Culturing up yeast from SNPA

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rtstrider

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Hello everyone! I'm currently in the process of culturing up some yeast from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. So far it's grown on the first step. I probably should've asked this prior. Do they use the same yeast (Chico) to bottle condition these brews? If not is it just a bottling strain? I wrote them on FB a few days ago and haven't heard back probably due to the holidays. Anywho I have a ton of Chico on hand as is so this was just a why the heck not yeast harvest ;)
 
I would expect to find the house yeast in a Sierra Nevada bottle as I don't think any of their beers push the ABV to where a true "conditioning yeast" would be needed (ala some Belgians)...

Cheers!
 
I've cultured from a bottle of SNPA and used it, and concur it's the house yeast.

But it's still a worthwhile experiment, since all of the "Chicos" including SN's own culture have changed and diverged over the decades. You might find you like it better than one of the commercial labs' version, or not. Why the heck not indeed! Happy fermenting! Oh, and be warned, I found it really does act like this:
 
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I've cultured from a bottle of snow and used it, and concur it's the house yeast.

But it's still a worthwhile experiment, since all of the "Chicos" including SN's own culture have changed and diverged over the decades. You might find you like it better than one of the commercial labs' version, or not. Why the heck not indeed! Happy fermenting! Oh, and be warned, I found it really does act like this:


Awesome! Well I'll go ahead and get it going on the 750ml step up tomorrow on the stir plate then. At least I'll have a backup if nothing else
 
Why does autocorrupt want SNPA to be "snow?" Well it's ok, the only snow I'll see this Christmas...
 
I smelled the 75ml starter wort and it was fuesel-y but no off flavors outside of that. I'm going to chalk that up to yeast stress. Just put the 750ml starter on the stir plate. Will give that a taste once it's done to see if I want to carry on with building up a larger starter for my next brew (shooting for a 1.080 sg).
 
What were your steps from the bottles dregs to get to 750mL?

When I build up from a slant I start with 20mL of 1025 wort, then do a 100mL step of 1040 followed by a 350 to 500ml 1040 step before doing a larger volume.

I estimate 1 billion cells from the 20mL shaken first step.
 
I've had good results starting with a larger first step, and the dregs of multiple bottles. As long as it's a beer that's readily available and affordable in quantity like SNPA, it can save a step or two.
 
What were your steps from the bottles dregs to get to 750mL?

When I build up from a slant I start with 20mL of 1025 wort, then do a 100mL step of 1040 followed by a 350 to 500ml 1040 step before doing a larger volume.

I estimate 1 billion cells from the 20mL shaken first step.

Normally I have a ton of step ups. However since I had SNPA on hand I wanted to try the Bells two step instructions for giggles. That's start with 75 ml 1.040 starter wort, let that ferment out, then step up to 750 ml and let that ferment out. I'll still be cold crashing/stepping this up a bit more IF this is a good yeast propagation. Figure I'll use this on the next brew and save some for later. Really just seeing if this takes a good bit of my steps out so I'm ready when Bells Oberon comes out. Long story short I want to try brewing a red/amber with the Bells yeast. I think the esters would play VERY nice with those styles.

btw I used slurry from 4 bottles.
 
And its a no go. The slurries ended up tasting/smelling like vinegar. Now I didn't flame the bottle lips as I only used star San. Anywho Ill give it another go later down the road :) This would've made a good sour yeast but I'm not into that style of beer. Anywho....
 
And its a no go. The slurries ended up tasting/smelling like vinegar. Now I didn't flame the bottle lips as I only used star San. Anywho Ill give it another go later down the road :) This would've made a good sour yeast but I'm not into that style of beer. Anywho....
Sorry to hear that. Better luck next time, it should be worth trying again.
 
I just wanted to give a heads up. Sierra Nevada responded a few days ago. The bottling yeast in SNPA is the same yeast they ferment with. So it's the same strand. Straight from the horses mouth ;) I'll grab a 12 pack in a few weeks and try building it up again.
 
As expected.

fwiw, when I culture up dregs I start with 10 point wort, roughly 25 ml per bottle of dregs. If you have a refract you can check progress...

Cheers!
 
Really just seeing if this takes a good bit of my steps out so I'm ready when Bells Oberon comes out. Long story short I want to try brewing a red/amber with the Bells yeast. I think the esters would play VERY nice with those styles.

In case you are not aware, you can purchase the Bell's house yeast these days:
https://store.bellsbeer.com/products/imperial-yeast-a62-bells-house-yeast

But if you want to have fun growing your own or want to save some $, carry on...
 
In case you are not aware, you can purchase the Bell's house yeast these days:
https://store.bellsbeer.com/products/imperial-yeast-a62-bells-house-yeast

But if you want to have fun growing your own or want to save some $, carry on...

Unfortunately I live in FL so yeast via snail mail is not really an option. It's too hot here (even during the winter). It's been in the 50's-60's the past few weeks. I've had yeast shipped before (with ice pack) during the winter and that didn't turn out well. Only viable options I've got are to purchase from the LHBS or get some slurry from the brewery.
 
Wanted to give a heads up. I gave this a go again and it was a success! I have a cascade/2 row smash fermenting with the harvested yeast :)
 
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