For my 30th birthday (coming up at the end of November), I'll be drinking a 30 year old bottle of Westmalle Tripel.
-It might be my last birthday if this goes poorly; lol!
I've heard of people bringing back several hundred year old yeast cells in lab conditions, but I'd like to try my hand and bringing back this 30 year old yeast strain.
Westmalle yeast is used by 2 or 3 (Definitely Westmalle and Westvlettern) of the 7 Trappist breweries and it's slowly mutated and changed over the years. I'd absolutely LOVE to bring back the old strain from 30 years ago and see what it tasted like.
Because the viable cell count is going to be so INSANELY low in this bottle, I've been recommended to start it on an Agar plate, check out the yeast colonies under a microscope to identify a good healthy colony (as healthy as a 30 year old yeast can be), and then use that to start a couple oz starter, and then a 1/2 liter starter, and then slowly scale up to a proper sized starter for pitching.
I don't need tons of the round agar plates, just one or two; if anyone has a spare that I coudl have or trade for it would be appreciated and I could definitely get you a tube of the yeast frozen on glycol if this experiment is successful. (And I'd say the chances aren't very good, but it's still worth a chance.)
Adam
