Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Dustin and I just brewed up another dunkelweissen, a wheat stout and a mead. At the same time we racked to secondary the dunkelweissen and the bitter that I brewed last weekend. We stole a couple of spoonfuls of yeast from the bitter's yeast cake to kickstart an Irish Red Ale that Dustin had brewed last week that didn't start fermenting; it was fermenting strong in four hours. The wheat stout went in on top of the rest of the bitter's yeast cake and was blowing stuff out the blowoff tube in three hours. The mead went onto the yeast cake from the original dunkelweissen and it was also bubbling away in less than 4 hours. I am really impressed at how fast these fermentations started using the second generation yeast.

Now I just need to decide what to brew for the third generation of the British Ale yeast (from the bitter and wheat stout) since as I understand the third and fourth generations are supposed to produce some of the best beer. I also need to find enough bottles for the 25 gallons of beer we are going to have to bottle in the next few weeks.

I have heard the same thing about yeast really starting to hit its stride after the third generation (from Jamil on The Brewing Network).  I have always wanted to try yeast washing and reuse, but have never gotten around to it.  I could definitely just put new wort on top of an existing cake, but I have never been organized enough to brew successively on a single yeast strain like that.  Let me know how it turns out.

Well the third generation of the Wyeast 1098 (Bitter to Wheat Stout to Black Braggot) is even more impressive. It finished fermenting in four days taking the Black Braggot from OG 1.116 down to 1.010; I'm going to rack to secondary tomorrow so that it can clear (might see a little bit more drop in gravity), but that is some supper yeast during the primary. It already tastes wonderful, so I can't wait until it clears and I can get it aging in some bottles.

Sounds like it is working really well for you.  I keep meaning to wash and save some of the yeast strains I use more often, like Danstar Nottingham, but I never get around to it.