Dead Guy Ale and Pacman yeast?

[Saccharomyces]

I have a few bottles waiting to harvest the yeast for an IPA. I think this yeast would be ideal for IPAs.

 

[zachman]

I have recently tried culturing from 2 different bottles of Shakespeare with no luck. I purchased a 6-pack of the Mocha Porter that had about a 1/4" of sediment in the bottom. I tried culturing from 2 of the porters with no luck also. Are they pasturizing their bottles to kill the yeast?

 

[antonyw]

The Shakespeare Stout I got from BevMo had a significant slurry!

Wow that's a bunch! I'm still persevering here but I definitely do not have an active starter going. I'll try a bottle of the Shakes stout next.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

9 days later, the starter(1qt.) is still bubbling about once every 20 secs!

 

[Anbrew]

Wow, I had NO idea that Rogue fermented all of their ales at 60F.

 

[zachman]

I have tried 6 times trying to get pacman started from Mocha Porter, Shakespeare, and American Amber with no luck. I then decided to ask my local homebrew store, Austin Homebrew, if they could order it for me. They did and now have it in stock. These guys are the best. I now have Pacman and will definitely keep this in my personal inventory.

 

[tfries]

I started up a slurry from a Shakespeare Stout last week. Here is the result of a week on the stir plate with a 1.020 starter. I'll be stepping it up again this week with a 1.040 starter.

 

[Revvy]

I started up a slurry from a Shakespeare Stout last week. Here is the result of a week on the stir plate with a 1.020 starter. I'll be stepping it up again this week with a 1.040 starter.

*drool*


Great job!!!!

 

[Jonnio]

I have tried 6 times trying to get pacman started from Mocha Porter, Shakespeare, and American Amber with no luck. I then decided to ask my local homebrew store, Austin Homebrew, if they could order it for me. They did and now have it in stock. These guys are the best. I now have Pacman and will definitely keep this in my personal inventory.

Dang, I wish I would have known this when I made my last order....Since I didn't though, I have a case of dead guy here and I am thinking about trying to harvest some. I am thinking have a buddy over and pitch the slurry from a sixer into a starter.

Anyway, my real question is, what would you guys think of this as the yeast for a Double Bastard clone? That is my next brew and the characteristics of this just seem to scream DB.

 

[Brewmasters Warehouse]

I also have Pacman in stock for those that do not feel like harvesting from the bottles.

 

[BullF-16]

So whats the final verdict on harvesting from DeadGuy. I ordered 9 bottles from liquid solutions in hopes of being able to get a pacman starter going for future brews. i dont really notice any slurry in the bottles? Who has been successful with the deadguy ale?

 

[remilard]

Assuming nothing has changed since I last visited the brewery:

Dead Guy is fermented with Pacman.
Most Rogue beers have been sterile filtered before packaging for the last 4 years or so. Dead Guy is definitely sterile filtered.
Pacman is not the only yeast used in Newport, for example Czech Pils is used in the Imperial Pilsner.
Clearly Shakespeare Stout is bottle conditioned, so is Brutal Bitter I think and the XS series. That might be about it.
John Maier claims to not know the origin of Pacman. The theory that has it being the Chico strain is that it is Chico via McMenniman's. The brewer at Rogue prior to JM came from there but JM says he doesn't believe it is the same strain (and he started using it very soon after it allegedly was brought from McMenniman's). Either way, I've used it cultured from a bottle and find it to be distinct from the Chico strain. I think it is more flocculent and it does seem to tolerate lower temperatures better. If Pacman is more attenuative than Chico, I personally don't think it is by much and that really isn't the most dramatic difference between the two.

 

[Revvy]

So whats the final verdict on harvesting from DeadGuy. I ordered 9 bottles from liquid solutions in hopes of being able to get a pacman starter going for future brews. i dont really notice any slurry in the bottles? Who has been successful with the deadguy ale?

Well I still don't know about dead guy, but as you can see from Jaybird's photos and several of the other threads we've posted on here about it, quite a few of us have had great success harvesting pacman from Shakespeare Stout, and the other of the 22 ounce bottles that say in the white silkscreen printing "Top fermenting Pacman Yeast" on it, which as I think I said here, or in one of the other threads, DG doesn't say it on the label.

I have about 6 mason jars full of really nice harvest in my fridge, and have brewed quite a few beers with the harvested yeast, including my clone of dead guy, my Bell's Amber clone and my brown ale.

