Capturing Kellerweisen

Sounds like a Harrison Ford movie, doesn't it?
Anyway, I bought some Sierra Nevada Kellerweisen, and noticed it seems to have live yeast at the bottom.
From today's brew, I kept some of the last runnings from the sparge and was going to freeze it, but then, thought what the hell, and figured I'd put that stir plate to work again.
It is going now, and lots of good looking stuff swirling around.
If it works out, I just may need to do a Hefeweisen this weekend.

I'm jealous. I hope to harvest yeast soon. Been ready on here how to, I'm just to lazy.

I turned off the stir plate and let the yeast settle for a couple of hours. I got about a half inch of nice, cream colored yeast.
Decanted the top layer of spent wort into a clean jar, just to see how much more was still suspended, cooked up another pint of DME and yeast nutrient + about five hop pellets.
Poured that into the flask, and the foam won't go away, even stirring vigorously. This stuff is really going.
I am going to step it up to a quart on Friday, and probably do an American Wheat on Sunday.

All the foam/Krausen was gone this morning. I'm thinking that I will boil up another pint of DME and pitch it into the existing liquid. Might do another decant/settle/new DME on Friday. The little pint jar with the top layer of liquid only has a thin layer of yeast on the bottom. I may keep that to make another starter from.
The batch on the stir plate looks more than enough already for a 5 gallon batch on Saturday, but it is fun to watch it go.

I use this strain all the time. It's my favorite for hefe. Although I don't know how great of an American wheat it would mak.

ClassicXJ said:

I use this strain all the time. It's my favorite for hefe. Although I don't know how great of an American wheat it would mak.

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What's your favorite recipe using Kellerwies? I am looking for a traditional wheat if you have one.

PM, extract or all-grain?

classicxj said:

pm, extract or all-grain?

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ag

I decided to hold onto the Kellerwies yeast until I do a German style wheat. I have a half inch to 3/4" of beautifuly creamy beige yeast on the bottom of the jar.
Since i had some saved Wyeast 1010, I pulled that out of the fridge last night and made a starter from it. It went nuts. About 100 ml worth of foam overflowed from the flask, but since I overfilled it a bit, I have just a little under 1L to work with on Saturday.
Yeast farming is almost as fun as brewing itself.

I always assumed the Kellerwiess was a wheat lager but either way the yeast SN uses for bottling is not the same yeast they ferment the beer with. I read somewhere they have a high floc yeast they use to bottle condition after they filter out all the original yeast.

King of Cascade said:

I always assumed the Kellerwiess was a wheat lager but either way the yeast SN uses for bottling is not the same yeast they ferment the beer with. I read somewhere they have a high floc yeast they use to bottle condition after they filter out all the original yeast.

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If so, I have some time to confirm or deny that. I'm going to use some washed 1010 for my American Wheat on Saturday.
Wouldn't it be interesting if the bottling yeast did well in a wheat beer? I know it has minimal flavor impact, but it couldn't be too far off the style, or it would impart some non-wheat flavors.

I saw this thread on morebeer.com:
http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=34357
Seems to indicate it is all Kellerweis yeast.

Starderup said:

If so, I have some time to confirm or deny that. I'm going to use some washed 1010 for my American Wheat on Saturday.
Wouldn't it be interesting if the bottling yeast did well in a wheat beer? I know it has minimal flavor impact, but it couldn't be too far off the style, or it would impart some non-wheat flavors.

I saw this thread on morebeer.com:
http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=34357
Seems to indicate it is all Kellerweis yeast.

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That's probably true for their other beers, very very doubtful of this. They shrived to be as authentic as possible in this beer. It's a hefeweizen, they dont need to add any yeast to it to condition. You also do want to filter out all the original yeast.

This is not even close to a lager. They even open ferment this beer, I've seen pictures of the krausen in "brewing with wheat"

That is incorrect info the bottling yeast. Sierra Nevada does not use the Chico yeast for Kellerweis, and someone has confirmed with SN that they bottle with the weizen yeast used to ferment this beer. See my thread on my experience culturing it.

