Pacman Yeast Starter Video

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o, not to be redundant, but...If I take the bottom 1/4 from the 2 Shakespere Stout I have, combine them (sterilizing everything in contact, of course), add a 16 oz water to 8 oz DME wort, cooled, bung and airlock...I should have pacman to repitch when? and do I have the process correct? This will be my 1st yeast harvest
 
I usually just make x- light DME wort for starters per wikki. Then step up daily until I have the quantity desired. It might work a little faster for me since I use a stirplate. Last starter I made was from 1 bottle of Three Philosophers, after 5 days I have 1 1/4 inches in the bottom of a 1/2 gallon jug.
 
Revvy said:
And then you plan on slanting them and sending us each one, right? :ban:
Click to expand...

Sorry Revvy I got to Rogue kind of late last night and as you would imagine there wasn't anyone working in the brewery on a Saturday night :drunk: so no yeast for me :( I'll try getting some next time.
 
beerthirty said:
I usually just make x- light DME wort for starters per wikki. Then step up daily until I have the quantity desired. It might work a little faster for me since I use a stirplate. Last starter I made was from 1 bottle of Three Philosophers, after 5 days I have 1 1/4 inches in the bottom of a 1/2 gallon jug.
Click to expand...

So I am trying to create a yeast cake in a bottle to pitch, right? When I have one starting, then what? Swirl it up and put it in mason jars like the washing video until it seperates?
 
Rogue Pacman Ale Yeast

Found a site that's selling the Activator packs as well as the Dead Guy clone kit. Kinda pricey at $8.99 + shipping, compared to ~$6 for a bomber of beer to culture from, but you are guaranteed to get 100% viable yeast.

That being said, I have a culture on my stirrer right now that I started last night from some tasty Shakespeare Stout.
 
hexmonkey said:
Rogue Pacman Ale Yeast

Found a site that's selling the Activator packs as well as the Dead Guy clone kit. Kinda pricey at $8.99 + shipping, compared to ~$6 for a bomber of beer to culture from, but you are guaranteed to get 100% viable yeast.

That being said, I have a culture on my stirrer right now that I started last night from some tasty Shakespeare Stout.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Just ordered it.:tank:
 
decided for my (sort of) 4th brew, to try pacman yeast. I started from a bottle of Shakespeare Stout, I was thinking it would probably go a bit slow because of how cold it is in my house, but it seems to be showing signs of life after just a couple of hours (not a lot of life, but I might be worried if it was.)

*fingers crossed*
 
The next brew that I want to try is Dead Man Ale.
Like many others, I do not have Pacman at my LHBS.
This thread is very informative for me.
When can I know it is a good? the thickness of flocctuate at the bottle of glass jar?

Do I just leave the harvesting jar at room temp with something to cover to prevent contamination? I guess I can put a big stopper with airlock.

After I harvest it, can I just wash with sanitized water and store it in the fridge before my brewing day?



Thanks
 
undallas said:
The next brew that I want to try is Dead Man Ale.
Like many others, I do not have Pacman at my LHBS.
This thread is very informative for me.
When can I know it is a good? the thickness of flocctuate at the bottle of glass jar?

Do I just leave the harvesting jar at room temp with something to cover to prevent contamination? I guess I can put a big stopper with airlock.

After I harvest it, can I just wash with sanitized water and store it in the fridge before my brewing day?



Thanks
Click to expand...

1) yes

2) A stopper or just some sanitized tinfoil

3) Yes...I use preboiled and cooled water.
 
Thanks Revvy...
I'll tell my wife that I need some beers tonight.. although I told her that I would "only" drink my brew from now on... I guess I can tell her that I need to buy a 22oz of liquid yeast rom local grocery store. :)
 
undallas said:
Thanks Revvy...
I'll tell my wife that I need some beers tonight.. although I told her that I would "only" drink my brew from now on... I guess I can tell her that I need to buy a 22oz of liquid yeast rom local grocery store. :)
Click to expand...


Let me clue you in on something n00b :D drinking only your own beer is a myth...You will find that you will actually buy MORE and BETTER (read more expensive) beers....consider it "research." You're going to want to try new and different beers, you are going to want to expand your brewing by brewing new and different styles....and in order to do that You'll need to TRY THE NEW STYLE FIRST, and in multiple commercial versions....

Plus you will want to capture yeast.

AND you will read something here by one of us raving about a beer we just tried and will find yourself drooling on your keyboard and will of course have to stop off on the way home for some of it....

Sorry....better break it to wifey, it's just the nature of the hob...er, Obsession. :D

:mug:
 
Well... that's what I tell her when I started the hobby... but when we go travel, I usually go crazy with local brews... I missed Trader Joe's when I was working at Tucson... They had deal with $1 per bottle beer from different breweries... I think I used to get about 24 bottles home without her complaining too much...Dallas is the mid of bible belt... so many restrictions on alcohol...fortunately, we still have LHBS...

