Pacman Yeast

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Hoosierbrewer

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I have been in St. Louis for the last week. I bought a bottle of Rogue Brutal Bitter. It is the 22oz bottle. They had that and a 6 pack of Dead Guy. Is the Pacman yeast in this bottle? It is hard to tell on the bottom. I plan to pour it out into a glass to drink and then let the yeast warm up to room temp and then pitch into a starter to let it grow.
 
I have been in St. Louis for the last week. I bought a bottle of Rogue Brutal Bitter. It is the 22oz bottle. They had that and a 6 pack of Dead Guy. Is the Pacman yeast in this bottle? It is hard to tell on the bottom. I plan to pour it out into a glass to drink and then let the yeast warm up to room temp and then pitch into a starter to let it grow.


I haven't had much luck with deadguy, the bombers that is, haven't tried from the sixers...in fact I don't think it says anything on the label about having it...

On the Other hand I have had GREAT luck with Shakespeare Stout! I've got 3 successful harvest from bombers of it....

Here's a thread on it....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=63855
 
They did not have any shakespear stout. I plan to look at a shop here locally to see if they can get it. I want to use the yeast with my IPA.

Thanks!
 
I think someone on the thread got it from brutal bitter....

On the bombers it says right on the label.

Well, what I would do is dump the sludge from all the deadguys and the brutal bitters and see....it doesn't take a lot to get it going, and you just have to keep building up the starter incrementally.
 
It did not say that it was bottle conditioned but it said pacman yeast and all natural. They guy at the shop thought he saw some yeast on the bottom. I will test and see. If there is not, then I will have to find the stout.

I had a Lunar Ale from Boulevard. It is bottle conditioned. I should have brought back a bottle or two. If I am successful with the pacman, I plan to get a good bottle conditioned belgian to do the same thing for a dubbel if possible.
 
careful when propagating yeast from bottle conditioned ales

most of the time brewers use a different yeast to bottle condition
 
careful when propagating yeast from bottle conditioned ales

most of the time brewers use a different yeast to bottle condition


Most of the time? Eh, doubtful. Sometimes, sure. Pacman is definitely the yeast in the Rogue bottle conditioned beers.
 
careful when propagating yeast from bottle conditioned ales

most of the time brewers use a different yeast to bottle condition

This has been covered ad nauseum....Rogue indeed uses pacman both to brew and bottle condition their beers, it's confirmed right on their website..As well as just about every homebrewing forum on the internets (there's at least 5 threads here on the topic that I know of.)

Hoosierbrewer if it says on the label, then go for it...the shakespeare, and hazelnut stouts say the same thing, and I've been successful! :rockin:

I have an amber ale going with it right now, and damn that started fast after I pitched it.

I'm going to make slants with some of the pacman I've harvested and build up a bank, and I'm going to use another batch this weekend as well.
 
Thanks everyone. I have one bottle. I wish I had purchased the deadguy ale 6 pack. I plan to try and grow it. We will see how it goes.
 
Why not just go buy a WYeast smack pack of it? I know I can get it at my LHBS. Just started re-carrying it. I know it was a VSS at one point but there's an agreement somewhere and now it comes in WYeast smack packs, AGAIN! I physically held one in my hands a few days ago. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!! It had it's own place in the cooler. I'll ask my LHBS the inns and outs of it next time I swing by. Might be a week and a half though. Gotta wait till payday or SWMBO will do unspeakable things. :D But if you are culturing it for fun please don't let me discourage you from doing so. It sounds like fun!
 
Thank you grim! No one believes me when I say I've seen the Wyeast Pacman packets at the LHBS. I'm not crazy!!
 
Why not just go buy a WYeast smack pack of it? I know I can get it at my LHBS. Just started re-carrying it. I know it was a VSS at one point but there's an agreement somewhere and now it comes in WYeast smack packs, AGAIN! I physically held one in my hands a few days ago. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!! It had it's own place in the cooler. I'll ask my LHBS the inns and outs of it next time I swing by. Might be a week and a half though. Gotta wait till payday or SWMBO will do unspeakable things. :D But if you are culturing it for fun please don't let me discourage you from doing so. It sounds like fun!

Thank you grim! No one believes me when I say I've seen the Wyeast Pacman packets at the LHBS. I'm not crazy!!

I BELIEVE YOU Eviltoj!!!! :D

Not all lhbs's carry it....yours has to be an authroized Brewcraft distributor in order to be able to stock it at all...None of the 3 lhbs that I frequent in Michigan carry brewcraft products, I don't know if any places in Michigan do...One of the places I deal with is one of the oldest and largest shops in S.E Michigan, and THEY can't get it....

