Washed yeast slurry starter not starting

[dukes909]

I washed some US-05 yeast from an excellent batch of pale ale I brewed back in October and had it stored in the fridge since then. I made a bit of wort to wake it with yesterday and 24 hours later it's only showing the faintest activity.

I just got done brewing and chilling down my new batch and it's ready for yeast.. Should I forget about the starter that doesn't seem to be doing much and just add a new pack of US-05 or wait a day or two? Makes me a little uneasy to have the wort sitting in the bucket without yeast that long.
Cheers

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

05 is cheap and and October was awhile ago.

I've reused yeast endless times and never washed it...not needed, just a heads up.

I'd just dump a fresh pack in and call it a day and toss the starter down the drain

 

[Conehead]

05 is cheap and and October was awhile ago.

I've reused yeast endless times and never washed it...not needed, just a heads up.

I'd just dump a fresh pack in and call it a day and toss the starter down the drain

No yeast washing? What method do you use then?

 

[Soulshine2]

I washed some US-05 yeast from an excellent batch of pale ale I brewed back in October and had it stored in the fridge since then. I made a bit of wort to wake it with yesterday and 24 hours later it's only showing the faintest activity.

I just got done brewing and chilling down my new batch and it's ready for yeast.. Should I forget about the starter that doesn't seem to be doing much and just add a new pack of US-05 or wait a day or two? Makes me a little uneasy to have the wort sitting in the bucket without yeast that long.
Cheers

next time, take it out of the fridge when you start your brew. By the time you're ready to pitch it will have warmed up enough. just rack most of the beer off the top , shake it up and pitch without washing.

 

[catdaddy66]

No yeast washing? What method do you use then?

If I use dry yeast for the first time, then I will wash it to harvest for use later. If I make a starter from liquid yeast (which is what I do 95% of my brews) then I harvest about 500ml to save, then pitch the remainder.

Harvesting prior to pitching allows the yeast to avoid getting stressed from the alcohol and is cleaner as it hasn't any hop particles or proteins mixed in it.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

No yeast washing? What method do you use then?

I just swirl up the yeast cake and fill a mason jar almost full. Stick it in the fridge and when I'm ready to use it just take it out shake it up real good as it settles and compacts in the fridge and dump the whole jar in a 6 gallon batch....simple as that. I let it get to room temp before pitching. I use the yeast to make the same style beer. IPA to IPA...Irish Red to IR ETC.

I'll admit I always use a hop bag for boil and dry hop...So that could change things if you dont use a bag. My last batch I threw the hops in the boil without a bag for the first time to see if it made a difference in flavor. I was going to start a thread about not washing it to get some feedback but ended up dumping it

 

[IslandLizard]

Yeast rinsing loses 1/2 - 3/4 of your yeast, going down the drain. It's not needed or even wanted, just harvest the trubby slurry.

Yeast washing is a whole different process, involving an acid, and is done right before pitching.

If you want to harvest cleaner yeast from a fermenter, strain the swirled up slurry through a fine mesh hop bag placed inside a large funnel with an inverted tablespoon underneath the bag. This will hold back most hop and trub, letting cleaner yeast slurry through. Use good sanitation of course!

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Yeast rinsing loses 1/2 - 3/4 of your yeast, going down the drain. It's not needed or even wanted, just harvest the trubby slurry.

Yeast washing is a whole different process, involving an acid, and is done right before pitching.

If you want to harvest cleaner yeast from a fermenter, strain the swirled up slurry through a fine mesh hop bag placed inside a large funnel with an inverted tablespoon underneath the bag. This will hold back most hop and trub, letting cleaner yeast slurry through. Use good sanitation of course!

What does the tablespoon do?

 

[IslandLizard]

What does the tablespoon do?

I always hide that phrase inside the paragraph to see if people really read it.

It creates an airway allowing for (faster) draining of the funnel. Like most coffee filter funnels, or laboratory funnels, which have ridges on the inside. Pleated filters are another example of that, aside from the much larger surface area they offer.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I always hide that phrase inside the paragraph to see if people really read it.

It creates an airway allowing for (faster) draining of the funnel. Like most coffee filter funnels, or laboratory funnels, which have ridges on the inside. Pleated filters are another example of that, aside from the much larger surface area they offer.

Seriously...it cant just drain through all by itself without the spoon...for people like me that are actually interested in clearing out the hops..you needed to put that in there just to see if people are listening?....why....simply...why? Asa moderator thats ridiculous

 

[IslandLizard]

Seriously...it cant just drain through all by itself without the spoon...for people like me that are actually interested in clearing out the hops..[Disregarded]

No, it doesn't drain without the upside-down spoon. The thick sticky trubby mass inside the bag clogs the funnel opening shut, liquid collects in the funnel, outside the bag, you see it rising, because it has nowhere to drain.

Heed the (wink)

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

No, it doesn't drain without the upside-down spoon. The thick sticky trubby mass inside the bag clogs the funnel opening shut, liquid collects in the funnel, outside the bag, you see it rising, because it has nowhere to drain.

How much yeast do you think is lost stuck in the bag. I want to start dumping hops in the BK without a bag to see if I get more flavor out of them but then the yeast cake is greenish..I suck up everything out of the kettle..not sure how that effects the following beer if I should even worry about the "old" hop reminets in the saved slurry

 

[IslandLizard]

How much yeast do you think is lost stuck in the bag. I want to start dumping hops in the BK without a bag to see if I get more flavor out of them but then the yeast cake is greenish..I suck up everything out of the kettle..not sure how that effects the following beer if I should even worry about the "old" hop reminets in the saved slurry

When racking from a fermenter (mostly 6.5 gallon plastic brew buckets), I leave around 1-2 quarts of beer behind on top of the yeast cake (not critical). That's usually enough to swirl the yeast cake up into a homogeneous pourable slurry.

• I pour that slurry into a 1/2 gallon glass pickle jar (wide mouth) with a funnel on top and a large fine mesh hop bag inside, held open over the funnel rim.
• Most of the early pouring goes straight through the mesh bag into the glass jar, that's mainly suspended yeast and very fine trub.
• Once the thicker trub starts to pour out, the bag fills up.
• I cover the funnel/bag with a large sanitized plastic lid and let it drip out for 5-15 minutes depending on how much trub there is.
• That inverted spoon is essential for it to drain.
• I end up with 1-2 quarts of thin slurry in the jar, containing beer, yeast and finely suspended trub. If I used a lot of dry hops, it's indeed greenish.

If I had to guess, I'd say I lose less than 20% of the total yeast, possibly less, since it's all suspended in the beer. I do swirl well, to get it that way.

When swirling I always make sure all the yeast sticking toward the center of the bottom is suspended too, it can be very thick and sticky, and since the swirl velocity is much lower in the center, a little steering and tilting helps to get it all off.