So i'm about to order a kit to make this Dubbel: 5-gallons SPECIALTY GRAIN - 0.25 lbs Dingemans Caramunich - 0.25 lbs Dingemans Special B FERMENTABLES - 6.3 lbs Gold Malt syrup (60 min) - 1 Golden Light dry malt extract (60 min) - 1 lbs Dark Belgian Candi sugar (15 min) HOPS & FLAVORINGS - 1 oz Tradition (60 min) - 1 oz Hersbrucker (10 min) YEAST - WYEAST 1214 BELGIAN ABBEY. Apparent attenuation: 72–76%. Flocculation: medium. Optimum temp: 68–78° I'd like to save some $$$ and currently have a saison fermenting with Wyeast 3726. This should work as a replacement right? I think it will, seems like it might make it even better actually. Should I bother washing the yeast or just throw it on the cake?
It'll certainly work just fine, but you'll be making a very different beer, not that that's a bad thing, just different. I wouldn't bother washing the yeast, but I wouldn't pitch the entire thing either, I'd pitch the appropriate amount.
What do you mean, like take out half the yeast cake or something? How can you tell how much yeast you have/need?
Go here and pick the "Repitching from Slurry" option to calculate how much to pitch into your new batch. It will make a different beer than 1214 would, you'll probably call it a Saison Brune instead of a Dubbel, but I say go for it! Edit: To save the yeast cake, I pour it into sanitized 20oz. PET soda bottles. You'll need a sanitized funnel and a six-pack holder and probably three soda bottles to hold the whole yeast cake. After that, usually one bottle of yeast is about right for pitching into a new batch depending on the OG and viability, but do use the calculator.
