American Stout pitched on IPA yeast cake

Hey guys,

So I'm sure that this question has been asked before but I haven't found anything definitive.

I have a Lagunitas clone in primary right now (fermented with Wyeast 1968) and I want my next recipe to be an American stout. Now I know that American stouts are usually fermented with a clean American yeast, but I am absolutely in love with 1968 (used it four times so far with great results).

I'm just wondering if it would work to pitch a fresh American stout wort onto the IPA yeast cake. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Thanks so much, guys!!!

It will def work, but I'd recommend using a measured amount of the slurry and NOT the whole cake. Use mr. Malty.com to find out how much of the slurry you need to pitch, it's super easy and allows you to pitch proper rates.

It will definitely work. The ideal situation would be to wash the proper amount of yeast though and use that.

Yes, wash the yeast - do not just dump your beer onto the cake. Use the pitching rate calculator, and you may want to consider slightly over-pitching since the yeats may not be in the best shape do to all the hop resins and the higher ABV of an IPA.
I've heard people like Jamil mention that reusing yeast from a highly hopped brew can affect the bitterness of the beer-to-be during fermentation (increasing this beers IBU slightly). It was on one of the CYBI episodes where he talks about how Stone reuses their IPA yeast for all of their other beers, and I think Mitch Steel had to adapt some of their recipes to this increase in bitterness. I probably wouldn't worry about it on the homebrew scale though.

Hmm, looks like I will try washing some yeast!
@skibb, yeah that's mostly what I was worried about since it's a pretty hoppy brew. But luckily my stout recipe is gonna be pretty hoppy and it will be using the same hops that the IPA used.

Thanks for the help guys!

duckmanco said:

Use mr. Malty.com to find out how much of the slurry you need to pitch, it's super easy and allows you to pitch proper rates.

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Mr. Malty is not super easy for slurry, and I believe it is wrong in it's estimation of yeast viability.

PaulTheGhost said:

Hmm, looks like I will try washing some yeast!
@skibb, yeah that's mostly what I was worried about since it's a pretty hoppy brew. But luckily my stout recipe is gonna be pretty hoppy and it will be using the same hops that the IPA used.

Click to expand...

The yeast will be fine. If using it immediately, you really don't have to wash it, and if making a beer of similar gravity, just use a quarter of the cake. If you use too much yeast, the yeast do not reproduce; result is old yeast doing the fermentation with potential of stalling before the end, and limited amounts of esters formed, reducing the flavors of the yeast.