Rogue Proprietary Pacman Yeast

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permo

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Suprisingly enough for how much beer I have drank and brewed in my life tonight I had my first rogue brew. I bought a sixer of the dead guy ale. I can't believe it's an ale. Really nice maibock, german octoberfest thing going on. So I went online and found that they use "pacman" yeast. I thought enough of this beer that I decided to harvest the yeast from the sediment on the bottom of the bottles. I made up a starter and am decanting the yeast from the bottles into the room temp starter after the yeast warms to room temp.


I looked it up and this yeast is supposed to ferment like crazy and tolerate 45-75 degree fermentation temps?

Does anybody have any experience with this yeast? Sounds to me like the best of both worlds! Ferment cold if you want clean crisp lager, ferment warmer for ales.

wish me luck on my yeast harvesting...:tank::tank::tank:
 
I haven't hearf 45 degrees but John Maier has said in interviews of The BN's Can You Brew It that it will go as low as 55. I know the Rogue stout is easily found and has live Pacman for harvesting. Also Wyeast has Pacman seasonally. It really is a maltose mowing monster.
 
My impressions are the same as yours. It sounds like a miracle yeast. I can tell you that I have brewed two beers with it. One is a dead guy clone which is carbonating and I will get to taste it in a few weeks. The other is an IPA which is still blowing off. You should know, however, that wyeast sells it. You don't have to culture it from the bottle. I am going to keep it going as my house yeast, provided I like the results, for as long as I can.
 
bottle harvested pacman at work, it can be done.

P1040916-800.jpg


P1040915-800.jpg
 
Man, I am excited. I currently have my house ale yeast which I derrived from S-04 and US-05 fermented together, Kolsch and nottingham washed yeast jars in my refrigerator. I think the pacman will be a nice addition.......outside of that I think I would like a nice belgian strain. Any reccomendations?

It sounds to me like this pacman yeast is similar to nottingham in its attenuation, floculation and temp range. Am I missing something here?
 
I've been using this for the last couple brews. So far I'm liking the results. I'm fermenting at 60 and doing a ramp up to 64 at the end. One thing about this yeast is that it flocculates like crazy and has the consistency of thick peanut butter. I had to scrape the bottom of the container to harvest the yeast.

You can buy the yeast from http://www.homebrewheaven.com/
 
I used it on a brew that has just finished up. It will work well until about 54ish degrees in my little experimentation. After that, it will go dormant. From what I've read, Rogue uses it at different temps for different beers. Makes sense since yeasts tend to do different things and have different reactions at different temps.

And I started mine from a few bottles of mocha porter. Worked well.
 
I have used the Wyeast Pacman purchaed locally at Homebrew Heaven. I did not try to drive it down to low temps but did a standard ferment on a mid gravity IPA at about 67-68 deg.

Pacman is an aggressive fermentor and chewed several gravity points lower than I would have gotten with say a Cali Ale yeast like WLP001/Wyeast 1056. Like I said I had a mid gravity IPA that BeerSmith projected to go to about 1.015 on finish, which is about what I would have expected with Cali Ale. I think the Pacman took it to 1.012. It had a good amount of crystal so it still had a good taste. So be prepared for a strong ferment, likely blowoff, and a somehwhat dry finished product.
 
So can you possibly manage the amount of attenuation with mash temp and fermentation temp? I really like the flavor profile of deadguy, it has the munich backbone that i can easily recognize, but there as an earthy almost dirt like tone to it that I can't think but comes from the yeast. I can't wait to get my hands on a cake of this stuff to wash. I hope my yeast farming works!

I have another question about brewing this beer. I will give it two weeks on primary at 60 degrees or so...what do I do after that? Bottle and age? I am thinking I lager it for 6 weeks but that is just me. What do you think?
 
Several folks have brewed it. Just do a quick search on the recipe. You'll get more tips and tricks than you care to.

And yes, this yeast does different things at different temps. The mash temp, of course, affects the body and overall fermentability of the wort. Manage both well and you can make a great beer.

Here's Yooper's:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/dead-guy-clone-extract-ag-see-note-25902/
 
Want to be evil?

