Pitching onto a yeast cake vs. saving cleaning the yeast

[wahoo]

Of course I pitch the right yeast for a given beer I am making. But I often plan to brew a few batches in succession that will use a similar yeast. So, I’ll make a bitter with British Ale, harvest it, then make a stout with it, then make an IPA with it and then retire it.

[ickyfoot]

Gotcha. I just chose Phat Tyre for one of my upcoming brews because I harvested some US05. I hope to brew it up this weekend, which will make 2 weeks since the US05 went in the fridge. So…do I need a starter? I’m thinking no…?

I did have to pitch the “wrong” yeast (the US05) in some Dry Irish Stout because of the aforementioned yeast-boiling mishap. Denny and another poster opined that US05 would be better than s-04 anyway, so I gave it a shot. We’ll see!

[mvsawyer]

[quote=“ickyfoot”]Gotcha. I just chose Phat Tyre for one of my upcoming brews because I harvested some US05. I hope to brew it up this weekend, which will make 2 weeks since the US05 went in the fridge. So…do I need a starter? I’m thinking no…?
[/quote]
No starter. Direct pitch.

[a10t2]

@Narwhal81

I’m bummed because when I got up this morning, even though the room was about 58 degrees, my beer was up to 73 and blowing like mad. I promptly moved to the basement. Although I haven’t tasted the porter yet, I’m hoping there aren’t too many esters and that I didn’t otherwise blow this one too badly (pun intended). Next time I will definitely try washing, as suggested by others in this tread, and try for a slower fermentation, like I had with the Scottish 90. sigh. Any suggestions for what I can do to help this porter?

I doubt it had anything to do with not rinsing the yeast, or with this strain in particular. What you’re seeing is typical of significant over-pitching. In this case, you probably had something like 3-5 times the typical amount of yeast. How much yeast did you pitch into the 90/-?

It will probably be fine. A porter is a good choice to cover up any minor off-flavors that may result from over-pitching.

[dforlow]

quote]
I doubt it had anything to do with not rinsing the yeast, or with this strain in particular. What you’re seeing is typical of significant over-pitching. In this case, you probably had something like 3-5 times the typical amount of yeast. How much yeast did you pitch into the 90/-?

It will probably be fine. A porter is a good choice to cover up any minor off-flavors that may result from over-pitching.[/quote]

I’m confused. I think it was the Palmer book which said you really can’t “over” pitch but you seem to be saying there can be a downside to too much yeast. Info please.

[narwhal81]

@a10t2

[quote=“Narwhal81”]I’m bummed because when I got up this morning, even though the room was about 58 degrees, my beer was up to 73 and blowing like mad. I promptly moved to the basement. Although I haven’t tasted the porter yet, I’m hoping there aren’t too many esters and that I didn’t otherwise blow this one too badly (pun intended). Next time I will definitely try washing, as suggested by others in this tread, and try for a slower fermentation, like I had with the Scottish 90. sigh. Any suggestions for what I can do to help this porter?

I doubt it had anything to do with not rinsing the yeast, or with this strain in particular. What you’re seeing is typical of significant over-pitching. In this case, you probably had something like 3-5 times the typical amount of yeast. How much yeast did you pitch into the 90/-?

It will probably be fine. A porter is a good choice to cover up any minor off-flavors that may result from over-pitching.[/quote]

Thanks for the reply. To answer your question, I made an 18-hour (or so) starter from 1 smack pack to pitch into the 90 shilling. Again, neither the starter or the 90 shilling showed signs of a very rigorous fermentation, prompting my (perhaps dubious) decision to pitch the porter onto the entire yeast cake.

After about 36 hours visible fermentation on the porter slowed dramatically. I brewed on monday. I’ll take a SG reading after 1 week and see where its at.