I would like to make a clone of Spencer Trappist Ale. Despite the availability of commercial trappist/ belgian abby yeasts I would like to try harvesting this from the bottle for the experience and because I have some connection to the Abby that just makes me want to use their yeast. There is a very small amount of sediment in each bottle, a tiny ring around the bottom as opposed to covering the bottom. I’ve never done this before and would appreciate any advice.
I have successfully used dregs from an ommegang white. Started with 200 ml of 1.020 starter wort (DME), let ferment out for 5 days, added 400 ml and ferment for 5 days, added for a 2L starter at 1.040 and pitched.
It is best to have the starter wort prepared and use the yeast sediment from 2-3 bottles. Lower ABV beers are generally what I use, but try to get the strain you are after in this case with a Spencer beer.
Many brewers filter out their proprietary yeast and use a neutral yeast for bottle conditioning so you may not be getting the yeast you want from the bottle. I used to have a list of beers that were bottled with the fermenting yeasts but it was so out of date it’s useless now.
Could of sworn i read that Spencer uses the Chimay strain. If that is true,t hen you can just get a vial of White Labs 500 as MrMalty has documented it to be the Chimay strain.
In the new BYO there is a good article on Spencer, with a clone recipe for their beer (patersbier) included . The recipe uses WY3787, FWIW. The person at Spencer that spoke to BYO said that they use an existing Trappist strain, but wouldn’t elaborate further.
I asked someone I know from the Abby and he thinks the strain is from Rochfort. I believe the BYO article mentions that they worked with people from chimay and used a strain from " the family". I am hoping he can find out if they use a different strain to bottle condition. I think that this is less likely now that good quality belgian yeAsts are already available. Also maybe less likely to add yeast at bottling because the gravity isn’t so high?
What Stan wrote in BLAM is that few breweries use a different strain for bottling. They have so much of the primary strain around (in essence, they’re growing it every time they brew) that it doesn’t make sense for most of them to keep a separate bottling yeast.
It’s easy enough to culture up if you start with a small amount of low gravity wort. I say go for it. I’ve done it a few times, though I have once or twice gotten bottling yeast (Victory Golden Monkey and maybe Franziskaner).
I have a hard time believing that a brewery that only produces one type of beer would have more then 1 type of yeast on hand. A brewery with a variety of brews at any given time seems more likely to use a bottling yeast with some of their more finicky strains.
That being said, put 1/2 inch of the beer from the bottom into 100mls of 1.020 wort and see what grows!
Thanks for the links. I’m pretty confident that this beer has primary yeast in bottle. I also feel its a good candidate because I’m getting the beer fresh and its not a super high abv, especially for a Trappist. I have a feeling this yeast is not stressed. I really want to use this strain because I am planning on making this beer with 2 friends of mine who used to be monks at St. Joseph’s where this is made. I got them into brewing recently and I am going to make this with them at my house to show them what AG entails.
My remaining question is at what point in the process can I stop and put in the fridge for a couple weeks before using?
Your question does not have a clear answer. The batch size and gravity will determine the pitch rate,which will determine the starter size. You don’t know the viability of the bottled yeast. My advice is to make a big starter and use that as soon as possible.
I pitched it in 1.020 wort last night. I’ll step it up a couple times, put in fridge, then get it going again a day or so before I brew, which is likely in about 2 weeks so it won’t be kept long. I’m thinking that once it gets going I can taste it and see if it seems to have similar yeast flavors as the beer so I know there isn’t a different bottling strain. If I have doubts I might make a 1 gallon extract version to test it. Thanks everyone!
hopfenundmalz, I noticed I used the phrase “hence the question” which when I read it on the post sounds a bit rude. I wasn’t meaning to be and I appreciate all the feedback you gave me.
I harvest yeast 2-3 times per year. Just about a month ago I harvested some Bell’s yeast from some fresh Oberon. Got a beer going with it now in one of my conicals and will probably brew a couple more with it over the summer. I usually cheat and start with 2-3 bottles worth of yeast. I flame the bottle lip with an alcohol lamp, decant the beer into my glasses. swirl the slurry… Flame the lip again and pour in the vicinity of the alcohol lamp into my flask. When I start with a single bottle I usually just put about 50-100ml of 1.015 wort into the bottle direclty with a stirbar and foil over the top. if I start with multiple bottles I start with about 100-150ml of starter wort in a small flask… Step it up to 500ml, then to 1500-2000ml. Seems to work well for me.