Pitching on fesh yeast cake

[Aggie_JD]

I'm contemplating using a fresh yeast cake for my next batch. I have a blond beer using Wyeast london ale, and I've read this is also a good strain for higher gravity stouts and porters and I want to do a bourbon barrel stout or porter.

I've read what I can on this practice but I still have a few questions. I know there can be issues with too high of a yeast count when doing this, is there anyway I can check to see if I need to scoop out some of the yeast cake first? I planned on leaving a small amount of liquid behind on the cake until I was ready to pitch so it wouldn't dry out, is that the preferred method? Any other issues I need to be worried about?

Thanks for your assistance guys, this will be my first attempt at a bigger beer.

 

[BigFloyd]

Mr. Malty can provide some guidance about slurry amounts so you can leave an appropriate amount behind in the fermenter.

If you're not going to pitch the new wort on the existing cake within a couple hours of racking the first beer off, I'd suggest harvesting and placing in a sanitized jar in the fridge.

How big of a second beer are you planning?

 

[shtoive87]

Generally, I've heard that pitching directly onto the yeast cake is wildly overpitching, although I've heard of many people doing this with good results. It would be an interesting experiment to brew two batches side by side (one on the cake and one with a "proper" amount) and see if you can pick out the difference.

 

[BreezyBrew]

Generally, I've heard that pitching directly onto the yeast cake is wildly overpitching, although I've heard of many people doing this with good results. It would be an interesting experiment to brew two batches side by side (one on the cake and one with a "proper" amount) and see if you can pick out the difference.

Yeah a split batch

 

[Kahless]

I've read that it can be roughly 6 times the amount of yeast that you need, and that you can kind of imagine a pizza slice and get the amount you need (so long as its settled enough).
A negative side effect would be that the yeast do not need to go through the reproductive phase, which is a stage that can produce unique flavours (e.g. certain esters) that you wouldn't usually obtain otherwise. But for a beer without the need of those it isn't much of a problem.

I've done it a couple of times, and the fermentation is really reliable. I've also went from a brown bitter to a light beer without any noticeable colour problems.

If the time between brewing is over a few days, then I just add some water, shake it up, pour into an empty sanitised 2L soda bottle (using a trusty funnel), shake, and fridge. Then take it out a number of hours before pitching so that it returns to temperature. For reusing up to ten times, or calculating a good pitch count, you can wash the yeast (although guides for this can be topsy turvey if you have a very flocculant yeast and end up with trub sitting on top of it -I once threw away the yeast and kept the trub ), but if its the next batch and it's not a fruity english ale or a hefeweizen, go for it; easier, faster, cheaper.