Yeast Harvest - Bell's Amber
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sure does!i fermented my IPA like i would with any other american yeast, i started it off around 62 and let it slowly rise up during ferment, it got itself up to around 65 and stayed there. i currently have it sitting at 66-67 one an once of cascades. i'll be bottling two gals on tuesday, the other three will get a second round of dry hops for a week.
This krausen seems to stick around a lot longer than 1056. I'm at 6 days and still cooking. The krausen is so white compared to 1056 too. I'm letting it warm a bit now.
yeah, mine stuck there for a few extra days too. now that i have a couple gals in secondary, it's dropped completely bright. are you familiar with Wy1272? it acts like this, the krausen of 1272 seems to puff a little at the end of fermentation, then sticks around for a few extra days. it's also real stubborn to flocc, IME. the only difference is the krausen from the Bell's yeast seemed to be real doughy, whereas 1272 gets fluffy and pillow-y. from the tastes i got at bottling my first couple gals, it was hard to tell what kinda fermentation flavors were going on, though. we'll have to wait and see.
yeah, mine stuck there for a few extra days too. now that i have a couple gals in secondary, it's dropped completely bright. are you familiar with Wy1272? it acts like this, the krausen of 1272 seems to puff a little at the end of fermentation, then sticks around for a few extra days. it's also real stubborn to flocc, IME. the only difference is the krausen from the Bell's yeast seemed to be real doughy, whereas 1272 gets fluffy and pillow-y. from the tastes i got at bottling my first couple gals, it was hard to tell what kinda fermentation flavors were going on, though. we'll have to wait and see.
I can't wait. I just harvested and froze my first batch of yeast (2nd generation 1056). I am excited to freeze my Bell's yeast too. I've got a friend (in Michigan of all places) that I'm gonna send a tube to. Payment for advice as I started to do all-grain!
I preformed the same thing 2 weeks ago with Bells Amber. It didnt work.
Last weekend I harvested PacMan from Rogues Shakespeare Stout and figured out that my big mistake with the Bells was that I used way too much DME to start out with.
With PacMan I used a 2 cup starter with one Tablespoon of DME to start with. Then I moved up to a full quart with 2 1/2 Tablespoons, then moved to 4 tablespoons, and finally to a full quart with 5 tablespoons.
Pitched that starter today into a 1.050 American Amber Ale.
Last weekend I harvested PacMan from Rogues Shakespeare Stout and figured out that my big mistake with the Bells was that I used way too much DME to start out with.
With PacMan I used a 2 cup starter with one Tablespoon of DME to start with. Then I moved up to a full quart with 2 1/2 Tablespoons, then moved to 4 tablespoons, and finally to a full quart with 5 tablespoons.
Pitched that starter today into a 1.050 American Amber Ale.
yeah, you gotta step 'em up real slow, man. i started in a really small, 250ml starter, 1.02. then built up from there. it worked great, 2/5ths if the batch of IPA i brewed is in bottles, the other 3/5ths are dry hopping, again. i got a real nice ferment out of the yeast.
i'm gonna have to pick your brain about that one day soon, man. i wanna make sure i have the right idea before i go freezing my yeast. it sure would be convenient, though.
Word, my bells attempt showed nothing but that real brown colored yeast that tells me that most of our buddies are dead or on their way out. Though I wish I had waited a few more days before I tossed the whole plan out.
The pacman roared like thunder! I stepped up a total number of 4 times before pitching and feel like I could have pitched after the 3rd time stepping up. I got curious this afternoon before pitching and had damn near a quarter inch of healthy khaki colored yeast going on.
if i remember correctly, it took a couple days for that first starter to start showing signs of activity. after that, every subsequent step up took off like a rocket. i do remember having a bit of doubt with the first stage of the starter, though.
Just pulled the fermenter out of the swamp cooler tub for the first time. Look at that yeast cake!! That's a 6.5 gallon carboy. I think I'm gonna have a good harvest.
nice, man. i had a giant cake too when i racked out of primary. the 3 gal i have in secondary has finally started to drop bright. :rockin: bottling that up on tuesday.
Down to 1.009 from 1.054! Sample tastes good even after only about a week in primary. A few byproducts for them to clean up, but damn those centennial hops are tasty.
:rockin: awesome. i think it was like day 7 or 8 when i took the first FG reading. 1.012 from 1.066 (i think, i'll have to check my notes). aside from the yeast still up in suspension, the beer tasted great. i'm gonna bottle the few gallons i dry hopped twice either today or tomorrow, maybe that'll help keep my paws off the first couple gallons i bottled!
i'll be putting up that blog on harvesting later today after i put together the starter. i wanna wait til i have some pics to include to show the process.
solbes
Well-Known Member
I love this yeast so much I decided to devote my next 3 brews to it: Irish Red Ale, Porter, and Russian Imperial Stout. Being somewhat lazy, I will only have to make one small starter for the ~ 1.045 Irish Red. And then just wash and repitch slurries. The Stout is planned to be ~ 1.10 OG, so it will get a lot of slurry.
