Chaining

I’m not sure how specifically to do this. I want to do a Trippel with WY 3787. I’ve done stir plate starters, but for something new to me, I’m thinking of making a batch of Patersbier AS the starter. While new to me I know this is a fairly common thing to do, so what’s the best procedure?

I’ve heard you can just transfer the Patersbier to secondary and dump the new Trippel wort right on the old cake. But where I read that no one says any thing about how to clean the old krausen scum out, and whether or how much to sanitize the rest of the bucket.

I’ve also read dump some of the cake into a sanitized jar, but even that process seems rife with contamination opportunity.

So, any tips, or good resources to read up on.

You have the pro’s, and con’s covered.

Working out of a bucket you have a slightly greater chance of an issue. Because of the larger opening. Just work in a draft free area. Make sure you don’t have any critters flying around.

No need to clean the krausen from the bucket. It’s been in a sanitary environment.

Like you mention, some people prefer to only use a portion of the yeast. Sanitize a mason jar and pour the yeast in. Then if you like you could clean/sanitize the pail. But there is no need to.

[quote=“JMcK”]I’m not sure how specifically to do this. I want to do a Trippel with WY 3787. I’ve done stir plate starters, but for something new to me, I’m thinking of making a batch of Patersbier AS the starter. While new to me I know this is a fairly common thing to do, so what’s the best procedure?

I’ve heard you can just transfer the Patersbier to secondary and dump the new Trippel wort right on the old cake. But where I read that no one says any thing about how to clean the old krausen scum out, and whether or how much to sanitize the rest of the bucket.

I’ve also read dump some of the cake into a sanitized jar, but even that process seems rife with contamination opportunity.

So, any tips, or good resources to read up on.[/quote]

I did this a couple months ago. I brewed a patersbier, remented it with 3787 then then a month later I brewed the Number 8 and on brew day I simply racked off the patersbier to a keg and poured in the wort for the Number 8 onto the cake.

Theoretically, since the fermenter, a carboy in my case had been sealed it was still sanitized. Mine worked out just fine. I just kegged the number 8 last week and it tasted great.

I still sort of have an issue with this, especially all the dried, flaky krausen at the top of the bucket. I generally rack the beer off, pour the yeast off into a sanitized container and add it to a new batch of fresh wort in a clean container. I also try to leave a little of the trub behind because I know I do not need 100% of the yeast.

This process has worked for me. I basically decant my wort prior to pitching so I don’t have to wash/rinse yeast.

Make your beer as usual, chill to around 120*, then chill the rest of the way overnight in your fermenter (I do this in a fridge with a temp controller, so I can dial in my pitching temp just about exactly).

The next morning, when your beer is at pitching temp, have another clean, sanitized fermenter ready. Dump the wort from the chilling fermenter to the new one (vigorously, to help aerate), but the trub will have settled to the bottom, so you can leave it behind. Aerate and pitch as normal. Keep in mind you may lose some volume here, so if you have to, adjust your recipe to 6 gallons or so.

Once this beer is done, the settled ‘material’ at the bottom will be mostly yeast. This can be pitched directly into another beer. I would tend to agree with the above post about using a new fermenter for your tripel.

I’ve done this several ways but the way I prefer to do it is to transfer the beer to bottle/keg/age and then distribute the yeast into one or two different sterilized/sanitized mason jars. After all, it is a five gallon yeast starter so you have way more than you need for one batch. Sometimes I’ll pour out one or two and then drop the fresh wort on whatever is left over. I don’t bother with rinsing the yeast anymore, seems like too much work with not enough payoff for me.

I did nearly the same thing with 3787. I made a 1.050ish Belgian Pale Ale and then brewed up a 1.082 tripel and racked it onto the whole yeast cake. Definitely have a blow off attached as this was the most explosive fermentation I’ve witnessed. FG of the tripel was 1.010 and turned out really great.