Det var det her jeg fandt.... Using apple juice to reculture yeast from bottles by Peter Pellemans Recently I was in contact with some Dutch and Belgian home brewers. You would think that brewers there have a much better supply of ingredients than we have here in the US. Nothing could be further from the truth. Homebrew stores are few and far between. Grain usually has to be bought in 50 kg sacks directly from the distributor. Specialty grains are bought by the club, which resells to its members. Until recently the only yeast available was dry yeast. Many recipes do not even mention yeast. Other recipes call for reculturing yeast from bottles. Reculturing yeast from bottles was the only way to get specialty yeast. In recent years, Dutch and Belgian home brewers have been able to order Wyeast yeast strains from a couple of distributors. White Labs is not available (yet). But the practice of reculturing beers from bottles is still widely used. On the other hand, many clubs have one or more members who will actually store all kinds of recultured yeasts on slants and make this available to other members, but that is a different story.
The following is a method of reculturing yeast that appeared in the Reynaert Gazette (a Belgian club magazine) and which was judged as an excellent method by Gilbert Baetslé, a professor at Ghent State University and author of several books on brewing technologies. As you know, not all commercial beers are suited for reculturing yeast. Reasons for this can be: Beers are pasteurized after bottling A different yeast strain is used for priming; you can reculture this yeast but it will not have the characteristics you are looking for. Sometimes the brewer uses strains that only work under certain circumstances (pressure, temperature, equipment.). When selecting beers for reculturing, it is usually best to limit yourself to young beers from craft breweries. Small craft breweries usually use one strain for all their beers as well as for priming. Some beers that are not suitable for reculturing are Duvel, Karmeliet and Delirium Tremens. Some beers that do have excellent yeast for reculturing, if using young beers, are: Rochefort Chimay Augustijn All beers from Brasserie Du Bocq; e.g. Blanche de Namur All beers by brewery Riva: Dentergems Wit, Brugs Wit. All beers by De Dolle Brouwers: Oerbier, Stillle Nacht, Boskeun. This is apparently the same yeast as used for Rodenbach. Orval, although they add a Brettanomyces yeast strain to their normal yeast for priming purposes. I don't know what impact the Brettanomyces will have on your beer. Trappist Beer by Abdij Westvleteren You will need the following: Sterile cotton balls An unopened apple juice carton Scissors or other puncturing device to open carton Makes sure that whatever tools you use are sterilized by putting them in alcohol for a few minutes. Also use cotton balls with alcohol to sanitize everything that may come in contact with the apple juice, including the area on the carton from which you pour. Open the beer bottle, rub the opening with some alcohol and pour its contents carefully in a beer glass, except for the last half-inch or so. Do not drink the beer! Pour some of the apple juice in the beer bottle (approximately 1.5-2 inches). If possible try to introduce air in the juice while pouring it. Rub the bottle opening clean again and close off the opening with sterile cotton balls. Gently shake the bottle so that the yeast on the bottom comes loose and place the bottle on a warm place. Now you can drink the beer that you poured earlier. Do not drink the alcohol! Agitate the bottle a little bit every time you walk past it. 24 to 48 hours later you should see activity. As soon as you see activity, you can make your actual starter, the same way you would any other time. As you can see, this is a very easy method. No need to heat things. No need for pots and pans. This is because apple juice is already sterile in the carton. Other reasons for this being a good method are: Apple juice does not contain preservatives by law (at least in Belgium. I don't know if this is the case in the US; you may have to go to a health food store to get apple juice without preservatives) pH of apple juice is suitably low The specific gravity is high enough and the sugars are fully fermentable. The very small amount of apple juice will have no impact on the flavor of the beer. Always try to select a beer that is young and preferrably not too high in alcohol. The survival rate of yeast diminishes with higher alcohol contents. Also, the older the yeast, the more of its original character may have changed. The conditions under which the beer was stored, may exert selection pressure on the yeast. The specific members of the strain that like the conditions they are subjected to will thrive while others die out. You may end up with a population that is very much different from what was originally used. This can also happen if the beer was stored in a less than ideal environment. Morten Westh -= Grevlunde Nanobryggeri =- http://www.haandbryg.dk/mortenwesth/Index.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Hansen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 10:14 PM Subject: [Brygforum] Genbrug af gær Hej alle Jeg er lidt oppe og ringe på ideen om genanvendelse af gær, så jeg vil hører om nogen herinde har erfaringer med Wyeast Lab's metode med "vaskning" af brugt gær fra deres side: http://www.wyeastlab.com/hbrew/hbyewash.htm den ser ud til at være ret ukompliceret, og lige til at gå i kødet på ? Eller bruger I andre spændende metoder, som os nybegynder måske burde invies i ?.......lad os hører hvad I erfarende Bryggere ved. Med venlig hilsen -=Michael Hansen=- www.mookie.dk _______________________________________________ Brygforum mailing list [email protected] http://www.haandbryg.dk/mailman/listinfo/brygforum
