Ommegang Harvested

The other day I had a bottle of Ommegang Abbey Ale. I saw some "yeast" in the bottom of the bottle, so I decided to harvest it. Its been 6 days and it's really taken off. I've stepped it up once and thought about stepping it up once more. I posted a pic in the thread "A Starter is a beautiful thing" thread and a comment saying that they use different yeast to bottle with. I'm not fairly certain that I have the Ommegang strain anyways. Just thought I would ask to see if this is true or not. I was going to do a small batch of beer to see what happens. I've never harvested from a bottle before so I just thought I would try.

If anybody has done this with Ommegang please let me know what's up.

Cheers.

Here is a good list of commercial beers that have been successfully harvested. Ommegang is on the list.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/commercial-beer-yeast-harvest-list-262713/

I just did the very same thing with a bottle of Hennepin.

Started with 1.020 100ml in the bottle, and stepped it up gradually.

Now it's in 1 litre of 1.040 lightly hopped wort firing away.
I think it's equiv. to White Labs 410. So maybe a Belgian Wit?

Does Ommegang do the same as their parent company and add yeast at bottling?

they do add yeast but it is yeast that has been top-cropped from their open fermentor. same yeast. i emailed them a while back about it and got a reply from the brewmaster (Phil)

If you have any questions tho you can always email the breweries! I think they feel honored when people try to harvest their yeast

They use a proprietary strain that is not available to home brewers, unless you harvest it yourself. Yes, they do add yeast at bottling, but it's the same strain they ferment with. Ive used some from a bottle of hennepin for a saison, and it came out great. Def had some spicyness to it.

Any way to check the viability or vitality? I have a new heated stir plate and really want to try and start harvesting more yeast, I was going to go and buy about 4-5 single one gallon jugs and set them up with different strains harvested from different corked bottles and test them with the same wort to check there ability to convert.

That's awesome. Thanks for all the info. I'm going to brew with this yeast then. It was a slow start but now its a bit warmer and its still fermenting like a beast. I think placervillebrew is onto something. I dont have the capacity to do that yet. Good luck.
Cheers

@placervillebrew that sounds like a good idea i may have to do that to. If it works out u get a good amount of viable yeast for a 5 gal batch and some beer to try.

I just brewed with the ommegang yeast and WOW. I tried it last night and it was down from 1.070 to 1.025 in 5 days with the first 2 days i roused the yeast but it tasted AMAZING!!! It had a bready/yeasty, banana, clove, fruitiness to it. I am a bit worried about how long its taking to get through the sugars. From what i hear about belgian yeast they just devour sugars. Since it smells and tastes amazing i am not too worried just curious. Also my fermentation temp is around 75 which seams like its on the low end.

I just brewed 10 gallons of wit with the dregs of there white. Stepped up the starter a few times and it went nuts in the fermenters!

I tried to do a hennepin clone with their yeast and it took the beer from 1.072 to 1.004. I pitched at 65 and let it free rise till it peaked at 85. Unfortunately all I can taste at this point is orange zest since I used way too much. Maybe it will mellow eventually and I'll actually be able to taste what the yeast contributed.

This makes me sad... I was harvesting some Ommegang a couple weeks ago and grabbed the wrong jar of water (I had a one with boiled cooled wter and one that was full of dirty dish water, same jars) and poured it into the harvested yeast.

So very, very dumb. Guess I will just need to buy another and try again!

I have 750ml bottles of Art of Darkness, Three Philosophers, and Iron Throne. If I were to harvest the yeast should I keep them separated? Just wondering if it's the same yeast or if there some differences that would make others want to keep these on their own.

I would love to do an AOD clone, but I think it's a little out of my league at this point.

Same yeast is used in all of them! But speaking with the brewmaster there one time, he suggested really starting with their Wit to hold up, as the yeast would have been subjected to less stress versus their other offerings, so less chance of mutation/poor yeast health.

I had heard they used the same in all the bottles, just wasn't sure if any more experienced brewers would see a reason to keep them seperated if a perso nwas planning to make a clone or very similar style of beer that you were getting the yeast from.

Gives me a reason to pick up some Wit

how long in total did it take for our starter to take off? I've had one running for 48 hours and i have yet to see any yeast cake when crashing it...

It was in the 48 hour area before I saw anything. Only saw maybe an 1/8in of krausen. I don't have a stir plate so they may speed it up. But, I think this strain is just slow to start.

Also plan some extra conditioning time. The two times I've used the hydro's had a very green taste to them, and even after 3 weeks in the bottle for a blonde and a pale wheat they were green. I would plan at least 6 weeks - 2 months in the bottle.

I'm noticing that the yeast that is coming from my starter doesn't have the same cream tone to it that i am used to when harvesting from dregs. The yeast is almost the same color as the wort.

Should i be concerned, o is this normal for yeast form Ommegang?

What did you harvest from? The yeast in my starter was pretty close to the color of the trub. I just used light DME to build the starter. There was a color difference bit they were close in color.

I harvested from a 750ml of Iron Throne, darker than their Witte but farm from a "dark beer."

The smell of the wort in my starter was different than other Belgians strains I've done starters of. The taste was more clove like than others too. Just a couple things you might notice.

I highly doubt there's anything wrong in yours.

Omms Abby ale, which was pretty darn dark..... Even the maybe 200 ml I used tinted the nealy 2L wort amber.

You should be able to purchase this strain soon...

Yea the little bit of beer from the bottle when pouring the yeast out will darken the wort. This will make the yeast darker, much like when you wash from a porter or stout.

tagz said:

You should be able to purchase this strain soon...

Click to expand...

Where is this info coming from? My understanding is that this is house grown so how is the strain going to be available? Much like Unibroue's, wyeast released what was supposed to be their strain but many said it couldn't be the same since it was made "in-house."

They may be referring to http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/

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bolus14 said:

Where is this info coming from? My understanding is that this is house grown so how is the strain going to be available? Much like Unibroue's, wyeast released what was supposed to be their strain but many said it couldn't be the same since it was made "in-house."

Click to expand...

The yeast lab can just culture it up from dregs like you all are doing. And, yeast bay was the reference. I'm super excited about their line-up.