Dumping on yeast cake

Just finished an IPA and want to make a red ale and dump it on the yeast cake. A few questions. There is a little trub; will that affect taste of the ale? Since my carboy is a little crusty around the top when I dump it and shake the hell out of it to aerate will the crustys getting in the beer cause any issues? My first time dumping so I want to make sure I'm doing it right and sanitary.

I pitched an IPA onto a Red Ale yeast cake a few batches ago. I didn't worry about the krausen ring on top, or any trub in the cake. I just racked the beer until there was about a 1/8" over the cake. Then I transferred the fresh wort directly onto the cake. The IPA turned out great. It started fermenting hard after 90 minutes. I probably over pitched, but it tastes great to me. I think some people will take a sanitized spoon and take out half the cake. Good luck.

what's the abv of the ipa?
generally you want to reuse the yeast of a lower abv beer, because the yeast from a higher abv beer will already be stressed

i dumped my imperial creme ale on the us-05 cake from an apa i bottled that night. didn't notice any off flavours/too much hoppiness coming through

thetragichero said:

what's the abv of the ipa?
generally you want to reuse the yeast of a lower abv beer, because the yeast from a higher abv beer will already be stressed

i dumped my imperial creme ale on the us-05 cake from an apa i bottled that night. didn't notice any off flavours/too much hoppiness coming through

Click to expand...

1056- Not to high. And the red ale is Jamil's evil twin @ 1063 so that should be good to go.

I regularly use a packet of yeast for three batches (I have three fermenters). Right now I have a pale ale, and red ale in secondaries, and a brown ale in my primary. I pitched fresh yeast into the pale, a week later I transferred to secondary and pitched the red on the cake, then last week I did the same with the brown. I only aerate the first batch, then shake the subsequent batches only enough to disturb the yeast cake; I do this because the yeast should not need to reproduce much when the entire cake is being pitched on and aeration is needed to promote yeast reproduction. The fermentations off the cakes kick off within an hour.

X2 only aerate the first batch cause your yeasties aren't gett'n any nookie!

I have done this and liked the results. It is usually waaayyy over pitching and lots of people will tell you that's no good. I often like little or no yeast character in my beer and that's likely what you'll get. I don't pitch onto the cake anymore though because sometimes the ferment is so aggressive it really is hard to control (high heat and goopey yeast clogging the blow off tube). Now I just scoop what I need out, measure it in a graduated cylinder, add a little extra and pitch it. Mr.malty or yeast calc will tell you how many mL to add.

Ive done it only once and I'd say that fermentation was ok, but honestly the beer was way more bland that I wanted and was expecting. I think that there wasn't enough cellular growth for adequate flavor development. Just my opinion but I'd say just decant an appropriate amount of slurry (a pint or so) and pitch that in you'd be golden, and don't worry to much about the trub, as long as it is a med/big American red and not an irish red or the like.

Actually, I wouldn't worry about the trub either way, I just wouldn't over pitch that much. My 2 cents