Collecting commercial yeast?

[gigidogg]

I just bought a bottle of Hennepin, one of my favorite beers, and I'd like to try culturing the yeast from the sediment in the bottle. The question is, do I just make a starter and pour the sediment in it to increase the yeast count? Secondly, can I take the finished starter and use a similar technique to this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=41768 to store the yeast?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I normally leave a good 1/2 inch or so in the bottle.

Yes, make a small starter and pour in the sediment from the bottle. Since you're dealing with what could be very small quantity of viable yeast you may have to step up your starter a couple of times in order to get enough to wash/store or pitch.

 

[gigidogg]

Thanks for the input. I've got a 2000ml flask that I use for my starters. Should I just start with ~500ml starter at ~1.040, let it krausen up, then start adding similar gravity bolus's to it?

 

[Brewsmith]

I wouldn't go more than the 500mL. Maybe go even half that, say 250mL, and then step that up to the 2L.