And Wedge, who started the pacman harvest video thread back in APril of last year that got most of us into doing it, seemed to have good luck with Brutal Bitter...as you can see here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/pacman-yeast-starter-video-63855/

 

[undallas]

So whats the final verdict on harvesting from DeadGuy. I ordered 9 bottles from liquid solutions in hopes of being able to get a pacman starter going for future brews. i dont really notice any slurry in the bottles? Who has been successful with the deadguy ale?

I have brewed 3 batches of ale with cultured/harvested pacman form shakespeare stout with malta goya as starter. I also was able to use residual DG yeast for one harvesting. It was slow to pick up the fermentation action. I think shakespear stout or chocolate stout has the biggest yeast layer in 22 oz.

 

[RayInUT]

I harvested some from two 22 oz. bottles of Yellow Snow IPA that I bought a couple weeks ago. It really took four or five days for it to start so don't give up after one day. I found the key seemed to be in shaking the jar a lot all through the day. I work from home so that wasn't a problem. It might be at the office! Anyway, I'm getting ready to pitch it into an all grain dead guy clone that I found using two row, munich, and carastan. It's about sixteen pounds of grain and sounded really close to the real thing. I'm going to change it by adding a pound or so of homemade amber candi sugar and hopping it up a little bit to counteract some of the sweetness. Not much though, just a little bit.

 

[RayInUT]

Confirmed...no sediment in DG ale to culture. I just had a bottle I bought earlier tonight and it definately looked like it had been filtered. On a side note, my starter that I have going in a sauerkraut jarhas a two inch krausen on it in my basement at 56 degrees. I pulled it out of the fridge two hours ago, poured the beer off the top leaving only the baby yeast cake and poured on a pint of wort made from DME at a gravity of around 1.065. It's going nuts and I can't wait to pitch it in my maibock I'm making tomorrow. I'll add another pint of wort again before I pitch it. I'd like to pitch at least a quart or a quart and a half starter in this. I'd like it to be more of a double dead guy type of beer and am using candi (homemade) sugar to do this. This will be the martini of maibocks!

 

[Jonnio]

My deadguy had sediment in it, but after more than a week of shaking and swirling it had zero attenuation on my starter, so I dumped it and gave up. I am pretty sure my DG was old though as it is kind of a crappy beer.

 

[undallas]

Confirmed...no sediment in DG ale to culture. I just had a bottle I bought earlier tonight and it definately looked like it had been filtered. On a side note, my starter that I have going in a sauerkraut jarhas a two inch krausen on it in my basement at 56 degrees. I pulled it out of the fridge two hours ago, poured the beer off the top leaving only the baby yeast cake and poured on a pint of wort made from DME at a gravity of around 1.065. It's going nuts and I can't wait to pitch it in my maibock I'm making tomorrow. I'll add another pint of wort again before I pitch it. I'd like to pitch at least a quart or a quart and a half starter in this. I'd like it to be more of a double dead guy type of beer and am using candi (homemade) sugar to do this. This will be the martini of maibocks!

sounds good on your DDG... double the freshness... BTW, what size of Dead Guy did you get from the store? I notice that 12 oz bottle are filtered really well, while 22oz bombers have some sediments on the bottom of the bottle.

 

[RayInUT]

sounds good on your DDG... double the freshness... BTW, what size of Dead Guy did you get from the store? I notice that 12 oz bottle are filtered really well, while 22oz bombers have some sediments on the bottom of the bottle.

It was a 12 oz. I live in Utah and you have to buy it at a state liquor store. A lot of people bitch about that but one benefit is that everything is slod by the bottle. You can buy one 12 oz. bottle or 24. I like to buy several differnt bottles of different beers rather than a six pack of one type. I used two 22 oz. bottles of Rogue Yellow Snow IPA to get my starter going. I also noticed that I had to open them at close to room temperature. When cold, the sediment seemed to disappear but when at room temp it had a nice cake at the bottom of the bottle for some reason. Same with the La Fin Du Monde i harvested from.

 

[Revvy]

sounds good on your DDG... double the freshness... BTW, what size of Dead Guy did you get from the store? I notice that 12 oz bottle are filtered really well, while 22oz bombers have some sediments on the bottom of the bottle.

I've noticed the same thing, the 12's seem much clearer....and when I've pitched dead guy slurry either from the 12's or the 22's it's ALWAYS been with other slugs of Chocolate or Shakespeare....What I usually do is leave an inch of beer in the bottom of the 22's flame the neck and put a fresh saniticed cap on it and stuck it in the fridge for a few days as I drank a few more bottles, then when I had 3 or 4, I'd pitch them all into my Erlenmeyer flask with wort...

