Making a starter from 1year's worth of bottle dregs!

[CthulhuBrew33]

Hey all! Newer brewer here going to get in to making some funky cool things as soon as i possibly can and would like some advice on the best procedure i should use for creating the starter!
its the collected dregs of every 4.5(on untappd) or higher average rating Sour, Saison, Lambic, Wild ale, Farmhouse ale etc. including the likes of a ton of De Garde, a good amount of Cantillon, some Hill Farmstead, Side Project, 3f, Fantome, and the likes and would love to see what i can potentially get out of this experiment! im going to name it A.O.T.B. for "All Of The Best"!
any advice or things to watch out for would be appreciated and i will try to keep this thread regularly updated with the progress of this experiment!

 

[lumpher]

I would advise testing the starter before you use it on a full batch. It might or might not taste good, be viable, or might have been infected.

 

[hottpeper13]

If you decanted each bottle, then flamed the opening and put into a sanitized flask you might be OK. A year of stored yeast has never worked well for me. Is this going to be primary fermented with say a Kolsch or clean yeast? I would do just that and then put in a barrel with your bug starter if it smells good. Just my 2c, and is how I do my lambics.

 

[DVCNick]

If I'm reading this right, you've been pouring bottle dregs from various beers into the same container for a year?

If that's the case, unfortunately I doubt you have anything viable.

You want to get the starter wort ready, then pour the dregs from several freshly opened cans (of the same beer) into it. Then hopefully it will take off and give you a volume that you can pitch or store to re-start later. There isn't that much left in each bottle, and trying to store just that amount for a year, I don't think is going to work.

 

[CthulhuBrew33]

i totally get that but so far its always had a good amount of bottom of the bottle beer and kept in the back of my fridge this entire time with an airtight lid and shows no sign of infection thusfar. i guess ill just have to play around and get some starter wort going and see what happens! ultimately would just like to see what dominates over the other but i assume itll be DeGarde's local stuff if anything actually propagates out of it since thats whats the majority of whats in there dregs-wise anyways and also probably what ultimately has the "freshest" out of the things that have been added!
ugh, now i just gotta fix up my new setup so i can at least go up to 10-12 gallon batches and just get more things going so i can figure out where im going to put "Chaos/Alchemy" beers in for now, cause unless its completely stainless, i dont really wanna mess too much with bugs rn!

 

[mashdar]

Definitely make a starter, decant off the starter yeast, and taste the liquid before making an entire batch. You need to make a starter anyway, so no harm in tasting it.

I've stored and recovered yeast after a year, but it was a healthy batch straight from a very clean starter (no hops, straight from mfr pack, pressure-sterilized wort) into pressure-sterilized canning jars. Even then, some of the jars go off over a year.

As hotpeper said, sterilizing the rim of a bottle is a standard step when bottle harvesting, as it's a likely source of infection.

FWIW, if you want to store yeast and feel sciency, look into yeast banking. People treat and freeze yeast for long term storage.

But bottom line, let us know how it goes!

 

[JAReeves]

I have added dregs from good wild/sours in my house culture which was started from home-grown grapes. I just let them duke it out, and after several years we have something unique and tasty. But, it takes about 4 months, minimum, to get anything worth drinking. Be patient with your cultures.

 

[fluketamer]

make regular beer first with regular yeast.
then try to make a sour with specialized yeast/ brett culture from the lhbs or online.
if those are successful then try to experiment with your "culture"
start small
my 2 cents

 

[shoengine]

make regular beer first with regular yeast.
then try to make a sour with specialized yeast/ brett culture from the lhbs or online.
if those are successful then try to experiment with your "culture"
start small
my 2 cents

I think making a starter is starting small, no?

 

[fluketamer]

I think making a starter is starting small, no?

haha lol. yeah i meant try this with like a gallon of beer before a full 5-6 gallon batch

 

[rtstrider]

How much saved slurry would you guess you had in ml if you were to decant?

 

[CthulhuBrew33]

How much saved slurry would you guess you had in ml if you were to decant?

its in a non marked jar currently but holding it next to a standard mason jar id have to guess about 50-60ml of SOLID slurry. jar has been very undisturbed lately and has settled down very nicely.

 

[rtstrider]

its in a non marked jar currently but holding it next to a standard mason jar id have to guess about 50-60ml of SOLID slurry. jar has been very undisturbed lately and has settled down very nicely.

If that's the case I'd decant and start small

150ml 1.020 starter with a pinch of yeast nutrient and use campden on any water that is used for this batch. It is normal for this step to smell/taste very ammonia heavy. That goes away in the second step (1.5L)

If that takes step up to 1.5L 1.020 with yeast nutrient, then 2L 1.040 with yeast nutrient.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I’m more of a wing it style brewer. I never mix, but use old yeast regularly. Make a starter, sniff, and rock’n roll IMO. What is there to lose? Could make an amazing one off brew!!

 

[CthulhuBrew33]

Thanks everyone! got a can of starter wort to try it out with.
Definitely going to try it out and try dumping it into a saison for secondary.
also need to get a better distinction between primary and secondary fermentation chambers but working on it slowly but surely!
appreciate all the input!
Cheers!

 

[MaxStout]

Note that some breweries use a different strain for bottle conditioning. What you get in the dregs may not be the original fermentation yeast.

 

[mashdar]

Note that some breweries use a different strain for bottle conditioning. What you get in the dregs may not be the original fermentation yeast.

And may even be a "killer" (e.g. cbc-1) strain, killing other more desirable strains.