homebrewandbeer.com

Hi Guys

I have just joined the forum, though I admit I have been sponging off the knowledge that is around here for some time now.

I am soon to be heading off on a grand (6 week) trip to europe and was thinking of collecting a few yeast varieties while I am there. I will be doing most of my drinking in belgium, though I plan on dropping by Munich too.

Does anyone have any suggestions on some bottle conditioned european brews that I could collect the yeast from and bring back with me?

I am especially partial to hofbrau dunkel, does anyone know of a local munich brew that is bottle conditioned and is of the same style?

My theory in terms of bringing it back into the country is to call them "beer samples" rather than "live and active bacteria cultures," hopefully it all works...

Any input would be most welcome guys.

Cheers,

Welcome to the forum.

Great idea, and I don't want to rain on your parade, and it may well be that there are some yeasts used by some breweries which don't fit the profile of yeasts available to us as homebrewers.

One difficulty you will face is working out whether the beers you are interested in are filtered, as these will most likely be of no use to you.
If they are bottle conditioned, then did they use the fermenting yeast strain, or did they use another bottling strain?

However, I would think the variety of liquid yeasts available to us in Aus from just White Labs and Wyeast would be more than enough to cope with any style you wish to brew.

Maybe you could tell us what it is you are looking for that is not available to us as liquid yeasts?

Enjoy the trip, and the great variety of beers available in Europe.

Thanks for replying warra

My thoughts were leading towards probably a chimay blue (I think that is the one I want, what ever the Chimay trippel is), maybe a trappist blonde and definately a munich dark lager, I have enough sample bottles for a dozen, though I think I might be getting a little excited there.

The main reason for me wanting to do this is that I have tried about a dozen times to reculture from various coopers beers and also from leffe blond and chimay blue. Every time it hasn't worked out for me. You tell that the yeast is active by krausen formation right?

I figure that living in Darwin, all beer must get cooked by the time it gets here and so the yeasts are unviable.

Last time I was in Adelaide I had big plans to collect some coopers yeast and bring it back, but forgot to pack it...

I told myself, next time I am drinking beer where the yeast is likely to be viable, I'll actually collect some.

I have never used liquid yeast before as I am still in my early days of brewing, it is more just for me to see if I can do it.

I understand the problem regarding filtered beer and beer that uses a different conditioning strain to the fermenting strain. I was hoping someone around here had already done the hard work for me!

jords,

The wyeast/white labs yeasts would be better for you - certainly more reliable and quicker because you don't have to reculture several times to get a viable yeast population.

Also, those beers are high alcohol so the yeasties will probably be knackered. Jump on the wyeast/white labs sites and they will tell you what beers their strains were "inspired by" (or words to that effect). Best of luck - some of those Belgian styles can be tricky to brew, especially since you're a relative novice.

Also - with regards to the Coopers strains - grab a few longnecks of Coopers Pale and try to reculture. You'll probably find that they are still viable, despite the journey.

Cheers,

Tim