Pitching onto a yeast cake

[ShartAttack]

Right now I'm brewing a saison using Wyeast 3724. I figure fermentation will be done in a few days and then I might rack it to a secondary to let the yeast settle out some more.

At the same time as I ordered the saison kit from Northern Brewer, I also ordered the petit saison kit with a pack of Wyeast 3711. I got to thinking, would it work to brew the petit saison, and then dump that on to the 3724 yeast cake? Or am I better off just chucking the trub and using the 3711 smack pack as I originally planned?

 

[RacingRam]

You'll get fermentation and probably tasty beer pitching onto the yeast cake. The main problem is that the cell count is higher than necessary, so the yeast won't reproduce. Yeast reproduction is important during fermentation, but I can't remember why off the top of my head. I think there's a sticky in the Yeast forum.

Awesome name, by the way. Do you watch Workaholics?

 

[tjwor]

Mragin covered most of it...

One other thing to think of is any minor bugs in a batch will multiply greatly with each additional pitch.

If your sanitation practices are lacking at all you could see issues, most likely not from a first time re-pitch, but always a chance.

 

[shoshin]

I seem to remember hearing or reading that many of the Belgian strains produce their characteristic by products during reproduction. Over pitching if this is the case coil deprive your second saison of tasty Belgian funk or flavor

 

[chumpsteak]

Rack to secondary. Pour about 1/3 or so of the slurry into a sanitized jar. Pitch within a week to your next batch. You don't have to use the whole yeast cake.

 

[ShartAttack]

Rack to secondary. Pour about 1/3 or so of the slurry into a sanitized jar. Pitch within a week to your next batch. You don't have to use the whole yeast cake.

Thanks for all of the advice guys! I might try this, saving some of the slurry while I make up my mind. I'd like to try out both yeasts, but I also get what people mention about possible contamination. I think my technique is good so far but I've been taking lots of hydrometer readings with this one so maybe it's best not to risk another batch with the yeast.

 

[Varmintman]

Lots of us and I mean LOTS of us reuse yeast with no issues at all. You can wash the yeast or slant it or what I do is just reuse the slurry. It is not anything to be worried about as long as you are careful with your sanitation.

 

[Pappers_]

Rack to secondary. Pour about 1/3 or so of the slurry into a sanitized jar. Pitch within a week to your next batch. You don't have to use the whole yeast cake.

I do this often, when brewing a big beer. After racking to the bottling bucket or keg, put the yeast in a sanitized Ball jar and use the next weekend.

 

[Yooper]

I do this often, when brewing a big beer. After racking to the bottling bucket or keg, put the yeast in a sanitized Ball jar and use the next weekend.

Yes, I do this all the time. I just bought $42 worth of fresh yeast packages (about 7 packages). Those will last me until fall.

I'll make a starter, then use one package of yeast. When that beer is finished, I'll "wash" (rinse) the yeast a bit and pour into boiled and cooled mason jars. I'll use several pint jars for each yeast cake. Then, label them with a sharpie and put them in my beer fridge.

I use mrmalty.com's yeast slurry pitching calculator, and use about 1/2 pint jar for a 10 gallon batch.

Then do the same with each yeast strain.

I get about 10 5 gallon batches out of one package of yeast! I could even go longer, but I just use three or four pint jars and don't usually re-save unless it's a rare strain (like a seasonal).

Pitching onto an entire yeast cake would almost certainly be overpitching, though. Here's some food for thought: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/why-not-pitch-your-yeast-cake-166221/

I have pitched onto an entire cake, when I first made a "small beer" to have enough yeast for a super high OG beer. That works really well with some lagers- to go from a 3 gallon batch of 1.043 lager to a 5 gallon batch of 1.085 dopplebock for example.

 

[ShartAttack]

So if I save some of this slurry, could I just chuck it in the fridge for a while? I'm thinking maybe I could save the 3724 for the next time I do a Belgian Saison, but I don't know when that would be. I know from my experience in lab that yeast & bacteria can be left in the fridge pretty much forever but my purposes for saving microorganisms in lab are quite different from brewing.

So I guess the ear question is, would that slurry still be good after a few months in the fridge or do I need to get fancier with storage technique?

 

[iowabrew]

You're better off washing the yeast if you're going to store it for that long. It's really easy process and there is a sticky on the yeast forum for it. I've stored and revived many a washed yeast months after it's intial placement in my fridge.

As for re-pitching, as stated above, i also routinely do this by sanitzing a measuring and cup and simply pitching about a third of the cake into my next batch with stellar results.

 

[Varmintman]

I have gone 3 months or more with slurry in the fridge. Use a yeast calculator to find out how much to pitch after how long.