How to culture a lambic blend yeast?

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N3WWN

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Hi!

In the last few years, I've started culturing all of the liquid yeasts I purchase (my local HBS stores don't carry liquid cultures, so I rarely get a new one). I only have pure strain yeast cultures at this point (a handful of ale slants and a lager slant).

I was wondering if it is possible to culture a lambic blend yeast (Wyeast 3278, for example)?

If so, do I culture it the same way as pure strain non-lambic yeasts? Streak on a plate, incubate, streak on a slant, incubate, store...

Do I need to do anything special in order to maintain the non-yeast portions of the blend?

I would imagine that the different ingredients in the blend would grow in different areas of the streak, so inoculation would require a scrape from each section of growth, but I'm not sure.

If I make a, say, 1L starter with the original, commercial culture, will saving 100-150 ml of the starter provide an equivalent culture or will this diminish the non-yeast portion of the blend?

Thanks!

-Rich
 
That's a good question.

Since you can already streak, and store yeast in liquid cultures, all you really need is to make sure the lactic bacteria will survive.

From what I can tell, lambic strains contain a form of yogurt bacteria. My suggestion is to mix in a spoon of lactose. I would tell you to add yogurt, but yogurt already has bacteria in it.

But I am not sure how long it will last. Just my good guess.
 
I would think that the agar should contain enough nutrients for the bacteria to grow. I recall back from my college days that bacteria (lacto, namely) grows on agar, so you should be all set. When it comes time to make a starter, go with some dme and make it as you normally would.
 
Thanks for the suggestions!

I think I'll attempt a couple of different methods:

1) My standard home-made agar made with hopped DME (~1.040 SG)

2) My standard agar + lactose

3) An agar made with unhopped DME

4) Unhopped agar + lactose

After a day or two of incubation, I should be able to determine which ones grew so I know what to use to make the slants!
 
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