general consensus for reusing yeast

[eppo]

ok, so right now i have a cream ale fermenting. its the PM version of the AHS kit. i used WLP001 california ale yeast. i'm planing on using this yeast for my next batch which is the partial mash of Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Porter. i went on mrmalty.com to see how much yeast i need to pitch, it said i needed 2 vials. but to save some money i want to use the yeast cake from my Cream ale.
so what is the method of doing this in the homebrew community. should i just rack the cream ale to the bottling bucket, and just pour the wort from the porter right on top of the cake? or should i wash the cake and just use that? (any tips from people who have done this would be great) or should i wash it and use that to make a starter?
what would be the best method?
thanks

 

[Fingers]

Personally, I've racked onto the cake but I usually wash the yeast. Washing cleans out any break material or hops that make it in from the boil kettle and allows you to clean out your fermenters. You can also overpitch if you go right on the yeast cake.

I do 10 gallon batches but I only wash the yeast from one pail. I start with three jars and by the time I'm finished washing I have one left and I split that between the two new pails. It's just a matter of adding some pre-boiled water to the pail, swishing it around and pouring it into sanitized containers. Every 10 minutes or so you pour off the top into a sanitized container and discard the bottom. Do this until there is no more sludge in the bottom.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Personally, I've racked onto the cake but I usually wash the yeast. Washing cleans out any break material or hops that make it in from the boil kettle and allows you to clean out your fermenters. You can also overpitch if you go right on the yeast cake.

I do 10 gallon batches but I only wash the yeast from one pail. I start with three jars and by the time I'm finished washing I have one left and I split that between the two new pails. It's just a matter of adding some pre-boiled water to the pail, swishing it around and pouring it into sanitized containers. Every 10 minutes or so you pour off the top into a sanitized container and discard the bottom. Do this until there is no more sludge in the bottom.

Will distilled water work for the rinsing? Do you chill the jars?

 

[chefmike]

Sanitize a measuring cup. Scoop out the volume of slurry you need. Put slurry into sanitized fermenter. Pour in new wort. Do what you wish with the rest of the slurry.

 

[Fingers]

Will distilled water work for the rinsing? Do you chill the jars?

Sure, distilled is fine but you should still boil and cool the water to kill off any bad bugs. Chilling is required if you're going to let it sit for any length of time. I often will wash the yeast and pitch on brewday so there really isn't any time for chilling. If you do it the night before, you can chill to separate the yeast from the water/wort if you like. I pitch about a peanut butter jar's worth so I don't worry about the excess liquid in ten gallons.

 

[eppo]

since the starting gravity of my next brew is going to be 1.078, would 1 jar for a 5 gallon batch be fine? that wont be overpitching will it?

 

[Fingers]

Here's a calculator for you to use. http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

This will give you a good indication of how much yeast to use. Overpitching can result in an absence of some of the flavor by-products that yeast give off while reproducing. The calculator takes into account some of the factors affected by this. Personally, I'd much rather over pitch than under pitch.

 

[eppo]

i use that calculator, but it seems the the slurry calculator is a bit more observation based. i'm trying to get a bit more definite answer. not sure exactly what is meant by a thin slurry to a thick yeast. so i'm sure that there is an average amount of yeast you will get when washing, and if most people just use one jar worth or just half is enough.

 

[Fingers]

If you're that concerned, then wash your yeast several days in advance and let it settle out in the fridge as you suggested earlier. If you decant the wort off the top you're left with the thick yeast. I can't really comment on whether one jar or a half jar is enough because your jar size is probably different from mine. My rule of thumb is that a jar full of mixed slurry will compact to about 15% or so of the original volume. In other words if I let my slurry settle in the fridge then about 1/6 of the volume will be thick yeast. I don't usually measure the volume but I'd estimate that I use about a cup of thick slurry for ten gallons. I tend to brew session ales.