I have a couple of questions regarding yeast. First the back story....
I have a six pack of Great Divides Colette which is bottle conditioned. I know that some breweries bottle condition with a different strand then they ferment with, however I found a clone recipe that someone did on here with harvested bottle yeast and it is confirmed that the bottling yeast is the same as the fermenting yeast.
So my question is, what's the best way to harvest it? I've seen a few different methods online and the preliminary steps have been the same, which is where I'm at. I carefully poured out the beer, left a few ounces of beer/yeast in the bottle, sanitized, and recapped, and put back into the refrigerator.
So it's my understanding that I pretty much make a small starter, let it ferment for a few days, and then make medium starter, pour the original starter into that, let it ferment for a few days, and then repeat until I have enough yeast. Does anyone have specifics on how much DME/water to use and how many steps? Should I cold crash between steps? How do I estimate when I have enough yeast to pitch at a later date?
Now my second question. How long will is last in the fridge? I want to harvest the yeast to be used in a saison (obviously) that I'll brew next March for drinking in May. Should I wake up my yeast after a few months, do some type of fermentation, cold crash it, then use it in March?
I have a six pack of Great Divides Colette which is bottle conditioned. I know that some breweries bottle condition with a different strand then they ferment with, however I found a clone recipe that someone did on here with harvested bottle yeast and it is confirmed that the bottling yeast is the same as the fermenting yeast.
So my question is, what's the best way to harvest it? I've seen a few different methods online and the preliminary steps have been the same, which is where I'm at. I carefully poured out the beer, left a few ounces of beer/yeast in the bottle, sanitized, and recapped, and put back into the refrigerator.
So it's my understanding that I pretty much make a small starter, let it ferment for a few days, and then make medium starter, pour the original starter into that, let it ferment for a few days, and then repeat until I have enough yeast. Does anyone have specifics on how much DME/water to use and how many steps? Should I cold crash between steps? How do I estimate when I have enough yeast to pitch at a later date?
Now my second question. How long will is last in the fridge? I want to harvest the yeast to be used in a saison (obviously) that I'll brew next March for drinking in May. Should I wake up my yeast after a few months, do some type of fermentation, cold crash it, then use it in March?