Questions on harvesting yeast

Mojnet · 10-19-2008, 12:35 AM

Hi,

I recently bought a bottle of Chimay Tripel in the hopes of harvesting yeast to use in brewing future Belgian ales. After making my starter, I kept waiting for some activity until I remembered that some strains of Belgian yeast prefer higher temperatures (my house right now has dipped to 65 F).

I decided to solve the problem using a small bath with an aquarium heater. A day later I realized that the temperature setting on the heater was misaligned, raising the temperature well beyond what I wanted. Now that everything has been corrected, the yeast are doing their thing. But the aroma from the fermented beer is extremely estery (beyond what is normal for the style).

So I am wondering: other than going dormant or dying, can yeast be harmed by temperature flux or another condition that will result in poor future propagation/performance? Is it only the starter beer that has been ruined, or should I be worried about future generations of these little guys and the beer that they will produce?

Piotr · 10-20-2008, 08:41 AM

Harvesting yeast from bottle is always a challange, especially from strong beer, the yeast cand be severely stressed and mutaded.
The temperature of a starter is not an issue, it can be as hight as 80-85F without making serius damage to the yeast.

**Saccharomyces** · 10-20-2008, 01:51 PM

If you are worried about yeast stress you can always decant and add fresh wort to let it ferment for another cycle. Unless it was significantly over 80*F I wouldn't worry. Starters are always somewhat estery in my experience. A nice thick white cake on the bottom is what you are looking for.

If culturing doesn't turn out, the Chimay yeast is WLP500, if you didn't know.