In homebrewing, you can wash your yeast in order to reuse it from batch to batch.
Washing your yeast will save you money. At $6-$10 per vial of liquid yeast, the savings add up significantly over time.
It is also a great way to reuse a yeast that performs well for you. If you like the qualities you are getting out of a certain stock of yeast, you can save it for more batches of beer.
The process is simple and can be performed on your bottling day or when you’re transferring your beer to a secondary fermenter.
Hey it’s Billy from BillyBrew.com and I’m gonna show you how to wash your yeast.
You might want to wash your yeast for a few reasons: you might have a really good strain of yeast you want to keep using, it’s working well for you, you like the character it gives you in your beer, and you want to keep using that. You might also want to use it to save money. Yeast it not cheap – it’s usually $6-$10 or more per batch, and by washing yeast you can reuse it and make it free for upcoming batches.
So this method is based on Bernie Brewer’s from HomebrewTalk. I just want to give credit to him. It’s a slight variation of his excellent writeup on the forum. If you’re a homebrewer I’m sure this sight looks familiar. You have beer on top and a layer of trub on the bottom. In there is viable yeast, dead yeast, hop particles, and proteins, some fats, and other nasty stuff. But what you want to do is separate out the healthy yeast from all that other junk. You’re going to do this on your bottling day or transferring day, when you get the beer off the trub, so that way you can separate out the viable yeast.
So to wash the yeast to separate it out from all that other gunk. The reason we do that, for one, is because boiled water is sanitized which is key, and two, it takes away all the oxygen. What that will do, will make the yeast go into hibernation, make them go to sleep for a while. That’s important because we don’t want them to wake up and use all their energy until we’re ready to brew again with them.
So we mix them with boiled and cooled water, stick them in the fridge, and then take them out when we’re ready to homebrew again with them using that yeast.
Things you’re going to need to wash your yeast: first you’ll need a large glass jar like this. This is a 1 gallon pickle jar. It works really well. A lot of guys also use ½ gallon growlers and they work pretty well also. So this is where your initial yeast washing takes place. You’re going to mix boiled and cooled water with the yeast and trub in here, the yeast will separate out, and you’ll pour it into four pint sized mason jars. You don’t have to use four. Some guys use two, some use eight, but four is a good middle ground that works well. You’re also going to need a funnel and sanitizer. I’m using star-san, but you can use something like iodophor. Finally, you need a big pot.
The first step is that you want to boil and cool one gallon of water. The reason you want to do this first is because it takes a long time to cool, so you want to do it the night before, or at least a few hours before you wash your yeast.
While the water is heating up you should sanitize your glass jars. You’ll see a lot of guys actually put the glass jars in the boiling water to sanitize them. That works, but the reason I don’t do it is because I found it’s a pain to pull out a one gallon glass jar full of boiling hot water at the end. So I do it this way, plus I’m usually doing this on a bottling or transferring day so I usually have a batch of sanitizer ready to go anyways. So I just use that, but you can do it either way, either boiling the jars in the pot, or using sanitizer. Either way is fine.
Once the water is done boiling, let it cool down on the stove for 5 minutes and then pour it into your big jar. Use a funnel if you have to, but just make sure that is sanitized also. I’ve got a gallon of boiled water here and I’m going to pop it into the fridge to cool down.
At this point, go ahead and transfer or bottle your beer. If you’re bottling or transferring your homebrew, go ahead and put the airlock back on this carboy while you take care of that. I also like to give the mouth of this carboy a spray with star-san just to be safe.
When you’re done, take the jar of water out of the fridge. If your jar of water was in the fridge overnight or for a long time and it’s really cold, let it come up to room temperature just to make sure you don’t shock the yeast. Otherwise, you’re good to go, so let’s move on.
This is what’s left in the carboy. We have a little bit of beer on top, and we have dead yeast active yeast, proteins, fats, and other particles down in the bottom. So what we want to do now is wash this bottom part to separate the good healthy yeast from all the other junk.
