Anyone actually successfully harvest Chimay yeast from 12 oz bottle?

I know there are a bazillion threads on harvesting Chimay yeast. But has anyone actually been successful lately (past year) with harvesting from the 12 oz bottles?

I tried from a few bottles and it doesn't seem like it worked. Pitched 2 bottles worth of dregs, from a red and white, into 250 ml of 1.020 dme and yeast nutrient. Added 500 ml 1.030 dme two days later. Nothing seems to have happened. Doesn't sem like Any additional yeast has been produced. Was going to add another 500 to 1000 ml of 1.040 but am not sure if I'm just wasting my time.

Also, the yeast that is present seems very dark. Almost a dark brown as opposed to all other yeast I've worked with.

I always thought the small bottles weren't bottle conditioned. Having said that, the yeast I harvested from a big bottle of Chimay blue was very dark in appearance but worked just fine.

Nope, but I'd like to hear if it's possible. If you have troubles, just buy WY 1214. That's reportedly the Chimay yeast.

I just did this about a week ago from a Chimay Blue 750ml. It takes around 5-6 days (sometimes longer) to get any activity from bottle dregs. I got activity in 5 days and just stepped up the starter for a second time.

Harvesting Yeast from bottle dregs... - FINAL GRAVITY PODCAST

wyzazz said:

I just did this about a week ago from a Chimay Blue 750ml. It takes around 5-6 days (sometimes longer) to get any activity from bottle dregs. I got activity in 5 days and just stepped up the starter for a second time.

Harvesting Yeast from bottle dregs... - FINAL GRAVITY PODCAST

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I guess I'll give it a little more time. I'm wondering if the 12 oz bottles are good to go.

I've only ever had yeast not start once. I gave some Bell's dregs 2+ weeks with no activity before I poured it all down the drain.

I have a starter going from 12oz bottles now. I have been forcing myself to drink a bottle every other day this week to add to the starter so it’s been tough. I am going to bump it up another pint tonight and hopefully I should have enough to pitch on Sunday.

Last year I took the dregs from a blue, red, and white and stepped it up. I've frozen it and just used it to make a delicious Grand Cru.

ThatGuyRyan said:

I have a starter going from 12oz bottles now. I have been forcing myself to drink a bottle every other day this week to add to the starter so it’s been tough. I am going to bump it up another pint tonight and hopefully I should have enough to pitch on Sunday.

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How many bottles total?

Did you have any visible fermentation activity? Bubbles? Krausen?

d_striker said:

How many bottles total?

Did you have any visible fermentation activity? Bubbles? Krausen?

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I started with a pint of starter and dregs from 1 bottle. Then added the yeast from another bottle the next day along with another pint of starter. Then I bumped the starter up 2 more times during the week along with adding the dregs from a third bottle. It really took off the day after adding the second bottle and bumping it up for the second time.

I brewed a 12 gallon batch last night and split it into 3 carboys, aprox 4 gallons in each. I pitched the Chimay cultured yeast in one which was fully active and about to overflow from my flask. For the other two I pitch Wyeast 1214 that I also used a starter. This morning the two with the 1214 show no signs of fermentation but the Chimay culture already has a good 1/2" of Krausen forming with the room temp currently at 71 and once the others start going I will start to bring the temp up to the high 70's.

I have cultured Chimay before and Duvel and they both behaved the same. No signs of anything for about the first 2-3 days and then they take off. All in all its looking like it’s going to be a decent brew. I did over sparge a bit and ended up just a tad lower in gravity than I wanted to but I still hit 1.085 when I was aiming for 1.090. I just tried out my bazooka screen for the first time and the dead space was different from my past setup and I miscalculated that a bit. I

The two on the ends are Wyeast and the center is the Chimay culture. The Wyeast have now pulled ahead of the Chimay this morning but the Chimay is going strong.

Just bought a Chimay Red 750 mL tonight. Such a damn fine looking bottle I almost hate to open it.

Will maybe do a 1-1.5 cup starter first just to see if I can get them started. Then step it 2 or 3 more times before pitching to a dubbel next week. Debating splitting the Dubbel into 2 carboys and pitching Chimay into one and 3787 into the other. Or Chimay for all of it it (assuming it takes off). Anyone else try a Dubbel with 3787?

I really can’t answer the question for the double since I never tried it but realize you will need to make really big starter using the Chimay. I pitched a rather low cell count on purpose since that is what I read they do at Chimay. But I still pitched about 2500ML that was cultured over 10 days. If you have the space to split it and pitch the Chimay in one and the 3787 in the other why not give it a shot! Just bump the Chimay starter up as many times as you can to get a good cell count and decant it later if you want. Just give yourself a good 10 days + to build up the cell count. There may be some calculators that can help judge the starter amount and cell count for harvesting but to be honest I couldn’t find anything that I could actually understand so I just eyeballed mine and went with my gut feeling! And even if you don’t pitch the Chimay in the end its worth a shot to try your hand at harvesting IMO.

Best of luck!


Ryan

Thanks, good advice. I did pitch the dregs to a 2 cup starter at around 1.025. Nothing visually going on yet, but I don't expect to see anything until I pitch another bump in 3 days or so. I planned on 9 or 10 days to get the Chimay going. Brew day will be the following Saturday or Sunday.

If I split the brew into 2.5 gallon carboys, I'll go for a 2 qt starter of Chimay. And a 1.5 qt of the Trappist High Gravity. I think that'll be my plan for now as I like getting some variety out of the same brew.

