Elysian Space Dust Yeast

[rtstrider]

I had a bottle of Elysian Space Dust in the fridge a couple of months ago. I left it in there for a week or two and saw what looked to be trub, possible yeast, and protein in the bottle. Has anyone tried, or know if it's possible, to harvest yeast from that beer? I know it's going to be beyond beat up in a 8% abv beer but the worst that can happen is nothing or pooped out yeast. They have a house yeast that gives off a signature flavor across their brews. It's definitely not chico so I'd like to play around with it some. I've reached out to the brewery multiple times over the past few months via Facebook IM and have not heard a word lol After further investigation it appears they may use bry-96 (yes not bry-97). I've brewed a space dust clone using wlp001 and it's not really in the same ball park so that's what got the gears turning wondering how to harvest their yeast Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BrewerBrad82]

That very well could be a neutral yeast strain that is just used for bottle conditioning, hard to tell. Imperial has the Elysian strain, but it is very rarely available to homebrewers. The strain is A30 Corporate.

 

[Spundit]

I think its worth a try. I would harvest yeast/trub from 2 or 3 bottles and do a stepped culture. Maybe start with 75ml of wort for 2 or three days, than add another 700ml. Long ago, I successfully did this with Bells 2 Hearted ale. I think that beer is pushing 7%

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It's definitely not chico so I'd like to play around with it some. I've reached out to the brewery multiple times over the past few months via Facebook IM and have not heard a word lol After further investigation it appears they may use bry-96 (yes not bry-97). I've brewed a space dust clone using wlp001 and it's not really in the same ball park

Define "Chico" - it's a family of yeasts not a single strain. And you can see the family tree here. BRY-97 isn't on the chart but is supposedly a direct descendant of BRY-96.

So BRY-97 is probably the closest mainstream option. As has been mentioned, A30 Corporate is supposedly the Elysian yeast, discussed here. The Bell's yeast is also close, and is available as Imperial A62 direct from Bell's.

 

[rtstrider]

Define "Chico" - it's a family of yeasts not a single strain. And you can see the family tree here. BRY-97 isn't on the chart but is supposedly a direct descendant of BRY-96.

So BRY-97 is probably the closest mainstream option. As has been mentioned, A30 Corporate is supposedly the Elysian yeast, discussed here. The Bell's yeast is also close, and is available as Imperial A62 direct from Bell's.

I define Chico as the yeast that comes directly from the Sierra Nevada brewery in the pale ale. The esters of the real Chico remind me a good bit of Bells. The esters are very similar but MUCH more subdued on the real Chico.

I ended up buying a six pack of Space Dust today. I held the bottles up to the light and there’s definitely a slight dusting of something on the bottom of the bottles. Seeing as we are having company for the 4th I figured it’d be a perfect opportunity to have some help with harvesting yeast lol Now I’m not too sure if this will be the Elysian yeast or a bottling strain. My gut says it’s not a bottling strain but I could be way off.I made sure to grab the bottles from the cooler so I know they’ve been cold and the settled out yeast in the bottles tells me they’ve been there a little while and haven’t been jostled. I’ll keep everyone posted on the yeast harvesting venture!

 

[Brooothru]

Define "Chico" - it's a family of yeasts not a single strain. And you can see the family tree here. BRY-97 isn't on the chart but is supposedly a direct descendant of BRY-96.

So BRY-97 is probably the closest mainstream option. As has been mentioned, A30 Corporate is supposedly the Elysian yeast, discussed here. The Bell's yeast is also close, and is available as Imperial A62 direct from Bell's.

Agree. I've had very good luck both harvesting Bell's yeast from several bottles of 2H, and using A62 when available from the Bell's Country Store. There was an extended "outage" of supply from the Store last year and had to resort to harvesting and several growth stage buildups, but it came out successful. Unable to discern a difference between the two. And I DO like me some Bell's 2H!

