Using yeast cake

[davidrgreen]

So sat morning I bottled a batch or brown ale which I had used a harvested and cleaned wyeast london ale III yeast on (this batch took 3 weeks to finish). I then made a new batch of beer sat afternoon and pitched the yeast cake into it. The airlock has been bubbling away really well as expected since then, until this morning, its now seems like it has stopped, I have moved it to a slightly warmer place (it was at 20C now at about 22C). I'm wondering if the yeast could have actually finished already or perhaps it has got stuck? I took a quick look this morning and there seems to be a yeast foam on the surface. Wondering what I should now do? Should I scoop the foam to one side and test the gravity or is there something I should do to get it going again like perhaps pitching some fresh yeast in on top?

[Scott Ickes]

I doubt that anything is amiss.  It's sounds like a really good fermentation.  My advice would be patience.

[davidrgreen]

I hope so as its just not how I have ever seen this strain of yeast act before.

[Maine Homebrewer]

It's perfectly normal for a happy ale yeast to do its thing in four days.

[davidrgreen]

I was thinking this morning that perhaps there is a higher count of yeast in a yeast cake than in my last starters and therefore the sugars are converted way quicker because of this.

[jomebrew]

Yeah, there is a much higher yeast cell count.  Your starters might not have had the right cell count so more time was needed to build up the cell count.  Now, the yeast are already active and have not been stored for weeks in some nutrient solution.  The yeast are conditioned for the wort, so they do take off faster and can rip through a fermenation.   Watching yeast pitched from high krausen into new wort is pretty fun.  Well, fun for me.  Within a few hours things can get going and the raucous action in the carboy is mesmerizing.  All that swirling and churning!  Give me a beer and a camp chair!

[Maine Homebrewer]

Within a few hours things can get going and the raucous action in the carboy is mesmerizing.  All that swirling and churning!  Give me a beer and a camp chair!

It's oddly hypnotizing, like a fire.

[KernelCrush]

This kinda sums up how I feel about it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFToiLtXro

[BILLY BREW]

Might want to check your hydro readings for a couple of days. As was stated above, you may have made the perfect storm brew and the yeasties worked overtime to give you  a treat, a little early.
I have found myself in a bit of trouble of late...There is something about walking into my brew room and hearing the happy little bubbles of a good ferment...Unfortunately in order to continue to hear that I have to keep brewing...I have 25 cases of beer now and 2 6 gal carboys full. Do they have a support group for this?

[brewfun]

I have 25 cases of beer now and 2 6 gal carboys full. Do they have a support group for this?

Yes.

It's called "New Year's Eve."

[Scott Ickes]

Might want to check your hydro readings for a couple of days. As was stated above, you may have made the perfect storm brew and the yeasties worked overtime to give you  a treat, a little early.
I have found myself in a bit of trouble of late...There is something about walking into my brew room and hearing the happy little bubbles of a good ferment...Unfortunately in order to continue to hear that I have to keep brewing...I have 25 cases of beer now and 2 6 gal carboys full. Do they have a support group for this?

I as up to 20 cases and 5 carboys working at one point this year.  Brewfun hit it on the head.  A couple of parties and you'll be looking at it and going, wow, I need to brew!

[davidrgreen]

Might want to check your hydro readings for a couple of days. As was stated above, you may have made the perfect storm brew and the yeasties worked overtime to give you  a treat, a little early.
I have found myself in a bit of trouble of late...There is something about walking into my brew room and hearing the happy little bubbles of a good ferment...Unfortunately in order to continue to hear that I have to keep brewing...I have 25 cases of beer now and 2 6 gal carboys full. Do they have a support group for this?

I checked it a couple of days ago and its hit 1.010 which is lower than expected and it hasn't moved in the last 2 days so I moved it into my cold room (15c) for the rest of the week and will be bottling on Sat.
Just wondering if this is the best thing to do or should I really leave it at 21C (its a wyeast London III ale yeast) as before? My thoughts were that the yeast will drop out quicker at a lower temp and be more clean for bottling on sat. What do you guys think?

[Scott Ickes]

It shouldn't matter much.  I rarely cold crash.  Some beer styles benefit from it (lagers especially), and others probably don't make much difference.  If you crash, too much yeast may come out of suspension, it may take longer to carbonate in the bottles.  It should still carbonate eventually.  Just make sure you store it at mid sixties or so for about 2-4 weeks to help the yeast be active enough to carbonate.

Be patient, as we've stated before and you'll have a fine brew!

My problem is usually drinking most of my beer before it reaches it's peak.

[durrettd]

Let us know how this turns out. A warm fermentation can throw some off-flavors. You might get better results fermenting 5 - 10 degrees cooler and leaving the beer on the yeast cake for a couple of weeks so it can metabolize some of the undesirable compounds from the fast fermentation.

I'm not trying to dampen your enjoyment of what will be an enjoyable beer, just throwing out some hard-earned hangovers ... I mean experience.

[davidrgreen]

Let us know how this turns out. A warm fermentation can throw some off-flavors. You might get better results fermenting 5 - 10 degrees cooler and leaving the beer on the yeast cake for a couple of weeks so it can metabolize some of the undesirable compounds from the fast fermentation.

I'm not trying to dampen your enjoyment of what will be an enjoyable beer, just throwing out some hard-earned hangovers ... I mean experience.

Wyeast London Ale yeast III is recommended to be used at 18 -23C, the last couple of batches I did at 21C and they didn't have any off flavours. I'll certainly let you know how this batch turns out though.