What you’re going to do now is take your sanitized funnel and dump in your gallon of water. Then put the airlock back on and shake up the carboy. Now give it about 20 minutes and you’ll start to see different layers forming in the liquid.
After 20 minutes you can see there are four pretty distinct layers. There’s the bottom layer which is mainly hops, that’s the dark one. There’s the big layer here which is mainly trub, like proteins and fats. There’s the creamy, milky band here which is the yeast. That’s the good stuff and we want this. And then there’s a thin layer of beer on top.
So now I’m going to pour off the yeast, and I’ll know I’ll get some beer in there, but I’m going to try to leave as much behind as possible of this middle band and this bottom band.
I poured off a little over ½ gallon and I got some of the bottom stuff in here but it is nothing to worry about because we’re going to wash it again. I’m going to shake it up now and get those big chunks to separate and fall to the bottom, leaving the yeast suspended in the liquid. That’s why I like this bigger jar, because I have this headspace with room to really separate it out. So I’m going to do that, and then let this sit for about 20 minutes.
I let this one sit for a little bit longer, about 40 minutes, and you can see that there’s only a little bit of trub, the dark stuff on the bottom. Most of this is healthy yeast with a little bit of beer on top. Now I’m going to pour this whole thing out into the four, pint sized mason jars. Like you did the first time, try to pour this out while leaving as much of the dark stuff on the bottom behind as possible.
Go ahead and put the four mason jars into the fridge. This is 2 days later and you can see that it’s starting to clear up. And four days later the yeast has really settled out.
Ok it’s about a week later and this had cleared up nicely. You can see I have a great layer of yeast on the bottom and pretty clear liquid on top. So what I’ll do now is put this back in the fridge until brew day, when I’ll take it out and decant the beer on top, and then make a yeast starter out of the yeast on the bottom. I will do that like I normally would with a smack pack of yeast vial. You can also see that I labeled it. This is a great idea so you know which strain you have if you end up having a whole bunch of these in your fridge.
Now I know there are going to be a lot of questions about the yeast washing process, it is a little bit involved, but I don’t want to drag on for too long. So I’ll answer the major ones and then answer the rest and you can ask me anything down in the comments of course.
A major question is: do you harvest the yeast from the primary or the secondary. I harvest it from the primary. It’s healthier yeast. It is more flocculant. It did its job and then dropped out. It hasn’t been in alcohol for as long so it’s not as stressed out as the yeast in the secondary. I know it’s dirtier, it’s more of a mess because you have the hops and trub in there, but the fact that it’s healthier makes it worth it.
Next question: can you pitch the yeast onto the yeast cake, so the yeast on the bottom of the fermenter. Yea you could but I don’t recommend it. Reason being the whole yeast washing process I just did was to separate out healthy yeast from all that other crap, and by putting fresh beer on the yeast cake you’re mixing it in with all the other dead yeast and trub and hop particles, and all that stuff you don’t want in a fresh batch of beer.
If you still have questions I’m happy to answer them down in the comments. Otherwise, thanks for watching and take care.
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{ 71 comments… read them below or add one }
Billy,
Currently I am fermenting my second batch of beer ever- an Irish Red. For this batch I used WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast. Now, while I could save the yeast from this batch, it seems like I would be limiting myself as far as what Ales would even taste good with Irish Ale Yeast.
I’ve ordered a Scottish Ale kit for my next batch and am wondering If you think I should use an Irish Ale Yeast havest for a Scottish 60 Shilling, instead of the dry Nottingham Ale Yeast I ordered.
Secondly, I just bought the Bottle Sanitizer Injector that you recommended in an earlier video. Good recommendation- I realize now after bottling for my first time how painful it can be without the right tools.
Nice Video Yet Again!
I’ve washed 2 batches of yeast so far (DOH I Boiled MY JARS and I have a big bottle of starsan right at hand!) and it has worked great in my first reuse!