It is not even listed on WYEAST's site....It's an exclusive deal with Brewcraft....Since Brewcraft created the Dead Guy Clone Kit.

Besides some of us LIKE doing it the hard way.....Step 1 of the hard way involves consuming Rogue Beers....and that's not something I'll ever complain about, they make damn fine beers!:drunk:

Besides part of the Yeast Ranching Ethos, is to do it so you don't have to pay 8-10 bucks for a pack of yeast... Lemme see....spend money on yeast or spend money on beer and get the yeast free....I'll take the beer.
 
+1 on Rogue using Pacman in almost everything they brew, you should be ok harvesting from those beers. Speaking of Pacman yeast I tried my first harvesting of pacman yeast from a bomber of Juniper Pale ale and so far I have some good action after about 4 days but it smells a bit sour to me. I started with one quart of 1.042 DME wort and bumped it up with another quart 1.042 wort after two days. I don't have a stir plate (future project) but I have been giving it a good swirl when I can. Is there any other signs other than it smelling funny that would clue me into thinking I shouldn't use this starter when I brew on Sunday?
 
+1 on Rogue using Pacman in almost everything they brew, you should be ok harvesting from those beers. Speaking of Pacman yeast I tried my first harvesting of pacman yeast from a bomber of Juniper Pale ale and so far I have some good action after about 4 days but it smells a bit sour to me. I started with one quart of 1.042 DME wort and bumped it up with another quart 1.042 wort after two days. I don't have a stir plate (future project) but I have been giving it a good swirl when I can. Is there any other signs other than it smelling funny that would clue me into thinking I shouldn't use this starter when I brew on Sunday?

Mine have smelt a little sour to me as well, I think that just comes from there being a bit of old beer in the slurry... I've only pitched one batch of harvested pacman so far, and before I pitched it, I did a yeast wash, draining off the old beer and using bottled spring water (it was a spur of the minute thing, or else I would have boiled and cooled water.)

Everything seems fine with the batch I brewed...I plan on checking it tonight to make sure.
 
Now you guys have me thinking, my LHBS is a brewcraft distributer and I was going to buy a pacman pack and start a ranch from there but I also have a bomber of Deadguy in the fridge.... Might save me the $8.99.
 
Now you guys have me thinking, my LHBS is a brewcraft distributer and I was going to buy a pacman pack and start a ranch from there but I also have a bomber of Deadguy in the fridge.... Might save me the $8.99.

You know, if you actually have access to the pure strain then you could make a huge bank of it for 8.99... You can slant it, or freeze it, and you wouldn't have to worry about some of the issues with bottle harvesting...

All that being said, it is fun to do it yourself....:ban:

This weekend I'm planning to make up some slants to cultivate and I'll probably do a glycerine freeze of some of it as well.

Check out the pacman video thread I posted earlier.
 
I like the idea of being able to benefit in more than one way from drinking Rogue beer (getting to drink good brew and harvesting yeast) but yeah if you can get a pure strain making a yeast bank would be a very good idea. I have a friend that is currently in a fermentation science program and he didn't recommend doing yeast prorogation from a bottle of beer due to the fact that the yeast has been stressed quite a bit and most likely has some mutated strains. I didn't really listen to him ;) but he has a good point. I probably should have just snatched some yeast last weekend when I was at the Rogue Brewery. Damn it's good to be a Oregonian!
 
Thank you grim! No one believes me when I say I've seen the Wyeast Pacman packets at the LHBS. I'm not crazy!!

Mine has it. I pitched some last weekend into an APA. My LHBS store guy says that they produce it all the time now 'cause it was so popular.
 
unfortunately, my LHBS is not very good. I might be able to get it in Indianapolis. I plan to harvest some from the bottle tomorrow. i will let people know how it goes.
 
unfortunately, my LHBS is not very good. I might be able to get it in Indianapolis. I plan to harvest some from the bottle tomorrow. i will let people know how it goes.


Good luck, just remember to sanitize everything before hand. If you're just pouring from the bottle either spray it with sanitizer or flame the lip before hand.

I've sometimes found that putting a little of the starter wort into the bottle and swirling helps get all the yeasties off the bottom.
 
Good luck, just remember to sanitize everything before hand. If you're just pouring from the bottle either spray it with sanitizer or flame the lip before hand.

I've sometimes found that putting a little of the starter wort into the bottle and swirling helps get all the yeasties off the bottom.

