Hey everyone,
What's a normal sized trub / yeast cake layer for an AG batch?
My first 2 brews were kit and kilo, about an inch or so of cake and trub at the bottom out of 23 litres, seemed like not much.
Next brew was an all-grain NZ Pale Ale with US-05 OG 1.054, I racked to secondary after 6 days because primary fermentation was winding up (best time to rack it according to How to brew) and I needed the bigger fermenter. At this point I noticed the yeast cake was pretty big, sitting well over the spigot. I started with 24 litres in primary and ended with 21 litres in secondary.
Next batch (all grain Blonde Ale, also US-05) I decided to pitch onto the cake directly, I'm cheap and I need to keep costs down. I removed 5 cups of cake (about half), pitched straight on top. Fermentation took off like a batmobile and went from 1.048 to 1.007 in 4 days. I get that I overpitched, meh won't happen again and I learned a new skill and gained confidence. I harvested and washed the krausen for next time.
The cake on the blonde ale is almost 5.5 litres out of 24. A good chunk of that will be from the previous batch, but still seems like a lot.
Is it normal for the cake to compact down from here or am I stuck with 18 or so litres of beer instead of 24?
For what it's worth, the hydrometer samples on both taste amazing.
Edit: fermenting at 18c / 65f for both of these. Temperatures have been quite constant.
What's a normal sized trub / yeast cake layer for an AG batch?
My first 2 brews were kit and kilo, about an inch or so of cake and trub at the bottom out of 23 litres, seemed like not much.
Next brew was an all-grain NZ Pale Ale with US-05 OG 1.054, I racked to secondary after 6 days because primary fermentation was winding up (best time to rack it according to How to brew) and I needed the bigger fermenter. At this point I noticed the yeast cake was pretty big, sitting well over the spigot. I started with 24 litres in primary and ended with 21 litres in secondary.
Next batch (all grain Blonde Ale, also US-05) I decided to pitch onto the cake directly, I'm cheap and I need to keep costs down. I removed 5 cups of cake (about half), pitched straight on top. Fermentation took off like a batmobile and went from 1.048 to 1.007 in 4 days. I get that I overpitched, meh won't happen again and I learned a new skill and gained confidence. I harvested and washed the krausen for next time.
The cake on the blonde ale is almost 5.5 litres out of 24. A good chunk of that will be from the previous batch, but still seems like a lot.
Is it normal for the cake to compact down from here or am I stuck with 18 or so litres of beer instead of 24?
For what it's worth, the hydrometer samples on both taste amazing.
Edit: fermenting at 18c / 65f for both of these. Temperatures have been quite constant.