the yeast cake, oh my the yeast cake.

I brewed my blackeye IPA today. It uses S-05. I also kegged an American Wheat today that used S-05. I took advantage of this opportunity to pitch onto a yeast cake. 32 batches, and I hadn't been able to do this yet.

So I finished racking into the BB at 5:35. I just went downstairs (7:30) to check something and heard a strange noise. The damn thing had already blown up, and the blow off tube was going nuts.

I know that pitching on a cake causes a fast hard ferment, but I didn't expect to be blowing off in less than 2 hours.:rockin:

there pretty explosive. You should have probably only used 1/3 to a 1/4 of the cake though....you skipped the growth phase and went straight to fermentation

scinerd3000 said:

there pretty explosive. You should have probably only used 1/3 to a 1/4 of the cake though....you skipped the growth phase and went straight to fermentation

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ok. What issues could that cause? Is the growth phase as important if you have that many yeast cells available?

stevea1210 said:

ok. What issues could that cause? Is the growth phase as important if you have that many yeast cells available?

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I'd say not really on a nice clean yeast like us-05. If you were using something for the purpose of a yeast profile, then the growth phase is key to getting the esters.

I brewed (2) 5 gal batches yesterday. One batch using a 1056 American yeast pack and the other using yeast cake of the same strain collected from my plastic conical with the same recipe. I never pitched a yeast cake before so I thought I would at least have one successful brew. I collected (1) qt and wasn't sure how much to use so I pitched the whole thing. A couple hours later I had strong activity but not out of control. What amount is sufficient from a yeast cake fro 5 gal batch?

Update -
I racked both batches the other day and they turned out wonderful. The yeast cake batch came out much stronger @ 6.58% Alc. The OG = 1.054, FG = 1.004. The batch using the starter smack pack is @ 4.73% Alc. OG = 1.046, FG = 1.010. I have kept the yeast cake and split it up this time in two 1/2 qt mason jars. I plan to repeat this again this Sunday. Not sure why the OG were different. Both batches were pretty much the same. i suspect a long brew day powered by consumption contributed to handler impairment.

I always like pitching onto a yeast cake when doable. And I'll also second that, S05 is quickly becoming one of my favorite yeasts to use.

~r~

1.004???? That's some attenuation! I've gotten rather high attenuation w/ US-05, but that high. Mash temp(s)? Are you sure of the OG?