Commercial Beer Yeast Harvest List

I harvested some yeast from Sam Adams Oktoberfest a few months ago. Some folks on here said the filtered there beers but the couple 6 packs I bought had sediment so I tossed it in a small starter and built it up. I found another couple 6 packs at a store in the city last week and they had sediment as well.

I'm planning to do a side by side double 1 gallon batch to try the harvested yeast against a marzen see how it turns out.

I harvested from a bottle of Caledonian's Golden Promise a little while ago. Have not tried the yeast in a batch yet.

Great thread, this info needs to be in the wiki

highgravitybacon said:

Boulevard beers: NOT possible to harvest yeast. They use a different yeast for bottle conditioning. One of their employees did a nhc presentation and I believe said they use safbrew S-33 for conditioning.

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Not entirely true. I'm pretty sure the Love Child beers have Brett and bugs in the bottle.

This is an awesome post! I'm about to brew a Nut Brown ale...does anyone know of a good brew I can harvest from for this? I was hoping Sam Adam's Hazel Brown or Sam Smith's Nut Brown might be good candidates....

(Sorry if this has already been discussed...there are lots of pages to read through)

I didn't harvest it, but the Green Flash West Coast IPAs I had last weekend had a nice layer of sediment at the bottom - it actually looked like a nice white yeast cake from a fermenter, which I thought was odd.

Next time I brew a red ale, I'll have to see if their Hop Head Red has the same sediment.

I've harvested from Southern Tier's LIVE & have a clone fermenting now!

I can personally confirm successfully growing viable cultures from:

Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus
Tilquin Gueuze
Russian River Beatification
Crooked Stave Surrette

http://www.thepourreport.com/culture-tasting/

Don't know if it's been mentioned but i just harvested a 4 pack of Green Flash Rayon Vert.

So I'm trying to harvest from a Bell's Two Hearted for my clone and it's been sitting there for 5 days with no indication that anything happened. At day 3 the SG hadn't dropped so I shook it vigorously. I had it sitting at 75F the whole time. I was almost ready to start a thread on here and was figuring I would just move onto the next step just to see if anything would happen and I look and I see tiny bubbles coming from the bottom :up:

Can't wait to get my clone going with this stuff!

I went to Rogue Brewery last week an I was chatting with one of the brewers. They don't filter or pasteurize at all, and there is no bottling yeast so any variety of theirs should work. However, they recently installed a centrifuge to separate the beer from the yeast and increase batch efficiency. A side effect is clearer beer without a visible yeast deposit (and of course a lower yeast count). For a while you should still be able to find pre-centrifuge bottles with a visible yeast deposit. If you want one, I recommend getting on that.

While I was there, I found a bottle of Beard Beer with a nice deposit. It is brewed using yeast originally harvested and cultured by white labs from a hair plucked from John Maier's beard. It's got great Belgian feel to it. I made my starter for that one tonight. I'll let you know in a couple months how the beer turns out.

Add Funkwerks to the list. Their owner told me they don't filter or use alternative strains for bottling. The yeast in the bottle is the same used for primary fermentation.

Question about harvesting from a beer that has a saison strain as well as Lacto & Pedio. When you harvest using this, will you get all 3 (in various concentrations)? Or will the stronger of the 3 take over? Would you be able to brew after, you step it up a few times, with something like this? I know some beers wait to put lacto/pedio/brett into secondary so obviously if you brewed with this it would be in primary, which may not be a bad thing, just don't know how it would turn out. Thanks!

A quick Google search reveals pretty convincing sites that could "confirm" that Ommegang is harvestable. What criteria make something on the list confirmed?

CptnRedbeard said:

I went to Rogue Brewery last week an I was chatting with one of the brewers. They don't filter or pasteurize at all, and there is no bottling yeast so any variety of theirs should work. However, they recently installed a centrifuge to separate the beer from the yeast and increase batch efficiency. A side effect is clearer beer without a visible yeast deposit (and of course a lower yeast count). For a while you should still be able to find pre-centrifuge bottles with a visible yeast deposit. If you want one, I recommend getting on that.

