# Yeast washing question



## donald_trub (1/7/14)

I've just finished my first attempt at yeast washing. I had just bottled up a 20 litre pale ale which was fermented with WLP051 Cal Ale V. I added about 3 litres of water to the yeast cake and put it into a large clear jug, waited about an hour for it to seperate and then poured the top half of it into 4 x 1 pint mason jars. A day later, this is what I have in each of the jars:




I have 4 of these jars each with a similar level of yeast in them. My questions are:
- it's only been in the fridge for a day. Will I see more yeast build up if I leave it a day?
- Do I/Should I decant the beer off the top and replace with boiled and cooled water? Will this extend the life of the yeast?
- Is there enough there to just pitch in my next batch of beer without making a starter? It kind of looks around the same amount as a normal White Labs tube... if it's too little, I might reduce the amount of jars down to 2 by mixing them and doubling the yeast, then storing them until required.

Thanks in advance.


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## donald_trub (1/7/14)

Another picture in case this is clearer:


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## Yob (2/7/14)

In answer to your questions, the yeast bed won't significantly increase from there.

You can tip off the diluted beer and replace but I wouldn't bother, you have about a 4 week window for a direct pitch, after that you might want to do a starter to revive them a bit.

Last one is a doozy, only you can tell if there is enough.. A good idea when doing this is to have graduated marks on the jar of say every 50ml so you know how much yeast you have, you can then use the Mr malty pitching calculator to determine how much you need to pitch, remember that pitch rate is determined by OG and volume and viability date (date of terminal gravity) so pitch rates are not a fixed number

Cheers

ed: added Mr Malty link


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## Yob (2/7/14)

donald_trub said:


> Is there enough there to just pitch in my next batch of beer without making a starter? It kind of looks around the same amount as a normal White Labs tube... if it's too little, I might reduce the amount of jars down to 2 by mixing them and doubling the yeast, then storing them until required.


LINKY

it was this question (that comes up every so often) why I created the how to use the My Matly guide from the link, cheers and I hope it helps...

FWIW, I try to collect 100ml of (compact) rinsed yeast in my jar to make maths very easy when sorting out the pitch rate, as in if it's fresh and I need 60ml yeast, I can make a 200ml slurry from my rinsed yeast and I know I need %60 of the 200ml... so I'll need 120ml of the slurry to have the pitch rate worked out in Mr Malty.. but TBH, its been a while since Ive used Mr Malty as Im now generally pitching from starters.

Cheers


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## donald_trub (2/7/14)

Thanks Yob. Next time I'll get some marks added to the jars so I know how much I have. Based on what I was reading I thought I'd have 4 jars I could directly pitch from, but there just doesn't seem to be enough in them.

As for tipping off the old beer and adding water, I thought this may extend their life a bit but I suppose not.


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## GrumpyPaul (2/7/14)

Help Oracle of all things Yeasty.....

I saved a bit of trub into a flagon to wash and save the yeast.

The flagon has sat in the fridge for a week (or 2).

So tonight I get it out to wash. It looked nice and settled clear distinct layer of trub/yeast and nice clear beer on top.

When I cracked the lid on the bottle it gush like a volcano (lucky I opened slowly - or there would have been a yeasty beer stain to wash off the roof)

My question is....

Did it gush because it wasn't fermented out properly? - (Which has me worried about the beer I made with it.)

or

Did it gush because its infected?

Its been in the fridge so I fail to see how it continued to ferment and carbonate.

My bigger question is should I bother rinsing and saving this yeast or just tip it down the sink?




Now because its gushed is my precious yeast in the froth or in trub? 

If I tip the froth out am I throwing away the proverbial baby (yeast) with the bath water


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## Yob (2/7/14)

Probs just trapped gas mate, how does it smell?

if Im suspicious, Ill usually still rinse it (well) and get a small starter going, if that behaves oddly, ditch it then


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## GrumpyPaul (2/7/14)

smells ok....overflow didnt taste weird either.

I let the gas out put the lid on and have given it a shake up again and am just waiting for it to settle again.

Will rinse it and see how it goes.


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## Yob (2/7/14)

I actually pulled out a tiny vial of 1318 thats been in the fridge forever tonight to try to kick back into gear, it's in a teeny little 25ml starter right now just to see how it fares,

This doesnt apply to your slurry Paul, but its good to keep in mind that the older the yeast is the more you need to care for it to get it back into shape, if its a few months old, its a good idea to give it a starter not over 1030 gravity to begin with, if my little 1318 fires up in the 1030 gravity, I'll top up to 50ml and then to a 500ml 1030 starter and then onto a 1040 2lt starter.

:icon_cheers:


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## GrumpyPaul (2/7/14)

This is 1728 from the two scottish ales I've done recently (swap beer and MB annual dinner beer) once its wash it will sit in the fridge for quite a while before I feel like making another scottish ale.

When I do get around to it - I will have to make a starter and step it up as suggested.


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## Yob (2/7/14)

If your looking at months, consider freezing some, happy to help get ya started.


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## GrumpyPaul (2/7/14)

Might take you up on that - I have no idea about the freezing process.

If I rinse it does it need to be frozen straight away or can put the rinsed yeast (sealed in the mason jar obviously) in the fridge until I get around to the freezing?

I will be lucky to scratch myself this weekend let alone do anything beer related (other than drinking)


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## Yob (2/7/14)

You really want them as fresh as possible. It's a pretty hostile environment for them but I'd probably be ok with a week or 3... Just treat them extra gentle when stepping up or, make a starter from the rinsed yeast prior to freezing (best option)


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