questions prepping for yeast bank.

I am getting my yeast bank set up. So far I have from Wyeast, Pacman 1764, Farm house 3726, Belgium strong ale 1388, Trappist high gravity 3787 and from White labs super 099.

2 questions,
Is there any others I should look into having on hand? I don't brew Lambics or sours.

Is the 1388 and 3787 different enough to keep both on hand? Big Belgium beers are my absolute Favorite style. I have not brewed any yet as I am still learning and just yesterday got a mini fridge ready for fermentation temperature as I understand they like to ferment warm.

Thanks,
Marcus

IMHO, buy WY3864 now while it's available (October-December this year). If you like Belgian's, that's Unibroue's strain and it's fantastic, but it's only available for purchase every couple of years, because it's one of the "Private Collection" strains.

SiriusStarr, thanks for the reply.

I'm am new to this and considering your suggestion. I do wonder what does this particular strain offer that the other 2 Belgiums i have do not?

Jeepaholic said:

I'm am new to this and considering your suggestion. I do wonder what does this particular strain offer that the other 2 Belgiums i have do not?

Click to expand...

Different esters/phenolics. As you know, yeast makes all the difference when brewing Belgians, which for the most part rely almost solely on yeast character for differentiation. Unibroue's yeast has a very distinctive character that I can tell a mile away. As to whether you like that character, all I can say is go try one of their beers (should be easy to find if you have a Whole Foods or Trader Joes nearby). Personally, they make some of my favorite Belgians (Don de Dieu is in my top 3 or so beers), and their yeast makes a wonderful tripel or dubbel.

You might find this experiment interesting also, as to the different characters of the Belgian strains (sadly it doesn't include 3864): http://traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/KYBelgianYeastExperiment.pdf (from the 1/26/12 show of: Basic Brewing )

I will see if I can find one, but I have never heard of the stores you have talked about.



Does anybody else have thoughts?

Ah, well, any beer place should have it. They carry it in the grocery stores up here, but I'm in Portland, so every grocery store carries good beer.

I was just thinking about brewing a barley wine for a winter warmer next year. How will Pacman do for an American barley wine?

SiriusStarr said:

IMHO, buy WY3864 now while it's available (October-December this year). If you like Belgian's, that's Unibroue's strain and it's fantastic, but it's only available for purchase every couple of years, because it's one of the "Private Collection" strains.

Click to expand...

I imagine it would be pretty easy to culture their strain from the dregs of a 750...there is a lot of stuff that sits on the bottom of their beers. On top of that, you pay 9-10 bucks, get the yeast you want, get a sweet bottle, and some delicious beer.

allaway said:

I imagine it would be pretty easy to culture their strain from the dregs of a 750...there is a lot of stuff that sits on the bottom of their beers. On top of that, you pay 9-10 bucks, get the yeast you want, get a sweet bottle, and some delicious beer.

Click to expand...

There is a lot of debate about whether they bottle with the same yeast strain as they ferment. The consensus from what I've seen is it's a different strain, but I've seen people claiming they asked at the brewery and got both answers. For the $5, I'd rather have a known strain in good health than hope that I get it out of the bottle. That being said, I may resort to that if my stocks run low.

SiriusStarr said:

There is a lot of debate about whether they bottle with the same yeast strain as they ferment. The consensus from what I've seen is it's a different strain, but I've seen people claiming they asked at the brewery and got both answers. For the $5, I'd rather have a known strain in good health than hope that I get it out of the bottle. That being said, I may resort to that if my stocks run low.

Click to expand...

Good to know! Maybe I'll try both and compare. Not a very expensive experiment!

allaway said:

Good to know! Maybe I'll try both and compare. Not a very expensive experiment!

Click to expand...

Ooh, do share the results if you do. It would be fascinating to make a tripel and split it and ferment half with WY3864 and have with bottle dregs from La Fin du Monde or Don de Dieu.

I picked up the WL 099 today. I think this will finish out my bank unless anybody has a suggestion.