Duvel Clone Bottle Refermentation Question

[phuff7129]

I have a Duvel Clone that has been cold crashing for two weeks and I am preparing to bottle it. My plan is to take the dregs from a couple of bottles of Duvel, put it in a starter and pitch it before bottling.

My question is how do I know how much to pitch and do I need to worry about over pitching? If I ferment the dregs from two bottles of Duvel into a 1 liter starter wort will that make enough yeast to referment in the bottle. I am priming with 9oz of corn sugar so I would think I would not need a whole lot of yeast to do that.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[phuff7129]

There has got to be a belgian expert out there.

 

[Cyclman]

Bottle yeast isn't too important, virtually no flavor impact since so little sugar is being fermented. Only thing is don't use a yeast that is much more attenuative than the original one, or you could get bottle fermentation / boom. Belgians have a pretty low FG typically, so that's less of a risk for them. Dregs from a real Duvel is a stylish way to do it, but lots of work compared to tossing some dry yeast into the bottling bucket.

 

[IL1kebeer]

If you aren't using Belgian or champagne bottles then be careful about bottle bombs. Normal 12 or 22 oz bottles aren't made to withstand the carbonating pressure of a Belgian Golden Strong Ale which is around 4 volumes co2 IIRC. There's a reason why highly carbonated Belgians are in special bottles.

 

[biodarwin]

I would save the dregs from the Duvels and brew a beer with it.

 

[phuff7129]

I would save the dregs from the Duvels and brew a beer with it.

I'm not sure why you would do that. The yeast in the bottle is different than the yeast they ferment with. Wyeast's Belgian Strong Ale is the Duvel strain. I do not know what strain they bottle with, that is why I am using the dregs.

 

[DSmith]

Pitch 1 gram/5 gallons (rehydrate if desired) of Lalvin EC-1118 into the bottling bucket, stir very gentle before starting to bottle. You'll find most of the yeast at the bottom of the bucket, but what ends up in the bottle makes for very predictable carbonation timing and thin layer of sediment.

[Edit] 9 oz of corn sugar is about 4.25 vol CO2 for a 5 gallon batch, in-spec with BLAM bottling chapter. I have a Westmalle Dubbel clone at 3.5 vol of CO2 in old returnable 12oz bottles and that's highly carbonated but similar to the commercial beer. I gotta add a Duvel clone to my list.

 

[solbes]

First of all, wowza 9 oz of corn sugar in a 5 gallon batch? Champagne bottles for sure or bombs will ensue.

Second, I didn't repitch any fresh yeast in my Duvel clone that was made last spring. Guess I got a bit lucky, but it carbed up fine. I would think the flavor contribution of any ale yeast will be minimal when you are talking about fermenting that level of sugar. So any alcohol resistant strain would do. I would use the WY1388 (duvel) if you have any available.

 

[sweetcell]

*if* duvel uses a different strain at bottling, it would most likely be a flavorless (probably lager) strain. between the small amount of sugar being fermented and the tasteless yeast, you're getting nothing from that bottling strain (if there even is one). my conclusion: don't bother with the duvel dregs. you have enough yeast in suspension to take care of bottle priming, unless this beer has been aging for a long time. if the beer has been in secondary for a few months then you might need a small yeast addition at bottling. otherwise, there is enough yeast in suspension to take care of business. unless you're racking skillz are ninja-like, you'll be sucking up a little yeast from the cake at the bottom of your fermenter. that will be more than enough.

+1 to using thick glass bottles (from champagne, duvel, abbey beers like chimay, etc). regular beer bottle might hold the pressure... or they might not. i'd be quite worried about the "nots".

 

[phuff7129]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I agree with most that the bottling yeast would have little to no flavor impact on the beer. I went ahead and put the dregs in a starter so hopefully I can get a small cake which should do the job. I am trying to make this beer as authentic as I can so that is why I chose using the Duvel dregs over the other options. Of course if I cant get the dregs started and going I might have to go to a plan B.

I have cold crashed this beer for 3 weeks at 37 degrees to get as much yeast as possible to drop out of it. I also got apparent attenuation of 93% so this puppy will be dry. I did purchase 500ml Belgian Bottles so it can handle the 4.2volumes of Co2. I'm excited to get this batch bottled and carbed.

Thanks again for all the help.