My question… how long is the washed culture good. My mason jars have not “Popped” so I know my yeast is dormant… how long would you save a culture? I have 2 stowed a Thames Valley II 1882-PC which is only released once a year by Wyeast, and a French Saison 3711 which is available year round but my local shop doesn’t carry it so I’m limited to when I can order this yeast do to summer temps.
I like both yeasts – strike… LOVE both yeasts – but only have use for 2 saisons this season…. I have plans for the 1882-pc but not until fall (3 left, used 1). Again how long would be a good storage time, I’ve read everything from 30 days to a year? any info would be appreciated on storage times.
Thanks again! Keep up the good work! Your info helps both newbs and advanced brewers with info like this!
Excellent Video! I was a little surprised that it took someone so long to make a video on this subject since the yeast washing sticky over at HBT has been up a while. I am glad you made it though, as I always enjoy your videos and find them helpful.
So you are sanitizing, not sterilizing your jars, have you ever had an issue with this? I know there was quite a debate on the forum regarding that.
Also, what characteristics carry over when you wash yeast? My first attempt at yeast washing was about a month ago on a US-05 cake which I unfortunately had fermented high (78 degrees) and the resulting beer has some slight fusel alcohol taste to it. Should I even attempt to use this yeast on another batch? My thinking is that the fusels are byproducts of the yeast at that temp, not the yeast themselves, and if pitched on a new batch at correct temp I should be fine? Id like to try it, but I dont think I want to waste 5 gallons of beer for what was only a $3 pack of dried yeast.
@Phil You raise a good point about yeast washing and fitting yeast strains to styles. I don’t harvest every batch of yeast for the reason you mentioned – I don’t want to be stuck using one strain for every beer style. The ones I do harvest are usually either rare and expensive, or very common so that I will use them again. For example, California Ale Yeast (WLP001) is commonly used to make American ales – pale ale, ipa, ambers, etc. So it makes sense for me to harvest that strain. In your case, I would just go with the Nottingham. In the future you could always plan it out and say “I’m going to make a few batches in a row that require Irish Ale yeast, so I’ll harvest that.”
Hope that helps, and glad you liked the bottle injector video. You’ll love that thing.
@Chris Thanks! About how long you can store the yeast, I really don’t have a scientific answer, but anecdotally I’ve heard of people storing it for over a year. Then again, didn’t scientist recently revive yeast from the dinosaur era? In theory, you only need 1 cell of yeast to grow it into billions. I think if you just make a starter than you will be fine.
@Brett Hey really happy you like the video and thanks for the complement. Yea I was surprised that it wasn’t done before too, especially with how many questions there were on that thread of things that just had to be *seen*.
I am sanitizing with Star-San, but keep in mind that even boiling does not sterilize, it only sanitizes. You need an autoclave to sterilize.
If you’re concerned about the yeast I would get a fresh one. Actually I didn’t say it in the video but I would only do this for liquid yeast since dry yeast is so cheap and liquid yeast is more style specific.
Good question about the fusel alcohol. I’m not entirely sure but I think you are right that it is a by product and would guess that it wouldn’t carry over batch to batch. What can carry over is hop flavor. The hop resins bind to the outside of the yeast cells. That is why you usually don’t want to wash yeast from a double IPA and then use it in a lighter beer. The hops can also stunt yeast growth. That’s why they are considered a preservative – they stop bacteria from replicating, but do the same thing to yeast to a degree.
I’ll post a link to this on HBT later today. I think those guys would like it.
This is super handy. Every time I dump my yeast I think, “now that there is a shame” as the richly scented nectar goes into the compost (where, no doubt, is works wonders). No more!
(Except that I use lots of different strains….)
@Jeff I know what you mean! I always feel guilty dumping the yeast knowing a bunch of those critters are still alive and thirsty. So this way I save some money and do the morally correct thing ; ) Really glad it helped you.
Billy – You are right about the sterilization and autoclave! This is going to save me time now that im not trying to boil a pot full of water an mason jars, starsan it is! With washed yeast, how long do you give the starter? Normal with a new smack pack i make my starter the night before brewday and pitch about 18 hours later.
