Beer Forum

So this past Friday I racked an Irish Red (from JZ book), and dumped the leftover slurry and fermented wort into a big pickle type jar. I covered the jar with sanitized foil and put it in my freezer chest (temp is high 30's to low 40's). Just look at it today and have 4 layers in it. Top layer is clear beer, 2nd layers is a hazy beer, 3rd layer is white yeast slurry layer and then the bottom is a darker grayish yeast layer.
What do I do next? I'm assuming I want the milky white layer as the grayer layer is dead yeast an trub? Do I decant and then scoop out the white layer? and if so what do I store the harvested white layer in, sterile water, or something else. Guessing it will be 2 weeks before I can brew a stout to use the harvested yeast.

Different yeasts can settle out differently but you seem to have an ideal yeast for washing (my favourite yeast seems to flocculate and settle out just as quickly as the trub so I have to make sure as little trub as possible gets into the fermenter and skim any that gets thrown up).

I'd pour off the clear and hazy beer, add some more preboiled cooled water , swirl it all up, wait for a thin clean yeast layer to settle over the dark trub and dead yeast then pour off the cloudy liquid above it into a fresh jar. It should only take around 20 mins to settle out. This will be good clean yeast ready for use.

Just a note, the ph of plain water is normally a bit high to use for yeast storage. The ideal medium would simply be a can of commercial light beer. See, there really is a legit use for that can of Coors Light your idiot brother in law left in your fridge.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

I will a test to Daabs remark about different yeast settling out differently.
I just washed a cake of Wyeast 1968 and then a cake of Wyeast 1028

The 1968 was falling out of suspension in less then a half and hour at room temp. It has taken approximately 36 hours for the 1028 to all fall out of solution in the fridge.

And both look different!

I am still refining my technique.