Pitching Onto A yeast cake...

Two questions - First, if I'm going to pitch directly onto a yeastcake, what kind of timing do I need? Does it have to be immediately after I rack the beer from the carboy? Second, I'm thinking about racking a belgian IPA onto a Hefeweizen yeast cake and adding belgian abbey yeast too. Anyone ever tried anything like this? Want to experiment with multiple yeast strains and thought this would be a good oppurtunity. Thanks !

Leave a bit of beer on top of the yeast if you aren't going to pitch right away.

I usually rack my first beer off of the cake while my wort is chilling so I don't worry about it.

You could pitch on it a day later if you need to, as was mentioned, leave a little beer to keep the yeast covered, and dont forget to place the aielock back on the fermenter while you wait to pitch, good luck.

Not wanting to hijack this thread but this subject interests me and I have some questions also.
I am currectly fermenting an IPA with a 1.073 OG on US-05 yeast. Very healthy fermention even after 5 days. Suppose I brew another IPA, would I just pour the cooled wort onto the pile of trub, seal it up and watch it ferment?
Will I get any off flavors from the old hops?
How many tiimes can this be done with the same yeast cake?
The fermenter I assume would stay sanitized if I keep the lid on between brews?

IPA on IPA no problem IMHO. I wouldn't pitch a wheat on an IPA cake, but the other way around I do all the time. And I never go more than three batches on the same cake.

I pitched back to back Best Bitter to ESB on Wyeast 1968 cake. Racked off and waited 5 days before the second brew was pitched. Lid on, airlock, sitting in the basement. No problemo. This is no different than what wyeast smack packs or the white labs tubes are. You could wait a lot longer if you kept it cool. I almost always pitch at least one more brew on the same cake if the next brew is suitable for the yeast type.

Bump. Still wondering if anyone has used a hefe and an abbey in combination. Probably going to give this a shot later tonight

High hopping rates affect yeast viability. If you're re-using yeast from a highly hopped IPA you're probably not getting as good yeast performance if you re-pitch that yeast.

Mixing yeast strains is something I do often just for fun, just keep good notes! I blended a few times and got really cool beers that had awesome flavors. Just couldn't remember exactly what the blend was or how much I blended. (usually have two batches going at the same time)

I'm re-using the hefe yeast, so hop levels shouldn't be a problem. I've never mixed yeast strains and figured that a non-traditional beer like a Belgian IPA would lend itself to experimentation anyway.

theganda said:

Two questions - First, if I'm going to pitch directly onto a yeastcake, what kind of timing do I need? Does it have to be immediately after I rack the beer from the carboy? Second, I'm thinking about racking a belgian IPA onto a Hefeweizen yeast cake and adding belgian abbey yeast too. Anyone ever tried anything like this? Want to experiment with multiple yeast strains and thought this would be a good oppurtunity. Thanks !

Click to expand...

I saved a yeast cake for 4 days once. Hefe (Wyeast 3068). I made another hefe.

The second one finished much dryer and without much of the banana and bubblegum flavors that I like. I think it was just a case of overpitching, of course. It was still good, and probably more to style. I like the flavors, tho.

What yeast was used with the Hefe?

White Labs Hefe, not Hefe IV or whatever the other one is.

The only issue that I can think of with pitching on a yeast cake and adding an additional strain, is that the cell count of the cake is so much higher than the other yeast being pitched, that it is going to drown out most of the contributions of the other yeast. You'll get some contributions, but I think that it would be very very subtle. I would consider removing half to three quarters of the cake if I were going to add another strain.