@Brett I haven’t noticed any difference using washed yeast in a start and using a vial or smack pack. So I’d say just stick with 18 hours. That’s about when I pitch it too. Yea Star-San is better than burning hot water and glass lol.
Billy,
Thanks for the video. Last time I tried to keep the yeast at the bottom of my carboy I just tried to get as much of the cake stuff as I could but this method is a lot more clean, efficient and actually works.
I have some German yeast that made a light brew taste great once, so I will try out this tip on the next batch.
Thanks
Thanks for the lesson. Post this on the StogieChat site..
@Serge Hey Serge you’re welcome for the video and I hope it works well for you. It really is easy and clean.
@Jimmie Good call I’ll get it up there today.
Billy:
Great video. One question about using the washed yeast for a starter. Will just one mason jar be enough for a starter, or do you have to use several jars per starter?
@jturie Yes, one jar will be enough. The only time I’ve used more than one was on a couple occasions when I didn’t have the time to do a starter, and then I pitched 2 jars. But yes, 1 is good for a starter.
Billy, thanks for the great video! I have a Wyeast French Saison 3711 that I am going to wash this week. I have never done it before and I have a newbie question. I am using a couple of 1/2 gallon mason jars and was wondering if I should just screw the lid on after I’m done (or during intermediate stages if done more than once), or use some foil as a temporary lid? In other words, will there be a possibility of an exploding jar even if there is considerable headspace left in the jar? I’m pretty sure my primary is mostly done fermenting but all that shaking about has me wondering if the yeast might “take off” again!
Since I can’t see the layers in my primary bucket, I use my auto siphon to pump the “wash” out.
@Scott Sorry for the late reply, I didn’t see your comment come in. You’ve probably already tried the washing so I’d love to hear how it went. To answer your question anyways – there’s very little to no risk of an exploding jar. The only way the yeast would take off again is if you put in unfermented wort with plenty of sugars for them to eat. Since you’re using boiler water with no O2, they’ll go right to sleep. Even if some leftover beer gets in the jars A) It should be done fermenting anyways and B) Even if not, I doubt there’s enough leftover sugar in there to explode the jar. So yup, put the lids on. Again, let me know how it went (or goes)!
@David Ah that’s a good idea. I imaging that gives you pretty good control too. Sometimes pouring can be tricky to get perfect and leave all the nasties behind. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks Billy. The yeast-washing is going great. Got a great big layer just waiting to dump in a starter. Also, no cracked/exploded mason jar!
@Scott Hell yea! Great job buddy.
Great video for getting a good walk through feel versus just reading only, thanks. I plan to harvest my White Labs Kosch yeast from a batch of creame ale. I had it sitting in the primary for 3 weeks, I assume the yeast should be harvestable. It does add up buying new yeast for every 5 gallon batch.
@Ted Thanks for visiting the site. I’ve always rather watched videos to see how things are done and I figured I wasn’t alone, so that’s one of themes of the blog. Plus I don’t like writing all the time ; )
Your Kolsch yeast should be fine. One discussion you might want to check out is in the comments of my recent post, “Stepping up a Yeast Starter.” We’re talking about estimating how much yeast is in a washed jar, and I’ll probably do a post on it soon. Cheers!
Could you take your washed yeast jar and pitch it directly into your beer instead of making a starter? Like I am planning on making my past batch of beer two-3 times trying to refine the recipe.
But since I have the washed yeast already, all I would need is the nutrient and DME to make the starter instead of buying a vial for the starter. Is that right?
Hey Adam, you can pitch the washed yeast into your beer without making a starter, I’ve certainly done it, but you may not get optimum results. It comes down to the question “is there enough yeast in the jar to ferment your beer?” There’s no blanket answer for that, but you can estimate it. There’s a discussion of it down in the comments of my Stepping up a Yeast Starter post that should help.
