Rare yeast, and I'm getting ahold of some!

[broadbill]

This is an easy and cheap way to send yeast if you decide to go that route.

http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/04/mailing-yeast.html#A1

This is easy and cheap, all you need is your own microbiology lab!

#noteasy
#notcheap

 

[PoppinCaps]

This is easy and cheap, all you need is your own microbiology lab!



#noteasy

#notcheap

I'm just working in a home kitchen with a pressure cooker that moonlights as a meat cooker.

Beyond that, you don't need fancy pipettors, centrifuge tubes, or an autoclave. You do need:
Petri dishes: $7 for 20
Agar powder: $1 per 20 plates
Mason jar
DME
Aluminum foil
Paper

That's it, and a little patience. I just traded some yeast this way with a couple guys, and I'm sure they don't work in a lab either. You don't even need the agar plates. Just take some slurry with a StarSan-ed spoon, drip it onto paper that's been pressure cooked in foil, wrap it, tape it up, mail it. On the receiving end take the paper out and drop it in some starter wort.

My apologies if you were only kidding, I just thought I would lay out a more simple version. That link over-complicates it.

 

[broadbill]

I'm just working in a home kitchen with a pressure cooker that moonlights as a meat cooker.

Beyond that, you don't need fancy pipettors, centrifuge tubes, or an autoclave. You do need:
Petri dishes: $7 for 20
Agar powder: $1 per 20 plates
Mason jar
DME
Aluminum foil
Paper

That's it, and a little patience. I just traded some yeast this way with a couple guys, and I'm sure they don't work in a lab either. You don't even need the agar plates. Just take some slurry with a StarSan-ed spoon, drip it onto paper that's been pressure cooked in foil, wrap it, tape it up, mail it. On the receiving end take the paper out and drop it in some starter wort.

My apologies if you were only kidding, I just thought I would lay out a more simple version. That link over-complicates it.

It was a bit tongue in cheek I admit. I like that this technique is out there, I was just thinking for all this work it may be easier to send someone either the slurry itself or a bottle of beer they could culture from.

 

[joshesmusica]

A normal starter is 100g DME in 1L of water which is around 1.040. That's a pretty heavy starter it's in. If it were me, I'd add some boiled and cooled water to it and aerate again.

yeah i guess making a recipe on beersmith doesn't really calculate it well enough for some reason. found a different tool on there and realized that with that amount of dme i should've had 1.8L! so i boiled up an extra liter and cooled and poured it in. now i know. i guess i just need to convert to pounds per gallon every time i want to figure it out on my own.

so now i have 1.8L of 1.030 wort.

i was thinking that since i have the space to go with 1L of 1.040 wort in a couple of days (or maybe tomorrow if it seems to be at high krausen, which sitting at 40C should encourage it to get there pretty quickly since it's already had some time with some nutrients). Then I could do that again with another liter, maybe go like 1.050 the third time?

I'm just trying to get a significant slurry going on with lots of healthy yeasts in order to split it multiple times for storage.

 

[joshesmusica]

The first step up for the starter went pretty well. I thought I messed it up because activity died in the fermenter after only a couple days, and not only that, but the outside air had more pressure than the fermenter had. And I didn't see a yeast cake at the bottom by shining a light through it. So I was a bit worried. But then I tested the gravity, and it fermented out all of the fermentable sugars. So that was good. The guys in Voss ferment in only like 7 days, so I guess this is just a fast yeast (but I guess so at 40C!). Then I cold crashed it and got the yeast cake that I was looking for. So I think this is just not a quickly flocculating strain.

I sampled the "beer" and it definitely had some interesting aromas. I definitely get the orange that Lars was talking about on his blog, but then I didn't get much of the "christmas spices" that he talked about. But it was a low gravity wort, and hopless, so it's not gonna be completely like the actual final product. But I think it will definitely make for some interesting beers. I plan on trying it on all kinds of styles and trying out all different kinds of ferment temps. I really think it will make a good addition to an already existing orange summer pale ale recipe that i use.

Anyways, got the second step starter going last night, and it's buzzing away now. I think after this one I will likely have enough to fill a white labs vial with (just the yeast slurry, not the yeast and the starter "beer"), so I will likely do at least two more rounds of step ups after this. Then I'll be brewing the actual beer after that. Should be coming in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Warthaug]

This is easy and cheap, all you need is your own microbiology lab!

#noteasy
#notcheap

It is cheap & easy - and that's my blog, I've sent yeast to over 100 people, so I know:

To receive: Tweezers and a lighter. Sterilize tweezers with the lighter, cool, then pull the paper pad out of the foil envelope. Drop into sanitized (boiled & cooled) wort, and throw it on your stirplate. Most people do it without having to buy a damned thing extra. If you need to buy tweezers and a lighter, that'll set you back less than five bucks.

