Can I culture yeast from Juniper Berries?

[COLObrewer]

Fellow home brewers, My name is Vern, It's been about 2 years since my last brew session (beer), 3 weeks ago I developed a yearning, a distant yet familiar yearning to brew beer. I started by looking at all the yeast in the fridge, numerous jars and jugs of saved liquid yeast, all of which are old, very old. I decided to brew first (Pinon Stout) with some dry yeast (Used some Safale of some spec). I saved some of that wort to grow more new yeast for the next batch, which yeast to grow? . . . . . . Lets just take the oldest yeast in the fridge and grow from there. This yeast happened to be my vial of the original juniper yeast, it had very few cells in it, the label says "House yeast 7-1-10, (Original) (Juniper)". After watering down the saved stout wort, I spent the next 2 weeks stepping up the yeast to a large enough sample to brew a moderate beer.

What beer to brew? . . . . . . How about . . . . . a red ale . . . . . . . Ryerish Red sounds good, we brewed it up utilizing the standard procedures of Two Pinons Ranch Brewery Division, after cooling, drained to the better bottle.

Swirled and poured in most of the new yeast and the next morning it was rocking, hmmm, it still works, amazing, it's always amazing to me!

Saved some wort for the next batch of yeast and it is rocking as well.

My name is Vern and it has been ~ 2 years since my last brew session, hope you're all doing great!

 

[COLObrewer]

Hi all! Long time no see.
This red ale wasn't so hot, in fact it was bad, can't really explain the flavour, sort of tastes like worn out yeast thats been filtered through many batches of high gravity fermentations and harvested from only the less flocculant survivors so I believe the usefulness of this 7th or so generation cultured juniper yeast is over.

Edit: After reviewing the last brew session it appears I used a vial of the "original" yeast. Something else went wrong. Maybe I need to . . . . . . . BREW MORE!!!

 

[passedpawn]

Hi all! Long time no see.
This red ale wasn't so hot, in fact it was bad, can't really explain the flavour, sort of tastes like worn out yeast thats been filtered through many batches of high gravity fermentations and harvested from only the less flocculant survivors so I believe the usefulness of this 7th or so generation cultured juniper yeast is over.

Edit: After reviewing the last brew session it appears I used a vial of the "original" yeast. Something else went wrong. Maybe I need to . . . . . . . BREW MORE!!!

Dude!

 

[COLObrewer]

Dude!

You still here?

 

[passedpawn]

You still here?

I am! Old guys, unite!

 

[couchsending]

I just read this whole darn thread. Pretty fun read. Definitely a lot easier to find info on Wild yeast these days as compared to 2010.

It is shocking that you were able to find a wild yeast that was POF- and fermented complex sugars. The likelihood of that happening is insanely low.

 

[jrgtr42]

I just read though the thread as well.
Somewhere on my "To Do / Brew" list is to play around with yeast.
I'm been saving yeasts from my various brews - I miss the vials White Labs would pack their yeast in -
I try to keep them in the back of the fridge, but my wife keeps moving them to the door
I want to try glycerin and freezing - freezer space is a premium now.
|However, I also want to try harvesting wild - we have an Arboretum across the street and I want to see about leaving stuff there for a day or two - at this point it'll have to be next year.
Need to read up on it and get some stuff...