Yeast rinsing

[Llamaman]

Hi all

I bottled up my first Coopers stout at the weekend (half batch) but wasn't ready to start the second half right away so salvaged the cake from the FV and had a crack at rinsing.
I did an initial decant to separate yeasty slurry from trub but in the second phase I'm not sure if it's trub at the bottom or yeast - it looks very white for trub (is it dead yeast?).
Which of these layers should I salvage? Or have I let it settle too long (I was sat work all day) and need to swirl it back into suspension?

 

[Hoddy]

So two things here a) your pretty much on the right idea b) if you’ve used US05 or a similar dried English ale yeast washing and reusing isn’t worth it.

a) you need to make sure you’ve got a good 3 litres plus of boiled and cooled water. Then at each stage what you want to do is discard the heavy stuff that drops fastest first for the first two maybe three goes. Then after that you want to settle the yeast out (it will be as white as white in colour) and take off the excess water. Then simply store in the fridge.

b) if this is for dried yeast. It’s simply not worth it. A packet of dried yeast is like £3.50. Even less for Cross My Loof yeast. If you dont know who that is the search the forum. And based on the average cost of ingredient the higher risk washing and reuse method, the risk of infection. It’s not worth it. Now if this is an expensive yeast bay liquid strain, that’s a different matter.

Either way good on ya for getting into the tougher end of brewing.


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[Llamaman]

Thanks.

This was just the standard coopers yeast. I currently brew half batches so am trying to avoid using a sachet each brew. For my first kit I just repitched on the cake immediately (perhaps should have taken some out - it blew the airlock despite 50% headspace) but this time didn't know when I'd next brew so thought removing the trub would buy me a few extra days.
It's now settled out even more. To make sure I'll build a small starter the day before I brew. If I've accidentally kept trub I have some gervin as backup.
I'm not just being cheap - long term I'd like to get a fullers esb clone going and will want to be able to harvest and reuse the fullers strain so trying to learn techniques with cheap yeast I don't mind ditching if (when!) I mess up.