Commercial Beer Yeast Harvest List

[Revvy]

It surprises me how often I hear this. Many breweries have ONE house yeast.
In order to use a different yeast for bottle conditioning, they would have to keep two yeast strains available, which seems very unlikely to me for many breweries.

I know, it bugs the hell out of me that so many folks repeat this "rote," without even bothering to substantiate it or look at the logic or even the reasons why those (FEW) that do that actually do it.

Very few breweries DON'T use the original strain in their bottles, mostly Belgians disguising their strain, and high grav beers that maybe used a champagne strain to aid in carbonation. Most of the time when we see yeast in the bottles, especially microbreweries like Rogue or even Bell's, it IS the strain.

Most beers have no logical reason to disguise their fermenting strain with another one, so for all intents and purposes you can tend to go with the idea that if it's an american craft beer of moderate gravity that the strain in the bottle IS the fermenting strain. Plus you can usually find online whether or not folks have harvested the yeast for sure. There's a pdf file that lists a ton that I've posted repeatedly here, but you can also type a google phrase like "harvesting yeast from beer X" and you'll see threads about it.

 

[Revvy]

Anyone reporting back on harvesting from NB Fat Tire. I got some of their yeast a couple years back when they were selling it in limited release from, White Labs, I think. I loves the yeast but didn't save/wash any so now I want to try and propigate some.

IIRC, one of our former members, Decojuicer was successful in harvesting Fat tire yeast several years ago.

 

[Revvy]

Revvy, how did the Hoegaarden strain turn out?

Sorry I missed this question.

This old answer should give you an idea.

One thing I have found that helps in successful harvesting, is to use the slurry from multiple bottles of the same beer. I did a really successful Hoegaarden harvest from 12 bottles. What I would do is after pouring the beer into a glass, I would spray the lip of the bottle with starsan and then re-cap with a sanitized cap. Then store in the fridge until I had enough bottles. Then on harvest day I would spray the caps again with starsan, open them, flame the lip of the bottles, and re-spray with sanitizer, then pour the dregs into my starter.

I ended up with 2 good sized mason jars with yeast. It's made some really tasty wits since then.

 

[Tinga]

I got yeast from the dark horse amber ale. They say it's ALMOST a belgian yeast. I like that beer.

 

[kyleobie]

I have a New Glarus spotted cow going right now. Not sure if it is the primary or bottling strain yet. Starter started within about for hours of adding the wort to the bottle. I will update with how this one turns out.

How'd this go?

 

[kappclark]

If the bottle is old beware that the yeast remaining may be pretty stressed and you may be selecting for yeast with mutations that are not going to be beneficial for brewing. My first rescued yeast was from a Stone IPA that had sat around quite a while in the warm and I seem to have grown up something that produced a lot of off flavors. I also just heard second hand that Stone uses a different bottling yeast. Not sure if that is the case but it is worth considering the possibility.

Great to know - I was just given 6 varieties of Stone, and not sure which one (s) to try and harvest from...do you think the off flavors are from the conditions or from the yeast itself ?

I will try to harvest from the IPA in any case..

 

[Brewitt]

Try several. In any case it will be fun to drink them prior to harvesting. Love those brews. I got very little live yeast out of the bottle that I harvested from and I think there was a contaminating bug in there. If you get yeast growing up well in a short amount of time it is probably not a concern. I did look at the yeast that grew up in my bottles after discovering the problem and noticed that there were normal sized brewing yeast and a very small yeastlike organism in the culture. Not sure that was the culprit but I suspect it was. You probably don have a microscope but that's one way to tell whether you have a contaminant.

Subsequently I have only been harvesting yeast from bottles that have been purchased cold and have lots of live yeast.

 

[kappclark]

Starting tonight with Arrogant Batard Ale...

 

[-TPM-]

I've harvested from Pyramid Hefeweizen.

 

[DrDarwin]

Sorry I missed this question.

This old answer should give you an idea.

Thank you for the detailed response! I'm definitely going to try this the next time I'm thinking of making a wit.

 

[zrule]

Harvested from Oaked Arragant Bastard and grew some yeast from the dregs of one bottle in two and a half days. Just ramped it up today.

 

[ChillWill]

I brewed today so thought why not have a go at harvesting!

Took some wort before final hop addition, filtered it so it's really clear, boiled it 15 with yeast nutrient for 5, cooled it and added the dregs of a delirium tremens.

Issues I expect:
1) still debate on whether it's the primary yeast or bottling strain
2) that yeast has been sitting in an 8.5% beer for over a year, it's probably not it's strongest
3) I added it to 300ml wort, didn't check what the ideal amount was as it's only for fun.

If it works I'll step it up. I'm making an arrogant bastard type brew next weekend, maybe take a gallon or so of that and pitch into it for my own entertainment. If it never gets going I won't be upset, the tremens was still delicious!

 

[imtrashed]

Does anyone know if the 3 different Chimay beers use all the same yeast?

 

[Glossolalia]

"mostly Belgians disguising their strain"

I'm curious as to which Belgians are known to do this.

 

[Glossolalia]

I'll add to my previous list: Jandrain-Jandrenouille V and KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren Saison D'Erpe-Mere.

