reusing a yeast cake

I have siphoned beers onto yeast cakes 2-3 times now and have had good success( always going from lighter to darker and bigger...) Anyway I have a nut brown ale that has been in primary for 3 weeks and I am going to put it into a bright tank for a few days before bottling. I want to reuse the S-04 yeast cake for another barleywine attempt, but this stuff was a VERY active fermentation. I mean to the point that you cannot see into the carboy from the crud left behind all the way up to the bung. Assuming my sanitation was good ( I believe it was) would there be any issue with the crud in the fermentor from the previous beer? I would think NO since it is the same stuff left in the trub but this was beyond anything I have seen so far. I guess I could Wash the yeast cake and pitch the entire thing , but is that a necessity ?

I do not think that the entire yeast cake should or would be used for this barleywine... My best suggestion is to harvest the yeast cake and start new on a different fermenter with half of what you collected...

Any reason you don't want to pony up the minimal cost of a fresh packet?

Actually not to play devils advocate here, but if he is making a Barleywine, it would be beneficial to reuse that yeast cake, as long as he can validate that his sanitation was good.

Generally most imperial porters or barley wines call for a larger starter or a low gravity beer to get the yeast cake from.

Bowtiebrewery said:

Actually not to play devils advocate here, but if he is making a Barleywine, it would be beneficial to reuse that yeast cake, as long as he can validate that his sanitation was good.

Generally most imperial porters or barley wines call for a larger starter or a low gravity beer to get the yeast cake from.

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Thats the reason... The cost is not an issue . The recipe actually calls for 4 packets of s-04. I LIKE washing the yeast and reusing yeast cakes.. I have no idea why, but to me it is just part of the cool factor of the hobby. I have 2 nottingham starters in the fridge now from some washed notty I harvested a couple of months back.. I saved a whoppin 3 bucks by doing it but again it is just part of the fun to me.

OK, I have never washed and used yeast the same day. I have washed it....refrigerated then decanted into a starter...... would I follow the exact same washing technique as before only rather than pouring the washed yeast into smaller containers for storage...pour HALF into storage containers and the other half into my barleywine?

I pitched a 1.090 wort onto an S-04 yeast cake. While it started within like 30 minutes and had a big krausen, it never needed a blow off in a 6.5 gallon carboy. It was close, but it managed without one.

I am not sayin don't do it, I was just wondering why the work for so little savings, but I like the geek factor as well.
I dropped 2.5 gallons of BW on a yeast cake from a 5 gallon pale ale. It was working before the batch from the second runnings was done boiling.
IDK if is is truly accurate, but I went from 1.1 to 1.012 this way.

I just pitched directly onto a yeast cake from a previous batch, racked out the beer, then dumped in the cooled wort. The recipes were similar in malt base, just a lot heavier. Today I came home to my first ceiling stain.

go for it as is. it'll have a barleywine at a boil in hours