Yeast Cake Pitching

[The_Duck]

Hi All

Are there any hard and fast rules on pitching a new brew into a fermenter after kegging it's previous inhabitant ?

I have an ESB that I am about to keg and a fresh IPA in a cube to drop in the fermenter. Yeast is a SAF-04.

Are there any rules I should observe about pitching a fresh brew into a fermenter so quickly ?

Getting gravity right ? aeration ? hygeine ?



Duck

 

[manticle]

Rules? No rules in brewing - only guidelines and principles that will give you certain results.

Generally it is recommended with most beers to save some slurry from a batch, wash with low pH if you can then pitch the appropriate amount into the next batch.

Many people report success using entire yeast cakes but many others consider it overpitching.

Whichever way you fall, I personally like to check my yeast for viability and cleanliness before I brew and I find making active starters is the perfect way to do this. Based on that, I would recommend saving slurry and pitching a certain amount rather than just throwing down on the whole cake. My perspective only.

Additionally that yeast slurry can probably be used for 5+ brews so why weaste it all on one?

 

[O'Henry]

I have pitched on a yeast cake with no problems, but that was a big stout on to a mild cake, so needed yeast!

I find a cup of fresh slurry to be more than enough, and last time I pitched at the same time as bottling, there was around 2-3cups in the fermenter, so just keep some in a bottle for another brew!

 

[The_Duck]

Cheers guys,

I have had a few too many ciders tonight (to free up the keg I tells ya !!) to keg tonight.

I'll get as much slurry as I can and stick it in clean PET's, clean out the fermenter and drop in the new batch.

I may need to get another heat source for one of the other fermenters as I am getting backlogged in the cubes :-/


Duck

 

[Cocko]

I always pitch on the cake AT LEAST once.. [Once 4 times but the trub was above the tap.. another story..]

Yeah, technically it is over pitching but I have never had any adverse affects. It may help that I filter but also did re-pitching prior to filtering and they were some damn cloudy beers.. like OJ.

I brew big batches, 4 cubes at a time, so pour and pitch one into my 30L fermenter, or 2 into my 60L, ferment out - then keg - then pour a cube on the yeast cake and hey presto - the new batch is brewing again - Obviously, you need to be sure there is no infection present etc...

Is it over pitching = yes. Have I ever tasted any ill effects from the method = NO!

Each to there own, I am sure the filtering is saving me...

Rules as far as I understand are: Pitch, light to dark and Less hoppy to hoppy - As I am pitching the same batch I am unsure as the results of this.

2c.

 

[NeilArge]

I always pitch on the cake AT LEAST once.. [Once 4 times but the trub was above the tap.. another story..]

Yeah, technically it is over pitching but I have never had any adverse affects. It may help that I filter but also did re-pitching prior to filtering and they were some damn cloudy beers.. like OJ.

I brew big batches, 4 cubes at a time, so pour and pitch one into my 30L fermenter, or 2 into my 60L, ferment out - then keg - then pour a cube on the yeast cake and hey presto - the new batch is brewing again - Obviously, you need to be sure there is no infection present etc...

Is it over pitching = yes. Have I ever tasted any ill effects from the method = NO!

Each to there own, I am sure the filtering is saving me...

Rules as far as I understand are: Pitch, light to dark and Less hoppy to hoppy - As I am pitching the same batch I am unsure as the results of this.

2c.

I've pitched onto yeastcakes with no adverse effects for the resulting beer either. However, a question: I filtered a beer earlier this week a bit before it had fermented out completely (I found that I had a crack in the top of the fermenter and so didn't want to leave the beer in there too long). I've just bottled that beer (a British blonde) but wondered if it would be okay to pitch a porter straight on top of the little bit of beer that's left. There's not yeastcake as such, of course, but surely there ought to be enough yeast in suspension to do the job on the porter. What do youse reckon?

Cheers

ToG

 

[raven19]

The Mr Malty calculator online will give you a reasonable estimation on slurry to pitch also.