Farming Brettanomyces And Lactic Acid Bacteria Cultures

[jpiwek]

Hi, Dose anyone know of or tried farming the Brettanomyces and Lactic Acid Bacteria cultures from wyeast?

I just got the 5526 Bret Lamb. And was planning on growing it up a bit with some DME and then splitting it up into about five tubes with distilled water and then growing the individual tubes when needed.

Ive checked the Wyeast site and theres no info on doing it - maybe they want you to buy one each brew, but there not cheap!...

Dose this stuff behave like normal liquid yeast? Or dose Lactic Acid Bacteria cultures from wyeast also need yeast to grow?



..........just got a digital Cam too :super:

 

[kook]

With brett strains you can grow them just like saccharomyces. DME in a starter is fine.

I'm not sure about lacto though, I'd email wyeast and see how they propogate it.

Also might be worth searching through the babblebelt, someone is bound to have posted about it there. If not, join and ask!

 

[Jye]

Vinnie Cilurzo from russian river brewing recently gave a presentation about sour beers and mentioned "harboring" the bugs and critters in oak chips. Has anyone given this ago? Sounds like it would be easier than making starters since I imagine you would just transfer the chips from one beer to the next.

 

[goatherder]

How about just adding the dregs of a bottle (or the entire bottle itself) from a previous batch? It seems to work with the brett from Orval, according to BLAM and a few posters here.

I have a Flanders Red undergoing the Roeselare treatment at the moment. I'll have another crack at it next year and I'm planning to seed the new batch with a generous helping of the previous one. I'm guessing the bugs will just take a bit longer to get going.

 

[jpiwek]

Just got word back from Whitelabs and heres what they had to say ( I also asked about using it in 50L. batches as I was worried I might dilute the stuff) :


"You can make a starter, as it is very slow to grow anyway. Use the same methods as you would for brewers yeast but give it at least 5 days. It just takes 5-7 days to prop up 10-fold.

Also, Brett is usually recommended for using in secondary fermentation; typically after already fermenting the beer in the primary, as normally done, using a house ale yeast. The same pitching rates do not apply to brettanomyces as it does to brewers yeast. It is typical to "underpitch" brett as it is very effective at these rates. Keep in mind that it is also a very slow-growing organism."

 

[sinkas]

Has anyone cultured from a Gueze, or Flanders bottle?

 

[chillamacgilla73]

The Liddil Lambic webpage(http://hbd.org/brewery/library/LmbicJL0696.html#Culture) has loads of info re:lambic cultures. The babblebelt forum (www.babblebelt.com) also has info on lambic cutlturing with oak staves etc.

cheers

 

[raoul]

Lactic acid bacteria (lactobacillus/bifi's) typically are slow growers, the majority of them are anaerobic. Grow them warm, at about 37, in sterile wort , or a malty solutuion at a pH between 5-6. Will take a few days to a week for signs of growth.. Don't aerate the culture either..

 

[sjc]

hefferflocken
rather than growing the culture up before splitting, you could split it straight from the pack. If it's a wyeast culture, don't smack the pack, as per usual instructions. Instead, sanitize outside of pack, scissors/knife and vials and then split the yeast between the sanitized vials. This is a method that Ross described earlier on the forum, so perhaps do a search for that.

It's been a while since I used a wyeast pack but from memory I think the yeast is contained in a small pouch inside the large pack, which contains the growing medium (malt). Could be vice versa though. Someone else on the forum would know for sure.
Cheers
Stephen.

 

[raoul]

The small pouch is the nutrient source.. if you split like this don't pop it Bloody good way of doing it IMO, least chance of infection.

 

[wildschwein]

Lactic acid bacteria (lactobacillus/bifi's) typically are slow growers, the majority of them are anaerobic. Grow them warm, at about 37, in sterile wort , or a malty solutuion at a pH between 5-6. Will take a few days to a week for signs of growth.. Don't aerate the culture either..

This is quite correct; lactobacillus like it warm, and unlike yeast they don't mind a bit of sunlight. They become inactive at lower temps.