After re-listening to the Allagash interview from last year, I've decided I want to used their house yeast to brew a few belgians. In the inteview Rob mentions that the White is their only beer that has their yeast used in both primary and bottle conditioning, all of their other beers are filtered and then a neutral yeast is pitched for conditioning. I've been brewing for a few years and listenin to all the BN shows and can not dig up any information on the specific steps for building up a yeast from a single bottle. I'm planning on brewing a Belgian white myself and will need approx 220B cells. But I really have no idea where I'm starting from. From everthing that I've ever heard on the shows all production brewer's pitch more then we typically do. You have to also figure that when they repitch for bottle conditioning they are adding very viable yeast so that the bottles carbonate in a timely fashion as opposed to having to wait and sit on inventory. I was thinking of stepping up three times. From the dregs into a 1030ish 1L wort (the yeast in the bottle are under some stress), to a 1040 1.5L to a 1040 2L and then pitching, I obviously will be aerating and adding proper to nutrients.
My questions are:
1. Is that enough steps?
2. Do I let let each step completely ferment out, or should I chill when the yeast are in the middle of there growth phase (12-18 hours), decant and then repitch into the next starter?
3. Anything that I've forgotten?
Any suggestions would be great.
Ted