 

[rtstrider]

I grabbed a 6 pack of Space Dust yesterday and used slurry from 3 bottles. Added that to 250 ml 1.020 wort. There's definitely something in there from what it looks like. Waiting for fermentation to kick off. Now here's what shocked me. If us-05 will get you in the ballpark then why is it recommended to ferment the Corporate strain from 73f - 77f? Not using that as an argument at all. I'm genuinely curious about the Elysian yeast. Hopefully this is a successful yeast harvest

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I define Chico as the yeast that comes directly from the Sierra Nevada brewery in the pale ale.

Of course, that's a perfectly valid approach. Just be aware that when many people see the word "Chico" they think of the whole family, using WLP001/1056 etc interchangeably. So I was just making a friendly suggestion that if you care about the detail in the way you clearly do, then you'll get a better response by being clear that you specifically mean the SN strain.

Now here's what shocked me. If us-05 will get you in the ballpark then why is it recommended to ferment the Corporate strain from 73f - 77f?

Well US-05 and A30 are not the same thing - US-05 has lost a copy of chromosome V, carries a BAT1 mutation and who knows what other genetic changes relative to the original BRY-96 group that includes A30. So you can't assume that A30 behaves the same as US-05. Given that the 1056 group has a recombination at the end of chromosome VIII that fixes the BAT1 mutation, it's best to think of A30 as being closer in phenotype to 1056 rather than the US-05/WLP001 group.

Also you have to be a bit careful when seeing people recommending temperatures for yeast from commercial sources. Often such recommendations just quote what the commercial brewery is doing, but the pressure in large fermenters can suppress off-flavour formation so that a commercial gyle at 75F might taste the same as a homebrew gyle at 71F (or whatever).

 

[rtstrider]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll make sure to specify that going forward to help minimize confusion I was thinking of brewing a very simple ale if this yeast takes off. Will probably just do this morebeer blonde ale kit

https://www.morebeer.com/products/blonde-ale-grain-beer-brewing-kit-5-gallons.html
That's what I've been using to baseline yeasts I'm not familiar with. It's plain jane and the yeast will come through on that grain bill. It's been a great learning beer and enjoyable to drink too!

 

[rtstrider]

I’m on day 6 and still no activity. Giving it until Monday morning before calling this experiment a wash

 

[Andre3000]

I’m on day 6 and still no activity. Giving it until Monday morning before calling this experiment a wash

Where do you live? I know for a fact Cloudburst in Seattle uses A30 Corporate and I have easily propped up yeast from their cans.

 

[rtstrider]

Where do you live? I know for a fact Cloudburst in Seattle uses A30 Corporate and I have easily propped up yeast from their cans.

I’m around 3k miles from Seattle lol I’m in the southeast

 

[couchsending]

The Elysian/Corporate A30 yeast is really hard to work with. It produced more diacetyl than any yeast I’ve ever used. Took forever to clean up after itself. I actually emailed Steve Luke at Cloudburst about it and he gave me a pretty detailed process on how they use it. They give it a long time to ferment and clean up after itself. It doesn’t flocc overly well either. I used it for two beers and won’t use it again. Supposedly you get a lot of red fruit from it the warmer you ferment it.

If you’re looking for a cool ale strain to make a lot of different styles with that’s easy to use I can’t recommend Old Newark from East Coast Yeast enough. It’s the original Ballantine’s strain and It’s killer. Fast, floccs well, ferments well at 60, seems very easy to control it’s attenuation with mash temps, and it really lets hops shine.

 

[Andre3000]

Old Newark from East Coast Yeast enough. It’s the original Ballantine’s strain and It’s killer. Fast, floccs well, ferments well at 60, seems very easy to control it’s attenuation with mash temps, and it really lets hops shine.

Where do you get it? I can't really seem to find it.

 

[couchsending]

Where do you get it? I can't really seem to find it.

FermentedNJ.com

Sign up for emails and they send you an email when they get their next ECY order. It’s kinda sporadic but the ECY yeasts are so worth it. So many awesome strains that you won’t find anywhere else.