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Reuse of a Yeast Cake


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#1 ncbeerbrewer

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Posted 05 April 2009 - 07:44 AM

So I have a California Common that is done fermenting on its yeast 2112. I am planning to brew an IPA and reused the 2112 yeast cake. I have reused cakes before but I have a few questions or some advice.1. Do you reuse the yeast in the same carboy as just finished? If so have you just transferred off the finished beer and pumped the new beer right onto the yeast cake? Do you take out the yeast cake and clean the carboy? The Common fermented and got krausen all that way up to the neck of the carboy. 2. When you get your beer and yeast in the carboy do you do anything different to get the yeast back in suspension other than shaking the carboy to aerate your wort. Just some thoughts I wanted to ask before I get to doing this. Thanks for the advice.

#2 BFB

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Posted 05 April 2009 - 08:20 AM

If it were me....1- transfer beer off of yeast...leave a litle beer behind.2- swirl yeast into suspension.3- pour slurry into a clean, sanitized jar, cover with foil.4- clean carboy5- transfer chilled wort to carboy6- add yeast slurry 7- definately attach a blow off tube!!!!If you transfer right on top f the whole cake....tooo much yeast.You can do the above and refridgerate the yeast until you are ready to use it. After a week or so you will have to make a starter to wake it up (I don't make a starter if the yeast has been in the fridge for 2- weeks or less).

#3 Recklessdeck

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Posted 05 April 2009 - 09:19 AM

So I have a California Common that is done fermenting on its yeast 2112. I am planning to brew an IPA and reused the 2112 yeast cake. I have reused cakes before but I have a few questions or some advice.1. Do you reuse the yeast in the same carboy as just finished? If so have you just transferred off the finished beer and pumped the new beer right onto the yeast cake? Do you take out the yeast cake and clean the carboy? The Common fermented and got krausen all that way up to the neck of the carboy. 2. When you get your beer and yeast in the carboy do you do anything different to get the yeast back in suspension other than shaking the carboy to aerate your wort. Just some thoughts I wanted to ask before I get to doing this. Thanks for the advice.

I have always just racked the original beer off and racked the new wort in, no cleaning, no nothing. Then aerate as normal (I use the shake method). Of course I don't worry about infections at all, never had one. If you are more concerned with sanitation than I feel free to clean out your carboy if you want, its just more work.

#4 ncbeerbrewer

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Posted 05 April 2009 - 09:28 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think I will get to brew today so I am chilling down the Common right now. I will just rack off that, save the yeast in a sanitizied Mason jar and brew up this IPA in two weeks. I am more of a clean concerned kindsa brewer so I would have probably cleaned before putting the new beer back in too.

#5 Dave

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Posted 05 April 2009 - 01:17 PM

I racked my last 4 brews onto the same yeast cake without cleaning or anything....when I racked to secondary yesterday everything yeast-related looked fine but I decided to clean the fermenters anyway----got tired of looking them looking nasty. Cleaned them, sanitized, racked and pitched the same yeast ( 5th generation by then) and it's working nicely in the fermentation fridge...I think I'll rack next weeks batch onto the yeast cake then retire this strain....IMHO if you keep racking on top of the same yeast cake repeatedly, make sure your sanitation is up to par and everything will be good..

#6 HoppingFrog Brewing

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Posted 05 April 2009 - 03:45 PM

As the others stated works I would and do go for mulaple generations bu I will clean or use a diffrent carboy for third on generation just because of all the additional junk that gets left behind unless I am pitching on to a secondary yeast cake as it is usualy a clean white yeast cake.If you want to see how good your sanitation go out 10 generations than split a batch and try new yeast and your house yeast. You will be supprised at the diffrence. I was plesently supprised in my brewhouse. Keep track of active days of fermentation and yeast floculation.

#7 japh

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Posted 06 April 2009 - 02:20 PM

I am bad, I just dump the next batch on top of the yeast cake. I do scrape clean (with a sanitized scraper) the top where the krausen left a bunch of junk.


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