Harvesting Rogue Pacman from bottle - what I learned

[mixmasterob]

So wait a couple of days, toss it in the fridge, pour off the beer and pitch the yeast slurry in a bigger starter? Say about 1 liter/1 cup DME?

 

[permo]

So wait a couple of days, toss it in the fridge, pour off the beer and pitch the yeast slurry in a bigger starter? Say about 1 liter/1 cup DME?

That should work great.

I have a little trick that makes my life easier. I start my smaller starters in a big bottle...after they ferment out I simple make a small amount of concentrated wort, cool it down, and add it to the same vessel and shake it up. Works great.

 

[mixmasterob]

I don't have time to step up my starter. Right now it is about 1/2 a liter. It looks like it already fermented out the 1/3 cup DME. Is it safe to pitch this?

 

[permo]

It is safe, but you may get under attenuated beer and a slow start to fermentation.

 

[mixmasterob]

I stepped it up to a 1 liter 3 oz DME starter. However, I had to brew today so it only sat in that starter for 6 hours. Will that 6 hours make any difference in my final pitching rate?

 

[permo]

I don't know about all that, but mine has been fermenting a 1.045 batch of beer for over a week and I am barely below 1.020 at this point. I am sure not impressed.


UPDATE/EDIT **** Well, I take that back. I measured 1.019 this morning, day 9. I just measured now and I got 1.011. I was so suprised I measured with two hydrometers at the same time. It's legit! Looks like it is going to finish below 1.010. I am happy with that. I underpitched so it just took a while. ******


Now the question is, could this yeast cake be ready for 1.090 IIPA?

 

[mixmasterob]

Pitched my starter yesterday around 5 o clock. At noon today, a 2 inch thick krausen is sitting atop my beer. I recommend giving this harvesting technique a try if you haven't already. Free yeast!

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

I harvested some Pacman yeast this weekend and figured I would share my experience. I started with 3 22oz. bombers:

-Dead Guy Ale - didn't say Pacman anywhere on the bottle, though it did have a bit of yeast in the bottom of the bottle.
-Brutal bitter - did indeed say Pacman yeast in the ingredients on the bottle, had tons of yeast at the bottom.
-Shakespeare Stout - did indeed say Pacman yeast in the ingredients on the bottle, had tons of yeast at the bottom.

Basically I just decanted the beer off and drank it, poured a little sterilized water in the bottom of each bottle, swirled, then poured the contents of all 3 into the bottom of a clean/sterile White Labs vial and threw it in the fridge. A day later there's about a half inch of slurry in the bottom of the vial. Whenever I feel like brewing with it I'll step it up into a starter.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

All 3 of those beers were fantastic, btw. My favorite was the Brutal Bitter. I'm going to have to brew that sometime soon.

 

[permo]

All 3 of those beers were fantastic, btw. My favorite was the Brutal Bitter. I'm going to have to brew that sometime soon.

make my mouth water thinking about driking them, start with the dead guy, move up the bruttal bitter and end with stout!

I have found if I drink a brutal bitter before a deadguy ale, the dead guy just doesn't seem hoppy enough!

 

[mixmasterob]

I don't know about all that, but mine has been fermenting a 1.045 batch of beer for over a week and I am barely below 1.020 at this point. I am sure not impressed.


UPDATE/EDIT **** Well, I take that back. I measured 1.019 this morning, day 9. I just measured now and I got 1.011. I was so suprised I measured with two hydrometers at the same time. It's legit! Looks like it is going to finish below 1.010. I am happy with that. I underpitched so it just took a while. ******

Just checked my IPA after 7 days @ ~60 degrees and its down to 1.020. SG was 1.063. Surely its not done! I am gonna move it to warm it up a bit for another week or so...hmmmm.

 

[permo]

Just checked my IPA after 7 days @ ~60 degrees and its down to 1.020. SG was 1.063. Surely its not done! I am gonna move it to warm it up a bit for another week or so...hmmmm.

yep, warm that hog up.......a nice little trick would also be to add 8 0z corn sugar and warm it....

I had a recent pacman brew stall at 1.020....I warmed it up to 68 and threw in 8 oz sugar. 1.008 is the final gravity now.

I have my 1.090 double IPA sitting at 62 degrees right now and the ferment is sure not super fast by any means, heck there is barely even krausen. My thinking is that this yeast is much slower at cold temps.

 

[mixmasterob]

I actually did exactly that. Although I only added 2.5 oz corn sugar and gave it a bunch of swirls. Its sitting at 66-68 degrees. Looked at it this morning and its got another krausen. Hopefully this does the trick.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

I harvested some Pacman yeast this weekend and figured I would share my experience. I started with 3 22oz. bombers:

-Dead Guy Ale - didn't say Pacman anywhere on the bottle, though it did have a bit of yeast in the bottom of the bottle.
-Brutal bitter - did indeed say Pacman yeast in the ingredients on the bottle, had tons of yeast at the bottom.
-Shakespeare Stout - did indeed say Pacman yeast in the ingredients on the bottle, had tons of yeast at the bottom.

Basically I just decanted the beer off and drank it, poured a little sterilized water in the bottom of each bottle, swirled, then poured the contents of all 3 into the bottom of a clean/sterile White Labs vial and threw it in the fridge. A day later there's about a half inch of slurry in the bottom of the vial. Whenever I feel like brewing with it I'll step it up into a starter.

