Weird Looking Yeast - Wyeast 2206

[Thirsty Boy]

Hey Guys,

I had planned to re-pitch yeast from a vienna lager into a Mai-Bock I have in NC at the moment, but because I chill using a plate chiller (usually) there is a fair bit of yurk in my yeast cake and I wanted to give it a bt of a wash before re-pitching. But.......

I cant work out which bit is yeast ???

Looking inthe fermentor, I thought the whitish layer right at the bottom was yeast and the flaky looking stuff above it was break material, but when I decant the stuff into a clear 4L demijohn...the white stuff is really obviously break material. And its hit the bottom of the bottle first too.

The trouble is - the rest of the stuff looks a fair bit like break material as well !! There is no creamy yeasty looking stuff at all, none. I would just assume that something was terribly wrong and dump the lot, but the thing is - I have seen yeast that looks like this before. In some of the commercial belgians I have bought (Piratt, 3 monts are two that I remember) and even coopers sparkling to an extent - where the yeast is more like flakes than like cream or powder.

This is freaking me out. At the moment I am assuming that the stuff that stays in suspension the longest is yeast. And as such I have washed the sample to the point where I now have almost exclusively "yeast" and nothing else. But it still looks kinda weird.

Anyone else with more experience than me at re-pitching that has seen something like this before?? The beer that came out of the fermentor was lovely and malty and didn't seem to have any infection or anything. Perhaps a little less attenuation than I was aiming for, but thats it.

I'd like to use this stuff if its OK - I only have a 10ml sample of the 2206 in storage and really would prefer to not waste a week growing that up to the 6+L starter I would need for this beer.

Re-assure me or shoot me down... just end my confusion please

Thirsty

Edit - I took a picture. Sorry its a pretty big file, but I wanted to make sure you could see details. This is about 20-30mins of settling time after the last wash. As you can see, its pretty clear beer at the top, a large amount of "yeast" and just a hint of other yurk at the bottom. But the yeast is weird and flaky/grainy looking. Not the nice gooey white cream I was hoping for.

Normal or just plain wrong?

 

[Stuster]

I really don't think you should worry about it, TB, but I haven't used that yeast so I can't say for sure. As you say, different yeasts can look radically different (just think of the Fuller's yeast for one). If the beer you took it off tasted/smelled ok, personally I wouldn't be concerned.

 

[Hargie]

..TB...2206 is a superb lager yeast particularly for munich dunkels,schwarzbiers & viennas etc...the first gen is always a bit slow but you should find the next couple a little faster...i ferment mine at a genuine 8c and at that temp ,with care patience and a good grist you should get sensational results...definately worth brewing several beers with it ie , vienna then munich dunkel then schwarzbier...if you keep 'em happy these yeasts will give you crisply malty smooth beers...cant rate it high enough for dark lagers....dunno about the flakes tho'....

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Thanks Guys,

After all the washing, I ended up with about 3.5L in a growler - now its settled down to about 1ish Litre of homogeneous stuff at the bottom and the rest is clear as a bell liquid.

Gonna call the "stuff" yeast and pitch it to a Maibock AND an Aussie lager today. Fingers crossed its yeast and I haven't simply washed my sample to the point where I have virtually pure trub

Hargie, I think I agree about the qualities of the yeast though - the Vienna I took teh cake from... wow, probably the maltiest beer I have ever made. Almost too much as I was going for a hoppier version (Sam Adams BL clone) still . it blew me away how nice the fermentor sample tasted. It was as you say a bit slow, and underattenuated a bit, hopefully the second gen will work a little harder but still give the same sort of flavours. If so, this stuff is going to become my house lager yeast I think. Lovely.

Cheers

Thirsty