Here’s what I would do. Make a starter from your washed yeast if you can. You’ll only need the nutrient (which I normally don’t even use) and DME. If you can’t make a starter and you have more than 1 jar of washed yeast, pitch 2 jars to make sure you have enough cells. That’s what I do when I’m in a time crunch and can’t make a starter.
Good question, and thanks for coming over from HBT.
I noticed, and have experienced, the manhandling of the carboy when carefully pouring out the top layer. It might be easier to get the top layer off if you let everything settle out while the carboy is on it’s side. A gentle tilt pours the top layer off easily instead of churning up the layers when tilting from the bottom. Just a thought. Great video.
@KennyC Thanks for the tip Kenny. That’s a good idea for minimizing the amount of trub you get on the first pour. I’m going to give it a shot on my next wash. Cheers.
Billy,
I think the most important question is: How did you get the pickle smell out of that pickle jar lid? I’ve used bleach, starsan, white vinegar, dish soap, etc. and I can still smell it. I just put it in the dishwasher, but haven’t checked it yet. What did you do?
Thanks!
Hermes
@Hermes Time my friend, time. I went nuts also trying to get that damn smell out. After repeating cleanings and about 4 months it finally disappeared, and luckily there were no pickle-beers in the meantime ; – )
Great instructional video – it guided me through my first attempt at yeast harvesting. I’ve added a link to it from Resources section of my website (http://beerandgarden.com/home-brewing-resources/).
I harvested US-05 which even though it is dried yeast, it costs about $6 here in NZ so still worthwhile as that could account for 20% of ingredients cost for a batch. I harvested from a plastic primary fermenting barrel so I just mixed the cake up with some cooled boiled water and poured it into a sanitised 3L juice container and let it settle overnight in the fridge, then poured off the top beer layer and poured the yeasty liquid into 2 1L Mason jars leaving the trub behind.
I see you mention that sometimes you pitch 2 jars instead of making a starter. That seems like a much more convenient approach than making a starter and I’m seriously considering doing that for my next batch – just to keep process simple as possible. My jars are about double the size of yours (1L), so one should suffice. After you decant the beer off the top do you add some more water into the jar to help get the yeast out?
Thanks Aidan, and I really appreciate the link. To answer your question, I don’t add any water into the jar to help get the yeast out. Instead, I leave a little bit of beer in there and swirl it around to break out the yeast cake. The beer is sterile so there’s no worries there, but it’s such a little amount that you’re not going to notice the flavor impact. Nice work with the washing. It’s definitely easier than it first seems. Cheers!
Thanks for the video. You dropped a knowledge bomb!
Great post Billy. This will certainly be valuable to the Brewing tool kit. I wanted to get your opinion on the following:
What is your opinion on using one of the small “washed” containers of yeast for bottle conditioning? I currently have a high gravity Belgian which is about ready to bottle condition, with that said I also have a few jars of the wyeast abby II which I washed from the primary. Due to the fact I am around 11% ABV right now I will need to pitch fresh yeast in order to properly bottle condition, and it may make sense to use a small jar of washed yeast to accomplish this feat. Do you have any experience with this application?
I feel like bringing one of the jars up to room temp then just tossing it into the cooled priming sugar in the bottling bucket, but then perhaps a small starter may be beneficial to get the yeast lively.
Cheers,
M
Hey Michael, great question. While I haven’t personally used washed yeast for bottle conditioning, I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work. You don’t want to add too much yeast at bottling time though because it can lead to autolysis flavors (as the yeast die) if your beer sits for a while. You only need 10 to 20 times less yeast for conditioning than you used for fermenting (from the book Yeast). The bottom of the bottle should have a dusting, not a thick layer. So I’d definitely go for it but use 10-20% of the slurry. Cool topic, thanks.
Thanks for the great video Billy. I have washed twice now. The first time came out great with separation just like you showed, but my second batch has settled out (4 days in fridge) and I still have a bit of a dark bottom layer below the settled out yeast. Should I try to re-agitate everything again and do another transfer? What are the dangers with a thin dark layer still on the bottom? Thanks for your help.
