Harvesting Yeast

[rponcejr]

I have been reading about using yeast from beer to use for yeast in home brew. My question is does it matter which beer you use in harvesting yeast for certain types of beers. Could you use yeast from shiner for an IPA as example. Does it matter? Is it worth the experiment. Or safer just to stick with yeast from an IPA for an IPA home brew.

 

[flars]

It won't make a difference with the flavor of the next beer unless you pitch a huge amount of trub with the harvested yeast.


edit: Missed that about harvesting from a commercial beer rather than bottle of home brew.

 

[m00ps]

I think you are a bit confused on a few things. The main thing you need to be concerned about is the specific type of yeast you are harvesting. The yeast in a Belgian Dubbel for example, is going to be a belgian strain (unless the brewery filters and adds a champagne yeast or something). So this Belgian strain is going to produce typical belgian yeast esters that you wouldn;t want (per style at least) in something like a stout or american wheat.

Typically, a brewery will have a "house" yeast that they use for a number, if not all, their beers. In this case, its probably a good bet to make anything similar to a number of their different beers using that same harvested yeast. The main thing still is knowing what yeast you are harvesting

 

[Yooper]

I have been reading about using yeast from beer to use for yeast in home brew. My question is does it matter which beer you use in harvesting yeast for certain types of beers. Could you use yeast from shiner for an IPA as example. Does it matter? Is it worth the experiment. Or safer just to stick with yeast from an IPA for an IPA home brew.

Remember that many beers don't have yeast in the bottles, as they are force carbonated and bottled and not bottle conditioned. I've never seen yeast in a bottle of Shiner.

 

[Aristotelian]

Just to be clear, you are talking about harvesting yeast from dregs of commercial bottles? Yes, in general you would want to harvest from a similar bottle to the type that you want to brew.

You have to do some research to make sure the yeast will work. Some brewers pasteurize their beer and/or use a different yeast (such as a wine yeast) for bottling that might not produce the same kind of beer.

If you want to do an IPA, I would recommend using yeast from Bell's Two Hearted Ale, as they are easy to get and confirmed to bottle condition with their own house yeast.

 

[Floydmeister]

Just to be clear, you are talking about harvesting yeast from dregs of commercial bottles? Yes, in general you would want to harvest from a similar bottle to the type that you want to brew.

You have to do some research to make sure the yeast will work. Some brewers pasteurize their beer and/or use a different yeast (such as a wine yeast) for bottling that might not produce the same kind of beer.

If you want to do an IPA, I would recommend using yeast from Bell's Two Hearted Ale, as they are easy to get and confirmed to bottle condition with their own house yeast.

I can second Bell's yeast. I recently harvested their strain from a 6 pack of amber ale.

OP's question seems to also be about which strains will work in what. Really there is no limit but you should pick a strain that matches what you want to accomplish. Is it a clean/neutral beer you want? Harvest from something similar, like rogue's ale strain. Do you want extra character? Etc. The only thing that really won't work so well is specialty strains. A hefeweizen yeast for example in anything else is unlikely to work very well as it has low flocculation and will impart an overwhelming amount of yeast character. Belgian styles are a bit off on their own as well.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

if yeast is in commercial beer it might be a different yeast that was used for carbonation not fermentation, but like above its very slim that yeast is still in a commercial bottle they filter and chill out most of it

 

[enkamania]

I'm doing my first of harvested yeast from some bottles of Rogue and so far so good.

 

[rponcejr]

Okay thanks for the help.