Harvesting from Duvel

Picked up a bottle tonight and wanted to try out the yeast starter kit I got for Christmas. I read through the posts here about harvesting from the bottle, and was unsure about one thing:

After I make the starter and the yeast gets active, is there anyway to wash and store it? I would like to use it, but not sure what I would use it for yet. Plus, it would be pretty cool to say I've got some yeast from Duvel in my fridge.

I'm wondering if I can get the starter going, let it fall out and then proceed to wash it as usual. Any thoughts?

I wouldn't wash it, I'd step it up and then just pitch it. I'd pour the bottle and leave about an ounce of beer in the bottom. I'd flame the mouth of the bottle, make about 50mL of starter wort and pitch the beer/yeast slurry into the wort. After fermentation decant off the top liquid and pitch the yeast into a pint starter. I'd then repeat this with a 2 liter starter before pitching into a 5 gallon beer.

Well the issue I'm having is that I don't know when I would get to actually use the yeast (don't know when or what I'll be brewing next)...thats why I was hoping I could get it going in a starter, then wash it and store it. Is this possible or should I just leave the lovely bottle of Duvel in the fridge until it's closer to brew time?

Drink the Duvel a week or two before brewing. It's pretty hard to contaminate yeast in the bottle, but I know I've screwed up yeast by trying to store it after fermentation.

1. Drink Duvel now
2. Before you are ready to brew w/ the yeast, buy another Duvel and culture the yeast then

or....

1. Drink Duvel now
2. When you're ready to brew, buy a vial of WLP570

Slants for medium term (3 months) storage and 10% sucrose solution or distilled water for longer term storage.

If you don't want to take yeast culturing that far but still want to step up to a starter from the bottle, buy another Duvel closer to when you want to brew.

I just have to reiterate the most important information related in this thread thus far. What ever you do, drink that Duvel now!

The Soft Underbelly said:

I just have to reiterate the most important information related in this thread thus far. What ever you do, drink that Duvel now!

Click to expand...

Lol. I've actually never had one, which is why I picked it up from the new Ale House that opened up near me. I was more pumped when I saw that it was bottle conditioned and hoped that I could use the yeast. Maybe I'll crack it open tomorrow to celebrate the New Year and get another one before brewing again. At least then I'll have a good excuse to drive half an hour for beer (which I guess I really don't need an excuse for ). Currently enjoying the Barleywine Ale from Rock Art Brewing, but the Duvel might have to be opened soon.

What type of beer could I use the Duvel yeast for?

I got a bottle of this right now I'm gonna drink and was wondering about this. Did anyone harvest the yeast and how did it turn out? Someone was telling me that the yeast in Duvel might be a champagne type yeast they added only for bottling.

nope, they bottle condition with top-cropped yeast from a later batch. So if you get a fresh bottle the yeast should still have some viability.

I have also heard they use a lager yeast for the bottle conditioning. I'm sure you can make a starter with it, but not going to give you the esters you want if you are trying to make a Duvel like beer.

Just get some Wyeast 1388 or White Labs WLP 570 and build your starter with that. Then keep some before pitching to build future starters.

So, has anyone had any luck restarting Duvel yeast? I've tryed a couple of times with no success. & if you did how did it work out for you? (brewing wise that is)

Duvel has been a no-go for me too. Even carried a fresh one back from Belgium. The Westmalle, Chimay, and Orval I brought back all harvested fine and I've brewed dozens of batches with 'em.

Yeah, I've restarted others too, kinda weird, beginning to wonder if they might pastuerize it or something once it's conditioned. Is that possible?

So what is it! Can you use the yeast from the bottle or is it different from the primary fermentation yeast? The Clone Brew Book says to use the yeast from the bottle.

I am making this clone this weekend and have had my starter going for a week now using the bottle yeast from 2 bottles. Its definitely growing. I started off with a pint starter then two days later added another pint. Two days after that I put it in the fridge over night and decanted the liquid off the top. Then I let it warm to room temp added another quart or wort to the starter and its back on the stir plate.

