Harvested Two Hearted yeast finally took off

[copper2hopper]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1418693645.475620.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1418693674.211373.jpg
3rd step up. Plenty of krausen and what seems like good healthy yeast on bottom. Still producing mini fermentation bubbles and I've been occasionally full blasting the stir plate to give it a vigorous rousing.

 

[Brew_G]

Looks really good. Just by looking at the picture, I'd say you have more than enough for a 5-gallon batch. That's a nice layer of thick yeast and plenty in suspension. When you chill it for 18 hours or so, it'll clear up and the healthiest yeast that are in suspension will drop out, giving you an even thicker cake.

Use your own best judgment, but I'd suggest reserving some of that yeast (1/4 of it or so) for a starter on your next beer.

 

[copper2hopper]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1418786219.263923.jpg
Ok so I decanted off the fermented and cold crashed beer from the previous picture and tonight I washed it with sterile water and put it in this sterile jar. What am I lookin at here? Water...then yeast...then trub? Or is that all good yeast on the bottom AND in the middle (just still suspended). I don't see how I could have any trub since all I used was DME starters.

 

[copper2hopper]

And here's how it settled out over night
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[Brew_G]

Yesterday, I bottled the brown ale I brewed with this yeast. Just under three weeks in primary and FG was 1.013 (OG was 1.055). Without temp control, it cooled down to 60F after vigorous fermentation was done, so I don't think I got the most out of it. Either way, the sample tasted nice, so I'm really curious to see how the final product comes out.

I'm also getting ready to hopefully brew next week, so I pulled the small jar that had about 25ml of thick yeast and made a 1L 1.040 starter yesterday. It's been on the stir plate for about 30 hours and it's looking (and smelling) great. I'm going to decant to about 500ml tomorrow, then swirl and pour off half into the 250ml jar for future use. I'll take the rest and step it up to a 1.75L starter for brewing on Wednesday or Thursday.

Next beer will be a MO/Centennial APA, so I'm planning to use my newly acquired aquarium heater and rope-handled tub to ramp temps up to 69-70F after main fermentation dies down in order to coax out some fruity esters. It'll be cool to see how different the results might be between the APA and brown ale.

 

[Brew_G]

Follow up on my recent experiences with this yeast:

The brown ale ended up being buttery, so I'm pretty sure the drop in temps after the first few days meant that they couldn't clean up the diacetyl. However, after being almost offensively buttery when poured after the first two weeks, it cleaned up really well by the third week and become a pretty big hit with the folks I served it to at a party. It was still buttery, but it had mellowed a ton.

I bottled the APA a couple days ago - OG was 1.060 and FG was 1.011, which put me at above 80% attenuation. It really ate through that wort. Not estery, but I'm not too worried about it. I didn't detect any diacetyl in the FG sample, so unless it crops up in the bottled beer, it seems that keeping the temps up made a big difference.

 

[copper2hopper]

Good to know brewG. I read I. A different post that 76degrees is what Bells ferments this one at 76 degrees

 

[copper2hopper]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421943452.747640.jpg
And lookie at what I made. This is pure white zero trub gold here. I got about 8 of these now after doing a serious step up on my brand new 5000ml flask. I stepped it up one last time. Cold crashed. Decanted with a turkey baster for precision. Rinsed with sterile water. And decanted the suspended yeast (again with the turkey baster and after the very little trub settled from the step starters) and was able to get this phenomenally looking pure white health yeast into 8 different jars. Anyone wanna trade me somethin for some??!!?

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

I only have 2 bottles right now. Is it possible to harvest from just 2?

 

[Jimbodaman]

Bell's yeast is my all time favorite yeast. Apparently Bells uses one strain for all there beers from Porters to Hopslam.

 

[copper2hopper]

I only have 2 bottles right now. Is it possible to harvest from just 2?

Should be ok. Baby it though for sure. Two cups water with enough DME to make a 1.020 first starter I think? I'm no expert by I had to "step down" cuz my initial starter was too high OG. It took right off once I re did it

 

[copper2hopper]

I only have 2 bottles right now. Is it possible to harvest from just 2?

Should be ok. Baby it though for sure. Two cups water with enough DME to make a 1.020 first starter I think? I'm no expert by I had to "step down" cuz my initial starter was too high OG. It took right off once I re did it

 

[copper2hopper]

2 bottles? Should be ok. Baby it though for sure. Two cups water with enough DME to make a 1.020 first starter I think? I'm no expert by I had to "step down" cuz my initial starter was too high OG. It took right off once I re did it

 

[Brew_G]

Good to know brewG. I read I. A different post that 76degrees is what Bells ferments this one at 76 degrees

There's a good chance they do ferment at 76, but keep in mind that the pressure in the huge conicals they use will help suppress off-flavor production. I contacted Bell's, and word direct from one of their employees (who is a big home brewer and runs their home brewing competitions) was that this yeast should be fermented by the home brwer in the upper 60s to low 70s.

View attachment 250577
And lookie at what I made. This is pure white zero trub gold here. I got about 8 of these now after doing a serious step up on my brand new 5000ml flask. I stepped it up one last time. Cold crashed. Decanted with a turkey baster for precision. Rinsed with sterile water. And decanted the suspended yeast (again with the turkey baster and after the very little trub settled from the step starters) and was able to get this phenomenally looking pure white health yeast into 8 different jars. Anyone wanna trade me somethin for some??!!?

Pretty...

 

[Brew_G]

Bell's yeast is my all time favorite yeast. Apparently Bells uses one strain for all there beers from Porters to Hopslam.

They use different yeast for the Winter White and ther lagers, but I think they use that house yeast for pretty much everything else. I'm using it as my sole yeast right now, so I'm planning to really get to know it.

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

Should be ok. Baby it though for sure. Two cups water with enough DME to make a 1.020 first starter I think? I'm no expert by I had to "step down" cuz my initial starter was too high OG. It took right off once I re did it

Happy to report it can be done with 1 bottle. I'm 5 days in and it did great. I just stepped it up with some 1.040 wort.