you go longer than a week (MAYBE two, if you're crazy) without making a starter.

 

[brewski09]

You're pretty daring if you go longer than a week (MAYBE two, if you're crazy) without making a starter.

I don't make a lot of starters and routinely go to 4 weeks. I just pitch enough yeast. I'm primarily using WLP862

 

[grndslm]

And how many mL of slurry are you putting in each container? How many cells in each container?

How is the viability and vitality affected over X number of days??

 

[tre9er]

And how many mL of slurry are you putting in each container? How many cells in each container?

How is the viability and vitality affected over X number of days??

There actually have been some experiments on this subject. Check out woodlandbrew's site:

http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/

I use 2b/ml up to a few weeks, then 1b for a few months, then down from there per mrmalty.com. Woodland found that yeast is still quite viable after a few weeks, whereas mrmalty had sharp decline in viability over the short term vs. what woodland was finding via cell counts.

I just did a starter on WLP400 that was harvested probably 8 months ago. I figured 10% viability and made a 2L starter. Oxygenated with O2 and pitched whole starter last night, which was just 24 hours on the stir-plate. I'll report how the fermentation goes.

 

[Malty_Dog]

What would be the suggested procedure to use only a portion (half?) of a washed container of yeast? The pic of my washed yeast is on page 197 of this thread. Its too much to pitch into a 5 gal batch, IMHO. Is there a way to use just half and preserve the remainder?

*Edit - I guess if I boiled and then cooled some water, I could add it to half empty yeast jar, therefore preserving remaining yeast.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

What would be the suggested procedure to use only a portion (half?) of a washed container of yeast? The pic of my washed yeast is on page 197 of this thread. Its too much to pitch into a 5 gal batch, IMHO. Is there a way to use just half and preserve the remainder?

*Edit - I guess if I boiled and then cooled some water, I could add it to half empty yeast jar, therefore preserving remaining yeast.

I'd assume doing that or using distilled water should be fine. Just my assumption though.

 

[tre9er]

Wanted to report that my repitch of that ~8 month old WLP400 has.............well..............it took off in about 24 hours and had massive krausen by 36 hours. Of course I did pitch the whole 2L starter, but there was minimal lag and it seems my 10% viability calculation was possibly even modest.

 

[tre9er]

You can also get a scoop that you know the volume of and santize it, scoop out the yeast you need from the packed cake in the jar. As long as it's all settled well, you can count it all as yeast.