putting new beer onto a yeast cake??

I have had a pale ale fermenting for five days and would like to brew my next beer (pale ale) and pour it onto the yeast cake.

Question is:

does anyone have experience with how long I can wait before I transfer beer number one to a secondary and pour the newly brewed beer onto the yeast?

thanks in advance

Keep an air lock on the fermenter while its in limbo. Most max out at a few weeks but many will wait upto a month.


Edit: I reread your post you can wait for up to a month. More will chime in on this.

Keep in cold and it will "keep" longer.

I have a related question. When pitching onto a yeast cake do you still swirl the wort vigoursly to airate or just siphon on to the yeast cake and leave it?

you are going to want to aerate it, definately.

Well, I don't think aeration is a big deal in this case. The point of aeration is to give the yeast plenty of o2 to reproduce, I understand. So, if you're pitching on a yeast cake, reproduction is a non-issue.

You can probably just pour/strain your wort onto the yeast cake at approx 70 degrees, and call it good.

that is a good question. to aerate or not, yooper has so many more posts I guess I should trust her, any other opinions out there??

Yooper is a good one to trust Personally I might aerate a little, but I agree it probably isn't too neccesary.

To keep it simple, time your brews so your new wort is ready for the cake right after you transfer to the secondary.
My timing normally sucks but I've sat on a cake for roughly 3 weeks at 70 degrees. No ill side effects. I've held other cakes longer at lower temperatures. I'm not the type to bust out a microscope so I'll only do 4 generations on the same cake before mixing up a freshie.
I get the yest in suspension and swoosh it up a bit.

please excuse me for my ignorance.

I just want to get the advice that has been shared straight.

So if I plan on leaving my current beer in the primary for 2-3 weeks with the yeast cake on bottom at 70 F there should be no problem to rack a new brew onto it at that point; (i will transfer the current beer and rack the new one onto the yeast cake the same day)


I also have yeast I got from BJ's restaurant and it is being stored in my fridge. anyone know how long that yeast should be good for???

thanks

Don't know who BJ is, but refrigerated yeast, if bottled and handled well, should keep months.

As far as the yeast cake, you could leave your first beer on it of months, and as long as you don't detect any autolysis (1. NOT a worry at 2-3 weeks and 2.you will KNOW if there is autolysis) you can still pitch on that yeast cake.

To sum up: RDWHAHB!!

BJ's is a chain brewpub restaurant in my area, and thanks for the info.