Chimay Blue / Special Reserve -- Yeast Harvesting?

[Richard]

Hi,

JMac very kindly acquired a bottle of Chimay Blue whilst in NS, and I'd like to harvest the yeast from it to provide it to the library. What's the best way to go about this? I saw Dave previously do this by just tipping the dregs of a bottle of Fin du Monde into a start wort, which I assume he allowed to ferment and then washed. Do I need to be particularly careful about sanitation (i.e. do I need to sterilise things in e.g. the oven)?

[Thomas]

Be as sanitary as possible: spray things down with starsan, or rubbing alcohol, then harvest just like dave did. As long as your starter doesn't smell like its infected it will be good to use. You may need to step your starter up if harvesting from a bottle.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/pacman- ... deo-63855/

[Richard]

Hmmm... I'll give this a go tonight. I think I'm going to throw the 3L glass bottle I was planning on using as a starter in the oven at about 300F, with a little water inside and a tin-foil cap. Will then empty 100ml of the Chimay into the 3L bottle (once it's cooled), throw in 900ml of starter at 1.040 OG, cap it with a sanitised 3-piece airlock and wait for the action.

I don't think I'm going to bother stepping up, as per the reasoning here:
http://www.primetab.com/yeaststarter.html

Some say that gently stepping up the starter allows the yeast to out-compete any nasties, and therefore you gain a measure of infection resistence. I say that mucking about with the starter media 3 or 4 times in a microbial rich kitchen introduces more danger of infection than simply doing it once with compulsive attention to sanitation. The decision is of course an individual one. I may speak in mocking tones and a flippant voice, but good people make good beer in an infinite variety of ways, and although I do tend to strong opinion I also do not cast aspersions upon those who hold differing views.

Hence my taking the "doing it once with compulsive attention to sanitation" route

[Richard]

The first three days I was sure I'd screwed this up, but on the fourth day (after I moved the thing to a warmer spot) it really took off. It's now starting to calm down after bubbling away at a rate I'd normally associate with S04. I'm fairly certain that it's the Chimay yeast that's taken hold because the smell coming from the 3-piece airlock reminds me of the smell of freshly poured Chimay. I will no doubt sample the wort when I decant it, and should be able to confirm the flavour profile (sans-hop) It's currently 1L of 1.040 wort at high krausen in the 3L bottle I used.

Thomas: I will wash and bottle the yeast into two containers (yeah I mean bottle; I don't have any jars -- I'll sterilise the bottle and the cap by oven + boiling respectively, and the water for washing by boiling + cooling. Hopefully then you can streak it. I intend to try and brew a Chimay clone with one of the bottles' contents.

Pretty impressed with how this turned out, given the suspense of the first few days having apparently zero activity.

Slainte!

[Thomas]

Sounds good man, I'll prepare some fresh plates this weekend and check for any contamination before slanting. It likely took four days to take off because there were very few active yeast cells in the bottle, and getting up to a healthy population took a few extra days. But as long as it smells and tastes good its likely free from any bacteria.

[Shawn]

Sounds like it worked out well. Next time, if you're in the same situation or have even less slurry, starting out with a very small amount of 1.020 wort may wake them up a bit quicker... then, you can use the volume you are aiming for at 1.030-1.040.

[Richard]

This wasn't even slurry, it was 100ml or so from the bottom of the bottle. I couldn't actually see any visible lees in the bottle itself, so can only assume the yeast doesn't flocculate well. I don't think I would move to the stepped addition because of how well this worked -- presumably largely down to the fact that I sterilised everything (oven for glass, 70% alcohol for everything else). Even in the presence of only a few viable cells, nature eventually played the exponential growth game and won

[Richard]

Just tasted the resulting beer... it tastes so close to Chimay I was astounded. Seems like the yeast flavour profile makes up damn near 100% of the taste of Chimay.

Thomas: I sterilised two bottles and filled them with the yeast slurry post-wash. I could try to slant them myself (if I can get a lamp, loop, and some slants), or you can take one and do the honours. After trying the resulting beer I'm absolutely positive that I want to brew a clone ASAP. How long will this stuff last in the fridge, assuming I step it back up with a starter? I've read one week, two weeks, etc -- but I figure if the slants keep indefinitely, why wouldn't this?

[Thomas]

What size bottles and how much slurry? If they are mason jars with a solid inch of harvested slurry you are safe to store in the fridge for two weeks and pitch the whole thing into a beer. I have absolute faith in your sterile technique, but if you can get one of the jars to me I will slant it out in the lab and check for any possible bacterial contamination. Iv never had Chimay before, whats the recipe that you plan on using? If it involved ordering some special ingredients in I may be interested in putting a batch on myself.

[Richard]

330ml bottles, one's absolutely full (no headspace) and the other has about 200ml in. I suspect once they've settled again there'll be about 1-2cm of yeast in the bottom.

I'll post the recipe I've had my eye on in the AG recipes section. I'll need to get a bunch of it from NG, most likely, so I guess we could put a double-order in for that.