Brewing Master » Brewing Beer » Lambic Yeast Update (in case you'd like to culture)
Lambic Yeast Update (in case you'd like to culture)
Question:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -I posted a question about culturing lambic yeast recently. (No response, sigh.) In any event, here’s and update. I poured the dregs from a bottle of Lindeman’s Kriek into a bottle of sterile wort. I flame sterilized both bottles. In any event, I have seen no signs of activity in the wort itself, but the airlock has developed pressure and evidently bubbled a couple of times (this from seeing different air levels). It appears that I have more sediment than I started out with, so I’m assuming something has happened. I do hope the pressure is not purely from a bacterial infection. In any event, I intend to pour out the bulk of the sterile wort and repitch the dregs into another bottle of sterile wort in order to build up the yeast content. If all goes well, I’ll be brewing a cherry Kriek late in August. In case anyone cares, I’m going with frozen cherries for a secondary fermentation. Tart pie cherries are <$2 per pound, and I don’t have to bother with crushing them. If anyone has something useful to say, please do follow up. Paul
I’d like to think I have something useful to say, but I can’t be sure because I did not see your original post. The problems with culturing lambic yeast from the bottle are as follows: 1. The lambic yeast is not one strain, but many strains each having a different growth rate. The yeast in the bottle is, therefore, not in the same ratios as is was in the wild. 2. Some of the strains die off because of the alchohol and acidity. 3. Another yeast may have been added at bottling time, so the yeast in the bottle is not necessarily the yeast that fermented the beer. Not to discourage you or anything, but this is what I remember Garrett Olivier of the Manhattan Brewing Co. telling me when I asked him about said topic. Michael C. Krauss My opinions are MINE MINE MINE MINE!
Response:
I posted a question about culturing lambic yeast recently. (No response, sigh.) In any event, here’s and update. I poured the dregs from a bottle of Lindeman’s Kriek into a bottle of sterile wort. I flame sterilized both bottles. In any event, I have seen no signs of activity in the wort itself, but the airlock has developed pressure and evidently bubbled a couple of times (this from seeing different air levels). It appears that I have more sediment than I started out with, so I’m assuming something has happened. I do hope the pressure is not purely from a bacterial infection. In any event, I intend to pour out the bulk of the sterile wort and repitch the dregs into another bottle of sterile wort in order to build up the yeast content. If all goes well, I’ll be brewing a cherry Kriek late in August. In case anyone cares, I’m going with frozen cherries for a secondary fermentation. Tart pie cherries are <$2 per pound, and I don’t have to bother with crushing them. If anyone has something useful to say, please do follow up. Paul
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I posted a question about culturing lambic yeast recently. (No response, sigh.) In any event, here’s and update. I poured the dregs from a bottle of Lindeman’s Kriek into a bottle of sterile wort. I flame sterilized both bottles. In any event, I have seen no signs of activity in the wort itself, but the airlock has developed pressure and evidently bubbled a couple of times (this from seeing different air levels). It appears that I have more sediment than I started out with, so I’m assuming something has happened. I do hope the pressure is not purely from a bacterial infection. In any event, I intend to pour out the bulk of the sterile wort and repitch the dregs into another bottle of sterile wort in order to build up the yeast content. If all goes well, I’ll be brewing a cherry Kriek late in August. In case anyone cares, I’m going with frozen cherries for a secondary fermentation. Tart pie cherries are <$2 per pound, and I don’t have to bother with crushing them. If anyone has something useful to say, please do follow up. Paul
Paul – I have heard mixed success reports from people cuturing from a store baught bottle. A suggestion would be to do a primary ferment with regular ale yeast, then add the culture into secondary. The varities of wild yeasts that give a lambic its character arn’t very active, in fact, Brettanomyces can take several months to manifest its contribution. When the Brett is ‘going’ all you will see is the wort get cloudy. Another strain, Pediococcous, will cause a wrinkly film on top of the wort. With a mixed culture, you may not see this, as the brett culture will attack and dissolve this film. The two primary culture may be purchaced from G.W.Kent (if your local homebrew store won’t special order, try ‘The Beverage People’ of Santa Rosa (look in Zymurgy), or Sheaf & Vine in Illinois –
Response:
Paul – I have heard mixed success reports from people cuturing from a store baught bottle. A suggestion would be to do a primary ferment with regular ale yeast, then add the culture into secondary. The varities of wild yeasts that give a lambic its character arn’t very active, in fact, Brettanomyces can take several months to manifest its contribution. When the Brett is ‘going’ all you will see is the wort get cloudy. Another strain, Pediococcous, will cause a wrinkly film on top of the wort. With a mixed culture, you may not see this, as the brett culture will attack and dissolve this film. The two primary culture may be purchaced from G.W.Kent (if your local homebrew store won’t special order, try ‘The Beverage People’ of Santa Rosa (look in Zymurgy), or Sheaf & Vine in Illinois –
Thank you very much. You’re one of several people to reply and mention the digest to me. I’m particularly appreciative of the possible source of cultures. My bottle culture seems to have visibly increased the amount of sediment, so I assume something has happened. I was originally planning on pitching the culture simultaneously with an ale yeast. I hadn’t decided between a Weizen, Belgian Ale, or standard ale yeast. I like the idea about pitching the lambic culture into the secondary. Thanks for the help. I’ll tell you all how it around, say …, Easter. Cheers! Paul