Best beers to harvest yeast from

I live in Thailand, and the yeast selection is very limited and very expensive. In a few months my sister will be visiting me and she offered to bring me a couple beers, so I figured it would be nice if I could get some good yeast too.

What beers can you harvest some good yeast from? I have seen some older lists, but was hoping to get some more current info.

It doesn't have to be a super rare yeast or anything, just a good one.

What do you want to brew that you can't do with domestically-available yeast or harvesting from domestically-available bottles? That will inform any advice on what to bring over, but you may find that your needs are pretty well-covered with what you can get in-country. I brew in China where there's no liquid yeast and I've found that there really isn't much I'm missing out on; whenever I go back to the States I tell myself I'll get some liquid yeast to bank, but I never do because I don't think I'm actually missing out on much by lacking liquid strains here.

@badlee is brewing in Thailand and I believe he has a decent yeast bank from which he would probably be willing to share some slants (sorry @badlee if I'm volunteering you for something you don't want to do). I've found brewing in China (Fermentis, Lallemand, Mangrove Jack's, and a few other dry yeasts available) that there's not much other than sours that you can't get done pretty well with a typical selection of dry yeast. Sure, at ~$5 a pack it's more expensive than in the States, but it's not restrictively expensive, and as long as you don't get an infected beer, you can always harvest and stretch one pack for several brews, which is probably what you're planning on doing if you harvest from commercial beers anyway.

I'd still like to try it, as its cheap/free, plus I can expand my options. Plus just for the fun of it.

In doing some research I saw some people were able to get PacMan yeast from some Stone beers, but that may have changed. Anyone have any recent experience?

Also saw you can harvest Le Fin Du Monde, which I think is a pretty unique yeast, anyone have any experience with that?

And still open to any other suggestions...

drunkinThailand said:

I'd still like to try it, as its cheap/free, plus I can expand my options. Plus just for the fun of it.

In doing some research I saw some people were able to get PacMan yeast from some Stone beers, but that may have changed. Anyone have any recent experience?

Also saw you can harvest Le Fin Du Monde, which I think is a pretty unique yeast, anyone have any experience with that?

And still open to any other suggestions...

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I believe PacMan is Rogue and should be available in many of their beers, but I'm pretty sure you can harvest Stone's house strain as well. I think it's supposed to be of English origin, but then so are most American ale yeasts if you go back far enough.

Most bottle-conditioned beers are harvestable (though some use generic conditioning yeast), so while something like Sierra Nevada is relatively pointless as their house strain is widely available, the majority of bottled or canned craft beer is an option. I believe a lot of homebrewers have historically liked Bell's yeast, while the Conan strain from The Alchemist (not that your sister's likely to get a can or two of Heady Topper for you) is considered by many to be a sort of holy grail of IPA yeasts for the juicy NE style of IPA. If you like more yeast-forward styles like hefeweizens or Belgians, I know many Belgian and saison yeasts are easily harvestable, and I suspect that many bottled hefeweizens would work as well.

La Fin Du Monde would be a good one to harvest if you like the beer - I've only had it a couple times and felt it was like a mix of a Belgian strain and a hefeweizen strain with the heavy banana and in the end I didn't really dig it personally. If you can get Rochefort in Thailand, I'm fermenting my quad on harvested yeast from Rochefort 6 and it's got a great Belgian flavor backed up with a bit of banana, though not as much as La Fin Du Monde. I'm not sure if Unibroue does any other beers with that strain, but I would suggest trying to get a lower-ABV beer to harvest it if they do, since yeast from higher-ABV beers is said to be harder to successfully harvest and more prone to mutations that might leave you with an inferior final product.

Oh, I forgot to mention that if you're into Brett or sour beers, those would be good options for her to bring. Almost any sour beer (assuming they're soured by bugs in the fermenter and not soured with acidulated malt, pure lactic acid, or a kettle sour) should have viable souring bugs that would work best directly pitched into your wort, and most Brett beers are packaged with viable yeast in the bottom as well. Orval is a popular one for direct pitching the dregs and I think it contains a mix of both brett and souring bugs. I brought a couple sours and a Boulevard Saison Brett back from the States this summer and their dregs will be going into a batch of wort at some point.

