Pitching onto a yeast cake...

So, I just wanted to get some advice.

I'm planning on making a maibock within the next couple of days. It's got 9lbs of LME and will, obviously, need a pretty big starter. I've got a Dark Cherry Lager kit from the LHBS fermenting in the basement right now. The cherry part was a bottle of cherry flavoring (smelled just like maraschino cherries). It's been going for about a week now and I was planning to pitch the maibock onto that yeast cake when I rack the cherry lager to a secondary.

I was just thinking...Will I get some noticeable cherry flavor if I pitch onto that cake?

Is there any way to wash the cake so I'll get a clean tasting maibock or should I just throw down the money for a different pouch/bag of yeast?

Thanks,
Brian

Yes, Search for "yeast washing". It should be very easy for you to wash the cake, and then immediately re-pitch.

Although if you are washing the yeast anyway, you might want to check, say, mrmalty's pitching calculator to make sure you're not too drastically overpitching.

EDIT: link

Thanks for the responses.

I'll check out yeast washing. I've probably read something about it before just didn't remember that I did. Otherwise, that question would have never popped into my head.

Also...I'm a little confused on how to use that pitching calculator. Is non-yeast percentage my best guess? If there's other stuff in the trub like additives should I lower the number?

Not to hawk your post, but I had the same question. However I wanted to put a cream ale on top of a Belgium wheat. Would this be possible without terrible off flavors? I used a liquid Belgium Wheat yeast and it is a high gravity brew.

SeaMonster said:

Thanks for the responses.

I'll check out yeast washing. I've probably read something about it before just didn't remember that I did. Otherwise, that question would have never popped into my head.

Also...I'm a little confused on how to use that pitching calculator. Is non-yeast percentage my best guess? If there's other stuff in the trub like additives should I lower the number?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't use the Dark Chery Yeast without trying to wash it first and don't worry to much about the calculator and just use the yeast that you get from the washing.

If you think about it proportionally...I always think of it as a drop in the bucket tbh. You often have what maybe a few ounces at best of actual liquid from the previous brew? In 5 gallons, it is (with a liberal amount) like 0.5%. I do suppose the Trub could inherit some of the flavor, but most likely you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.

That all being said, I do tend to err on the side of caution personally and all my experiences of racking onto a yeast cake (rack is the proper method, not pour because you have a sufficient colony to ferment) have been to ferment a higher gravity brew of similar composition.

Although I did violate this recently, and racked a Tripel onto the cake of a dark brew. I will let y'all know how this experiment goes once the Tripel is conditioned.

So if you wanna live on the wild side, I think it is probably not that big of a deal. But to be on the safe side, wash it.

Let me know how that turns out. I'd really like to know.