Pacman progress my first bottle harvest

[H22W]

I started this 6 days ago from a 22oz bomber of Rogue Mom Hefeweizen.

I left the dregs of the Hefeweizen in the bottle and added about 12oz of 1.020 wort shot O2 down the bottle neck then shook. An hour or so later added more O2. A few hours later it started fissing and showing signs of life.

Bubbles in this photo are from shaking as this step is not very bubbly.




Two days later I cold crashed over night then stepped it up to about 1L of 1.030 which it ripped through in a hurry!
Still not visibly very active.





Cold crashed over night, and then yesterday I stepped it up to 2L of 1.040. After about an hour in the 1.040 I had planned to add more O2 but it was already fissing CO2. So here we are 24 hours later looking like I will have plenty of Pacman for Saturday's brew!

 

[iceemone]

Solid! I've been wanting to do this. Awesome write up. Keep us posted on how it works out.

 

[pabloj13]

Nice work!

 

[H22W]

I wanted some extra for future brews I am planning, so I stepped it up to 1 gallon of 1.040.

Cold crashed overnight this photo is after about 10 hours without any shaking or agitation. Quite active fermentation!



after cold crashing this pacman yeast seems to be very gooey almost like peanut butter.

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

I started a pacman harvest project recently too, but in my case i swished some warm pre-boiled water in a Hazelnut Brown Nectar bottle and added it to a mixture of warm pre-boiled water and a not carefully measured amount of DME in a 500ml erlenmeyer flask on a stir plate, making about 500ml of wort-like substance, stuck an airlock in the neck, and waited.

Fermentation has resulted.

I suppose i should take pictures.

I have a really keen solid state stir plate but it's maximum stir quantity is 800ml. I suppose tomorrow I'll add it to 300ml of some strongish wort-like mixture in a 1000ml erlenmeyer in preparation for an upcoming brew day.

 

[H22W]

Here we are about 12-hrs after pitching half our Pacman starter into a national Homebrew day brown IPA. It is going well at about 60-degrees.





Saving the other half of our Pacman for future brews.

 

[SterlingHopper]

You put the blowoff container into a bucket? Genius! Why didn't I think of this before? *facepalm* Would've saved me the mess 1056 just made with my IPA...

 

[ultravista]

I didn't know Pacman was used to ferment Hefeweizen.

 

[H22W]

I didn't know Pacman was used to ferment Hefeweizen.

They just named it Hefeweizen, but the Rogue version of hefeweizen is not really much like a real hefeweizen.

They listed Pacman on the bottle and my stepup starters had the characteristics of Pacman.

 

[badbrew]

Do you know how old that bottle was? I'm curious if the yeast goes bad after awhile. I tried and failed with 2 bottles.

 

[H22W]

Do you know how old that bottle was? I'm curious if the yeast goes bad after awhile. I tried and failed with 2 bottles.

Yes I would expect younger to be better, but I could not find any date indicated on the Rogue bottles.

It did have visible sediment. It is one of their lower gravity beers so the yeast might have been less stressed.

To help your odds you can try combining multiple bottles.

 

[gmcastil]

Yes I would expect younger to be better, but I could not find any date indicated on the Rogue bottles.

It did have visible sediment. It is one of their lower gravity beers so the yeast might have been less stressed.

To help your odds you can try combining multiple bottles.

Sorry for the thread resurrection, but I figured I'd add in some recent experience here.

Pacman seems to be a lot easier to harvest from bombers like Rogue's chocolate stout than it is from their Dead Guy Ale. I don't know if this is because they filter it or what, but from what I've seen it's a lot easier from those. I've got about what you have in the bottom of that 1 gallon growler, but I had to harvest an entire six-pack of Dead Guy ale in order to get any activity. I've crash cooled it and I'll make a starter with it two days out from my brew day this weekend. Hope this helps.