Why pitch on a cake?

[david_42]

Yesterday, I had an excellent example of what pitching on a cake can do. Would you believe a RIS in 7 days? Pitch to tap?

Bill pitched a 1.090 RIS wort on a Nottingham cake from an IPA on 2 May. He said it exploded two hours later, spraying the ceiling. Done (1.020) in 48 hours. On tap for his birthday party yesterday. Very smooth, no hot alcohol taste or harshness. I didn't ask, but I suspect he pitched at a fairly low temperature and he has extremely good brewing techniques, so little clearing was needed.

For really big beers, there just isn't any better way to pitch.

 

[Nugent]

I pitched an Ordinary Bitter onto a 1275 yeast cake from a summer ale yesterday. I had a bubbling krausen in three hours.

Awesome.

 

[ChshreCat]

Stout... on cake... that sounds so good for some reason...

I'm going to try pitching on a yeast cake with my next two batches. APA first, then an AB clone on the cake.

 

[bruin_ale]

I pitched my amber on the cake from an IPA yesterday (I know that's really backwards, but oh well) and it started bubbling in 30 minutes. I was impressed...

Before anyone flames me for that, I know it's overpitching but wanted to try it anyways.

 

[bruin_ale]

Stout... on cake... that sounds so good for some reason...

I'm going to try pitching on a yeast cake with my next two batches. APA first, then an AB clone on the cake.

An anheuser busch clone huh?
Seriously though, what's AB stand for?

 

[ChshreCat]

An anheuser busch clone huh?
Seriously though, what's AB stand for?

Arrogant Bastard, of course!

 

[bruin_ale]

Stout... on cake... that sounds so good for some reason...

I'm going to try pitching on a yeast cake with my next two batches. APA first, then an AB clone on the cake.

Arrogant Bastard, of course!

DOH! I knew I'd most likely be smacking myself in the head after you told me! And me being a huge Stone Brewing fan I can't believe I didn't think of that. Just never seen it abbreviated like that..

 

[QueenCityALER]

Yeah, Cake pitching is great, and saves a few bucks. It's best to step it up from the previous brew, and go higher gravity, to avoid over-pitching and a darker brew... I heard that somewhere... And d*mn solid advice!! This is standard procedure for my yeast cake usage.

 

[malkore]

the one time I pitched on a cake, i had krausen spraying out of the airlock within 4 hours.
and that's a 5 gallon batch in a 7.5gallon bucket. massive fermentation..and the beer was great!

 

[CharlosCarlies]

Gonna have to try this if I get around to brewing today. I have a US-05 cake from Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde that should be perfect for the 1.100+ barleywine I want to do.

 

[bobjohnson77]

ok this may be a stupid question but do you do anything to the cake? If I understand this correctly make beer as normal then rack off to bottle or keg and then add wort on top of what is left? Primary or Secondary?

 

[khiddy]

I pitched the cake from my ESB into my latest batch of EdWorts Haus Pale Ale last night. It was Munton's Dry Yeast, and this morning, I see no activity. If I don't see something by tomorrow morning (36 hours), I'm gonna pitch the Notty that came with the kit... I just didn't want to blow the lid off of my fermenter again like Notty does every time!

 

[jkarp]

My only beef with cake pitching is fermentation is so damn vigorous, it can be tough to maintain temp control. I pitched a Maris Otter / Perle SMaSH on a S-05 cake from my last IPA and w/in 6 hours the fermenter temp hit 78. Had to wrap it in wet towels to get things under control. Fortunately, the SMaSH tasted amazing. I suspect since the yeast didn't have to go into a reproductive cycle, there weren't a lot of esters thrown from such a high temp.

 

[hopsoda]

It's nice to not have to clean the carboy!!!! just dump new beer in!

 

[Saccharomyces]

There is a reason that commercial brewers do this all the time... It works.

 

[Minky]

I pitched the cake from my ESB into my latest batch of EdWorts Haus Pale Ale last night. It was Munton's Dry Yeast, and this morning, I see no activity. If I don't see something by tomorrow morning (36 hours), I'm gonna pitch the Notty that came with the kit... I just didn't want to blow the lid off of my fermenter again like Notty does every time!

khiddy,
So did you siphon off your ESB from the fermentor and then immediately add the EdWorts wort to the fermentor or was there a lag period in there? For instance, did you save the yeast cake in the fridge for a time and then add it to your wort?

I'm thinking the problem is either with yeast viability or maybe the EdWorts was too hot when added.

Anytime I have dumped a new batch on an existing yeast slurry from a previous batch, I have done it all on the same day and it has exploded into activity within an hour.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I've been messing a lot lately with washing yeast, making starters etc.

My last batch I pitched 1/2 the washed yeast from the previous batch without making a starter and had good strong fermentation within 5 hours that was not TOO violent. That seemed very comfortable to me.....But then I like washing yeast. I'm kinky like that.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

In a week or two I will have a cake from a Belgian Dubbel that will be done, WLP540.

Any suggestions on a brew for it?

It will be my first time pitching onto a cake.

 

[Saccharomyces]

In a week or two I will have a cake from a Belgian Dubbel that will be done, WLP540.

Any suggestions on a brew for it?

Rochefort-something clone? It's the Rochefort yeast after all.

 

[weirdboy]

I just picked up the ingredients to make a tripel that I plan to pitch on the 1214 yeast cake from my wit which I'm racking this weekend.

 

[Ferrousity]

this is the krausen on my last Two Hearted clone...45 minutes after pitching onto an existing S-05 cake....nuff said

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Impressive!

 

[MrWhleDr]

So do you siphon softly onto the cake, or can i use a funnel and splash onto it?

 

[david_42]

Splash away or not, your choice. I do the normal aeration.

 

[CharlosCarlies]

Wooo! Dumped my barleywine onto a US-05 cake and it's going absolutely nuts after just a few hours. Man I'm glad I made a blowoff. Even w/ foam control it's still flying through w/o any problems!

 

[Beerbeque]

I pitched onto a cake once but found it quite messy and worried about having overpitched. Now I compromise with a different technique. When I rack the beer from my fermenter I swirl the fermenter to loosen the cake and dump about a pint or so into a sanitized jar and pop it into the fridge. When I brew my next batch I take the jar out and let it warm up, pour off any beer on top of it and then pitch the contents into the new batch. Fermentation always starts very quickly.

 

[ChshreCat]

I'll be doing something like that. I'm going to take the cake from my next batch, wash it, split it in half and pitch half and save half for another batch.

 

[DeathBrewer]

I think I'll make a baby stout and drop a godzilla stout on the cake some time this week

 

[bakersbrew]

I'm pretty new to homebrewing....so humor me. If I get this right, you guys are pouring your wort right into the primary with the yeast cake left over from a beer you just bottled or kegged? Wouldn't the leftover beer affect the taste of the new brew? And what is yeast washing? How do you do it?

 

[CharlosCarlies]

Wouldn't the leftover beer affect the taste of the new brew?

That's why generally you'll want to do a small, simple beer as your "starter" and pitch a bigger more complex beer on top of that cake. For example, I brewed Biermuncher's centennial blonde (~1.040ish) and pitched a 1.100 barleywine on top of it's cake.