So I saw a few videos where guys have used a bottle or can of their favorite local craft beer and tried to build up a yeast starter with it. It got me thinking I could do the same. All I was really going to lose was some light DME and I have a ton of it, so I figured why not?
I took a bottle of beer (Left Hand Nitro Stout, 12 oz) and tried to build up a starter. I made the starter similar to the way I usually do, except used a little less DME to decrease the gravity a little. I did not take a reading, just estimated based on amount of water and weight of light DME.
The results were not really what I wanted. Five days went by, I saw no increase in what appeared to be yeast sediment at the bottome, and the light wort seemed to start to get a funk (looked like mold) growing on it. I assumed the yeast did not utilize it and it got infected so I dumped it.
Round two, trying it with Southern Tier Warlock imperial pumpkin stout. This one is acting a little different. I tried to decant more of the beer off of the sediment in the 22 oz bottle. It’s not really moving along like my other starters in the past (it’s been a few days), but it seems to have developed more sediment than I originally put in the flask. I may try to do a step up just to see if I can really get a good slurry going with this.
Anyone else try this and have success? I understand that yeast in the commercial bottles is highly stressed from travel, temperature fluctuations, alcohol content, etc…
I am 90% sure Left Hand is filtered, and am 99% sure that beer is not bottle conditioned, so it probably was mold that was growing. I would keep stepping up (after decanting) the Warlock, because I believe that is bottle conditioned.
When doing this though, you should really try to use a low ABV beer because the overall viability of the yeast in the bottle will be higher.
Also, I believe Southern Tier’s house yeast is either Chico or WLP 007. I get it if you want to harvest from a Westy bottle, but you would probably get better results just buying a culture of yeast and reusing. I harvested Conan from a Heady can prior to it being widely available, with really good success. You typically want to use a lower gravity starter (1.020’s ideally) for the first step on harvested yeast.
[quote=“Pietro”]I am 90% sure Left Hand is filtered, and am 99% sure that beer is not bottle conditioned, so it probably was mold that was growing. I would keep stepping up (after decanting) the Warlock, because I believe that is bottle conditioned.
When doing this though, you should really try to use a low ABV beer because the overall viability of the yeast in the bottle will be higher.
Also, I believe Southern Tier’s house yeast is either Chico or WLP 007. I get it if you want to harvest from a Westy bottle, but you would probably get better results just buying a culture of yeast and reusing. I harvested Conan from a Heady can prior to it being widely available, with really good success. You typically want to use a lower gravity starter (1.020’s ideally) for the first step on harvested yeast.[/quote]
Got it! The only reason I really used the Southern Tier was because I wanted to drink the bottle I had on hand and I noticed sediment on the bottom. It was just an experiment to see if I could do it, so I didn’t really have any intention of using it for anything planned. I figured all I was doing was using a little DME and some time, so nothing to lose really. If it worked out well, I could just chill and keep the yeast for a later batch. Thanks for the info
ah gotcha. Well if your purpose was solely to try it, then I’d say you had success. In the future if you want to use the yeast, I’ve found that freshness is big, along with going in baby steps for the yeast (low OG starter to start).
:cheers:
Last year I decided I wanted to try and clone Unibroue’s La Fin du Monde( GREAT beer). I did some research and found that while the yeast strain was one of Wyeasts, it wasn’t available. But the 22oz. bombers were bottle conditioned, so I decided to try and grow it out. Did some more research- the book ‘Yeast’ was a big help.
As Pietro said, you need to start with a low volume, low gravity starter and gradually build it up. It took about 2 weeks to build it up to normal starter volume and strength. And my 1st practice attempt got a bacterial infection. I did also find some useful info. on using chlorine dioxide to prevent bacterial overgrowth without harming the yeast.
So, it can be done, but you should do a lot of research, and expect a few stumbles along the way. And for it to take a lot longer than usual. In other words, do it only for a yeast strain you REALLY want and can’t get any other way.
By the way, La Fin de L’Annee turned out great!