Just wanted to update with with how this method worked out... The yeast sat in my fridge for about 3 weeks and then I decided to brew with it. I made a starter of 1 qt. 1.040 wort (it was extra runnings from a previous brew day that I had frozen) - there was about a solid teaspoon of yeast in the vial.

I did the "stir whenever I walk by" method of aeration and let the initial starter go for about 24 hours. By then there was a solid pastey ring of yeast around the bottom of the bottle. I then added another quart of 1.040 wort and swirled it up again (was lazy and didn't decant). 24 hours later there was a ton of yeast at the bottom.

I brewed a Rogue Shakespeare Stout clone and dumped the entire starter right in - it was bubbling away in about 6 hours and had a very strong fermentation. After about 3 days at 67* it appeared to have completed most of the fermentation. Now it's just sitting in primary for another 2 weeks.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

Once this stout is done I'll do a proper wash/yeast collection from the trub.

 

[DeNomad]

Heya, I believe I was partially successful in harvesting pacman from a bomber of brutal bitter but I need some feedback/reassurance.

I poured some of my starter off for a taste and it is fairly sour. I am afraid I got some unwanted bugs in there. Actually tastes good, but distinctly sour perhaps with some sort of fruity smell to it, maybe kinda citrus. I did make my starter out of wheat DME by accident, but I don't think that would account for the taste.

Would you guys save or pitch this starter or do you figure I'd end up with a lambic?

 

[DeNomad]

Oh... found a fruit fly in my glass of starter wort I tasted. Not sure if it was in there when I poured or not but that might be a contributor to the sour taste...

 

[kwantam]

If the fruit fly got into your starter, you're going to want to toss it and start over. Fruit flies carry around huge colones of acetobacter. No sense risking an infection in your beer.

 

[DeNomad]

Actually after posting that I realized the fly was still alive. I'm guessing it wasn't in the starter, just dove in the glass I poured.

 

[bknifefight]

Did you use hops in your starter? If not, it will taste funny. I've had starters that I swore smelled wrong but they were fine. I think I was just getting a big whiff of CO2.

 

[kwantam]

I usually sample my starter hooch. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's absolutely awful. Strange flavors are often present. As long as your sanitation was good and if you're sure that fly didn't touch the starter itself, you're likely good to go.

 

[mattldm]

anyone harvest rogue yeast from the Mocha Porter? I bought a six pack the other day and theres a lot of sediment in each bottle!

 

[permo]

Just an update, I have brewed 14 batches of beer from the yeast cultured from a single bomber of stout and I am only on my second generation of washed yeast. I have no reason to beleive that I cannot get 50+ batches out of all my washed samples.

 

[pbarning]

I'm on my second attempt of harvesting Pacman (this time from Shakespeare Stout). If it doesn't work this time would anyone from Michigan be interested in selling me a slant? I have Pacman fever.

 

[joel4482]

ok so i was gonna try to harvest some yeast from the bottom of 1 or 2 bottles of brutal bitter but is does not say pacman on the label. Does that mean its not the same? would i be better off buying 2 or 3 packs of it?

Brutal definitly is pacman and it is not filtered so it should work if there is some sediment(yeast) on the bottom.

 

[joel4482]

anyone harvest rogue yeast from the Mocha Porter? I bought a six pack the other day and theres a lot of sediment in each bottle!

Mocha should work if there is yeast on the bottom. Not a filtered beer. It all depends on how fresh the beer is. Buy it from a place that keeps their beer cold and goes through it pretty quickly.

 

[joel4482]

yep, warm that hog up.......a nice little trick would also be to add 8 0z corn sugar and warm it....

I had a recent pacman brew stall at 1.020....I warmed it up to 68 and threw in 8 oz sugar. 1.008 is the final gravity now.

I have my 1.090 double IPA sitting at 62 degrees right now and the ferment is sure not super fast by any means, heck there is barely even krausen. My thinking is that this yeast is much slower at cold temps.

62 degrees is a good temp for pacman 60 is optimal. but you definatly want a diacetyl rest at about 68-70 degrees for a couple days to finish up fermentation

 

[permo]

I am just finishing up a fermentation from a 3rd generation of washed pacman that I cultured. The beer tastes fine and finished perfectly, but the yeast is starting to lose it's ability to floculate on it's own. I think for the first time I am going to have to cold crash pacman before kegging and start a new colony out of a bottle of stout! No big deal

 

[marcycaulkins]

yup, cultured shakespeare stout in the bottle, stepped up to a 2 qt starter, and it went INSANE when I pitched it into my stone ruination clone (thanks yooperbrew for the recipe, you are my hero). When I bottle, I will wash the yeast, and keep some in my fridge for future brews.

 

[ekjohns]

im in the process of harvesting some pacman from 1 22oz oatmeal stout so far so good. Here is my plan of atack.
1. 4 oz (1.025 OG) of sterile wort for 24 hrs
2. another 4 oz of sterile wort (1.025).
3. 16 oz of sterile wort (1.040) in a sanitized 2L flask with stir bar
4. 2L sanitized wort (1.040) in 2L flask with stir wort

I do have a few questions though. Is using a sanitized and not sterilized flask and sanitized wort in step 4 a problem? I would like to make some frozen yeast vials from the final 2L starter but I am worried the sanitized equipment and wort will cause a problem on future step ups