Chimay Yeast

[lufcaidan]

Hi Guys,
I've recently started culturing my own yeast using slants (thanks wolfy!) and would really like to get hold of a sample of Chimay yeast to use in an Old Peculier recipe (I heard this is the best yeast to use for this).

The thing is, I cant seem to buy a bottle of the damn stuff anywhere. I used to see it all the time in ASDA and Morrisons but now it seems to have fallen off the face of the earth!

So I was wondering if maybe anybody had a slant of this that they wouldn't mind posting to me? I would obviously pay postage and admin fees and I would be more than happy to send a sample from my collection in return, although this currently consists of just 3 slants of Thwaites yeast - By the way, does anybody know what whitelabs/wyeast strain Thwaites use (If any)?

Cheers
Aidan

[Goulders]

Would it not be easier to ask brewlabs? Think about 4.50 delivered and guaranteed no mutations or infection

[Wolfy]

I couldn't reculture Chimay yeast from the bottle (but they have to travel much further/for longer to get here, and are not likely fresh).

[Cazamodo]

I noticed the tesco near me always has a good stock of old peculiar... But a slant from brewlabs would probably be ideal!

Slightly O/T, do you have a recipe in mind for an Old peculiar brew? I love the stuff but havent got around to looking for a similar/clone recipe

[lufcaidan]

Thanks for the replies guys. I didn't really want to buy the yeast from brewlabs because I'm too tight, but it looks like I'll have to bite the bullet

The recipe I was planning on using is the one from Graham Wheeler's book, so I'm not sure if I'd be allowed to post it on here for copyright reasons??

[richc]

This is the best place to find out what individual White Labs/Wyeast products are thought to be.

http://www.mrmalty.com/white-labs.php

http://www.mrmalty.com/wyeast.php

[seymour]

You may already know this, but there are strong indications Safbrew T-58 dry yeast packets are the Chimay strain. I've used T-58 as well as a proven Chimay culture, and the results were so similar as to lead me to believe the rumors.

Even if I'm wrong about that, T-58 is an excellent choice for Belgian ales. Did you know it's the house yeast for the revered Struiss Pannepot? http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/ ... php?t=8801 Pretty funny, considering much of the online consensus when I first started using T-58 suggested it should really only be considered for late-stage bottle-fermenting. Ha!

[lufcaidan]

Thanks Seymour.

I had read that T-58 was supposed to be similar but I couldn't really find anybody who confirmed that this was the case (Which you now have!). As it happens, I managed to finally get hold of a bottle of Chimay from Waitrose and have just inoculated a few slant with it but after reading Wolfy's post saying that he hasn't been able to re-culture the yeast I'm not holding out too much hope, as he seems to have quite a lot of experience in this.
If I don't have any luck with the Chimay yeast I think I will settle for T-58 on your recommendation as I don't really fancy spending £6 on a wyeast vial while I'm still getting used to re-culturing.

Cheers

[bellebouche]

Bought some chimay rouge this week, it had a 2016 expiry... so lots of life in the dregs I should think. I know that waitrose used to carry it when I was last in England... their turnover should be enough to get a bottle with a little life in it.