Something I’m trying now is I bagged my whirlpool hops then left the bag in the fermenter. After 4 days I pulled those and added more bagged hops. Another thing I’m going to try is to instead of harvesting yeast just pitch on a bit of cake dump the rest. This will require a bit more planning but should keep me on task and brew a series which I tend to do anyway. Just tossing it out for discussion
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I did that with a cider… After I finished XB-2… I dumped 5 gallons onto the cake… It was done in a matter of days rather than weeks… It is cloudy still…
Sneezles61
I repitch to the cake often just going to make it my standard MO. Last week and every year come this time I have a fridge full of yeast that I dump anyway and start fresh. Eliminate that step
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I’ve never racked onto a yeast cake likely because I’m not that organized and because I have to brew around my work schedule.
As far as the coming year and resolutions I plan to brew more often and likely will buy some additional kegs so I can lager beers longer.
Thats a great idea Brew Cat… One is a Lager of sorts… the other(2-4) is Ale… I’d be able to have more chilley pint glasses… waiting…
Sneezles61
We’ve done that to great effect several times.
As we’re brewing we rack the previous batch into a secondary, or the keg.
Then when we’re done chilling the brew in progress, you can go two ways. Either remove a bunch of the cake and pitch the new beer into the same fermenter. (Wife thinks this is gross, esp with the crusty krausen ring) OR (wife’s preferred approach) put the new wort into a clean fermenter and scoop some old cake into it. We’ve seen many ferments take off with ZERO lag this way. So be sure your temps are controlled from the start.
It’s also a great way to avoid yeast starters. We’ve done a 3-gallon patersbier with the intent of using that cake in a trippel. 8-10 gallons of beer from one smack-pack, no wasted DME on the starter… everyone is happy! (Except maybe Wyeast…)
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