Sierra Nevada PA: can you *really* re-culture?

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cweston

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I was thinking it might be fun to try to culture chico yeast from a bottle SNPA.

Yeah, I know you can buy that strain from White Labs or Wyeast, but for about the same $ you can get a sixer of SNPA and try to get the yeasties from that.

But I checked out some bottles at the store yesterday: it sure doesn't look like a bottle-conditioned beer with live yeast in it. I looked at several bottles and not one had a trace of visible sediment in the bottom.

Anyone done this? Or is it a homebrewing urban myth?
 
I've found hazelnut-sized globs of yeast in a few SNPA bottles before, so I know they are out there. However, ost of the bottles have little to no sediment in them.

One thing you might want to check on is whether they use a different kind of yeast for bottle conditioning than they do for primary fermentation. If it's a different strain added to the bottles, you might get a very different tasting beer if you primary ferment with it.

-walker
 
Walker said:
One thing you might want to check on is whether they use a different kind of yeast for bottle conditioning than they do for primary fermentation. If it's a different strain added to the bottles, you might get a very different tasting beer if you primary ferment with it.

According to this site (http://www.nada.kth.se/~alun/Beer/Bottle-Yeasts/), it is the primnary strain, and people have had success reculturing it. It just seems like there ought to be some visible evidence of live yeast in the bottle, but I guess the larger particles are all filtered out and the yeast cells in suspension are too small for the naked eye.

Maybe the bottles I examined recently traveled and are very well mixed.
 
Why bother with culturing when essentially the WLP001, Wyeast 1056 and Safale-56 is virtually the same strain?

If you are worried about cost, a package of safale-56 is less than 2 bucks. Buy 2 of those and you have a mess-load of yeast cells to pitch.

I use the dry packets all the time. Wonderful in case of a stuck ferment or if you get the urge to brew and didn't make a starter or you don't have any other yeast. You can brew almost anything with that strain.
 
Dude said:
Why bother with culturing when essentially the WLP001, Wyeast 1056 and Safale-56 is virtually the same strain?

If you are worried about cost, a package of safale-56 is less than 2 bucks. Buy 2 of those and you have a mess-load of yeast cells to pitch.

I use the dry packets all the time. Wonderful in case of a stuck ferment or if you get the urge to brew and didn't make a starter or you don't have any other yeast. You can brew almost anything with that strain.

That's what I was about to say as well.

One other thing to keep in mind, the yeast may have been in the bottle for a long time. This means, even if there are a few cells alive, you have to work fairly sterile to keep the culture as pure as you want it. And who says that the ones that survived actually still have the fermentation characteristics that you want.

In my opinion, it's not worth the risk if you can buy WY 1056. If you are worried about the cost, reuse the yeast from the primary.

Kai
 
cweston said:
Not a cost thing really. Mostly just for giggle, for the practice, and for an excuse to buy some SNPA :)

Ah yes...experimenting is always good! I can see your point. Since I love SNPA, I have always tried to see what I can find from each bottle, and usually its hardly anything. But it would be a cool experiment if you could. I would make a 10 gallon batch, and split it using Chico from the SNPA and WLP001, and compare them.
 
try the 24 oz. bottles, they always seem to have alot of yeast in them...i would try to cultivate something more interesting though like a chimay, or an ommegang yeast like the one they had brewed for them in the moorgat brewery in belgiam...the one i picked up in the 750 ml bottle had a ton of sediment on the bottom.
 
cweston said:
Not a cost thing really. Mostly just for giggle, for the practice, and for an excuse to buy some SNPA :)

Yes, this I would see as a benefit.

When I started out cultivating yeast, I was also excited about culturing yeast from bottles. But then I learned that there might not be much benefit to it and never really tried it.

Kai
 
cweston said:
According to this site (http://www.nada.kth.se/~alun/Beer/Bottle-Yeasts/), it is the primnary strain, and people have had success reculturing it. It just seems like there ought to be some visible evidence of live yeast in the bottle, but I guess the larger particles are all filtered out and the yeast cells in suspension are too small for the naked eye.

Maybe the bottles I examined recently traveled and are very well mixed.
That's what it sounds like to me too.
Just brought a bottle of snpa(350ml) up from the celler thats been sat there for a few weeks to take a look at the sediment and yes its in there but not a lot,it looks like very small cotton wool balls and is easly disturbed.
 
Bjorn Borg said:
ti would try to cultivate something more interesting though like a chimay, or an ommegang yeast like the one they had brewed for them in the moorgat brewery in belgiam...the one i picked up in the 750 ml bottle had a ton of sediment on the bottom.

Bumping because I picked up a big bottle of both chimay red and ommegang witte tonight and noticed a respectable yeast sediment in the bottles.

I am assuming this yeast is the primary fermentation strain, but wanted to see if anyone knew off the top of their head. I'd like to harvest both of them.

-walker
 
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