Pitching onto yeast cake= wild fermentation within minutes!

I just brewed batch #30 and picthed it onto the yeast cake and trub of batch#29. This is the first time I've used this technique and WOW in just two hours the beer is bubbling wildly and the kraeusen is 3" high already. With a OG of 1.072 I'm expecting a big blowoff on this beer. Maybe I should do this more often instead of pitching a new dry yeast each time. I still love the simple pleasures of this hobby.

I like to pitch on a yeast cake sometimes just for the fun of watching the wild fermentation. I'm such a geek!

Yep, that s*** will happen. I trust you have a blowoff tube installed.

In the end, you'll have some awesome beer, and you'll have saved ~$6 on liquid yeast.

planning on trying this out in a few weeks. going to rack a porter on to vanila and burbon in secondary, and then put a Belgian quad on the yeast cake. Hopefully the quick vicious fermentation will do the high gravity Belgian well.

Beerbeque said:

I just brewed batch #30 and picthed it onto the yeast cake and trub of batch#29. This is the first time I've used this technique and WOW in just two hours the beer is bubbling wildly and the kraeusen is 3" high already. With a OG of 1.072 I'm expecting a big blowoff on this beer. Maybe I should do this more often instead of pitching a new dry yeast each time. I still love the simple pleasures of this hobby.

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Note that it is worth checking the numbers on a yeast calculator (e.g. mrmalty) and decanting some of the cake to avoid overpitching by too much. You basically have a 5 gallon starter.

With a 1.072 you've got 5-6 times as much yeast as you should; that's enough extra that I'd decant some (if it's only 2-3 times as much or less I wouldn't bother, unless it were a Belgian or hefe or something similarly yeast-important).

whats the risk of over pitching exactly?

Bigbens6 said:

whats the risk of over pitching exactly?

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The risks are many, Dave Logsdon of Wyeast was quoted saying:

“I try to stay within 20% of my ideal pitch rate and I prefer to slightly under pitch rather than over pitch. This causes more cell growth, more esters, and better yeast health. Over pitching causes other problems with beer flavor, such as a lack of esters. Changes in the flavor profile are noticeable when the pitch rates are as little as 20% over the recommended amount.”

BA_from_GA said:

planning on trying this out in a few weeks. going to rack a porter on to vanila and burbon in secondary, and then put a Belgian quad on the yeast cake. Hopefully the quick vicious fermentation will do the high gravity Belgian well.

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I don't think it will. Everything that I've read says that you're better off to under-pitch belgian beers. I'm about halfway through "Brew Like A Monk", and they say that proper pitching rates are critical to get the right character from belgian brews. I heard the same thing from the head brewer of a local micro that specializes in belgians. They re-use yeast for 8 generations, and measure out slurry and pitch the proper amount for each batch.

I just did this when I re-used yeast... I added about a quart of water, shook everything up really well, and poured it into a gallon jug. After the trub settled out, I racked off the yeast still in suspension, and then let it settle again for a bit. Once another smaller layer of trub had settled out, I scooped out about a cup of slurry and pitched that.

I basically followed a simplified version of the "yeast washing howto".

MacBruver said:

I don't think it will. Everything that I've read says that you're better off to under-pitch belgian beers. I'm about halfway through "Brew Like A Monk", and they say that proper pitching rates are critical to get the right character from belgian brews.

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+1 on this; Belgians and hefeweizens and other beers that depend on yeast esters for a huge proportion of their flavor are the ones where you're most likely to notice bad results from overpitching.

Forgive the noobish que here?

But how do you store the yeast between batches? More specifically, do you rack a fresh beer right into a dirty bucket? What if you are not going to brew for a week or two after you rack the beer off the cake? Do you still rack into a dirty bucket? Or do you store the yeast elsewhere?

Personally I don't like the idea of racking into a dirty bucket... it's certainly possible, but I wouldn't want to do it. Here's the howto I was referring to in my previous post:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

You can store the yeast in the refrigerator for quite a while once you've done this.

I did this with some but am still afraid to use it. Maybe I'll use it on my next brew and save the fresh pack I bought for it.

IrregularPulse said:

I did this with some but am still afraid to use it. Maybe I'll use it on my next brew and save the fresh pack I bought for it.

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No worries. The first yeast I washed was WLP300 and after four more great batches I washed again and will be starting into that generation here shortly. I don't need to mention to use a starter but when I did it acted just like the original vial.

Oh, and the beer tastes much better because you saved $6 on the batch

TampaTim said:

Forgive the noobish que here?

But how do you store the yeast between batches? More specifically, do you rack a fresh beer right into a dirty bucket? What if you are not going to brew for a week or two after you rack the beer off the cake? Do you still rack into a dirty bucket? Or do you store the yeast elsewhere?

Click to expand...

If you store the yeast refrigerated it is good for about 2 weeks, any longer and I use it to make a fresh starter to pitch. I wouldn't pitch directly onto the cake in your just used primary, as mentioned it is likely an overpitch and it has all that trub from your last batch.

GT

TampaTim said:

Forgive the noobish que here?

But how do you store the yeast between batches? More specifically, do you rack a fresh beer right into a dirty bucket? What if you are not going to brew for a week or two after you rack the beer off the cake? Do you still rack into a dirty bucket? Or do you store the yeast elsewhere?

Click to expand...

Washing the yeast is probably your best option, then you store it in the fridge.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

Edit: damn...I didn't look at the second page for some reason