Yeast harvest

[quixoticgeek]

Tonight I have had my first go at harvesting yeast from a bottle.

The donor is a bottle of westmalle dubble.

Initially I tried a mini mash using 200g of maris otter in a litre of milk on the stove top. This didn't go quite as I had hoped it would, so I had to go for the backup approach of using some liquid malt extract I had left over from a previous brew experiment.

Hopefully what I have done will leave me with a yeast starter I can use for a brew on Monday.

Has anyone else had success harvesting this yeast?

J

[seymour]

I have, and I didn't get nearly as fancy as you. I just slowly poured the Dubbel into a tulip to drink, and poured some Malta (you know, the malt based soda drink?) into the Westmalle bottle and covered with foil. No flasks or stir plates or yeast nutrient or anything. Just swirled it a bit each time I walked past for the first couple days. It worked fine. I've got a Duvel bottle going right now the same way.

You may already know this, but your Westmalle bottle culture is the same strain available as Wyeast 3787 and White Labs WLP530. Very nice Trappist strain. Keep us posted on the batch you use it on.

[quixoticgeek]

I have, and I didn't get nearly as fancy as you. I just slowly poured the Dubbel into a tulip to drink, and poured some Malta (you know, the malt based soda drink?) into the Westmalle bottle and covered with foil. No flasks or stir plates or yeast nutrient or anything. Just swirled it a bit each time I walked past for the first couple days. It worked fine. I've got a Duvel bottle going right now the same way.

You may already know this, but your Westmalle bottle culture is the same strain available as Wyeast 3787 and White Labs WLP530. Very nice Trappist strain. Keep us posted on the batch you use it on.

Hmm, just realising I didn't add any yeast nutrient. Wondering if that is a major ommission or not.

J

[seymour]

Nope, you should be just fine. Any idea how old the bottle is?

[quixoticgeek]

I bought it a week ago, and I think it's a relatively recent bottle where I got it from.

J

[seymour]

I bought it a week ago, and I think it's a relatively recent bottle where I got it from.

Check the "best before date" on the bottom left of the back label. With Westmalle bottles, I'm pretty sure that's exactly five years from when it was bottled. Of course, the fresher your bottle, the more living cells present.

When held to the light, can you see any bubbly activity on the surface yet?

[quixoticgeek]

I bought it a week ago, and I think it's a relatively recent bottle where I got it from.

Check the "best before date" on the bottom left of the back label. With Westmalle bottles, I'm pretty sure that's exactly five years from when it was bottled. Of course, the fresher your bottle, the more living cells present.

When held to the light, can you see any bubbly activity on the surface yet?

I think that it is starting to ferment, the air lock is moving.

The BBD is 28/03/14

J

[quixoticgeek]

Well, there is a small rim of bubbles at the edge of the wort, and there was movement in the airlock, but I am not 100% sure that this has actually worked.

I managed to track down someone with some wyeast 3787, so have ordered that as a backup.

J

[seymour]

Well, there is a small rim of bubbles at the edge of the wort, and there was movement in the airlock, but I am not 100% sure that this has actually worked.

I managed to track down someone with some wyeast 3787, so have ordered that as a backup.

J

You probably don't need the backup, though. It sure sounds like you succeeded. If there's movement in the airlock and it smells like Belgian yeast, you did it! How's it going?

[super_simian]

... in a litre of milk...

Huh?

[seymour]

... in a litre of milk...

Huh?

I totally missed that. Do you mean actual milk?

[quixoticgeek]

... in a litre of milk...

Huh?

I totally missed that. Do you mean actual milk?

Predictive text bights again. I honestly have no idea where milk comes from in that. It should be 200 gm of maris otter in 1 litre of WATER.

J

[seymour]

Gotcha. Otherwise, that would explain the reason your first yeast didn't thrive

[super_simian]

1 litre of WATER.

Much better. OK, as you were....