Attempting to cultivate from bottle w/ pics

I had a 12 ounce bottle of Rogue Mocha Porter and I figured I would try and get some yeast out of it. I know most people try it with Shakespear bombers but this is what I had and I wanted to try something new. I hope this is working and isn't a complete waste of time!

Here's what I started with. I don't have a stir plate or flask, so I'm just going to use a mason jar.


After three days this is what I ended up with on the bottom. I'm going to add some more wort to it and see what happens. I hope that crap is actually yeast. Do you get trub from this amount of wort? I boiled it for about 20 minutes then cooled and added the last bits of the mocha porter.
I had to add in a shot of my double bastard ale in my favorite glass!

Here's a closer shot of the stuff on the bottom.


Time to measure out some more DME.


Comments, tips and critiques are appreciated!

looks like yeast to me, nice job!

I agree with killian. You have yeast!

I added more wort this morning and tonight I have even more sediment at the bottom! I'm excited about getting some pacman for free. Hopefully I can build this up enough by Tuesday for my next brew. I'll post some more pics of the harvested yeast tomorrow. Thanks for the reassurance guys.

I bought several bottles or Rogue beer while in Portland, over Christmas. I have the mocha porter left, and didn't even realize the others even had yeast. So after reading this thread I looked at the bottle and I was thrilled to see a small layer of yesat sediment on the bottom. SWEET !!!! I have looked at brewing a dead guy or doubel dead guy ale. Now that I have some yeast, I will have to get some wort ready and start the propogation process.

I had done some searching online but never found anyone that was able to propagate yeast from mocha porter. I saw the most popular were the shakespear stout, brutal bitter, and many people trying dead guy as well. I really didn't expect to get any yeast out of one 12 ounce bottle of mocha porter, especially without a stirplate. I'm sure glad I tried though!

I doubled the wort quantity to 2 cups and this is how it looks this morning. They are still multiplying. I'll up the the starter to 4 cups tomorrow and hopefully get a pitchable starter by next week.

Here's a picture of the sediment this morning.

It's like printing your own money!

Bombo80 said:

I bought several bottles or Rogue beer while in Portland, over Christmas. I have the mocha porter left, and didn't even realize the others even had yeast. So after reading this thread I looked at the bottle and I was thrilled to see a small layer of yesat sediment on the bottom. SWEET !!!! I have looked at brewing a dead guy or doubel dead guy ale. Now that I have some yeast, I will have to get some wort ready and start the propogation process.

Click to expand...

You can go here for the Dead Guy clone recipe:

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/530


RCM - You should give the jar a good shaking/swirling every time you look at it... Helps get some oxygen to the yeasties... It's no stir plate, but it's the next best thing!

That's great. Nice job!!!

Update:

I again doubled the amount of wort up to 4 cups and let it ferment for another two days. After that I added it to a larger container with 4 more cups of wort. I waited a few more days and I think I'm pretty much done.

I mixed up the solution and dumped it between three mason jars. I refrigerated the jars for awhile to let the yeast settle out.

Here it is right after splitting the solution between the jars.


And after a few hours in the refrigerator. The yeast is nice and white, looks pretty healthy to me.


Here is a closer shot of the settled yeast. This jar was the last one I poured, so it had a lot more yeast in it.


I'm going to let more yeast settle out and decant the beer off the top. Then I'll do a mini wash by dumping some boiled/cooled water into each jar. I'll mix it all up and combine into one jar and save it for my next brew day. I probably won't get to use it for another two weeks, but I am really excited.

It's like you're drinking for free!