Affligem blonde yeast from dregs

Hi, Im new to this forum. Just registered today. I've been loving this site for a while now. Glad to be here. I've recently cultered and made a 1L starter from bottle dregs of Affligem Blonde. I'v decided to use it for a wheat beer. I'd like to get some big banana flavours from this yeast if possible. I know Affligem has some of those Banana esters, so i know its possible. I'm wondering if I can ferment this yeast in the higher temp range to get some major banana flavours. From what i've read, if I ferment at the warmer temp range i could get what I'm looking for. Just to be clear, Im not looking for an alternate yeast, but just trying to get the most out of the Affligem blonde yeast. But if anyone can suggest a yeast that throws gig banana for my next wheat, thats cool too. What's the best ferm temp for Affligem blonde to throw big banana.(and of course big spice too.) Any help would be appreciated.

I didn't know you could culture that yeast. I thought that beer was pasteurized, filtered, and pressure carbonated. Can you provide some details on what bottles, where from and what you did. I would like to try that yeast. I don't believe it is commercially available.

For banana flavor. I really would not know, but if it is similar to other Belgian strains, you might need to push it up to around 80 F.

The 750ml bottles are bottle conditioned but I don't know whether the yeast in the bottle is a clean bottling strain or the same as the fermentation strain. You would have to culture and see what flavor you get. You probably want to pitch in the mid-60s and let it rise to the mid-70s. You might get more banana flavor at higher temperatures but some Belgian strains will throw undesirable flavor components and higher alcohols at higher temperatures.

If you are trying to get that hefeweizen banana flavor in your wheat beer you need to use one of the German wheat strains like 3068.

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll try it at 60, then up to 70+a bit. Not knowing this yeast, I guess it'll be bit of a craps shoot. But i guess I'll learn somethin from the outcome. BTW, the bottle was a 330ml bought in Ottawa at the LCBO. On the back of the bottle it says it's secondary fermented in the bottle. The starter smells of belgian spicy yeast. It was pretty cool in the basement were I had my stir plate. If I dont get banana Frm those temps, I'll try it next time a higher temps closer to 80, if i dont get any banana flavours. Or try the suggested yeast. Thanks again.

I had to build up the yeast with a few DME additions. The first tIme I added the dregs to a flask with bottled water and some DME. I didnt have enough for a starter, so i let the it fully ferment out, then discarded the remaining liquid and added to the small yeast cake more bottle water and some more DME. Again, i didnt have enough yeast. So i repeated the process again. I figure there wasnt alot of viable yeat in the bottle. It seems i have enough now though.

GoldPhillings said:

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll try it at 60, then up to 70+a bit. Not knowing this yeast, I guess it'll be bit of a craps shoot. But i guess I'll learn somethin from the outcome. BTW, the bottle was a 330ml bought in Ottawa at the LCBO. On the back of the bottle it says it's secondary fermented in the bottle. The starter smells of belgian spicy yeast. It was pretty cool in the basement were I had my stir plate. If I dont get banana Frm those temps, I'll try it next time a higher temps closer to 80, if i dont get any banana flavours. Or try the suggested yeast. Thanks again.

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How did your affligem yeast beer turn out? I'm just starting an attempt to cultivate the yeast from an affligem bottle from last night. What could I expect? @GoldPhillings