WFox93
Well-Known Member
Thought I'd share my recent success in harvesting yeast from a bottle for the first time. I'd read a bit about this and peeked through a few "How-to's." But did't dive deep into it. So this is my success the lazy way.
I started with a bottle of Boulevard's Frequent Flyer IPA and notice the dregs at the bottom and thought this would be my excuse. Poured the beer gently of the dregs and re-capped the bottle as I let it warm to room temp and boiled up an ounce or two of wort. Put that in the bottle and slapped a bubbler airlock on it. Every three days or so I added a couple of ounces of wort until I was at half bottle. At half bottle I let it ferment for only a day and stuck it in the fridge. After two days in the fridge I transferred slowly to another bottle. Once the bottle was full I stepped up to a 1 liter starter. Just a couple days ago I pitched that starter in a 1 gallon pale ale and it is fermenting vigorously as I type this. I did sample as I went and the each step did taste more and more like beer so I'm sure the yeast is working ok. I'm just starting to have doubts about my recipe. I basically just used leftovers from previous stuff. Primarily 2-row and munich, I added some honey because I panicked about having too much of a bread flavor from the munich and I used fuggles and calypso hops. I'm just excited that my "proof of concept" worked.
I started with a bottle of Boulevard's Frequent Flyer IPA and notice the dregs at the bottom and thought this would be my excuse. Poured the beer gently of the dregs and re-capped the bottle as I let it warm to room temp and boiled up an ounce or two of wort. Put that in the bottle and slapped a bubbler airlock on it. Every three days or so I added a couple of ounces of wort until I was at half bottle. At half bottle I let it ferment for only a day and stuck it in the fridge. After two days in the fridge I transferred slowly to another bottle. Once the bottle was full I stepped up to a 1 liter starter. Just a couple days ago I pitched that starter in a 1 gallon pale ale and it is fermenting vigorously as I type this. I did sample as I went and the each step did taste more and more like beer so I'm sure the yeast is working ok. I'm just starting to have doubts about my recipe. I basically just used leftovers from previous stuff. Primarily 2-row and munich, I added some honey because I panicked about having too much of a bread flavor from the munich and I used fuggles and calypso hops. I'm just excited that my "proof of concept" worked.
