2016 Oberon - Anyone Harvesting the Yeast?

[ryanryates]

Started a small starter last week - dregs from 2 bottles into 200 ml of 1.02 starter. After 3 days fermentation completed and stepped up to 1000 (including the 250) in 1.03 starter. Moved up to 2000 ml starter on the stir plate last night. Great krausen and quick fermentation. Very pleased with the results. Plan to use as house yeast from now on.

 

[jpb2716]

Hey guys,

So I'd like to brew this coming Sunday using harvested Oberon yeast. My question is, will I have enough time to step up a starter enough to use six days from now? I have a six pack of Oberon so I could harvest the yeast from all of them and get the starter going tonight.

The brew will be 5.5 gallons with a OG of around 1.050.

Thanks guys!

 

[JonM]

Plenty of time. Got a stir plate?

 

[oujens]

Hey guys,

So I'd like to brew this coming Sunday using harvested Oberon yeast. My question is, will I have enough time to step up a starter enough to use six days from now? I have a six pack of Oberon so I could harvest the yeast from all of them and get the starter going tonight.

The brew will be 5.5 gallons with a OG of around 1.050.

Thanks guys!

The second page of this thread has a link to Bells instruction on how to harvest their yeast from the bottle. Maybe someone else can confirm, but I think after that second step you would need to do a regular starter to get the proper amount of yeast for pitching. Seems like your timeline would be pushing it. I would delay a week if possible to give enough time for building up the yeast.

I just threw 2 bottles of bells into a 100 ml starter and got activity after 2 days. There are still signs of activity after 4 days since pitching. Building up yeast from a bottle takes time, and I would much rather the yeast have time to do their thing than rush it for a brew session. I'm sure our patience will be rewarded.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Hey guys,

So I'd like to brew this coming Sunday using harvested Oberon yeast. My question is, will I have enough time to step up a starter enough to use six days from now? I have a six pack of Oberon so I could harvest the yeast from all of them and get the starter going tonight.

The brew will be 5.5 gallons with a OG of around 1.050.

Thanks guys!

I think you'll be just fine. I did mine over the course of a week, and started with a 6 pack using each of the bottles to start with.

 

[JonM]

I've gone from a single bottle's dregs to a 1 liter starter full of healthy yeast in 3 or 4 days. 150 ml of 1.040 wort, step up to 1 L after 36 hours or so.

You'll even have a couple days to cold crash the starter.

 

[JJack887]

^^ That's how you do it.

 

[jpb2716]

Plenty of time. Got a stir plate?

I've gone from a single bottle's dregs to a 1 liter starter full of healthy yeast in 3 or 4 days. 150 ml of 1.040 wort, step up to 1 L after 36 hours or so.

You'll even have a couple days to cold crash the starter.

Yes, I have a stir plate.

This will be my first time harvesting yeast so I want to make sure I do it right. I'll probably have the dregs of four bottles tonight. How big of a starter should I start with? I'm assuming I'll still shoot for 1.040?

Thanks!

 

[Oldskewl]

I harvested the dregs of 3 bottles last night to do a 2 hearted clone. I hope 6 month old bottles of Oberon will do the job. They have been in the fridge for about 4+ months. I started with 250mL of 1.030 for 2 days on the stir plate. Will then step up to 2L of 1.040 for a 18+ hours. Fingers crossed!!

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I still have dregs from my batch from March or whatever. I'll be using them in my next batch. Let us know how yours works out Oldskewl

 

[SGTSparty]

I harvested the dregs of 3 bottles last night to do a 2 hearted clone. I hope 6 month old bottles of Oberon will do the job. They have been in the fridge for about 4+ months. I started with 250mL of 1.030 for 2 days on the stir plate. Will then step up to 2L of 1.040 for a 18+ hours. Fingers crossed!!

I just more or less did the same thing. My two hearted has been in primary a week today. The starters definitely created more yeast, went from almost nothing (dregs of 3 bottles) to looking like a regular old starter. I haven't checked on the gravity of my batch yet because my recipe calls for leaving it in primary for a month but i have high hopes.

 

[ImNoExpert]

Is this strain the same as Liberty's strain (I think Wyeast American II)?

 

[JonM]

Similar, but not the same. WLP051 is also similar.

 

[Dcpcooks]

Guy at the LHBS told me Bells adds US05 at bottling time to bottle condition their beers, their "house" strain is filtered out prior to that. He said one of their reps told him that. Not sure how accurate that is, but that was what he told me

Nope, they list instructions on their web site on how to spin up their yeast.

http://bellshomebrew.tumblr.com/post/66974707212/how-to-culture-bells-house-yeast-from-a-bottle

 

[Oldskewl]

I just more or less did the same thing. My two hearted has been in primary a week today. The starters definitely created more yeast, went from almost nothing (dregs of 3 bottles) to looking like a regular old starter. I haven't checked on the gravity of my batch yet because my recipe calls for leaving it in primary for a month but i have high hopes.

That is good news. How old were your dregs? Looking at mine in 250mL I really can't tell if anything is going on. I'm hoping I can see more activity in the larger 2L starter.