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Unless you're looking for the beard yeast, just buying Rogue Pacman is easier (tho obviously less fun):

http://morebeer.com/products/yeast-liquid-wyeast-pacman-1764.html

This thread is great. I just started harvesting yeast. Found some from Bear Republic Racer 5. Anyone know what kind of yeast it is? Also noticed their red rocket ale uses Irish ale yeast I think? Anyone know any info on this?

I haven't seen yeast in the bottom of two hearted for years, I think they filter it now. Oberon and amber still have it, so does the k-zoo stout.

Someone at my home brew club meeting said something similar to that, but somehow I was able to get some yeast from a bottle of Bell's Two Hearted in Oct 2013. Somehow I was able to get fermentation in all the steps from the dregs of the bottle and in the clone I made from it.

So I found this on the Bell's website:

since we don’t filter any of our ales either, you can harvest it directly from the bottle.

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They don't specifically mention Two Hearted (probably because of the higher alcohol content making it not as good of choice as their lower alcohol beers for harvesting). But at least they gives me hope that what I have is their house primary fermentation yeast and not a bottling yeast.

That's odd, some of their beers have sediment always and some never do.

Just drank a Southern Star Pine Belt pale ale. Lots of yeast in the bottom of it. Looked up the web site and said they use California ale.

I successfully harvested from Sierra Nevada Celebration. I'm not certain though, that it's not just conditioning yeast.

I have a prarie puncheon I want to harvest the yeast from. I know they use several types. Not sure what they use to bottle this one. Im hoping its brett and not Champaign yeast. Any ideas?

Sent from richard simmons' living room

tripplehazzard said:

I have a prarie puncheon I want to harvest the yeast from. I know they use several types. Not sure what they use to bottle this one. Im hoping its brett and not Champaign yeast. Any ideas?

Sent from richard simmons' living room

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I don't know for sure, but I would be very surprised if they filtered and re-pitched. Also, I believe this one has more than just brett in it.

I've talked to chase and they bottle with a wine yeast so when you pitch you are pitching usually 3-5 different yeasts/bugs


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Craigmn said:

I've talked to chase and they bottle with a wine yeast so when you pitch you are pitching usually 3-5 different yeasts/bugs


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Im sure it would ferment a beer... but what would be the dominant character there. Is it something you would even try?


Sent from richard simmons' living room

I probably wouldn't. I believe his word were "we use a blend of yeasts and bottle with wine yeast so you might not get the character you want". But you never know without trying, maybe do a 1 gal batch


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I probably wouldn't. I believe his word were "we use a blend of yeasts and bottle with wine yeast so you might not get the character you want". But you never know without trying, maybe do a 1 gal batch


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Add Jester King to the list. They don't filter. Just built up a nice pitch in 3 steps.

i'd be curious to know how much of a pure strain you can actually get from bottles. your starting with very weak possibly mutated strain of yeast in a very small amount. you then have to grow it and hope it's not growing a wild yeast along side it.

tgmartin000 said:

Add Jester King to the list. They don't filter. Just built up a nice pitch in 3 steps.

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Any idea what you grew? I have 3 bottles from them and I'd like to get some of their bugs. Specifically, if like to get their "farmhouse" yeast but I have a boxers revenge, commercial suicide and atrial rubicite and those have more fun bugs in them. According to their website, those three all have "Farmhouse Yeast, Wild Yeast from the Texas Hill Country, Brettanomyces Yeast, Souring Bacteria" in them. Curious which one you harvested and what you got and what the best way to harvest them all (no stir plate I imagine).

JoppaFarms said:

Any idea what you grew? I have 3 bottles from them and I'd like to get some of their bugs. Specifically, if like to get their "farmhouse" yeast but I have a boxers revenge, commercial suicide and atrial rubicite and those have more fun bugs in them. According to their website, those three all have "Farmhouse Yeast, Wild Yeast from the Texas Hill Country, Brettanomyces Yeast, Souring Bacteria" in them. Curious which one you harvested and what you got and what the best way to harvest them all (no stir plate I imagine).

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I harvested from 2 bottles of Noble King and 1 bottle of Wytchmaker. I'm trying to make a Noble King clone. I emailed the brewery with some questions, and according to them, they use the same blend of yeast/bacteria for every beer they brew.

