Pitching on a cake?

Hey guys, pretty new to brewing, but reading a lot. I hear people say, I brewed another xxxx and pitched it directly on the cake... What does this mean and how do people do it??

Thanks

I'll be doing it again this afternoon. The simplest method is to rack your beer out of the primary bucket leaving behind the yeast "cake". Now pour your freshly brewed wort on top of this cake. Voila.

Another method I practice is to take said cake and leave a little beer on top. Slosh it around until it becomes a slurry, and I pour that into a sanitized pickle jar and store it in the fridge for a few days that way. I haven't got into yeast washing just yet, but I haven't had a problem with saving a cake like that either. (Good straining practices keep out the hops and particulate matter, leaving my cakes pretty clean.)

It's pretty simple. After you've brewed one beer, you rack it into your bottling bucket (or secondary carboy) and you leave a "cake" of yeast and trub behind.

If you brew another beer, and cool it just before you rack your first, you can put your new beer directly onto this old yeast cake. No need to buy another packet of yeast, you just use what you already have again.

This is especially useful if your second beer is a big beer (like a barleywine). Instead of making a huge starter, you just make a batch of beer before you do your barleywine.

You should also do a search for "washing" your yeast. This allows you to get even more uses out of a pack of yeast. It will also allow you to bottle harvest yeast from commercial beers.

After you brew a beer and either bottle or keg it, you're left with a cake of yeast at the bottom of your bucket/carboy. Some people brew up a new batch of beer and put it right back in the same bucket/carboy. That way, you don't have to pitch new yeast. Some do this with great results. Some say that unless the new wort that you pitching is of a barley wine caliber, you should not pitch onto a cake because then you'd be over pitching the yeast.

Thanks guys! Does it have to be the same type of beer? Im doing a blonde right now, I did strain the trub but there's all kinds of cold break in there. My next will be an American ale that's supposed to be very clear and light. They use the same type of yeast.. Will pitching on that cake cloud my next beer or change the flavor?


Also, can you save the Cake in the fridge or freezer? How long is it viable?

Anyone?

It doesn't have to be the same type of beer. The 'yeast cake' police will soon log on to tell you that you are ruining your beer by over pitching yeast. I do all the time....no ill effects. Just make sure the next beer is higher ABV and IBU and you'll be fine.

Danam404 said:

Thanks guys! Does it have to be the same type of beer? Im doing a blonde right now, I did strain the trub but there's all kinds of cold break in there. My next will be an American ale that's supposed to be very clear and light. They use the same type of yeast.. Will pitching on that cake cloud my next beer or change the flavor?


Also, can you save the Cake in the fridge or freezer? How long is it viable?

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I don't know about saving the whole yeast cake, but I do know that if you wash the yeast and store it in the fridge you have a couple of weeks to use it before you start to need to do a starter.

Freezing is a much more tedious process. Look into "yeast banks" for info on that as you cannot put yeast directly into the freezer as the cells will split and those wonderful little yeasties will die!

I have pitched directly on a yeast cake several times on consecutive batches with no problems. I have also poured the entire cake in a large mason jar and kept it in the fridge for almost a week before washing the yeast out. My harvested yeast have been reused as long as 5 months later in the fridge with no problems at all.

My favorite is angel food. You'll need a little extra bittering hops to balance the added sweetness.

FireBrew63 said:

I have pitched directly on a yeast cake several times on consecutive batches with no problems. I have also poured the entire cake in a large mason jar and kept it in the fridge for almost a week before washing the yeast out. My harvested yeast have been reused as long as 5 months later in the fridge with no problems at all.

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Can someone explain the science to me on this? Why is a Yeast Cake viable after a beer has been sitting on it for potentially months, unrefrigerated, but as soon as the beer is mostly racked off of it, it's only viable for a few weeks, and must be refrigerated?

I'm missing something here...

Can someone point me towards a bit more information on yeast viability?

Thanks!

2 questions- what are the negative effects of pitching a beer of similar ABV and OG on the yeast cake?

And

Will this reduce the clarity of the beer? My next beer is supposed to be a nice clear ale, don't want to make cloudy beer.

Thanks!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/why-not-pitch-your-yeast-cake-166221/

Great thread with a lot of information.

Danam404 said:

what are the negative effects of pitching a beer of similar ABV and OG on the yeast cake?

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I have had no problems yet pitching similar beers onto yeast cakes. However, potential off-flavors could be caused by stressed yeast. The concept is that these yeasties have grown accustomed to living in X% alcohol that was created using amount of sugar Y. Putting a higher gravity wort on top of these guys may potentially cause problems. IBUs as were mentioned as well; obviously there is some beer remaining in that cake, and quite likely some hop material. If the yeast cake is from an IPA with 60 IBUs and you are pitching a pale on top with only 30 IBUs, be prepared for the IPA's flavor to taint the pale.

Danam404 said:

Will this reduce the clarity of the beer?

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No. So long as you follow good practices in clarifying, the yeast cake will not be a variable.

Verio said:

Can someone explain the science to me on this? Why is a Yeast Cake viable after a beer has been sitting on it for potentially months, unrefrigerated, but as soon as the beer is mostly racked off of it, it's only viable for a few weeks, and must be refrigerated?

I'm missing something here...

Click to expand...

I read through the link schweaty posted (great info! that kind of trails into an inordinate amount of bickering...) although I don't recall it directly answered this question. I am curious myself, but if I had to guess, I would think it might have something to do with the preservative qualities of the wort, specifically, the hops. ???