Culturing yeast from a Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA bottle

Alright, I decided to try and take my first culture from a bottle last night. I have quite a bottle collection in the fridge building, and had some extra time after removing the carburetor from my motor bike, so what the hell, why not culture/develop some yeast. I chose the Sierra Nevada Torpedo because I have been told Sierra Nevada bottle conditions with fermentation yeast via this link.

I didn't follow the steps from the article exactly as follows, but there definitely seems to be some yeast development on the bottom of my flask after sitting on the stir plate for approximately 14.5 hrs.

My question is how long do I need to leave this on the stir plate because I need to get a yeast starter going to for a pumpkin ale I plan on brewing this Sunday, so I was hoping I could decant some wort from the flask and pour the remaining wort/yeast into a jar and put it in the fridge, and then start culture back up in a couple of days. Is this going to totally F things up, or is this advisable?

1000 words

So i have never done this, so take what I say with a grain of malt. A bottle conditioned beer, even for homebrew, doesn't have that many cells, let alone viable ones after time. So you would need to propagate a few times at least to get good cells, then to just be safe I would do it again. It looks like you have quite a few cells going, but I would make another starter. If you don't have a bigger starting vessel, I would decant some of the beer off. I read this article a while back, it seemed pretty complete:

http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/yeast-propagation-and-maintenance-principles-and-practices

Cell growth will stop after a day or so, so new wort is critical for more cells. Just remember to be super clean!

I am just trying this myself. The instructions you refer to are quite different than what I did also but after nearly two days on the stir plate, I do not see the yeast you do.

It looks like you are on the right track but be sure you build it up to proper pitch volume. Have you checked out Mr. Malty? That will tell you the correct amount of slurry to pitch.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

good luck and let us know how it turns out.

adc123 said:

http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/yeast-propagation-and-maintenance-principles-and-practices

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wow that is an extensive link. ...oh how do I ever escape my computer?

lschiavo said:

I am just trying this myself. The instructions you refer to are quite different than what I did also but after nearly two days on the stir plate, I do not see the yeast you do.

It looks like you are on the right track but be sure you build it up to proper pitch volume. Have you checked out Mr. Malty? That will tell you the correct amount of slurry to pitch.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

good luck and let us know how it turns out.

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I'm wondering why you would want to do this with this yeast. I was under the impression that Sierra Nevada uses 1056/S-05 which is probably the most widely available and cheapest yeast you could get. Is it really worth all the effort and costs of starters to get enough for 5 gallons of beer from a single bottle?

mosquitocontrol said:

I'm wondering why you would want to do this with this yeast. I was under the impression that Sierra Nevada uses 1056/S-05 which is probably the most widely available and cheapest yeast you could get. Is it really worth all the effort and costs of starters to get enough for 5 gallons of beer from a single bottle?

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I had no idea that 1056/S-05 was the yeast they used. I thought a company like Sierra Nevada, (BTW I like their beer a lot) would use a different strains of yeast for different styles of beer.

ipatch said:

I had no idea that 1056/S-05 was the yeast they used. I thought a company like Sierra Nevada, (BTW I like their beer a lot) would use a different strains of yeast for different styles of beer.

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I think I have heard that as well...so chalk the whole thing up to experience. I would still build it up as this is my first attempt and just want to know I can do it.

I am trying to harvest from a bottle of Bells Amber.

I think it's common practice for a brewery to mostly stick to a single strain.

I know Stone, Deschutes, and Rouge all have house yeasts.

terrencepickles said:

I think it's common practice for a brewery to mostly stick to a single strain.

I know Stone, Deschutes, and Rouge all have house yeasts.

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Indeed. But some of these are more available than others. Stone has a strain developed and maintained by White Labs. I have heard it was developed to handle 11 to 12% ABV well. They use that for everything but their Belgian stuff, of course. Rouge focuses on Pacman. SN uses 1056/S-05. And its not clear if these are also *bottling* yeasts! Fortunately, Pacman is somewhat available to the public, and 1056 is everywhere. It would be cool to get some of that stone yeast, but its probably not necessary if you are pitching the right rates.

ipatch said:

I had no idea that 1056/S-05 was the yeast they used. I thought a company like Sierra Nevada, (BTW I like their beer a lot) would use a different strains of yeast for different styles of beer.

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Well, they use a different (and tasty!) yeast for Kellerwiess, for example. When you're talking IPAs or APAs, though, I think you'll find 1056/SA-05 to be about the closest thing to an industry standard as you get in brewing.