Hey Matt, if it’s a small layer of trub then I wouldn’t worry much. If it’s a lot then I would rewash it. Of course “a lot” is pretty subjective so it really depends on how anal you are about this stuff lol. If you consider that many people rack their beer onto an unwashed yeast cake then your situation doesn’t seem too bad.
Any suggestions on pulling off the yeast from a conical fermenter?
I’m guessing I can dump the boiled and cooled water into the fermenter and shake it up. After letting it sit maybe I can open the bottom valve to pull off the hop and trub layer and watch for the white yeast layer. Then put that yeast layer into the gallon jar with the remaining water.
What do you think?
My jealousy of your conical prevents me from answering that question, sorry.
Kidding. I would do exactly what you said. In fact I’m pretty sure they talked about this exact same situation on Brew Strong. You might want to listen to it: http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/543
Thanks! Just FYI – the conicals are the Mini Brew kind 8 and 6.5 – http://www.minibrew.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5
Also, I found a helpful video on youtube that follows my thoughts but NOT dumping the water into the fermenter prior – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff3s6GiS2fo
Great video, thanks. That guy is a character lol.
Do you think storing harvested yeast in a new (not scratched) plastic container is acceptable?
Yea although it depends on the type of plastic. I know Jamil uses one of those polythene water bottles which are super durable. I’d either use one of those or drop $5 on the gallon pickle jar that I use.
I actually have two questions. First I was wondering if its okay to use a turkey baster to take krausen off the top of a brew as I have done and placed into jars with sanitized jars and distilled water. Second on this same batch of beer I pitched 2 types of yeast (Wyeast 1272 and half vial WLP 500) Kinda trying to do like a belgian iipa. I pitched the WLP 500 3 days into primary after I harvested off top. Can I harvest this mix of yeasts and use it again effectively or will it be primarily Wyeast 1272 dominant in flavor or unpredictable? Also I saved the other half vial of wlp 500 to make a double starter with and preserve. Is it okay that I just put it in jar with distilled water or do you think I’ve ruined it?
Hi Aaron, for your first question, I’m a little confused about your goal. It sounds like you are using the krausening technique, although that’s typically used to carbonate beer. Are you reusing the yeast you scrape off the top? Making a yeast bank?
For the second question, If you reuse that yeast it’s going to be very unpredicatable. You really don’t know the percentages of each yeast you are going to harvest. It could work, but the brew is not going to be very repeatable. If you want to get true repeatability the best thing to do it start with fresh vials like you did the first time. You’re also fine storing the yeast in distilled water assuming everything was sanitized.
Billy,
Sorry about the confusion but I had a few of my own brew yesterday which rang in at about 9.3% abv and I may have conveyed the question in a confusing way. I was asking about harvesting from primary to bank for future use, that’s a whole other question about krausening… While we’re on the topic what’s the difference between top harvesting versus yeast washing from primary or secondary as far as viability goes. Just to let you know my yeast attenuated (Wyeast 1272 and Wlp 500) from o.g. 1.089 to 1.013 giving me an abv of 10.1%. This one is gonna be delicious from what i can taste so far from my thief sample. Also I did for the sake of scientific study harvest from the mixed yeast slurry from the bottom of the primary. I will pitch to my next ipa just to see what it produces. I did also take samples individually and will see how they pan out with starters of other future brews. This is only my third brew that I have done, but I have quickly tried to move to the next level. I have background in culinary skill and did all grain from my second brew. My next step is doing deconstructed ipa’s and belgian strong’s as foods paired with my own recipe’s for culinary favor. My first brew was a partial mash which should’ve been all grain, but whatever… The evolution is evident from brew 1 to 3 (not to toot my own horn) but I just am trying to learn as much as i can to make a great advancement in the field to move back to my homeplace (Hawaii) and open my own brewery with help from entrepreneurship relatives to finally self fulfill my own dreams. Thanks, Aaron Aki
Hey Aaron, I see what you mean now. You’re top cropping to save the yeast for future use. It’s a common Belgian practice in their open fermentation vessels and admittingly something I’ve never tried (but will soon). From what I hear it works great with ales because the healthiest yeast rises to the top. If you can time it right, I would take the yeast you harvest and pitch it directly into fresh wort. Otherwise you could store it in a sanitary jar. I haven’t heard of a turkey baster but suppose it would work. I know people commonly use spoons with bucket fermentors and a blowoff tube type setup with carboys.
