yeast problem?

Ok, I brewed a batch of edwort's Rye IPA last night. I bottled another batch while I was brewing, and saved the yeast cake with about 1/4" of beer on top of it. The wort went on top of the yeast cake. (nottingham)

This morning, nothing. not even the slightest sign of fermentation. I went ahead and dumped a pack of notty into the carboy.

I figure my wort was too hot (86 deg+/-) when it went on top of the yeast cake. ?? is that the problem? yeast cake was at room temp = 70 deg or so.

This is the first time I've tried to reuse a yeast cake.

And the NOOB question - will this screw up the beer?!?

I have re-used yeast cakes on several occasions. One key piece of info I didn't see in your post was how long the last beer was in primary. If its been several weeks, it seems to take a little while to wake the yeast up and get rolling again. Also, if you oxygenated well, the yeast will do their reproductive thing until the o2 is depleted, and then begin fermentation. You did pitch pretty warm, but those temps should not kill the yeast *I think*. When you re-hydrate, the directions say to rehydrate in warm 90ish F IIRC. It may cause some off flavors, but those usually lessen with age.

FWIW, I racked my 8 day old starter (2.5G batch of Belgian strong golden ale) into secondary and racked 5 gallons of tripel on top. It was still pretty active when I racked, but close to expected FG. The tripel is going gangbusters right now. It sounds almost like a cat purring the bubbles are that constant, and every once in a while it lets out a big belch which makes the starsan splash out of the bucket.

the previous beer had been in the primary about 4 weeks or so. From everything I'd heard I'd expect it to be fermenting strongly after 6 hours, but I had zero activity.

he**, I usually get strong fermentation after 6 hours just pitching a pack of notty.

Well, if its any comfort, I had a Barleywine that was pitched on a 4 week old Nottingham cake take 24+ hours to take off, then it took off like a rocket and went from 1.096 to 1.012 in 4 days.