"pitch entire yeast cake"

[wolfie7873]

In Palmer's book he talks about a couple ways to sufficiently pitch for a barleywine. I'm given to understand that any "big beer" requires a significant pitch rate to ensure that the yeast survive the attenuation to a high alcohol content long enough to complete their job. One of the things he says is an option is to "pitch the entire yeast cake from a previous batch." This led me to thinking - is the following possible and is it boneheaded: Rack a beer to secondary, and then immediately dump the wort of a big beer into the primary on top of the yeast that's there. I understand you'd want to be careful with sanitation, but is that what he means?

 

[bilhelm96]

I do that on occasion with one of my big beers. I brew a 1.050 low hopped ale to grow the yeast. There is usually about 900B cells after fermentation, then pitch my 1.100 Belgian Strong Dark right onto the yeast cake. I haven't had any issues.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

I feel better using a clean fermentor. Also the entire cake is still an over-pitch.
On my last Barley Wine ( OG 1.113) when I calculated it out, I ended pitching 1/2 the cake from a "Starter Beer"( OG 1.031) after 5 days. I had airlock pressure in 30 minutes and activity in 1 hour. That beer finished @ 1.026 for 13.13% abv. :mrgreen:

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I do it some times, its always worked fine but prefer fresh yeast