Reusing yeast cake on cider

[Rijndert]

So I've got a sour waiting to be bottled somewhere in January. Read about reusing the yeastcake (Sach*, Brett, Lacto, Pedio), but I was wondering if any of you people have any experience with racking a cider on top of it.

Please give me your opinions!

*Sach would be dead by now, standing for 1 year.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I fairly recently added part of a young Sacc/Brett/Lacto cake (1 Tbsp/gal) to an unpasteurized cider.

I added some oak cubes and additional sour dregs to it after primary finished and it's aging on the lees now (no head space). Smells really good!

I'll consider adding some maltodextrin and/or more dregs to it if it doesn't get funky enough, but I'm pretty optimistic about it.

I say go for it!
Cheers

 

[Rijndert]

Sounds good! Did you do a primary for the cider or just the fresh juice on top of the cake?

 

[madscientist451]

I usually make an mid season cider and then a late season version. I just rack the first cider out of the carboy and dump the new juice right in. Yeah I feel guilty by not cleaning the carboy before re-use, but I have a few glasses of homebrew and get over it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sounds good! Did you do a primary for the cider or just the fresh juice on top of the cake?

I mixed fresh juice with just the little bit of yeast cake. I wanted to give the natural wild microbes a chance.
My sour cake was pretty fresh, only a few months old.

Anecdotally, the only time I repitched a full Sacc cake I ended up with autolysis flavor and had to dump the batch. I don't have experience repitching a full mixed sour cake and I don't really like the idea the more I think about it. The funkier Brett flavors come from autolysis and I'm not sure those flavors would be so great in cider? Might be worth a try though, I don't know.
I know others have success pitching onto a full cake though, YMMV.

There's not a good source of info about making funky cider, so I'm just going to try some different things and see what works.
Please let us know the results

 

[Rijndert]

There's not a good source of info about making funky cider, so I'm just going to try some different things and see what works.
Please let us know the results

That's also what I found out. Guess I'll just gonna have to try it.
Results will take half a year or longer I suppose!