Re-Using A Yeast Cake - Question

If I have a LARGE (WYeast CA 001) yeast cake from a 3 gallon IPA that I brewed 2weeks ago, will it still be viable for a Russian Imperial? OR Should I make a starter batch with it and grow it a bit more?

(It has been sitting in the fridge in a clean container during these past two weeks.)

mrb said:

If I have a LARGE (WYeast CA 001) yeast cake from a 3 gallon IPA that I brewed 2weeks ago, will it still be viable for a Russian Imperial? OR Should I make a starter batch with it and grow it a bit more?

(It has been sitting in the fridge in a clean container during these past two weeks.)

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A starter will help you with a head start (timing), but you should have more than enough yeast to get a good fermentation without it.

Bring it to room temp about 24 hours ahead of pitch time, and that will help.

BierMuncher said:

A starter will help you with a head start (timing), but you should have more than enough yeast to get a good fermentation without it.

Bring it to room temp about 24 hours ahead of pitch time, and that will help.

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Yep, I agree, Biermuncher's got 'er pegged........

At the very least you should wash half of it for later and use the other half to make a starter.

A yeast cake from a 3 gallon batch will be much larger than any starter. A typical cake is 3-4 quarts of yeast slurry. In fact, I often brew a lower gravity batch to produce a cake for a high gravity batch. I'd use it as is.

On this topic...I have a yeast cake from a London Porter (British Ale Yeast) and I am thinking about throwing an Old Speckled Hen on top of the cake. Good idea, or bad idea? Somewhere I heard that you shouldn't pitch a lighter beer onto a darker beer's yeast cake.

I've heard lighter, lower gravity on to darker, higher gravity beer and it seems to make more sense to me.

Right now I'm using my Irish Ale yeast and just dumping on top of the yeast cake

Irish Red Ale 1.056 --> Oaktown Brown ~1.062 --> Imperial Stout ~1.080

The beer that gave this yeast cake was a double IPA with an initial gravity of 1.082 which is about the same for the Old Rasputin that I plan to use it for next. This should be ok then, right?

homebrewer_99 said:

At the very least you should wash half of it for later and use the other half to make a starter.

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I agree with homebrewer_99. If you're gonna do a starter anyway, why not wash it first and use half of it? just my .02$

Personally I would take the yeast, wash it (maybe just once) and split it. Pitch half into the new beer and save the other half. I think that if you put the new beer on the whole yeast cake this is going to be too much yeast. Not that you will get the bad flavors from an over pitched beer, but you want the yeast to go through some growth before begining fermentation, especially in ales.