Pitching onto Yeast Cake?

So, this weekend I am going to do a Cranberry Wheat - last weekend I did a Belgian Wit. I think that I want to use this Belgian Wit (White Labs) yeast for the Cranberry Wheat as well and wanted to pitch the new wort directly onto the yeast cake after I rack my Belgian Wit into secondary.

I assume that this amounts to simply pouring my new wort onto what's left behind in my primary fermentation bucket. Is this accurate?

If not, does anyone have recommendations regarding the process? I know that there has been a number of posters discussing this technique, but I'm not sure if anyone has actually detailed the process . . . or if it is worth detailing . . .

I think you can either remove and store some trub, or just pitch right on top of the old. I plan to do this on a lager yeast (the Budvar Wyeast ). Apparently, the results are fabulous.

I pitched on top of a marzen cake with a maibock and it went nuts. Fermented out rapidly and violently. Some of these 'starter' clowns are starting to make a whole lot of sense.
I can be taught... if I think you're right!

Oh yeah, just put your new wort right on top of the yeast cake. It'll be kicking ass and taking names in minutes rather than hours.

Be prepared for a very active fermentation. Have your blow-off tube ready. Just search the board for stories of fermenters blowing off the lid. Not a mess you want to clean up. But it works great though. My barleywine started fermenting in under 30 minutes.

Are the cranberries going to be in the primary, or do they come later?

I might be a little worried about having a super-active fermentation with cranberries in there: it could plug up your blow-off tube. I'm pretty sure you said you use a bucket: a 9/16 outside diameter tube is a perfect tight fit inside the hole in a bucket lid (with the grommet taken out.)

If it were a carboy, I'd be worried about the cranberries getting up into the neck and clogging it. This is going to ferment like a bomb. (It's cool doing it in a carboy 'cause you get to watch the show.)

Nope . . . no cranberries in the primary . . . because I am using the little bottle of flavoring I got from my LHBS

I know, I know . . . fresh fruit would be better, but I hate dealing with it. The owner of a local brew-on-premise/brew-pub I frequent makes his blueberry wheat with this stuff and it really tasted good. So, I am going to try it. I probably won't add it until late in secondary or even prior to bottling.

On the other issue, are you guys suggesting that I don't use an airlock at all and opt for a blowoff tube coming out of the lid of my bucket?

Another convert...

signed: Starter Clown... :fro:

sonvolt said:

Nope . . . no cranberries in the primary . . . because I am using the little bottle of flavoring I got from my LHBS

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This is the stuff . . . only Cranberry, of course.

sonvolt said:

On the other issue, are you guys suggesting that I don't use an airlock at all and opt for a blowoff tube coming out of the lid of my bucket?

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I would do. After all, a tight-fitted hose running into a sanitized jar of sanitized liquid *is* an airlock.

I run the hose into a narrow-necked bottle like an olive-oil bottle, with sanitzer solution about 3-inches deep. I like the narrow necked bottle because I'm more confident that the hose will stay in place than in a mason jar. Then I put that inside a big plastic pitcher, because if it's really rocking the little jar is going to overflow with blowoff eventually. (When that happens, I replace the jar with another sanitized jar and new liquid.)

Some guys just leave the whole rig on the kitchen counter during the initial active phase, with the blowoff jar in the sink. These guys are single, I'm guessing.