HBT: Commercial Beer Yeast Harvest List

Mr. Malty yeast source list

List of Unpasteurized Sour and Funky Bottled Beers

So far I am leaning towards

Chimay
Le Fin Du Monde
Rogue Brutal IPA

Anyone have any recent experience with any of these? All the info I could find is pretty old

Chimay is definitely harvestable - better to err toward one of their lower-ABV offerings for better viability - but are you sure you can't buy it in Thailand? Chimay is a very widely-distributed beer and I would be shocked if you couldn't buy it domestically and save space for something else in her luggage.

La Fin Du Monde should work.

Brutal IPA seems like it would be a viable source of Pacman assuming they bottle condition with the original yeast (I'm assuming you've done the research and determined that they do). Common wisdom for bottle harvesting would suggest you might do better with their amber ale for a more harvest-friendly bottle (due to its lower OG and ABV) but the Brutal IPA should be perfectly fine. On the availability note: Rogue is another one that distributes internationally. I know you can buy Rogue in China, so it might be another one worth looking for in Thailand. Not trying to discourage your choices when I mention the availability stuff, but if you can get them in Thailand then that means you can have your sister bring something else to harvest; the more the better!

One other beer idea: if you're into saisons, Saison Dupont can be harvested and is considered (not frivolously) the pinnacle of the style. Whether you get it in Thailand or have your sister bring it, that would be a nice one to have banked.

cool, thanks for the advice. i will have to check the next time I am in Bangkok (definitely can't get any of those things where I live in a small town).

Saison Dupont sounds interesting, I've never had a saison before to be honest. I love Belgian beers though, and I think they are somewhat similar, so I will give it a try for sure.

thanks again

Does Thailand have a good online marketplace? Even if you can't get what you want locally, there might be an online shop shipping beer around the country from Bangkok for a couple hundred baht in shipping fees. I know I'm a bit spoiled being an expat in China because you can get just about anything online here, but I can't imagine the online shopping scene in Thailand would be that far behind what we've got here. Where there are expats, there is demand for imported goods, and where there's demand, there's almost always someone looking to make money by providing the supply.

Bells yeast is a great yeast...

Thanks kristiismean, I will check it out for sure.

FatDragon - could probably find something like that, but that kind of defeats the purpose if i have to pay fat shipping fees. I am an expat in Thailand making Thai money, not with Western amounts of money, so... I have it down to where I can make a whole batch for under 1000 baht (about 30 us) if I already have the yeast, which is why I am hoping to get some free yeast with my sister. But I still appreciate all the ideas, thanks.

Bell's is WY1272, isn't it?

Can your sister bring a few WY or WLP packages for you, in a small cooler or a pouch with a few ice packs in it?

drunkinThailand said:

Thanks kristiismean, I will check it out for sure.

FatDragon - could probably find something like that, but that kind of defeats the purpose if i have to pay fat shipping fees. I am an expat in Thailand making Thai money, not with Western amounts of money, so... I have it down to where I can make a whole batch for under 1000 baht (about 30 us) if I already have the yeast, which is why I am hoping to get some free yeast with my sister. But I still appreciate all the ideas, thanks.

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Right, I know the feeling and I've been there myself and even though my income's a bit better now, I still try to brew on a budget. I was just thinking if you can make one or two purchases like that and bank the yeast you harvest for multiple future batches, the total cost per batch of your yeast ends up being pretty cheap, and it frees your sister up to bring a couple more bottles you can't get there, giving you a couple more hard-to-get strains for your collection. Then again, I'm also attracted to the idea of keeping a single house strain and only supplementing it when you brew something yeast-forward.

