Wyeast 3864-PC Reuse

I want to wash and reuse 3864-PC, from Wyeast's Private Collection

The beer I'm brewing is O.G. 1.085 and contains 1# corn sugar, hopefully ending at 1.017 = ABV 9%.
Wyeast recommends not washing yeast on an beer with ABV over 6.5%

My concerns are the ABV, and the corn sugar content.
I understand that the yeast get rather lazy eating simple sugars, and was concerned about this having negative impact on any yeast I wash from the cake on this brew.

I kinda think that the ABV will not be as big an issue on this yeast, as it's a high alcohol tolerant strain, but wanted feedback on this concern as well.

 

I think you will be fine doing this. I might even wash the yeast, then make a 1.040 starter to get the yeast used to an environment that isn't so stressful and then save or pitch into another beer.

 

You could rejuvinate it with a starter as indicated above. Or likely be fine pitching it into another brew. Kinda depends on whether you are goign to repitch into another big beer, or a more moderate gravity beer. Although the viability and overall health of your yeast may be lower than desired, you can pitch more from the mammoth cake you now have created.

 

Just reuse as normal. Don't worry about the OG of the current beer.

Higher gravity beers can accelerate mutation of the yeast, but you probably wouldn't notice any difference unless you ran a few high gravity beers in a row, so best not to make a habit of it.

 

I appreciate all the feedback. I will likely not brew with this yeast strain in a while; Belgians are not typically in my rotation, but I wanted the yeast. I will likely double wash it, separate it out in a few jars, and leave it in the fridge for a while.
I did pour off about a cup of the starter, so I have that as a Gen1 sample, just in case. It is sitting in the fridge on the wort still, so I'll likely wash that up as well.

Thanks again all.

 

As an update,

I brewed and my O.G. was 1.062. I chilled to around 80, then put it in the carboy and let it sit without yeast for 24 hours. A great deal of cold break material fell out, so I racked into a bucket, pitched the 1.2 L slurry from starter, and hit it with O2 for 60 seconds.

The starter was a bit interesting. I did 2 activator pkgs in a 1.5L starter with ~1.040 OG, yeast nutrient, and pure O2 on a stir plate for 24 hours. It had 0 krausen, and a slightly odd smell. Not a bad smell, just not the typical 'yeasty' smell I normally get from a starter.

12 hours at 70 deg -decent airlock activity
36 hours at 78 deg -great action
airlock slowed down a bit, so I then pitched 10oz Corn sugar and 6 oz table sugar and put it back down to 70 deg last night.
I checked it this morning and it was bubbling at about the same rate it was last night at 78, so that is a little concerning to me

I'll be interested to see how this yeast fairs, after some of the reading I did on people with slow and odd fermentation cycles on this strain.

 

Still bubbling btw, slowly but surely.
Haven't taken a reading yet, but plan to do so at the 2 week mark -maybe before.

 

It finished at 1.012 and tastes rather full of phenols, lots of clove -no banana.
I cold crashed it down to 44 and was truly amazed at how little yeast was left on the bottom of the fermenter. I was able to pull a pure creamy white yeast off the bottom into 2 pints and a half full quart jar.

Pictures will come once the flocculation is complete. Another oddity was after 18 hours in the fridge, much of the yeast is still floating in the deoxygenated water.

 

When 3864 is put on the shelves I pretty much buy the LHBS out of supply. No worries on the yeast not dropping out, sometimes it takes a good solid six days for my starters to clear up in the fridge. Also I find fermenting around the 70 degree mark captures a perfect balance of this yeast.

 

I had issues with temperature, when I dropped it to 70, it appeared to stall -even with the 1# corn/table sugar I added directly to the carboy at the same time.
Had to ramp the temp back up to get it going again.

My trippel is in the keg right now, aging with some bourbon soaked cubes, still cloudy as hell. Very interesting the time it takes to clear out in cold temps.

 

My trippel is in the keg right now, aging with some bourbon soaked cubes, still cloudy as hell. Very interesting the time it takes to clear out in cold temps.[/QUOTE]


I cranked the fridge down almost to the coldest setting last night. Yup still a quarter of the starter still in suspension.

 

After a week and a half in the fridge, it did finally flock out.
it's as clear as a bell, very happy about this washing. I'm still aging the beer, so I won't know how well it flocks out and makes clear beer for a while.

 

I'm a bit late here, but I find the 3864 to be the easiest yeast to reuse. The taste is pretty consistent from one time to another.

I always make big starters, crash them in the fridge, pour excess "beer" and keep a little bit of yeast for the next time. Last month I reused the 3864 that was in the fridge for 11 months and it fermented a great beer, the best I have made in a while. It was very true to the character I was expecting. For the record the beer was a modified clone of La Fin du Monde, but with increased bitterness.

 

Does anybody know where to get wyeast 3864?
It does not seem to be available in my area (Ontario), with a little digging I thought it hadn't been available since Dec 2012 but then I found this thread.

 

Its only available Jan-Mar each year. Sorry

On another note, im on my 5th generation with this stuff. It hasnt been any harder or easier to re-use than any other yeast...

 

I am about to re slant my 3864 so I may have an extra vial or two available.

 

Might wait to see if they release this spring, otherwise definitely interested, although I am in Canada. Can offer slanted wlp 001, wlp 029, wlp 550, wlp 565

 

Hello
Do you still have a vial
of 3864 I could buy from you?