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Culturing Yeast from a Delirium Bottle?

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by goodonezach, Apr 10, 2012.

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  1. goodonezach

    goodonezach Initiate (0) Mar 24, 2011 New York

    Hi fellow Homebrewers,
    My roommates and I are brewing a special beer for commencement, and we figured a belgian-style pale ale along the lines of Delirium Tremens would be perfect to celebrate with in late May. I looked up a few clone recipes, and all of them seemed close, but the reviews all said that something about each one came up a tiny bit short. I think culturing the yeast from a bottle would help this out a lot, since the recipes I looked up all called for one strain of belgian-style yeast or another. The problem is, I've never cultured yeast before, and because of the time constraints, we only have a short period of time to brew it. My fear is that if we don't get enough yeast in the starter to pitch, we won't be able to get a full fermentation in time, and that by the time we figure that out and pitch a vial of white labs or something, we will have lost a few days. That would bump back the schedule a bit too far for us, so we really only have one shot at this. If it would just be easier to brew with a store-bought yeast strain, we're okay with doing that, but we want it to be a pretty spot-on clone if possible. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks in advance.
     
    #1 goodonezach, Apr 10, 2012
  2. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,055) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    A brew for a special occasion (which you can't afford to F-up) may not be the best one on which to learn how to propagate yeast from dregs. Why not do a normal starter of WLP570/Wyeast 1388 so that you have it ready to roll if the dregs don't work out?
     
    #2 VikeMan, Apr 10, 2012
    haddon likes this.
  3. billandsuz

    billandsuz Pooh-Bah (2,085) Sep 1, 2004 New York
    Pooh-Bah

    do some research to be certain the DT bottle yeast is the same as the DT fermentation yeast. many brewers commonly filter the beer after fermentation is complete and add a floculant strain specifically for bottling. i have no idea if DT does this. very possible though.

    just buy a commercial belgian yeast this time around. seems like too much risk if you ask me.
    Cheers.
     
    #3 billandsuz, Apr 10, 2012
  4. goodonezach

    goodonezach Initiate (0) Mar 24, 2011 New York

    ok thanks a lot. i'll probably just use a white labs strain right away, and then learn how to use dregs over the summer when i brew at home.
     
    #4 goodonezach, Apr 10, 2012
  5. tripleT

    tripleT Aspirant (242) Dec 19, 2008 Minnesota

    I used the dregs from a couple bottles last summer, stepped it up a couple times, then brewed a simple belgian pale ale so I could use the yeast cake for a DT clone. There's a 50 page thread on the Northern Brewer website about a DT clone, so you can read for hours on the pros and cons of culture vs purchase. BTW -- the beer was awesome! I have another batch ready right now, and will be doing a side by side with real DT to see how I did. The first batch was a little weak on the spicing -- I didn't want to overdo it.
     
    #5 tripleT, Apr 10, 2012
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