Reuse yeast cake

[billyjohnbrewing]

I haven't seen too much on this other than with beer and overpitching issue...

I'll be kegging a Hacker Pschorr clone that used Wyeast 3638 Bavarian Wheat. I want to make another batch of cider so my thought is to dump 5 gallons of my standard kirkland apple juice right on top of the trub from the wheat. Thoughts?? There is dried krausen on the top of the carboy, will this really be an issue? Would appreciate any input.

 

[Chanoc]

Go for it.....
If the carboy was closed no problem...
If it wss lef open for a considerable amount of time, then there's higher risk of contamination..f

 

[laredo7mm]

I'd say go for it also. I would be interested in hearing how it turns out with that yeast. I have quite a bit of WY3068 and have always been temped to try it on a cider but I have never been able to get the banana to come out in my wheat beers so I was going to give WY3638 a try.

 

[billyjohnbrewing]

I will check back in once I get it going. Grabbing my cool brewing bag and some frozen 2L bottles of water and hoping to ferment 66-68F. I decided to pick up a couple of 12oz frozen apple juice concentrate cans to toss in to bring the OG up a bit higher. I used the below to estimate the OG based on sugar content and hopefully it's somewhat accurate.

Apple juice has 26g sugar per 8oz. 128oz per gallon which is 16 8oz servings which is 416g sugar. X 5 gallons is 2080g. 1 2oz serving of concentrate is 29g sugar with 6 servings so that's 174g X 2 cans is 348g.

This makes for a total of 2428g sugar. ~453.6g in a lb so that makes 5.35lb of sugar.

Sugar has 46 points per lb so 5.35lb X 46 + 246.1. Divide this by the amount of liquid in gallons (640oz juice + 24oz concentrate = ~5.19 gallons) which makes 47.41 points so that's an OG of ~1.047. Sound about right?

 

[MizzouFermentationScience]

I didn't check your addition but using winemaker math and converting brix to SG I got 1.050, pretty close. I wouldn't use the entire yeast cake, that is a full fermenting load and will finish ferm in a couple of days if it is pretty fresh. All that yeast is used to high alcohol, complex sugar fermentation. I would put in an ounce or so and let a new generation acclimatize to a new ferm (plus your fermentor may explode). Consistency of the yeast will decline after multiple generations but you can probably get away with at least three repitches before you notice a difference.

 

[billyjohnbrewing]

I'd say go for it also. I would be interested in hearing how it turns out with that yeast. I have quite a bit of WY3068 and have always been temped to try it on a cider but I have never been able to get the banana to come out in my wheat beers so I was going to give WY3638 a try.

I have learned that stressing out the yeast by underpitching should get you that banana to come out. Even at 68F and a healthy starter the WY3638 has a hint of banana which I actually wasn't going for with Hacker Pschorr clone but oh well still tastes fantastic. Went from a low efficiency 1.041 down to 1.006. I'm good with that.


Also, kegged the wheat last night and dumped +/- a cup or so of the trub into the Apple juice. I threw a blow-off tube on just in case even with 1.5gal headspace. This morning it's chugging right along at 66F with an inch or so of krausen. Good start so far I'd say...will check in as things progress.

 

[billyjohnbrewing]

In case anyone was wondering this think has actually been chilling right around 63F for the past few days and is fermenting nicely from what I can tell. With that quick start and low fermentation temps I'm hoping for a nice clean cider. Just hoping I can cold crash in time so I don't have to sweeten when I keg. When should I take a first SG reading?

 

[thedon986]

In case anyone was wondering this think has actually been chilling right around 63F for the past few days and is fermenting nicely from what I can tell. With that quick start and low fermentation temps I'm hoping for a nice clean cider. Just hoping I can cold crash in time so I don't have to sweeten when I keg. When should I take a first SG reading?

If it's going that quickly I would check now. I pitched on a 1318 London Ale III cake the beer before last and it was finished within 5 days. I am fermenting a hefe on 3068 now, brewed Saturday at 1.042 and down to 1.012 after just two days.

 

[billyjohnbrewing]

If it's going that quickly I would check now. I pitched on a 1318 London Ale III cake the beer before last and it was finished within 5 days. I am fermenting a hefe on 3068 now, brewed Saturday at 1.042 and down to 1.012 after just two days.

Well, I don't have a sterilized thief tonight and am a bit too lazy so I'll take a reading tomorrow. I've been reading through the cider forums and it looks like even when WY3638 is finished it's still around 1.004 which isn't terribly dry. We shall see...

 

[phendog]

I did a batch of cider a month ago. Three gals of good apple juice, 1 can of concentrate, some brown sugar to bump up he OG and a White Labs Pure Pitch English Cider yeast pack. I just syphoned it off the yeast and into a 3 1/2 gal keg and keeping it at conditioning temp to age. I then dumped 5gal of fresh apple juice, concentrate and a brown sugar simple syrup right on top of the yeast cake - it took off like a rocket.

Gonna rack it off the cake in 45 days and on top of 3lbs of fresh sweet cherries and let it go another month before I put it in the keg for further conditioning. We're gonna pour our first glass Christmas Eve. I cant wait to see how it comes out. Christmas Day may be a bit fuzzy and the Eve hard to remember.

 

[phendog]

I will check back in once I get it going. Grabbing my cool brewing bag and some frozen 2L bottles of water and hoping to ferment 66-68F. I decided to pick up a couple of 12oz frozen apple juice concentrate cans to toss in to bring the OG up a bit higher. I used the below to estimate the OG based on sugar content and hopefully it's somewhat accurate.

Apple juice has 26g sugar per 8oz. 128oz per gallon which is 16 8oz servings which is 416g sugar. X 5 gallons is 2080g. 1 2oz serving of concentrate is 29g sugar with 6 servings so that's 174g X 2 cans is 348g.

This makes for a total of 2428g sugar. ~453.6g in a lb so that makes 5.35lb of sugar.

Sugar has 46 points per lb so 5.35lb X 46 + 246.1. Divide this by the amount of liquid in gallons (640oz juice + 24oz concentrate = ~5.19 gallons) which makes 47.41 points so that's an OG of ~1.047. Sound about right?

Didn't run the numbers, but that has to be very close - perhaps a bit higher. Take a hydro reading next time and save yourself from the math headache.

Just remember, .... the sugar in that juice is 100% fermentable and you could easily get a 5-6%ABV from that batch. If you let it run its course, it will ferment completely dry.

 

[billyjohnbrewing]

Alright, looks like I'm still only at 1.030. Definitely still have some time with this one. I'm used to my ciders taking off at 70-75F and being done in under a week. Hopefully the wait is worth it...it does taste REALLY clean but still way too sweet.

 

[billyjohnbrewing]

Well, I ended up letting it slow rise to 72 after main fermentation but unfortunately I got distracted for a few days and missed the cold crash before getting below 1.004. So now it's .99 or 1.00, crisp and smooth but way too dry. My plan is to add 2 12oz cans of apple juice concentrate when kegging. I also want to have a more immediate cinnamon flavor rather than waiting for a whole cin stick to take effect in the keg. I've heard of soaking cinnamon sticks in rum for a period of time and then dumping that in. How much rum should be used and how long does it have to sit to extract the cinnamon flavor?