Obsession, it is... wifey is obsess with baking and baking equipments... (kitchneaide, breadmachine... you name it)..

I'm more fascinated with beer manufacturing now...

Time to cultivate some pacman with malta goya tonight... thanks to all the great posts and I have to say that we have a great search engine in the forum. I don't know why some of us gets lazy on using the "search" function.
 
I bought a couple of sixers (12 oz bottles) of Dead Guy but there doesn't appear to be any yeast at the bottom. Are the 22oz bottles the only ones that are bottle conditioned?
 
I have had yeast in all my 6'ers. Not as much as my own brews, but its there. Could of been a rough ride home from the store and the yeast mixed in. I bought some Dead Guy Ale last night and the cashier flopped my sixer hard on its side to get a price off the bottom. That can rouse the yeast. I'm gonna try culturing this yeast tonight. It should have settled by now.
 
I got a 22er of the hazelnut brown nectar because, well I wanted to try it out to see if I want to do the BYO clone, but I also wanted to try and harvest the yeast from the bottle.

Well I looked at all the bottles they had and couldn't find a single one with a slurry at the bottom.

Has anyone harvested Pacman from the hazelnut brown nectar?
 
I know deadguy doesnt work. very small dusting of something on the bottoms. Its only visible with a high intensity flashlight.

Anyway, i poured the last bit of a couple of deadguys into my flask with a starter of DME. Place on stir plate for 3 days and nothing.

thankfully brewmasterswarehouse.com has pacman. I have a DFH 60 clone(thanks Yooper) and a deadguy clone (thanks again yooper) in fermenters. plan on trying my hand at washing the cakes and having pacman always on hand.
 
I harvested some yeast out of a growler of yellow snow Ipa and had it spinning for 48 hr, but i have no activity yet. It does seem like the amount of yeast in the bottom has increased. Here's a pic...
Yeast_Pacman2_2009.jpg
 
The six pack i got had slurry in the bottom. I have poured it into a container. It has settled down and i can see a darker brown slurry at the bottom. I have read that yeast when yeast turns peanut butter color it is bad. Do you think it is worth the time to try to make a starter with it?
 
Sounds like I just stumbled into something. I was following Yooper's DFH 60 min recipe which suggests Pacman, so I went to LHBS to get ingredients and didn't think much of it when I picked up 2 Wyeast packs of Pacman.

Are you folks just harvesting for kicks or can you still not get Pacman in your LHBS?

Was already planning on washing cake from primary and re-using, and only more inspired now.
 
Battery_BreweryNJ said:
I harvested some yeast out of a growler of yellow snow Ipa and had it spinning for 48 hr, but i have no activity yet. It does seem like the amount of yeast in the bottom has increased. Here's a pic...
Yeast_Pacman2_2009.jpg
Click to expand...
It took four or five days for mine to get going but when it did it took off fast. I'm having a glass of Yellow Snow IPA clone that I made up the recipe for. It tastes better than the real thing! I had a very hard time getting it to clear. First I tried gelatin and it barely did anything. A few days later I tried poly-clar and crash cooling to 32* in a cooler of snow and water. It is more clear than the real thing and tastes better too! I dry hopped half an ounce of amarillo and it gave it a better aroma than the Rogue.

Keep patient with the starter. Mine slowly grew more yeast at the bottom and then one morning it was foaming out the airlock.
 
I cooked up a starter last night and pitched the bottom of a Hazelnut nectar bomber and placed on the stir plate. Wish me luck, I will post a pic if there is some luck.
 
No activity to speak of after 24 hours on the stir plate using the hazelnut brown dreg but I think I had too much wort. I had like 1600ml in there.

I went out and could only find a Dead Guy, no one has the Shakespeare stout around here. Anyways, I removed some wort and am down to about 700ml and had to cool the dead guy over night to get the yeasties to the bottom and will try again tonight.
 
humann_brewing said:
No activity to speak of after 24 hours on the stir plate using the hazelnut brown dreg but I think I had too much wort. I had like 1600ml in there.

I went out and could only find a Dead Guy, no one has the Shakespeare stout around here. Anyways, I removed some wort and am down to about 700ml and had to cool the dead guy over night to get the yeasties to the bottom and will try again tonight.
Click to expand...

I was in the same scenario earlier this week. I used 2 22oz. bottles per flask and it took over 48 hours to start.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/harvesting-commericial-yeast-pacman-other-patient-114540/
 
MNBugeater said:
I was in the same scenario earlier this week. I used 2 22oz. bottles per flask and it took over 48 hours to start.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/harvesting-commericial-yeast-pacman-other-patient-114540/
Click to expand...

