Yeast Harvest - Bell's Amber

periwinkle1239 · 12-06-2011, 03:07 PM

So on Saturday (2.5 days ago) I drank a 6-pack of Bell's Amber (that's right

) and saved the sediment at the bottom of the bottle from each (with about 10% of beer still left). The date on the bottles was 10/15/11.

I added all of it to 1/2 cup of DME, and 2 cups of water with yeast nutrient, that was boiled and cooled. I placed a foil cap on top, but I don't have a starter plate so have been swishing it around a few times a day.

I smelled it last night, after it had been 48 hours and can't tell if any of the yeast is waking up/developing. Unfortunately it's in a brown growler so I can't actually 'see' if there are any signs of fermentation.

So I added another 1/2 cup of DME. If I don't see any signs of fermentation in the next day or so I may give up.

Do you think the bottles were too old? I know that younger is better, and may try to find a store with fresher inventory and try again.

**samc** · 12-06-2011, 03:14 PM

I think you need to give it more time.

I'd be willing to duplicate your experiment if you want to send me a six pack of some Bells.

periwinkle1239 · 12-06-2011, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by samc

I think you need to give it more time.

I'd be willing to duplicate your experiment if you want to send me a six pack of some Bells.

Ha!

Thanks, I will definitely give it a few more days at least. I'm going to be making a 2-hearted clone this weekend and was hoping to have built up the yeast from those bottles by then. But I have some washed 1056 so I could use that with a starter instead.

CnnmnSchnpps · 12-06-2011, 04:18 PM

Can you take a gravity reading?

jmf143 · 12-06-2011, 05:30 PM

Don't give up. I did the same with 3 bottles of Bell's Amber on Saturday, adding the dregs to 250ml of 1.020 wort. It didn't look like anything was happening in my flask 24 hours later - no krausen and the wort didn't seem to be any different color. I boiled up an additional 50 grams of DME in 500ml of water and added it to the flask on Sunday afternoon. This morning I turned off the stir plate and let it settle for half an hour - and saw a sizeable amount of yeast in the flask.

periwinkle1239 · 12-06-2011, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CnnmnSchnpps

Can you take a gravity reading?

Sure I could try. Since its a combo of DME (1 cup total + 4 cups water), and about 6 oz of leftover amber ale from the 6 bottles, what sort of gravity should I expect?

jmf143 · 12-06-2011, 05:33 PM

1 lb of DME in 1 gallon of water is about 1.042 - scale those numbers to your situation.

periwinkle1239 · 12-08-2011, 02:12 AM

Thought I would update my post. It's been 4 complete days and I'm showing good signs of the yeast producing, actually she started up last night after 3+ days.

So I added one more 1/2 cup of DME w/ 2 cups boiled water to see if she really takes off.

That means I've stepped her up 3 times. I'm hoping that I'll have enough yeast to brew over the weekend.

jmf143 · 12-08-2011, 12:47 PM

Your results are right in line with mine. Last night I decanted the spent wort and added 100 gms dme and 1 litre boiled water. I'm going to do this again in 2-3 days, then a final 125 gms / 1,250 ml water 3 days after that. I'm brewing next Saturday.

periwinkle1239 · 12-08-2011, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmf143

Your results are right in line with mine. Last night I decanted the spent wort and added 100 gms dme and 1 litre boiled water. I'm going to do this again in 2-3 days, then a final 125 gms / 1,250 ml water 3 days after that. I'm brewing next Saturday.

So how many times are you actually stepping it up? A total of 4 if you count the initial one? What size brew are going to use the yeast for?

I'm planning on the 2-hearted clone from NB with an OG of 1.064.