IPA Yeast?

[RobWalker]

I have recently discovered a rather fantastic beer shop a few miles away from me, they stock craft beer from all over the world. I usually buy 4 bottles or so when my fridays have ended up somewhat solitary.

Now, they've got all the usual suspects. Rogue, Stone, Sierra Nevada etc. You can find a list of beers here -

http://www.cotteridgewines.com/beers.html

it's somewhat more extensive in store too due to old stock being sold off cheap and what have you.

As our selection of yeasts over in this country is somewhat limited compared to the USA, particularly since WLP yeasts are £7 a time (what, $12?) it doesn't make sense to spend that much on a single use yeast when I can grow it up and drink some awesome beer in the meantime.

So, I'm looking for a harvestable IPA yeast. Any suggestions?

(ps, Arbor Ales Artisan is particularly great!)

 

[Golddiggie]

Funny about your lack of decently priced yeast over there. I'm using all UK yeast strains over here for my brews. I've not bought beer in almost two years, and never bought IPAs when I did.

I would get a strain you like, and can use often, make a bigger starter for it, reserve some from that (pitch enough for your brew) and make more yeast (another starter) to freeze/save for use later. Wash/harvest the yeast cake from the brew you make and use as long as possible. That ~$12 investment just became a lot smaller per batch.

 

[Ravenshead]

The Pacman yeast in Rogue is a good yeast for an IPA, or any thing else that needs a clean ferment.

 

[Xpertskir]

You can make dozens of batches from one of those $12 vials....washing, slanting, or propagating clean yeast. Feel free to harvest yeast from american craft beers, but you will still have to do a considerable amount of work to use that yeast, and it would be silly not to do one of the above methods to keep reusing it. Plus, there are other variables involved in harvesting yeast from bottles that you can remove by using a vial to start.

The long and short of it, is if you are smart yeast should be one of the cheapest per batch costs instead of one of the most expensive.

 

[daksin]

+1 to re-using yeast that you've purchased. With good aseptic technique, you can easily go out 10 generations, and each low-moderate gravity batch will produce you enough yeast to make many many many starters with. That way, you can develop a great library of your most favorite strains and only have to pay for each one once.

If you're dead set on harvesting yeast, start with the yeast in the bottom of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It's your classic clean american ale strain (literally: it's WLP001, WY1056, and Safale US-05. The "chico" strain). That's your bog-standard IPA yeast, but will work with any clean american style such as amber, brown ale, stout/porter, pale ale, american wheat, etc etc etc. That list goes on and on- any beer you're looking for minimal yeast contribution, got to your Sierra Nevada strain. Any of Fuller's bottle conditioned ales will provide you a nice flocculant strain for making Britisth style beers (bitters, stout/porter etc etc) that is easily top-cropped for reuse. Pacman was also mentioned, which would be great as well.

 

[marc06]

Pacman from Rogue is harvestable, but make sure its not from a beer that is filtered. I don't remember which of the Rogue beers you can harvest from, but it says on the bottle that they are filtered. Although, my go to IPA yeast is a kolsch yeast, does wonders for IPAs.

 

[Ravenshead]

I've harvested Pacman from Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout. I'm sure there are others but I know that one works.

 

[Calder]

I love PacMan. I harvested mine from a bottle of 'Yellow Snow Pale Ale'.

I have some frozen, and a clean sample from a starter in the fridge ready for use. So far I have used it in 19 brews since harvesting.

Very clean yeast, good attenuation, and works at a wide range of temperatures (from about 40 F to 70 F). The only problem I've had is that it is only good to about 11% abv. I used it in a Barley Wine once, and had to use another yeast to finish it off.

 

[RobWalker]

thanks guys this is all great info! sierra nevada pale ale is very widely available these days so I will start there, I'll look into the pacman yeast at a later point. I've also got US-05, but thought switching it up might be fun. Plus it doesn't hurt to have a yeast bank

Thanks again chaps

 

[beergolf]

Here is a list of beers that others have successfully harvested yeast from. It is a pretty big list.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/commercial-beer-yeast-harvest-list-262713/

 

[Calder]

Sierra Nevada pale ale is very widely available these days so I will start there, I'll look into the pacman yeast at a later point. I've also got US-05, but thought switching it up might be fun.

You do know S-05 is the same yeast you will get in SN Pale Ale.

S-05, WLP001, and Wyeast 1056 are all the Chico strain.

 

[schroeder]

+1 to WY1056
I bought 1 pack and am on my 5th beer from it.2 IPAs, an Alt, a Christmas ale, and I've got the yeast ready for another IPA

very versatile. I selected it on the advise of a local brewmaster who told me that it is a common "house yeast" for miocrobreweries or brewpubs

 

[TriggerFingers]

Two favorites are Pacman (actually got some Wyeast last month, but you can culture from 1-2 bombers) and WLP007 (ala Stone)

Of course, if those are hard to come by in your area a couple of packets of S-05 (and then harvested) will give you very similar results with an ample starter