Two Hearted Harvest Failure?

[Surface_Tension]

I pitched the dregs from three bottles into a starter dme solution. No sign of life after 24 hours. Some of the other threads indicated a rapid takeoff.

Is she a gonner? The only thing I might have hosed up was there might have been some temp differences when combining dregs and starter.

I guess I'll just have to get another six and try her again!

Dave

 

[Surface_Tension]

I did a search and found that some other didn't see activity for a few days so I won't give up hope. I was hoping to do two five gallon batched of a Bell Two Hearted Clone this weekend; one with s-05 and one with harvested yeast. I can't get 1227 locally. I guess I could have it expedited, but then again I'm cheap and would rather grow my own.

 

[Seven]

If your Two Hearted harvest attempt fails try harvesting from Bell's Amber ale. It's the same yeast only the amber ale has a lower ABV and the yeast will be less stressed.

 

[ChillWill]

24 hours? I took 3 days for a harvest I did to show 'signs', and it threw out some sulfur as it was little stressed. Now I've stepped it up and It's nice and healthy, nearly ready for use.

 

[Surface_Tension]

Success. Took 48 hours but it started bubbling nicely.

Are you doing a Bells Two Hearted Clone by any chance? What size starter are you using?

I tried Mr. Malty for the first time and it is telling me 1.6 L which seems big to me, but that is probably what I'll end up with.

 

[Calix_Meus_Inebrians]

1.6L is probably on the low side for your starter, but that really depends on how much initial starter wort you used with your 3 bottles, and type of aeration among other things. All of Bell's non lager or non belgian style beers use the same "Bell's yeast", so your best bet is actually Oberon for harvesting and in Florida you get Oberon year round. If Oberon isn't your thing, pretty much any of the year round Bell's beers at 6% or lower will get you pretty good harvesting results. Two Hearted has yeast at the bottom (all of Bell's ales are unfiltered) but is higher alcohol and IBU which tends to stress the yeast a little more than the other year round brands.

At any rate Two Hearted is a 1.070 beer so you should need a fair amount of yeast, and ferment about 70 degrees. The yeast is surprisingly important, you get a really nice subtle fruit/apple character off it if you treat it right which really helps to flesh out Two Hearted. Treat it poorly and stress it out you get sulfur like ChillWill mentioned.

 

[Surface_Tension]

This first starter is 500ml. It is chugging along pretty good now. I give it a swirl as often as I can and just up to 1L and then to 2L based on you comments. I think I may have been under pitching on some of my other beers based on the little bit of playing I have done with Mr. Malty. I'll probably start making larger starters from here on out.

I'm doing a split batch with s-05 and this harvested yeast.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[solbes]

Sounds like a good plan. I just pitched a starter to a Pale Ale from harvested Bells yeast. 1 cup addition - > 1 pint addition - > 1 quart addition. So just under 2 quarts total. I would give yourself 3 days for the last addition to ferment out. And then give it 24 hours at least to cold crash the yeast prior to decant/pitch.

My youngest daughter woke up in the middle of the night last night, so I was able to check the lag time of fermentation activity. Less than 8 hours with this yeast, so pretty good.

I will be brewing a 2 Hearted clone next from about 1/3 of the yeast cake of the Pale Ale. The other 2/3 will be harvested for a porter down the road. Can't wait!