Chimay reculture

ANy advice? I am trying to reculture yeast from a bottle of Chimay Red for a clone batch. It has been three days and not even a sniff of a bubble from the air lock.....

I made a big starter batch since the original bottle was the 25oz type. I used a cup of DME, two cups of clean water and 4 hope pellets...boiled for ten minutes...cooled to about 70 degrees...funneled (sterilized) some onto the yeast cake ..transfered to a quart size growler...and nothing....

Isn't 1 cup DME to two cups water a pretty high gravity starter wort?

could be..although what i was both told and read was that for a 12oz bottle of reculture to use 1/2 cup dme..1 cup water and 2 hop pellets...since i was using a bigger bottle I was advised to double the recipe.

Any way to save this? Should I add water to thin it out or get another bottle of Chimay and add that yeast cake to the starter I have now?

errr... From what I can find out there's approximately 4-4.5 cups DME per pound... So. You used around 4 ounces DME for 1/8th of a gallon of wort. Giving you an OG around 1.084 Which is really high for a starter full of tired yeast. Maybe if you topped it off to 1 qt and then shake the hell out of it for 12 hours. Did you add any yeast nutrients? That could help. For a starter I've heard it's best to start with an OG of around 1.040 or even lower to wake up a tired culture.

Yeah, the lighter the better for a starter. Isn't the chimay strain comercially available anyway as Trappist Ale #(Some number)?

Free yeast is way better! Wish I could buy a beer with some WLP300 sitting in the bottom for my next brew!

A german hefe wouldn't have that?

There aren't many places to buy beer here. and I never really thought about it. I'll check at the liquor store Monday. Isn't Paulaner a German hefe?

yes it is.

If you're reculturing from a bottle, you really want around 1.025-1.030 in like 10-20 millilitres of wort. Then keep stepping up from there. But Chimay yeast is WLP500 or Wyeast 1214. I would just pluck down the $7 to ensure I'm getting a superior product.

The only Hefe that I know (believe) that uses it's primary strain in the bottle is Scheinder.

yeah. I think I'll end up buying some yeast