"Yeast Inflection" - Repitching concept

I'm still a neophyte homebrewer, but have had a concept rolling around my head. It started as a joke. We were coming up with disgusting beer names and I blurted out "Yeast Inflection!". The concpet was to influence a lighter, American style of beer with remnants from a batch of something with a more European origin. Give that American beer an "accent", as it were.

As I get back into brewing, I sort of feel like this could be a fun experiment. Nail a good Blonde Ale recipe and then reuse a stout yeast cake or something. Sort of thinking of this as a concept project. "German Blonde - Yeast Inflection", "Irish Blonde - Yeast Inflection". etc.

I KNOW the general thinking is to start with a lighter beer and gradually use the cake for biggers beers. Is that to mask the flavors imparted by the old cake (and trub, which I would be conserving in this case)? Or is it because the yeasties are overworked by the big beer and may not work out with the lighter?

If the latter is the case, could I mix up some DME with some nutrients and pour it right on top of the cake in the fermenter, sort of like a starter, and reenergize the yeast?

At the very least, I'm posting this to claim the name "Yeast Inflection" if nobody already has it. Haha.

JetSmooth said:

I KNOW the general thinking is to start with a lighter beer and gradually use the cake for biggers beers. Is that to mask the flavors imparted by the old cake (and trub, which I would be conserving in this case)? Or is it because the yeasties are overworked by the big beer and may not work out with the lighter?

If the latter is the case, could I mix up some DME with some nutrients and pour it right on top of the cake in the fermenter, sort of like a starter, and reenergize the yeast?

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For the first part, I would say both. So , you would definitely pick up some color, flavor, and aromas from more "pronounced" beers.

As for the second part, this is exactly how my LHBS guy repitches. He never dumps right in. He mix up a starter with nutrients, pour it on the yeast cake at the start of brewing. All the lively yeast come back into suspension while he's brewing and then he decants the starter with the now active yeast on top of the new batch in a clean fermentor.