I’ve done this a couple times, but I still have a concern. Please advise.
1, Add boiled cooled water to slurry after racking, and shake.
2, Allow to sit 1/2 hour at room temp. until it stratifies.
3. Dump top layer(beer), and moves as much of the middle layer to sterilized quart mason jar, shake, allow to stratify.
4, Allow to sit 1/2 hour, pour off top layer move as much of the middle layer to sterilized pint jelly jars and refrigerate.
My concern is everything has been boiled and sterilized, and once the jelly jars are open they are no longer sterile, Does the refrigeration really prevent corruption of the culture.
Please critique the steps above and tell me what I’m missing. Thanks
You are not working in a sterilized environment, but rather sanitized. Major difference.
Your process looks fine, but I cannot ever get mine to stratify in 30 minutes, so I try to wait till I see it then transfer to a smaller container.
I thought that by using a sanitizer like Star San I was sanitizing. I thought the process of boiling the jars, the lids and the water I was in effect sterilizing those items?
PS Please understand my confussion. After the second child the wife had me sterilized, but I don’t remember the 15 minutes of boiling?
oh, thats funny right there.
Some bugs can survive being boiled. To get hot enough to kill everything, you need something like an autoclave.
[quote=“flytyer”]I’ve done this a couple times, but I still have a concern. Please advise.
1, Add boiled cooled water to slurry after racking, and shake.
2, Allow to sit 1/2 hour at room temp. until it stratifies.
3. Dump top layer(beer), and moves as much of the middle layer to sterilized quart mason jar, shake, allow to stratify.
4, Allow to sit 1/2 hour, pour off top layer move as much of the middle layer to sterilized pint jelly jars and refrigerate.
My concern is everything has been boiled and sterilized, and once the jelly jars are open they are no longer sterile, Does the refrigeration really prevent corruption of the culture.
Please critique the steps above and tell me what I’m missing. Thanks[/quote]
I dump a gallon of cool water into my fermenter, swirl and let it sit for 15 minutes. This will get all the trub at the bottom. I pour off all the liquid, minus some of the bottom yeast into a gallon jug. That goes in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Then I pour off the top layer of liquid and separate.
Brewing TV walks you through yeast washing/rinsing in one of the episodes (ibrewmaster?). Having watched Dawson do it, here’s how I do it. Pour sanitized water into carboy, swirl, pour into 1gallon jug. After 20 minutes, pour everything that hasn’t settled out into another jug, seal, put in fridge. After a couple of days, i decant the liquid off of the sediment, and pitch that sediment. AFAIK, this minimizes dead yeast, break material, and hop junk while maximizing time spent doing things other than washing yeast.
Similar to abrown001…
I don’t add water to the fermenter. There is usually enough beer left behind to get thing moving. Pour into sanitized qt mason jars. Put in the fridge.
A week before brewing, make a starter. Sanitize a spoon and grab 3-4 scoops of the top of the yeast cake.
Do this for 3-4 brews. Then harvest the yeast from the last batch of beer. Toss the old yeast.
How long will washed yeast keep in the fridge?
Forever!
You can culture very old yeast from 1 cell. With enough steps you’ll have plenty of yeast for a batch of beer. If you’re holding onto a readily available yeast, there is not really any reason to use it after a year. The steps and amount of DME and time almost make it better to just buy a new pack.
BTW, I have brought back year old yeast, just to see if I could, twice now. I usually throw it out or buy a new pack if it’s over 6 months.
Pour into about 6 pint jars. Treat each jar as if it is a single smack pack. Save craploads of money.
BTW my fermentations kick off quickly and are rather vigorous so …
Barry
Some bugs can survive being boiled. To get hot enough to kill everything, you need something like an autoclave.[/quote]
The confusion is in the terminology. There are 3 levels. Clean which means free of visible dirt, contamination, etc. Sanitary which is free of harmful critters. Sterile which is free of all living things. Boiling makes things sanitary. Using a sanitizer makes things sanitary but not sterile.
For sterile you need heat for 15 minutes at 15 psi and that is what an autoclave does. You can use a pressure cooker as an autoclave. Once the dial reaches 15 psi you hold it there for 15 minutes then let everything cool before you open the pressure cooker. I do this for my starters, make up the starter in the flask, put the plug in the top of the flask and pressure cook it all. This makes a sterile starter solution (at least until you open plug in the flask).
Skip the washing. It is just throwing out good yeast. Cell counts indicate that the viability of the yeast you toss is the same as the yeast you keep.
See this for details:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/1 ... posed.html