Questions - First Time Reusing Yeast Cake

[danthebugman]

I have a couple of kits that I'm brewing and I'd like to try reusing the yeast cake. I have a few questions and I'm not patient enough to sift through looking for the answer I imagine has already been given. I have an Irish Red that I started on Sunday. The OG was 1.044 on it and I'm using Nottingham dry yeast in it. When it's done here in the next week and a half or so I plan to re-pitch a 3 gallon batch of an Imperial Red Rye with an OG of around 1.086 (providing I hit my numbers). According to mrmalty it looks like I will need about 88 mL of yeast slurry. There are a couple of options to adjust (Yeast Concentration and Non-Yeast Percentage) that I'm not sure what to go with, do the defaults work okay for those that have used this calculator in the past? I guess another question would be whether or not to just dump the whole yeast cake in? Probably overkill for this size batch, maybe not. Input would be appreciated.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I'm in a similar situation, but read a lot of advice to stay away from using the whole cake.
I asked about some advice on washing and using starters in this thread if you would like to follow. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/bottling-yeast-washing-day-questions-452386/#post5806482
Also check out the Threads below in "similar threads"

 

[eastoak]

don't pitch on the whole cake, i would use 3/4 to 1 cup of slurry for a 1.086 beer.

 

[loucurr]

I have pitched on the whole cake without a problem as long as the styles are similar.

 

[eastoak]

I have pitched on the whole cake without a problem as long as the styles are similar.

i have done that too but i would never do it again, it's definitely not best practices for making good beer.

 

[danthebugman]

I was reading a BYO article from 2012 I think about re-pitching yeast and they were talking about skimming off the top layer of the yeast cake with a spatula and tossing it. Then skimming off the middle layer and using that to re-pitch to the next beer. I think I'm just going to do that.

 

[BigFloyd]

You need not get too fancy with this. Like Eastoak mentioned, scoop about one cup (which should be around 20-25% of the cake) of fresh slurry out of the first batch and pitch it on the 1.086 wort. Done.

As important with using Nottingham is to pitch and keep it cool. Upper 50's to low 60's (beer temp, not air) is good for the first 4-5 days followed by a slow increase to the mid 60's. Definitely keep it under 68*F to avoid unwanted flavors.