Thoughts on 20 year old dregs

the age of the yeast should not matter. if this project is worth the time and effort is another question.

yeast that have gone dormant for a thousand years or more can be cultured. there are stories every now and again of some ancient Greek boat that was brought up with wine bottles and the yeast was brought back to life.

given that there are dozens of high quality yeast strains available for a few dollars, I don't see the merits of bringing this one back to pitching volume. if you can determine the strain in your bottle, can figure if it is the primary or bottle strain and if you think the yeast will make good beer, then go for it.
Cheers.

 

Personally, I would go for it, but that's me. Start in about 10-20ml of 1.020 wort. Give it a week to wake up. Step up to 100ml, then 1000ml of 1.040 stirred. Run a test batch to see what character you get out of it.

 

What jbakajust1 says . . . you'll probably only get one chance in your life for this and will be mad it you don't try it.

And the name of your new brew is a natural: La Saison de Vingt Années Levure

 

I would try it, as it is a rare opportunity. The investment in starter wort is small enough.

 

One thing I forgot to mention, and it is not necessary, but helpful. If you have a way to actually sterilize your tools and vials and such, go that route. I have a buddy who works in a lab and is able to autoclave the vials of starter wort for our experiments. I also have a pressure cooker to do the same thing at home. I also use a handheld torch to flame the lip of the bottle. I would StarSan the bottle top, open, flame, pour/decant, flame again, swirl, add dregs immediately to the previously sterilized vial of wort and recap it. Maybe do a couple vials just in case. The sterilizing step ensures that there is nothing in that vial of starter wort except the yeast you put into it. The yeast could take a week or so to wake up and you wouldn't want anything else in that vial with it that could wreck your starter during that lag time. Pour the dregs into the vials in a draft free area, under an open flame if you have the ability to. Again, this is not necessary, but helpful.

 

Out of curiosity, have you tried this beer before to know that you like it enough to want to take the time/effort to recreate it? Or is this one of those crazy ideas where you wanna try it just to see what happens?

I only ask because 2 years ago I drank a bottle of that same '94 vintage and oxidation aside, it was not good. There is some vinegar and acedic things going on in that brew and chances are its going to get amplified by your efforts and i doubt what you are going to culture will be remotely similar to the original.

 

Yeah, if it tastes off (besides severe oxidation after 20 years) then I would go from the 10ml vial to a few plates to isolate. I would do the 10ml first to get the yeast woken up and active again so they will be hungry for the plates. The Cantillon strains that BK Yeast did (C1, C2, C3) were all flops when he tried simply plating the dregs straight. He was only successful to get proper growth for isolation after making a starter first then plating from that. We have had the same issues with some of our attempts at getting some Sacc strains from bottle, we do 10ml starter and plate from the bottle, then plate from the starter and the starter plates are always much better.

 

Also, what leads you to believe it is a 1994 vintage? From what I have been able to find 1995 had the wacky style label with the cartoon female jester that has evolved to the current labels. Was 95 the first year they used the new label style?