Pitching saved yeast into Belgian

[FatherDougal]

So last night I had a bottling that went well. When I was done I followed the instructions from the sticky on the yeast section and saved the yeast into 4 pint mason jars, almost filling all of them. Tomorrow I plan to pitch some into a new batch, and am wondering how much to use.

Old batch was 1.060 that went down to 1.016. Yeast is WLP500. New batch is a Chimay Blue clone (I join the crowd) which has an OG of 1.081 before I add 2 pounds Candi Syrup partway in. Five Gallons.

I have an air pump to aerate the wort, no oxygen though.

I know that there is debate on how much yeast to pitch for getting the esters to come out on Belgians, and combined with my never having used saved yeast before I'm unsure what I should be pitching and why. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks lots!

 

[Francus]

I recommend going to mrmalty.com. You put in the OG (after your candi syrup) and the brew volume and harvest date and it will spit out a volume needed. Make sure you pick the Slurry tab.

 

[FatherDougal]

I recommend going to mrmalty.com. You put in the OG (after your candi syrup) and the brew volume and harvest date and it will spit out a volume needed. Make sure you pick the Slurry tab.

Thank you! Does Mr. Malty take into account over pitching to produce extra esters in Belgians? Edit, looked and no. So, anyone know what is a "good" overpitch vs a "bad" one? Still, really great tool!

I think I read here to calculate OG without sugars to be added later when calculating pitch rates. Is that incorrect?

 

[Francus]

I would think you'd need the sugars in there. They are part of the OG. The amount of yeast needed for a higher OG is more than a lower OG. That said, under pitching probably won't make a bad brew unless you have a 10 barrel fermenter full to the rim. For a typical home brew batch you'll probably be just fine. In a pinch I've tossed in a vial of white labs into a 10 gallon batch of 1.070 and had it come out tasty.

 

[Calder]

Thank you! Does Mr. Malty take into account over pitching to produce extra esters in Belgians? Edit, looked and no. So, anyone know what is a "good" overpitch vs a "bad" one? Still, really great tool!

I think you have it wrong. You need to under-pitch to stress the yeast to get the esters.

A typical brew will produce roughly 6 times the amount considered for an ideal pitch for a beer of the same volume and OG. Factor in some loss due to time in the fermenter and under pressure (head of beer), and I usually pitch a quarter of the cake if fresh.

You just harvested this yeast. I would recommend pitching a quarter of what you harvested. Since you have upped the OG, that will probably be an under-pitch.

I would also recommend pushing the temp as high as you can to 80, 85, or even 90 F. as the fermentation slows to bring out the Belgian flavors and dry the beer out.

 

[FatherDougal]

I think you have it wrong. You need to under-pitch to stress the yeast to get the esters.

A typical brew will produce roughly 6 times the amount considered for an ideal pitch. Factor in some loss due to time in the fermenter and under pressure (head of beer), and I usually pitch a quarter of the cake if fresh.

You just harvested this yeast. I would recommend pitching a quarter of what you harvested. Since you have upped the OG, that will probably be a slight under-pitch.

I would also recommend pushing the temp as high as you can to 80, 85, or even 90 F. as the fermentation slows to bring out the Belgian flavors and dry the beer out.

I did end up pitching 1/4 of of the cake. That happened to be what Mr. Malty reccomended, perhaps a bit more.

With the aid of the google I did a lot of checking into pitch rates and found a great article I did not think to bookmark about the subject, which went into detail about what stresses yeast, etc. Basically said that industrial brewers over pitch to get esters and that the homebrewer received wisdom was incorrect, and why. Sort of like how even Palmer says secondaries are not needed when racking to a secondary used to be what every knew you had to do. When I get a chance I'll try and find it again.

Either way, what Mr. Malty and you suggested match, so I'm happy, and thank you for answering!

To the degree I can, I am going to follow the recipe I am using as far as temps.

http://www.candisyrup.com/uploads/6/0/3/5/6035776/chimay_grande_reserve_-_041.pdf