Yeast Washing Questions

[rhys333]

Hi All,

I tried yeast washing for the first time last night after reading and watching a few tutorials on the process. Most examples started out with a clear carboy where trub is clearly visible and easier to decant off of. Like many people though, I'm using a plastic bucket as primary which makes it difficult to see what's going on. Also, the straight sides of the bucket encourages yeast/trub mixing on the way out, undoing some of the settling.

Below is the process I used, similar to many of the online tutorials. I'm wondering if anyone has a few tricks they can share to make this process a little smoother...

1) Pour 1 gal cooled boiled water onto yeast cake. Swirl to suspend yeast. Wait 1 hour for settling and separation.
2) Decant some of the liquid off the top, then transfer as much of the yeast layer to a 1 gal carboy, leaving behind lower trub layer. Wait 1 hour for settling. (NOTE: i got some trub mixing here due to plastic bucket)
3) Decant some liquid again, then pour liquid into 4 sanitized 1 pint mason jars. Cap and refrigerate.

 

[JimRausch]

Back when I 'washed' yeast (it's actually rinsing of course) I would add the boiled/cooled water to the bucket after racking, swirl to mix well, and pour the whole thing into sanitized qt mason jars. After letting it settle and decanting, I would do the rinsing process in the jars- easier to see and control the pour. However, after reading Woodlandbrew's blog which indicates that when we pour off the trub we are losing about 1/2 of the yeast, now i don't bother to go any further than the pour into the qt. jars and let it settle. Next day I decant, add new sterile water and keep it refrigerated until pitching day.

 

[rhys333]

Back when I 'washed' yeast (it's actually rinsing of course) I would add the boiled/cooled water to the bucket after racking, swirl to mix well, and pour the whole thing into sanitized qt mason jars. After letting it settle and decanting, I would do the rinsing process in the jars- easier to see and control the pour. However, after reading Woodlandbrew's blog which indicates that when we pour off the trub we are losing about 1/2 of the yeast, now i don't bother to go any further than the pour into the qt. jars and let it settle. Next day I decant, add new sterile water and keep it refrigerated until pitching day.

Thanks for the reply. Are there any side effects from leaving the trub in there with your method?

I did notice a lof of creamy yeast got wasted last night because it seemed to start mixing with the trub.

Sent from my GT-I9100M using Home Brew mobile app

 

[JimRausch]

No side effects that I've seen. Basically what Woodlandbrew found was that there was as much live yeast in the trub as in the 'creamy yeast' layer. He did find that most of the bacteria was in the supernatant, so that's why I decant, then add new boiled/cooled water the next day. I've kept yeast prepared this way for up to a month before using. Could maybe have kept it longer, but in all cases that I reuse yeast, I plan for back-to back-to back brews spaced 2 weeks apart.

 

[rodwha]

When I looked into what I see was to let it settle only 20 mins.

But I also found an idea posted here that instead of the hassle of washing yeast why not just make a larger starter and save the remainder where there is no trub, no flavor, nothing. And it stands to reason that there's such a lesser chance for any kind of mutations.

 

[freisste]

When I looked into what I see was to let it settle only 20 mins.

But I also found an idea posted here that instead of the hassle of washing yeast why not just make a larger starter and save the remainder where there is no trub, no flavor, nothing. And it stands to reason that there's such a lesser chance for any kind of mutations.

+1. My thoughts exactly.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Well the reason I pitch slurry/cake is because I don't have a stir plate for starters.

 

[rodwha]

I don't either. I just give it a few violent swirls, and a shake or two every now and then. Seems to work well enough.

 

[rhys333]

why not just make a larger starter and save the remainder where there is no trub, no flavor, nothing. And it stands to reason that there's such a lesser chance for any kind of mutations.

I was wondering the same thing to be honest. I saw this done by a homebrewer called Woodlandgardener on You_tube. He just makes a starter, top crops and pitches the yeast, then tosses the rest back into cool storage. No fancy equipment either. He has some great videos BTW.

Question is, are there downsides to this large starter approach? Wouldn't there be trub/mutations created here as well? Sorry for all the questions... i'm new to the starter/harvesting area.

 

[rodwha]

I'm not aware of any problems with a larger starter.

I haven't noticed any grub in mine.

I make my starter the day before. ~24 hours later I pull my amount out, and then set the remainder back in my cabinet to continue fermenting out for ~a week. Then I store in the fridge.

I've been wondering if I ought to cold crash and decant, and fill with boiled water for storage.

I'm not exactly sure what causes mutations, but if a starter lacks most of what all goes into a beer (crystal, hops, etc.), and is low in ABV (~4%), I don't see how it could be as possible.

I'm not knowledgeable enough, and my sense of logic has certainly let me down before, but it seems reasonable to say it's more likely to have a greater chance at longevity without problems.

I must add that I dumped all of my liquid strains as I lost track of how many cycles I put them through, and my 001 had mutated, though in a good way in that I was getting very high attenuation numbers. But I've been using dry yeast lately and won't use liquid until after I move in July. In fact I am done brewing until then most likely.

 

[rodwha]

Someone had brought up the cost of making a larger starter, which made me do the math.

I get the bulk of my ingredients from MoreBeer. I buy the 2 lb bags of DME, which cost $8.75, and I get free shipping (larger orders). I use 1/4 lb of DME in a 1 qt starter for a general starter. To set some aside I add 1/8 lb and an additional pint.

1/4 lb cost me $1.094, and the extra 1/8 lb cost an additional $0.547. I'll spend $0.55 to keep from having to clean all of that stuff and the time to do it. And I'm fairly frugal.

 

[rodwha]

Another had added that they just do a second mash of the their grains and boil it down until they get ~1.040 wort for a starter. Nice idea if you really want to be frugal.

 

[rodwha]

I'm curious to hear what your concerns are and why.

 

[rhys333]

I'm curious to hear what your concerns are and why.

I don't have any concerns, I just have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to harvesting and starters. I watched/read the how-to's that advocate washing the yeast cake, though like you I wonder why go through all of this and couldn't I just use some of the starter and put the rest back to bed for next time? I guess I'm just running through the options and asking what other people do. I'm not sure I can make large starters as cheaply as you though... I'm in Canada and shipping costs from online retailers are wicked. It ends up being the same price as the LHBS after its all said and done.

 

[rodwha]

I take it MoreBeer either doesn't ship there or it does cost?

 

[rhys333]

I take it MoreBeer either doesn't ship there or it does cost?

Border fees are worse... Tariffs essentially