Spencer Trappist Ale Yeast

[OswaldvW]

Anyone out there cultivate the yeast from the Spencer Abbey Trappist Ale?

I brewed up a 2 gallon batch of an amber ale and decided to pitch the Spencer Abbey yeast (made a starter) in one gallon and an English ale yeast in the other gallon.

After seven days, the yeast seems to have pooped out at 1.028, so I have roused the yeast, provided a little nutrient and have decided to raise the ambient temperature. I was wondering if anyone else has experience with this yeast and any guesses as to what strain it is.

 

[hautlle]

This BYO article from last spring suggests using Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) or White Labs WLP530 (Abbey Ale) yeast for a clone recipe. It seems they're very guarded when it comes to naming the actual strain, but it's the same as a "family yeast" used in related Trappist breweries.

Many of the beer's complex flavors are true
to the signature yeast characteristics of Belgian Trappist beers, which is predictable because the yeast is a "family strain" from another monastery. With a friendly smile, Keeley politely declines to elaborate on which monastery when asked.

"I can tell you one more thing about the yeast. Listen, this is fun," Keeley says, grinning from ear to ear with exuberance in his voice like a child explaining the intricacies of how his new toy works. "When we were trying to decide what beer we were going to make, in the beginning we just naturally assumed we were going to use family yeast. About half way through, both ourselves and some of our Trappist brothers in Belgium said, 'you know, yeast is so identifiable with a brewery; maybe a new brewery should do a new yeast. At first we thought, 'that's crazy,' then we thought, 'wow, that's interesting.'" In search of the perfect yeast, Keeley and his small research team visited a Belgian university with a leading brewing science program where a professor picked out three yeast strains with degrees of genetic overlap with the "family yeast" at 40, 60, and 80 percent to taste against the family yeast. "We provided the wort and then the university did brews ... and then we had a blind tasting with my little crew. None of us knew what was what and we all picked the same beer, and then we emailed the professor to find out what was in what bottle. It turned out to be the family yeast (that was chosen), and we said, 'that's it.'"

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I've never used this yeast but, in general, there have been many posts about Belgian yeasts stalling out. Usually, a good stir and raising the temp can get it going again. I typically raise them up to the mid-70's or even higher. Also, some Belgians can take a while to finish. Give it some time.

 

[rgrosholz]

Do you have confidence in your measuring device i.e. is it calibrated? Also, I've seen people get erroneous gravity results using a refractometer on finished beer instead of a hydrometer.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[OswaldvW]

Good point. I did use a refractometer, but ran the calculations for the conversion. I will do a hydrometer reading in a couple of days.

 

[djbradle]

I will attempt to build up a huge starter from these to pitch in a blondish refectory ale recipe I have. Keep us informed as to your experience with it so I can cull some good info! Thanks man!

 

[djbradle]

Good point. I did use a refractometer, but ran the calculations for the conversion. I will do a hydrometer reading in a couple of days.

Oswald,

Any update with your taste and measurements? Notes at this point?

 

[OswaldvW]

I've been so busy with work in the past two weeks that I haven't had a chance to rack/bottle. Initial tastes from gravity readings are very grassy. This probably has nothing to do with the yeast, but from my homegrown hops and/or dry hopping.

 

[djbradle]

Thanks for the update!

I have 4 days on a 1.073 Dubbel that was down to 1.025 on day 2. It was started at 64f and rose to 68f after 24 hours. Up to 74 the next day. I have it at 80f since then and smells have ranged from strong sulfur to banana to some weird in between aroma. The fermentation produced a foam head that dissipated into a super fizzy one like WY3711 does. Very interesting.....