Tried But Failed, To Get A Chmiay Starter.

[daddywillwill]

hi.
I was making a Chimay Clone yesterday.
2 days before i drunk 3 quarters of the bottle and left the rest for a starter. put in a tsp of malt to get it started.
waited till the next day, still no starting foam, nothing just a flat dead malty smelling bottle.

tried again. thought it might not have been started at the right temp. (still same thing)

still no foaming.

should i have taken the rest of the ale out of the bottle then added water and then malt to start it?

in the end i made a starter with safale - 05 yeast.

Thanks
Willis

 

[brettprevans]

the process for recultering a yeast from any bottle fermented beer (coopers, chimay etc) is the same. There's a heap of info on recultering coopes in the wiki.

now from what i can tell from your post you havent added enough malt and water. you also have to agitate the mixture (read swirl it around quite often) to keep the yeast in suspention and rid the CO2 out of the solution. temp may played a factor. should be within normal ale temps. around 18C is good or a little warmer. you also should oxidize the solution as much as possible before you add the yeast dregs.

building a starter from bottle yeast can take a few days.

edit: here's the wiki on recultering coopers bottle yeast

 

[bconnery]

It is also not recommended to reculture from higher gravity beers, such as Chimay, as the yeast has already had to do a fair bit of work.
Far better to purchase WY1214 ( I think that is the right number), or the White Labs equivalent, which is reported to be the Chimay yeast...

 

[mikem108]

That'd be WLP500

 

[brettprevans]

ive recultered chimay. took a bit longer and i made sure it was a fresh bottle (well as fresh as possible - made sure it had plenty of time left on expiry). but if you dont have any luck you could always purchase the WL or wyeast substitutes.

edit: Mike I assume you used WLP500 for your chimay clone?

 

[mikem108]

yes and a nice yeast it is too, although used wyeast 3787 this year and it was great also, about to go into a trilogy of beers using 1214, Belgian Pale, Dubbel and a Chimay White so should have some idea of its performance soon.
Willis, back to the original topic, after all that effort making the wort , best to splash out on some liquid yeast, plan your brewing to make the most of one pack, try to squeeze 3-4 beers out of it and the cost is negligible

 

[rackemup]

hi.
I was making a Chimay Clone yesterday.
2 days before i drunk 3 quarters of the bottle and left the rest for a starter. put in a tsp of malt to get it started.
waited till the next day, still no starting foam, nothing just a flat dead malty smelling bottle.

tried again. thought it might not have been started at the right temp. (still same thing)

still no foaming.

should i have taken the rest of the ale out of the bottle then added water and then malt to start it?

in the end i made a starter with safale - 05 yeast.

Thanks
Willis

this is how i do a starter and i've never had any duds so far(touch wood)
drink most of the beer leaving only the yeast and then give it a good swirl/shake to break it up.
transfer to a 1 ltr sanitised bottle and add half a litre of pre-boiled(now cool) water and a level teaspoon of dme(no more).
shake and leave in warm place for a while, i usually see signs within a couple hours, if no sign of fermentation by next morning it's probly not worked. did you add a teaspoon of malt to the little bit of yeast/beer left in the bottle? if so that may be the problem as it would have been too high a concentration of sugar for the yeast to metabolize and they would have died since yeast can't control the amount of sugar they absorb through their cell walls you have to be gentle and give them a nice dilute mix to get them started before adding them to the wort. hope this helped :icon_cheers:

 

[daddywillwill]

i did a rounded tsp in about 3 or 4cm of ale in the bottle. then realised it might not have enough water so i toped up to about half with warm water. that might have been my problem. i'll try another one after this one.

Thank you to all that have give me insiteful help.

 

[discoloop]

Isn't T-58 the same yeast as well?

 

[Quintrex]

hi.
I was making a Chimay Clone yesterday.
2 days before i drunk 3 quarters of the bottle and left the rest for a starter. put in a tsp of malt to get it started.
waited till the next day, still no starting foam, nothing just a flat dead malty smelling bottle.

Thanks
Willis

I have made a starter from the chimay dubbel before but it took a good 2 weeks to get going.

It takes a long time to fire up after sitting in the bottle for so long. probably best to buy liquid for this one, or plan well in advance.

 

[blackbock]

Isn't T-58 the same yeast as well?

Whatever that strain is, it's not Belgian, and definitely not Chimay

 

[brettprevans]

T58 is a belgian yeast. its not chimay but its belgian strain.

 

[blackbock]

T58 is a belgian yeast. its not chimay but its belgian strain.

There are differing reports as to its origin. Craftbrewer calls it a 'Belgian' yeast, it does have some spiciness to it, and a high alcohol tolerance but it is not a strain that is used in any known Belgian brewery. I would be surprised if anyone could prove otherwise.

 

[King Brown]

The ideal gravity for a starter wort is roughly 1.040 (youll get that with about half a cup of DME to 500ml of water) I would say you need to use a bigger starter wort, possibly stepped up over a few days (the higher the gravity/alcohol of the beer your going to brew the larger starter youll need) If your making say a tripel or a barley wine its probably wise to make as big a starter as practical (3 or 4 litres or even more) Then once it is ready for pitching wack it in the fridge overnight to let the yeast settle to the bottom. On the morning of brew day take it out of the fridge and pour off the excess liquid carefully (trying not to pour out any of the sludge on the bottom) Then leave the slurry to come up to room temperature again before pitching (you dont want to pitch cold yeast into room temperature wort, a good deal of the yeast will die of shock.)

Check the wiki articles for more detailed explanations!

 

[HoppingMad]

Was considering the same thing just a few weeks ago (culturing a chimay) but was talked out of it by a more experienced HB'er who suggested that unlike a coopers that only travels from Adelaide and is fresh, a chimay has to go a lot further, could be a little stressed and would need a fair effort to get going into a useable amount to pitch.

Did you use a single stubby of Chimay or a longneck? The longnecks would have a few more yeasties I would have thought. Trying to culture from a single stubby could also take a bit of effort, and might work better with another one or two added in back-up. When culturing coopers some people culture from a single stubby when they're more expert at it - particularly with the assistance of a stirplate, but many recommend a longneck or up to 3 stubbies worth to have a viable amount. The same could be true with Chimay, but I'm no seasoned campaigner on reculturing, just reporting what I've read.

As for the T-58 debate, there are plenty of rumours on US forums that T-58 is a powdered Chimay strain - but they seem to be just that - rumours from what I can find, no credible sources can really confirm where it's from. Having used T-58 it is certainly a belgian style yeast, more on the abbey style side of things.

Hopper.

 

[daddywillwill]

wow so many replies about different things. my next batch i will use the wyeast one or the t-58.
and maybe i might not stuff up my steeping like my other topic i did, this batch was a disaster from the start. ha ha. can only laugh.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=35104

all a learning curve.

Thanks again to all the beer barons who helped out with these topics.

 

[blackbock]

it is not a strain that is used in any known Belgian brewery.

:icon_offtopic:

I think it is worth mentioning I've just been PM'd that Alvinne and De Struise Brouwers both use T-58 in their mixes.

See:
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/vie...96e04a4a4f94960
http://users.telenet.be/biertoeren/alvinne...teVs2/extra.htm

Thanks for the links Malnourished.