Rinsing Yeast (in Pictures)

[ashley_leask]

Quick question..

why not distilled water for storing rinsed yeast? in the BN podcast he doest really explain, just says sterile water not distilled. Must be a reason for it...

Yob

The lack of any mineral content in the distiller water will cause some loss of minerals etc from the yeast cells via osmosis.

 

[stef]

Would you make any change to this process for WLP002? I find that it flocculates so well that I end up with lumps of (what I assume is) yeast, and they settle out first. Would you just throw them out with the trub and keep what's left in suspension? I guess you could also give the jar a good swirl to try to "dissolve" some of the lumps.

Cheers,

Jon

So, just tried this process with wlp002. Problems.

I cant work out what is yeast. All of it? None of it?

After 1 min:



after 10ish mins:




There is never any visible 3rd layer- clearish at the top, and what is either yeast or trub, or a combination thereof below.

Shook the absolute crap out of it for 5 mins beforehand to try to break up the clumps. I also diluted it further as i read that might help. Current mix is approx 1 quarter slurry, 3 quarters water. Might dilute further as my next step...

 

[BigDaddy]

So, just tried this process with wlp002. Problems.

I cant work out what is yeast. All of it? None of it?

After 1 min:

View attachment 47627

after 10ish mins:

View attachment 47628


There is never any visible 3rd layer- clearish at the top, and what is either yeast or trub, or a combination thereof below.

Shook the absolute crap out of it for 5 mins beforehand to try to break up the clumps. I also diluted it further as i read that might help. Current mix is approx 1 quarter slurry, 3 quarters water. Might dilute further as my next step...

I had a similar experience today with WLP 029 German Ale/Kolsch - looked almost identical to yours so I threw it in the fridge for a while and it separated out to 3 layers...enough to proceed anyways.....ended up with about 1/2 the amount I usually do.

It was the first time using this yeast, I think a lot of the speckled material in mine was also cold break from my plate chiller??? Was your wort chilled or no chilled??

 

[stef]

No chilled.

So did you shake it up then wack it in fridge straight away? Or fridge after letting it settle (to how it is in pics).

I'll give it a crack anyway. Cheers,

Stef

 

[going down a hill]

Thanks for a great thread Wolfy, just about to rinse a ringwood slurry.

 

[Yob]

bottled friday pitching today!! Gotta luv it, by the time im ready to pitch it (the one on the left) should have settled to something like I hope.. possibly a bit left on the yeast percentage slider...

:icon_cheers:

 

[kalbarluke]

Thanks for this great thread. I recently rinsed some us05 from a nelson sauvin ale I made. Kept the yeast in the fridge and made a starter for a kit vesion of Dr Smurto's golden ale.

Currently fermenting really well. I will continue this method in the future. Thanks again Wolfy.

 

[Wolfy]

View attachment 48244 I hope.. possibly a bit left on the yeast percentage slider...

I think you could easily adjust both of those sliders and still have an 'accurate' estimation:
Given that the yeast has been washed, the 'Non Yeast Percentage' should be pretty low (something close to 0).
In addition if you let the yeast settle out and count/pitch/use only the dense slurry at the bottom of your jar (the measuring-tape on the jar is a good idea), the 'Yeast Concentration' should be pretty high (I assume mine is 2.5 billion/ml, but expect that is conservative).

Currently fermenting really well. I will continue this method in the future. Thanks again Wolfy.

No problems, as you found, it's a quick/easy procedure, so there is no reason why everyone can't try it.

 

[Yob]

As I try to dial in more precicely... had some results recently not especially pleasing but am definatly persisting..

Question relates to Viability date with My Malty

do you take your "harvest date" from when the FV was CC'd or when you have actually taken it from the FV... My latest asumption is that the viability will be more accurate with date taken from when the brew was CC'd? is this correct?

Harvest should really be from when the yeast were finished or dropped out yeah? Its a big difference in numbers if you drop it back a week or so to a CC date as from for example the day before?

