Not washing yeast and repitching

I've done this with my blonde ale that was scaled up to an imperial version and had no ill effects. However, mine didn't sit for that long. I'd say that if you practiced good sanitation principles, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

yeah, yeast washing is bad. it removes the protective environment (alcohol and low pH) that beer yeast has made for itself. it increases the chance of contamination for no benefit.

 

I think there's a disadvantage the article didn't mention, and that is that compounds (fatty acids) in trub can be turned into soap. The longer it sits around, the higher the risk.

 

This is what I have come to believe.

 

Being lazy, I always skipped the washing process and just saved yeast in sterilized mason jars, but only if I knew I would use it within a month or 2.

 

I've got friends who just cap off a few bottles of slurry and either make a starter or pitch the bottles into their next wort within short order. Others have about a 6 week time frame where yeast is still generally lively and will do a good job of brewing your next beer so long as you get a fair amount of yeast in there. (Notice I didn't really use any absolutes)? You will still make good beer.

 

I worried about this when I did my beer but didn't find much on people saying they experienced it so I tried it anyway.

 

Use beer to rinse it if you want to, something tasteless and dead like bud light.

 

I was always under the impression you didn't want the non-yeast trub particles left behind from fermentation.

 

I used to be a washer/re-user (never a "packer") . . . 'till I found a better way. These days I make a little larger starter than I need (what's a few more ounces of DME?), pour off the excess and store it for future use. This slurry is going to be uber-clean, having never gone through a primary fermenter. Usually I use the final running on brew day to grew it a little bit more (what's another flask to wash?), label it, and store in fridge.

I would be afraid to use a yeast cake that's been left behind in a primary. After you rack you let in air (potential nasties) and the sides of the primary are still coated with "food" . . . I've seen some things growing in there I wouldn't want in my beer.

 

I use the yeast cake or slurry meathod depending on the day and brew. Both work. never been a washer. As I said in another post, Slurry holds a long time fer me.

 

I typically collect between a pint and a quart of trub/slurry and reuse it with minimal washing. Minimal washing means add water so I can stir up the slurry and chill the yeast in a mason jar.

The day before brewday, I pour off much of the clear liquid and make a starter with a generous amount of the left-over slurry. I don't worry too much if I also add some trub to the starter or even to the primary. I pretty much always make a starter if I stored the yeast for more than a week or two.

 

Back when I brewed and drank more, I would often rack directly onto the yeast cake, without ever opening my conical fermenter. A typical series would be an ESB(1.050), porter or oatmeal stout(1.065), then a high gravity imperial stout. After the 3rd beer I would clean the fermenter and start again. I would rack the finished beer into kegs as the new wort was chilling so the fermenter was only empty a few minutes. I never had any off tastes or infected beers so I know it can be done, but I don't drink enough to need that volume of beer anymore.

 

Yes, that makes sense. Adding new wort immediately gives little time for bacteria to gain a foothold. The OP has gone 5 days of having the interior exposed to air. I've seen "green things" growing on my krausen ring after only two days.

No need to make twice what you need . . . just a tad extra will work, then re-start it. I brewed today (Patersbier) and this is my starter:


I needed about 180B cells so made a 1.4L starter (estimated 200B) and poured off 10 percent (the little guy). Then I use any excess wort and/or final running to start the small amount. In this case the extra was only about 10ml of yeast slurry which is on the stir plate now . . . should get 50'ish ml by tomorrow. This will have to be re-started for the next brew cycle . . . this is the fifth cycle for this yeast (3787), with the saved portion never seeing the inside of a primary.

 

There's no way I would even consider leaving my fermenter unfilled/uncleaned before using it again. It takes some planning and a little extra work to rack and fill at the same time, but it was worth it!

 

Opps, this is the pic I meant to post: