Adding wort to a fermenting batch?

[wilserbrewer]

I pitched a slurry of US-05 into a batch on Monday and it was beginning to ferment and starting to kruesen on Tuesday. I had another batch of the same beer ready to ferment and wanted to use the same 05 yeast but had none available. I aerated the 2nd batch and combined it w/ the batch that just started actively fermenting. Several hours later, both batches were fermenting nicely. I ask the collective wisdom, was this a bad idea? Or is this akin to a stepping up a really large starter? Thanks

 

[JerseyBrewer]

There's no problem with this.... Very common method for small breweries that have a boil kettle that is much smaller than the fermenter...

I'd only be wary of 2 things: 1) possible contamination and possibly oxygen issues if the there is a long lag between the start of the first fermentation and the adding of the 2nd batch.

 

[maida7]

but breweries get both batches together the same day before the yeast really starts making alcohol. The danger with what you did is that the oxygen in the second batch will oxidize the alcohol from the batch that was already fermenting. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[bk0]

Put "continuous fermentation" into google. Fresh wort goes in the top and finished beer comes out the bottom. It's how the huge macrobreweries produce mass quantities of BMC.

RDWHAHB