Harvesting yeast from commercial beers

[Descender]

What widely available beers have you guys successfully harvested yeast from?

rhino farts and rocket fuel!

 

[Hobanon]

I haven't done it yet, but I've heard/read about lots of success with getting Pacman yeast out of Rogue's Shakespeare stout. Have a bottle in the fridge ill probably crack this weekend and feed the dregs.


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[stpug]

I don't know about "widely available" but some craft beers I've harvested from are:
The Alchemist - Heady Topper (Conan)
Odell - Myrcenary IIPA (German/Kolsch-like; true top cropper)
North Coast - PranQster (Belgian blend of 2 strains)
Westmalle - Tripel (WY3787/WLP530)
Allagash - White (Belgian strain)
Orval - Trappist (Brett Brux dregs pitched into secondary)

 

[solbes]

Bells from Amber, 2 Hearted, and Best Brown
Wild dregs from Odell's Deconstruction (fantastic beer)
Wild dregs from Jolly Pumpkin, one of their darker beers, Bam Noire?
Failed attempt at a Chimay blue, but it was a pretty old bottle

 

[mtnagel]

Here's a pretty big list already started.

I've done it from Heady Topper and Bell's Two Hearted.

 

[jeff62217]

I kept the slurry from a franziskaner hefe weissbier I had last night. Plan on trying to do a Belgian wit with it this weekend.

Just wondering if I can use golden light DME or should I get wheat for the starter? I don't know if it matters or not.

 

[solbes]

I kept the slurry from a franziskaner hefe weissbier I had last night. Plan on trying to do a Belgian wit with it this weekend.

Just wondering if I can use golden light DME or should I get wheat for the starter? I don't know if it matters or not.

I would say brewing this weekend from dregs harvested last night (one bottle?) will be pretty difficult. I usually allow a minimum of 5 days to step it 3x. 7 days allows for 2 days of fridge time at the end to drop most of the yeast and decant. If you are decanting, using golden DME vs wheat will not make a bit of difference. If you are pitching the whole thing, then it might make a little difference.

 

[jeff62217]

I would say brewing this weekend from dregs harvested last night (one bottle?) will be pretty difficult. I usually allow a minimum of 5 days to step it 3x. 7 days allows for 2 days of fridge time at the end to drop most of the yeast and decant. If you are decanting, using golden DME vs wheat will not make a bit of difference. If you are pitching the whole thing, then it might make a little difference.

Yeah one 16.9oz bottle. I'd better get that starter started. I've just been letting them go for a day or two on the stir plate, sitting while I brew to settle, then decanting and pitching. There's usually a very thick slurry of yeast at the bottom giving off a lot of CO2 bubbles.. I know I'm probably wasting a lot of yeast still in suspension, I'll try fridge time to drop more of the yeast.

 

[solbes]

Ah okay, stir plate will help. I just do the intermittent shaking method.

 

[stpug]

My experience with harvesting yeast from bottles has been that imported bottles take the longest to come back around. In the case of Franziskaner (an import), you probably harvested in the realm of <20 billion cells from the bottle, of which a percentage was stressed with low viability. I suspect the percentage is in the 50% range, which would leave you with ~10 billion viable cells with low vitality. Simply bringing the yeast back into good vitality (using pure O2 and nutrients) would likely take a few days, at the minimum, at which point you'd start on the propagation steps - of which I'd aim for two more steps. As mentioned above, I would aim for about 7 days to get these yeast back into good enough condition to ferment a 5 gallon batch. I'm not trying to dissuade you from following through with your plans; I just want your attempts to be highly successful and produce a lovely beer. Again, this has just been my experience with imported bottle yeast.

The Westmalle was spinning for 5 days before I saw it beginning to do something - granted, it was in a highly toxic environment for a long time. The alchemist also took 3 days just to start back up from the can and it's relatively local. The odell yeast came from a highly stressful beer, but it took about 2-3 days to start moving again. North coast and allagash popped right up after ~24 hours. The advantage you have in your case is that the yeast are stored in a good environment. Also, that particular beer seems to be fairly popular so hopefully your store's shelf is constantly rotating through their stock which gives you a chance of getting a fresher bottle. I often times see obscure belgian beers with thick layers of dust at my local store.

Regardless, let us know how quickly it pops back up. That is actually a bottle I've considered harvesting from.

 

[jeff62217]

I must've gotten lucky, at the rate it's growing I should only need to step it up once and I should have enough to pitch by Sat evening or Sun morning.

 

[mtnagel]

I must've gotten lucky, at the rate it's growing I should only need to step it up once and I should have enough to pitch by Sat evening or Sun morning.

Can I ask how you know that?

 

[jeff62217]

Can I ask how you know that?

judging by the amount of yeast cells already clumping together in the bottom of the flask

 

[stpug]

I must've gotten lucky, at the rate it's growing I should only need to step it up once and I should have enough to pitch by Sat evening or Sun morning.

That's hopeful news then!! With results like that I might just have to give it a whirl myself


....and, remember, ALWAYS grab from the back - especially those IPAs

 

[basslake]

John John Dead Guy Ale and Yellow Snow IPA from Rogue, Heady Topper.
I used two bottles or cans and stepped up at least three times over about a week to 10 days.

 

[jeff62217]

Thought I'd chime in again to add that I was able to grow the yeast into a good amount of healthy cells, took about 5 to 6 days.

The bad news, I did some digging and apparently franziskaner uses a lager strain for bottling. So, I dumped it.

A little bit of wasted time and DME but good experience, I won't hesitate to attempt to harvest again, just not from that particular beer.

 

[nab911]

I started a 1.015, 1500ml starter yesterday with the dregs of one Heady can and while there is a little bubbling, not much. I was hoping for a miracle to be able to use it by sunday but it's not looking good. I have one more can I can crack tonight but is this really a week long process? Meant to hit 1.020 but the boil off was a bit slower than expected.

 

[Riot]

Yeah, even with a stirplate getting a pitchable culture from a bottle is gonna take you like a week. Also, why was your initial volume so large? I finish starters at 1.5 litres, I feel a bottle should start at 100ml, tops.

 

[nab911]

Yeah, even with a stirplate getting a pitchable culture from a bottle is gonna take you like a week. Also, why was your initial volume so large? I finish starters at 1.5 litres, I feel a bottle should start at 100ml, tops.

I was going off a normal starter thing trying to get it to 1.020 and not paying attention to harvesting from a commercial beer. Just a bad on my part. Would the size really kill it? Might just go with a normal yeast and save this one in a jar for brewing a heady clone soon.

 

[Riot]

It won't kill it, it will just he really slow take take hold. The biggest issue I see is the potential for infection. I like to see yeast removing sugar as soon as possible in that kind of situation.

 

[nab911]

Yeah, ill see what it does. Ill go ahead and pick up a different yeast for sunday. As far as this, it is on a stir plate, everything sanitized and in a 2L flask covered in foil. Ill watch it and if it works, awesome. If not, ill use the last one in a much smaller container (qt jar) and step it up per recommendations on here. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[PsiNyde]

I'm currently harvesting from Heady [Conan] and Spencer Trappist.

 

[badlee]

La Chouffe is easy to harvest and great to brew with

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