Rack or Dump wort on notty yeast cake?

When reusing a yeast cake is it better to dump the cooled wort on top of the cake or rack on to the cake? I only ask beacuse I brewed a pale ale last night and dump it on to a notty yeast cake from a previous pale ale brew. I thought by dumping it on to the cake that it would add oxygen and have a good start for fermentation. That was 12 hours ago and still no activivty. What should I do?

Dumping is fine, and I'm surprised you have no activity yet, as this is a method that often starts up quickly. No need to panic yet, but anything else that would throw it off?

Did you pitch on the entire cake? How long did the cake sit? Was the it from primary or secondary of the previous brew?

The yeast cake was only 2 weeks old, had only been primary not secondary. Only thing that I can think of is that I didnt take off the krausen from the primary bucket. It was too late at night and I didnt think about it before hand. The first ale that the cake came from was only about 7%. The second ale I made was a high gravity ale 1.105, lots of hops but not enough to be an IPA. The yeast cake is from 2 paks of notty. I chilled the wort down to about 55 dumped it on top the cake then placed the bucket in my brew room wich is about 65 to 70degrees during the day. I am on my way home now so I will report back. Hope I didnt screw up this bactch!

Had it been two weeks since you'd racked the previous beer off of this cake? How was the cake stored?

Normally, you rack wort in increasing gravities onto a cake. If the last beer was OG 1.105, you would want to go even bigger with this one - though 1.105 is about as big as you could expect. You may have racked onto spent yeast.

Sounds like it was just too cold. 55F is lower than Notty likes. Once it warms up, it should be fine.

The yeast cake had been sitting under the 1st beer that I made with for 2 weeks. I brewed the 2nd beer which was 1.105 OG, chilled it down, racked off the 1st beer from the yeast cake (1.080) then dumped the chilled wort from the 2nd beer on to the yeast cake as soon as the 1st beer was racked off the cake. Chilled that down to 55 deg and then put the bucket in my beer room the next morning. Well all is well now, when I got home last night the airlock :rockin:was about to fly out of the top of the bucket. I hooked up a blow off hose and let it rip. Krasuen was coming out the hose! The jug that hose was in was bubbling all night and this morning non stop! I guess it just needed some extra time to get going. Thanks for all the help!

probably was just too cold.

did you make it go to its room for a time out? (since it was notty)

Yeah, that was a bad as it sounded in my head.

It was notty last night! I have never seen my primary bucket look like it was going to explode. This was one of the bigest beers that I have made and the first time using a yeast cake. I do have a question. I have a Black Tripple IPA that I made a few months ago. I used wyeast Belgian Strong Ale yeast with a starter. The beer ended up being about 13%, I had about 1 gal of beer left over in the fermentor after I filled my 5 gal keg. The yeast is just stitting there under a gallon of 13% beer. Think I could reuse that yeast in another dark strong beer?

So it wasn't two weeks from the time you racked to the time you dumped...that's what I thought you meant when I first read #3. It sounds like it's okay after all.

The issue with the 13% beer is the yeast may be knackered. I don't have any experience going that big, but I believe people say it's better to re-use yeast from a less massive beer. Someone else can clairfy, perhaps.