Harvested yeast from La Fin du Monde

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icarus13

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I'm making an extract clone of La Fin du Monde. Since wyeast 3864 isn't available now, I decided to try to harvest the yeast from a bottle. I started with a 150 ml wort and the dregs of 1 bottle. I didn't think it worked, but finally got some pretty good activity after 6 says. I then transfered the dregs of that to a 750 mL wort and it took off immediately. After 2 days, activity has subsided (that's where I'm at now). My intent is to decant the liquid and pitch the yeast into my 5 gal wort tonight.

My concern is that if i have enough viable yeast for this beer. I spent close to $70 on ingredients and don't want to ruin it. One thing I'm considering is pitching the yeast and letting it go, but if for whatever reason the fermentation gets stuck, I have a vial of wlp530 on hand to make a yeast starter.

Any suggestions? Am I worrying too much. FWIW the beer tasted really good from the 150ml starter. OG should be around 1.09. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
I've often considered this, as I'm a huge fan of LFDM (as well as Trois Pistoles), but I've held off as I am concerned about the yeast health in a beer as big as LFDM. Additionally, I'm not sure that there will have been enough growth; dregs from one bottle into a 150ml step and then just one more 750ml step feels like it's going to leave you drastically underpitching, especially with a 1.090 beer -- you're going to need over 300 billion cells to properly pitch for that batch, according to yeastcalc. I would strongly consider a third step up to at least 2L (maybe even 3) and letting that finish out before decanting and pitching; it should get you a lot closer to that 300b cell mark.
 
I'm making an extract clone of La Fin du Monde. Since wyeast 3864 isn't available now, I decided to try to harvest the yeast from a bottle. I started with a 150 ml wort and the dregs of 1 bottle. I didn't think it worked, but finally got some pretty good activity after 6 says. I then transfered the dregs of that to a 750 mL wort and it took off immediately. After 2 days, activity has subsided (that's where I'm at now). My intent is to decant the liquid and pitch the yeast into my 5 gal wort tonight.

My concern is that if i have enough viable yeast for this beer. I spent close to $70 on ingredients and don't want to ruin it. One thing I'm considering is pitching the yeast and letting it go, but if for whatever reason the fermentation gets stuck, I have a vial of wlp530 on hand to make a yeast starter.

Any suggestions? Am I worrying too much. FWIW the beer tasted really good from the 150ml starter. OG should be around 1.09. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'd keep stepping it up until you have the appropriate sized starter for that brew.
 
about to bottle a belgian table beer that i used the dregs of two bottles (trois pistoles and fin du monde)
like yourself, at first i thought it was a lost cause, but then that stuff started GOING TO TOWN!
even got good attenuation, so stick to it!
 
Thanks for the advise everyone. Looks like I'll make a 2.5L starter. I figured that is what I needed to do, but I was hoping to have this beer kegged by July 14. Looks like I might miss my deadline.
 
icarus13 said:
Thanks for the advise everyone. Looks like I'll make a 2.5L starter. I figured that is what I needed to do, but I was hoping to have this beer kegged by July 14. Looks like I might miss my deadline.

It's best to let it age for a little while anyway. It will be good after a couple weeks but give it a couple months and hot damn!
 
Thanks for the advise everyone. Looks like I'll make a 2.5L starter. I figured that is what I needed to do, but I was hoping to have this beer kegged by July 14. Looks like I might miss my deadline.

I see no reason why you can't meet that deadline. Do the starter now. Brew tomorrow. Ferment for 2 weeks and put it in a keg. About a week to carb and it will be ready to drink. :rockin:
 
It's best to let it age for a little while anyway. It will be good after a couple weeks but give it a couple months and hot damn!

I would like to keg it in 4 weeks, but will only need a gallon by then. Will it still continue to age well in the keg as if it were still bulk aging in the secondary? Or, perhaps I should rack 1 gallon in 4 weeks and then let the remaining 4 gal age 1-2 more months?
 
I enjoy brewing with this yeast strain.

FYI, 3864 will be available in fourth quarter this year! It's a great yeast. Very versatile.

Based on my research Unibroue does not bottle with their fermentation strain (according to a number of different forum threads here at HBT and others). I'm certain your beer will have Belgian character, but don't be surprised if it is slightly different in flavor profile.

Cheers
 
I enjoy brewing with this yeast strain.

FYI, 3864 will be available in fourth quarter this year! It's a great yeast. Very versatile.

Based on my research Unibroue does not bottle with their fermentation strain (according to a number of different forum threads here at HBT and others). I'm certain your beer will have Belgian character, but don't be surprised if it is slightly different in flavor profile.

Cheers

The majority of info I've read says it is the same yeast. I sure hope it is or else I would use the WLP530 I have instead. I sampled the 200mL starter and it was really good, granted I made a summer ale that day so I used that as wort instead of plain DME.
 
icarus13 said:
The majority of info I've read says it is the same yeast. I sure hope it is or else I would use the WLP530 I have instead. I sampled the 200mL starter and it was really good, granted I made a summer ale that day so I used that as wort instead of plain DME.

They do have a bottling yeast but la fin does not use it. At least that's the info I got from someone who took the tour of the brewery. Also as for aging in the keg I wouldn't know I still bottle condition all my belgians.
 
The majority of info I've read says it is the same yeast. I sure hope it is or else I would use the WLP530 I have instead. I sampled the 200mL starter and it was really good, granted I made a summer ale that day so I used that as wort instead of plain DME.

According to the MrMalty yeast guide, wlp530 is the same as Wy3787, it's the Westmalle strain.
 
Yeah I wanted 3864 but saw that it wasn't going to be available until 4qtr 2012. I decided to try to harvest from a bottle (since most of the info I've read says the bottled strain is the same), but bought the wlp530 as a backup. The harvested yeast seems to smell good and was very active this morning now that I've bumped it up to 2.5L. Going to wait for the activity to subside and then cold crash it. Hopefully I'll be able to brew tomorrow night.
 
So I kegged this beer this weekend. FG came down to 1.024 so that gave me an apparent attenuation of 74%. It's a little sweeter than I'd like and it's certainly too sweet for the style. My question is, could I have done anything else do dry it out (ie, better aeration, pitch more yeast, change my fermentables). I'm just curious for future reference. The beer is still very young, but does taste very good. I'm happy with it, but I feel I would be happier if I was able to reach a FG around 1.018. Is a 74% AA all I can really expect?
 
So I kegged this beer this weekend. FG came down to 1.024 so that gave me an apparent attenuation of 74%. It's a little sweeter than I'd like and it's certainly too sweet for the style. My question is, could I have done anything else do dry it out (ie, better aeration, pitch more yeast, change my fermentables). I'm just curious for future reference. The beer is still very young, but does taste very good. I'm happy with it, but I feel I would be happier if I was able to reach a FG around 1.018. Is a 74% AA all I can really expect?

Sounds like you pitched an appropriate amount of yeast. I would look at your aeration. For a big beer like that, O2 is almost a necessity. Unless you mix-stirred for a while or dumped it back and forth many times.

Dave
 
If you had any simple sugar in the recipe you could add it later in fermentation. That will make yeast eat up complex sugars first and make ur beer drier
 
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