3 week Dubblel yeast cake and more..., Should I use a 3 week old 1.070 yeast cake? Options

[Plgl]

About 3 weeks ago I brewed a 1.070 Belgian Dubble that I fermented with WLP530. The beer was finished fermenting in about 7-10 days. I want to reuse the yeast cake directly to ferment a 1.100 ish Westvleteren ABT 12 style beer. Anything wrong with this? Is the yeast cake too old? Is the OG of the 1st beer too high? Anyone has similar experiences to report?

And about the Dubbel, I have hesitating between racking too keg and put in fridge for cold conditioning or racking to keg and add priming sugar to condition in keg for a few weeks before I put it in the fridge (as I know belgians are suppose to benifit from bottle conditionning I wondered if keg condtioning with priming sugar would be similar. If I go with option B, what is the minmum time I should let it condition before putting in fridge?

Thanks!

[OldSock]

Recently I repitched some 3787 (same strain as 530) slurry from a 1.072 dubbel into a 1.088 tripel. Granted that the slurry was from a beer that had started fermenting just a week earlier, so it was very fresh. I repitched a ½ cup of slurry at 62 degrees and the beer was fermenting nicely about 12 hours later.

You could probably get away with reusing the yeast as is, but at this age your best option would probably be to wash the yeast cake with some water to get the trub out, then feed them some nutrients, oxygen, and low gravity wort to help the cells. A 1.100 wort is not something you want to send depleted cells to ferment.

I’ll leave the kegging question to someone with more knowledge on that subject.

As for your Westy 12 recipe, check out the current thread in the recipe forum if you are looking for any suggestions.

[Plgl]

Thanks for the insight! I have looked at the Westy 12 recipe in the recipe forum, mine is pretty close. I am unfortunatly not very familiar with the procedure of washing yeast, and I think I will pitch directly on the case if noone adiveses strongly against it. Anyone has some insight to give about a 3 week yeast cake? (actualy 10 day post fermentation end). Will the trub from the 1st batch be a problem to the 2nd batch?

Thanks!

[OldSock]

Ok, 10 days past the end of fermentation isn’t too bad. I thought you were saying that it had been 3 weeks since you harvested. You should be fine to pitch as is, although I like to take some wort after the start of the boil, chill it down and add it to the yeast to wake them up.

Yeast washing is pretty easy: http://hbd.org/carboy/yeast_washing.htm

I wouldn’t pitch the whole yeast cake, Belgian yeast produce more flavor (esters) when they have to grow a bit in the wort. If you pitch too much yeast the finished beer will not have the big fruity character that most great Belgian beers have.

[Plgl]

Ok, 10 days past the end of fermentation isn’t too bad. I thought you were saying that it had been 3 weeks since you harvested. You should be fine to pitch as is, although I like to take some wort after the start of the boil, chill it down and add it to the yeast to wake them up.

Yeast washing is pretty easy: http://hbd.org/carboy/yeast_washing.htm

I wouldn’t pitch the whole yeast cake, Belgian yeast produce more flavor (esters) when they have to grow a bit in the wort. If you pitch too much yeast the finished beer will not have the big fruity character that most great Belgian beers have.

Thanks, yeast washing is probably a good idea. I will transfer my beer to a keg today and wash the yeast and them feed it some wort that I will pitch in the wort I brew tomorow.