First timer Yeast Washing

[hoov]

I just racked my porter, and will be making another one soon.

I poured 800 ml into a sanitized flask, added 800 ml of distilled water, secured the top, and mixed it by shaking and stirring.

What now? Do I leave it at room temp, or put it in the fridge?

Once it settles out, do I decant the liquid on top and keep the sludge, or vice versa.

With whatever I keep (the liquid or sludge) do I repeat the action of adding water or light beer and repeat the process?

I've done a bit of research on this, but apparently not enough before I tried it, since I'm still a bit confused about the process.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[Todd]

I just did this over the weekend for the first time so I can at least comment on my own trial and error...

I scooped out about a quart jar of slurry/trub from the bottom of the fermenter into sterilized mason jars. I'd made two batches and wanted to re-use the yeast on bigger versions of those beers. I put them in the fridge to settle to see what would be in the jars after a day. They settled out nicely, curiosity satisfied.

I added previously boiled and cooled water to each to approx double the volume - shake them and let settle. After 2-30 minutes a clear separation fo solids from the cloudy water layer was evident. I decanted the water layer into another sterile mason jar and did the same thing. After this second round of wshing I put the cloudy liquid (supernatant) in a sterile jar, covered with saran wrap and put in the fridge. When I'm ready to brew with that yeast I'll add this yeast suspension to an appropriate sized starter (probably 2 liters) for the next batch and give it time to reach full krausen then pitch. Should take off like a rocket.

Much less of an issue after I tried it the first time.