To send: Make tinfoil envelopes, put absorbent paper pieces into envelope. Tinfoil is generally around most peoples homes, absorbent paper (index cards work) are less than a buck for a lifetime supply. Sterilize in a pressure cooker (cost is free-$100, average for used is ~$25 on kijiji), and transfer yeast sediment from a starter using a sterile pipette. I generally recommend doing this next to an alcohol lamp or bunsen burner to maintain cleanliness. A pack of 100 individually wrapped sterile pipettes is $25 on amazon, I built my alcohol lamp out of scrap materials from my kitchen; to buy the parts new is a few bucks.

So worst case scenario, you're looking at a $50-$100 one-time start-up cost, which also gives you the materials (minus stamps + paper envelopes) to send out and receive few hundred yeasts.

So it is #cheap and #easy. If you can boil wort you too can do it.

Sending slurry is both much more expensive (you're paying for package mail, not letter mail), less reliable (freezing or overheating during transport is much more damaging with living slurry than dried inert cells), and can be illegal if crossing international boarders.

B

 

[BugHunter]

It is cheap & easy - and that's my blog, I've sent yeast to over 100 people, so I know:

...

Sending slurry is both much more expensive (you're paying for package mail, not letter mail), less reliable (freezing or overheating during transport is much more damaging with living slurry than dried inert cells), and can be illegal if crossing international boarders.

B

I was about to ask why you don't just ship microcentrifuge tube samples, but I never considered international shipments. I'll have to remember that.

 

[joshesmusica]

Update:
On the third and final build up of the kveik I somehow got an infection in it when I cold crashed it. It was super disappointing and incredibly frustrating.
But turns out my LHBS is pretty much just reproducing this often now, and giving it to people who are interested, so I got a new vial of it. This time around there was clearly more yeast in the sample, so that was nice.

After the first round of building it up I would guess I likely had about as much as you would get in a fresh white labs vial. I did 1L of about 1.037 (100g of dme) wort with probably about 1/8 tsp yeast nutrient. It looked to have fermented out in 24 hrs at about 30c, but I left it for another 24h and kept whirling up the yeast when I walked in the room. Then cold crashed it for 24h, this time in a closed glass jar. This fermented malt drink was at 1.009.

Last night, I started the second round of building it up. Decanted down to about 100ml of liquid left, with probably about 100ml of yeast on the bottom, this time pouring on top 1.5L of about 1.049 wort (200g dme), and about 1/8 tsp yeast nutrient. Again I have the room it's in up to about 30c, and it was going crazy already when I headed to bed; about 4 hrs after pouring in the new wort. This morning, about 12 hrs after, there were clear signs of a krausen that had dropped out. Though there was still a little movement in the wort. I'll still let this go for 48 hrs total, then cold crash for 24h again, then I'll likely start a third round with 2L of about 1.055 wort (300g dme), and follow the same procedure.
After that I will take some and make a new starter and make a beer with it. I made a small batch with some wild hops that I got, and I'll know how those taste in a few weeks. So I'll probably first either make a pale ale or a blonde with this yeast, and then after I see how the hops are, I'll make the Vossøl.

 

[m00ps]

any tasting notes on the yeast itself? I taste most of my starter worts when i decant them (especially saisons) and Im pretty interested in this stuff. I read all those articles on the wooden yeast rings and everything

 

[joshesmusica]

Yeah, it's so weak it's hard to tell exactly how the final product will be, but the way Lars describes it I think fits best: Christmas spices with orange overtones.

 

[m00ps]

so you can taste the spices in the unhopped starter wort?

 

[joshesmusica]

Yeah for sure. I'll get more of an idea on these next two I think though. Also I've not got it ramped all the way up to 40c for these, but will most certainly be doing that when I ferment the first test batch with it.

 

[m00ps]

Hey, I just saw this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=545604

do you think that first strain is the one you got? It says up to 98F and its norwegian....it doesnt mention a spicy component though

 

[joshesmusica]

Hey, I just saw this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=545604

do you think that first strain is the one you got? It says up to 98F and its norwegian....it doesnt mention a spicy component though

The first and the second strain I got are the same one.

I'm not really sure if that OL yeast is the same one. It certainly sounds like it just going off of the temps. I'll have to email Lars and ask him.

 

[joshesmusica]

To give a little more update to this thread:
I brewed one of my "house" beers that I actually haven't brewed in several months because I've been trying all kinds of other styles. I call it Bashing Boundaries because it's an American wheat beer with tons of aroma hops. When I first started brewing I love American wheat beers, but quickly fell in love with the citrusy aroma hops. So I started asking around to all my homebrewer friends if the combination of the styles was possible. I always got a resounding no... Because, you know, wheats get their character from the yeast, and the hops will overpower that. Well then I heard of several craft breweries were already doing this. Long story, sorry, but that's the base I used for this beer. I opted for that because I thought it would make for an interesting base with this yeast, and because it'd been a long time since I brewed it, and because to make the traditional Vossøl takes a ton of time and effort.

