Yeast Cake Question???

I have a high abv brown ale sitting with about 2 weeks left to go. And if all goes well it could be around 12 abv. Ive read that high alcohol conditions can kill yeast.

So my ?s are.... would my yeast cake still be ok to use for my next batch? Or will it have died from being pushed to its limits then sitting in all that alcohol? Or even, would i be better off using fresh unstressed yeast anyway even if the cake is "alive"?

I used safeale us 05

I believe US-05 hits it's limit around 12%, so it's going to be fairly stressed by the time it's done fermenting your beer. It won't be dead...just concider it retired.

I would move on to a fresh, healthy yeast.

Thats kinda what I figured...Is pushing my yeast like that going to create off flavors? I used an extra half a pack so there would be extra soldiers in the battle.

KeyWestBrewing said:

Thats kinda what I figured...Is pushing my yeast like that going to create off flavors? I used an extra half a pack so there would be extra soldiers in the battle.

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The problem is not how many there are, but rather what conditions the soldiers are being exposed to. You just Agent Oranged your whole army. I wouldn't risk a whole batch of beer trying to re-use that cake.

I didnt intend on using the yeast cake.....but will having gone to such a high abv stress my yeast and create off flavors? Im wondering if i should use a more tolerant yeast even though us-05 says it can get up to 12 abv?