Cider pitched onto wyeast 3068 yeast cake?

Hello,

I can't figure out if this is a good or bad idea. I am brewing a Bavarian Hefeweizen right now. I am using Wyeast 3068 yeast. I have heard that 3068 makes a good cider in a couple threads. Can I just pitch right on top of the yeast cake when the beer is done? I know there will be tons of gunk in there. Do you think the cider will turn out badly?

Thanks!

From my experience, it probably should. I ran into trouble recently trying to salvage the bottom of a cider yeast cake, however that turned out fine after I pitched a packet of Lavin EC-1118 into the must. The EC ate all the dead yeast and fermentation has been textbook since then.

The only thing I would recommend is that you do a soft pour into the yeast cake and add yeast nutrient. I'm not an expert by any standard, but I think that trying to manually oxygenate after pouring a few galls of apple juice/cider would leave ou at a severe contamination risk. Also, I guess you should re-cork your carboy that has the yeast cake after racking to the bottling bucket or keg.

With juice/must (especially store bought/cheap juice) you have to keep in mind that you are making the 21st century equivalent to the accidental alcohol that helped teach the human ancestry 10,000 years ago. If you use one of the cheaper juice sources these forums recommend you have little to lose from a spoiled experimental batch. Think like Randy Mosher; let the yeast sort it out. Radical Brew till your heart is content.

I have read that you want to pitch a darker beer onto a yeast cake. If you did the Cider, then did the Hefe it would have been better IMO. Especially the Bavarian style will definitely make it into the lighter Cider IMO.

Now that I think about it, I read that as well in Palmer's book. It's been awhile since I have had to consider those nuances, as I have been doing ciders/store bought juice into beer esque beverage exclusively lately.

My last apfelwein was with hefe dry yeast. It came out very differnet, good, was not too dry and had a lasting taste that was not identifiable but left you wanting more. Was really clear too...

You can absolutely use the yeast. I'd opt for washing it instead of pitching directly on the cake. Unless you did a superb job of filtering the wort, there is probably a good bit of break and hop material mixed in with the cake. Washing will help you leave that stuff behind.