Ever dump a naturally carb'd beer in your wort instead of yeast?

[geer537]

Afternoon all!

So I have had many ups and downs with brewing but a buddy of mine suggested that I dump an entire Rogue in my wort after cooling since they naturally carb their beers and I would be able to use their yeast. He said it would take a bit before the yeast took off but it should work. I honestly don't know either way but really lean towards no. I know you can propagate yeast on naturally yeast carb'd beers but never heard of this method. Anyone have experience?

Cheers

 

[Yooper]

You can do it- except that it's not nearly enough yeast for a batch of beer. You'd have to buy the beer (Shakespeare Stout is a good one), and then make a starter with the yeast. You'd have to step it up a couple of times, but in a week or so you'd have enough yeast to ferment a batch of beer.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

You can do it- except that it's not nearly enough yeast for a batch of beer. You'd have to buy the beer (Shakespeare Stout is a good one), and then make a starter with the yeast. You'd have to step it up a couple of times, but in a week or so you'd have enough yeast to ferment a batch of beer.

EDIT: Dang, beat me to it Yoop!

 

[geer537]

Would I need to (sob) sacrifice a beer?

By the way (off topic) thank you Yoop!!! I got my score on my brown and I didn't move on to the second round but I scored well. You are the best!

 

[Yooper]

Would I need to (sob) sacrifice a beer?

By the way (off topic) thank you Yoop!!! I got my score on my brown and I didn't move on to the second round but I scored well. You are the best!

You're welcome. I didn't do a thing, except the paperwork. I didn't even sample any of the entries!

No, you don't need to sacrifice a beer! Rogue, especially the Shakespeare Stout, has yeast on the bottom just like your homebrews. Chill the beer, pour off the beer into a glass, and just save the bottom 1/4" or so just like you do your homebrew. That's where you can start with the yeast. You need to make a starter, because it's a tiny amount of yeast, but it works!

Or, you can buy pacman at the LHBS for $7 or so.

 

[Revvy]

IIRC Mustangj on here recently did it with a bomber of one of Jolly Pumpkin's sour/wild beers- He purposefully didn't harvest like we normally good. I think it turned out great/

But normally you want to build up bottle harvested yeast like you would a starter. One of my favorite to do it with is hoegaarden yeast.

 

[geer537]

I have a couple of bottles of Dead Guy but I am not seeing any yeast at the bottom. Just for giggles, I'd love to harvest the yeast. Should I just trust that it's there and pour the last 1/4 into a starter?

 

[Yooper]

I have a couple of bottles of Dead Guy but I am not seeing any yeast at the bottom. Just for giggles, I'd love to harvest the yeast. Should I just trust that it's there and pour the last 1/4 into a starter?

No, some people tell us that Dead Guy doesn't seem to have any yeast in it. Perhaps they filter that one? The only one I've heard good results with is the Shakespeare Stout.

 

[Revvy]

No, some people tell us that Dead Guy doesn't seem to have any yeast in it. Perhaps they filter that one? The only one I've heard good results with is the Shakespeare Stout.

Dead guy's iffy. Though some folks have had success with the bombers of it over the 12 ouncers. I had no luck with the 12 ouncers. What I do is tend to try to use more than one bottle at a time. It increases the odds.

I save the yeast from bottles over a few days until I have enough to make a starter with, I just flame the bottles after I pour the beer out, spray it with a little starsan, and cap with a fresh sanitized cap. Store in the fridge and repeat the starsan and flaming process when I am going to pour the dregs into a starter vessel.

I've done that with hoegaarden yeast, I drank 2 six packs over the course of a week, and made about 4 mason jars of hoegaarden yeast from the harvest.

 

[jollytim]

Believe it or not, I've had luck with Rogues American Ale. I can't claim it was Pacman, as there is no indication on the label, but it worked for a Stout I made. Due to moving, I wasn't able to keep that yeast.

The best luck I've had was with SN Kellerweis. There is a ton of yeast in the bottom of those bottles. You could probably get away with no starter on those. You would probably want to pitch the dregs from a sixer though.

 

[Ultima]

Just my $.02, I made a starter with the dregs from a bottle of Rogue Chipotle ale about a week ago, but since the bottle was 6 months old I had questions about viability. Didn't want to waste a good starter, so later that evening I went out and got a bottle of Shakespeare stout. Dumped the dregs from that into the starter too, and I just swirled it a few times a day and then it was refrigerated until I pitched it into a porter a couple days ago. Fermentation was a little slow to start, but went like mad when it did.

Point is that 2 bottles worth of dregs into a 1L starter with no stepups IS enough to get a 5 gallon batch fermenting, albeit kind of slowly. I'd probably step it up next time, but I haven't disappointed myself yet!