East Coast Yeast ?

I was lucky enough to score some ECY02 Flanders ale yeast a couple weeks ago and plan to brew in a week or so. My question is for anyone who has had experience with ECY, should I pitch as is or make a starter? I will be using it as my primary pitch.

OG 1.060

5.5 gallons

Cheers

As with most sours, you do NOT want to make a starter - it will change the balance of bugs from the original recipe. Traditional ale and lager yeast are homogeneous (all the same bug strain). The sours have a mix of lacto, pedio, brett - the list goes on. Pitch it from the vial (or jar for ECY) I have used bug farm, bug country and the wit from ECY - all were great.

Here's another thread about ECY that I started when I was about to brew with it for the first time -- Might be some helpful info there for you.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/east-coast-yeasts-336368/

I should add that it was a while before I had an open fermenter for the ECY beer (Didn't have it factored into my brewing schedule when I got the email about them going on sale, was lucky enough to get one and then let it sit in my fridge for a month or two ).

On account of that, it was recommended that I pitch a small starter to build the sacc strain back up (which I did -- seemed to work fine), but otherwise I think you're good just pitching the vial wholesale. Might have a bit of lag, but once it gets going it will be great.

Al has even said himself that there is no issues with making a starter with one of his blends. The sacc will grow much quicker than the bugs but once primary fermentation is done and the bugs start to take over it really should matter at all.

If youre worried about the viability of your vial, just make a 500ml starter 24 hrs before brewday to "wake up" the sacc strains to get ready to ferment. I havent used ECY02, but with Bugfarm and Bugcounty both had a hard time getting going in the mid to low 60s, once warmed up to 70f it took off. It being the middle of summer you might not have that problem.

Coff said:

I havent used ECY02, but with Bugfarm and Bugcounty both had a hard time getting going in the mid to low 60s, once warmed up to 70f it took off. It being the middle of summer you might not have that problem.

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Al uses saison yeast as the base for many of his blends, although not sure about the ECY02...

I'm planning on pitching ECY Naardenensis and Bruxellensis into a saison for secondary. Should I bother making a starter for these?

Wernerherzog said:

I'm planning on pitching ECY Naardenensis and Bruxellensis into a saison for secondary. Should I bother making a starter for these?

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Al's Brett cultures have a lot of cells, if anything you'll be overpitching.