Reuse yeast cake?

[ericbw]

I kegged a blonde this morning and I am brewing a cream ale now. I fermented the blonde with US-05 and I used Whirlfloc in the boil.

Should I pitch on the yeast from the blonde or clean the fermenter and pitch new?

The cream ale is lighter but will be dry hopped (not to style, I know).

 

[BigFloyd]

I kegged a blonde this morning and I am brewing a cream ale now. I fermented the blonde with US-05 and I used Whirlfloc in the boil.

Should I pitch on the yeast from the blonde or clean the fermenter and pitch new?

The cream ale is lighter but will be dry hopped (not to style, I know).

Pitching the cream ale on the whole cake from the blonde would be a massive over pitch and can cause flavor issues. A cup of that fresh slurry would be plenty.

 

[ericbw]

That's what I meant to add. Swirl it up and pour off most of it? Or should I pour it out, clean the fermenter, and pitch the slurry?

 

[BigFloyd]

That's what I meant to add. Swirl it up and pour off most of it? Or should I pour it out, clean the fermenter, and pitch the slurry?

Either way will work (I've done both) so long as you end up with a few cups of fresh slurry in there.

 

[bigbadgreen]

I've been doing this for a while to "piggyback" yeast. I've never done it with that light of a beer before so i can't say about subtle flavor issues. I haven't detected anything in the beers I've done however.

One of my favorite holiday things to do is brew up a nice winter beer, like a spiced brown and after racking the beer off I just add 5 gallons of cider right after. No need to clean, it should be a sanitary environment. Just be careful to sanitize anything going into the fermenter. I also use a new air lock. Quick and easy.

 

[ericbw]

I decided to clean the fermenter because there was s lot of hop gunk at the top. I saved about a cup andcs half of slurry.

I cleaned the fermenter with Oxy, rinsed it really well, and forgot to sanitize it!!!

Hopefully the yeast will take off quickly.