This is my second dabble into yeast harvesting. My first attempt with Bells went very well. And that Chimay Red was good last night, but not as good as I remember it in Belgium!

I can mirror your results of very dark yeast. I made a starter with just one 11.2 oz bottle dregs and thought it was not working for a day or two until I saw minor krausen forming. I stepped it up 2 or 3 times but never got very active fermentation.
I put it into a grand reserve clone I made up while it was at high krausen and got minimal activity. After a few days and only a few gravity points I aerated it again and bought a pack of 1214 in anticipation of my failure. As I was preparing a starter for the 1214 I looked at the carboy and it has an inch of krausen and the yeast is swirling rapidly.
It's smelling pretty good but I'm still contemplating adding some 1214 to insure I don't have a stuck fermentation.

Update? Did you add the 1214 or go with the Chimay harvest?

I've got 2 starters going now, one of which is High Trappist 3787. The Chimay harvest, which showed a tiny bit of activity seemed to ferment out. I just added 1 quart of 1.030 wort. Hope to add another quart at 1.040 on Wed to be crashed and decanted by Sat/Sun.

Me? Hope I responded in time.
I was worried the chimay wouldn't be able to give me a dry enough finish so I added about half the smack pack into a starter and then added it at krausen. It did not cause vigorous activity but the carboy has not stopped swirling since. Not sure if their working in unison but the dark yeast at the bottom of the carboy is bright white now making me think the 1214 is doing all the work.
I have it in the low to mid 70's trying to help it finish off. I checked the gravity a few days ago and it was somewhere in the 20's so it's definitely making progress. It smells good, got a pretty banana-y smell going on but think it will be delicious.
My suggestion would be try the chimay and see what it can do, I hear you'll get a much more authentic yeast character.

My Chimay starter is not looking so good. Still just the dark sediment thats building up (is this cold break or yeast?). Checked the gravity last night and it was 1.030 which is close to what I pitched twice.

I cold crashed, added more yeast nutrient, and decanted hoping that the 1/3 of the wort that was left would be able to better be fermented out by the inactive yeast. Giving that 24 or 48 hours to do its thing before trying to add some 1.040 wort (which I was hoping would be the final addition). Anyway if I was hoping to use it this weekend, its starting to look doubtful. The 3787 of course took right off again.

solbes said:

My Chimay starter is not looking so good. Still just the dark sediment thats building up (is this cold break or yeast?). Checked the gravity last night and it was 1.030 which is close to what I pitched twice.

I cold crashed, added more yeast nutrient, and decanted hoping that the 1/3 of the wort that was left would be able to better be fermented out by the inactive yeast. Giving that 24 or 48 hours to do its thing before trying to add some 1.040 wort (which I was hoping would be the final addition). Anyway if I was hoping to use it this weekend, its starting to look doubtful. The 3787 of course took right off again.

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Do you have it on a stir plate and at what temp? I started mine at about 70 but bumped the temp up every day until I hit about 75 in my brewery as I stepped it up. As for my experiment my Chimay batch shut down at 1.032 where my 1214 batches finished the job completely. So I racked one of the carboys with the 1214 into a fresh carboy and then racked the Chimay onto the yeast cake of the 1214 and it was going crazy this morning so once I hit my target I will cold crash it. Both tasted good but the Chimay was a lot smoother at this point than the 1214. It obviously is not finished but it looks promising so far.

No stir plate, I just aerate the crap out of it whenever I walk on by. It's sitting at around 73F right now. Very stubborn yeast. My wife was commenting how much love I was showing this yeast and I commented that it was not returning the favor. Working against me was how old this bottle was. Had a date of December 2010 on the cork, or at least that's what I'm assuming it was. Maybe there were little to no viable yeast left.

I'm not giving up on it yet, the grey stuff seems to be building. Just not showing any signs of active fermentation (confirmed by gravity). If it looks like I miss my window for this weekend, I'll brew with the 3787 and soldier on with the starter for another week. I could always freeze a portion of what I get, to be built up the next time.

Ended up dumping this out yesterday. No change in gravity over 3 days, no airlock activity, no krausen. It was starting to smell pretty cidery/sour. Must not have been any viable yeast left in that year old bottle. Guess I'll be buying some 1214 someday down the road.

3787 started right up on the Dubbel. Hit my numbers pretty well on a smooth brew day.

solbes said:

Ended up dumping this out yesterday. No change in gravity over 3 days, no airlock activity, no krausen. It was starting to smell pretty cidery/sour. Must not have been any viable yeast left in that year old bottle. Guess I'll be buying some 1214 someday down the road.

3787 started right up on the Dubbel. Hit my numbers pretty well on a smooth brew day.

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Bummer. I threw mine out as well.

solbes said:

Ended up dumping this out yesterday. No change in gravity over 3 days, no airlock activity, no krausen. It was starting to smell pretty cidery/sour. Must not have been any viable yeast left in that year old bottle. Guess I'll be buying some 1214 someday down the road.

3787 started right up on the Dubbel. Hit my numbers pretty well on a smooth brew day.

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That’s too bad. Maybe you would have better luck with a fresh bottle if you can find one. All the small 11.2oz bottles that I used were fresh but I know most of my large bottles and magnums are anywhere from 2008-2010 vintage. And I would also suggest picking up a cheap stir plate to cultivate. I don’t know if you would ever be able to get enough viable yeast for such a high gravity beer by just shaking its possible but it would take so long I would worry about other critters taking over. If you decide to try it again please let us know how it goes.