Harvesting Rogue Pacman from bottle - what I learned

[ultravista]

Subscribing ..

 

[ekjohns]

i think my harvesting didnt go so well. The yeast hit the OG on the brew but the yeast never quite dropped out of suspension and the flavor wasnt as clean as I was wanting brewed down in its lower range

 

[StarCityBrewMaster]

I am attempting to wash yeast for the first time soon. I found this thread and figured this would be something I could attempt to do before my batches are finished fermenting out.

If I wanted to get several small mason jars of Rogue yeast, can I just start with one or two bombers, make a small starter, then place that starter in the fridge, make a larger starter and continue to grow the Pacman yeast until I have as many jars of yeast as I'd like?

 

[StarCityBrewMaster]

Considering the beers would come from the fridge and would be cold what steps do you take before pitching it onto a starter to make sure the yeast are active and/or don't go into shock?

 

[DrawTap88]

To answer your first question in Post #63, you can do that, but why not make a beer with it to get the same amount of yeast?

To answer your second question in Post #64, just let the yeast come up to room temp and decant the spent wort before adding your starter wort to the yeast.

 

[StarCityBrewMaster]

So pretty much all I need to do is pour myself 3/4 of a Rogue bomber and pour the last 1/4 into a 1 liter (maybe 1.5 liter) starter and 24 hours later I'll have enough healthy yeast for a 5.5 gallon batch?

Side note: I don't own a stir plate but always make my starters on Friday night or Saturday so that I can shake them as frequently as possible during the weekend and obviously brew as well.

 

[Bottenbrew]

It will likely take much longer than 24 hours to get up to enough yeast for a 5.5 gallon batch. If my pacman harvest is even remotely typical, it will take you closer to 5 days of stepping up the starter from a few ml up to the normal 1000 ml size.

 

[dmbGator]

The reason you could not harvest the Pacman Yeast is because you did not have the right tool for the job. I give you the Ultimate Pacman Tool.

Put that guy to work and he will eat it all up and give it to you

 

[DrawTap88]

So pretty much all I need to do is pour myself 3/4 of a Rogue bomber and pour the last 1/4 into a 1 liter (maybe 1.5 liter) starter and 24 hours later I'll have enough healthy yeast for a 5.5 gallon batch?

Side note: I don't own a stir plate but always make my starters on Friday night or Saturday so that I can shake them as frequently as possible during the weekend and obviously brew as well.

Sorry, I thought you were going to step up until you grow enough for a full batch and then split it into the mason jars without brewing a beer with it.

 

[terrapinj]

do any considerations needs to be made as far as which style of beer you are harvesting from an which style of beer you intend to brew with?

will starting with such a small culture avoid any carry over flavor concerns?

will eventually brew a rye IPA with the harvested culture

 

[permo]

I have harvested from Brutal IPA and Shakespear Stout, both succesfully. Another good piece of advice is not to overwhelm the yeast with a quart of starter. I like to put my dredges, depending on how many I have, in 8-16 oz of 1.035 starter wort with a touch of nutrient just to get the party started. I also keep it just a little warmer then normal, like 70 degrees to encourage activity.

 

[bh10]

Fyi, I was able to haverst some pacman from 2 12oz dead guy bottles, took about 1.5 weeks, but after using about 1.040og of 400mL, saw nothing of airlock activity, so I stepped it up to 650mL and airlock is bubbling nicely.

 

[frailn]

I had success harvesting Pacman from two Rogue Mocha Porter bombers. I let them sit out on the counter for a couple of days, undisturbed, then carefully poured them, leaving an inch in the bottle.

Then, I recapped them and put them in the fridge for a week.

After a week, I uncapped them, swirled vigorously, then poured those dregs into DME starter wort in a sanitized pint mason jar. I let that go for two days. Not much activity. Then, I swirled this up and stepped it up to a quart mason jar of DME starter. Now, activity started showing. I stepped it up again to 2 2-quart mason jars. So, I treated it like a starter, I guess.

Once done, I split up the yeast into four 1-pint mason jars and put them in the fridge to go to sleep for a few weeks.

I pulled out two 1-pint mason jars and made a big starter out of these for my last brew. The started ended up being half-gallon after step up. I didn't use a stir plate, just the shake-bottle method every time I thought about it.

It turned out great so far. When I pitched it I got vigorous fermentation and dropped my wort from 1.064 to 1.015 in ten days. Kept the temp around 63 degrees. Would have preferred 60, but just can't get it that low with my set up at the moment. On day 8, the temp went up to 70 due to a weather change and stayed there for two days. That was not intentional, but may have been good for the brew (diacetyl rest?) not sure.

Either way, I love harvesting this yeast and using it!