I would really hate to have this beer take a turn for the worse after all this work! Assuming that my yeast is ok do you think I have enough to brew a 5 gallon or should I keep it going longer?

Damn it, now I have to buy a bottle and try to get it going. You forced me to do it!

Homercidal said:

Damn it, now I have to buy a bottle and try to get it going. You forced me to do it!

Click to expand...

Well I am brewing it on Saturday so I will post up how it goes! Keep your fingers crossed! By the way I checked my stir plate today and you car hardly see into it its so cloudy. And yeast is built up over an inch up on the walls now so it really took off since decanting and adding more wort.

Its alive! I put the carboy in a big Rubbermaid bin and willed it with water and ice to cool it more for the first day. I didn’t want it to take off and blow over like my last beer I brewed in a carboy. And so far so good! Its now up to 68-69 degrees and bubbling away.

I would love to see a side by side with WLP570/WY1388 and yeast that was cultured from the bottles.

Tonedef131 said:

I would love to see a side by side with WLP570/WY1388 and yeast that was cultured from the bottles.

Click to expand...

I love Duvel but taking a week + to culture the yeast was fun but not something I would want to do over and over again. So my next batch will be with a liquid yeast.

I actually was going to brew this and split it between two small carboys but I went into a brewing craze during past two weeks and filled all of my carboys. I even had to fill a cornie keg for the first time as a primary. I swear that I am missing a plastic bucket and didn’t realize it until I was boiling a brew the other day! So next time I will split the batch to see what happens.

Well its been over a week and a half and it went from 1.084 to 1.044 so I don’t think my duvel yeast was up to the job. So now what should I pick up some wyeast and just dump it in. Make a new starter with some wyeast and then pitch in a few days. Or rack and then pitch some more yeast?

ThatGuyRyan said:

Well its been over a week and a half and it went from 1.084 to 1.044 so I don’t think my duvel yeast was up to the job. So now what should I pick up some wyeast and just dump it in. Make a new starter with some wyeast and then pitch in a few days. Or rack and then pitch some more yeast?

Click to expand...

Did you up the temp? Wyeast 1388 is a weird one and will start fast but likes a nice temperature increase to keep going. Even then it usually takes a few weeks to really dry out.

You might have cultured something else. Trojan horse yeast. G'luck.

steelerguy said:

Did you up the temp? Wyeast 1388 is a weird one and will start fast but likes a nice temperature increase to keep going. Even then it usually takes a few weeks to really dry out.

Click to expand...

Well it may not be so bad after all! It was on my basement floor at about 70. When I took the last gravity reading I moved it up to the counter that’s around 72 and it started going again in just a few hours. I now have a constant movement in the carboy and the air lock in bubbling away again. And to top it off the sample tasted great! Still too sweet but not off in anyway that I can tell. So I will let it go at 72 for another day and then turn the room heater back on to slowly raise it a degree every day.

I'm curious to know how this beer turns out. Never know about the temp issue with this yeast, and ever since reading this a few months back I've been thinking about doing just the same thing. My brother in law grew up mere kilometers from the Duvel brewery and he's been on me to brew him a beer like that just for kicks.

The Soft Underbelly said:

I'm curious to know how this beer turns out. Never know about the temp issue with this yeast, and ever since reading this a few months back I've been thinking about doing just the same thing. My brother in law grew up mere kilometers from the Duvel brewery and he's been on me to brew him a beer like that just for kicks.

Click to expand...

I will keep this updated. So far its looking good still bubbling away about once every 2 seconds and the last sample tasted the best out of the 4 other brews I currently have going.

Just an update. I finally got my pear flavoring delivered and racked the Duvel to secondary with a pound of corn sugar boiled and cooled. I fermented it longer in primary since it took so long to find the pear flavor but the gravity going into the secondary was 1.017 so raising the temp really worked out! I racked this to a empty keg so I can cold condition it. My concern is will it carb with the keg closed and the 1LB of sugar that I added? I have just been releasing the pressure once a day now. Could I just keep doing that or should I attach a blow off hose? Also the recipe says to add the sugar and pear flavor then finish fermenting then cold condition for a month. I have the keg at room temp now should I hold it warm for a week or so then put it in the fridge? I am unsure what the secondary addition of sugar is for. An alcohol boost or to add carbonation or what.



