Making a Chimay Yeast Starter

[GrahamB]

Have decided to make the Lethaldog Chimay Blue Label clone.
Forum notes by Lethaldog indicate that a single 330mL Chimay Blue is all you need for the 15L batch.
Can you drink some of the 330mL bottle, or do you need the whole bottle to make the starter?

Cheers!

[Neil]

Have decided to make the Lethaldog Chimay Blue Label clone.
Forum notes by Lethaldog indicate that a single 330mL Chimay Blue is all you need for the 15L batch.
Can you drink some of the 330mL bottle, or do you need the whole bottle to make the starter?

Cheers!

Hi Graham

I'd say that the normal practice here would be to carefully pour off 2/3 to 3/4 of the bottle (into a glass for later enjoyment ) and then transfer the remaining beer with yeast suspension into a sterilised starter bottle (able to take a hollowed bung and airlock) and add the cooled, unhopped wort. How does that sound? That's what people do to get Coopers' yeasts anyway.

Best of luck

Neil

[drsmurto]

A single bottle wont be anywhere near enough yeast for a 15L batch.

Agree with Neil. A starter is needed.

Have a read of this - Link

You can go from step 2 in the starting wyeast section altho i would personally recommend starting with a 500mL starter (50g LDME in 500mL water) and once that has fermented out stepping it up to 2L (200g in 2L)

[GrahamB]

Thanks for the replies. From the "strong belgian ale" topic:

"by lethaldog on Sunday Sep 03, 2006 12:47 pm

I feel like ive hijacked this thread but anyway 1 more thing, Usually i would make a yeast starter for this out of a 750ml grand reserve but its not that cost effective being that its $20 a bottle, this time i experimented and made one out of the chimay blue label stubbie (330ml) and bingo shes off and racing, although there wasnt much action in the starter and i was very scheptical, i pitched it anyway and 1 day later shes firing all cylinders.
Just thought i would let anyone whos interested know as the stubbie i bought was $8.50 which is a big difference and i believe you can get them in melbourne for about $7"

My last half dozen brews have used a Coopers Pale Ale starter using 2 stubbies, 1 tablespoon dextrose and 1 tablespoon golden syrup or malt extract with a pinch of citric acid boiled with 250-300mL water. Worked everytime and takes exactly 3 days.

So, am I risking it in trying only one 330mL Chimay?

PS : Coopers recommend 4 stubbies to reduce the risk of "wild yeast" infection, but I've yet to have problem.

[lethaldog]

A single bottle wont be anywhere near enough yeast for a 15L batch.

Agree with Neil. A starter is needed.

Worked a treat for me, and yes a starter is deffinately needed!

[Kevnlis]

Citric acid?!?! What is this for? Also, you have no nutrient in your starter, this is just going to stress the yeast further. You need to pitch the dregs of the bottle into about 200ml of 1.040 wort with a bit of zinc and yeast extract in it. I would then step it up to at least 2 litres (3 would be best) before pitching the dregs of this starter into the boiled cooled wort.

[tazman67]

Or....If you cant be bothered and are feeling lazy...White Labs WLP500, or Wyeast 1214.
Both are "rumoured" to be the Chimay strain...
Cheers
Best of luck with your brew

[GrahamB]

Hi Kevnlis

Yeast cultivation is based on a method recommended by a home brew shop (I still have the printed copy - pre internet days, early 1990s).

Works every time. Last batch was a Coopers Stout with BE2, honey, molasses & espresso coffee. Yeast cultivated from 2 Coopers Pale Ale stubbies. 1 tablespoon dextrose, 1 tablespoon DLME and a pinch citric acid mixed in 300mL boiled water. Cooled and mixed with the dregs of the 2 stubbies and transferred to a long neck. Covered with gladwrap and an elastic band. After 3 days, bubbling away and pitched into wort.

OG = 1056
FG = 1012

I'm just concerned about the Chimay, as I recently bought and consumed one, but there were no visible signs of any "dregs".

Cheers

[drsmurto]

Just because something 'works' doesn't make it the right way to do it...

Lethaldog - 1 bottle can work.

Underpitched yeast will still be able to ferment a wort and the esters and phenolics produced by a stressed Belgian yeast may actually be desirable.

Its just not the recommended 'best practice' - especially for those new to the yeast game.

I guess the price of chimay makes buying a 6 pack a little out of question. I do so with CPA more because i get to drink 6 bottles of CPA! I have started a single bottle of CPA before and then stepped up till i had what i consdier to be enough yeast. 6 bottles is just more fun!

[Kevnlis]

... esters and phenolics produced by a stressed Belgian yeast may actually be desirable.

Or may be airplane glue

The cirtic acid worries me a bit, I would mos def stop using that. Also the nutrients in a tablespoon of LDME are no where near enough to feed what are probably near dead yeast cells that have been sitting at the bottle of a high alcohol beer on a store shelf for god knows how long after surviving on a boat from Belgium etc. Even for yeast from a fresh bottle of CPA I would use a 1.040 wort (no simple sugars just extract) with some sort of nutrient or yeast extract and zinc at the very least.

[drsmurto]

... esters and phenolics produced by a stressed Belgian yeast may actually be desirable.

Or may be airplane glue

The cirtic acid worries me a bit, I would mos def stop using that. Also the nutrients in a tablespoon of LDME are no where near enough to feed what are probably near dead yeast cells that have been sitting at the bottle of a high alcohol beer on a store shelf for god knows how long after surviving on a boat from Belgium etc. Even for yeast from a fresh bottle of CPA I would use a 1.040 wort (no simple sugars just extract) with some sort of nutrient or yeast extract and zinc at the very least.

+1

1.040 all LDME starters here. If its good enough for Jamil(Mr Malty)/Whitelabs/Wyeast then its good enough for me....