Cheers

 

[argon]

As I try to dial in more precicely... had some results recently not especially pleasing but am definatly persisting..

Question relates to Viability date with My Malty

do you take your "harvest date" from when the FV was CC'd or when you have actually taken it from the FV... My latest asumption is that the viability will be more accurate with date taken from when the brew was CC'd? is this correct?

Harvest should really be from when the yeast were finished or dropped out yeah? Its a big difference in numbers if you drop it back a week or so to a CC date as from for example the day before?

Cheers

Good question. For me, I would assume the date of production to be the date of last activity, IE the day you CC'd the beer. Otherwise the yeast is just sitting in there building up reserves and pretty much doing nothing, losing viability over time.

 

[Yob]

Yeah mate that was what I was kinda assuming... I think that may be where Ive gone wrong the last couple of brews.. 10-15ml of compact yeast is quite alot of defference in a pitch..

Cheers

 

[wobbly]

I have tried this process on a Nottingham yeast and for the life of me I cann't get/see "three" interfaces.

I get a top layer of water then a common large layer with no colour differentiation however the very bottom (5 or 6mm) has settled out very compact just like Nottingham does in the bottom of the fermenter. This is about after a couple of hours settling.

So my question is which should I be chucking/keeping the thinner "middle Layer" or the thicker "bottom layer"

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[cdbrown]

Ditch the top layer, keep the middle, ditch the bottom layer. If it drops out then there's a good chance it will do that very early in your beer too. Although - a couple of hours is a fair time to wait - normally after 30-45mins you should be able to remove the unwanted layers.

 

[Yob]

I have tried this process on a Nottingham yeast and for the life of me I cann't get/see "three" interfaces.

I get a top layer of water then a common large layer with no colour differentiation however the very bottom (5 or 6mm) has settled out very compact just like Nottingham does in the bottom of the fermenter. This is about after a couple of hours settling.

So my question is which should I be chucking/keeping the thinner "middle Layer" or the thicker "bottom layer"

Cheers

Wobbly

it can also sometimes mean that there isnt enough water in the solution to achieve a good seperation, you can empty half the total to a new sterile container and top up with cooled boiled water to see if it helps.

Yob

 

[going down a hill]

Do you AG or kit brew? If you kit brew your trub might not be so textured because it was removed by the manufacturer.

 

[wobbly]

No I AG and use a 20lt Brumeister and a hop sock

The wort into the fermenter is "soooo clear" that it appears as though very little trub is carried across.

I use an immersion chiller and get down to around 35C and then leave it sit in a fermenter over night before racking to a second fermenter airate with an air stone and then pitch yeast and in this particular brew I used two packets of Nottingham and fermented at 15C

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[Malted]

Do you AG or kit brew? If you kit brew your trub might not be so textured because it was removed by the manufacturer.

Nyuck nyuck nyuck, see if the manufacturer removed the trub when you use dried malt extract....

 

[Yob]

3 layers? pfffff



:lol: - Viability date will be taken from end of ferment date (not harvest) and we'll just see if I cant get on top of these pitching rates <_<

this one was a 3rd use US-05 that completely finished in 3 days... pitching to FG.. lol

Yob

 

[Malted]

3 layers? pfffff

Is this what I am seeing? (From bottom up)
Hops
Trub
Yeast
Beer

 

[Yob]

this was my "backup" harvest just in case I didnt get enough with the first harvest bottle... so was a little more toward the end of the liter I added to the FV and was left for longer than usual and this happened while I was rinsing the other lot inside... awww pretty :lol: I ended up rinsing that lot too and collected about 100ml (thick yeast) of the delicous "2" layer yeast (from the top)...

I want to wait a few weeks and see how it's parent brew tastes so by then I will probably need the 100ml or a starter.

Here is a pic of my harvesting arsenal, recent inclusion is the big old square 2lt one for $2 at a local OP Shop


Arsenal $2 :beerbang: Final Collected Yeast

Yob