+1 on this. I usually add about 50 mls of starter wort to the bottle and let it sit a day or two, then flame the lip and pitch it to a small starter, stepping it up every couple days.
 
Mine has it. I pitched some last weekend into an APA. My LHBS store guy says that they produce it all the time now 'cause it was so popular.

That's because we live in the same city, blacklab. Do you go to Let's Brew, or FH Steinbart's?
 
36 hours and no fermentation yet. I pitched the yeast from one 22 oz. brutal bitter into my starter. I will be patient until 72 hours. I found rogue locally, so I may go and buy a six pack of dead guy or something else that has been bottle conditioned to get more yeast.
 
36 hours and no fermentation yet. I pitched the yeast from one 22 oz. brutal bitter into my starter. I will be patient until 72 hours. I found rogue locally, so I may go and buy a six pack of dead guy or something else that has been bottle conditioned to get more yeast.

Is there a small band of cream colored sediment at the bottom the the flask you are using? Of the 4 batches I've harvested only one of them had a high krausen...The rest just silently did their business and fermented out leaving yeast on the bottom...

If it's been 36 hours you may want to consider feeding it again.

In use so far, the one I pitched at high krauzen took off vigourously after about 6 hours in the wort, with a huge krauzen which fell after 5 days in a temp controlled enviroment of the low 60's.

The other 2 batches of beer were slow to take off and not a lot of airlock action. One of those I brewed on Sunday (A Dead Guy CLone) and it is finally bubbling into my blow off tube this morning.
 
Thanks. Does dead guy have the yeast in the 12 oz bottles? I want to go buy some beer today. I know you said that the stout has it.
 
Well, I will try it with some American Amber Ale. I hope it is just taking awhile like most liquid yeasts. I will pitch more in my 1/2 gallon bottle when it is up to room temperature. At $6 a beer, this is getting expensive. I guess the positive side is I have drank the bitter and the amber ale and both were awsome.
 
Well, I will try it with some American Amber Ale. I hope it is just taking awhile like most liquid yeasts. I will pitch more in my 1/2 gallon bottle when it is up to room temperature. At $6 a beer, this is getting expensive. I guess the positive side is I have drank the bitter and the amber ale and both were awsome.

Just remember, after it's done you'll have plenty of yeast...just follow the yeast washing tutorial....Get some mason jars.

As to the 6's of DG, I can't tell if the do or not. It might be in such a small amount...If I had a six I would dump them all in...
 
If it does not start within the next day and I add the American Amber ale yeast, then I may have to try the stout. The good news is that I have tried 2 of their beers and love them. SWMBO may not like the cost per beer though. Oh well, she buys make-up.
 
Waiting is tough. I pitched more yeast last night, but nothing this morning. It still smells sweet, but I guess that could be because there are no hops in it. I might pour off some at llunch and take a gravity reading. I have not had a single air bubble on the surface of the wort.
 
Waiting is tough. I pitched more yeast last night, but nothing this morning. It still smells sweet, but I guess that could be because there are no hops in it. I might pour off some at llunch and take a gravity reading. I have not had a single air bubble on the surface of the wort.

but this there anything in the bottom of the flask? A little cream colored band? That would indicate that the yeast flocculated already....Like I said I have had some that didn't really show any action beyond my stirplate.
 
but this there anything in the bottom of the flask? A little cream colored band? That would indicate that the yeast flocculated already....Like I said I have had some that didn't really show any action beyond my stirplate.

There is a band near the bottom. I thought that it was some kind of residual from the DME It had it in the bottom of the glass prior to pitching.. This is a wierd yeast. I love the beers though.
 
There is a band near the bottom. I thought that it was some kind of residual from the DME It had it in the bottom of the glass prior to pitching.. This is a wierd yeast. I love the beers though.

Not that is indeed yeast!!!!! :ban:

If you mixed the DME and water and boild, then the cream band is the real deal...

It's
pacman_record_020605.JPG



So now you should give it another feeding.
 
the wort still tastes sweet. I will boil some more and try, but I have a feeling that this is not working. ugh, nothing new is easy.
 
the wort still tastes sweet. I will boil some more and try, but I have a feeling that this is not working. ugh, nothing new is easy.

Of course the wort will taste sweet...there's no hops in it to counter the effect of the malt...mine have all tasted sweet/beery, and they've worked in beer so far.

Seriously, try feeding it some more, look in the pacman video thread, prof frink (who's my yoda on this) tells how much to make the next feeding.
 
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