Just finished my second beer and decided to do some yeast washing. Watched several videos and read up on it but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is rather I should decant the liquid off the top and store just the yeast or leave it there until I'm ready to use it again (probably be a month of two). Also, I have a bottle of Matilda that I'm going to try and get the dregs from. Do I need to immediately make a small starter for it since I won't be using them for a while? I only have one big bottle to get dregs from. Thanks, Tim
Washing: leave under the cover of sterile water, your liquid looks pretty dark, might want to decant and cover with sterile water (pressure cooked and cooled, or at least boiled and cooled). If you go for a month, make a starter at least to wake it up. Bottle dregs: I would pitch it straight into a small starter from the bottle (flame the lip of the bottle before pouring and after). Also, I have had issues with culturing the Brett from Matilda in the past, not sure why.
It's probably dark because I messed up when racking to the bottling bucket and had to leave a little more beer in the primary then desired. I'll work on boiling some water up to replace what's in there now. Thanks, Tim
Can't say I go along with this advice. Storing at ambient is not optimum. Adding wort that hasn't been boiled is opening the door for bacteria.
I'm sure storing it at room temperature wouldn't be the end of the world, but keeping it cold and keeping the yeast dormant would really be preferred.
I was thinking about doing this exactly but with wyeast 3711. Keeping it stored in mason jars in the fridge would be fine right?
Fridge would be the place to store 3711. But I think the discussion was about culturing (and subsequent storage of) bottle dregs. I wouldn't recommend culturing 3711 from a bottle, unless you happen to have a bottle of beer made with 3711 and just want to do it for fun, because 3711 is readily available.
Brett alone is better at room temp. But if your bottle has any LAB in it then you are favoring them by leaving it warm.
Not to dissuade you from trying, but I've attempted to harvest from a number of GI 750s (Halia, Gillian, Juliet) and never managed to get something going. I even left an old 2012 or 13 Juliet sit with low gravity starter wort in it for a few weeks only to have it still smell like un-fermented wort in the end with no signs of fermentation. I'd say go for it, but just be aware they don't seem to perk up like other bottle conditioned beers. Perhaps a solution with pasteurized apple juice would provide more simple sugars to get things going.
