Yeast washing - which layer(s) to keep? (Pics included)

[aartdouglass]

My brother and I just kegged a batch and we wanted to harvest the yeast to ferment 11.5 gallons of an IPA we're brewing tomorrow morning. Here's some potentially relevant information:

• Yeast: WLP001
• We have a hop strainer in the bottom of our boil kettle
• We try not to transfer much break material into the carboys after whirlpooling
• From an 11 gal batch that was separated into two 6.5 gal carboys
• One of the carboys had one vial of clarity ferm added
• The yeast in the carboy with clarity ferm didn't drop as quickly or as completely as the other carboy once fermentation was complete

After the carboys were kegged the remaining yeast/beer were combined into a pitcher and allowed to sit. Here's what that looked like after 2 hours:

The top layer is beer, and there is clearly a layer of sediment at the bottom. However, the two lighter layers are kind of confusing us. We think the big white milky layer is yeast, but aren't sure what the slightly darker layer is above it. We thought maybe that the yeast from the carboys flocculated a little differently due to the clarity ferm added to one (which like I said above, had a clear effect on the yeast dropping), which might be causing these two layers. But we haven't washed much yeast before, so we weren't sure. We feel like both of those layers must be yeast, but we saved both of the middle layers into separate flasks just in case:

Looking for advice. Do you think both layers are fine to combine, settle out and pitch, or just the big milky one? Or maybe the slightly darker one?

Thanks!

 

[RedlegEd]

My brother and I just kegged a batch and we wanted to harvest the yeast to ferment 11.5 gallons of an IPA we're brewing tomorrow morning. Here's some potentially relevant information:

• Yeast: WLP001
• We have a hop strainer in the bottom of our boil kettle
• We try not to transfer much break material into the carboys after whirlpooling
• From an 11 gal batch that was separated into two 6.5 gal carboys
• One of the carboys had one vial of clarity ferm added
• The yeast in the carboy with clarity ferm didn't drop as quickly or as completely as the other carboy once fermentation was complete

After the carboys were kegged the remaining yeast/beer were combined into a pitcher and allowed to sit. Here's what that looked like after 2 hours:

The top layer is beer, and there is clearly a layer of sediment at the bottom. However, the two lighter layers are kind of confusing us. We think the big white milky layer is yeast, but aren't sure what the slightly darker layer is above it. We thought maybe that the yeast from the carboys flocculated a little differently due to the clarity ferm added to one (which like I said above, had a clear effect on the yeast dropping), which might be causing these two layers. But we haven't washed much yeast before, so we weren't sure. We feel like both of those layers must be yeast, but we saved both of the middle layers into separate flasks just in case:

Looking for advice. Do you think both layers are fine to combine, settle out and pitch, or just the big milky one? Or maybe the slightly darker one?

Thanks!

Hi. You didn't say what you originally brewed, but I'd agree with your assessment of the lighter milky layer vs. the darker upper layer. Since you're going to pitch into an IPA, even if the darker of the two layers has a little hop residue, any flavor contribution will get lost in your IPA. I'd say you can use the contents (or maybe even half) of both layers without any bad effect on your next brew. Ed

 

[aartdouglass]

Hi. You didn't say what you originally brewed, but I'd agree with your assessment of the lighter milky layer vs. the darker upper layer. Since you're going to pitch into an IPA, even if the darker of the two layers has a little hop residue, any flavor contribution will get lost in your IPA. I'd say you can use the contents (or maybe even half) of both layers without any bad effect on your next brew. Ed

Thanks Ed! I forgot to mention the beer. It was kind of a test on our new brew rig, using a bunch of different grains we've accumulated in some previous brews. Here's the grain bill (no judging, this was kind of a Franken-beer!), we called it closest to a Weizenbier:

Here's an update on the two flasks. It looks like the one on the right (from the darker layer) is settling out closer to how we've seen pictures of other yeast washing. The other flask (from the lighter layer) doesn't really seem to be settling anything out.

Is it possible that the lighter layer is material from the high amount of wheat and adjuncts in the beer (rice, corn)?

 

[aartdouglass]

Thinking more about this, the yeast for this batch was basically the yeast cake from a previous ale I made, without washing. So there would be additional trub from that batch as well.

 

[RedlegEd]

Thinking more about this, the yeast for this batch was basically the yeast cake from a previous ale I made, without washing. So there would be additional trub from that batch as well.

I've pretty much stopped "washing" and just take the slurry after it's cold crashed and decanted. The longer you leave it in the fridge and let it settle out, you'll basically have a layer of sediment (yeast included) and beer on top. Rather than worry about which layer is which, I just decant almost all of the top layer of beer (leaving just enough to whirl and resuspend the yeast,) and then repitch a portion (or all of it.) Most of the time, you're pitching from a lower gravity to higher gravity beer anyway, so unless you do something weird like pitch from a stout to a blonde ale, you'll do fine (without a bunch of extra work/worry.) Just watch your sanitiation. Ed