Ambrosia Yeast Blends

Rather than trying to keep track of all the separate dreg and commercial strain blends that I've done in miscellaneous posts, I thought it would be useful to keep track of each blend across generations.  Also, instead of describing each blend again in each individual recipe post, I can simply link back to this post.

Ambrosia Blend 001 (AMB001)

Created from a blend of Wyeast 3725 (Biere de Garde), Crooked Stave, and mixed-ferment saison dregs.  Ferments at relatively low temperatures and displays extreme citrus and tropical fruitiness with a bit of funk and light acidity.  Additional saison dregs from AMB003 (see below) were added at the fourth generation.

Generations:

1.   Farmhouse Mild (Batch 03) (September 20, 2013): Petit rustic saison brewed with a generous               helping of American hops.  Half of this batch was blended with some Citrine (Batch 04) to create 

      Science & Art #1.  The cake from this was used to ferment:

2.   Demeter Spectre (October 25, 2013): Saison brewed with miscellaneous spices and the juice of             peaches, strawberries, and raspberries.  The cake from this was used to ferment:

3a.   Demeter Sinis (Batch 02) (December 14, 2013): Dark saison with black cardamom and lavender.          5 gallons of the batch was fermented was pomegranate, and the remaining 2-gallon portion was              fermented with fresh cranberries.

3b.  Namur (Batch 02) (December 14, 2013): Blonde saison with AMB001 being used to ferment                separate 2-gallon portions with Meyer Lemons and Satsuma Mandarins.

4.   Farmhouse Mild (Batch 04) (February 2, 2014): Petit rustic saison brewed with barley, wheat, oats,       rye, and spelt.  Hops for this batch are Belma, Simcoe, and Amarillo.

Ambrosia Blend 002 (AMB002)

Blend of East Coast Yeast Saison Brasserie Blend (ECY08), White Labs Brettanomyces Claussenii (WLP645), and White Labs Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois (WLP644).

Generations:

1.  Demeter Auran (Batch 03) (February 17, 2014): Blonde saison with blood orange zest, rose hips,          and plenty of Citra hops (split batch).

2. Bauernhof (June 1, 2014): No boil Berliner Weisse base fermented with the Ambrosia Blend 002 as       well as Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca dregs.

Ambrosia Blend 003 (AMB003)

Created from the dregs mixed-ferment saisons.

Generations:

1.   Saison Faible Wild (January 20, 2014): "Clean" petit saison, in contrast to the rustic Farmhouse             Mild. This half of the batch, however, is "wild" given all the critters used to ferment the saisons.

2.   Demeter Auran (Batch 03) (February 17, 2014): Blonde saison with blood orange zest, rose hips,          and plenty of Citra hops (split batch).

Ambrosia Blend 004 (AMB004)

Created from a mixture of Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), Lalvin 71B-1122 (White Wine Yeast), White Labs Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois (WLP644), and White Labs Brettanomyces Claussenii (WLP645).

Generations:

1.   Bitter Beer Face (Wild) (February 9, 2014): Hoppy pale ale fermented with a Brett culture.

Ambrosia Blend 005 (AMB005)

Created from a mixture of Yeast Bay Wallonian Farmhouse, East Coast Yeast Farmhouse Brett (Pure Strain) (ECY03-B), and Ambrosia Blend 002.

1.     Demeter Vert (Batch 03) (June 21, 2014): Blonde saison with lime juice and zest, hopped with Sorachi Ace.

2.   Farmhouse Mild (Batch 05) (July 6, 2014): Petit saison brewed with barley, wheat, and rye; hopped with Simcoe.

3.     Wallonian Pale Ale  (Batch 02) (July 27, 2014): Hoppy saison with Mosaic, Citra, and Belma.

4.   Demeter Automne (August 10, 2014): Pumpkin saison with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice, half of which is destined to be blended with a wild cider and Citrine to become part of the Science & Art series.

5.     Wallonian Pale Ale (Batch 03) (August 23, 2014): Re-brew of the July 27, 2014 version of WPA with some slightly-different hops.  I taught a friend to brew and he wanted a pale ale, so I fermented his half with London Ale III, and my half with the cake from Demeter Automne.

6.     Demeter Facile (September 27, 2014): Blonde saison using the cake from the August 23, 2014 batch of Wallonian Pale Ale.  Pretty basic recipe designed to let the yeast shine through.

7a.     Demeter Sinis (October 4, 2014): Dark saison using the cake from Demeter Facile.  Spice with a bit of lavender and black cardamom.

7b.     Wallonian Pale Ale (Batch 04): Hoppy saison with Mosaic, Belma, and Galaxy.

Note: As I won't be brewing for quite a bit of time due to the forthcoming Thorpe twins, I saved plenty of the cake of Demeter Facile for use in future batches.  I'll have to revive it a few times during the brewing hiatus, or maybe get a small indoor batch done over the winter.

2016 update: I revived this blend using a combination of an old cake and dregs from beers fermented with this blend, and now use it to ferment most of my beers.  If I want something that's fruity, slightly funky, and a bit acidic, then I use this.  When I want a saison that's initially clean but will develop some additional character over time, I ferment with a commercial saison strain and add just a bit of this as well.

Calculating Slurry Volume for Starters

Earlier tonight -- two days prior to my upcoming Namur brew day -- I made a starter using a portion of the cake harvested from Batch 02 on November 23, 2013.  As I don't have the proper equipment for properly measuring cell counts, I did a workaround that should hopefully be sufficient for now.  To do this, I utilized YeastCalc.

First, I put in my harvest date and OG into YeastCalc, which told me that I needed 175 billion cells.  I then changed my initial starter volume (no aeration) to 1.0 L.  After fiddling with the numbers in the "Liquid Yeast Properties" box, which is where I initially found my viability percentage, I discovered that having an initial cell count of 160 billion would give me 131.19 billion viable cells, which would then yield 175 billion viable cells with the 1.0 L starter.

Once I knew that I would need 160 billion cells from my population, I used the measurements provided by Wyeast for repitching to determine my cells per mL of slurry.  This indicated that there are 1.2 billion cells per mL when the slurry is 40-60% solids.  I estimated my slurry (below) to be 75% solids, so I figured that I had roughly1.8 billion cells/mL.  Doing the math to get to 160 billion cells, I determined that I needed 88.89 mL of slurry from the jar, and that's what I pitched into the starter.

Slurry from Namur (Batch 02) in a 500mL mason jar.

I realize that this method is pretty crude and relies on a lot of estimates, so I have some bigger plans for the future.  My initial thought, and we'll see how this works out, is that I will take two test vials of White Labs yeast.  Given that these purportedly contain roughly 100 billion cells, I will empty these into a coffee filter to drain out the liquid.  I'll then take measurements of the weights of the resulting yeast, and determine the weight of 100 bill cells without any trub, averaging the weights from each vial.  From there, I can then drain out my yeast cakes in the same manner and determine pitching rates based on weight.