Dumb cakes question (pour over yeast cake)

[Anthony Creamer]

So...
I'll preface this with the following... I read about people pouring apple juice or cider over an existing yeast cake and making hard cider.


My basic cider recipe for boozing up my life on the cheap is...

6 bottles walmart brand apple juice (96 oz)
5 tsp cider yeast (safcider ab-1)
yeast nutrient 5 tsp
back sweeten with 1.5 cups dissolved sugar and force carbonate

Question:

I tried a batch where I poured apple juice over the leftover yeast dregs (cake) and mixed it up with additional yeast nutrient. The result was 'bready' in flavor was so bad I couldn't even drink it after clarifying , deactivating the yeast, letting it age a few weeks and back sweetening.
Is this 'pour over yeast cake' nonsense or is there trick to recycling yeast cells?
Hopefully that's coherent

 

[lumpher]

Many of us reuse yeast. Main things to watch out for is keeping it close to the same, and maybe dumping some yeast unless we're building a big yeast cake for big abv. I tend to rinse my yeast cakes, too. What was the yeast, and what was it used for?

 

[Jonakr]

On ciders I'll pour new juice on top of the cake. If I'm reusing from a beer or ale, I'll pour the yeast slurry into a glass container, and then decant the amount I want in the new juice.

 

[amber-ale]

Shouldn’t it be possible to take a used yeast cake add sugary sterile water or a bit of new wort to it, wait for fermentation to start and for the trub to settle and use the yeasty water as a cleaner source for adding to your next brew?