Pitching High Gravity Wort onto Notty Yeast Cake

This saturday I plan on bottling a 1.051 OG Nut Brown Ale directly from primary after two weeks of fermentation using nottingham yeast. I am also going to be brewing a fairly high gravity Scottish Strong Ale that day. I was thinking since malt is the emphasis of the scottish strong style, that the nottingham yeast would be a great choice, fermented in the 60's.

My Scottish Heavy is going to have an OG around 1.090. I am wondering if I am just asking for trouble pitching a wort of this magnitude onto what will be a ravaneous nottingham yeast cake?

I am thinking, if I do pitch onto the cake, I make sure the wort is down to 63 degrees or so, then pitch and let fermentation go in 60 or so degrees ambient.

Here is the recipe


Amount Item Type % or IBU
14.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 86.42 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.17 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 6.17 %
0.10 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 0.62 %
0.10 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 0.62 %
0.50 oz Chinook [11.00 %] (60 min) Hops 15.0 IBU
0.50 oz Chinook [11.00 %] (30 min) Hops 11.5 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.091 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.021
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.15
Bitterness: 26.5 IBU
Est Color: 17.2 SRM Color

I plan on two weeks in primary, 2 month secondary fermentation in cooler ambient temp and then 1 month bottle condition/carbonation.

I am really hoping my patience is rewarded, but I don't want to mess it up by doing something wrong with the pitch.

This might go without saying but

RIG A BLOWOFF WHEN RACKING ONTO A CAKE OF NOTTY.

I made the mistake of using regular siphon tubing on an airlock body instead of jamming a thicker tube into the neck of the carboy. the next day was spent scrubbing ceilings.


Great beer though!

Did you rack carefully or dump it in? I pitched onto a cake of US-05 recently and dumped it in. I think it may have been a mistake?

Anyway, I think your yeast will be very happy with all of those new sugars.

As stated above you should plan on using a large blow off tube. I did this just once and in less than an hour I was seeing activity. Lost a half gallon to the blow off to boot.

I always cool to the low end of the temperature range when I pitch on a cake. That reduces the chance of a blowoff, but doesn't eliminate them completely.

What mash temperature were you planning?

Hi I have a cider thats currently using notty, would throwing a graff on that yeast cake the day I bottle work out ya think?

Yea I racked a 1.12 barley wine onto a yeast cake of notty earlier this week, it was about 4.5 gallons in a 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket so I thought it would be ok with just an airlock. Well I was wrong, I woke up to find a volcano of krausen flowing from my bucket.

david_42 said:

I always cool to the low end of the temperature range when I pitch on a cake. That reduces the chance of a blowoff, but doesn't eliminate them completely.

What mash temperature were you planning?

Click to expand...

I mashed at 149 for 45 minutes and 157 for 45 minutes. My first ever decoction. I am going all out on this one.


So we are obviously thinking that i should use a blowoff instead of an airlock. Do we think a 5/16 inch blowoff tube would be big enough? Maybe I ferment this puppy in glass and use a 1 inch blowoff? all this crazy fermentation talk is scaring me a little!

Or just set the lid of the pail on loosely, and set the whole thing in the bathtub for the first night. The kreusen will just lift off the lid and run down the side of the bucket. Makes a mess, but its better than cleaning the ceiling.

t

Well wish me luck! I ended up with 6.5 gallons of 1.074 wort. 78% efficiency....

I didn't have time to boil it down to five gallons so I threw 6 gallons of it onto a nottingham cake in a 6.5 gallon bucket with an airlock in a bathtub full of 58 degree water....I am playing with fire but I think the notty will play nice at such a low temp. I am hoping I can get down to about 1.019 or so with the notty...I think it is going to make a darned good strong scotch ale. Heck, I tasted the unfermented wort and it wasn't half bad! I already have active fermentation after about 1.5 hours on the cake.

at least its in an easily cleaned environment if theres a kaboom.

Good luck man, keep us posted!

So far so good...it is on day number three between 62 and 64 degrees fermentation tempurature. No blow ups yet...heck the krausen hasn't even breached the airlock...I am going cool, long and slow on this ferementation. My experience is good attenuation and nottingham dropping out into a firm, compact yeast cake after two weeks.

I am hoping to go from 1.074 or so down to 1.019-1.020.....I have a feeling that the nottingham may go even lower...might not make for the best scotch ale...or it could be tasty. Only time will tell