I figured I'd add a simple title so those looking for this could find it. I brewed an american adjunct lager. It got to o.g in a week. I did a yeast starter with 2 vials of white labs american lager yeast. I also did a starter as well, as I do with all beers anyways. The recipe I did was supposed to replicate a typical american lager. I only used 6 row,rice flakes, and a simple noble hop at first wort. Really simple. I tasted it today before putting it in secondary. tasted really light and like your typical american lager!! awesome. I coulda kegged it today and it would be a real crowd pleaser but I wanna do it right and lager it for a month. Anyways. I saved the yeast and am in the process of washing it. I've always had this happen but was always curious about it. I see the yeasties still working in my half gallon mason jar! Its pretty cool. There is usually always some residual wort in the primary of course. I always add a considerable amount of cool sterilized by boiling water to the yeast and stir it up before dropping it in the jar for stratification. I think its cool. So, I guess my question is, is it normal and usually always happens, and has anyone had any cool experiences with their saved yeasts. oh. by the way, I had one yeast I kept using for quite a few batches, that it took off in hours after adding it to wort. it took care of business so to speak. I really think its cool that you can save yeast and reuse it quite a few times. You can even do it with dry yeasts too with the same effect.
Been interested in washing my yeasts, but right now I've been doing porters and stouts and heard its usually not good to wash darker beer yeast. It's all about saving the money and great beer to me!
Save it anyways, try it out, you may find it turns out interesting. I have read that its advisable not to reuse yeasts off of higher gravity beers because there is not enough yeast cells that survive the high alcohol, BUT, that is what I have read. Just cause I read it don't mean its true or not true. wash some of your yeasts off your porters and stouts for another dark batch your doing, but keep in mind this. Always just in case you do a yeast starter with your washed yeast, have some on the standby in case it don't take off. cover your hind end, so to speak, just in case!
I rarely wash yeast, but when I do I tend to wait until the source beer is fully fermented and the yeast is quite dormant. Never noticed any continued fermentation in my mason jars. Then again, I put them in the refrigerator right after so I'm sure that's a factor as well.
If you're seeing continued fermentation in the mason jar then maybe you pulled the beer off the yeast prematurely.
Naw. I pulled it off at 1.010. Where it was supposed to end up. Wash at room temp so a bit warm. It's all good.
I pulled a trappist yeast off an Imperial stout that I parti-gyled. I made a starter for them both after, just a little in the jar, and the first batch (the bug beer) fermented normally in there, the small beer took for ever to finish. Ie. signs of fermentation a week after the other one quit. I had top cropped off the big beer to pitch the second. when I get my stirplate up and running i will make a 1L for all my yeasts and see what happens. as per smokebox: after the starter all the roast came out for me; after decanting of course. if that is the issue you are trying to avoid.
I get a bit of a lag in my starters using washed yeast. I usually let the starters go for more like 36 hours for washed yeast versus 24 for lab yeast. Have had mostly good results however using washed yeast, it doesn't take much time and saves you a ton of money.
When I save yeast at home, I fill mason jars and only lightly cap the lid. There is residual co2 in the jar. After venting, I'll screw the top on the rest of the way. Then, once the yeast separates from the remaining beer, I'll drain the beer off and add fresh wort to the top of it. No washing with this method. Yeast remains healthy easily for two weeks. If held longer, just dump off the wort again and add more. You can keep yeast healthy a long time using this feeding method. Some breweries have experimented with using distilled water at room temperature with good results. In these cases though, they did wash the yeast first. The idea is to not leave yeast sitting in its own waste.
More or less thats my point. If I want to use the yeast for a pale or IPA, really dont want the darker characteristics coming through. I'm pretty set on washing now!
As long as you are good at racking, it's typically a non-issue. I've pitched IPA's on yeast cakes that previous fermented darker beers w/o issue. It's all about racking well enough to only leave the thinnest layer of beer across the top of the yeast cake. A few fluid oz of dark beer mixed in with 5.5 gallons of IPA wort isn't going to make any difference IMHO... Now racking onto yeast cakes full of partially spent hops is another story......
This is pretty much exactly what I do, except that I put a sanitized piece of saran wrap over the jar before putting the lid on, just in case it corrodes a little. If it's going to be awhile before it's reused, I wash and store in the coldest part of the beer fridge, waking it up with some wort a week or so before brewday. This works well for me for about 3 months; any longer and I make a fresh starter from some of the slurry. Washed slurry will keep in decent condition for a long time (2-3-4 years) if kept as near freezing as possible. Some patience is required for making a starter after so long, a bit like growing yeast from an old commercial bottle.