Sounds like you’ve made great brewing progress so far – doing all-grain on your 2nd batch. A culinary background does help with a lot of the brewing aspects. If I may recommend an area when you’ll see big improvements it’s in fermentation – temp control, pitching rates, timing, etc. Shameless plug but The Homebrew Academy goes into those in detail.
Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions or if I didn’t answer something.
Hey … very nice explanation. I wish I would have had this video as a reference when I was first trying to figure out how to do this.
I do the same process quite often and from time to time I get questions on facebook or forums about how I do it. I think I’m just going to start referring them to this post.
I was in the same boat trying to explain it to be people and then realized it’s the perfect topic for a video. Feel free to point ‘em this way. Thanks!
It looks like my virtual brewing buddy finally tried harvesting yeast thanks to your video.
He mentioned it in his blog here: http://scottsnanobrewery.blogspot.com/2011/07/pipeline-dwindling.html
So, I guess I’m already sending customers your way.
Thanks for the info on yeast washing. Very interesting and informative.
I have a Saison fermenting in which I pitched Wyeast 3724 (Belgian Saison) which has stalled out and I am thinking of pitching in a Wyeast 3711 (French Saison), which I was saving for another batch, to finish things up. I don’t have the patience to wait 8 weeks for the Belgian to finish its job.
I’m wondering if you think I can wash that yeast or do you think I’ll have problems with that? I figure since they’re both Saison yeasts, they might actually work pretty well together…
Thanks.
Hi James, you can definitely wash a mixed batch of yeast, you’ll just have to make a note when you go to reuse it that it’s actually a blend and not a single strain. Whether it works or not really depends on how this batch turns out. If you like the yeast character you get, then go ahead and reuse it. If not, then don’t bother. I only reuse strains I really like.
Good to hear the video helped you out.
Hi Billy,
Do you have any idea how far in advance you could boil the jars and water without causing any problems. I would like to boil my jars and water and leave in the fridge the same day I brew, but I wouldn’t wash the yeast for a week or two. Do you see any problems with that?
Thanks for all the great info.
Hey Allen, I’m not really sure how long you could leave the jars in the fridge before bacteria creeps in, but I would imagine a week or two is fine. I would do it.
I will be testing it out. I boiled and filled my jars today, and will probably wash the yeast in 2 weeks. I’ll report back if it looks like I get any infections or other issues.
Thanks for the great video. I’ve done 5 brews now with washed yeast and so far so good. It’s really not that difficult or time-consuming. My question is about the lids on the canning jars. Do you reuse them and, if so, how many times?
Thanks Mike, glad you liked it. I do reuse the lids, though I bought a large pack of jars so I’m not using the same ones over and over again. I’d guess they’ve been reused 5 times? No problems yet, and I do boil them once in a while just in case. It’s not a bad idea to use fresh ones once in a while though. Thanks for the comment.
Great video! So much easier than anticipated. Thank you
First of all great vid! I will be trying this soon. Am I right in assuming that the amount of yeast in each pint glass is approximately the same as a smack pack or liquid vial? And given that, should I use the liquid yeast option on Mrmalty’s pitch rate calculator?
Thanks Mike. That’s a good question about the amount of yeast in the jar. Check out the comment section of this post where we discussed it: http://billybrew.com/stepping-up-a-yeast-starter
Let me know if you still have questions. Cheers.
