Bengal Lancer

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Eh up....
I cultured up from 2 bottles last week ready to brew this week..60 litres of pale..Pitched yesterday afternoon and its now 4inches deep in krausen and smells devine..I was worried that I would be underpitching a bit, perhaps not..

 

[Good Ed]

It's a good yeast to use, is it the equivalent of WLP002?

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Apparently so...Quick check and its lost 7 points already. little taste...its a good un, very sweet obviously, but nothing to worry about. I cultured 2 bottles in 1/2 jam jar of DME at 1030...then stepped up to 1 litre at 1030...after 4 days when the fermentation had subsided dropped the lot into 65 litres of 1047 pale ale wort.

It started fermenting within 2 hours and after 24 hours was really going, fermenting like a wotsit. I turned the overnight heater off this morning and its being chilled with wet towels to keep the temp below 20 degrees as its really going like mad.

The plan is to use the yeast from this for my next brew, an ESB... 65 litres

12.5kgs pale malt
100gms choccy malt
375gms crystal malt
1kg of flaked maize

goldings to 30 IBU at

90 mins
60 mins
30 mins
15 mins
Handfull in at flameout and steep for 20 mins

 

[Algernon]

Sounds good!
What effect do you get from flaked maize?Also, how easy is it to culture yeasts from commercial bottles? I have some experience in micro-biology and sterile / aseptic techniques, but with this kind of thing I always err on the side of caution. The last thing I would want to do is accidentally culture up a bottle of nasty by mistake.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Sounds good!
What effect do you get from flaked maize?Also, how easy is it to culture yeasts from commercial bottles? I have some experience in micro-biology and sterile / aseptic techniques, but with this kind of thing I always err on the side of caution. The last thing I would want to do is accidentally culture up a bottle of nasty by mistake.

Flaked Maize for head retention really, I would normally use Torrified or Wheat Malt, but flaked maize I find brilliant for lacing the side of a glass, keeping the head right to the bottom. After a pint has been finished you get gulp lines all the way down the glass that stays untilled rinsed off.

Culturing from a bottle is easy peasie. Be carefull with steralization and you will not go far wrong

You will need

a donor bottled conditioned beer
steralised jam jar
some preboiled and cooled wort or DME (spraymalt) aim for gravity of about 1020-1030 for best results
gas lighter
steralizer

1) wash donor bottle with sanitiser to get rid of as many nasties as possible.
2) flame around the metal cap (with bottle upright) to sterilize the top
3) ease the cap off trying not to bend it too much
4) pour your beer into a glass keeping the last few dregs in the donor bottle
5) replace the cap (it should just snap back on)
6) swirl the dregs around the bottom of the bottle and pour into some cooled preboiled DME solution
7) keep under an airlock and watch it fly.

once the initial fermentation has died down step up into a bigger jam jar or demijohn with a litre of wort or DME


You can use this method on your own bottled beers to keep favourite yeasts going :thumb:

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Sounds good!
What effect do you get from flaked maize?Also, how easy is it to culture yeasts from commercial bottles? I have some experience in micro-biology and sterile / aseptic techniques, but with this kind of thing I always err on the side of caution. The last thing I would want to do is accidentally culture up a bottle of nasty by mistake.

Flaked Maize for head retention really, I would normally use Torrified or Wheat Malt, but flaked maize I find brilliant for lacing the side of a glass, keeping the head right to the bottom. After a pint has been finished you get gulp lines all the way down the glass that stays untilled rinsed off.

Culturing from a bottle is easy peasie. Be carefull with steralization and you will not go far wrong

You will need

a donor bottled conditioned beer
steralised jam jar
some preboiled and cooled wort or DME (spraymalt) aim for gravity of about 1020-1030 for best results
gas lighter
steralizer

1) wash donor bottle with sanitiser to get rid of as many nasties as possible.
2) flame around the metal cap (with bottle upright) to sterilize the top
3) ease the cap off trying not to bend it too much
4) pour your beer into a glass keeping the last few dregs in the donor bottle
5) replace the cap (it should just snap back on)
6) swirl the dregs around the bottom of the bottle and pour into some cooled preboiled DME solution
7) keep under an airlock and watch it fly.

once the initial fermentation has died down step up into a bigger jam jar or demijohn with a litre of wort or DME


You can use this method on your own bottled beers to keep favourite yeasts going :thumb: