Heady Topper yeast

[DonT]

I have a couple of cans that are about a month old and would like to propagate a batch off of them. My plan is to do a starter of about .75L to begin with, then step up to 1.5L and pitch that. Does this sound reasonable? I've never done this before (propagate off a commercial beer, I've done plenty of starters). Tips? Advise? Tell me I'm high?
I'll pour off the last 25% of the can.

 

[Dgallo]

I have a couple of cans that are about a month old and would like to propagate a batch off of them. My plan is to do a starter of about .75L to begin with, then step up to 1.5L and pitch that. Does this sound reasonable? I've never done this before (propagate off a commercial beer, I've done plenty of starters). Tips? Advise? Tell me I'm high?
I'll pour off the last 25% of the can.

You could certainly do that but the strain alchemist uses for Heady Topper is Conan. Here’s a list of varieties of that yeast available for you to buy

 

[DonT]

Right. But I want to try this. Is my process off?

 

[day_trippr]

Right, The Alchemist pretty much put Conan on the map.
I advise caution running that strain cold as ime it tends to throw what I call a "nasty peach" note that never leaves.
Keep it above 65°F though and it does very nicely indeed.

As for bringing dregs back to life, I recommend starting with 100ml of 1.010 wort, let that ferment out, then do a 200ml step with 1.020 wort, then you can go nuts with the typical 1.036 wort and whatever volume works with your favorite calculator (I like brew united's brewdad)...

Cheers!

 

[DonT]

Excellent. I'll try that. I tend to ferment at around 68*to 70* so that should work.
Thanks! I'll report back after next weekend's brew day.

 

[Dgallo]

Right. But I want to try this. Is my process off?

Heady can be tough to cultivate since because you don’t know what generation the batch was made with. To start off you want to go even smaller.

Use dregs from 4 cans of HEADY in a 1.020 starter about a cup size. Then from there you can step up to about 1.030 in 1L and then go to your normal starter.

If you have less cans you’ll have to go even smaller in size and more steps