Next Brew onto Yeast Cake

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flyfisher4est

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I have a stout with Wyeast #1768 English Special Bitter in primary right now.
I plan on after racking to secondary putting another batch on top of the yeast.
Any suggestions?
I am thinking about an Irish Red but concerned with the darkness of the stout affecting the yeast.

Thanks,
Fly
 
theres already a thread on this somewhere.But just clean out your fermentor and start from scratch.It's worth the 2 bucks for new yeast to reach your desired flavor.If you just want to experiment then go right ahead.I'd use a blow off tube though.A 2 pound yeast cake is one hell of a starter!
 
It might come out a smidgen darker then anticipated. You paid for the liquid yeast, you might as well get your moneys worth. It will be a very vigorous ferment, plan accordingly. I had the lid blow off the bucket twice when I re-used the yeast cake. The lid came off, krausen sprayed everywhere, what a mess. Now when I re-use yeast I don't snap the lid down until after most of the excitement passes.
 
Pitching onto an existing cake is a great way to kick-start your fermentation. You normally want to go from darker to lighter. But I have gone from dark to light before and it turned out great. Just decant as much of the previous beer as you can right before you pour onto the cake. And have a blow-off tube ready. First time I tried this method, I needed one!

More info here.
 
Wow! I just did pretty much the same thing today. Only, I went from an ESB to a brown. I was told that you don't want but about a cup or 2 of the yeast cake after decanting most of the previous wort off the cake first, then swirl it all up and use the left over yeast slurry. I did this once before about 2 months ago and had a good vigirous fermentation. The beer turned out great too. So thought I'd try it again.:rockin:
 
I am thinking about an Irish Red but concerned with the darkness of the stout affecting the yeast.

It is traditional to go same or darker for that reason. Yeast washing would be more work but in this case I would consider it.

Next time you can either swap the order (irish, then stout) or split the pack into two different starters so you have two cultures to work from.

I have started putting together some preliminary thoughts about the different methods of reusing yeast for first-timers.
 
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