Pitch on top of yeast cake

While I was mashing today, I happened to think that I had 6g in the primary that could be transferred. Is it as simple as transferring cooled wort on to the yeast bed?

I have not done that yet, but might be doing so here in about an hour.

yup..and I shake it around a little bit to wake everything up

From what I hear, make sure you are ready for a blowoff.

Thanks for the quick replies!!!!!!

Yes, that's all there is to it.

I typically don't use the *entire* cake from a previous brew. You can use this to tell you how much slurry you need.

i do it all the time and it rules

Yeah you could, though it is recommended that you put a darker beer onto the yeast cake than the one before, not the other way around...just be sure to use a blowoff tube, because it will be active....

Some people recommend scooping out half of the yeast rather than pitching onto a whole cake. To do that sanitize a spoon...If you want to save it, you can sanitize a mason jar... and then wash and store that yeast...

If your previous batch was darker than what you are doing you could do a quick yeast wash...(you would need boilled and cooled, or sterile jugged, water- you want to make sure the water is sanitized). You could pour in about a half gallon of the sterile water into your fermenter swirl it a bit, let it settle for about 20 minutes, then slowly pour off the top water/left over beer, leaving behind the yeast and sediment (though some of the sediment/trub will be rinsed away)...Then do it again with the other half gallon of water. That way you will getting rid of the majority of the remnants of the previous brew.

It's not as perfect as doing a "formal" yeast wash, but it will do if you want to pitch a lighter beer on a darker yeastcake, the same day.

Good luck!

The color of the previous batch is much less important then the IBU's and OG of the beer being racked off of the cake.

Anything much over 1.055 and the yeast may be overstressed and cause undesired results - although I have pitched on cakes from beers with much higher gravities than this and the yeast seemed to perform just fine. Anything over 50 IBU or so can leave the cells covered in hop resins that will carry over to the beer being pitched on the cake.

Color would only be a factor if you left something like 1 gallon of Stout behind then racked a Blonde Ale on top of it. Obviously that's going to have an impact on the color of the beer. Otherwise, the amount of beer normally left after racking to secondary is minimal and not enough to change the color or flavor of the beer significantly.

ohiobrewtus said:

Color would only be a factor if you left something like 1 gallon of Stout behind then racked a Blonde Ale on top of it. Obviously that's going to have an impact on the color of the beer. Otherwise, the amount of beer normally left after racking to secondary is minimal and not enough to change the color or flavor of the beer significantly.

Click to expand...

When I was using color refrences, I was more referring to strong flavors....if you are brewing a blonde you don't want the strong flavors of let's say a stout coming through by pitching the blonde on the stout...most books I've noticed just simplify this by saying don't pitch "dark on top of light"

Revvy said:

When I was using color refrences, I was more referring to strong flavors....if you are brewing a blonde you don't want the strong flavors of let's say a stout coming through by pitching the blonde on the stout...most books I've noticed just simplify this by saying don't pitch "dark on top of light"

Click to expand...

I understood as much, but wanted to make sure that OP knew that there were factors other than color that needed to be considered when re-pitching.

ohiobrewtus said:

I understood as much, but wanted to make sure that OP knew that there were factors other than color that needed to be considered when re-pitching.

Click to expand...

Gotcha!!!!!! :rockin:

I dunno Revvy, I think he was Ohiobrewtus was challenging you to a yeastcake wrestling match.

Isn't the majority of the thick white layer at the bottom the trub? Isn't that something you don't really want to keep readding to your next beer?

Ysgard said:

Isn't the majority of the thick white layer at the bottom the trub? Isn't that something you don't really want to keep readding to your next beer?

Click to expand...

While there will certainly be hop leftovers and other 'stuff' in there, a large portion of it is viable, active yeast cells. There is a limit of about 5 or 6 repitches as well. I've read that anything more than that and you run the risk of the yeast actually beginning to mutate, as well as over stressing them.

Ysgard said:

Isn't the majority of the thick white layer at the bottom the trub? Isn't that something you don't really want to keep readding to your next beer?

Click to expand...

Hence the reason for washing/rinsing the yeast...and pitching "darker" on "lighter"....

Usually though a person will only pitch one or 2 batches on a cake. So a little trub won't hurt.

Revvy said:

Hence the reason for washing/rinsing the yeast...and pitching "darker" on "lighter"....

Usually though a person will only pitch one or 2 batches on a cake. So a little trub won't hurt.

Click to expand...

Hypothetically, though, if you only pitch on half of a yeast cake, and you plan the order of your brews ahead of time, then one vial of yeast can last a LONG time, as it grows exponentially with every brew. There has to be a point where the yeast will just stop replicating and being happy, no doubt, but if you're smart you can really stretch it out.

Listening to Jamil's podcast, he says that he usually will pitch 5 times on a slurry, and he finds that pitch #3 is always the best, that is, for some reason, where and when the yeast are the happiest. The other are all Exhibition Grade, no degradation or off flavors, but #3 is firing on all cylinders.

oberon567 said:

Hypothetically, though, if you only pitch on half of a yeast cake, and you plan the order of your brews ahead of time, then one vial of yeast can last a LONG time, as it grows exponentially with every brew. There has to be a point where the yeast will just stop replicating and being happy, no doubt, but if you're smart you can really stretch it out.

Listening to Jamil's podcast, he says that he usually will pitch 5 times on a slurry, and he finds that pitch #3 is always the best, that is, for some reason, where and when the yeast are the happiest. The other are all Exhibition Grade, no degradation or off flavors, but #3 is firing on all cylinders.

Click to expand...

I've seen 2 different numbers on (non-half) cake pitching...Some say 4, some say 6 uses....I don't know, both seem high to me without washing.

I wonder why he thinks 3 is a good number?

Splitting and alternating, like you suggest is a good idea....

Revvy said:

Hence the reason for washing/rinsing the yeast...and pitching "darker" on "lighter"....

Usually though a person will only pitch one or 2 batches on a cake. So a little trub won't hurt.

Click to expand...

shhh...don't tell anyone but I pitched a rye pale ale on a pacman yeast cake from a brew with heavy amount smoked malt and no one ever noticed.

I poured off a 1/2 quart of slurry into a sterilzed ball jar and there was still more I could have retrieved. I poured half back in the carboy and ran the work on top of it: It started rolling within an hour. Just to be safe I changed to a blow-off.

I guess I now have 8oz of starter for next time?

Pretty good trick!

Thanks