Harvest yeast from bottle no brix/gravity change since pitching 24 hours ago

[rtstrider]

Hello peeps! I have a stir plate and am working to harvest yeast from Bells Oberon Ale. The beers were packaged 3/29/18. I had 5 bottles and saved the slurry from those and added to my wort. I used the following instructions

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/Harvesting-Yeast-from-commercial-bottles.html

Now I didn't pull an OG reading but I've pulled a reading as of 12 and 24 hours of pitching and it's still at 7 brix. I used 200 ml of water with 14 grams Briess Pilsen Light DME. How long should it take before I start seeing a gravity/brix change? Mind you this is on a stir plate (second time ever using one) so I'm not sure that actual fermentation will show which is why I've been using a refractometer.

Edit: forgot to add this was pitched around 7pm 7/28

 

[Yooper]

Hello peeps! I have a stir plate and am working to harvest yeast from Bells Oberon Ale. The beers were packaged 3/29/18. I had 5 bottles and saved the slurry from those and added to my wort. I used the following instructions

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/Harvesting-Yeast-from-commercial-bottles.html

Now I didn't pull an OG reading but I've pulled a reading as of 12 and 24 hours of pitching and it's still at 7 brix. I used 200 ml of water with 14 grams Briess Pilsen Light DME. How long should it take before I start seeing a gravity/brix change? Mind you this is on a stir plate (second time ever using one) so I'm not sure that actual fermentation will show which is why I've been using a refractometer.

Edit: forgot to add this was pitched around 7pm 7/28

Hmmm, it should definitely have fermented by now. Have you seen any activity at all?

 

[rtstrider]

Hmmm, it should definitely have fermented by now. Have you seen any activity at all?

Nothing yet. Going to give it till Saturday and just see what happens. Should I off the stir plate?

 

[jigtwins]

Definitely give it some more time.

 

[trav77]

Give it some more time. I just cultured some Saison DuPont yeast and it took 3-4 days for the 3 bottles worth of dregs to ferment out 500 ml. Who knows how old they were in the bottle... took quite a while for them to get going.

Be prepared to step it up again after the initial starter to get a pitchable amount.

 

[rtstrider]

Give it some more time. I just cultured some Saison DuPont yeast and it took 3-4 days for the 3 bottles worth of dregs to ferment out 500 ml. Who knows how old they were in the bottle... took quite a while for them to get going.

Be prepared to step it up again after the initial starter to get a pitchable amount.

The plan is to build up to a 2 liter starter, save half, and pitch half. This is mainly for fun and hey if a batch can be brewed with it...SCORE!

 

[NitrogenWidget]

It took 3 to 4 days from a whole 6 pack of oberon (worked hard that evening ) before something started happening both times I did it.

 

[rtstrider]

It took 3 to 4 days from a whole 6 pack of oberon (worked hard that evening ) before something started happening both times I did it.

Awesome! I'll check the gravity before I go to bed tonight. That'd make it right at 3 days so fingers crossed!

 

[rtstrider]

Checked it just a minute ago and it appeared to be at 6.5 brix. I'll check again tomorrow night to verify the sugars are indeed getting munched

 

[rtstrider]

Just took a reading and it's now down to 5 brix! Also had some Krausen showing when I turned off the stir bar. So it looks like it took 3 days to start working. Guess the next brew is a bells two hearted clone

 

[rtstrider]

We are now down to 4 brix. According to northern Brewers refractometer calculator that means I'm from 1.028 down to 1.009. I figured the yeast were done munching around 5 brix and had planned on cold crashing this morning. Guess I'll have to wait at least 1 more day to see if they have any juice left eh?

 

[logos]

Just needed more time. If you don’t have many viable cells it will take longer to start up.

The number of live cells in bottles of unfiltered beers still seems to be highly variable. I have been directly plating to the yeast to harvest from bottles which gives you a sense of how many.

