I am drinking the Three Phlosophers Quadrupel today and there is a yeast sediment layer in the bottom. I don’t know what kind of yeast it is but I feel the need to try and brew with it. How do I go from the minute amount of yeast that is in the bottom of the bottle, to the amount I would need to pitch in a 5 gallon batch of a 1.060 beer?
Pour the remaining dregs from each bottle into a sanitized pint jar. Having some beer with each pour will protect the yeast from wild infections. Refrigerate the pint jar. After the yeast compacts you can estimate the number of milliliters of yeast. Pint jelly jars with ml markings make this convenient even though it is still a rough estimate. From this point use a pitch rate/starter calculator like this one.
Might be safe to estimate 1.5 billion yeast cells per milliliter. Estimating viability due to the age of the yeast is much more of a guesstimate. If the bottles have a packaged date estimating viability is easier.
Edit: Just read this beer is blended with their kriek. The yeast in the bottle will be a blend of two yeasts. Might be better to harvest from one of their Abbey ales which would be the basic yeast of the Quadrupel
1 Like
I wonder what happens if I use the yeast mix?
First understand that you’ll be using wild yeast and bacteria. I’ve read that if you are reusing yeast that have been mixed to expect different results from the first. Yeast flocculate at different rates and multiply at different rates, so you’ll never have the same % of mixing.
In this case, it might not be a big deal since you don’t have a ‘control’ to compare to and you aren’t trying to clone the beer. Plus, you may not even care about the percentage of one versus the other.
That’s exactly true. I am not considering doing this for a particular outcome. I am considering it strictly for the “Can I do this successfully” aspect of experimentation.
Just plan on stepping it up. Make a small 250mL starter, then step it up to 1L, then again to 2L. Plan on the first one taking 4-5+ days to show signs of life.
What OG should I use for the starter. I am brewing tomorrow and plan to save some second runnings for yeast starter. Is that a good source for yeast starter? It should be low gravity. Like maybe 1.020.
That’s a good starting point. Your step ups are the normal 1.036-1.040.
Does Ommegang use the same yeast to condition as they use for fermentation? Some breweries do not. I grabbed yeast form their Abbey ale a long time ago and was not happy with the results. That could have been due to wild yeast rather than what they use to condition though. BTW that is one awesome beer.
1 Like
