Pitching onto a Yeast Cake

[sieglere]

So I was thinking of doing a batch of red ale using a yeast I used for my IPA. I'm at capacity when it comes to fermenters (3), but I'm bottling one, so I'll have a free fermenter.

I was hoping to bottle one batch, clean the bucket, move the IPA into the cleaned bucket for aging, and possibly get my red right on top of the IPA's yeast cake. Is this a good idea?

I'd rather not wash the yeast and do a starter if I could avoid it because that would take a while

 

[kombat]

I would not do what you're suggesting. Mainly because you'd be massively over-pitching, but also because an IPA yeast cake will have a pretty hoppy character that will influence the flavour of your red. I would only re-use an IPA yeast cake for another IPA (or, preferably, an Imperial IPA).

If you insist, then you could wash the yeast and immediately repitch it, in which case you wouldn't need to bother with a starter. But you'd really only need about 1/3rd of that yeast cake, and it's contaminated with excessive hop oils.

 

[sfrisby]

Plus, what was the ABV of the IPA? Anything over 6-7% would result in tired yeast that may not be up for another job.

 

[sieglere]

It's actually in the mid 5 reign. If I wanted to harvest the yeast, make a new starter, or just wash, would this solve the oil problem?

 

[AgentHubcap]

I could never figure out the dangers of overpitching. I've dumped straight onto cakes before and haven't had any issues.

You should go from light to dark and weak to strong if you're going to do this, though. Otherwise you'll get the old style bleeding through into the new style. Last time I did this i went from a low ABV blonde ale to an IIPA and had fantastic results.

 

[dcp27]

no need to wash, just use the mrmalty calc to figure out how much slurry you need (likely 0.5-1 cup) and toss it in. such a small quantity (~1-2% volume) into the red will have no effect on flavor, at least IME it never has