Show me your Yeast Cake and....

[Chamuco]

I'll show you mine.

 

[Chamuco]

OK, so here is where I ask for some advice:

I'm expanding further into reusing yeast and this just makes me think. This is a OG 1.061 Saison. I'm planning on brewing a Quad this weekend. Should I pitch on the entire cake? <<Or>> Now I'm thinking of brewing a family of beers like such: What if I brew a Dubbel on this cake and then brew a Triple on that cake and then a Quad on that cake???? Has anyone done this (multiple generations of cake-pitching) w/o washing/harvesting?

 

[Chamuco]

If this was wlp001 and you were going for a bigger beer, say a double IPA, then I'd say "do it". Since this is a saison yeast, you should cut that cake and take about a 1/2 of cup of that slurry to make your next saison. Remember, the yeast is what's making the flavor here and you want it to go to work for you. If you keep the fermenting temperatures warm attenuation should not be a problem. Good luck!

 

[Chamuco]

Thanks Chamuco. I'll keep you posted.

 

[slarkin712]

Keep up the good work Chamuco! As far as pitching onto the cake time after time I would probably advise against that. You'll certainly be overpitching after a couple of uses. The other issue is that if you do a dubbel it will have dark grains. Then using the yeast without cleaning it will cause the next beer to be darker.

 

[Chamuco]

Thanks Slarkin712, good advise on the SRM factor.

Yeah, I've only dumped on cake once and can see problems if it was done over and over again:

1. Cake would keep building up = less beer
2. More dead yeast/trub = off flavors

I was wondering if anyone has been doing this and to what extent. If you did it four times in a row, how big would that cake be? right.

In my case, I was I think I'll harvest and wash a pint of this to save for an upcoming tripel. I'll then brew a big dubbel which I'll place on the rest of the cake.

Brew On!

 

[Chamuco]

FYI. This saison turned out so good that I'm gonna brew it again. I washed the yeast and jarred it up conservatively. I think this one needs to be about 20% under-pitched.

No cake for you!