Harvesting Yeast From Beer Bottle

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ozzy1038

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Obviously one can harvest yeast from the fermenter, but has anyone ever harvested the yeast out of a beer bottle? I see no reason why it can't be done. Sure there is not as many yeasties in a bottle vs a carboy or the like, but with a little love they should be able to multiply to large enough quantities for the desired purpose.

It seems easier to me than washing your yeast. Thoughts?
 
It's a popular thing to do down in Australia with the commercial cooper's ales. You'd have to visit their sight to see how they do it. http://www.coopers.com.au/ But they do it in the bottle down there. It'd be just as easy to swirl the dregs in the bottle around to dump them into some small amount of wort to culture them. Seems to me,anyway,to be like a small starter. Similar to yeast washing. Some over here have done it with bottles containing the Pacman yeast,SN I think?
 
The small brewing book that came with my brewing kit has a section that explains how to do it. I am at work though and do not have it with me. Just wanted to tell you that it is possible and im sure someone will answer with more details. If i recall its very similar to making any other starter.
 
Yeah,washing yeast or culturing from the bottle,as I remember,are about the same. I just forget how the Aussie's did it in the bottle. Been a while. I think they just add some wort to the bottle & cover with sanitized foil.
 
I seem to have been successful with this by simply adding a touch of yeast nutrient and some sterilized water and DME. To grow I added a stir bar and placed on the stir plate for 24 hours then pitched into a 1 litre starter.

Albiet the final results aren't in yet, I haven't brewed a batch with it to determine if it was a good harvest, but that is coming soon and I will report here.

I divided up the 1 litre into 4 small jars and stashed in the fridge.
 
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If you grab the sediment from a few bottles and keep your starter gravity nice and low (1.020 or so I've heard as opposed to your usual 1.040) this can be done for sure. I personally wouldn't worry about washing (unless you have a ton of trub at the bottom).

Just my $.02 :)
 
I have harvested yeast lolemthos before and then gone on to do full batch.

I tried a hard cider with the 3068 weihenstephan yeast. The yeast didn't make a noticeable difference to.the cider...
But I did reculture the yeast Fe a bottle, stepped it up once and then used in a full length 20litre batch
 
I just made a starter with yeast I harvested from some Ommegang Abbey Ale bottles about 2 months ago. I harvested the dregs of 4 bottles and stuck it in the fridge and forgot it. I realized last week that it had been 2 months and figured I had better get something going. I pitched it into a .5L starter. With no sign of life at 36 hours, I was going to give up. I came home from work ready to dump it and found a little bit of foam around the edges so I let it ride. By the next morning there was 1/2 inch of krausen that stayed for 2 days. It's crashing in the fridge right now. I'll decant and step it up a couple more times and then try it in my next Belgian.

So, yes, it can be done.
 
I'm doing this right now. I'm making SHMBO a Bell's Two Hearted Clone and so I'm in the process of harvesting yeast from 4 bottles of the their beer (had Oberon left over we bough for all the parents at my kid's birthday party). They bottle condition and actually give you a how to on their social media (tumblr maybe?).

Anyways, Tuesday I made a 1L starter w/ 1/2 lb of light DME (didn't take a gravity reading), poured 1/4 of it into a mason jar, left the rest in a 2L Erlenmeyer flask while my buddy and I drank 4 cold bottles of beer, saving the dregs/yeast. Once the starter was at appropriate temps we poured the dregs (and probably more beer than I should have because I got overly cautious and wanted to make sure I got the yeast) into the mini-starter, threw it on a stir plate and put the larger starter into the fridge w/ a stopper.

Last night I pulled the mini-starter off the stir plate and it had a nice little layer of creaminess on the bottom I'm betting/hoping is the yeast. Popped it in the fridge for a couple house to settle the yeast out and pulled the bigger starter out to come up to room temp. Once both those things happened I decanted most of liquid in the mini off the yeast and pitched it into the larger starter and popped it back on the stir plate.

This is only my 2nd starter (got the flask/stir plate just for this project and only gave it one test flight w/ a smack pack) and it seems to be working and if so its not rocket science. Google bottle harvesting yeast and there are several youtube videos out there that can guide you.
 
