harvesting Chimay yeast

Is it worth it or is it not the primarary frementing yeast (ie a bottling yeast)?

looks like it "may" be the primary yeast...i don't know if there's a better resource out there for this information...or if the yeast strain is a commercially available one...

http://www.nada.kth.se/~alun/Beer/Bottle-Yeasts/

Here's some more info on yeast culturing from bottles.

Good luck,
Wild

I've read that only one of the trappist breweries uses the same yeast for both fermenting and bottle conditioning. I can't remember which it is, but I know it's not Chimay.

Of course I can't remember where I read it, so it might just be pure speculation. Then again, Clone Brews (or Beer Captured?) recommends culturing the yeast from Chimay to use in Chimay clones so........?

I say go for it, and see what you get! I doubt it'll be bad either way.

I captured aRed Chimey yeast last year. I grew it and used it for my Chimey Red I sent to Vail for competition. I only got a 38 there on it, but It was the first time i cultured a yeast, or entered a competition, or brewed a belgian.

My first brew was a Fat Tire clone from a kit (pre-hopped and no boil). For my second I harvested the yeast from a blue Chimay. I don't know if I was brave or stupid but i wanted the challenge. I had a lot of worries and was ready to dump the whole lot but was talked out of it. I bottled it and liked it but the longer it is in the bottle the better it gets. I pitched the slurry from that and did a second batch. I think it was worth it but let it season for long enough - it gets much better as it ages. It was a good experience for a newbie.

I believe "Brew like a Monk" says that Chimay uses the same yeast for fermenting and conditioning.

I bought the little hand grenade "blue label" bottle of chimay the other night hoping to capture/culture the yeast, but I had no luck :-/. I have captured yeast successfully from Sierra Nevada and New Belgium brews in the past, so I'm pretty sure I'm not dropping the ball in my procedure. I inoculated five slants and three petri dishes about three days ago and haven't seen any activity from any of them :-/. I can only speculate but I think Chimay may filter their beer before it is bottled.

I think the small bottles are not naturally carbed. You have to buy the Grand Reserve corked bottles. I used two of them to get my starter for my Chimay Blue clone. Worked fine, but was a longggg night...lol.

Hammy71 said:

I think the small bottles are not naturally carbed. You have to buy the Grand Reserve corked bottles. I used two of them to get my starter for my Chimay Blue clone. Worked fine, but was a longggg night...lol.

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I am just going to go up to the LHBS and buy the Whitle Labs WLP500 and call it day, that way I can slant some, petri dish, and freeze some as well, and then make a starter with whats left over ;-)

I believe I read somewhere that New Belgium Brewing got one of their strains from a Chimay bottle (I think it was an old BYO article) and I believe they stated in there that they do not use the same yeast to bottle. If I remember I'll check when I get home. WLP500 and WY1214 are also both supposedly the Chimay strain although they were harvested a long time ago and I believe the yeast is different now. Again, I don't remember any sources and I have had a few homebrews between reading that and today.

rjwhite41 said:

I believe I read somewhere that New Belgium Brewing got one of their strains from a Chimay bottle (I think it was an old BYO article) and I believe they stated in there that they do not use the same yeast to bottle. If I remember I'll check when I get home. WLP500 and WY1214 are also both supposedly the Chimay strain although they were harvested a long time ago and I believe the yeast is different now. Again, I don't remember any sources and I have had a few homebrews between reading that and today.

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http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=87032&start=15#p878581

damn, that video is dated, but was well worth the watch.