ReeseAllen
Well-Known Member
I bought a 6-pack of Sierra Nevada Kellerweis last week and noticed the substantial amount of yeast at the bottom of the bottles. I decided to do a little experiment and see if I could harvest it, which I've never done before.
I boiled up a few ounces of water, dumped a handful of light DME into it, let it cool, and dumped the yeast from the bottom of a bottle into it. I put this into a sanitized tupperware container and loosely attached the lid.
I didn't see any activity for a few days so I just forgot about it. I came back to it yesterday (7 days after starting the experiment) and found this. The yeast appears to have build a strange, thin, wrinkly "kreuzen" over the top of the liquid. The texture is actually really intricate and cool-looking, I don't think my crappy camera phone really captures it. The mixture smells slightly sour and alcoholic as expected. Very little yeast seems to have settled to the bottom.
Anyone care to shed some light on what's happened here? Could I feasibly still turn this into a full size starter that's actually good to use for brewing?
I boiled up a few ounces of water, dumped a handful of light DME into it, let it cool, and dumped the yeast from the bottom of a bottle into it. I put this into a sanitized tupperware container and loosely attached the lid.
I didn't see any activity for a few days so I just forgot about it. I came back to it yesterday (7 days after starting the experiment) and found this. The yeast appears to have build a strange, thin, wrinkly "kreuzen" over the top of the liquid. The texture is actually really intricate and cool-looking, I don't think my crappy camera phone really captures it. The mixture smells slightly sour and alcoholic as expected. Very little yeast seems to have settled to the bottom.
Anyone care to shed some light on what's happened here? Could I feasibly still turn this into a full size starter that's actually good to use for brewing?