Pitching onto existing yeast cake

[GasGuy]

All grain brewer here and love the simplicity of cider. I made a Perry from the neighbors Kieffer pears that were juiced (I don't have a press) yielding 2 1/2 gallons of juice. Added 96 oz of AJ and one can of AJ concentrate to achieve OG 1.060. Used Mangrove Jack M02 cider yeast. 2 weeks in primary then off to secondary @ 1.008.

Pitched Ed Worts Apfelwein (exact recipe minus the yeast) must onto the cakes from the newly racked perry with an OG 1.060.

So how many is too many? I'm ready to bottle the perry in the next week or so, secondary the Apfelwein and I want to pitch another cider onto the existing yeast cake.

Thoughts, comments, concerns...

Perry racked on Nov 11th

 

[rekoob]

Man that looks good.

I'm not sure but I feel you have cleaner yeast (less trub or lees) and if it looks healthy and it kicks off quick your good to go. If the last use gave you anything to raise an eye brow about, then start new.

 

[GasGuy]

Man that looks good.

Thanks, it was my first attempt at cider or perry. Not a fan of juicing 48# of pears but they were FREE. Pretty tasty and hanging around 7%. I'll carb most but leave some of it still, I may even try to JACK about a 1/2 gallon. Pear brandy sounds interesting.

 

[madscientist451]

2.5 gallon of juice from 48 lbs of pears isn't too bad. I also made Perry this year and one trick is to let the pears sit 3-4 weeks after picking and they ripen up some more.
I've re-used my cider yeast 5-6 times and only dump it out because I ran out of apples to press at the end of the season.
If you've gone two generations, I'd dump the yeast cake to a clean carboy or split it and use it for two batches.
I've re-used the yeast cake in the same carboy for multiple batches, but usually limit it to two. The wild yeast from the fruit hasn't caused any problems, but I like to exert some control.