Haputanlas

Recipes 

Hey Guys,

I spent a great deal of time with a microbrewery in the last few weeks and learned quite a few interesting tidbits. The most interesting fact I came across was that they ALWAYS re-use their yeast and never get anything new. The owner/brewer mentioned that they've been reusing the same yeast for the last 10 years without any noticeable change in characteristics or signs of mutation.

This seems to go against EVERYONE's recommended max of how many times to reuse yeast. The owner believes that the yeast distributors, of course, want to sell more yeast and to scare you into throwing away the previously used yeast.

By the way, this brewery had some of the best beer I've had in a long while. It completely inspired me to change up a few of my current house brews. I just wanted to point out that this wasn't crappy beer.

Any thoughts on this?

__________________
"There is no strong beer, only weak men"
"Pretty women make us BUY beer, ugly women make us DRINK beer" - Al Bundy
"Give a man a beer, he'll drink for a day. Teach a man to brew, he'll be drunk for the rest of his life."

Primary: Hoppy Wheat, Porter
Kegged: Reaper's English Mild (OO), BBK Jr., Lagunitas IPA, Fireman's #4
Bottled: None
Notable Empties: Oaked Black IIPA, BBK I, Red IIPA, Burning Bush, Apophis "The Destroyer", Vanilla Porter
On-Deck: The Titan BW, Ale of Olympus

phuzle

Recipes 

A lot of breweries have their own yeast strain and don't need a yeast bank to help them. I'd bet that its easier to avoid contamination on a larger scale, too. I think as long as your yeast are healthy and not getting contaminated, you should be able to re-use the yeast for a very long time.

MalFet

Recipes 

Mutation isn't really a risk, but genetic drift and contamination certainly are. Under proper harvesting conditions and great sanitation, one can harvest indefinitely. Chris White has said so much many times. That said, with poor handling, yeast can change characteristics in as few as five to ten generations. Good on this brewery for having what sounds to be a very clean system. I'm not surprised that they get great results, but I'm not sure it's fair to say that the yeast distributors are trying to scare people.

__________________
"Be excellent to each other." -Benjamin Franklin

Haputanlas

Recipes 

What's the difference between mutation and genetic drift? Sounds the same to me

__________________
"There is no strong beer, only weak men"
"Pretty women make us BUY beer, ugly women make us DRINK beer" - Al Bundy
"Give a man a beer, he'll drink for a day. Teach a man to brew, he'll be drunk for the rest of his life."

Primary: Hoppy Wheat, Porter
Kegged: Reaper's English Mild (OO), BBK Jr., Lagunitas IPA, Fireman's #4
Bottled: None
Notable Empties: Oaked Black IIPA, BBK I, Red IIPA, Burning Bush, Apophis "The Destroyer", Vanilla Porter
On-Deck: The Titan BW, Ale of Olympus

itsme6582

Recipes 

Well. Kinda the same and kinda not the same. Generally, a mutation is a big step at once while genetic drift would be smaller steps over time.

I think the OP brings up a very interesting point. Reusing the same yeast over and over again would sort of create a house strain. The yeast would change from what you originally start with. Over time I think it would adapt to your techniques and would settle down to a final version. Of course, it could change again. There is no guarantee that you will like what your yeast changes to either.

lumpher

Recipes 

there are a few breweries that have been using the same yeast for a century or more

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/budvar-now-using-same-yeast-to-make-beer-for-over-a-century

__________________
Taps:
1: Belma Blonde
2: Toasted Pale Ale
3: Belma Pale Ale

Kegged:
Fermenting: Belgian Saison, Berry wine

In the fermentation chamber:

Fermenting: Toasted IPA

TANSTAAFB

Recipes 

Which brewery? Local Texas guys? Are they acid washing to eliminate contaminants or just repitching brew after brew? I am just not that confident in my ability to keep wild yeasties and bugs outta my brew/ yeast. I will reuse for 5-8 generations with an ale yeast, but 150...brave souls

__________________
Bottled: Yankee Killer CDA, Saison de Santiago, Brett SdS, Apfelwein
Primary: Apfelwein, St. Paul Porter, Colorado Cream Ale, Saccharomyces' Belgian Pale Ale, 1gal BPA pitched w/ dregs from Russian River Consecration and 1 w/ Supplication
Secondary: Rarely!!!
Future: The Wookiee and the Ewok, Fender Bender Amber

lumpher

Recipes 

me either. i use fresh yeast every time, as i don't want to bother with washing/storing/etc the stuff

__________________
Taps:
1: Belma Blonde
2: Toasted Pale Ale
3: Belma Pale Ale

Kegged:
Fermenting: Belgian Saison, Berry wine

In the fermentation chamber:

Fermenting: Toasted IPA

motobrewer

Recipes 

mutation is growing a 3rd arm. genetic drift is monkeys to humans.


(note, i dont wanna be blasted by anthropologists. i was just making generalizations.)

__________________
"srsly, not intended to threadjack (big hairy)"

mrduna01

Recipes 

One brewery that does this is Anchor. They have used the same yeast for countless years.