I really enjoy the beer it makes; even more than the traditional Wyeast 3068 strain.

Here is the link: http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=76265

doctorRobert said:

That's probably true for their other beers, very very doubtful of this. They shrived to be as authentic as possible in this beer. It's a hefeweizen, they dont need to add any yeast to it to condition. You also do want to filter out all the original yeast.

This is not even close to a lager. They even open ferment this beer, I've seen pictures of the krausen in "brewing with wheat"

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Are you sure you didn't mean to type "You also do NOT want to filter out all the original yeast."?

I also saw another post on Brews Brothers that reads:


*
* Comptroller of Lame Threads
* PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip

* Group: Patron
* Posts: 12,209
* Joined: 26-March 09
* Location:Chico, CA

Posted 06 July 2009 - 11:20 PM
We use malted wheat.

single strain of heffe yeast is used.

BrewBasser
Brew Brothers thread on Kellerweis
************************************************************
Now, anyone can put Chico down as their location. I'll have to check the next time I visit my sisters and step-dad. They live in Chico.

Starderup said:

I decided to hold onto the Kellerwies yeast until I do a German style wheat. I have a half inch to 3/4" of beautifuly creamy beige yeast on the bottom of the jar.
Since i had some saved Wyeast 1010, I pulled that out of the fridge last night and made a starter from it. It went nuts. About 100 ml worth of foam overflowed from the flask, but since I overfilled it a bit, I have just a little under 1L to work with on Saturday.
Yeast farming is almost as fun as brewing itself.

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How many bottle did you use to make the starter? I know you kept stepping it up, did it start from only one bottle? I am doing a bavarian Hefe next week, was going to us wlp 300 this time, but would love to do this.
I usually swirl the bottle and pour it in the beer, but I guess I could save it.

Dave258 said:

How many bottle did you use to make the starter? I know you kept stepping it up, did it start from only one bottle? I am doing a bavarian Hefe next week, was going to us wlp 300 this time, but would love to do this.
I usually swirl the bottle and pour it in the beer, but I guess I could save it.

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Yes, one bottle only. This seems to be VERY vigorous yeast. And the beer is good enough that I had to pace myself to keep one in reserve to capture the bottom.

Starderup said:

Yes, one bottle only. This seems to be VERY vigorous yeast. And the beer is good enough that I had to pace myself to keep one in reserve to capture the bottom.

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Cool, I really like that beer. Around here a sixer of it is $9.99. Only 3 bucks more the a white labs vial of yeast, but I get to drink the beer!

Dave258 said:

Cool, I really like that beer. Around here a sixer of it is $9.99. Only 3 bucks more the a white labs vial of yeast, but I get to drink the beer!

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Couple of bucks cheaper here in Atlanta, but even at your price, worth it. When I was in Chico last year at a Safeway (food store), looking at a whole aisle of SN beers, I wanted to go up to total strangers and grab them by the shoulders and shout, "Do you know how blessed you are to live in this town???!!!"
But I didn't want to make a scene.

really got a starter going with only one bottle? wow... i'll have to try this.. hopefully i never need to buy hefe yeast again!

doctorRobert said:

really got a starter going with only one bottle? wow... i'll have to try this.. hopefully i never need to buy hefe yeast again!

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I will admit I am learning as I go, and this is only the second beer I have seen live yeast in (Bridgeport IPA being the other one) since I got my stir plate about two weeks ago. It has been kept busy.
This yeast took off rapidly, and I have a nice thick layer of yeast that should be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch.
But since my next beer is going to be an American Wheat, I put it in the fridge, and put my 1010 on deck.

This is one of my favorite Hefes. So I just thought I would share some notes I have about this Yeast strain and how SN uses it.

