Use yeast cake or wash yeast?

[lewishowardm3]

As the title says. I used S-05 in my last batch which was a citra pale and it is fermenting away now. For my next batch I plan on doing the "yoopers house pale ale" I want to reuse the yeast. Would it be ok to wash this yeast, or should i just rack onto the yeast cake?

 

[progmac]

if you reuse the cake, only use about 1/4 of it...scoop the rest out. up to you whether or not you wash. i like to wash if i have more than an ounce of hop pellets in the trub.

 

[Grannyknot]

I would rack onto the yeast cake.
I'm starting to really dis-like washing yeast. Loose too many cells & I usually have to get my starter of washed yeast going at least 2-3 days before brewing, because it takes so long to wake up and start growing.

I actually had to put a starter of washed yeast back in the fridge on brew day last week because it never took off. Luckily, I had a spare S-05 in my freezer.

 

[lewishowardm3]

I have never racked straight onto a yeast cake before. I would usually just go and buy another pack of dry yeast but S-05 seems to be expensive here in the UK. Also I will be going from a 3 gal batch to a 5 gal batch. Is this a big problem for reusing the yeast cake?

 

[two_hearted]

I think you'd be ok pitching onto the yeast cake. If it were a 5 gal IPA batch to a 5 gal pale ale, I would say ditch about half of the cake.

 

[PseudoChef]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/why-not-pitch-your-yeast-cake-166221/

 

[lewishowardm3]

Thanks for the link. I'm actually leading towards pitching onto the yeast cake now. I mean if I have never tried it this way then how will I ever know what's good or bad for my taste buds.

Cheers

 

[Calder]

if you reuse the cake, only use about 1/4 of it...scoop the rest out. up to you whether or not you wash. i like to wash if i have more than an ounce of hop pellets in the trub.

+1

You can pitch onto the cake and make a good beer, but you will be over-pitching. That means the yeast don't reproduce as much as you really want, and a lot of old yeast will be doing the work. A couple of consequences are: 1) You don't get the esters created when the yeast reproduce (actually reproduction only creates the precursers for the esters), so the beer is less complex, and 2) The old yeast might get tired and may not fully attenuate (maybe oly a point or 2 that will not be noticed).

A fermented beer will end up with about 6X what is considered a standard pitch. If you start off with that much, you do not create many new cells.

So to pitch the correct amount, you want to pitch about 1/6th of the final yeast. I generally try to use about a quarter of a cake (I find a pint mason jar is perfect for this - or 16 ozs since you are in the UK). The reason I use a quarter, is because not all the yeast will survive thru the fermentation and it is the best estimate I have seen, and works well.

I'd just pour off about a pint of the slurry, and pitch that in the new beer. No need to wash it. If the jar is sanitized, it can keep in the fridge for a while too. ..... You could get a few beers out of this cake if you work it right.

 

[lewishowardm3]

+1

You can pitch onto the cake and make a good beer, but you will be over-pitching. That means the yeast don't reproduce as much as you really want, and a lot of old yeast will be doing the work. A couple of consequences are: 1) You don't get the esters created when the yeast reproduce (actually reproduction only creates the precursers for the esters), so the beer is less complex, and 2) The old yeast might get tired and may not fully attenuate (maybe oly a point or 2 that will not be noticed).

A fermented beer will end up with about 6X what is considered a standard pitch. If you start off with that much, you do not create many new cells.

So to pitch the correct amount, you want to pitch about 1/6th of the final yeast. I generally try to use about a quarter of a cake (I find a pint mason jar is perfect for this - or 16 ozs since you are in the UK). The reason I use a quarter, is because not all the yeast will survive thru the fermentation and it is the best estimate I have seen, and works well.

I'd just pour off about a pint of the slurry, and pitch that in the new beer. No need to wash it. If the jar is sanitized, it can keep in the fridge for a while too. ..... You could get a few beers out of this cake if you work it right.

Thanks for the advise. I have half pint mason jars so I should just pour the cake into two of them and then re sanitise my bucket for the next batch?

 

[dawgmatic]

Thanks for the advise. I have half pint mason jars so I should just pour the cake into two of them and then re sanitise my bucket for the next batch?

You should read the yeast washing sticky

 

[BigFloyd]

I just this afternoon pitched a milk choc stout on about 1/3 of an S-04 yeast cake from an ESB batch. It was a nice clean cake since I'd used whirlfloc on the ESB and bagged my hops.

It hasn't taken off yet, but I went straightaway with a blow-off tube instead of an airlock based on the experiences of others.

 

[lewishowardm3]

I just this afternoon pitched a milk choc stout on about 1/3 of an S-04 yeast cake from an ESB batch. It was a nice clean cake since I'd used whirlfloc on the ESB and bagged my hops.

It hasn't taken off yet, but I went straightaway with a blow-off tube instead of an airlock based on the experiences of others.

Did you scoop out 2/3 of the yeast cake and then pitch on top?

 

[Stauffbier]

As mentioned, just scoop out about 1/4 - 1/3 of the cake and pitch it in to a fresh batch of wort in a CLEAN fermenter. Don't dump your wort in to a dirty fermenter on top of an entire cake. Unless you just don't care about making the best beer you can make...

Also, you don't have to wash if you don't want to. Just scoop out the cake in to sterilized jars and pitch as needed. Even if you have a lot of grain/hop trub it still works fine. If you save the jars for over 3-4 months, then you might want to wash that individual jar and build a starter accordingly.

 

[lewishowardm3]

As mentioned, just scoop out about 1/4 - 1/3 of the cake and pitch it in to a fresh batch of wort in a CLEAN fermenter. Don't dump your wort in to a dirty fermenter on top of an entire cake. Unless you just don't care about making the best beer you can make...

Also, you don't have to wash if you don't want to. Just scoop out the cake in to sterilized jars and pitch as needed. Even if you have a lot of grain/hop trub it still works fine. If you save the jars for over 3-4 months, then you might want to wash that individual jar and build a starter accordingly.

Cheers. All is clear now.