Reuse Yeast Cake

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BlackRat

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Hi everyone,

I have done some reading on this however i still have 1 or 2 questions that im sure are very simple to answer.

I currently have a LCPA clone sitting in my fermentor (18 deg for 2 weeks) and is coming up to botteling time. It has 2 packets of US-05 yeast inside it and i was entertaining the idea of reusing this yeast cake, or better yet, botteling some of it for future batches.

Questions:
1 - Would the fact that i have late hopped the LCPA mean these hop flavours lay in the yeast cake?
2 - To reuse, do i simply add new wort to the top of the cake? OR do i add it to a new fermentor and pour the cake on top?
3 - To reuse, does the new beer have to be a higher OG than the original beer? Or could you do another LCPA clone if i was unimaginative?
4 - Is it possible to bottle any of this goodness for later beers?

Have i missed anything?

Cheers,
BlackRat.
 
Hi everyone,

I have done some reading on this however i still have 1 or 2 questions that im sure are very simple to answer.

I currently have a LCPA clone sitting in my fermentor (18 deg for 2 weeks) and is coming up to botteling time. It has 2 packets of US-05 yeast inside it and i was entertaining the idea of reusing this yeast cake, or better yet, botteling some of it for future batches.

Questions:
1 - Would the fact that i have late hopped the LCPA mean these hop flavours lay in the yeast cake?
2 - To reuse, do i simply add new wort to the top of the cake? OR do i add it to a new fermentor and pour the cake on top?
3 - To reuse, does the new beer have to be a higher OG than the original beer? Or could you do another LCPA clone if i was unimaginative?
4 - Is it possible to bottle any of this goodness for later beers?

Have i missed anything?

Cheers,
BlackRat.

Sorry, for some reason this thread has doubled up.

Mod - please remove one.
 
Don't worry about hops in your yeast cake, they won't pass on any noticeable flavours etc to your new batch.
So long as you keep your brews to a similar style, you'll be fine.

You can just dump a new batch onto your old yeastcake, but you probably overpitch that way.
Better to harvest a jar or two, and pitch just a cupful into your new batch. It will give you plenty of yeast.

Prevailing wisdom says to reuse yeast from a lower to a higher gravity beer, and from a lighter to a darker beer. I've never seen any research proving this is necessarily the case, so just use common sense. You wouldn't pitch the cake from a stout into a pale ale, for example, but other than that, you're generally good to go.

You can keep the jars of harvested yeast for some time, in the fridge. If it's more than say a couple of weeks, it's a good idea to prove it by pitching it into a starter.

If you want to keep your harvested yeast any longer than, say, a couple of weeks, have a look at the thread about Yeast Washing, I think from Wolfy(?). Lots of good info, and it's the way to go for longer term storage.

And finally, as always when dealing with yeast, SANITATION is very important.
 

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