Pitching onto cake?

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I wasn't sure of which forum to post this too, so hopefully I picked right.

So, I have a batch of Mead that will be going to it's secondary in the next week or so, and I thought that I might as well pitch a batch of cider right onto the cake while I'm at it. Any thoughts of issues that I might encounter, or gotcha's that I should be away of? Would there be pro's to scrubbing (besides multiple starters) the yeast and pitching, over just pitching onto the cake?

The original yeast used was "Wyeast-4184 Sweet Mead".

Sorry if this has been addressed before, I tried to search for an answer, but may have missed it.
 
I don't know. I've never done it with wines, meads or ciders. I think it would work, but one thing comes to my mind- mead tends to be nutrient deficient and kind of stresses the yeast. They tend to take a long time to ferment out. So, you might not have healthy yeast there to start with. I probably wouldn't do it, but I know that yeast is expensive and might be tempted to try.
 
I wasn't sure of which forum to post this too, so hopefully I picked right.

So, I have a batch of Mead that will be going to it's secondary in the next week or so, and I thought that I might as well pitch a batch of cider right onto the cake while I'm at it. Any thoughts of issues that I might encounter, or gotcha's that I should be away of? Would there be pro's to scrubbing (besides multiple starters) the yeast and pitching, over just pitching onto the cake?

The original yeast used was "Wyeast-4184 Sweet Mead".

Sorry if this has been addressed before, I tried to search for an answer, but may have missed it.

Did you use nurtiant or an energizer in the mead? if so then you really shouldn't have a problem, I did the exact thing you're talking about, I made a mead with the sweet mead yeast, then just pitched apple juice right on top of it, it's still aging, but the sample at bottling was awesome. If you didn't use any food for the yeast though I'd be weary, just like Yooper said, perhaps make a starter with it if that is the case, get the yeasties nice and healthy again.
 
I think the Wyeast packet has Nutrients right in it, would that count, or do you think it would've needed additional energizer in it? I figure I'll probably pitch onto it either way, if the worst case scenario is having to re-pitch it.

I could also wash a small part of the trub(is that right for mead?), and try pitching onto the cake, if it doesn't work I could pitch with the washed yeast. Of course the big issue there is that I'm lazy and washing looks like alot of work. :D
 
Well, mead generally needs more nutrients as it ferments. I use DAP usually, and it works fine.

I am sure it'll ferment your cider- I just think that stressed yeast can cause some pretty bad off flavors if the yeast isn't healty. (Think fecal type taste/smell). I probably wouldn't- but it's your cider!
 
i just pitched another batch of blueberry cider onto a cider cote de blancs yeast cake and it took off like crazy. I dont know the lag time, but its still bubbling about every 3 seconds almost a week later now.
You might just want to go ahead with the washing just to make sure you have a clean yeast. be careful of blow offs when pitching on a yeast cake though.
 
Pitching right into the yeast cake should work fine, but I would recommend reading one of the yeast washing threads here and then washing the yeast, using one to start your cider and keeping the rest. Any dollar saved is another dollar earned. OK, I'm cheap but using soda bottles, washing the yeast, and adding boiled/cooled wort prior to storage works fantastic for me. I just let them warm up, start working, release pressure and pitch. It works like a storage/starter at the same time.
 
Applejuice contains plenty of nutrients anyway right. So if he did the mead properly the yeast isn't stressed and all he needs is to dump the applejuice on the washed yeast.
 
Technically what I made was probably Melomel, as I included (100%)Apple juice concentrate, so the yeast may not be all that stressed. That said, I'm going to try my hand at washing the yeast, and I'll keep half, pitch the other half. I was mostly just driven by laziness with pitching onto the cake, but there is no time like the present to try to learn something new! :D
 
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