So I attempted to culture Sierra Nevada Kellerweis yeast... H2S city

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greenbirds

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I pitched 4 bottles worth of dregs into about 50 ml of 1.020 wort with a tiny pinch of Wyeast yeast nutrient. After about 40 hours on a stirplate @ 75 F it began fermenting. Smelled fine.

I pitched this into 500 ml of 1.025 wort with another pinch of nutrient. Began fermenting in a few hours and went to completion, but let loose MASSIVE amounts of hydrogen sulfide. I mean, the smell was almost enough to make me vomit. Hoping it would clean itself up, I let it sit out for about 24 hours (foil over the flask, of course). No change. I figured it was lost.

Somehow, though, I just mustered the courage to taste it before before dumping it out, and lo and behold it tasted fine -- like a standard yeast starter.

What are your thoughts? Is it possible I cultured the yeast, but got a nasty, H2S-producing infection alongside it? Or perhaps I cultured a wild yeast? Would 40 hours have been enough for a wild yeast to multiply to such concentrations?
 
My experience with most wheat/hefe strains is that they stink like no other. Wyeast 1010 is a regular offender, and that gives off less esters in the fermentation process than the hefe yeasts. Rotten rhino fart is the term that comes to mind....blech! Give them a couple weeks to clean up after themselves and you'll never have that smell in your finished product.

EDIT: let me know what the final product is like, I'd like to take a crack and culturing this myself!
 
I have done starters with Wyeast 3068 and WLP300 and never had anything remotely close to this, so we will see. I'm going to go ahead and pitch the 500mL into a 2L starter and see what happens. Maybe it was just having growing pains.

I'm making a 10 gallon batch of hefeweizen and will pitch 5 gallons with this yeast and 5 gallons of 3068 to do a direct comparison.
 
Good question that I don't know the answer to. Some yeast don't like working under pressure, but there's no pressure in a starter flask.
 
The 2 liter starter is humming pretty good this morning, and NO sulfur nastiness at all. Granted it's not done fermenting yet, but it smells like a healthy yeast starter. Will keep the thread updated.
 
Okay, well, SUCCESS!

To continue where I left off, the final starter yeast ended up smelling like sulfur as well, and I have concluded that this yeast will produce H2S at higher temps. My starters are done in the 76-79 range, so that would explain it, because the finished beer, which I fermented around 65-68 F, did not exhibit this at all.

My recipe (10 gallons) was:
10.5 lb wheat
6.0 lb pils
2.0 lb munich
Hallertau, 60 mins, to 13 IBUs
OG: 1.048, FG: 1.006

This yeast was a very quick fermenter and was completely done in 5 days. It beat out the Wyeast 3068 batch, which for me tends to take 2+ weeks to finish up.

The taste of this brew was a dead ringer for SN Kellerweis, but the body is thinner, which makes sense since its stated gravities are about 1.051 and 1.013. I mashed around 152-153 F, so I will try cranking it up a bit next time and see what happens. It is, however, delicious, and I actually prefer it to the 3068 batch.
 
EDIT: let me know what the final product is like, I'd like to take a crack and culturing this myself!

Me too! I'm up in Canada and have 3 bottles of a 6-pack left and love it!

-J:mug:

DOH! Guess I should have read the rest of the thread before posting. Got excited about Kellerweiss!
Good one! Mission accomplished!
 
Okay, well, SUCCESS!

To continue where I left off, the final starter yeast ended up tasting like sulfur as well, and I have concluded that this yeast will produce H2S at higher temps. My starters are done in the 76-79 range, so that would explain it, because the finished beer, which I fermented around 65-68 F, did not exhibit this at all.

My recipe (10 gallons) was:
10.5 lb wheat
6.0 lb pils
2.0 lb munich
Hallertau, 60 mins, to 13 IBUs
OG: 1.048, FG: 1.006

This yeast was a very quick fermenter and was completely done in 5 days. It beat out the Wyeast 3068 batch, which for me tends to take 2+ weeks to finish up.

The taste of this brew was a dead ringer for SN Kellerweis, but the body is thinner, which makes sense since its stated gravities are about 1.051 and 1.013. I mashed around 152-153 F, so I will try cranking it up a bit next time and see what happens. It is, however, delicious, and I actually prefer it to the 3068 batch.

Nice, thanks for the update! So will you be aiming to hit 154F for the next batch, or higher?
 
I am going to target 156 F. 1.013 is quite a bit higher than what I ended up with, so I think the mash temp increase will need to be pretty substantial. I will also up the OG to 1.051.
 
Any updates on this. I just now realized that I could culture some of this while cracking the last one. I'm wondering if it's worth picking some more up to try it. I normally go with 3068 and wonder how this compares.
 
I have not brewed with it again outside of my update a few posts back. Since I did split the batch between SNK and Wyeast 3068, I was able to make some comparisons. Just about everyone who tasted each hefe preferred the Kellerweis. Maybe it just tastes better with this particular recipe. I included 11% munich malt in the grist. I know SN uses it as well, but I don't know the percentage. I should note that the Kellerweis was on draft, and the 3068 was bottled.
 
I'm on my second batch using the Kellerweis strain. The first batch came out great and I really enjoyed it. But like greenbirds said it didn't have the body that SN's did. Plus being on tap it seems to clear out rather qucikly in the keg.

The second batch has been in the primary for about 10 days so in a week or so I'll keg it and see how it is this time.
 
how did you culture the yeast ? how many stubbies did you use the yeast from ?

thanks in advance , love this beer
 
how did you culture the yeast ? how many stubbies did you use the yeast from ?

thanks in advance , love this beer

Not sure about the other guys, but I had success using using the dregs from two (2) bottles. I made a small 50mL starter @ 1.020, then stepped up to a 500 mL starter @ 1.030, finally stepping up to a 1.5L starter at 1.038. This method worked great and I just used this yeast to make a Wit.

Question for the guys who have brewed with this yeast. How long does it normally take for the krausen to drop? It's only been a week since I pitched and the beer is done, but this is the thickest krausen I've experienced after the initial fermentation stage.
 

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