Just remember, if you are doing this with a commercial beer, almost all of the imported beers that enter this country are required to be pasteurized, so you might have a little bit of trouble getting a starter going with the dregs of say, Weihenstephaner...
 
Just remember, if you are doing this with a commercial beer, almost all of the imported beers that enter this country are required to be pasteurized, so you might have a little bit of trouble getting a starter going with the dregs of say, Weihenstephaner...

+1

I've only tried this once. My wife wants me to clone Hopfenweisse, so I bought a bottle, carefully decanted the beer, flamed the lip of the bottle, and dribbled in some starter wort. Left it for a few days, transferred it to a small flask, added some more DME and a stir bar. Cold-crashed, decanted, stepped up to 500 mL, more time on the stir plate. After cold-crashing again, I finally had enough spent wort to check the gravity: 1.040. The yeast hadn't done a darn thing. I could see them in there, but, as you suggested, I think they were all dead.

Plan B is to just buy some Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068.
 
+1

I've only tried this once. My wife wants me to clone Hopfenweisse, so I bought a bottle, carefully decanted the beer, flamed the lip of the bottle, and dribbled in some starter wort. Left it for a few days, transferred it to a small flask, added some more DME and a stir bar. Cold-crashed, decanted, stepped up to 500 mL, more time on the stir plate. After cold-crashing again, I finally had enough spent wort to check the gravity: 1.040. The yeast hadn't done a darn thing. I could see them in there, but, as you suggested, I think they were all dead.

Plan B is to just buy some Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068.

If you ever try it again, Kombat, try it with a really low gravity. 1.020 or even 1.010 then build it up. I've had similar experiences to you (wouldn't get started at 1.040) and that did the trick for me. Unfortunately what I discovered is that quite a few breweries use one proprietary yeast strain to do 95% of their fermentation and then add in another (say as US-05) to eat up the last few gravity points, so you can never really capture that original yeast by itself.
 
Just remember, if you are doing this with a commercial beer, almost all of the imported beers that enter this country are required to be pasteurized, so you might have a little bit of trouble getting a starter going with the dregs of say, Weihenstephaner...

I don't know where you are getting this from. There is tons of information around these forums and the web about culturing yeasts from commercial bottles. You are right that it is hit or miss, but there are breweries both U.S. and international that bottle condition without pasteurizing, and vice versa. Where the beer comes from does not matter.
 
I don't know where you are getting this from. There is tons of information around these forums and the web about culturing yeasts from commercial bottles. You are right that it is hit or miss, but there are breweries both U.S. and international that bottle condition without pasteurizing, and vice versa. Where the beer comes from does not matter.

Granted local, craft breweries both in the US and abroad do not need to pasteurize their products as they are consumed locally and stored cold, but anything that gets shipped to this country ( or out of this country) that is going to travel above 38F for a short period of time during the trip is most likely pasteurized, simply to insure it has a longer shelf like once it crosses the pond. Even craft breweries in this country pasteurize, such as Sierra Nevada.

However I KNOW Weihenstephaner is pasteurized, and what's more, even if it was not, the yeast in the bottle is a lager yeast specifically used for bottle conditioning, and nothing like the yeast used for primary fermentation, so even if you did get a culture going, it would be the wrong one.

My point was to make sure you are working with a living product before you spend time trying to culture from a dead one
 
Granted local, craft breweries both in the US and abroad do not need to pasteurize their products as they are consumed locally and stored cold, but anything that gets shipped to this country ( or out of this country) that is going to travel above 38F for a short period of time during the trip is most likely pasteurized, simply to insure it has a longer shelf like once it crosses the pond. Even craft breweries in this country pasteurize, such as Sierra Nevada.

However I KNOW Weihenstephaner is pasteurized, and what's more, even if it was not, the yeast in the bottle is a lager yeast specifically used for bottle conditioning, and nothing like the yeast used for primary fermentation, so even if you did get a culture going, it would be the wrong one.