I would really recommend looking into doing saisons, whether you get your yeast from Saison Dupont or something else like a packet of Belle Saison. Saison yeast tends to be high-temperature tolerant, which is very useful for tropical budget brewers. My last Belle Saison beer was fermented at 100F and came out fine (not great, but I don't think the fermentation temperature was the cause of its shortcomings). Omega Labs' Hothead strain is another good option if your sister can bring a vial of liquid yeast. It gives a fruity flavor that you may or may not like, but it ferments the same at 100F as it does at 60F so you don't need to worry about off flavors. Sure, the pack will lose a lot of viability in transit, but even if 90% of the little buggers die off before it reaches you, a couple starter steps should build it back up just fine.

cool, thanks for the advice. i think i will tell my sister to bring me the dupont saison so i can give it a try and if i like it try and harvest the yeast.

islandlizard - thanks for the info, i just looked at some info on 1272 and I like the sound of it, definitely gonna try to harvest it. and never thought about having her bring some liquid yeast, though now i might.

drunkinThailand said:

islandlizard - thanks for the info, i just looked at some info on 1272 and I like the sound of it, definitely gonna try to harvest it. and never thought about having her bring some liquid yeast, though now i might.

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Liquid yeast is so much more viable and better than harvested and grown from a bottle. The yeast populations that make it into the bottle are the lower flocculent ones, the hard workers lie dormant on the bottom of the fermentor and have been pulled days before. Now for sours, quite the opposite is true. The dregs are the ones you want.

Also, weight and volume wise, 10 packs of WLP (smaller packs) or WYeast (larger) are less than 1 or 2 bottles. She can likely pick up most yeast from a decent local brew store or put in a web order for the big Kahuna, if there's enough time. It only takes a few days, if ordered Sunday or Monday. Never order Wednesday or after, when temps along the route are expected to be extreme.

I harvested and grew up a La Fin du Monde back in 2013, and brewed a very respectable clone from what I grew.

Here are some of my favs I've used many times over the years:

1272 American Ales / IPAs
1968 ESBs, Milds, Browns, Sweet Stouts
3522 Belgians (lots of flavor)
1762 Golden Belgians, Abbeys, etc.
3787 Belgians (strong/HG/Trippels/Quads)
3944 or 3463 or mixed 20/70 to 70-20 - Wits and other non-German Wheat beers, Saisons (!) even IPAs, etc.
1098 (dryer) or 1099 (sweeter) UK Ales - Large variety of other excellent British strains too like 1318 and 1469
3726 (PC) if and when you can get it - Saisons
3724 (Saisons) is a tenacious staller, needs lots of babying and time, it will eventually ferment out over 2-6 months.

I've been using ECY yeasts lately for Saisons and sours. Availability is very spotty. But you do get 125ml/250-500 billion cells!

Belle Saison (dry yeast) - yes!

Maybe some Brett / Pedio too if you like sours.

For Pilsners and European Lagers I like WLP802 Czech Budejovice.
WY2000 looks similar, haven't tried it yet.

Being in a similar situation, I feel your pain. Ive had success culturing from some belgian beers...Duvel, Saison Dupont, and Chimay. as well as jolly pumpkin for sours. but i agree with the people that said, have her bring down some vials/packs. I do it everytime I come back to the states. Best practice is pack a small cooler or some sort of insulated bag with an ice pack or 2. That being said I've had luggage lost for days and never had a problem getting them going with a starter.
a few suggestions to have a nice variety:
IPA - Conan for some fruitiness, Any american Ale yeast for a bit more neutral.
Saison - Omega Saisonstein, wyeast 3711
Belgian - Chimay wlp500
Wit - wlp400
i haven't brewed alot of lagers but safale 34/70 worked great for me.

I have successfully harvested yeast from a bottle of The Bruery's Trade Winds Tripel. They use an aggressive Belgian strain that is great for fermenting beers super dry or high ABV. I know that a lot of The Bruery sours a good for souring as well since they make extremely acidic sours.