Allagash recipe question

[sdixon]

In regards to my Allagash yeast starter, Thomas suggested I ask the good folks at Allagash if the bottle condition with the same yeast... good point I thought. So I asked them... I thought some of you may be interested, here is my email to them and their response:

My email:

Hello,

I live in New Brunswick Canada and cannot get your beer here. I recently got a few types of your beer (Dubbel, Tripel and White) from a friend who traveled to Portland. Love all 3 by the way :-)

I'm an all-grain home brewer and my question is this... I want to make a starter (actually I already have made one from the Dubbel) and wanted to know if you bottle condition with the same yeast as you ferment? If yes, great, I will use it in my next Belgian beer. If not, can you recommend a yeast strain that I should use to try and replicate some of your great taste?

PS: Here is e recipe I'm using for the Dubbel:

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 22.0
Total Grain (kg): 7.500
Total Hops (g): 20.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.073 (°P): 17.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.018 (°P): 4.6
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 7.17 %
Colour (SRM): 11.5 (EBC): 22.7
Bitterness (IBU): 22.6 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 90
Grain Bill
----------------
6.000 kg (13.2 lbs) Pilsner (80%)
0.700 kg (1.5 lbs)Crystal 40 (9.33%)
0.500 kg (1.0 lbs)Amber Malt (6.67%)
0.300 kg (0.7 lbs)(Munich II (4%)

Hop Bill
----------------
15.0 g Magnum Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.7 g/L)
5.0 g Centennial Pellet (9.7% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0.2 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
Single step Infusion at 155°F for 60 Minutes.
Ferment at 68°F

Recipe generated using Brewmate


I realize my hops are off, but it's all I can get my hands on now. Will substitute with appropriate noble hops if I can. Am I anywhere close? I understand you must get lot's of emails like this. I really appreciate it if you can respond.

Allagash response:

Stephen,
 
We do use the same yeast for bottle conditioning and fermenting on the Dubbel 12oz and the White 12 oz.  We use a different bottle conditioning yeast with everything else, including Dubbel 750mL.
 
As for your recipe, other than the hops, it is pretty damn close.  We don't use Amber malt, but use two different Caramel malts.  One high Lovibond and one low.
 
Good luck and thanks for the email.

[Thomas]

Generally most breweries won't give you a strait answer on the specific ingredients, hops mainly. But its good to know you can use the harvested yeast.

[sdixon]

Nice to know it's "pretty damn close" though :-) I may be learning something afterall

[sdixon]

Well I thought I had lost this Allagash yeast starter because I put it in the fridge to cold crash it then couldn't get to brew it until the following week. When I took it out it really didn't seem to reactivate, but I pitched it anyway. Well, it took a couple of days but it is now working nicely. Looking forward to seeing how close this turns out to the Allagash Dubbel.