Make a hefeweizen with 1/2 pacman and 1/2 Wyeast 3068.

Be prepared for a volcano of blowoff. Results will be freaking wonderful.
but I didn't tell you that.

sssshhhhhhhh.
 
When considering fermenting temperature, keep in mind that this can be aggressive yeast. I just transferred a RIS to secondary (wood and dry hopping) after a month in the primary. It took that long before I was convinced it was done. Gravity went from 1.090 to 1.018. During the height of fermentation the ambient temperature in my fermenator was 52-54 degrees and the wort temperature was 65!
 
bummer, there is no activity in my yeast starter this morning. I was hoping to see something. I guess I'll keep stirring it and hope for the best.
 
permo said:
bummer, there is no activity in my yeast starter this morning. I was hoping to see something. I guess I'll keep stirring it and hope for the best.
Click to expand...

There is very little activity with making starters, rarely do they bubble, even more rarely is there a krausen that we see. The only true activity that most of us see is just a creamy band at the bottom when it flocculates out.

Starters are some of the most "un-exciting" fermentations ever.

rsz_yeast_starter_chilled_001.jpg


That one is cold crashed, but even if it is a t room temp, you should see the sediment in the bottom. I use a stirplate, but usually stop it a few hours early to let it settle.

remilard said:
Dead guy is filtered. Get a Brutal Bitter or Shakespeare Stout.
Click to expand...

But as you well know, MANY folks have grown enough yeast out of dead guy's on their own, despite it being filtered.

Though I agree with you about using other rogues than deadguy. Personally Permo, I have never just used deadguy, I usually use it in combination with at least one bomber of shakespeare stout, or brutal bitter. In fact rarely these days do I try harvesting from just one bottle, I'll usually hedge my bet and do a few bottles of something. My record was 12 hoegaarden bottles.
 
I used the sediment from four bottles of deadguy. We shall see what happens. I think maybe tonight I will get a 6 pack of brutal bitter and just keep adding yeasties.

Let's say that i am not successful in capturing some of this yeast....is nottingham fermented cool a good substitute?
 
If your harvest doesn't work out, I asked about Pacman last week at my LHBS and they said it'll be on sale in Jan and Feb.
 
+1 if your having trouble bottle harvesting the yeast, Pacman is being sold right now by a couple on line HBS's. Just google it. It may not be quite as satisfying as pulling some out of a bottle, but it is much easier.
 
weirdboy said:
I don't get it. I've never had trouble harvesting yeast from a bottle.
Click to expand...

I am starting to get a little peaved here. the harvest from the dead guy ale didn't work. SO I brewed up a new starter and bought a 22 oz bottle of unfiltered brutal bitter.......I poured the yeast sediment into the starter so let's see what happens. Nothing after the first 3 hours.

I am not super concerned becaue I think nottingham can be used in a very similar mannner.
 
The Brutal Bitter culture is probably going to work. That bottle had at least 1000 times as much yeast as the Dead Guy bottle.
 
Brew-boy said:
Someone on here said Dead guy was filtered...
Click to expand...

They sure did...hence the purchase of the unfiltered brutal bitter.

I will say that I didn't think the brutal bitter was all that special. The dead guy was unique for sure...the brutal bitter was good but pretty run of the mill.
 
permo said:
I am starting to get a little peaved here. the harvest from the dead guy ale didn't work. SO I brewed up a new starter and bought a 22 oz bottle of unfiltered brutal bitter.......I poured the yeast sediment into the starter so let's see what happens. Nothing after the first 3 hours.

I am not super concerned becaue I think nottingham can be used in a very similar mannner.
Click to expand...

PacMan is a mutant of the Sierra Nevada strain, which is a mutant of Nottingham. So White Labs 001 California Ale Yeast or Wyeast 1056 will be closer than Nottingham.
 
I harvested from a dead guy or two a year or so ago, then brewed 2 or 3 batches of IPA's from it. It was great. Definitely one of my favorites!
 
Pacman is now available! I'm planning on doing a St Rogue's Red Ale clone with it. Has anyone ever used the clone recipe printed in BYO?
 

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