Here are the facts about Kellerweis
O.G: 1.052 (12.8P)
ABV: 4.8%
Apparent Degree of Attenuation: 71%
IBU: 15
Malts: Two-row pale, wheat, munich
Hops: Perle, Sterling
Yeast: Bavarian
Primary: Yeast pitched at 62F, rises to 70F, 5 days
Secondary: 30F 7 days (I know werid huh)

The mash includes one step- it is milled in at 155F then at mash full raised to 161F.

I have brewed with the yeast strain for about a year now. I have been doing extract/PM until now. I just started doing all-grain batches and hopefully an AG version of this beer wil be happening soon.

Maybe somebody can help me with this. What does "it is milled in at 155F then at mash full raised to 161F" mean exactly. Should I mash at 155F and then mash out at 161F? What does mash full mean?

Hope this info helps someone, and hopefully somebody can help me.

Just read in brewing with wheat, that sierra nevada cultured this yeast from a bottle of beer themselves!! Gutmann, a bavarian brewery, that's apparently pretty hard to find even in germany.

This is a great book by the way. I always wondered how they keg hefeweizens, and how that would affect flavor. A lot of breweries ship their kegs upside down, so that when their tapped, the yeast has to be roused! They also tell their customers to rouse the kegs but I doubt that happens often in america.

Very interesting info. Thanks for the post, doc.

I finally brewed today using this yeast. The starter was doing some amazing stuff just after I turned off the stir plate. I took a short video of it, and it is grainy and dark, but you can see it erupting off the bottom and sending plumes of yeast and C02 to the top. It is the most active yeast I have seen in a long time.
Mt. St. Kellerweis

I got a proxy error with the video link

The embed stuff doesn't help.

I don't know how else to get you to the video, except if you search for pics by jhenager1. Anyway, the batch is bubbling away now, and I'm hoping that it will turn out as good as my other batches.

Thought I would update on my experience with this yeast. I have heard that most hefe strains exhibit poor storageability/viability -- thus why it took so long to get a dry version, and that one is iffy at best IMO... Apparently that does not apply to this strain.

I last brewed a hefe with it in October 2009. Before pitching yeast, I normally fill a mason jar 80% with spent starter beer from the flask, dump the rest of the starter beer, and fill the remaining mason jar space with ~100 ml yeast slurry.

So I decided Tuesday night it was time to wake it up. Pitched the 10 month old slurry from that little jar into 500 ml 1.030 wort, and after 36 hours on the stirplate it had awoken and fermented out. Tasted unmistakably of kellerweis, no off flavors. Very pleased.

sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but... I have stepped up some kellerweis yeast to a 2 L starter. Threw it in the fridge and tonight got around to washing it for storage and want to step up one of the 4 containers I harvested. My only concern is that I tested the spent starter wort and it was fairly tart. There was definite banana and clove, but a bit of a citrusy tart. What flavors can you remember from the starter? I was thinking of brewing my first Roggenbier with this yeast, I want something with a ton of banana and clove aromatics to balance the sweet spiciness of the rye and if there is any chance my starter is contaminated I would rather pitch it and start over with a fresh strain.

Well, FWIW, I taste all my starters to make sure nothing crazy is going on, and they usually do taste kind of tart/cidery. I think it's due to the high temps and oxidation, if continuously stirring. If it's a mouth puckering or lactic-type sourness (citrusy is not lactic), then I would be wary of contamination.

I did step up the split starter again. This time I covered it with a black towel (to keep out the light), and it took off really fast. I threw 5 hop pellets into my 2L of wort. After it finished I chilled it and decanted a bit of the "beer"... VERY nice. There is a slight citrus hint to it, but it tasted really good! I couldn't decide on a roggenbier recipe, so I ended up coming up with a dunkelweiss recipe that I brewed on Sunday. Pitched at 9 pm, by 10 am the next day (when I actually looked), it was at high krausen. Smells great so far... This am I got a hint of sulphur, but based on others experience I'm not worried.

Keep us posted on the results. I have some Kellerweis yeast chilling in the fridge right now.