Looking for some help in Metro Detroit (Berkley)

[SGTSparty]

Hey all,
First off I'm new to HBT so if this isn't the place for this lemme know. Anyways, I'm looking for a bit of help. I want to make a Bell's Two Hearted all grain clone in the coming weeks but from what I've read if you want it to be as close as possible you need to harvest from the Bell's bottles. I've only every done dry yeast so I've never done bottle harvesting nor starters and I don't have the equipment. Does anyone either have a vial in their yeast bank or would be willing to build me a starter for beer/a reasonable price?

Any help would be welcomed.

Thanks

 

[Homercidal]

Hey all,
First off I'm new to HBT so if this isn't the place for this lemme know. Anyways, I'm looking for a bit of help. I want to make a Bell's Two Hearted all grain clone in the coming weeks but from what I've read if you want it to be as close as possible you need to harvest from the Bell's bottles. I've only every done dry yeast so I've never done bottle harvesting nor starters and I don't have the equipment. Does anyone either have a vial in their yeast bank or would be willing to build me a starter for beer/a reasonable price?

Any help would be welcomed.

Thanks

All you need to make a starter is a bit of dry malt extract, a mason jar with a lid, and some Bells beer (Preferable their Amber or something not too hoppy (Two-Hearted has worked well for me.))

If you really think you can't manage this, I could probably build up a starter for you and mail it down. It would take about 2 weeks though.

Here is a post directly from Bells themselves on Tumblr about harvesting their yeast:

We don’t offer our house yeast for sale. But since we don’t filter any of our ales either, you can harvest it directly from the bottle.

Any of our non-Belgian ales are good candidates for this. If you can get your hands on them, Oberon, Midwestern Pale Ale and Amber Ale are all good choices.

What you will need: 1-3 bottles of beer, a vessel, a flame source and the same ingredients required to build a yeast starter.

DIRECTIONS

1. Refrigerate your bottle of beer for one week. Make sure you have a nice slurry on the bottom. Two to three bottles will yield better results.

2. Open bottle and sanitize the lip with a flame.

NOTE: You may also want to spray sanitizer on and around the cap before opening.

3. Gently pour the beer into a glass, leaving the sediment (yeast) in the bottle.

4. Swirl the sediment/yeast in the bottle and re-flame the lip.

5. Pour sediment into a sanitized container.

6. Grow your yeast using a stepped starter – start with 75ML (about 1/3 of a cup) of wort, then let ferment for two to three days. Then add an additional 750ML of wort and let ferment an additional two to three days.

 

[SGTSparty]

All you need to make a starter is a bit of dry malt extract, a mason jar with a lid, and some Bells beer (Preferable their Amber or something not too hoppy (Two-Hearted has worked well for me.))

If you really think you can't manage this, I could probably build up a starter for you and mail it down. It would take about 2 weeks though.

Here is a post directly from Bells themselves on Tumblr about harvesting their yeast:

We don’t offer our house yeast for sale. But since we don’t filter any of our ales either, you can harvest it directly from the bottle.

Any of our non-Belgian ales are good candidates for this. If you can get your hands on them, Oberon, Midwestern Pale Ale and Amber Ale are all good choices.

What you will need: 1-3 bottles of beer, a vessel, a flame source and the same ingredients required to build a yeast starter.

DIRECTIONS

1. Refrigerate your bottle of beer for one week. Make sure you have a nice slurry on the bottom. Two to three bottles will yield better results.

2. Open bottle and sanitize the lip with a flame.

NOTE: You may also want to spray sanitizer on and around the cap before opening.

3. Gently pour the beer into a glass, leaving the sediment (yeast) in the bottle.

4. Swirl the sediment/yeast in the bottle and re-flame the lip.

5. Pour sediment into a sanitized container.

6. Grow your yeast using a stepped starter – start with 75ML (about 1/3 of a cup) of wort, then let ferment for two to three days. Then add an additional 750ML of wort and let ferment an additional two to three days.

Bite the bullet and got myself a stir plate and flask for Starters. did my first one last week with a smack pack (just to make sure I didn't screw it up). Quick question before I try and harvest tonight: would you build the the total volume of the starter (825 ML) at once and just store the 750 ML for a few days? I'm assuming so since making 1/3 cup of wort would just be ridiculous to make by itself, so how/where would you store the 750?

I'm assuming based on the very small volume of the 1st mini starter that it doesn't make sense to put that in a 2L flask which is what I have, so probably store the 750 in it w/ an airlock for sanitation's sake in the fridge and add the mini to it (after brought up to room temp?)?

Do the mini- starter in a mason jar is your recommendation? Can I just cover it w/ sanitized foil? IDK if we have any actual lids.

 

[Homercidal]

Just keep the extra wort in the fridge until it's ready to be used, then warm it up room temp before adding the previous yeast.

I generally start with a small starter and a few bottles' worth of dregs, then move up to a 1L starter, and finally a 2L starter. (unless I'm doing a REALLY big beer, in which case I might go with a 5L starter, but that's the extremely rare situation. I use a tea jug instead of a flask in that case...)

Usually between steps I let the yeast settle out and I pour off most of the wort before swirling the yeast and adding to the next step.

After it's grown I fridge it until needed. Sanitized foil on the top.