 

[Brewitt]

Issues I expect:
1) still debate on whether it's the primary yeast or bottling strain
2) that yeast has been sitting in an 8.5% beer for over a year, it's probably not it's strongest
3) I added it to 300ml wort, didn't check what the ideal amount was as it's only for fun.
!

Starting with the premise that you don't really care that much and that it is fun to see what happens but thinking you would like to know the answers anyway, I have a few thoughts.

1) no idea about DT and bottling strains
2) This is not good. The yeast is likely mostly dead and the remaining may be altered genetically. Also, when the yeast are few the probability of other things growing up is higher.
3) Probably best to start with small volumes so that any yeast that have a chance to grow will outcompete other things by getting a good headstart. I would think no more than 25 mls (a couple tablespoons?). The best way is probably to plate out on a petri dish if you have the ability. Otherwise small volumes, then increasing 5-10 fold when you have a culture up and growing. You might want to take a good whiff to make sure it smells like something you recognize before pitching a big volume.

Just my $0.02. I've had a couple of great experiences and a couple of bad ones. My go to yeast is actually recovered out of a bottle of Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point. Just pitched some into a Russian Imperial Stout today
Have fun!

 

[DanaDana]

Has anyone on this thread done something ridicouls like harvesting yeast from 3-4 differet Unibroue and pitching them ALL into a beer they are making. I know it probably will not matter for a house that uses all the same strain, but there are different companies that use multiple.

Would like to see what people say. I plan to try and harvest a few batched now because well...
1) I'm a cheap bastard
2) It's seems better than giving me a liitle bit of vitamin E or B.

 

[Revvy]

I think I posted in. This thread about using multiple bottles when they harvest. A lot of folks when harvesting pacman get a mixture of different bombers of rogue beers to increase the odds. If its the same yeast strain that's fine.

 

[ChillWill]

Hmmm, the tremens harvest experiment did nothing for 3 days.

Then all of a sudden... it has some foam and bubbles, I give it a shake up and it has some coronation! Smells ok, I'll give it a couple of days, decant and step it up in some wort from what I brew this weekend and see where I'm at.

 

[Accidic]

@Revvy: Wouldn't that only be preferred if they use the same strain in all the beers mishmashed together?

 

[insurgus]

It came up a couple times on a few sites... I know, I don't think so either and that's why it is not confirmed.

I will attempt to confirm this for you next this week.

 

[beergolf]

I just started a harvest of Pranqster yeast last night, using the dregs from 4 bottles.

According to Brew Like a Monk it is not re-yeasted so it should be the same strain. There was plenty of yeast in the bottom of the bottles.

I will post back after I brew up a Tripel using it.

 

[Accidic]

I can confirm that as of 3mos ago the New Belgium Fat Tire has no yeast to start from. Tried 3 different batches (4oz per from bottle) and no dice even with some energizer added in the last one. As a side note, the bottles were crystal clear after 3mos in the fridge.

If anyone comes across one of the New Belgium line that uses their strain pls post it. I missed the special release and cloning it keeps her off my back about my other brewing adventures/experiments but I have to make multi-state trips just to get the real stuff. (And mock FT if you want but it/subs helps me stay out of living in Cali so as far as I'm concerned it could taste like baboon sweat and I'd be happy with it.)

 

[imtrashed]

Anyone know if Chimay uses the same yeast in all 3 (blue, white, red)? Want to harvest some Chimay yeast, and I have all 3 beers. Wondering if I can harvest from all 3 and use them together.

 

[CrayZJ]

Has anybody ever tried harvesting yeast from and of the Southern Tier brews? I've never met a Southern Tier I haven't liked and I've thought about trying to make a Phin & Matt's Clone. It'd be awesome if I could harvest yeast to do so.

 

[bphelan]

Any definitive consensus on whether Stone uses a different yeast for bottling? Harvested yeast from Stone IPA using the dregs from two bottles. I have a decent amount of yeast growing in the starter after about a day and a half. No off-smells but I haven't tasted any of the starter wort to see about off-flavors.

 

[insurgus]

Anyone know if Chimay uses the same yeast in all 3 (blue, white, red)? Want to harvest some Chimay yeast, and I have all 3 beers. Wondering if I can harvest from all 3 and use them together.

Word on the street is they are all the same yeast.

 

[emjay]

Any definitive consensus on whether Stone uses a different yeast for bottling? Harvested yeast from Stone IPA using the dregs from two bottles. I have a decent amount of yeast growing in the starter after about a day and a half. No off-smells but I haven't tasted any of the starter wort to see about off-flavors.

Stone's normal beers just use WLP007 anyways...

But no, I'm pretty sure they don't bottle with a different yeast. In fact, it's absolutely pointless when they're using such a widely available strain.

 

[emjay]

Word on the street is they are all the same yeast.

This is correct.

 

[emjay]

Has anyone on this thread done something ridicouls like harvesting yeast from 3-4 differet Unibroue and pitching them ALL into a beer they are making. I know it probably will not matter for a house that uses all the same strain, but there are different companies that use multiple.

Would like to see what people say. I plan to try and harvest a few batched now because well...
1) I'm a cheap bastard
2) It's seems better than giving me a liitle bit of vitamin E or B.

Unibroue is all the same strain, but this is another example of a strain that can just be bought at the LHBS.