Pipeworks Yeast

Anyone from the Chicago area has gotta be familiar with Pipeworks Brewing Company. I'm am making a very desperate attempt at harvesting their yeast from a dreg of their War Bird brew since it's only 4.5% ABV. There is literally not one beer that I have had from them that isn't delicious. I have noticed that every one of their brews has a very distinct "yup this is a Pipeworks brew" taste to it and I've come to conclusion that it's gotta be the yeast. Does anyone at all know what yeast they use? Is it a "house strain"? Or something I can easily purchase over the counter. Please let me know if u can or if you have successfully harvested and stepped up from dregs. I've done this process once before with Bells THA and it worked freaking amazingly.

Ive never had their beer but as far as yeast goes, you could email the brewer/brewery. Many times they are very transperant in their process and will tell you what they use and maybe even the temp that they use. I am unfamiliar w/ the brewery but many smaller/newer brewerys use the same stuff we use from white labs or wyeast. Wortha shot in my opinion.

copper2hopper said:

There is literally not one beer that I have had from them that isn't delicious. .

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Ha! then you haven't tried enough. not trying to hate on Pipeworks they make some incredible, fantastic beers. but they also experiment a lot, which leaves a few less than desirable beers out there.
Ive had many of their beers that I thought were amazing, War Bird being one of them. but the uncontested worst beer i have ever had was also from them as well!
As for the yeast, id just hit them up on twitter and ask. normally breweries will let you know and even let you know if the bottled yeast is viable, or the same strain.

Yeah they're VERY experimental with their beers for sure and I just stay away from the ones that sound too experimental. I tried asking via Facebook messenger and was in good contact with someone over there and they even hooked me up with the types of grains they used for "Da Fuzz". Of course I tried a clone attempt and it tastes like arse. I just figured war bird dregs from the bottom of the can would be their brewing yeast for sure since it's such a lower ABV than they usually brew and isn't bottling/canning yeast to carbonate with. Usually that champaign yeast is only added I though for higher ABV brews from breweries.

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Well.....it's working!

Just used this up on a recipe from my LHBS that's a really hoppy one they usually have on tap. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Gonna save a half gallons worth of trub to use on my next hoppy brew to get some next generational use on this yeast.

From what I understand most of their IPAs and PAs use simple dry S05 yeast or the equivalent from BSI.

Love the screen name! Where do u have your intel on that yeast info? I'm really trying to reach out to them to find out and I would imagine they woulda told me that by now. I feel like it's something their not willing to tell. Kinda like Bells THA. That's where they get their distinct flavor. I've made the clone and reharvested their yeast before and it was spot on.

I've spoken with a few people there. I can't say that they use S05 for all their hoppy ales, but I have pretty good reason to believe that it is at least used in NvU (their flagship beer)

I love Pipeworks, keep us posted

Very nice! Well...I'll find out in about 2.5 weeks when I pour my first glass if it's all in the yeast on the hoppy brew I did up last Saturday

It will actually be a perfect comparison time too cuz I did 10 gallons and split it. One fermenter got s-05 and the other got my reharvested. Super excited

Isn't War Bird a Belgian session ale? I haven't tried the canned version yet but when I had it on tap a couple months ago, it was definitely Belgian. Not the same strain they would use for all their hoppy beers. I would think Lizard King would be the best candidate for harvesting if you're looking to brew an IPA with it.

Also, I remember reading a post somewhere in this forum about Pipeworks yeast and the guy actually got a response from them saying they use Safale US-05. Here it is: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=430085 This was back in 2012 around when Pipeworks first started but I would imagine they still use the same yeast.

Amazing! Thanks man. Yeah I think you're right about War Bird being a Belgian. Oh well. What's done is done and it's already fermenting. Hope it turns out good still. Gonna have to get my hands on some lizard king then.

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I've spoken with Pipeworks on FB about harvesting yeast from their bottles

Sam is highly against it.

That's awesome that you got a response back in regards to their yeast. Thanks for the feedback. When was that? And if it's propagated to produce healthy enough yeast to ferment out a batch then I don't see what the problem would be..... Is it just reproducing "bad yeast" at that point? Does un-flocculated yeast necessarily just mean "unhealthy" yeast. I just interpret it as yeast that just hasn't fallen out yet whether it be good or bad. Also, what does "cause problems" mean? Is he referring to off flavors, attenuation, esters?...etc...