It seems to be already at full krausen, so only a couple of weeks before I get an idea of what it's like. I made 25L, but my secondary is 22L (I plan to rack to a secondary to dry hop, because I want to keep the yeast harvested as clean as possible). So I'll take those extra 3L and bottle them, and then be able to compare the differences.

 

[m00ps]

Sweet. I am very interestedin any new farmhouse yeast strain. So I remember you saying it's got spice, like almost xmas spices? What do you characterize the flavor profile the yeast brings in it own? I'll probably try to blend it with another saison yeast

http:// https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=542346

 

[GQT]

I'd be more than enthusiastic about trying this yeast out. I am a long term expat living in the very South of China (1 hr driving from Hong Kong, to make it easy), and although there is some time in a year that I would wear long sleeves it is usually no longer than a couple of weeks.

Seriously, most of the year temperatures are above 30C, and I would die for some good yeast that could handle this.

I haven't yet, but I am seriously going to set up a home lab as here in China there is simply no such a thing as liquid yeast and shipment time and conditions leave little chance to the yeast to survive. (Still I'm impatiently waiting for winter to order some from WL).

Anyway, I'm quite excited to try brewing with this magic thing.
I'm going to leave for the whole month of November, so I'd be happy to have a try first thing on return.

So... How can I actually put my hands on it? I mean, errrr... I might have missed it in the thread, but who do I need to write to, and how and how much do I need to pay?

Thanks!

 

[joshesmusica]

Sweet. I am very interestedin any new farmhouse yeast strain. So I remember you saying it's got spice, like almost xmas spices? What do you characterize the flavor profile the yeast brings in it own? I'll probably try to blend it with another saison yeast

http:// https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=542346

you had double http:// on that link...

I emailed the lab, and it's not the same strain that I have, but is a kveik strain. It's the one that he mentions in this link as from Stranda.
http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/329.html
http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/296.html

The guy from the lab said that he was going to be getting the Voss strain from Lars at some point, but that it hadn't been sent yet. So be on the lookout for that, and you'll get the same strain as I've got, for way cheaper than it would cost to send it overseas!

 

[bionut]

It is cheap & easy - and that's my blog, I've sent yeast to over 100 people, so I know...
B

Is out there any international yeast exchange program? In this part of the world is quite hard to get liquid yeast strains. I managed to get WLP001 and Wyeast1217 and use them for all my beers. Recently i harvested the yeast from Westmalle dubbel, so i will inculde it in my rotation
PM me if you can send my some strains, i can pay your postage in advance.

 

[GQT]

It is cheap & easy - and that's my blog, I've sent yeast to over 100 people

Looks like you're the man I was looking for!
Would it be possible for me to get some soaked paper from you? (we can find the way to make us square).
I would actually prefer to have paper samples, they could be stored for more time till I get to re-inoculate the yeast.
Please PM me if anything could be done.

 

[senegalego]

Hello,

I would also love to try this yeast, if possible.

If I can get ahold of some of this yeast I can propagate it and distribute it over the Iberian Penisula, if anyone else around is interested.

Let us know, joshesmusica

 

[m00ps]

So I got some of the omega yeast. You're saying it's the "stranda" one from that post?

Hmm lemons nuts straw... Should go well with one of my saison yeasts. So you have tried some of these fermented very hot? I'm curious as to why omega says the flavor profile is more or less the same across a +30F span

 

[juan_bernado]

Omega confirmed me that the hot head strain is from stranda.

Cheers!

 

[snow16]

Very cool stuff. I spent the last 2 hours reading about Norwegian and Lithuanian Farmhouse Ales.

 

[joshesmusica]

So I got some of the omega yeast. You're saying it's the "stranda" one from that post?

Hmm lemons nuts straw... Should go well with one of my saison yeasts. So you have tried some of these fermented very hot? I'm curious as to why omega says the flavor profile is more or less the same across a +30F span

Yeah I had emailed the lab when I replied to you earlier with those links. I haven't tried the Stranda one, but it seems like from reading those posts that even the guys from Stranda stopped using it a while back, and pretty much use modern brewing techniques. But they just had this strain on hand. The lab apparently had a hard time resurrecting it, but ended up being able to pull out one of the strains from that "strain." Still a very cool yeast that was only used in that part of the world, until now.

I have just done a fermentation with the chamber set to 35C. It was the one I mentioned before, a hoppy american wheat with galaxy and cascade. It's been fermenting for a week now, and I was under the impression that it was a very fast worker because the guys from Voss were racking to their serving tank at day 7. But as you can see it's not quite finished (expected FG 1.013). So I'll keep it warm for another week. That sample was incredibly aromatic! I really think this is going to turn out to be a good one for sure!