For example the top plate is Sierra Nevada dregs and the bottom on is from a Ninkasi Cirtus Mistress, both are the same volume of sediment from collected dregs. Each yeast colony represents one live yeast cell. So for example the top plate has many colonies and the bottom has very few.

Probably lots of factors that go into this like age of the beer,any heat exposures (not sure if beer is all shipped refrigerated), alcohol content, amount of non-yeast stuff in the sediment, etc.

 

[rtstrider]

Wanted to give a heads up. The yeast stopped right at 4 brix (no changes in 24 hours) so I put the starter in a temp controlled freezer at 38F for 24 hours (from 8/4 am to 8/5 am) Then decanted and pitched into 500 ml of 1.02 wort 8/5 am (yesterday morning). Krausen formed in the starter shortly after and must've dropped overnight. Just took a reading and it was at 1.002 so it's cold crashing again this morning. It will be tomorrow night before I can create the 500 ml 1.04 starter wort so it'll be cold crashing for 1 1/2 days or so. Looking good so far!

 

[rtstrider]

Ended up decanting/pitching the yeast this morning into the 500 ml 1.04 (ended up being 1.053 or 13 brix) starter wort. It's back on the stir plate. Man this is taking FOREVER!

 

[MoonBrewer]

Yeah, my experience harvesting the same yeast was about 1 week to build up to pitching quantity. I harvested all the dregs from a sixer of Bell's Two Hearted, which did take a few days to see initial activity. After that, rather than decanting each step I just kept adding additional wort in stages until it made a 2L starter that was left to ferment out. Saved a ton of time, did not appear to have adverse effect. Was left with a healthy two finger layer of beautiful beige yeast at the bottom of the flask. This was split and cold crashed for use on my next batch and one for storage.

Man, that is hungry yeast! The first brew attenuated well, from 1.064 down to 1.006 in 6 days.

 

[rtstrider]

You aren't kidding! I pitched the yeast around 9am today and had/have a hefty krausen as of 11am! Krausen is still hefty and that's on a stir plate! Hoping it's fermented out before it's bed time. That way I can get more yeast pitched/started tomorrow night. Then it's supposedly the amount of what's in a 95% viable or so smack pack. Figure I'll divide that in two and build it up in a 2L starter in hopes for brewing Sunday!

 

[rtstrider]

btw you just gave me an idea in regards to hurrying up the step up process! Instead of decanting I'll just add 500 ml of 1.080 wort in the morning (so this will make up 1L of 1.040 wort) and add that to the starter and so forth. Will def decant the starter before pitching. That will definitely make it so I can brew this weekend. After using a yeast calc this will work out perfectly anywho since the end goal will be a 2 liter starter

 

[MoonBrewer]

^^^ exactly! This has worked well for me. Some will say the crash cooling stresses the yeast, so stepping up the existing starter with fresh wort should keep them happy, stress free little buggers.

 

[rtstrider]

Just separated this into two jars. Each jar is estimated to be around 48 billion cells. Building up one jar over the next few days in prep for brew day Sunday! Got some unflavored infant simethicone drops for this go around so the Krausen shouldn't be as crazy. Never used this stuff but it seems to be the go to (Essentially is fermcap s) for the starter blow up issues. Anywho brulosophy recommends one drop in the starter so that's what's going in

 

[rtstrider]

The simethicone drops helped but only seemed to help when there was krausen. Aka one drop on the krausen knocked it down. Anywho I pitched the starter (1.5L) into the 5 gallon batch last night and it's bubbling away nicely. I was worried at first about off flavors from the larger starter but then I came across

http://brulosophy.com/2016/10/10/decanted-vs-full-yeast-starter-exbeeriment-results/

After reading the comments there are some theories that make sense. The yeast will typically clean up after itself and all that oxygenated wort/stuff in the starter should help the yeast/fermentation I'd think. Other saving grace is this is a 60ish IBU beer (with a 3 oz dry hop) so won't really be able to taste any subtle off flavors.