Racking onto yeast cake (Results & suggestions)

[BradleyBrew]

Ok, I've been scanning this great site for sometimes and I hear the debate about whether or not to rack on top of a yeast cake. I'm not really interested in this debate, but I would like to here about actual results and would you follow this practice again with a different brew?? Any feedback would be great as I plan to re-use some French Saison yeast. Thanks!!

Again how did your brew turn out and do you / will you continue to do this?

 

[Nateo]

I frequently brew a batch of session beer (1.040-1.050) as a "yeast starter," then rack a strong brew (1.090+) onto the yeast cake.

I've tried racking another low-gravity beer onto the yeast cake, but it's really way too much yeast for a smallish beer. It fermented way too quickly and didn't taste as good as it could have. Now I'll wash and divide my yeast cake if I want to do subsequent smaller beers.

 

[jmhart]

I frequently reuse yeast cakes. My general guidelines during homebrewing season when I'm brewing a lot (~Sept to April here in GA) are to reuse three times.

I'll brew something small (1.040) or less and pitch the smack pack right into it, then brew something 1.070ish and rack on top of the yeast cake, and then 1.100ish and use half of the yeast cake from the 1.070 batch.

I generally leave the previous beer on the yeast cake until I'm ready to put a new beer on it. At that time I'll rack it to secondary until I have time to bottle.

Keep things sanitary and try to avoid putting much hop matter and cold break into the fermenter.

 

[BradleyBrew]

Thanks everyone... you can find all kinds of debates on this forum about the pros / cons of racking onto a yeast cake, but its hard to find opinions on how the beer turns out for folks who do rack on top of their yeast cakes.

I just finished a French Saison and I'm going to do a "big" belgian dark strong ale with the yeast cake... Most likely around 1.100. Sounds like you guys have had good results with brewing stronger beers on top of smaller ones. That makes sense!