Kellerweis Harvest is a Killer

So I thought I'd give my stirplate a try with harvesting yeasts.

Bought a 6'er of Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis and pitched the dregs into about 1L of 1.040, chilled and decanted after 2 days. Re-pitched into 1.6L and this thing took off in a few hours. Pitched to my interpretation of the kellerweis: (grains I had on hand)

5# white wheat
4# Pale 2-row
1# Pilsner 2-row
0.5# Munich

Mash @ 154 for 60min, batch sparge
0.75oz Sterling @ 60min
zest from 1 small lime @ 20min

Measured OG: 1.052 (inefficient brew day...new stuff)

Pitched fully active 1.6L slurry in at 7p on 12/28... Blew the airlock off by 2a! It was very messy and just exploding with activity and did this all day yesterday 12/29. This morning I was able to take the blow-off tube off and put the airlock back on and measured SG of 1.012... In about 36 hrs!

The yeast smells amazing, a little sulfury as expected, but spot on for the SN unique yeast character. Its been cold for us here in Socal after the storms so the temp remained from 62-66 degrees the whole fermentation.

So... is the fermentation really just about done already? This yeast is one hungry strain... Either way I'm leavin it in the primary for at least 6 days, then to a seconday glass carboy for a week or two.

Just thought I'd share. Happy Brewing.

Sounds pretty fun.

It seems like every post I see about this yeast, it's doing something else crazy.

I tried brewing several times with that yeast. Never managed to make a decent wheat; just nothing exciting. I might try one more time, but bump the temp to mid 70s just to see what happens.

Agree, yeast smells great.

Good luck.

So just to update (forgot to...)

It ended up in the primary for 8 days (bumped temp to mid 70's for the last 4 days or so), secondary for 12 days and kegged. keg conditioned @ about 55-60 degrees for about two weeks. Served it the week before SuperBowl and it was a hit! This recipe turned out way better than I had imagined. Not quite SN Kellerweis, not as phenolic but still pretty strong with banana/clove.

All in all, a VERY good experiment. Didn't save my yeast (dumb, I know...) but this is def a recipe that I will be doing again.

Cheers!