Anyone harvested Duvel yeast

Dave1970 · Nov 29, 2013

Got a few bottles of Duvel while they're on 4 for Â£5 at Tesco. I'm not planning a Belgian at the moment but thought I might as well harvest some of yeast for freezing and future use.
Dregs from 4 bottles went into 100g of spraymalt in a litre of water and onto the stirplate, took a couple of days to really get going, been going well for 48hrs now. Tonight it has developed a rotten eggs/hydrogen sulphide smell - anyone had this with this yeast? Does it need more aeration? Not overly worried I know fermentation can smell funny at times but rather it didn't

morethanworts · Nov 29, 2013

I had 4 from Tesco too. : cheers:

Did you drink all 4 quite swiftly before they went into the conical? :drunk:

Not tried it, though the starters I've done so far, with WY3787 (another Belgian, reputedly Westmalle) were certainly very pungent smelling :sick: Great yeast in the end though.

WY 1388 and WLP 570 are reputed to be Duvel (as you may know), if you don't want to risk it :thumb:

Dave1970 · Nov 29, 2013

morethanworts said:
I had 4 from Tesco too. : Did you drink all 4 quite swiftly before they went into the conical? :drunk:

Over a couple of nights last weekend, just emptied them into a sterilised jam jar in the fridge, got a big delivery and got 8 Duvels and 4 of the innis & Gunn beers so have plenty of strong beer in...the I&G wood finished beers go very well with a whisky chaser.

Sounds like nasty smells isn't a big worry then....that's good

Dave1970 · Nov 30, 2013

One good shake, got a bit more air into it, smell completely gone within an hour - shows the effect a bit of aeration can have

johnnyboy1965 · Dec 4, 2013

In my opinion only...and somrone wil probably shoot me down...No one knows if the the yeast that is used in the bottle is the same yeast that is used in the brewng process. Personally think that it probably is.
EG...I cant see any brewery, brewing a beer, sterilizing the brew adding sugar and another different yeast strain.

Dr Mike · Dec 4, 2013

johnnyboy1965 said:
EG...I cant see any brewery, brewing a beer, sterilizing the brew adding sugar and another different yeast strain.

That is actually not uncommon. If the primary strain is a poor flocculater or doesn't stick down well in the bottle then the brewer may want to bottle with a different strain.

Also by filtering out the yeast and re-inoculating, the brewer can tightly control the yeast content in the bottle.

johnnyboy1965 · Dec 4, 2013

I am a firm believe that the yeast strain in any botled beer is not the same strain that they brew wth. So. if you decide to brew a beer , with "harvested " Duvel yeast, you might not get the same result

morethanworts · Dec 4, 2013

johnnyboy1965 said:
In my opinion only...and somrone wil probably shoot me down...No one knows if the the yeast that is used in the bottle is the same yeast that is used in the brewng process. Personally think that it probably is.
EG...I cant see any brewery, brewing a beer, sterilizing the brew adding sugar and another different yeast strain.

johnnyboy1965 said:
I am a firm believe that the yeast strain in any botled beer is not the same strain that they brew wth

.

:wha:

Dave1970 · Dec 5, 2013

johnnyboy1965 said:
In my opinion only...and somrone wil probably shoot me down...No one knows if the the yeast that is used in the bottle is the same yeast that is used in the brewng process. Personally think that it probably is.
EG...I cant see any brewery, brewing a beer, sterilizing the brew adding sugar and another different yeast strain.

I agree Johnnyboy, unless you can get inside info from the brewery there's no way of knowing if it's the main yeast strain or a bottling strain. I'm not really bothered, if people on here have used that yeast successfully and rate it as being good then I'm happy to give it a go.

I already do this with Fullers yeast from Bengal Lancer which is becoming my 'go to yeast' for English beers and having read dronfieldbrewer's Yeast Heaven post it looks like I'll be keeping an eye out for a couple of bottles of Hopback Summer Lightning to do the same.

mojonojo · Dec 14, 2013

"âThe yeast was taken from a culture out of a bottle-conditioned McEwanâs Scotch Ale after World War I. The culture had between ten and twenty strains, and De Clerck âtook them apartâ to isolate one. Neven said the brewers use a single strain todayâfor the Maredsous beers as well as Duvelâbut that âcircumstances for the strain are different when used for bottle-conditioning.â

Excerpt From: Stan Hieronymus. âBrew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbey, and Strong Belgian Ales and How to Brew Them.â

so i would guess that strain you are getting in a bottle probably different, or treated differently from the brewing strain

morethanworts · Dec 28, 2013

Dave - did you get anywhere with this?

I just discovered some great info on this in Roger Protz/CAMRA's '300 Beers to Try Before You Die', which I got for Christmas. I'd recommend the book as a fascinating read. Protz got to do some sampling sessions with the brewing staff and says that the Duvel primary yeast is a two-yeast strain, isolated from the original 15 or so strains in the McEwan's Export from which they were originally cultured. Amazingly, they apparently split the wort into two batches and 'attack' each batch with just one of those strains. It is filtered after a secondary fermentation and then just one of these strains is added back for bottle conditioning.

So if you only use the bottle yeast, it sounds like you're not getting the full picture.

There's even more in the book on OGs, hop additions etc. Really good.

Dave1970 · Jan 3, 2014

Haven't brewed with it, split the yeast from the starter into half and froze both. They're hopefully now sat waiting for me.

Anyone harvested Duvel yeast

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