Another General Yeast Cake Question!!

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HalfPint

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Sorry in advance if this has already been answered, but I'm too lazy to look through countless threads.

I want to pour a chilled wort right on top of the yeast cake in my primary after I rack that one to the keg. I've never done this before and my concern is sanitizing.

Do I clean (sanitize) the bucket at all or do I just dump my wort in?

Thanks a lot,
J
 
I would recommend cleaning the primary and the yeast before reusing in the next batch. The junk left in the primary from the previous batch can give off flavours to the next beer. A technique I have used with success is as follows. rack the beer off the yeast and trub in the primary, then get yourself a litre of cold distilled water. Sanitize a smaller (1gallon) jug or something around that size and dump the yeast, trub and cold water in together with a funnel. Make sure everything is Sanitized. let this container chill in the fridge for about an hour and most of the junk will settle to the bottom. This is a similar process used when washing yeast for storage. After it has settled a while decant the yeast either into a smaller container (sanitized) before pitching or directly into the next beer.

I had some yeast and trub that I dumped into a 2 litre pop container about a month ago which I just rinsed and pitched it into 10 gallons of belgian blonde last week, it started fermenting about 6 hours later and smells great so far.
 
I would recommend cleaning the primary and the yeast before reusing in the next batch. The junk left in the primary from the previous batch can give off flavours to the next beer. A technique I have used with success is as follows. rack the beer off the yeast and trub in the primary, then get yourself a litre of cold distilled water. Sanitize a smaller (1gallon) jug or something around that size and dump the yeast, trub and cold water in together with a funnel. Make sure everything is Sanitized. let this container chill in the fridge for about an hour and most of the junk will settle to the bottom. This is a similar process used when washing yeast for storage. After it has settled a while decant the yeast either into a smaller container (sanitized) before pitching or directly into the next beer.

I had some yeast and trub that I dumped into a 2 litre pop container about a month ago which I just rinsed and pitche d it into 10 gallons of belgian blonde last week, it started fermenting about 6 hours later and smells great so far.

Yeah, I have washed yeast a few times, but thats if I dont't have another beer ready that's going to be using the same style of yeast. The beer I'm planning on putting on this yeast cake is the exact same recipe that the yeast are fermenting right now. Do you still think I should was them?
 
If you are experienced enough to have washed yeast a few times, you are experienced enough to search further information on the process.
 
Aww, you guys are too good to me.
Actually, I did search through about 20 threads and none of them mentioned sanitizing. I'm sure that there is a thread on this site some where, but I couldn't find it.
 
+1 what hammy said - it was clean before you took the beer out, it will still be clean when you put the wort back in provided you keep the lid on in between (pretty much the same as cracking the lid for a hydrometer reading).
 
+1 what hammy said - it was clean before you took the beer out, it will still be clean when you put the wort back in provided you keep the lid on in between (pretty much the same as cracking the lid for a hydrometer reading).

Alright, thanks a lot man.
 
I am currently brewing an Amber Ale in my primary (Wyeast 1056) and it's been in there for a week. The gravity has fallen from 1.048 to 1.012 and I'm ready to rack into my secondary.

My question is this:
What is the best method for reusing the yeast the same day for an IPA I'm brewing that uses the same yeast strain? I don't want to pitch directly on the cake, nor am I concerned with saving any cultures for later brews.

Could I simply rack to secondary, pour about a 1/2 gallon of sanitized/cooled water into the primary, swish around for a while, then decant of into a large growler? Then clean/sterilize the primary, brew/cool the IPA wort and pour into primary, then pour the yeast sample from the growler into the primary without making a starter?

It seems like if I did this it would be similar to pitching the wort on the cake however I'd be removing the excess trub that I don't want.
 
I am currently brewing an Amber Ale in my primary (Wyeast 1056) and it's been in there for a week. The gravity has fallen from 1.048 to 1.012 and I'm ready to rack into my secondary.

My question is this:
What is the best method for reusing the yeast the same day for an IPA I'm brewing that uses the same yeast strain? I don't want to pitch directly on the cake, nor am I concerned with saving any cultures for later brews.

Could I simply rack to secondary, pour about a 1/2 gallon of sanitized/cooled water into the primary, swish around for a while, then decant of into a large growler? Then clean/sterilize the primary, brew/cool the IPA wort and pour into primary, then pour the yeast sample from the growler into the primary without making a starter?

It seems like if I did this it would be similar to pitching the wort on the cake however I'd be removing the excess trub that I don't want.


Yeah, you would basically be washing it at that point. If you don't plan on removing the trub and stuff, why not just pour chilled wort directly onto cake? What your saying is doing the exact same thing as pitching onto a cake, but in another container.

Here's a thread on yeast washing. http://https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/
 
Yeah, you would basically be washing it at that point. If you don't plan on removing the trub and stuff, why not just pour chilled wort directly onto cake? What your saying is doing the exact same thing as pitching onto a cake, but in another container.

Here's a thread on yeast washing. http://https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

I've read the yeast washing thread however no one appears to be doing quite what I am trying to accomplish.

I do plan on removing the trub. I basically just want to do one large "wash" in a growler...

-Pour water (how much is enough?) into primary, swirl, let settle for like 20 minutes.
-Pour that liquid from primary into large growler, let settle for like 20 minutes.
-Then decant off liquid directly into new wort in clean primary.

I'm just curious if this is a good approach and if it's enough yeast to pitch an IPA.
 
Well, I ended up just pitching the IPA wort directly on the cake because there really wasn't as much trub as I though there would be, and there was a lot less hops in the trub than I expected as well (I thought I did a poor job straining but I ended up getting most of it out after all.)

Fermentation took off like crazy after only 3 hours, blow off tube was bubbling rapidly and after two days is still bubbling strong (SG was 1.065).
 
Well, I ended up just pitching the IPA wort directly on the cake because there really wasn't as much trub as I though there would be, and there was a lot less hops in the trub than I expected as well (I thought I did a poor job straining but I ended up getting most of it out after all.)

Fermentation took off like crazy after only 3 hours, blow off tube was bubbling rapidly and after two days is still bubbling strong (SG was 1.065).

Considering that you were pitching an Ipa, I wouldnt have worried about all that trub. I typically only worry about trub if I'm going from an extremly hopped beer t oa not so extremely hopped one, but even then I'm just lazy and do it.

I'm about to make another batch of Apfelwein and I'm just going to pour a bit of juice (straight out of the bottle) onto the old cake swirl and pour it into a new sanitized carboy since I have to use the one it's in now for something else.

Those yeasties are pretty tough.
 
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