From what I understand, they used to use 3711, but as of last year they use a blend of wild yeast "from the Texas hill country". I'm assuming there is wild yeast, 3711, and maybe some lacto in there as well? Either way, they told me they use the same blend for every beer. They also gave me the recipe for Noble King!

In hindsight, I wish I would have left out the Wytchmaker dregs - the Wytchmaker came across more "bretty" than the Noble King, which is more sour. I tasted the starters, too, and the second step was very belgian-y (tasted fantastic), and the third step had more of a brett character to it.

I'll keep ya'll posted on it, though. I can tell you the bottles I harvested from were about 2 months old, and the yeast was very active. I poured the dregs from 3 bottles into a 500 mL starter (1.030 OG), then stepped that up to a 1 L, and then 1.5 L, all on a stir plate. I added O2 and yeast nutrient at every step. When I pitched the culture, I had very active fermentation within 6 hours (yeast nutrient and 90 secs O2 in the fermentor). I had a massive starter (I'd estimate like 400 bn cells) after the third step. I also harvested some from the starter which I'd be willing to trade for some lacto brevis or ECY Berlinner if anyone is interested.

You used the stir plate, but isn't O2 bad for Lacto? I plan on harvesting from my Commercial Suicide. Thanks for the info on your starter. Care to PM me the Noble King recipe? I'd LOVE to brew a clone if I could.

JoppaFarms said:

You used the stir plate, but isn't O2 bad for Lacto? I plan on harvesting from my Commercial Suicide. Thanks for the info on your starter. Care to PM me the Noble King recipe? I'd LOVE to brew a clone if I could.

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I believe that O2 is bad for lacto, but this is my first attempt at bottle harvesting and a sour beer, so I don't really know what I'm doing here. Going by the seat of my pants! I know they do aerate their wort, though.

Here's the recipe:

1.046/1.004 37 IBU
Mash 154:

46% Weyermann Pilsner malt
38% great western 2-row
12% wheat
4% caramunich II

for 30 barrels, they add:

7.6 lb Perle 60 min
1.3 lb fuggle 10 min
5.9 lb goldigs 10 min
4.3 lb fuggle whirlpool
12 lb goldings whirlpool
dry hop: 14 lb golding, 6 lb fuggle

mojo2008 said:

I successfully harvested from Sierra Nevada Celebration. I'm not certain though, that it's not just conditioning yeast.

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I received confirmation today that their bottle conditioning and fermenting yeast is one and the same. They use their "Chico" strain for most of their beers. According to the inquiry reply I received, "It is the most copied yeast profile on the planet these days, so if you get it right, it will serve you well!"

Please add Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale to the list!

did a quick read so as not to repeat info...i have harvested yeast and/or bugs from the following:evil twin falco ipa...the bruery sour in the rye and tart of darkness...stillwater artisan stateside saison...ommegang scythe & sickle...any jolly pumpkin...anchorage brewing bitter monk and anadromous...and rouge yellow snow ipa.
these are the ones i can remember now...i'll go through my notes and see if theres anymore

I came across this thread about a month ago when I decided I wanted to try and culture from bottles. Hats off to thread starter, it's a great idea.

So I have made 4 attempts, 3 of which have been successful. My unsuccessful attempt was with Hopf Heffe-weizen. There wad definitely a lot of yeast sediment in the bottle but I guess they maybe pasturise or the bottle had been badly handled.

My successes have been with Brasserie Dupont's Saison Dupont, Odell's IPA and Dog Fish Head's My Antonia.

Not sure if this thread is being updated but thought it still worth sharing.

Cheers 🍻

Just a quick addition to the above post, My Antonia is obviously a lager but i'm not sure that the yeast in the bottle is that of the fermentation strain. Hope it is a lager strain though!

I harvested one of the Otter Creek varieties a while back, just to see if the year were good. It took a few days, and a couple of steps but the yeast was definitely viable.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but Jester King is a definite go. Harvested some dregs from about 2-3 bottles, and that stuff took off like a rocket on my stir plate. Soured the hell outta some beers in like a month.