Yeast Cake Question

So, I am planning on using my yeast cake tomorrow for a darker stronger beer. I really would like to clean my fermenter before adding the new wort. Is it possible to just fill a mason jar (or two) full of trub, clean the fermenter, then add the trub and mix with the new wort? Does this make sense?? Thanks everyone!

I would just wash the yeast. Keep the yeast and toss the trub. This might help...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

Hi, thanks for the response. I did not want to wash the yeast as i want to brew and reuse that day. Aren't you pretty much forced to make a starter with washed yeast?

BradleyBrew said:

So, I am planning on using my yeast cake tomorrow for a darker stronger beer. I really would like to clean my fermenter before adding the new wort. Is it possible to just fill a mason jar (or two) full of trub, clean the fermenter, then add the trub and mix with the new wort? Does this make sense?? Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

That would work fine, be sure to sanitize the jars first!

I've reused yeast and just poured the wort right into the used fermentor. The carboy was caked with trub and yeast on the sidewalls.

If you are sanitized from the start, all should be fine. even that nasty trub on the side of the fermentor. It will fall out. In the next brew. So relax and have a homebrew!

BradleyBrew said:

So, I am planning on using my yeast cake tomorrow for a darker stronger beer. I really would like to clean my fermenter before adding the new wort. Is it possible to just fill a mason jar (or two) full of trub, clean the fermenter, then add the trub and mix with the new wort? Does this make sense?? Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

yup, ive done it, it works fine.

You can wash the yeast fairly well in about 45 minutes. 10 to boil some water, 10 to chill the water, add the yeast/trub to your container with the chilled water, shake hard, let it settle for 30 minutes, rack to good stuff from the top (off the trub).

Just a thought

If you want to get rid of the trub you could definitely do a quick wash. If you washed today and pitched tomorrow (in example) it has been my experience that the yeast will be very active and will start working away on your new wort very quickly. No need for a starter IMHO.

I have done this when I wanted to reuse yeast right after I racked from primary but I wanted to get rid of trub, etc.

Either way though has worked forme though. If I were short on time I would just dump the wort on the cake and let it do its thing. As mentioned the yeast will clean up after itself.

Good luck!

Alan

Thanks for the feedback! All went well and the blow off is already rockin!

What did you end up doing?

Next week I am planning on racking my current beer to secondary on Wednessday and washing the yeast then brewing on Friday should I keep the washed yeast in the fridge between Wednessday and Friday or just leave it at room temp?

I would keep it in the fridge and pull it out when I started brewing so it was up to room temp when I pitched. YMMV.

Alan

I ended up brewing the Coopers Best Extra Stout found in the clone brew book. I increased the IBU's by +10 and took the OG to 1.070

Chris White (of White Labs), and Jamil Zainasheff write in their 'Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation' book:

"A number of homebrewers have adopted the practice of transferring the beer from a fermentor at the end of fermentation and then adding a new batch of wort on top of the yeast cake. This is bad practice. Can the practice make good beer? Absolutely. Will it make the best beer possible? Absolutely not." (page 164)

They go on to describe how the yeast cake is not at its healthiest; it's mixed with dead yeast, trub, and most importantly -- it's yeast that has finished fermenting, and has made itself suitable for living under finished beer, not wort. Yeast in this state are not actively growing -- you want yeast growth for the flavors the growth process gives to the beer.

They recommend rinsing and preparing a starter with an appropriate pitching rate, using the collected yeast from the cake. This brings the yeast into full growth mode, and you get better fermentation.