Pitching on the yeast cake

[positive_voodoo]

I have the NB IIPA recipe kit along with wyeast american ale yeast smack pack. Right now in the primary I have another pale ale going, about ready to secondary. It was fermented with the same yeast.

So I want to put the IIPA on yeast cake of the pale ale (I’ve read all the posts on everyone’s opinion on cleaning the yeast and re-pitching versus just putting the wort right on the cake, and I’m going with the latter).

My questions are:

1. Should I rinse the yeast cake with any sort of clean water and drain the carboy as best as possible before racking the wort over?
2. Should I use oxygen once the wort is in?
3. Do I still need to starter for the yeast or will the cake and the smack pack suffice to get it rolling quickly and thoroughly fermented ?

Thanks.

[the_professor]

You don’t need the smack pack or a starter at all if you’re pitching onto a yeast cake. Save the smack pack for a few brews down the line (since if you’re careful, you can keep pitching onto subsequent cakes to a point).

And you don’t need to rinse the yeast (I’ve done it both ways and rinsing it made no difference whatsoever, so I don’t bother anymore).
You also don’t even need to use the whole yeast cake. 1/3 to 1/2 of it will be more than enough. Sterilize a jar or a flask and save the part of the yeast cake you’re bot using for the new ferment; you can use it later for another brew or you can do what I do…dump the remaining yeast not needed for the fermentation into the boil (that’s what some of the British brewers do…it supposedly acts as yeast food for the fermentation).

[positive_voodoo]

Great, thanks! Sounds great. Once I transfer the wort into the carboy, do I need to use oxygen or do I not need to worry about that?

[brewbeer22]

Oxygenate as you normally would.

I rock and swirl the carboys on the ground to aerate.