yeast culture

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jwallen

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Im trying to culture some yeast from a chimay bottle. I added some water with malt boiled it cooled it then added it to the bottom leftovers of the bottle. It's now set up with an airlock and stopper. No gas is coming out of the airlock. Should there be? Could i have messed something up?
 
I'm no pro, but I'll take a stab at it.

Should there be?
I would expect there to be some, though the number of viable yeast are likely very low and I would expect it to take a day or more for them to reproduce enough to see any effect.

Could you have messed something up?
Certainly. I screw things up all the time; but I'm happy when I can figure out what I did wrong.


How long ago did you start it?
 
It's been 2 days of trying to grow some chimay yeast with no signs of action. Any ideas on what may have gone wrong? I followed directions from a book. Left about an inch in the bottle, boiled some malt, cooled it down then put it in the bottle w an airlock.
 
it can take much longer than that, and you dont need an airlock, a bit of foil covering the top would do. the viability of these yeasts can be very questionable as they are in a high alchohol environment, and may have been for a long time.
just wait, i have cultured chimay yeast befor from a bottle of white that took 5 days to show activity.
 
Often times you won't see much, if any, activity on that first step. When you add more malt to step it up, you should see good krausen. I have had much success harvesting from plenty if bottles and my normal routine is this: 1 bottle dregs -> 150ml starter -> ferment for 48hrs -> pitch into a 750ml starter -> ferment for 48-72hrs -> either step up again; cold crash, decant, and store; or pitch. Solo depends on the reason you are harvesting. Certainly don't use an airlock, simple sanitized foil does the best.
 
Awesome good to know thank you! Should i not use an airlock in any of the steps or just the first one? How will i be able to recognize if there's activity without an airlock?
 
Awesome good to know thank you! Should i not use an airlock in any of the steps or just the first one? How will i be able to recognize if there's activity without an airlock?

I never use an airlock when working with any type of starter. Airlocks prohibit oxygen from getting into the flask/bottle/whatever. Oxygen is extremely important for cell reproduction and aerobic growth.
 
Everyone here is right on target. This first step is always a crap-shoot if the yeast survived it's trip to you. When you grow it up the second time, you should notice a very thing krausen, and then more so when you prop it up for a pitch.

Cause if it was easy everyone would do it right?

Aaron
 
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