Reusing Yeast

I have a Cream ale that is about to go into a secondary. I want to brew an APA. Can I just pitch the APA wort onto the Cream Ale yeast cake and then aerate? I used some Munton's dry yeast, so this is obviously not about the $1.50, but rather about trying something new. Any suggestions/tips?

Don't aerate. You should rack quietly onto it. There are sufficient yeast to ferment your wort in the cake. Because the population doesn't need to grow, you can encounter the situation where they don't use up the added oxygen and this can lead to storage problems and/or off flavors.

hialtitude said:

...Can I just pitch the APA wort onto the Cream Ale yeast cake and then aerate? ...

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Yep! I do it all the time. I aerate the wort after it has been racked onto the cake. Never had a problem yet.

Be prepared to have a blow off tube ready to go! Many times I get a very vigorous fermentation when racking onto a previous yeast cake.

Thanks!
I was going to shake the s#%t out of it! Any tips for removing the small amount of wort and krausen on top of the cake?

hialtitude said:

...Any tips for removing the small amount of wort and krausen on top of the cake?

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I don't usually worry about that. If you want, you can actually swirl the cake and remove about half of it. You can then wash that yeast for another brew, otherwise just dump the wort ontop of it and watch it go! Oh, and I totally second the idea of using a blow off tube... unless you like kreusen geysers.

Rhoobarb said:

Yep! I do it all the time. I aerate the wort after it has been racked onto the cake. Never had a problem yet.

Be prepared to have a blow off tube ready to go! Many times I get a very vigorous fermentation when racking onto a previous yeast cake.

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Rhoo, you still aerate? I was under the impression that it wasn't necessary when racking onto an established cake and could be potentially problematic if your yeast don't grow and use up the 02. I have racked quietly a few times (mostly onto cakes from liquid yeast) and haven't had any troubles without aerating. Maybe I was just fortunate. :cross:

zoebisch01 said:

Rhoo, you still aerate? I was under the impression that it wasn't necessary when racking onto an established cake and could be potentially problematic if your yeast don't grow and use up the 02. I have racked quietly a few times (mostly onto cakes from liquid yeast) and haven't had any troubles without aerating. Maybe I was just fortunate. :cross:

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Yeah, I do! I've been racking onto previous yeast cakes for about two years now. I read a post here by Janx on the practice. I had never thought of doing it before then. And I've always aerated.

I hadn't read anything to the contrary on aeration, but I haven't gone looking for it, either. Never thought about it being detrimental, to tell you the truth. Might be a good topic to explore.