question about racking onto yeast cake

That's probably what most people do.

You could also pour the trub into a large pickle jar or something. Let the beer settle on the top and decant this off before using a fresh fermenter for a new batch.

Note that pitching onto a whole yeast cake is usually over pitching. This process is also usually reserved for big beers. Otherwise, I'd recommend using a brew spoon and scooping out half of the yeast. There's a little bit of guesswork involved, but it's a great way to keep your culture alive.

 

You got it, Gently drain your new beer on top of the yeast cake.
FYI:

• The yeast cake is kept in clean and cool environment for less then 3 days.
• When you rack the new beer make sure it's at about the same temperature as the yeast cake
  
• For bucket, wash and sensitize the lead
• Over do it and you risking the yeast health

Please tell us how it went

 

I tend to swirl the remaining beer/trub around to get everything suspended then dump out most of the trub so I am left with ~1 inch at most on the bottom of the bucket. I use a new bucket for the next beer, just add the small bit of yeast cake to the new bucket with your next beer.

 

if you want to make things simple with less chance for contamination or error, then yes. just dump your new wort onto the old yeast. you can still oxygenate.

of course removing as much hops, trub and junk from the previous batch is best. you shouldn't be brewing two very different brews this way either. and you should be going from high OG to lower OG. if the yeast cake is recent, be prepared for a wild fermentation.
Cheers.

 

I think you meant to say the opposite.

 

correct.
low stress environment for happy yeast.
though I routinely do the opposite because I'm a rebel.
Thanks.

 

Does it have to be gently though? I tend to do a lot of splashing/rousing when I pitch my yeast, to ensure that plenty of oxygen is introduced to the wort before ferment. I'm sure a vigorous pour over the yeast cake wouldn't hurt either.

 

From the Wyeast website:

“High pitch rates can lead to:

• Very low ester production
• Very fast fermentations
• Thin or lacking body/mouthfeel
• Autolysis (Yeasty flavors due to lysing of cells)”

Cheers!

 

Yep.

Yep.

Huh?

Perhaps.

 

@JackHorzempa

I agree with Jack on what's said above. I would personally rather over pitch than under pitch. It's good to be in the ballpark either way, but a lot of brewers have said that they make good beers off of just throwing 5 gal of wort on a yeast cake. Is it the best beer you could have made? No. Will it still be delicious? Most likely.

Put your numbers through mrmalty.com. Just make your starter size 5 gallons. You should get a rough count of how many cells you have in the fermenter. It's usually like 4x the number that you'd want if your first batch was a session beer and the second will be a session beer.

 

Three identical beers were brewed with different pitch rates. 12 people tasted and evaluated each beer.



http://sciencebrewer.com/2012/03/02/pitching-rate-experiment-part-deux-results/

 

As regards the aspect of a fast fermentation start I would recommend that you closely monitor your fermentation temperature since a quick start could result in higher temperatures which happen more quickly.

You also need to pay attention to the potential for blow-off.

Personally I find the aspect of decreased body and potential autolysis to be the most offensive aspects.

Cheers!

 

According to mr malty, you'd only need about 1/2-3/4 a cup of slurry or 4-6oz. You could pour from the carboy into a sanitized jar and pitch the jar into a clean carboy. I use a mason jar that has oz markers which makes it easier to pitch the right amount.

The amount of slurry needed depends on some variables that you can adjust with the mr malty calculator.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

So, basically what sticks to the inside of the fermenter when you try to pour the slurry out into another container? I think that's a good rule of thumb.

" I liked the over-pitched beer over the under-pitched." YUS!

 

I usually have a gallon of boiled then cooled water ready to go. I put this in the fermenter and suspend everything. I let it settle for 30 minutes and then just pour the "enriched yeast" trying to guess at about half the cake. I like to then keep some of the remaining yeast for the fridge to use for my starter for the next time I want this yeast.