Can I harvest yeast from a 9 year old bottle?

[squash1978]

Here's why I ask.

When I got married, a buddy made a hefeweizen for me that my wife and I put in souvenir bottles and gave away as wedding favors. Fast forward 9 years later and I discovered an unopened case of those bottles in my garage. This gave me the idea to make the same brew and reuse the bottles for our 10th anniversary. Any chance there is still some viable yeast in these bottles? It would be really cool to take this a step further and use the same yeast that was used for the original brew.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Yes there is a chance. Although ultimately I believe it failed because salt water breached the bottle, scientist tried to harvest yeast from a beer found on a 19th century shipwreck. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112534057/19th-century-shipwreck-beer-could-be-recreated/ Whats 9 years? I'd try to get dregs from several bottles and start with low gravity step ups. Good luck!

 

[squash1978]

That's actually a good idea. I hadn't thought about collecting the dregs from multiple bottles. I'll make sure to do that!

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Good luck. Update us if you do it.

 

[squash1978]

Will post an update once I try it. Any advice on the first starter size? Would I want to start small like 500-800 ml?

 

[Riot]

I'd start at like 20ml with 10 times increases from there. Make sure any survivors have a better than fair chance of quickly dominating the wort.

 

[Jayslay]

If it was for any beer you actually care about, just get new yeast. You are trying to revive extremely tired, non-viable and dormant yeast... your results will not be anywhere as good as using fresh yeast, in my opinion. Get a new smack pack and make a large starter and save half.
Or you can spend two weeks stepping up extremely non-viable yeast... and get some decrepit mutants.

 

[squash1978]

If it was for any beer you actually care about, just get new yeast. You are trying to revive extremely tired, non-viable and dormant yeast... your results will not be anywhere as good as using fresh yeast, in my opinion. Get a new smack pack and make a large starter and save half.
Or you can spend two weeks stepping up extremely non-viable yeast... and get some decrepit mutants.

The only reason I'm attempting this is because the yeast is from beer that was brewed for my wedding. I just think it would be cool if I could actually revive some yeast from the bottles and brew a new batch with it.

Of course, if my attempt fails or if I end up reviving some nasty mutant yeast, I'll just get me a vial of fresh yeast.

 

[beergolf]

Or you can spend two weeks stepping up extremely non-viable yeast... and get some decrepit mutants

What a sentimental guy..

I say give it a go and if it works great. You will never know until you try. It would be very cool to have the same yeast for your anniversiary brew.

 

[shanecb]

Hello fellow Pittsburgh resident!

If you have the know how and the space/equipment you could try adding the yeast to an agar petri dish and see if there are any viable colonies. From there you could select them and grow them into a usable amount. Just an idea. I've done it a couple of times and it can be a pain in the ass