Pitching onto used yeast?

[TheFurstyFerret]

I can't believe how fast my first batch went!

I'm about to bottle my second batch tomorrow and was thinking about pitching another 5G directly onto the yeast cake in the fermenter.

A few things got me thinking.

1 - I used Cooper's IPA yeast. Is this stuff ok for a second cycle?

2 - Do I need to clean the krausen from the fermenter or is it ok to be there?

3 - When I add the rest of the water to make it up to 5G will the yeast influence the SG reading?

Thanks.

 

[JimRausch]

Congrats on your 1st two batches!
I've seen plenty of posts doing exactly what you are proposing- pitching directly onto a yeast cake. All those posts can't be wrong, so go for it.
Me, I'm maybe a little anal about sanitation, so this is what I've done: Boil about 3 qts water along with a qt. canning jar. After transferring beer#1, I add the cooled sterile water to the bucket and swirl to mix. Then pour mixture into canning jar, seal, and refrigerate until needed. I then clean and starsan the bucket in preparation for wort #2.
It's maybe overkill, but I sleep well.
In answer to your other questions, I haven't used Coopers yeast, but if it works well in your recipe, then it should be fine. And the amount of yeast, even if you pitch on a full cake, won't influence your SG.

 

[TheFurstyFerret]

Good idea Jim! That sounds like a good plan!

Cheers.

 

[mattmuir]

I've racked onto a used cake in the past and have been fine. I did it as a test, not going for a prize winner. My method was to remove 2/3ds of the slurry and let er rip. You will be over or underpitching for sure, just let it take it's time in the bucket and in a few weeks you will have great beer. I never cleaned any chunks off the side, this beer will take off so fast that nasties wont have much of a chance to take a hold.

PS. I only do this when I am in a hurry to restock the pipeline....or lazy.

Matt

 

[freisste]

The issue with pitching onto an entire cake is that you will likely (unless you are brewing a monster) be severely over pitching. That said, I did it on my last brew (granted it was an imperial stout with an OG of 1.108...like I said, monster).

As far as sanitation, the bucket was free of infection when you took the beer out, so there is no reason to think that it would have an infection just because you emptied it.

If you want to save a few bucks reusing an entire yeast cake, go for it. If you want more reasons not to, ask Revvy. He's a genius and he can explain things a lot better than me. He gave me a pretty good explanation when I was contemplating doing it.

Good luck.