I Need a Little Advice on Using This Cake

[Evan!]

So it's all settled: I'm going for the gold with my tri-brew extravaganza on Saturday. Brett/Lacto sour blending batch, Belgian Golden Strong, Rauchbier.

I need advice on the Rauch. 4.5 weeks ago, I brewed a Munich Dunkel. About 1.5 weeks ago, I racked it off the cake onto my BDG cake (because it finished way high...the BDG cake finished it up for me, 1.021-1.012). So I've had this WLP838 Southern German Lager yeast cake sitting in my 68F basement for 10 days with maybe half an inch of beer on top of it. I've been studying for my licensing exam on thursday and just haven't had time to wash and harvest it.

So, here we are, it's Tuesday. My exam is Thursday, and I'm not going to have the time to do anything with it until Thursday afternoon. I'm brewing on Saturday, like I said.

I like fermenting with whole cakes, but I think the longest I've gone without harvesting before dumping new wort on is like a week. 2 weeks...not sure. This isn't the only lager yeast I have...I mean, I do have some more harvested 838 in my fridge that I could make a starter for, and I also have a vial of WLP833 German Bock. Do ya think this cake is okay? Should I just pull a portion of it out and ferment in a new vessel? Should I abandon it entirely? Should I just pour the new wort right in there?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

At the very least I would probably pull some of the slurry out and ferment in a new vessel. If you have 1/2 inch of beer on it the the slurry should be fine, I just wouldn't be too crazy about tossing a beer into a primary that's gotten a bit dried up on the inside since you racked most of the beer out.

 

[Glibbidy]

I'm all for using cakes especially when fermenting lagers. It's an instant mega starter. Two weeks seems like a long time to go without pitching something on the cake.

My recomendo if you really want to use the cake is to feed the yeast and stick it in your fermentation chamber that you use for making lager beers. It will start to ferment out creating some CO2 which will give you a safety net for your yeast. I think it would also benefit if you fermented it on the cool side of it's range even a little lower like say 48-50F. Personally I'm also an advocate of cold pitching.

I wouldn't be suprised if that sucker starts fermenting in 4-6 hours.

 

[Evan!]

At the very least I would probably pull some of the slurry out and ferment in a new vessel. If you have 1/2 inch of beer on it the the slurry should be fine, I just wouldn't be too crazy about tossing a beer into a primary that's gotten a bit dried up on the inside since you racked most of the beer out.

That's exactly what my concern is. That, and the age of the slurry, but I guess you're right: with some beer on top of it, it's been protected.

 

[Glibbidy]

I just wouldn't be too crazy about tossing a beer into a primary that's gotten a bit dried up on the inside since you racked most of the beer out.

Sanitize a sponge or a washcloth...ring it out and gently wipe the inside of the fermenter to try and remove the shmenk if you think it may become an issue. Do your best to prevent any liquids from running down the side of the fermenter onto the cake.

 

[Bobby_M]

I would extract about half of it into a clean mason jar, let it settle and pour the beer off. Then take a good whiff of it and make sure it doesn't make you want to puke. At that point, I'd feel OK using it. I don't think I'd trust the current fermenter because it's been sitting for a while and the beer layer is potentially oxidized to hell already. There's also the fact that it would be a 3rd generation cake pitch with no fermenter sanitizing.

 

[Evan!]

Sanitize a sponge or a washcloth...ring it out and gently wipe the inside of the fermenter to try and remove the shmenk if you think it may become an issue. Do your best to prevent any liquids from running down the side of the fermenter onto the cake.

there's just no way to do this safely in a carboy. The only way that gunk is coming off is if I were to use my carboy brush...and I wouldn't trust that thing near my beer or yeast slurry even if it sat in star san for a week. I think I'm just gonna take the advice of OB and bobby and dump a bunch of the slurry into a sanitized jar and let it settle in the fridge for a few days, then decant the beer and ferment in a freshly sanitized vessel.

 

[Glibbidy]

there's just no way to do this safely in a carboy. The only way that gunk is coming off is if I were to use my carboy brush...and I wouldn't trust that thing near my beer or yeast slurry even if it sat in star san for a week. I think I'm just gonna take the advice of OB and bobby and dump a bunch of the slurry into a sanitized jar and let it settle in the fridge for a few days, then decant the beer and ferment in a freshly sanitized vessel.

I didn't realize you were trying to do this with a carboy. With that revealed, I concur and wouldn't even consider trying to re-use the carboy unless you were pitching on the cake immediatley after racking the first beer.

You are definitely better off getting the slurry into a sanitized vessel. I'd still feed it though, and get it cold.

 

[Evan!]

I didn't realize you were trying to do this with a carboy. With that revealed, I concur and wouldn't even consider trying to re-use the carboy unless you were pitching on the cake immediatley after racking the first beer.

You are definitely better off getting the slurry into a sanitized vessel. I'd still feed it though, and get it cold.

Good call...

 

[Freezeblade]

+1 on getting a starter going instead of pitching onto the cake with all the gunk in the carboy.

You're going in for your Architectural Licencing Exam? good luck man, that's one hard test.