I did read that and had that in the back of my mind but I was just not confident in bottle harvesting from a hazelnut nectar which I am not sure is bottle conditioned, plus the 1/5 full bottle had been sitting in the fridge recapped for almost a month so I wasn't sure about the whole thing to start so I am really wondering if I should cook up some new wort tonight as well instead of pitching the dead guy dredge into that old wort.
 
Well here is what I have. Do you think I have some healthy pacman going here?

This is after 2 step ups but I am just wondering if this is healthy and pitchable or if this is not what I am looking for. This is my first attempt at harvesting from a bottle.


This is after letting it sit overnight not stiring
P1040903-800.jpg


about 12 hours later
P1040907-800.jpg
 
I know, I know...resurrecting the dead. :rolleyes:

This thread is really inspiring! I've been mulling over the idea of harvesting yeast from bottles...finding this is great timing for me. As you seek, so shall you find...

...maybe I should have said "as you use the search function, so shall you find!"

:mug:

-Tripod
 
RayInUT said:
It took four or five days for mine to get going but when it did it took off fast. I'm having a glass of Yellow Snow IPA clone that I made up the recipe for. It tastes better than the real thing! I had a very hard time getting it to clear. First I tried gelatin and it barely did anything. A few days later I tried poly-clar and crash cooling to 32* in a cooler of snow and water. It is more clear than the real thing and tastes better too! I dry hopped half an ounce of amarillo and it gave it a better aroma than the Rogue.

Keep patient with the starter. Mine slowly grew more yeast at the bottom and then one morning it was foaming out the airlock.
Click to expand...

humann_brewing said:
No activity to speak of after 24 hours on the stir plate using the hazelnut brown dreg but I think I had too much wort. I had like 1600ml in there.

I went out and could only find a Dead Guy, no one has the Shakespeare stout around here. Anyways, I removed some wort and am down to about 700ml and had to cool the dead guy over night to get the yeasties to the bottom and will try again tonight.
Click to expand...

humann_brewing said:
Well here is what I have. Do you think I have some healthy pacman going here?

This is after 2 step ups but I am just wondering if this is healthy and pitchable or if this is not what I am looking for. This is my first attempt at harvesting from a bottle.


This is after letting it sit overnight not stiring
P1040903-800.jpg


about 12 hours later
P1040907-800.jpg
Click to expand...


Gang, let me say this again!!!

Of over a dozen starters with tubes, smakc packs or bottle harvesting, I have ever only seen one Krauzen or "activity ring" and usually no other "activity."

Just like in the fermenter, fermentation isn't always dynamic...It doesn't matter one blip in your fermenter or your starter flask if the airlock bubbles or not (if you are using an airlock and not tinfoil,) or if you see a krauzen.

All that really matters is that creamy band o yeast at the bottom. If you see ANY then you have exactly the activity you are looking for reproduction!!![/b]

If you poured the dregs of a bottle in 2 cups of wort, and it didn't take off you wouldn't have enough sedimentation is the bottom to even really see. So if you stop your stirplate and you SEE SOMETHING ON THE BOTTOM, then it worked. It's the same for a starter form a smack pack or a test tube, the amount of actually creamy yeast in those is about a t-spoon, the rest is liquid wort and fuel, so if you manage to have even a tiny band that crosses the bottom of your vessel enough to see, THEN YOU HAVE REPRODUCED THE YEAST.

Just like in brewing beers, get out of the habit of looking for any other activity "cues" like bubbling airlocks or krausen (though obviously with be you should see a krausen) but the krausen that may form on the top of a starter, may form quite small and rapidly, and if you are spinning your starter may not appear at all but will be dissolved into the liquid by the motion.

Just look for whats on the bottom....

rsz_yeast_starter_chilled_001.jpg


I know that the posts I quoted are old, but it goes back to my pet peeve of people using the word activity...and ignoring the obvious, like sediment just because you didn't see the superfluous "signs of activity" like airlock bubbling or a krausen.....
 
I poured the Dregs from a bottle of Rogue into 2 cups of 1.040 wort in a growler and it's been 5 days and I have seen no activity and more importantly no white creamy yeast at the bottom. I do see some darker sediment but it doesn't look like healthy yeast.
 
Revvy said:
Looks good to me.
Click to expand...

Thanks Revvy, never worked with this stuff before and my first time reviving yeast from a bottle, seems to have gone pretty easy. Pitched it into 2 cups of 1.040 wort a week ago, added another 2 cups today.
 
hopsoda said:
Has anyone got deadguy to work? I'm reading mixed answers on here.
Click to expand...

I AM in fact getting yeast from dead guy. It's just a small dusting 24 hrs later, so as soon as I have enough to get a picture of, I'll post. But I AM raising yeast from the dregs of 2 dead guy 22's.
 

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