Making a starter from captured yeast

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pernox

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Hello!

So I've got four bottles of Hoegaarden left in the fridge, and I want to capture the yeast to use on a white.

What I'm thinking is to crush a pound of grain, mash it low (146?) and boil it for a half hour, finish with a gallon of wort (should be about 1.050? is that right?) and use this as a starter.

I'll pour a bit into each of four empty Hoegaarden bottles that I sanitized/poured/flamed/re-capped and have in the fridge, swish well to get all the yeasties out, and dump it all into the rest of my wort, set up an airlock, and let it go to town. When they've finished digesting the sugars in this starter, I should have enough yeasties to pitch into a Hoegaarden clone recipe, right? I was planning on pouring off the majority of the starter and just pitching the slurry.

Do any of the knowledgeable folks here see any issues with what I'm thinking here? I typically only keep Nottingham around, and haven't made a starter before. I would like the taste of my clone to be as close as possible to the real thing, so I definitely need something other than Notty, and I have these four bottles sitting in the fridge looking lonely...
 
Does Hoegaarden use their fermentation strain to bottle with? According to their site they pasteurize after fermentation and then add sugar and repitch.

I would use a wort more like 1.040-1.045. Start with small volumes and double it every 24-36 hours.

GT
 
why make 4 separate starters? It's much easier to make 1 starter, adding all the yeast from the 4 bottles, or if you think it's like putting all your eggs in 1 basket, you could make 2 starters, just in case anything goes wrong with one of them. (Very unlikely.)
I agree with starting small, and stepping up. A wort with a gravity of about 1.040 is recommended for a starter, and for best results, you should not use an airlock. Loosely wrap the top of the bottle in some sanitized aluminum foil, so that the starter can accept oxygen from the air without nasties dropping into it. For the first step, I'd use about 3 - 4 oz wort, which should allow the small amount of starting yeast to propagate quickly.
I'd leave the first (small) starter for about 3 days, which will be long enough to allow the yeasts to wake up and start multiplying. Then you can step it up to a larger volume. I wouldn't just double it, I'd add about 1 qt new wort, which should give you a starter large enough for your brew.
I'd also use DME to make the starter rather than grain. It's so much easier. Abut 3.5 oz DME to 1 qt water should give you the correct gravity

See http://maltosefalcons.com/tech/yeast-propagation-and-maintenance-principles-and-practices for some excellent advice on this subject. If I've said anything that disagrees with that article, then believe her. She knows more about this subject than I ever will.

-a.
 
Got Trub? said:
Does Hoegaarden use their fermentation strain to bottle with? According to their site they pasteurize after fermentation and then add sugar and repitch.

I would use a wort more like 1.040-1.045. Start with small volumes and double it every 24-36 hours.

GT
Click to expand...

From lots of reading, it seems that if they do in fact re-pitch, they do so with the same yeast. According to what I calculate, starting with 1lb of Pale Ale malt and boiling it down from 1.5g to 1g will give me a 1.040 wort... But I'm using free internet-based software, so I guess it could be off?

ajf said:
why make 4 separate starters? It's much easier to make 1 starter, adding all the yeast from the 4 bottles, or if you think it's like putting all your eggs in 1 basket, you could make 2 starters, just in case anything goes wrong with one of them. (Very unlikely.)
I agree with starting small, and stepping up. A wort with a gravity of about 1.040 is recommended for a starter, and for best results, you should not use an airlock. Loosely wrap the top of the bottle in some sanitized aluminum foil, so that the starter can accept oxygen from the air without nasties dropping into it. For the first step, I'd use about 3 - 4 oz wort, which should allow the small amount of starting yeast to propagate quickly.
I'd leave the first (small) starter for about 3 days, which will be long enough to allow the yeasts to wake up and start multiplying. Then you can step it up to a larger volume. I wouldn't just double it, I'd add about 1 qt new wort, which should give you a starter large enough for your brew.
I'd also use DME to make the starter rather than grain. It's so much easier. Abut 3.5 oz DME to 1 qt water should give you the correct gravity

See http://maltosefalcons.com/tech/yeast-propagation-and-maintenance-principles-and-practices for some excellent advice on this subject. If I've said anything that disagrees with that article, then believe her. She knows more about this subject than I ever will.

-a.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, lots of good info there!

I wouldn't want to make four starters, either. :)

I'll pour a bit into each of four empty Hoegaarden bottles that I sanitized/poured/flamed/re-capped and have in the fridge, swish well to get all the yeasties out, and dump it all into the rest of my wort, set up an airlock, and let it go to town. When they've finished digesting the sugars in this starter, I should have enough yeasties to pitch into a Hoegaarden clone recipe, right? I was planning on pouring off the majority of the starter and just pitching the slurry.
Click to expand...

Stepping the size up is definitely something I'll do, rather than throw it all in at once. I should be good to keep the extra wort in the fridge assuming a sealed/sanitized container, right?

I was thinking about using DME, but I haven't got it here and I'm paying like $.40/lb for grain as opposed to $4/lb for DME at the LHBS. ;)
 
pernox said:
According to what I calculate, starting with 1lb of Pale Ale malt and boiling it down from 1.5g to 1g will give me a 1.040 wort... But I'm using free internet-based software, so I guess it could be off?
Click to expand...

A pound of malt, yielding one gallon of wort would be at most 1.037. At 75% efficiency, it would be about 1.028. That actually where I like to do my starters, but if you want 1.040 you need to start with more like 1.4 lb of malt per gallon.
 

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