Culturing Schneider Weiss Yeast from a bottle

Boerderij_Kabouter · 08-25-2008, 12:17 PM

I will be brewing a Schneider Weiss clone this weekend and after reading Jamil's article in BYO about it, thought it would be fun to try and culture the yeast. I have a few questions....

1) Has anyone successfully done it? (It is the primary strain that they bottle condition with)

2) How long will this likely take? I have about 6 days until I brew.

3) How does this procedure sound?
a. Chill bottle to near freezing.
b. Sanitize outside of bottle.
c. Open bottle and decant 7/8 of the beer off the sediment layer.
d. Pitch a small amount of low gravity (1.020) wort into the bottle and cover with aluminum foil.
e. Let sit for a day.
f. Pitch the whole culture into a full bottle size of mid-gravity wort (1.030).
g. Let sit for two days day.
h. Chill culture to flocculate yeast.
i. Decant beer off top of yeast layer.
j. Pitch yeast into a 1.75 quart starter of 1.040 gravity wort.
k. Ferment out as long as possible.
l. Chill starter decant and pitch yeast layer to final beer.

4) I have an air pump that I used for the starter I made this week and it worked like a champ. Should I continually aerate a bottle culture?

Any other tips? Is this too short a time? My fall back is just to use the Weihenstephaner yeast if this falls through.

Thanks

homebrewer_99 · 08-25-2008, 12:30 PM

Schneider Weisse is supposedly bottled using the same yeast as fermenting.

If it's still alive it'll be a miracle unless you get it from a military base where most beers aren't export-style (pasteurized).

Give it a try...what do you have to lose?

LayMeister · 08-25-2008, 12:36 PM

I cultured some yeast from a bottle of Aventinius earlier this summer in much the same way as you suggest. However, it took about a week for the initial wort in the bottle to get going. I guess the amount of viable yeast in the bottle was pretty small. Maybe you'll have more success. Just be prepared in case you don't.

Paul

**niquejim** · 08-25-2008, 01:54 PM

Be prepared to step it up many times as there is very little visable growth during the first time or two.
It would also help to use the yeast from 3-4 bottles to shorten the time needed to multiply enough

Boerderij_Kabouter · 08-25-2008, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by niquejim

Be prepared to step it up many times as there is very little visable growth during the first time or two.
It would also help to use the yeast from 3-4 bottles to shorten the time needed to multiply enough

O.K. I need to make two cultures. I brew 10-12 gallons at a time and pitch into two separate primaries. Maybe I should pitch 3 bottles dregs into each starter? I mean, I still get to drink the beer so it is essentially free yeast [/justification]

I think I am convinced enough to at least try it. The story about the Adventious working has me encouraged. I have my wife's camera, so hopefully I will document the whole thing.

For those in the close area, if this works would anyone be interested in a yeast share? I could probably save or wash some of this for reuse if it works well...

**Revvy** · 08-25-2008, 02:01 PM

Search for the threads on havesting Pacman yeast from about 4-5 months ago...you'll find a ton of info on what we all did. I got a ton of pacman, from several harvests.

**niquejim** · 08-25-2008, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boerderij Kabouter

O.K. I need to make two cultures. I brew 10-12 gallons at a time and pitch into two separate primaries. Maybe I should pitch 3 bottles dregs into each starter? I mean, I still get to drink the beer so it is essentially free yeast [/justification]

I think I am convinced enough to at least try it. The story about the Adventious working has me encouraged. I have my wife's camera, so hopefully I will document the whole thing.

For those in the close area, if this works would anyone be interested in a yeast share? I could probably save or wash some of this for reuse if it works well...

Yeah it works, it just doesn't appear to at the beginning because of the low starting cell count.

I'm going to be doing my Drunk owl soon so I bought 6 Unibroue beers to get that Canadian/Belgian yeast for "free" also

Boerderij_Kabouter · 08-27-2008, 01:40 AM

Here is day one:

Start with a sanitized growler. Sanitize two bottles of Schneider Weizen original.

Measure out 6 oz. pale DME, boil 1 cup water and mix in DME. Boil for 15 minutes.

While boiling pour beer into your handy weiss glass until yeast cake begins to move. Swirl yeast and empty into growler.

Looks like I got a very good amount of yeast in suspension!

After the wort is chilled, add to growler, swirl aggressively to aerate.

Here is the final after day one.

I am shaking periodically for the first day allowing the yeast to wake up. Hopefully this will work!

Boerderij_Kabouter · 08-27-2008, 01:52 AM

So today is day two!

When I woke up this morning I had about a 1/8" yeast layer, which seems a good sign to me, but I am not sure.

When I got home from work tonight, I sanitized an additional two Schneider weisses and prepared another two cups of wort. This time I used 2 oz. of pale DME for 2 cups water.

Here is the new volume:

I am constantly aerating this one with my air stone.

As a side note, check out how well Fermcap-S works!!!!

Before fermcap about 5 seconds away from a big, big mess:

Within 2 minutes, Fermcap has the situation under control and bubbling away happily:

I love this stuff!!!!

I will keep you updated int he coming days. My plan is to leave the air stone in for 48 hours (Thursday night) then chill in the fridge overnight. On Friday morning, decant beer off top of yeast cake (hopefully) and pitch to a 1.75 qt. yeast starter. Then hopefully this will be all set for my brewday Sunday.

Comments?

**niquejim** · 08-27-2008, 11:25 AM

looking good