Pitching onto wyeast 1469 cake...how long does floc take?

This is the 1st time using 1469 yeast. I have an ordinary english bitter in the fermentor (3.7%) abv beer. It's almost down to terminal gravity 1.014 last night and I have been ramping up temps as usual to allow the yeast to finish, but I want to brew an english barleywine this thurs and pitch onto the yeast cake of the bitter. My question is how long will it take to get the yeast to floc to the bottom so that I have plenty to pitch onto for the barleywine? I am planning on dropping the temp tomorrow to 50f, then thurs morning transfer the beer to keg, then raise the temp back up to 65f prior to adding the barleywine. Does this sound like a good plan? or can I wait another day to crash the yeast and still have good flocculation? I want to let the yeast finish the current beer as much as possible though.

Well, if you think it still needs more time to finish out, then don't drop the temp to 50F or you'll stall it out. With an english ale yeast, just leave it alone until it's done, don't mess with the temps.

I have a great deal of admiration for 1469. It is my "go to" house yeast for all things english. So how do you get it to floc out? Cross your fingers and toast the beer gods. Sometimes 1469 settles out and sometimes that krausen just decides to hang out like a life raft. When it does, you'll just have to rack from underneath it. It will still come out nice and clear with time and cold.

In the end, it is a great yeast with nice malty and toffee notes. I think it is better than 1968 and some other english yeasts.

BTW, it recently won me first place in an AHA competition for English ale:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/marleys-mild-1st-place-english-ale-fermentationland-homebrew-competition-aha-464920/

i have only just started using this yeast, so bear that in mind. i hear my 3rd batch bubbling away as i type, but i already agree with cider123, one batch settled out and one stayed at the top. i re-used it both times, when it stayed at the top i swirled it back into suspension and cold crashed, and everything settled nicely. the beer was very clear after maybe 5 days at 4c. i don't know if this is a big diacetyl chucker like 1968, but personally i wouldn't dick around with trying to get it to finish early.

I hear you. I didn't want to rush it either, but this thurs will be the only free day i will have to brew the barleywine. The english bitter is going to be cask conditioned in the keg, so if it stops at 1.012 or 1.011 vs 1.009 , thats ok ... I am repitching in the keg to carbonate anyway. My biggest concern is having enough yeast left over for the barleywine. If i have to though i will go to the lhbs and pickup 3 packs of yeast.


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