[unclebrazzie]

Peepz,

say I've a friend who's got a few bottles on hand whose dregs I'd love to harvest.
Say this friend also live too far away to guarantee my inclusion to the guestlist when he decides to open them bottles.
Would it be a viable strategy to hand him a couple of small mason jars containing some oak chips, with the instructions to just pour the dregs in there when he decides to drink them beers, store them somewhere safe, and just hand them over when we meet again?

My reasoning is that at least a small percentage of the  bugs would survive in the wood chips, allowing me to benefit at least partially from their imparting properties.

Sounds solid?

[klickitat jim]

I say sure. But what else might take up residence in the wood? Why not have him pour the dregs into a 100ml plastic tube and mail that to you?

[unclebrazzie]

Why not have him pour the dregs into a 100ml plastic tube and mail that to you?

I know him. He'd forget to mail it.


As to what else might take up residence in the wood: assuming I'm going to pitch the chips anyway, I gather nothing's going to annex them  that wasn't going to end up in the beer anyway, right?
Assuming he doesn't sneeze on them of course.

[klickitat jim]

The dregs will be pretty much dormant critters. Not like in a big barrel. I wouldn't count on them taking over the wood. So whatever is on the wood will still be there. I'm just saying that if you want to increase your odds of recapturing the essence of the parent beer, I'd propagate the dregs as isolated from outside intruders as I could. But you certainly could give it a shot.

[unclebrazzie]

Sounds reasonable
Thx!

[Stevie]

You could steam or pressure cook the cubes to sanitize them first. Your just looking for them to carry the bugs, not lend flavor. But this would take a bunch of dregs to make this work right IMO.

I think the small sanitized bottle is the way to go.

[erockrph]

I think the cases where wood becomes a suitable carrier for microbes is when a beer has been aged in said wood for a long enough period where the bugs would have been able to penetrate into the wood. In the situation you're talking about, wood would likely increase your chance of contamination and provide little other benefit.

Personally, I'd have your friend pour the dregs into a freshly-opened and emptied plastic water bottle, top it off with cheap beer as a preservative, then seal it and store it cold until you are able to retrieve it. When you get it, wake up the dregs (and maybe 50 mL or so of the beer that it was stored in) in a low-gravity starter and take it from there.

[unclebrazzie]

Sounds like sane advice there. Thx, y'all!