Nottingham -> Imperial Stout

Well first I'm doing a Scottish Export 80/- which is using the Nottingham yeast and was thinking about pitching the Imperial Stout right on top of the cake. I didn't see any specs for the Nottingham on optimal OG's and such, just temps. Any comments, suggestions, do's, dont's, etc? If I was to do this, should I use the whole cake? OG on the stout should be 1.085-89.

I'm relatively new to brewing, go easy

Check out

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

It will give you an amount of slurry to use for your repitch. Now I'm only going to say this because you are "relavively new to brewing"... Make sure you sanatize your collection vessel, get the proper amount of slurry, and the pitch it into a sanatized fermentor, then put your finished wort on top.

I don't use notty hardly ever, so I don't know even what webpage to send you for the specs, but if you check out morebeer's website, they might have it. I also can't comment on using notty for what styles, because I just don't know.

Thanks for the response. Following what you said do you think I should still make a starter with the slurry due to the high gravity or just pitch it? I could basically be ready to pitch the same time i rack the scottish export.

And this all assumes someone doesnt come in and say NO to using Nottingham for an imperial stout. I haven't used Nottingham at all yet so I'm not sure what kind of flavor it would add, if anything at all to such a heavy beer.

(1.) Don't make a starter. The trub (slurry) will contain more yeasties than you really need. If you use the mrmalty calculations, you'll still probably come up ahead.

(2.) As long as your main fermentation stays at about 70F or lower, Notty doesn't really give off much flavor. It's pretty neutral, as ale yeasts go. However, it can be pretty banana-ish if it goes much above 70. Also, some might not like Notty for a stout because it will come out pretty dry, and some like a fuller-bodied stout. I can go either way. If you want a stout with more body and residual sweetness, try S-04 or a nice liquid yeast (too many possibilities to list, and I'm not familiar with most of them anyway).

(3.) Have fun!

Only thing I would add onto what the other guys said is...make sure your export's OG isn't above 1.060. Pitching yeast into that environment stresses them and repitching onto them may cause off flavors.

He's got a whole cake to not have to worry about stressing them. I checked out the notty website:

http://www.danstaryeast.com/nottingham.html

They say it'll finish down to 1.008 and is "a great choice for creation of higher-alcohol specialty beers!"

I'd say go for it on the imperial and see how she does.

Notty works great for big beers, especially using a yeast cake. Just be ready with that blowoff tube! An imperial beer pitched on that much yeast is a beer-splosion waiting to happen.

Thinking of crashing the Scottish. That shouldn't have any adverse affects when I got to pitch in the stout right?

crash it, rack it, collect, let it warm to room temp while stout is still brewing, put stout into another sterilized fermenter and then pitch the collected yeast cake? any problems with that?

btw, the scottish ended up 1.050 OG and fermenting is going very smooth with the nottingham

I don't see any problem with that.