Reusing yeast cake for RIS

[jhsbaker]

Hi,

I am planning to brew a 1.100 OG RIS this weekend using the entire yeast cake from a 1052 OG Pale Ale.

The yeast was in primary fermenter for 2 weeks, then transferred to a large erlenmeyer flask and covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for 2 weeks (I planned to brew straight away but life happened).

Plan is:
Night before:
- decant beer off top of yeast
- add 1L boiled/chilled water (at refrigerator temp)
- Shake a bit to mix yeast cake
- Leave 20mins for trub to drop out
- Decant yeast in suspension to another sanitised erlenmeyer flask
- Chill in fridge overnight

Morning of:
- Remove from fridge
- Decant off water from above yeast
- Add ~ 500mL 1040 DME solution to get it started

Two questions:
- Will my yeast be in good enough condition after 2 weeks in the fridge for a RIS?
- Should I bother trying to separate yeast / trub or just ferment with the whole lot?

 

[Yob]

Will be fine, just pitch the lot..

LOTS of aeration and by lots.. I mean **** loads..

Also fit a blow off tube..., have a look at the gallery images for a recent RIS eruption.

 

[jhsbaker]

Will be fine, just pitch the lot..

LOTS of aeration and by lots.. I mean **** loads..

Also fit a blow off tube..., have a look at the gallery images for a recent RIS eruption.

I only have an air pump. Will multiple aerations do the job? 3 x 1/2 hour aeration every 3 hours?

Plan is to ferment 27L of wort in 2 x 30L fermenters to leave plenty of head space, then transfer into 23L glass carboy for aging.

 

[Yob]

Yep can do that with the pump, will probably foam over though, half hour is a long time to run bubbles..

 

[Tex083]

I just finished my RIS it went on to a yeast cake from a foreign extra stout. Foamed like a MF.
If you are going to bottle this one how are you going to get it to "referment" in the bottle? Mine has not enjoyed the extra sugar and is flat 6 weeks later.

 

[Markbeer]

I often end up adding a little amount of yeast to each bottle with a dropper.

You have to be careful to make sure there aren't any residual sugars that may be eaten but there is a fermentis yeast specifically for this.

 

[jhsbaker]

I often end up adding a little amount of yeast to each bottle with a dropper.

You have to be careful to make sure there aren't any residual sugars that may be eaten but there is a fermentis yeast specifically for this.

I bulk prime all of my beers. Similar to Markbeer, except I add yeast to bottling bucket. I try to line up bottling a high gravity beer and a low gravity beer at the same time and add a small amount of yeast from the low gravity beer. As per comment from Markbeer, you can restart fermentation when adding fresh yeast. One option is to add the fresh yeast about 1 week before bottling.