Trois Pistoles clone?

[Evan B]

now for the all too often asked question: has anyone ever tried to get a yeast culture from one of their bottles? i'm considering it if i can't find the yeast

[Fupa]

Call Northern Brewer's storefront, they have a couple packets left, I just picked one up there last week to last me through the rest of summer. You might not be able to order it online, as they ship out their mail-order stuff from a seperate warehouse, so call the store front. Juno, the manager there, is a great guy and I'm sure he or any one of their employees might be able to help you track it down in the event that they're sold out. Good luck!

-Fupa

P.S. When I had a somewhat technical discussion with a unibroue rep. last fall he couldn't tell me if they used the same yeast for bottle conditioning as fermentation. It'd be worth a try to reculture from a bottle though.

[Spidey]

I read somewhere else that you can culture from their bottles, though this can be difficult because the beers are often aged and they are generally high ABV. I tried to culture from a bottle of Don de Dieu but I wasn't convinced by the aromas and taste of the starter that I had the right strain, so I dumped the project. One thread on another forum said the people that were successful in growing up the yeast from the bottles had the best luck from Blanche de Chambly (low ABV and fresher than their other beers). I haven't tried this myself.

[Evan B]

well, I finally managed to get my hands on some of that yeast. I'm going to piece together a recipe over the next few days, and hopefully brew by this weekend sometime. I just need to take a day off of fly fishing for salmon to do it, and that's really hard to do this time of year.

I think instead of trying to clone it, I've decided to do more of a trois pistoles inspired beer. I will probably work with the same type of malt bill that the successful clones have used, but experiment with some PNW hops. I've had quite a few dark belgians lately with citrusy hops, and I'm a huge fan.

[Evan B]

Update: This beer turned out fan-fucking-tastic! The american hops worked in beautifully, and balanced better than I could have ever hoped for with the rest of the beer. I'm really considering adding this to my lineup of beers I'm brewing for my wedding:

(again, I didn't end up attempting a clone, just a Trois Pistoles inspired beer)

Dark Horse Belgian
Belgian Dark Strong Ale


Type: All Grain
Date: 9/1/2009
Batch Size: 3.50 gal
Brewer: Evan
Asst Brewer: Josh Sowards
Boil Size: 4.50 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (6+gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (5 Gal)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 61.21 %
2.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 21.86 %
0.45 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3.90 %
0.45 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 3.90 %
0.25 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.19 %
0.16 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 1.39 %
0.64 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5.56 %

7.50 gm Magnum [14.00 %] (90 min) Hops 17.4 IBU
4.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
3.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 0.8 IBU

0.08 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.08 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 5.0 min) Misc

Wyeast Canadian Belgian Yeast

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.075 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.29 %
Bitterness: 21.3 IBU
Est Color: 24.8 SRM