chimay yeast harvest - not sure if it worked

[bcgpete]

This is my first time getting yeast from a bottle, but I've made 3,486 starters.

I harvested the yeast from a single 750mL bottle of Chimay blue a few nights ago. Made a 200mL starter and put it on the stirplate. The next night I stepped it up to 2000mL.

After the initial 200mL, I didn't notice any krausen had formed overnight, but figured since it was such a small amount I wouldn't be able to tell anyway.

Now, after a few days have gone by, it doesn't seem like anything has happened. With anything over 500mL I usually can see a significant ring where the krausen had risen. I can see the yeast in suspension.

I'll take a gravity reading when I get home to see if any fermentation happened. Assuming nothing has happened...

I'm thinking:
1) not enough yeast from only 1 bottle
2) I read that from the Blue Chimay, since it's the highest alcohol, the yeast is in essence the most stressed and you have better luck with the White.

Solution:
Buy 2 bottles of white tonight and try again. I'm out of DME, and can't get to the LHBS before the weekend, so I need to reuse the wort I already have.

Question:
Should I boil it and kill the yeast I already added, or try and save that yeast by simply pitching the 2 new bottles directly into the starter, effectively making 3 bottles that have went into the starter.

Thanks for any help!

 

[WooHokie]

How did you get yeast from the Chimay blue?

This feels like its a dumb question, but I'm asking anyways.

 

[bcgpete]

How did you get yeast from the Chimay blue?

This feels like its a dumb question, but I'm asking anyways.

I poured it into a glass until the beer started looking a little cloudy. There was about 1" of beer left in the bottle. Then I poured it into the flask, poured the starter wort into the bottle to swish around and get any residual yeast out, and poured all of that into the flask.

 

[beerkrump]

When I try to harvest from a commercial beer, I let each step ferment for 3-4 days and then double the volume.

I do this and by the time I get to 1.6L to 2L, about two weeks, there is a visible yeast cake down the bottom of the flask when I let it settle.

 

[bribo179]

I harvested out of a chimay red. I started it in 50 ml for a few days and slowly stepped it up to 2 liters. Took me 2 weeks on a stir plate

 

[bcgpete]

Okay, so it seems I just stepped it up too fast. I'm wanting to brew on Sunday, should I just buy some wyeast 1214, or add some more yeast and give it those few more days?

 

[bcgpete]

Just to follow up, I brewed up Sunday (5/13, 6 days after making the first starter) and pitched the 2L starter. It took off beautifully and has been bubbling away all week. Next time I'll definitely give it more than a week to get going.