Washing Yeast - worth the risk of contamination?

[acroporabrewer]

I have been saving my yeast for several generations now, 5+, and storing them in mason jars after I was finished. At first, I was washing the yeast with boiled water that has been cooled to below 80 degrees. However, recently I have just been saving the Trub in a mason jar and making a starter before my next batch. My thinking is that the waste and heavy by products will settly in the new trub in the starter flask. I just pour what is in suspension into the new batch. Does anybody else do this or am I best to stick to washing. I don't think I would need to make a starter if I washed based on how much I brew. This idea came to me after talking to a few craft breweries who said that they just save the trub and dump into the next batch without washing.

 

[LLBeanJ]

IMO, washing is a waste of time. I have no idea why anybody bothers to do it, TBH. Collect fermenter slurry and direct-pitch it into the next brew and save a little yeast from your starters to build fresh starters later. Between these two options, you should have no problems getting the yeast you need.

 

[bierhaus15]

Don't wash. Yeast go through a lot of effort to make their environment hostile to bacteria/molds; alchohol, low ph, ect and washing only undoes all of that.

Ideally, you don't want to harvest a lot of trub, but harvest what you can with some of the beer and store it cold.

 

[Azura]

Buy fresh yeast. Make a bigger starter than the batch needs. Save some of the starter for the next batch. Then step up the reserve to make more yeast than you need again. Repeat. No hops or significant trub ever hits the yeast and the ABV never gets too high.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

You can try top-cropping at high krausen too. I fill a sanitized pine mason jar with krausen foam and a bit of wort, leave the lid on loosely, and let it ferment out. The end product is a half pint jar with a good 1/2" of yeast with minimal trub. I have tried washing yeast before and i never felt Like I got good separation between the trub and the yeast.

 

[acroporabrewer]

Thanks for the info. I like the idea of saving some from the starter each time. The only concern is that it would require me to make a starter each time. I am on a schedule where I am kegging and brewing on the same day so i'd like to just take some from the slurry to start the next batch.

I forgot to mention that I don't use a secondary but I do add hops to the fermenter on my pale ales and IPA around day 7 - 10, depending on the style. I haven't seen any issue so far.

 

[Oginme]

I've done both rinsing yeast of trub post fermentation and splitting a starter. After about 5 to 6 generations, I plate the yeast to get a fresh start and for the last three years have never seen so much as a hint of non-yeast colonies on my plates using either method. It really comes down to your sanitation practices and procedures.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

So if you don't wash yeast/krausen/save from a starter, what is the other option regarding saving and pitching the trub?

 

[flars]

So if you don't wash yeast/krausen/save from a starter, what is the other option regarding saving and pitching the trub?

This is the other option. Just pour from the fermentor. I've been using this method for years along with over building a starter once in a while to save a small amount of fresh yeast.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/simple-yeast-storage-procedure.519995/

 

[LLBeanJ]

This is the other option. Just pour from the fermentor. I've been using this method for years along with over building a starter once in a while to save a small amount of fresh yeast.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/simple-yeast-storage-procedure.519995/

Yep.

My entire yeast management regimen goes like this...

1) Acquire fresh yeast by either purchasing a new commercial package or harvesting from a bottle of beer.
2) Make an initial starter from yeast acquired in step 1. Save 30-50B cells along with the starter "beer" to a sanitized 8 oz or 1 pint mason jar to inoculate a subsequent starter at some undetermined future date.
3) Ferment a batch of beer with the balance of the starter. Once beer is packaged from primary, save a pint or two of slurry from the fermenter to be repitched as-is into another batch within the next 2 months. If I have no upcoming use for the fermenter slurry, I won't bother saving any. I try to schedule brews so that I get at least one follow-on brew using saved fermenter slurry. I've done as many as 4 in a row from the same strain (starter > slurry > slurry > slurry).
4) Make a fresh starter from saved starter yeast (or newly acquired yeast) and repeat the process.

Additional notes:
*Saved yeast from a starter should keep in the fridge for at least 6 months, often much longer. I revived 15-month old yeast once. As the cells die off, they will turn a color that resembles peanut butter. As long as there are still some white colored cells remaining, you should be able to revive it.
*This is personal preference, but my max time for saving fermenter slurry is about 2 months. If I haven't used it by then, I'll likely dump it and make a fresh starter when I'm ready to use that strain again.
*Acquire new yeast when the yeast you have is no longer fermenting the way you like it (picking up undesired flavors, attenuation too high or too low, etc.). My current WLP028 strain was last purchased in late-2014 and my current WY2124 strain was last purchased in mid-2015. I've brewed with both of these in the past few months and they are still producing great beer, so I will continue to use it and not replace it until something changes.

 

[mredge73]

I have tried it all, including freezing with glycerol.
To be honest, I pretty much given up on creating my yeast "library" of frozen samples as it is so much easier to use dry yeast nowadays.
The variety available is 2-3 times as much as when I started and the cost is minimal. So, I have pretty much replaced my frozen library with a half dozen packs of dry yeast that are ready to go when I get the urge to brew.

So to answer your question, it isn't really worth it unless you are really trying to pinch pennies.
However, brewing your own beer isn't really worth it either. This is a hobby and if you want to culture your own yeast go for it.