Dumping on a Yeast Cake?

5gBrewer · 01-05-2007, 03:44 PM

First off, Hi Guys & Gals, I'm new here, and love brewing beer

I've never done the yeast starter thing before, mostly because of laziness I suppose, but have often considered racking freshly brewed wort onto an existing yeast cake.

I hear that racking to a fresh yeast cake will get the fermentation process going faster, and will result in a lower FG; so I want to try it out, but have some questions. Here's what I'm working with:

I've got a Belgian Wit (Specialty grains with extract & belgian candi) fermenting in a 6.5g bucket as we speak. It's OG was @ 1.050 I'm planning on leaving the brew in there for a week and a half, and then racking to secondary. Before racking this beer to secondary, I was going to brew up another batch of the same beer, but with a higher OG (I'm shooting for at least 1.060).

Once I do rack the 1st beer to secondary, I want to dump the higher gravity Belgian Wit wort on the yeast cake from the 1st batch.

Here are my questions:

1) Will dumping on the entire yeast cake be too much for my 6.5g ale pail to handle with just an air lock, or will I have to rig up a blowoff tube?

2) If I scoop out (with a sanitized scooper of course) about half of the yeast cake, and then dump the fresh wort on top, would I need a blowoff tube, or would my airlock be sufficient?

Thanks for your help!

5gB

**Orfy** · 01-05-2007, 04:09 PM

IMO,

Yes and Yes.

I just racked straight onto a yeast cake from a 23L batch and it finish fermenting in under 12 hours from 1050 to 1010.

An the blow of tube blew krausen over the top of the jug of water.

uwmgdman · 01-05-2007, 04:10 PM

Either way you'd better put the blow-off tubing in........just yesterday I dumped my wort onto a yeast cake. (I first dumped 1/2 or 2/3 of the yeast cake out and pitched on what was left.) I had fermentation starting after 1 hour, and bubbling through the blow-off tubing every 3 seconds 3 hours after pitching. This morning, lots of blow-off in my bucket where the blow-off tube feeds into.

cweston · 01-05-2007, 04:14 PM

Yes, you'll need a blowoff tube.

If your bucket lid has a hole drilled with a rubber gasket (into which you shove your airlock), just remove the gasket and use whatever size hose fits very snuggly inside the hole.

You can also use the main piece (only) of a three-piece plastic airlock and attach a hose on top of that. Make sure you remove the little plastic cross-hatches which might make it more likely to clog.

I like the first method better because clogging is less likely.

**olllllo** · 01-05-2007, 04:18 PM

Keep an eye on your temps as well. Vigorous fermentations can raise the temperature a few degress. Maybe not so important this time of year, but take note.

If you decide to pour off half, which some say will lessen the virgorousness, wash the poured off half and save for another day.

**Mk010101** · 01-05-2007, 04:20 PM

how would your first method hold the tube snuggly with the pressure of the CO2 coming out? Do you use duct tape for a little reinforcement?!?

cweston · 01-05-2007, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mk010101

how would your first method hold the tube snuggly with the pressure of the CO2 coming out? Do you use duct tape for a little reinforcement?!?

I have a tube that goes in very snuggly (that's what she said

) and stays put just fine. If you're worried you could attach a SS clamp to the hose on the inside of the lid.

(SS clamps have a million useful applications in homebrewing, I've found).

**Mk010101** · 01-05-2007, 04:25 PM

Ah, that's a pretty good idea. Thanks!

5gBrewer · 01-05-2007, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cweston

Yes, you'll need a blowoff tube.

If your bucket lid has a hole drilled with a rubber gasket (into which you shove your airlock), just remove the gasket and use whatever size hose fits very snuggly inside the hole.

You can also use the main piece (only) of a three-piece plastic airlock and attach a hose on top of that. Make sure you remove the little plastic cross-hatches which might make it more likely to clog.

I like the first method better because clogging is less likely.

That doesn't seem like very wide tubing, you've never experienced clogging using that method?

5gB

5gBrewer · 01-05-2007, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by olllllo

If you decide to pour off half, which some say will lessen the virgorousness, wash the poured off half and save for another day.

I'm a little off topic in my own thread, but I'm not familiar with 'washing yeast'. How do you wash the yeast? How do you store the then washed yeast for later use?

Thanks! 5gB