Dry stout ... 1945 NB or S-04

[sidboswell]

Heating water for dry stout and bottling ESB off primary yeast cake from Wyeast 1945 NB Neobritannia... Should I clean fermenter and pitch rehydrated S-04 or just rack on this yeast cake ... Blow off precautions noted.

 

[gtwarren1966]

Isn't racking onto an existing yeast cake essentially the same as overpitching? Would you purposely overpitch your beers? I may be wrong and the beer may come out perfectly fine but I wouldn't do that if I was trying to enter a competition but if its just for drinking then hey why not

 

[bierhaus15]

I wouldn't pitch directly onto an existing yeast cake, though you can remove some of the yeast (say 1/4th total) into a sanitized jar, clean out the fermentor and then re-pitch the slurry into the wort. Never used wy1945 in a stout, though my preference is for anything other than s-04.