yeast cake shake

[ackgod]

I currently have a pale ale (Wyeast #1056) with an OG of 1.045 that has been in the better bottle primary for 2wks and reached its FG of 1.012. I was planning on racking it to a secondary tonight and brewing up a batch of IIPA that calls for the same yeast and has an OG of 1.083 and pouring the cooled wort onto the existing yeast cake from the pale ale.

I have read a bunch of threads about pitching onto the yeast cake and I think I understand that it would be over pitching and the other concern being that if you over pitch you don't get the esters (do i have to worry about no esters with an IIPA, some of the threads said some beers wanted the yeast esters) you would want. The reason I would want to just pitch onto the yeast cake is to not have to worry about washing the yeast (i know it sounds simple but i tried to save yeast from my previous batch and it just didn't go smoothly so i am a little nervous) and so I pitch enough yeast for this bigger beer. I am also thinking it would be a little difficult to scoop out the yeast cake from the better bottle because it has such a small neck. Also if i do just pitch onto the yeast, how should I aerate? Also, I would be prepared to rig a blowoff tube either way.

And now this post has gotten long and rambling....thanks for any help.

 

[ifishsum]

Go for it. Aerate as best you can by splashing while racking and shaking the bottle back and forth, but when pitching onto a whole cake it shouldn't be as critical because you already have a large yeast colony ready to rock and roll. Definitely attach the blowoff right away, don't just keep it ready.

 

[rsmith179]

With a double IPA, you may actually WANT to pitch on top of the yeast cake. I know a lot of people dog pitching directly on the yeast cake, but as long as you are 100% confident that there is no infection in your current batch, go for it! Like you said, it's pointless to wash this yeast just to repitch. Also, your original batch wasn't too high in alcohol, so you shouldn't have to worry about the yeast being damaged by high amounts of alcohol.