So recently, I inherited a case of Lancelot Biere Cervoise from way back in 1999. https://untappd.s3.amazonaws.com/photo/2013_02_11/d20c251a25f1932c6bd5973abcd03981_320x320.jpg I cracked open a bottle and there was a ton of sediment, but the beer was ultimately still relatively drinkable. I was wondering if anyone knew more about this beer, what sort of yeast was in it, and what the best way to harvest it would be. I *think* I read somewhere that it was a lager yeast, but I can't be sure.
With a beer that old....I would want to harvest as many bottles worth of sediment as possible into a small starter. If you have access to a hemocytometer or a scientist buddy with one, you could always sample the dregs from one bottle to get an idea of whether you have any viable yeast or not. I am also curious to know what kind of yeast is in it.
I used the brewery's contact form, but I don't speak french. I'm hoping between English and my Google translated French, that they get the gist of what I'm trying to say.
I do not know anything about the yeast for that beer itself, but I can share a good way to culture what is there. Have some starter wort ready the next time you open a bottle. Pour your beer leaving the dregs, obviously. Pour the starter right into the bottle and fill up about 1/3rd. Cover with foil, swirl as much as you can. Once you see activity pour the bottle into a few hundred ml of starter and go from there. Step up 1 to 5 each time the previous starter is about done until you get the desired cell number. This approach has never failed me. Good luck.
Huh. Interesting way to do it, I hadn't thought about doing it that way. I was propagating some Conan this past weekend and I went from can -> flask instead of just adding the wort to the can. That's a pretty good idea, though. I can see it working especially well in a bottle, might be a bit riskier in a can but probably would still work, and frees up the flask for a few days while you overcome the lag time of growing up yeast from a very small amount...
