yeast washing sanitation

[Chombo]

hi,
i just have a hypothetical situation question about sanatizing and washing yeast.

say i washed a batch of american wheat yeast and some bacteria or wild yeast got in there.

and then say i made a starter with it down the road... would the bacteria/wild yeast die off when i make the starter, or is there a good chance that the bacteria/wild yeast would make its way into a batch of beer.

or on the other hand would it grow in the jar in my fridge and show obvious signs of infection.

i ask this because as i was washing my yeast, there was a crazy amount of troub, spent hops and orange peel and it refused to separate from the water i added, so i soaked a muslin bag in starsan and filtered the watery troub through.

im not worried, just curious how easily any nasties can make their way from washed yeast to beer. or if a starter would kill them off...

 

[HomerJR]

I'm not sure how easy it would be for an interloper to start a colony in your washed yeast, but I'm glad there's an easy way to tell if it's happened. If it smells like beer, it should be okay.

 

[Jmiltime]

Yes any bacteria or infection you get in your yeast will transfer to your next beer. Sometimes a serious infection will show signs of growth in the refrigerator but it can be there and not be seen too. Your starter is essentially a small batch of beer so there is nothing in the starter that will 'kill off' the infection as you still pitch your starter at fermentation temps. Sanitation is incredibly important especially with yeast. Once you have infected yeast, throw it away and get a new packet. Unfortunately, as stated earlier, you might not know you have an infection until you go to taste your beer. If washing and reusing yeast be thorough with sanitation or you could ruin lots of beer and therefore waste lots of time. (Though wasting lots of beer is much worse). Good luck!

 

[Chombo]

Great thanks for the info guys, ill keep the washed stuff and hope for the best, hopefully if any nasties did get in ill see in the next starter.