Ninkasi Yeast?

[fishguy5]

Hi All,

I was in the supermarket last night and picked up a bottle of Ninkasi Brewery's new limited release, Hop Cooler, a citrus IPA. The bottle had what can only be described as a metric ton of yeast on the bottom.

Anyone know what kind of yeast Ninkasi uses and if it'd be worth getting another bottle and trying to harvest it? Do they use one of those special house yeasts which you can't get commercially and brewing with it would take my beer to new and unimaginable heights, as well as make me more attractive to the opposite sex? Or would I be going through a lot of trouble to simply harvest something I could buy at my LHBS?

And my official review of the beer: meh.

Thanks!

 

[chickypad]

Pretty sure their house strain was originally Fuller's (WL002/1968). Of course house yeasts can morph over time but not sure it's worth harvesting in this case. Now, if you get your hands on some of the Space-travelled yeast, that might be something. Can't get that at the LHBS.

 

[fishguy5]

Now, if you get your hands on some of the Space-travelled yeast, that might be something. Can't get that at the LHBS.

That's pretty cool! Hadn't heard about that. Kind of reminds me of back when I was in fifth grade. NASA did this big public relations thing where they sent a bunch of tomato seeds up with the space shuttle, then distributed them to grade school science classes all around the country. Don't recall the tomatoes tasting any different, though it was a long time ago, and suspect that the yeast wouldn't be anything all that different, either. But still a cool idea.