My point was to make sure you are working with a living product before you spend time trying to culture from a dead one

I have no idea about Weihenstephaner but there are tons of European breweries that ship bottles with viable yeast. Belgians tend to be good. I have Chimay and De Ranke yeast in my fridge. There are numerous examples of people on the board who have cultured Orval, Duvel, etc. I would not make any blanket statement about traveling above 38F. You have to experiment or research the bottle case by case.
 
I have no idea about Weihenstephaner but there are tons of European breweries that ship bottles with viable yeast. Belgians tend to be good. I have Chimay and De Ranke yeast in my fridge. There are numerous examples of people on the board who have cultured Orval, Duvel, etc. I would not make any blanket statement about traveling above 38F. You have to experiment or research the bottle case by case.

Belgians are most certainly the biggest exception
 
Bembel mentioned it a few posts back...

Make sure the yeast you are culturing is correct. There are breweries that use one yeast for fermentation (and get a specific flavor) and then another to bottle carb. If so, you're going to get a huge collection of a relatively flavorless yeast.
 
I typically harvest yeast from commercial beers for my hefeweizen, micro brews of course.

There was a case when my cat got into my starter and managed to ruin all my hefe yeast. I had one bottle that was the dregs from the last keg of my hefe. There was a good bit of yeast it in and that one bottle and it was enough with to make new a starter for a 5 gall batch.

Its probably not a bad idea to start bottling the dregs from all my kegs so I can re-use that yeast.
 
Just remember, if you are doing this with a commercial beer, almost all of the imported beers that enter this country are required to be pasteurized, so you might have a little bit of trouble getting a starter going with the dregs of say, Weihenstephaner...

Your info is not correct. I can think of a lot of foreign beers that have viable yeast in them for harvesting.

Sure a few are pasteurized, but most beers that are bottle conditioned are not. I have succesfully harvested yeast from many foreign beers.
 
Your info is not correct. I can think of a lot of foreign beers that have viable yeast in them for harvesting.

Sure a few are pasteurized, but most beers that are bottle conditioned are not. I have succesfully harvested yeast from many foreign beers.

Well I am occasionally wrong, but almost never uncertain :)

Either way, the best advice is to make sure you are working with an unpasteurized beer with viable primary fermentation yeast rather than a yeast chosen strictly for bottle conditioning before wasting time trying to culture it.
 
Either way, the best advice is to make sure you are working with an unpasteurized beer with viable primary fermentation yeast rather than a yeast chosen strictly for bottle conditioning before wasting time trying to culture it.

Making sure that it is unpasteurized is a good idea. Pretty easy to find out on this forum with a search.

Breweries that use another yeast to bottle condition are more the exception than the rule. More of them bottle condition with the same yeast they ferment with. They just filter and add fresh yeast at bottling time.
 
I did this from a six pack of Anchor Brewing Liberty Ale. It was ridiculously easy to do.

I made up a regular starter with some yeast nutrient and energizer, started it on the stir plate.

Poured me a beer, leaving an inch in the bottom of the bottle after I poured it in my glass. Drank that and another. By my 3rd beer, the first two beer bottles with the 1" of remaining beer and yeast were at room temp so I poured them in the starter. Basically repeated the process with all 6 beers.

Now, I honestly thought I may have started it on the stir plate too soon because I didn't see any signs of, well, anything. After two days, I pulled it off and poured it in a large mason jar and put it in my closet with the lid halfway on. It sat at approximately 77 degrees while in the closet. I also gave it a good shake, closing the lid obviously while I shook it and loosened it afterwards. In a few hours it was fermenting along. I left it in there for a couple days, shaking it a few times a day. Then stuck it in the fridge to cold crash and settle.

I made me up a regular starter yesterday evening, decanted a lot of the old spent wort, and poured the remaining but in the starter on the stir plate. This morning when I got back from the cabin, it was fermenting along nicely.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464720677.547110.jpg

I'll leave it on the stir plate another day or two then cold crash and transfer to a mason jar again. I guess at that point I'll decide if I need to step it up again.

I want to do this with as many conditioned bottled beer as possible just to have all the yeasties lol
 
yep harvesting is fun, you're drinking beer and getting free yeast win win.
 
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