But don't think just because you don't SEE sediment in the bottom of the bottle, that it doesn't mean the yeast isn't there and in suspension...I've had plenty of my own fully carbed homebrew not to appear to have any sediment in the bottom, even looking straight down the neck, yet you know there is yeast in there...there has to be.

You really don't know the state of agitation your 22's have gone through between Rogue's warehouse and your house, and how long they have sat at the store..unless you are chilling them for several days before you crack them...Me personally, If they are cold from the store, they usually go down my throat the minute I get home...so there really isn't a lot of time for stuff to settle fully...that's why I leave an inch of beer in the bottle (and swirl thoroughly to get any yeast off the glass) before pitching it.

 

[remilard]

I've SEEN Dead Guy go through a filter on the way to the bottling line in Newport.

 

[BullF-16]

I checked last night for a layer of sediment on the bottom of my 12oz deadguys. Using a highpower light i could definately see a frosted layer of yeast on the bottom. not very thick at all, just enough to cover the bottom. i shook the bottle up and the layer was gone and the beer was cloudy. so there is definately something there. when my stir plate gets here tomorrow i will give it a try. i have a DFH 60 in the fermentor that i pitched with a Wyeast pacman i bought from Brewmasterswarehouse.com, i plan on washing that yeast next week.

 

[RayInUT]

Yeah, I noticed that too but it doesn't look like much to work with. I've noticed that the 22 oz. bottles have more sediment on the bottom in most cases.

 

[Revvy]

Yeah, I noticed that too but it doesn't look like much to work with. I've noticed that the 22 oz. bottles have more sediment on the bottom in most cases.

But it doesn't take much if you step up a starter patiently and incrementally....more than likely if they do filter DG, they may not go to a small enough micron to block ALL the yeast...or kill the yeast off like a BMC...so there potentially might be enough yeast still oresent there, especially with enough slugs...but like I said repeatedly, I've never tried with pure DG...or even a single bottle of slurry...but have used a minimum of 2...up to 4 or 5 bottles worth in one of my starters..so if there was no yeast in the DG, I still was getting it from the shalespear stouts....

BUT I seem to recall in one of the 20 threads on this subject someone saying they had success from the slugs from an entire sixer of it...but that was awhile ago..and I could be wrong.

 

[RayInUT]

It's fun to culture yeast anyway.

 

[Revvy]

It's fun to culture yeast anyway.

I like how some call it Yeast Ranching....

We get to be pacman cowboys....

My only regret is that I didn't slant the harvest and freeze it with glycerine...I was listenning to aussie craftbrewer radio, and they were saying the shelf life of harvest yeast in washed solution is only a few months (in mason jars) and when the creamy band turns gray the yeasts are dying.

 

[RayInUT]

I like how some call it Yeast Ranching....

We get to be pacman cowboys....

My only regret is that I didn't slant the harvest and freeze it with glycerine...I was listenning to aussie craftbrewer radio, and they were saying the shelf life of harvest yeast in washed solution is only a few months (in mason jars) and when the creamy band turns gray the yeasts are dying.

I think they are okay as long as it doesn't look like peanut butter and stink. How big of a starter would you use on a maibock with a gravity of around 1.080?

 

[RayInUT]

My Dead Guy clone is bubbling away at 52 degrees right now! I pitched the Pacman starter about 14 hours ago and it is living up to all my expectatons. I started out with a gravity of 1.085 (I threw a pound of homemade candi sugar in to kick it up a little) and I can't wait to see what kind of attenuation I get. I would say to keep trying if you are attempting to cultivate this yeast from the sediment of Rogue bottles. I was impatient at first and it took several days for it to start. I kept shaking the mason jar every chance I got and I added another pint of fresh wort every other day, pouring off the old stuff as the yeast started to grow.

 

[Jaybird]

Good for you man! I never was able to get mine to grow. I got a slant from a gent here on HBT and I haven't had time to grow it. I need to do that and get the slant jar back to the owner.
JJ

 

[Revvy]

My Dead Guy clone is bubbling away at 52 degrees right now! I pitched the Pacman starter about 14 hours ago and it is living up to all my expectatons. I started out with a gravity of 1.085 (I threw a pound of homemade candi sugar in to kick it up a little) and I can't wait to see what kind of attenuation I get. I would say to keep trying if you are attempting to cultivate this yeast from the sediment of Rogue bottles. I was impatient at first and it took several days for it to start. I kept shaking the mason jar every chance I got and I added another pint of fresh wort every other day, pouring off the old stuff as the yeast started to grow.

Congrats!!! It's a neat feeling to see 5 gallons bubbling away from yeast you knew was a small slug of sediment at the bottom of a bottle!!!!