Belgian yeast confusion!

[radpotato]

Hi,

I'm looking to brew a beer that can sit in a conical for around 6 weeks with little intervention. I have a recipe for a dubbel, but got a bit confused over pitch rates and US->UK gallons and ended up getting just two smack packs of WYeast 3787 (http://www.brewuk.co.uk/wyeast-activator-3787-trappist.html) for a planned 35L batch (aiming for 1.072 OG).

The yeast will arrive the day I brew, so no time to make a proper starter or to order more. Does anyone have any possible solutions beyond brew another day or save the yeast for another time and do something different? E.g. what's the shortest time you can get a starter going, or has anyone tried mixing two yeast styles (I can get some dry abbey yeast)?

Thanks!

 

[sky4meplease]

Maybe cool your wort, pour 3-4 liters into a starter and primary the rest. Let the starter set over night and pitch the whole mess the next morning. That would be 18 hours or so and maybe it builds enough yeast to get you in the ball park.
Or you could pitch the two packs with the wort on the warm side and slowly work the temp down to your target over 12 hours or so. I have heard of people doing that when they are a little shy on cell numbers without ill effect while the yeast are in lag phase.
Just be prepared to warm the beer back up toward the end of fermentation to reduce diacetyl that may have been produced during your warm lag phase.

 

[radpotato]

Thanks for the ideas. Both sound good, but as I brew at a community brewery I have less access and control that lots of homebrew setups. I think I'm just going to skip for now and do the dubbel another time (particularly because this would have been my first attempt at a yeast starter).

 

[daksin]

Will you be able to dump the yeast after fermentation completes? That's right around the amount of time I'd want to think about getting it off the yeast.