Pitching onto a yeast cake

[Brewenstein]

I will be brewing an oatmeal stout with a friend tomorrow. We are brewing 10 gallons and I wanted to pitch my half onto a yeast cake from the nut brown ale I brewed three weeks ago (the stout recipe calls for Nottingham yeast, which we would use for the other half). Two questions - will White Labs 005 (British Ale yeast) be a good yeast for a stout, and when you pitch onto a cake, do you just dump the wort onto the cake and let it mix, or do you siphon onto the cake and then stir to get the yeast into the wort? I would like to use the cake again since the yeast cost $8, and also I would like to see the difference it makes with the different yeasts. Thanks.

 

[Killer_Robot]

When I've pitched onto cake I've dumped right in and it worked fine. As for White Labs 005, I haven't used it myself but I've seen it in a number of stout recipes so I imagine it's a good choice.

 

[SFsorrow]

What is the O.G. of the stout? I do not see why the yeast wouldn't make a stout beer, it's just going to be more unique in flavor then if you used a more traditional English yeast strain for a stout.
Have you thought about washing the yeast and then making a starter for it? I'm about to do that to a hefe I just brewed using WLP320. I hear the general consensus is that it's a bad idea to pitch onto the trub of your previous batch after you rack it to the secondary for it has a tendency to give some nasty off-flavors.

 

[Malticulous]

Your better off scooping out measured amount of the slurry. There is more than enough for two batches. Mr. Malty can calculate pitching rates from slurry.

 

[BrewSpook]

Has anyone done this using Irish ale yeast? I have an irish blonde at the end of fermentation and planning an Irish Red for tomorrow. I was planning on just dumping it right onto the yeast cake from the blonde, but I was worried about potential nasties.

I know irish ale yeast is known for diacetyl and I have left the blonde on the cake to reduce this... will this cause any problems with red or should I take the time to wash?

 

[hopvine]

Why is it that we always want to saying "pitching onto a yeast cake", when pitching actually refers to adding yeast to the wort (something that obviously doesn't need to be done in this case)? I find myself wanting to use the same terminology, when really we should be saying "racking onto the yeast cake".

 

[BrewSpook]

Thats why I said dumping, cause I won't actually be racking it either... once my IC gets it down I will just dump it right on over the top.

 

[karbinator]

Has anyone done this using Irish ale yeast? I have an irish blonde at the end of fermentation and planning an Irish Red for tomorrow. I was planning on just dumping it right onto the yeast cake from the blonde, but I was worried about potential nasties.

I know irish ale yeast is known for diacetyl and I have left the blonde on the cake to reduce this... will this cause any problems with red or should I take the time to wash?

Spook....yeah, I've done it 3 times with the same irish cake when making the guiness clone from this board. All 15g were perfect. My take on this is to really cool the wort down ..I was taking it to 60-64, and holding it there for the first 2 weeks. The cake will go nuts if you get it near 70...and give off the undesirables, and ruin the batch. I think this is with any yeast cake dump really, and not particular to an irish ale one.
Good luck

 

[BrewSpook]

Thanks for the reassurance. I am doing the irish red today with friend who is just starting to get into brewing, would hate to F$%^ this up and have him give up on it.
Good thing my basement bathroom can get down to 62 if I keep the door closed and the AC vent open (kind of a jerry rigged ferm temp control, but it works well for 62 - 68 degrees)

 

[alcibiades]

I would throw out (or wash and store) atleast half of the slurry before racking on top of it. I've lost a sizeable amount of beer to a huge trub that was the result of racking on top of a full yeast cake.

 

[Malticulous]

Not only that but you can save some and make a starter latter with out needing to buy it again.