First time on a cake!

[Stauffbier]

So today I bottled an IPA, and at the last minute I decided to brew a quick batch and pitch it on the cake (safbrew s-33) from the batch I bottled. After I brewed I decided to pour about half of the cake into a jar to wash later, and I pitched on top of the other half with 65*F wort.. WOW!!!! What an amazing start I got! It was fermenting like crazy with a huge krausen within about 2 hours! I've never seen a batch take off so fast before, and that was only half of the cake! I've got it down to 63F right now with a blow off tube just in case...

 

[Brew-boy]

When beers are over pitched like that I would imagine it would start like that.

 

[Stauffbier]

I figured pouring half of the cake out would reduce the over pitch issue a little. I now know to pour out a lot more if I ever plan to do it again. I've heard about so many people pitching on a cake, so I had to try it at least once. Normally I wash yeast, and build starters. Typically I even tell people that pitching on a cake is "over pitching", but I figured if I don't try it at least once myself I can't really say anything. I'll see how this batch tastes to decide whether I'd ever do it again or not.

 

[truebe]

you could use mr malty to estimate about how much cake to leave in there. of course you could also wash the yeast then get a measured amount.

 

[Stauffbier]

Thanks truebe. I am aware of MrMalty. I actually use Yeastcalc myself. As I mentioned above this wasn't about using calculators. It was about experimenting with pitching on a cake. I was going to pitch on the entire cake at first, but I got cold feet and poured the half out at the last minute. I always calculate pitching rates on all of my batches and make starters normally... I have quite a few varieties of washed yeast

 

[truebe]

i wasnt assuming you didnt know anything about starters and calculators. sorry if it came off that way. I was just trying to say you could use that value to get a closer guess than half the cake. No washing or measuring involved, just sort of eyeball the cake decide how much to scoop or pour out.

 

[Stauffbier]

As well, I apologize if I came across too defensively. Yeah, I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants on this one. Every now and then I get spontaneous and blow off calculators, and I'll even blow off water treatment sometimes. More often than not when I do this, the batch turns out pretty good! In the future I'll likely just stick to washing yeast, unless by chance this batch turns out awesome. If that happens I might pitch on half cakes of this particular yeast strain more often

 

[Brew-boy]

Please post your flavor results from you experiment.

 

[Stauffbier]

Please post your flavor results from you experiment.

I will indeed, but something tells me you already know something I don't! haha.. I know I broke the rules, but hopefully I won't pay for it with a nasty batch of beer!

 

[bigringking]

I did pretty much the same thing this morning. Then I finished building my stir plate this afternoon...
I'm curious to see the impact of over pitching yeast. I plan on harvesting the yeast when this latest brew is done. Should I be worried about the condition of the yeast, i.e. it's health for future use? I wouldn't think I'm harming them.

 

[Stauffbier]

If the beer tastes bad in any way I probably wouldn't wash the yeast, but if it tastes good I would. Which is what I intend if this batch comes out good. If not, no big deal, because I saved half of the cake in the first place... It was my first time using this strain. It's the fermentis S-33. I had it sitting in the fridge for months, so I decided to use it to play around with. It actually made a very tasty IPA on the first batch...

 

[tre9er]

As well, I apologize if I came across too defensively. Yeah, I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants on this one. Every now and then I get spontaneous and blow off calculators, and I'll even blow off water treatment sometimes. More often than not when I do this, the batch turns out pretty good! In the future I'll likely just stick to washing yeast, unless by chance this batch turns out awesome. If that happens I might pitch on half cakes of this particular yeast strain more often

I do this often. Of course, as times goes by I get more and more detailed and fly by the seat of my pants less, but I'm just a damned impulsive person and can't imagine life without doing stuff on a whim sometimes.

I don't even wash my yeast most of the time now, I just swirl the cake after racking off it and then pour whatever fits into a quart-sized mason jar off, leaving heavy sediment behind. I usually have a fair amount of trub in the jar but I just stick it in the fridge and wait for brew day. Once I washed chico and split it 4 ways, each one fermented a 5g. medium gravity batch just fine...but lately I've been lazy.

 

[Stauffbier]

Yeah, it was indeed awfully easy to just pour half of the yeast cake in a jar vs. doing the typical washing. I might always start doing it that way, as well. I can always go back and wash it later if I decide I need "cleaner" yeast for making a starter...

 

[Stauffbier]

Please post your flavor results from you experiment.

So I just bottled this batch. I'll begin by saying it was a very simple batch that I threw together for my dad. He'll be visiting me in a couple months, and he only drinks BMC Light. So I wanted to brew something he might actually like. It was a simple grain bill with MO, Crystal 10, and Galena for bittering. It came out to be a 3.9% ABV, which should be perfect for him.
My sample out of the bottling bucket tasted great! It's a very clean, well balanced beer. I can't detect any sort of off flavors from the yeast. I'm betting it will be a great summer beer after carbing up. I don't think it will even need any conditioning time once its carbonated, although it won't be consumed until August.

With all of this said, I'm quite pleased with the results of "over pitching" on a half yeast cake. I would certainly do it again with a similar style beer.

 

[jma99]

I do this all the time!

I dump my wort right from the plate chiller onto a cake, and stand back!

Beer comes out great! No chance for anything else to get a foothold and grow in there.

Plus it cuts your yeast expense in half, or quarters it if you pitch again!

 

[Stauffbier]

I did it again yesterday with a saison yeast, but this time I only used about 25% of the existing cake. It still took off like a rocket after about 3 hours...

 

[CKing]

I used about 1-1.5 cups of a Nottingham yeast cake this past weekend for a 8+% Old Ale and had blow-off tube activity in about 3 hours.
The next morning my bucket was bulging and the blow-off was cruising in the fast lane.
Next day no more solids coming through the blow-off, and a steady bubble.
Following day I replaced the blow-off tube with a normal airlock, still bubbling every 8-10 seconds.

This is my 1st time re-using yeast, and it seems to be working out great.
Had no idea what to expect from the blow-off, but was happy that critical mass only lasted a day or so.
Definitely be doing more of this.