5 day old yeast cake - still okay?

craigkelker · Jan 19, 2013

I have a yeast cake stilling in about 1" of wort from primary. I racked the beer to secondary on Monday and plan to brew today.

The cake has been sealed in the primary. If I give it a quick wash today (original brew was an Arrogant Bastard clone so I have lots of trub), can I dump tonight's brew on top? I can't see why it would have gone bad, right?

Happy brew day!
CK

SVB · Jan 19, 2013

It will be just fine. Should be a pretty good fermentation, you can check a yeast calculator to see how much slurry you would need. I personally would not wash it, thats just another risk of contamination.

CharlosCarlies · Jan 19, 2013

Arrogant Bastard clone

What was the OG? I generally try not to re-use yeast from high gravity fermentations unless absolutely necessary.

CharlosCarlies · Jan 19, 2013

Also, pitching directly onto the cake will almost surely be a massive over-pitch.

craigkelker · Jan 20, 2013

The OG of the donor was 1.055. The OG of the brew last night was over 1.2, so I don't think overpitching will be a problem.

CharlosCarlies · Jan 20, 2013

The OG of the donor was 1.055.

My bad. I just read Arrogant Bastard clone and assumed higher.

over 1.2

Is this a mis-type? Over 1.2 is talking 20%+ ABV.

CharlosCarlies · Jan 20, 2013

And even at 1.2, the cake would likely still be a decent over-pitch. Although, since it wasn't harvested immediately, viability likely dropped a bit making it closer in line to optimal pitch rates.

Edit: Either way report back on how the beer turns out. Hopefully everything works out fine for you.

craigkelker · Jan 27, 2013

microupdate: the og was 1120. The fermentation didn't kick in heavy until 36 hr. The blow off tube and sanitizer bucket were full of darkness. After 6 days the gravity was 1035 already.

I was happy with the malt and alcohol sweetness. I'll know if this Dark Lord clone gets its complexity some time this summer!

5 day old yeast cake - still okay?

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