How long is it viable

How long is a yeast cake sitting like this viable for repitching onto? Its got a thin layer of beer on it. If I were to put it in a bottle and fridge it would it last longer? I have the stuff for my next beer coming it will be 3-5 days I'd like to just pitch onto this yeast cake if possible. I don't have the stuff to wash it at the moment. Any chance this could still be used then?

I would have not racked prior to the new ingredients arriving.

I have never kept a cake uncovered (I know you have a little beer on there, but there is a lot of air too) for more than a few hours, although I think the fridge and keeping it sterile should help.

The Brown Ale I took off it had been there more then two weeks and I don't have anything to drink right now so I wanted to get it moving. Guess I'll just chuck it and move on.

I used to keep yeast on water in a sealed, sanitized glass jar in the fridge for about 1 month, then use it with no ill-effects. I gave up on the yeast harvesting practice cause fresh yeast (only a single strain) is only about $6.

Yeah, next time get a mason jar all sanitized before you rack the batch off. When you get to the bottom, swirl the crap out of the carboy to loosen up the cake and continue racking that (or pump it via the autosiphon) to fill your mason jar. It should keep in the jar in the fridge for direct pitching for at least a month. Longer than that and you would want to recharge it with a starter.

avid.. $6 is a really high percentage of the cost of a 5 gallon all grain batch IMHO.

Bobby_M said:

avid.. $6 is a really high percentage of the cost of a 5 gallon all grain batch IMHO.

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Agreed, I have some sanitizer ready I'll have to see if I have a jar of some kind.