For those that pitch on previous yeast cake

[mattmuir]

Hello all. I have a Cream Ale that is going to go to secondary..(need brew pail). I have never repitched on cake and I know there is a risk of overpitching. However, I have a kit that spent the winter in the back of my wifes car and really not that excited about it. The yeast is prob old/stressed and I dont want to waste a good vile on this beer. The kit is a BB Munich Helles.

To those that repitch on cake do you clean the bucket, wipe old scum, or just let it go? Or should I just scoop up a 1/3 cup ,wash the bucket and then dump the yeast in a clean batch?

I will be washing my yeast from my first AG next week so this beer is just an experiment...trying to not do kits any more.

Thanks Matt

 

[PT Ray]

If you want to throw caution to the wind, just throw the new batch on top. If you don't have temp control look out. Or just get you 150-200ml of slurry, clean the bucket, make new batch and pitch the harvested slurry.

 

[osagedr]

I think Mr. Malty (www.mrmalty.com) includes repitching from slurry in its calculator. That might give you some guidance. You are likely okay if you just dump your new kit on top (i.e. I wouldn't bother trying to clean anything unless maybe you wanted to wipe your previous krausen ring off with some paper towl dampened with Starsan). But trying to clean something that's already sterile is probably a waste of time and not worth the risk. Another thing you might try is to give the yeast a quick wash then re-pitch about half your washed yeast back into your new batch--might lower the odds of overpitching (not that I personally think overpitching is a huge deal; others do).

Yeast Washing Illustrated: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I have done it several times and several ways.

IF I have a beer ready to go when I rack off the yeast cake, I just rack right on top of the entire cake...no cleaning............

If I have a day or two between racking off the cake, and brewing... I sanitize a ziploc bag and dump a good amount of the sludge into the sterilized baggie and seal it up and toss it in the fridge. Come pitching time, snip off the corner and squeeze it out like toothpaste into your fermentor....

If I am gonna be a while before brewing again, I wash the yeast

 

[phenry]

Unless the Munich Helles has a ridiculously lower OG than the Cream Ale, you shouldn't have a problem (which I'm assuming it doesn't). Then after your Helles is done, you should have plenty of yeast you can wash.

Slightly off topic, but is it possible to reuse your yeast cake for a 3rd time?

 

[MalFet]

Unless the Munich Helles has a ridiculously lower OG than the Cream Ale, you shouldn't have a problem (which I'm assuming it doesn't). Then after your Helles is done, you should have plenty of yeast you can wash.

Slightly off topic, but is it possible to reuse your yeast cake for a 3rd time?

It will work, but you'll be pitching with an even higher cell density than you were pitching onto with the first cake. I've never gotten as good results over- or under-pitching like that, but YMMV of course.

 

[shadows69]

Well to answer your question. I am on my 5th run on the same 1056 yeast cake without washing it. So far i have no problems. You can do the same "style" of beer. light to light or light to dark but not dark to light without washing it first. In fact I wouldn't recommend going from dark to light even if you did wash it. However I would recommend using yeast nutrient at the beginning of each run. I get as much of the beer off the cake as possible, so you are left with just the "hard" cake itself before adding the new wort on top of it and give it a little "gentle" stir. Usually the new wort will start going to work within 2 hours.
Hope that helps.

 

[mattmuir]

Thanks guys gonna give it a whirl in a few min. Wto Mr Malty and was going to try thr 3 oz of slurry but thought why not try it..so going on the cake with a blow off tube.

 

[osagedr]

Well to answer your question. I am on my 5th run on the same 1056 yeast cake without washing it. So far i have no problems. You can do the same "style" of beer. light to light or light to dark but not dark to light without washing it first. In fact I wouldn't recommend going from dark to light even if you did wash it. However I would recommend using yeast nutrient at the beginning of each run. I get as much of the beer off the cake as possible, so you are left with just the "hard" cake itself before adding the new wort on top of it and give it a little "gentle" stir. Usually the new wort will start going to work within 2 hours.
Hope that helps.

What prob do you envision going from dark to light when the yeast is washed?

 

[shawman]

Maybe yeast are racist?

 

[mattmuir]

Its on the cake. Some sulfur smells when the cake was disturbed. The cake was only 1hr old and the previous beer is in the keg in the keezer to sit for a week or so. That was my first full boil of a kit and my first AG is waiting for another week to go to keg. Can't wait to try these.

 

[shadows69]

I never tried going from dark to light....I just remember reading that. Might of been in the yeast washing sticky.

 

[Runyanka]

Unless the Munich Helles has a ridiculously lower OG than the Cream Ale, you shouldn't have a problem (which I'm assuming it doesn't). Then after your Helles is done, you should have plenty of yeast you can wash.

Slightly off topic, but is it possible to reuse your yeast cake for a 3rd time?

Usually breweries will use their ale yeasts for up to 10 batches, and their lager yeasts up to 5-6 batches (from the ones I've been to). As long as you wash in in between uses, you can always culture more, thats how people make "house strains".

 

[mattmuir]

WOW! I went to my sons LAX game and 5 hrs late this beast is hammering like a frieght train. I put it in the swamp cooler to be safe. Fast start is an under statement.

 

[shadows69]

That is correct. That's how mine does a fast start.

 

[mummasan]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/why-not-pitch-your-yeast-cake-166221/

read the linked thread - it should answer all your questions