Also...at least we know too with that response that the yeast at the bottom of their bottles is the same yeast they ferment with and not carbonate with. And what's to be said for Bells THA yeast? This is the method they recommend for harvesting their yeast and I (along with many other brewers) came up really spot on positive results from it.

copper2hopper said:

That's awesome that you got a response back in regards to their yeast. Thanks for the feedback. When was that? And if it's propagated to produce healthy enough yeast to ferment out a batch then I don't see what the problem would be..... Is it just reproducing "bad yeast" at that point? Does un-flocculated yeast necessarily just mean "unhealthy" yeast. I just interpret it as yeast that just hasn't fallen out yet whether it be good or bad. Also, what does "cause problems" mean? Is he referring to off flavors, attenuation, esters?...etc...

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I didn't ask further questions. Didn't want to take up too much time or come off as a absolute noob.

This was a few months ago when the mosaic saison was released. Jesus that beer was good. Some people don't like their saisons. I think they've been solid to excellent.


I don't see to much problem with it. I understand it's not optimal. And I think that's what he was getting at. There could be yeast in suspension that can not truly replicate what the more flocculant yeast has done.

I don't see a huge problem with the experiment.

Would I make it your house strain? No

These guys safale us05 for their IPAs. I agree that PWs has a signature style, but I don't think it's coming from a specific yeast. People everywhere are using that strain. Guessing is more process than ingredients

Well I pulled a sample to take a gravity reading and got 1.013 from an OG of 1.058. Turned out to be a 5.9% ABV right now and I gotta say......holy pipewroks beer taste! I haven't even dry hopped yet and it tastes great. So far so good on my theory that it's "all in the yeast".

War bird yeast, right? What's it like?

beardown2489 said:

I didn't ask further questions. Didn't want to take up too much time or come off as a absolute noob.

This was a few months ago when the mosaic saison was released. Jesus that beer was good. Some people don't like their saisons. I think they've been solid to excellent.


I don't see to much problem with it. I understand it's not optimal. And I think that's what he was getting at. There could be yeast in suspension that can not truly replicate what the more flocculant yeast has done.

I don't see a huge problem with the experiment.

Would I make it your house strain? No

These guys safale us05 for their IPAs. I agree that PWs has a signature style, but I don't think it's coming from a specific yeast. People everywhere are using that strain. Guessing is more process than ingredients

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copper2hopper said:

Well I pulled a sample to take a gravity reading and got 1.013 from an OG of 1.058. Turned out to be a 5.9% ABV right now and I gotta say......holy pipewroks beer taste! I haven't even dry hopped yet and it tastes great. So far so good on my theory that it's "all in the yeast".

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I may be wrong, but I really don't think the PW canned beers are yeast driven. They may use something different on War Bird, but I don't think it's anything you can't get the same or equivalent at a local homebrew store. That's not at all to bag on their beer. I really just don't think they use any special yeast.

Yeah War Bird. It tastes like a straight up Pipeworks beer. Just warm and flat right now is all but tastes like a really solid IPA. Here's the recipe I used from my LHBS that they have on tap sometimes called Hops Were Hurt in the Making of this Beer. They were awesome enough to scale it down to a ten gallon batch for me and I figured what a perfect recipe to try it on.
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I have a hard time believing your theory that it's "all in the yeast" when it comes to Pipeworks beers.. especially their hop-forward beers. I would lean more towards it being "all in the hops" (quantity and quality) as well as their brewing process. They use a ton of hops in the kettle and dry hop, and I believe they get the majority of their hops from Hop Head Farms, which is also where Revolution gets a lot of their hops. High quality hops added in mass quantities makes awesome beer.

Maybe brew that same beer again and ferment with US-05 under the same conditions and compare the two. That way you can be sure it was the yeast that made that beer what it is.

I did. 10 gallons. Split it into two different fermenters and used US-05 in one and reharvested Pipeworks in the other. Same exact brew fermented at the same exact temperatures producing two very noticeable different smells and two very noticeable different tastes so I don't know how else to put it other than it's clearly all in the yeast thus far. I still have to dry hop and then keg them so I guess I will see in the end in about two more weeks

War Bird is a saison, so it'd totally make sense that it would taste differently than an S-05 batch. I'm sure they use a saison yeast either from BSI or perhaps the local yeast lab, Omega. They don't bottle (can) condition, so as noted, it's probably just stuff that didn't drop out or you got one of the last fills from the tank.

Any update copper2hopper?

Hey! Yeah sorry fellas...yeast turned out great! If u can harvest any theirs do it!

I just got my hands on eight cans of lizard King so I think I may give it a whirl to try to harvest what I can from them if anything and see how that turns out

War bird uses belle saison yeast, everything else is us-05.

L0F said:

War bird uses belle saison yeast, everything else is us-05.

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I have heard US-05 is what they use for all their "Non-Belgian"-inspired beers but have never heard that they use Belle Saison. I'm interested to hear where you might have learned this info. Care to share?