To start or not to start...

[jonnymorris]

I brewed a Dubbel using WLP530 Abbey Ale yeast in late Sept, bottled it two weeks ago and washed the yeast from the trub saving it in the fridge. I'm planning to brew a Triple on Saturday and was wondering if I should bother making a starter tonight or just use some wort from the boil on Sat to get it going beforehand.

What do you reckon?

 

[morethanworts]

How strong was your Dubbel? I've been advised not to harvest trub yeast from high gravity brews. Maybe top crop, I've heard, but the yeast at the bottom will certainly have been through the mill. I've used the WL 530 in the form of WY 3787 in my first two AGs and it certainly throws up plenty of top-croppable yeast! Monster.

Too inexperienced in AG to answer your question with confidence, but I guess a typical 1.040 starter wort would be a step down from the dubbel if you did it now, which I understand to be a no-no.

Either way, do us a brewday post! I'll be interested to see how you get on. Personally, I've written off the cost of new WY/WL yeast for the high OG brews at the moment, until I've got the harvest process going with standard ales first.

 

[jonnymorris]

How strong was your Dubbel?

The OG was in the order of 1.060 which I don't think qualifies as high gravity.

 

[rpt]

When I bottled my last brew I saved as much of the trub as possible and rinsed it. I ended up with over 100mL of yeast in the fridge. I used Mr Malty to decide if I had enough yeast to pitch direct. I reckoned I would have enough if I brewed within 4 weeks. I actually pitched it 3 weeks after harvesting. It took 24 hours to see any visible activity (although it is quite difficult to tell with my translucent FV in my brewing fridge so it may have started sooner). After 5 days I checked the gravity and it had gone from 1.048 to 1.012 so seems to be working well. The brew it came from was OG 1.044. These aren't as strong as yours but I think the Mr Malty calculator is a good guide.

 

[pittsy]

I'd get a starter going , it's hard to overpitch really and there are few problems but many with underpitching plus it'll get them in fighting order for the brew.

 

[jonnymorris]

If I start it off tonight it'll be well past high krauesen by Saturday and I'll be back to square one, all be it with more yeast won't I... or is that your point?

 

[pittsy]

oh , i would do it 24hrs before brewing is what i should of said