Maine Beer Company Yeast

[Zsmith31]

Hi Guys,

Wasn't sure if anyone has tried to harvest any yeast from any MBC bottles before. I recently got a ton of fresh bottles so wasn't sure how many bottles worth of dregs are needed at first. If you have any experience, please let me know!

Thanks.

 

[ultra_cas]

A friend of mine harvested some from one bottle. Had to step it up a couple times, but he was successful. I now have a jar of that, next generation, washed, that i have yet to try.

 

[Zsmith31]

A friend of mine harvested some from one bottle. Had to step it up a couple times, but he was successful. I now have a jar of that, next generation, washed, that i have yet to try.

Awesome, wasn't sure if one bottle was enough. Thank you.

 

[Braufessor]

I stepped Heady yeast up successfully from one can. I assume you can do the same from a bottle of MBC...... That said, I am going to step some more Heady up and will likely use 2-3 cans just to get it going a bit quicker and with less worry.

I did the one can of Heady with 300ml 1.020 starter to begin. Then went to 500ml of 1.030 and then 1.5L of 1.040. Worked pretty well and I now have a nice quart jar that is about 1/4 full of compact, pure white yeast with some of the fermented wort on top.

Hoping to brew with it this weekend.

 

[kh54s10]

I didn't use MBC, but I have stepped up successfully from the last 1/4 inch or less from 6 bottles (six pack)

 

[mkeckjr]

I have been to the brewery multiple times and have spoken to the brewers; they use the Chico ale yeast, so no need to harvest it. They build it up on Peeper for a few batches, and then end up using it for one of their bigger beers after that. Save your effort and just grab a vial of WLP001 or a sachet of US-05

Cheers

 

[Zsmith31]

I have been to the brewery multiple times and have spoken to the brewers; they use the Chico ale yeast, so no need to harvest it. They build it up on Peeper for a few batches, and then end up using it for one of their bigger beers after that. Save your effort and just grab a vial of WLP001 or a sachet of US-05

Cheers

Yeah I had heard rumors of that, but just got my hands on some fresh Dinner and absolutely love it, so was thinking it would be cool to harvest that yeast. I wouldn't waste my time on a regular MBC.

 

[BGBC]

Yeah I had heard rumors of that, but just got my hands on some fresh Dinner and absolutely love it, so was thinking it would be cool to harvest that yeast. I wouldn't waste my time on a regular MBC.

Between the hops and the ABV, that's not a great candidate for yeast harvesting. You'll probably still get something out of it, but the yeast will be pretty stressed. If you want to recreate the beer, you're better off taking the suggestion above and using a healthy pitch of WLP001 or 1056

 

[mkeckjr]

just got my hands on some fresh Dinner and absolutely love it

That ain't no lie right there. Dinner is awesome. BGBC is probably right, though; that's one of their bigger beers, and with that comes some risk with respect to the yeast health of the cells in that bottle. They've already been through quite a bit (many batches of Peeper, and then a big, DIPA), and probably aren't in optimal shape to be used again. However, if you wanna do it for science, go for it. Maybe harvest and do a 10 G batch where 5 G gets your repitch of the bottle harvested stuff, and the other 5 G gets a starter of WLP001.