 

[SGTSparty]

The bottles i harvested from were bought in like mid April and have been sitting in my kegerator since. With the first step starter (I think I made 1 2L and split it into 500 ml and 1500 ml IIRC) I couldn't really tell what was going on until I cold crashed it. I went like 18 hours spinning, cold crash for like 24 hours at 38f decanted most of the beer, added the remaining 1500 ml I had stored in the kegerator in mason jars, spun for another 12 hours, cold crashed over night, decanted and pitched. Once I cold crashed the first step i new I had something and by the time I cold crashed the 2nd step It didn't look any different than a normal starter at that stage.

So slightly off topic but I thought about this after I pitched. Does anyone know if Bell's uses the same house strain for all beers? My 2 hearted clone came out great the first time but I always wonder if they used a wheat specific strain for Oberon vs. an ale strain for most others.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Yeah they use the same strain, at least for just about every beer. I've seen this somewhere but I just can't recall where. It is the same for at least the great majority of their beers though.

Definitely the same for oberon and two hearted

 

[JonM]

Yep, I've harvested from Oberon, Best Brown, Third Coast Beer, Amber, even from the porter.

The Sparkling Ale, Hell Hath No Fury and Winter White are different.

 

[SGTSparty]

Yeah they use the same strain, at least for just about every beer. I've seen this somewhere but I just can't recall where. It is the same for at least the great majority of their beers though.

Definitely the same for oberon and two hearted

Yep, I've harvested from Oberon, Best Brown, Third Coast Beer, Amber, even from the porter.

The Sparkling Ale, Hell Hath No Fury and Winter White are different.

Cool. Thanks for the feedback guys. I knew they had a house strain and I knew my last 1/2 Livered (2 hearted clone) came out really well but I just wanted to make sure I asked.

 

[Oldskewl]

The bottles i harvested from were bought in like mid April and have been sitting in my kegerator since. With the first step starter (I think I made 1 2L and split it into 500 ml and 1500 ml IIRC) I couldn't really tell what was going on until I cold crashed it. I went like 18 hours spinning, cold crash for like 24 hours at 38f decanted most of the beer, added the remaining 1500 ml I had stored in the kegerator in mason jars, spun for another 12 hours, cold crashed over night, decanted and pitched. Once I cold crashed the first step i new I had something and by the time I cold crashed the 2nd step It didn't look any different than a normal starter at that stage.

So slightly off topic but I thought about this after I pitched. Does anyone know if Bell's uses the same house strain for all beers? My 2 hearted clone came out great the first time but I always wonder if they used a wheat specific strain for Oberon vs. an ale strain for most others.

I'm a little worried. Stepped mine up to 1.5L last night and spun on the stir-plate all night(. I did have some technical difficulties - boilover when making the wort for the starter.This morning things were looking pretty calm in the flask. I hope it wakes up while I'm at work today. Or I may need to see if the LHBS has some WLP051 which I understand is very close. I have tons of Harvested 1318 in the fridge. That may be last resort.

 

[JonM]

Probably took off and finished overnight.

 

[SGTSparty]

Probably took off and finished overnight.

Yeaup. This. Someone just posted a thread about a stir plate starter time lapse from their Go-Pro. IIRC fermentation was basically done in like 4 hours? only difference from the first shots and the last shots was the later ones were a big cloudier. I'll update this post when I find the link. But you're probably fine. Like i said in my earlier post, you really don't notice anything until you cold crash it anyways.

Update: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=591353

 

[Oldskewl]

Yeah I saw that thread. Really shocked me. One thing that has me concerned is that my starters usually have some froth on the top surface. This one has none(The first 250mL had some). Maybe it has to do with my boil over. I used too small of a pot and when I added DME to the boiling water I had a major boil-over. It was my first time making wort from DME, I have always used Fast Pitch.

 

[SGTSparty]

try using ferm cap in your DME boil and also, I whisk the DME in cold, then turn the heat up, keeps from boiling over and also keeps the steam from making everything so GD sticky. I've heard either helps/works but I've only used them together, never get a crazy hot break/boil over and they still work as starter just fine.

 

[Oldskewl]

try using ferm cap in your DME boil and also, I whisk the DME in cold, then turn the heat up, keeps from boiling over and also keeps the steam from making everything so GD sticky. I've heard either helps/works but I've only used them together, never get a crazy hot break/boil over and they still work as starter just fine.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[A2HB]

I never did make that starter from the 2 hearted dregs but seeing this thread has inspired me to actually give it a try this time. I have three cans of 2 hearted in the fridge so in the next few days or so I'm going to give this a shot and build some of this yeast up.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I never did make that starter from the 2 hearted dregs but seeing this thread has inspired me to actually give it a try this time. I have three cans of 2 hearted in the fridge so in the next few days or so I'm going to give this a shot and build some of this yeast up.

How do you think you'll harvest the yeast from cans? I've never tried that but have wondered how difficult it may be.

 

[Oldskewl]

Well my Oberon yeast harvest seemed to fail. Either I didn't give the yeast enough time to step up, my botched attempt at making wort for the starter did me in, or the 6+ month old yeast did not have enough viable cells left. After 28 hours I did not see any sign of fermentation going on. I threw some 1318 on the stirplate before I went to bed just in case and ended up pitching it in last night. Oh well it won't be Two Hearted but it will still be beer. Lessons learned. Next time I will harvest and step up much sooner.