Pitching onto my last yeast?

[ScienceGuy]

OK so I've heard about this in myth and lore, pitching onto my last batch of yeast. I just made the extract Ordinary Bitter that Jamil published in BYO. Now I have all of this happy yeast, and I just happen to be ready to brew again.
Do I just siphon out my Bitter and then dump my next batch right on top? Or is there an intermediate step (I hear the words yeast washing sometimes?) Any words of wisdom for a neophyte?
Thanks for any help.

[bub]

can do it either way.... if you aren't sure just siphon off and dump on, it's safer than introducing bad guys in there.
BUB

[linuxelf]

One of the best beers I ever made I dumped right on my old yeast cake. I just racked my APA off, and then just dumped a IIPA right on top. Fermentation went nuts! It was the first time I had to put a blowoff tube on my 6.5gal bucket.

[macgruffus]

Do I just siphon out my Bitter and then dump my next batch right on top?

I just did this with some of my Scottish ales ....

Started with a nice 200ml Edinburgh Ale starter and a 1.055 80/- Scottish ale. Let it ferment out and racked to secondary for aging. That day I brewed a 1.054 heather ale (pretty much the same base beer) and just racked from the kettle onto of the whole yeast cake. I let this one ferment out and then racked to secondary. This was all leading up to the Wee Heavy I had planned. I brewed a 1.115 Scotch Ale, pitched on top of the yeast cake and aerated well. This animal started bubbling almost immediately and blew straight through my fermentation lock! I lost about 1/2 gallon of beer before I caught it! And that was in a seven gallon fermenter bucket.

David

[Bugeater]

I routinely plan my beers in pairs so I can reuse the yeast cake. I currently have a roggenbier in the fermenter right now on a yeast cake that was previously under a dunkelweissen and under a berliner weisse before that. That will be the last beer on that cake. I need to move on to other styles. Right now I also have an alt going. I will be pitching a barleywine onto that cake sometime next week.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company