Pitching onto yeast cake

[newbiebrew]

Im getting ready to make a new batch of beer, well actually two batches. One is a dry stout and the other is a bitter. I've never pitched onto a yeast cake before, but because i would like to get these going one right after the other I am curious to try. Is there any special precautions i need to take, any additional steps other than pouring the new wort directly onto the yeast cake and shaking, should I do one before the other(i.e. one has a higher o.g. than the other). Any help would be much apprectiated.

[Bugeater]

In general, they say to brew the lower OG beer first. They also say to brew the lighter colored beer first. If those two rules of thumb conflict, f**k it. It doesn't really make much difference as long as neither is a high gravity beer (1.070+). If you brew the stout first, make sure you pour off as much of the beer as possible so you don't get any color contribution into the bitter. Make it easy on yourself and brew the bitter first and you don't have to worry about mixing a little into your stout.

When I do what you are proposing, I will rack the first beer during either the boil or the mash of the second beer and then just stick the fermentation lock right back in. Once the wort is cool, I siphon it right into the fermenter. No draining of the carboy, cleaning and adding the slurry back. I figure that if the carboy was clean enough for the beer that just came out of it, it is still clean enough for the new one. The more you screw around with it, the more chance there is that you may mess up and contaminate something.

There are some anal compulsive types in the homebrew community that would consider this to be totally wrong and that you must pour out the yeast cake into a sterile container and acid wash it while scrubbing and then autclaving the carboy. That is the other extreme. I am firmly a believer in keeping things as simple as possible as long as it still results in great beer. My method hasn't failed me yet.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Danno]

I agree with Wayne (usually do). Why bother cleaning the bucket? It's just going to get dirty again! It's all sanitary in there if you followed good homebrewing practices.

I recently brewed a Pils (1.052), then a Bock (1.072) and then brewed a Rauchbier (1.054) in succession on the same yeast cake. Since the Rauchbier was only 5 gallons, I cleaned one of the buckets and used the yeast from the other. It fermented very nicely. I now believe that you can go 1.072 and then back down but just don't go up from the 1.072 for a real healthy ferment. I figured I just let my yeast have a nice 1.054 break before doing a dopplebock. I suspect pitching at a nice high rate really helped things out. I also always oxygenate real well.