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Wash before pitch?

Yeast & Fermentation
#1

I am trying to pitch onto a yeast cake for a second batch of beer. So far I have. . . brewed a Halcyon wheat, let it settle, pitched a starter of 1450 and let it ferment. I crashed cooled and am thinking of racking it off to my keg and dropping a batch of Denny’s Rye Smile on top of the cake.

Because I’ve racked the Halcyon before pitching is there any need to wash the yeast cake before I pitch the Rye Smile on top? I’ve been cold-pitching and plan on doing the same with the cake (dropping 65o wort onto a 45o or so cake).

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

#2

An entire cake is more than you need - remove 1/2 to 2/3 of the cake before pitching on the remainder. You can store the extra yeast in Ball jars for later use.

#3

I brewed a wheat beer about 2 weeks ago. I put a quart of the cake into a jar and put it in the fridge. On Saturday, we brewed 10 gal of another wheat beer - we divided it into two pints and pitched into two five gallon fermenters. It took off within about 4 hours.

#4

How long can I keep the ball jars in the fridge without having to make a starter? Should I put some of the beer on top of the stored yeast?

#5

[quote=“newerbrewer”]How long can I keep the ball jars in the fridge without having to make a starter? Should I put some of the beer on top of the stored yeast?[/quote]Three to four weeks is usually fine. I put cold, sterile water on top rather than beer, to make a really weak beer solution.

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