Great to see people giving yeast washing a shot now. Like many things, it sounds complicated but is really simple - once you see it done.
A few responses..
I've never met you but you are now my new favorite person for posting this video. I am now 100% confident in yeast washing. I don't know why I didn't think of just sanitizing the containers rather than boiling.
Seriouslly, nice tip on the StarSan vs. boiling the jars. I dumped the gallon jar all over the counter - SWMBO was not happy. Thanks again for yet another excellent video Billy!
I'm glad you guys brought this up because I thought I was the only one who had a hell of a time boiling the jars. Lost some skin the first time I tried to lift that pickle jar out of there.
Soooo...did my first yeast wash tonight thanks to this video. Racked the beer of a IIPA with WL 001...
I do have a question:
After I decanted to the 1G jar and let settle, I began to dump off some of the beer and liquid layer, as I got to the yeast layer I noticed that it really just mixed with the hop and protein trub. I reserved about 1 inch of this in the 1G jar and each of my pints has about 1/2-3/4 inch of yeast after settiling, but each also has about the same amount of trub.
Is there some trick that I missed? More settling time in the 1G perhaps?
Did you shake it up well? That'd be the first place I'd check. Those hop bits tend to stick to everything. Besides that, you might not have waited long enough. On the flip side you could have waited too long. Eventually everything will mush back together like it did in your carboy. You just gotta strike when the time is right - which you can tell visually. Give it another shot and see if it works better.
Did he decant off the beer and liquid layer? I don't recall seeing that. I'm guessing you stirred up some of the trub into the yeast layer.
I'm planning to do this after my next batch, so in 3 or 4 weeks... I hope it works out.
I didn't decant the beer on top. I poured it into the jars. There is so little liquid it is impossible to decant that and not lose yeast. Not a problem though. I decant the liquid when I remove the jars from the fridge. By that time the yeast is stuck to the bottom and it's much easier to pour off the beer. Good luck!
Thats a helpful video for sure, thanks!
I primary in a plastic bucket, so I presume same technique but take great care in pouring off to leave the trub behind. I'll try this next weekend, thanks again.
Yea it's the same technique, you just won't get to see the separation in fermenter. Give it 20 minutes and then carefully pour off. You'll be fine, and when pour again from the big jar you can leave behind any gunk that got in there.
Thanks Billy, your blog is really well put together.
I was wondering if the same method could be done with yeast from a commercial bottle (assuming bottling and fermenting yeasts are the same). For example Bell's Oberon. I know the yeasts are the same and I can probably harvest some yeast from a fresh bottle.
Hope you are doing well in Denver. All the kids are coming back into Harrisonburg. Jack Brown's had out first beer tasting a few weeks ago. Cheers!
That's something I haven't tried yet so I'd be interested to see how it goes for you. I don't know how much good washing would do though since there is no trub in the bottle, just yeast and beer. There's probably some threads around here with a better method for that. It's on the to-do list.
Denver is great. The Napa Valley of Beer saying is definitely true. I do miss Harrisonburg though. The area, not so much the students ; ) If my company ever calls me back to that office we'll grab a beer at Jack Brown's.
After extensive reading on washing yeast I decided not to try it. After watching this video, it seems so simple. I guess it is only as confusing as a person makes it out to be. Thank you very much for the video, I will definitley give it a go next time.
Simply awesome. That's exactly why I did this.
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