Great Video Billy, I have washed about 5 different strains so far, so building up a yeast bank is pretty handy. The savings is great and i am now never hesitant to pitch more than one vial in a big beer since it is basically free yeast.
I follow your instructions to a tee, but i actually added one additional step to the end.
Once I have my yeast all settled in mason jars, i decant the liquid off and fill up sanitized “baby soda bottles” with the yeast. I found the baby soda bottles (basically identical vials to what white labs yeast come in) on some science web site. They came in a pack of 6 and even had a rack to put them in (kind of nice since i can keep each rack a certain strain). I know it is another step and another potential source of contamination (no problems yet), but they store very easy and prefer it to having a ton of mason jars in my fridge or keezer. Just thought i would pass along my additional step.
Jeff
Hey Jeff, glad the video helped. Thanks for telling me about the baby soda bottles. Gotta admit I had no idea what they were but some funny things came to mind. I looked them up though and they look perfect for storing yeast. Makes me want to set up a full yeast lab! I’m going to share the link on twitter. Cheers!
No problem,
I have found them quite useful, just wasn’t sure about pasting links on your site so I didn’t.
I did have to buy a smaller funnel (than my standard brew funnel) to get the yeast in the vials, but the rack that came in the package of baby bottles makes it super easy to line up the empty vials and fill.
@Sheppy I actually do save my white labs vial, refill with the washed yeast, that way i can identify what strain of yeast i have in that baby bottle rack.
Oh, I like the baby soda bottle idea too (and I had to look them up as well, Billy). Actually, I suppose you could save your white-lab vials too (although it would take awhile to collect enough … especially if you don’t buy very many because you re-use yeast).
Good call Sheppy.
Just what I needed, I found this linked from another site. I’ve recently cultured some yeast reclaimed from a bottle of Chimay and have been searching for a clear instruction on separating the yeast from the trub. I used a couple of litres of boiled wort for the original amount of yeast (less than half a teaspoon (UK) and I’d guess I have around 3 tablespoons of yeast already. I plan to wash what I’ve got so far and then set it off again in a fresh batch of wort to ensure I’ve plenty to pitch when I come to use it in one of my next all grain brews.
That sounds like a solid plan. Even with a small amount you’ll be able to get a few pitches after your next batch. The math works out well with this technique.
Hi Billy. First thanks for the video. I’m planning an IPA this Saturday and definitly will try your method.
One question, after we have that nice layer of yeast you think I could mix the yeast with some glycerine and freeze it?
Thanks in advance. Freddy.
Hey Freddy, I honestly don’t know much about the glycerine method. Have heard of it but haven’t tried it. I’d be happy to learn from your experience though!
Just wanted to say thanks for a very informative video. Finally helped clear up my questions with yeast washing. Well done.
Thanks John. I’m really glad it helped.
The last time I canned starter wort I canned a few quarts of tap water with this in mind (pressure cooker 15 mins @ 15lbs/250°F). Since I’m saving time by canning the starter wort my thought was that the canned, sterilized water could save me time washing a yeast I wanted to reuse. Do you see any problems with this?
With using the sterilized water to wash the yeast? I think that would work great. In fact I’m pretty sure Jamil said he does the same thing.
Hi Billy..Thanks for your help… So I use corny kegs for fermenting and secondary. When I (close) pressure transfer from the bottom dip tube to secondary keg I usually drain the 1st qt in a jug and then it runs clear until the end and then I drain that also which is very thick, into the jug. My question is are the particles that settle to the bottom quickly are milky white and look like the yeast.. nice layer just like a WL starter on my stir plate. So is this my yeast cake? When i gravity test there is also that white slurry when it settles in the tube. Just want to be sure I am saving the good stuff. In the jug there are 3 layers, beer on top, murky middle and white layer on bottom.
The milky white layer is the yeast. If you look closely at the other layers you should see some chunks and particles in there – that’s the other stuff. To be sure you could always do a test by throwing some into a starter and seeing if it ferments.