PS. It taste pretty damn good!

Thanks

Ryan

This has now been on the gas for about a week so its not fully carbed yet but it is good! It still needs to be fully conditioned and carbed I didn’t have any room in the fridge so for the past three weeks its just been at room temp about 66. But I pulled a slightly carbed sample off yesterday and it was surprisingly tasty! Maybe a little too much of the pear flavor that the recipe said to add but I assume that may fade over time and with it being fully carbed. Anyway so far its really promising and once its fully carbed and conditioned I will post up some pics.

Just a update I am now drinking the Duvel and it is getting better and better. The aroma is spot on. They flavor is very close one of the cleanest and smoothes beers I have brewed. One thing I will change for the next batch is less or no pear flavor and the sugar addition with the pear flavor was too much. Maybe if I bottled it the carbing would have lessened the sweetness but its the only thing that I can say is off. Its just a tad too sweet and defiantly a sugar sweetness not a malt sweetness. Besides that very tasty.:cross:

I'm posting this here because this is the first thread that comes up when you google harvesting Duvel yeast.

I've been unable to confirm that Duvel uses the same yeast to bottle condition than in the primary, there seems to be alot of conflicting reports floating around.

However, in Brew Like a Monk, Hieronymus reports that the Brewery's other beers - namely the Maredsous series - are brewed with the same yeast as Duvel. Also, it's explicitly stated in the book that the Maredsous 8 beer is bottle conditioned with the same yeast that is used in primary fermentation.

As for Duvel, the book does state that it is refermented in the bottle but there is not the explicit mention of using the same yeast as primary.

IMHO, if the brewery uses the same yeast for all their beers and is confirmed to bottle condition at least one of it's beers with the primary yeast, chances are good that Duvel is also bottle conditioned with the primary yeast.


Here are the quotes from Brew like a Monk.

1. In talking about the Duvel beer : "Also Noteworthy: Refermentation in the bottle" p. 87

2. "Like Duvel all three [Maredsous] beers are brewed with dextrose and fermented with the Duvel yeast". p. 91

3. In talking about Maredsous 8 : "Also Noteworthy : Refermentation in the bottle with primary yeast" p. 90

I think you missed a line reading Brew Like a Monk. It says that Duvel Moortgat uses a single strain for every beer, but the circumstances for the strain are different when used for bottle conditioning. Not sure exactly what that means, other than it is the primary yeast used in bottles.

Edit: This thread got me thinking about doing a Duvel clone, so I bought some of the Tripel Hop on my way home from work. So far I've given 100 ml of ≈1.03 wort and shaken the crap out of it. Will feed it more in the coming days and we'll see brew day and fermentation go in the next week.

Right, read to fast.... so it's definitely the same yeast in the bottle then. That is pretty weird about the "different circumstances".

Please post recipe and how it works out for your clone.

Recipe will be 5.3kg pilsner malt, 750g dextrose. 1 oz saaz FWH, 1 oz styrian goldings at 90, 1 oz saaz at 5. Shooting for 21 litres to the carboy.

Just finished brewing that and figured I would post an update. I hit my numbers pretty much dead on with the recipe above. 30 litres preboil, 23.5 postboil, 21 to the carboy. OG is 1.068 and I just pitched an estimated 250 cells. I have high hopes for this, the ramped mash took me two full hours

Figured I would throw up another update having just racked the batch to secondary. This was the slowest ferment start and progression I have ever seen. Took almost 4 days to get a krausen and I'm still not sure its totally done. Gravity is 1.003, I was hoping for 1.005. That being said, it tastes pretty damn good so far, not hot at all. Definitely has that characteristic Duvel tartness going on. I'm gonna give it a couple more weeks before I cold crash and bottle.