From bottle to 2l starter. How long?

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rtb178

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Let's say I wanted to build up a yeast vial from a bottle of La Chouffe. I have a stirplate. Realistically, how long would it take me to get from the dregs of a bottle to a 2l starter (or more)? I'm a little confused on timing, and know that you all have experience with this sort of thing.

Thanks.
 
Let's say I wanted to build up a yeast vial from a bottle of La Chouffe. I have a stirplate. Realistically, how long would it take me to get from the dregs of a bottle to a 2l starter (or more)? I'm a little confused on timing, and know that you all have experience with this sort of thing.

Thanks.

If you asking from a planning/estimation perspective, then I'd say plan for at least a week to be safe. There really aren't many hard and fast rules when it comes to harvesting from bottle dregs - it's far less predictable than building a starter from a smack pack or vial.

One "rule" when bottle harvesting is to keep the SG of your wort lower than normal, like 1.030 instead of the common 1.040. It's said to be gentler on the yeast. Then to build up any more significant numbers you'll have to step up the starter with another dose of wort. On subsequent times it's OK to do the normal 1.040. There are other "rules" for the volumes to be used in subsequent steps, but I don't often remember those.

I don't have any experience with that beer, but I'll tell you once when I harvested Pacman from a bottle of Dead Guy, it took about 72 hours to even see an initial "bloom". Then because it was the multi-step starter, it was another 48 hours for the next step. Then I decanted before pitching, so another couple of days.
 
If you asking from a planning/estimation perspective, then I'd say plan for at least a week to be safe. There really aren't many hard and fast rules when it comes to harvesting from bottle dregs - it's far less predictable than building a starter from a smack pack or vial.

One "rule" when bottle harvesting is to keep the SG of your wort lower than normal, like 1.030 instead of the common 1.040. It's said to be gentler on the yeast. Then to build up any more significant numbers you'll have to step up the starter with another dose of wort. On subsequent times it's OK to do the normal 1.040. There are other "rules" for the volumes to be used in subsequent steps, but I don't often remember those.

I don't have any experience with that beer, but I'll tell you once when I harvested Pacman from a bottle of Dead Guy, it took about 72 hours to even see an initial "bloom". Then because it was the multi-step starter, it was another 48 hours for the next step. Then I decanted before pitching, so another couple of days.


That's really helpful, thanks a lot. I've cultured yeast from a 6-pack of bell's (w/o stirplate), but never from a (750ml) bottle, so I wasn't sure. The ABV is a little higher as well, but hopefully not too much. Will make sure to keep it slow. Hopefully this new stir plate will be helpful as well.
 
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