I'm also planning on doing a Christmas brown ale (very traditional style here in Norway) with that one at the end of the month. I got the recipe from my step-FIL, and it was amazing last year. So I thought I'd give it a little twist and ferment with the strain that I have, the Voss strain.

The Stranda strain sounds pretty interesting, seems like it could be nice in some kind of summer ale.

 

[m00ps]

cool, well I'll see what kinds of flavors it puts out in room temperature from my starter and hot temperatures from my primary.

Its crazy how fast they have traditionally turned these beers around. Even if it was drinkable at 7 days, I would think the beer would change dramatically int he next few weeks. But I guess it really captures the spirit of "farmhouse" ales

 

[juan_bernado]

God morgen joshesmusica!

How is it going with you kveik?

Whats the end result, especially taste and attenuation.

Would you mind sharing your FIL Jule-Ol Brown Ale recipe?

best regards
Jan

 

[joshesmusica]

God morgen joshesmusica!

How is it going with you kveik?

Whats the end result, especially taste and attenuation.

Would you mind sharing your FIL Jule-Ol Brown Ale recipe?

best regards
Jan

Actually, I went to check on it on day 14, and completely infected. Doesn't make any sense, I've been extra careful this time around with everything. I'm really starting to wonder if the guy I'm getting it from has a small infection and doesn't know it yet. I built up the starter for this batch in order to save some back. I'll propagate that bit and see what happens. My wife is currently in a biology class and has access to microscopes. So we're actually planning on take a sample there and seeing if her teacher can help us diagnose this.

But, I went ahead and kegged it. I dry hopped in the keg, hoping that would help ward of the bacteria for some time. And I'll just try to drink it as quickly as possible, then I'll take apart the keg and do a very thorough cleaning of every single small part, and like replace any rubber.

Here is the recipe for the current kegged batch, if anybody's interested. I highly recommend this hop combo!:

Batch Size (fermenter): 25.00 l
Bottling Volume: 24.17 l
Estimated OG: 1.061 SG
Estimated Color: 12.8 EBC
Estimated IBU: 19.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 64.6 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 1 43.8 %
3.50 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 2 43.8 %
0.30 kg Acidulated (BestMalz) (3.0 EBC) Grain 3 3.8 %
0.30 kg Caramel Light (BestMalz) (30.0 EBC) Grain 4 3.8 %
0.30 kg Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC) Grain 5 3.8 %
0.10 kg Caramel Dark (BestMalz) (90.0 EBC) Grain 6 1.2 %
15.00 g Pacific Gem [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 14.3 IBUs
20.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 1.4 IBUs
20.00 g Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 9 3.6 IBUs
20.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
20.00 g Galaxy [14.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 0.0 Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg Kveik Yeast 12 -
30.00 g Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 13 0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 8.00 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Saccharification Add 23.84 l of water at 73.6 C 66.7 C 75 min

 

[joshesmusica]

And here is the christmas brown ale recipe:

Batch Size (fermenter): 95.00 l
Bottling Volume: 100.00 l
Estimated OG: 1.061 SG
Estimated Color: 41.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 65.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 58.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 58.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
25.00 kg BB Pale Ale Malt (6.5 EBC) Grain 1 74.6 %
2.50 kg BB Munich Malt - 10L (15.0 EBC) Grain 2 7.5 %
2.00 kg BB Wheat Malt (5.0 EBC) Grain 3 6.0 %
1.50 kg BB Brown Malt (125.0 EBC) Grain 4 4.5 %
1.50 kg BB Crystal Malt (120.0 EBC) Grain 5 4.5 %
0.40 kg BB Caraaroma (350.0 EBC) Grain 6 1.2 %
0.30 kg BB Dark Crystal (600.0 EBC) Grain 7 0.9 %
0.20 kg BB Carafa I Choco (900.0 EBC) Grain 8 0.6 %
0.10 kg BB Smoked Malt (6.5 EBC) Grain 9 0.3 %
300.00 g BB Goldings, East Kent 2012 [5.00 %] - B Hop 10 39.0 IBUs
200.00 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 11 26.0 IBUs
3.00 Items Protafloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 12 -
1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [3000.00 ml] Yeast 13 -


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 33.50 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Saccharification Add 87.37 l of water at 70.1 C 64.0 C 90 min
Mash Out Heat to 75.0 C over 10 min 75.0 C 10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 58.11 l water at 75.6 C

 

[Mer-man]

Do you get anything from the Pacific Jade bittering in terms of flavor? I have Galaxy and Cascade, so I will try that combo. I thought Galaxy alone was a little one dimensional (passion fruit dimension).