WLP007 yeast cake question

[skibb]

A few weeks ago I brewed up a 6 gallon batch of brown ale with 007, OG was 1.050, finished about 1.010. I finally got around to kegging it a few days ago, and now I'm looking to use the yeast cake for an old ale.

The old ale OG will be about 1.077, and I'm wondering what all i should do to this cake to prepare it. I'm sure the vitality of the yeast is kinda hurting, its been sitting under the beer for at least 2 and a half weeks (at 68 F). I'm thinking of making a little starter just to get the yeast back up to snuff, I'm just not sure how big it needs to be. I don't need to use the whole cake, and I'm currently not in the position to measure the amount (though I'm sure that it is more than enough).

 

[BradleyBrew]

I'm assuming you left the cake in the sanitized fermenter? Did you leave a think layer of beer on top? I just reused my first yeast cake last week. I did nothing but simply racked the fresh wort on top of the yeast cake (3 weeks old). Then just stood back and watched the yeast demolish the wort. I used my first blow off tube and glad I did! Most people will say to harvest the yeast and wash it, and then make a starter. However, this is my first experience with reusing a yeast cake so we will see if the results vary.