And I will be freezing a portion of the starter, so I will have lots of future generations to work from.
And I will be freezing a portion of the starter, so I will have lots of future generations to work from.
periwinkle1239
Well-Known Member
My 2-hearted (right) vs. Bell's (left). Mine used the harvested yeast. Very hard to tell the difference, although I can.
View attachment 47741
My 2-hearted (right) vs. Bell's (left). Mine used the harvested yeast. Very hard to tell the difference, although I can.
veddy nice, veddy veddy nice.
the few gallons i racked to secondary did the same thing, dropped bright within a couple days and was very clear at bottling after a weeks in secondary.
i decided to try one of the bottles of the 2 gal i didn't rack to secondary. it conditioned for 2 weeks and was in the fridge for 3+ days. still a bit green, but man, is it coming along nicely. i think i'm quickly becoming a fan of this yeast.
I was surprised since a lot of the threads I read about this yeast talked about it not floccing well until cold crash, but this flocced better than 1056 for me.
it didn't want to drop out for me until i racked it. after racking it flocced fairly fast.
Same here.
solbes
Well-Known Member
Maybe that was my issue then. I tried a 3 week primary & cold crash prior to bottling. I just try to avoid secondaries most of the time now.
I was planning on dry hopping in the primary, but I wanted to wash/harvest this yeast since it was my first shot at it. It really made an amazing difference after racking.
Cracked the first couple tonight. This yeast is WAY fruitier than 1056. It's hard to directly compare since I used Falconer's Flight on my last 1056 IPA and Centennial on this batch, but it is delicious. More complex than 1056 for sure. Me gusta.
dude, we must be on the same schedule with these beers!
we cracked a couple last night, man were they good! and i agree, noticeable fruitier that 1056/05, very similar to 1272, IMO. the beer was delish, the hops really came through (i used simcoe, centennial and amarillo. cascade for dry hop), still a solid malt backbone, but nothing to overshadow the hops. very nice, i'll definitely be using this yeast again!Hi everyone,
Reposting from a different thread...
So after 8 days (with the beer between 62-68), I checked the gravity. 1.020 is where I'm at right now, and I'm getting some strong banana ester aroma. I can't tell if I should increase the temperature to let the beer (hopefully) finish the fermentation, or if I should keep it low and wait, hoping to not increase esters further.
Thanks.
Reposting from a different thread...
So after 8 days (with the beer between 62-68), I checked the gravity. 1.020 is where I'm at right now, and I'm getting some strong banana ester aroma. I can't tell if I should increase the temperature to let the beer (hopefully) finish the fermentation, or if I should keep it low and wait, hoping to not increase esters further.
Thanks.
periwinkle1239
Well-Known Member
I think you should let it come up to room temp to see if it can finish out strong. After 8 days of fermentation the flavor profile is pretty much set so I wouldn't expect you to get any more esters. Although if you stayed in the mid-60's I'm surprised to hear about them. You are basing this on aroma? Normally my beers smell so yeasty at just a week old and I can't pick up on much, but maybe your nose is better than mine.
Definitely a strong banana aroma. Freaked me out; reminded me of a Belgian Strong that I had recently brewed. It took FOREVER to get the beer down to pitching temps, but I don't believe I pitched it too high of a temperature.
I think that next time I brew with this yeast I'll keep it at 65-68.
Quick Q: if I wanted to wash this yeast, would that be a terrible idea? It's a 6.5% IPA. I wasn't sure if this long fermentation means that the yeast will be troubled/difficult to use again.
periwinkle1239
Well-Known Member
Yes you can definitely wash it, I've left beers in the primary for almost month and then washed my yeast.
Thanks. I tend to like a lot of American ale styles, so it'd be nice to have yeast around.
solbes
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking about buying some more Bells soon to start a new yeast harvest. I would use it for my upcoming APA and IPA.
Between last spring and early this summer I fermented 7 batches with yeast from 3 bottles of Best Brown (APA, two hearted IPA, Irish Red, Porter, RIS, Bitter, and APA). I really liked the yeast character (or lack thereof) in all of them. You can get light fruity taste for the APA and Two Hearted by fermenting in the upper 60's and really low esters by fermenting in the low to mid 60's (Irish Red, Porter). Also has awesome alcohol tolerance, the RIS was 12%.
Between last spring and early this summer I fermented 7 batches with yeast from 3 bottles of Best Brown (APA, two hearted IPA, Irish Red, Porter, RIS, Bitter, and APA). I really liked the yeast character (or lack thereof) in all of them. You can get light fruity taste for the APA and Two Hearted by fermenting in the upper 60's and really low esters by fermenting in the low to mid 60's (Irish Red, Porter). Also has awesome alcohol tolerance, the RIS was 12%.
