How to culture up yeast from bottle conditioned beers

[MyQul]

I want to try this, simply because of the lack of yeast at the moment, but I don’t have any DME.
would table sugar and a bit of yeast nutrient work? Or would this stress the yeast?

No, you shouldnt jjust use sugar as the yeast then will only ferment table sugar and wont ferment other types of sugar in the wort

You can use LME/malt extract. All the health food shops are still open such as holland and barret and you can buy it from their

 

[PhilBrew]

... or you can mash a small amount of grain to make starter wort in a thermos flask

170g of pale malt should get you something roughly equivalent to 100g of DME ... add it to around 350ml of water at around 70C strike temp in a pre-warmed 1ltr thermos, seal it up and give it a good shake, then leave it to mash for an hour or more ... empty it out through a sieve into a pan ... then put the grains in a bowl and rinse any grains left in the flask out and into the bowl with around 900ml of water at around 80C, leave that to dissolve any remaining sugars for a bit (that's a "batch sparge", and you could do it twice with half the water each time if you could be bothered) ... then empty that through a sieve into the pan with the first runnings, and boil the lot up until it reduces down to around 1ltr of wort (but at least for 15 mins) ...

that should get you a ltr of starter wort at around 1.040​

... for the smaller amounts of lower gravity wort that are used in the instructions at the start of this thread you can take amounts of this and dilute it down to the gravity required (e.g. for 100ml of 1.020 wort, you can add 50ml of water to 50ml of 1.040 wort) ... you can portion any excess of this wort up and freeze it until you need it, but after defrosting boil it up to sterilise it (dilute it slightly to compensate for evaporation) before you add any yeast into it

Cheers, PhilB

 

[MyQul]

... or you can mash a small amount of grain to make starter wort in a thermos flask

170g of pale malt should get you something roughly equivalent to 100g of DME ... add it to around 350ml of water at around 70C strike temp in a pre-warmed 1ltr thermos, seal it up and give it a good shake, then leave it to mash for an hour or more ... empty it out through a sieve into a pan ... then put the grains in a bowl and rinse any grains left in the flask out and into the bowl with around 900ml of water at around 80C, leave that to dissolve any remaining sugars for a bit (that's a "batch sparge", and you could do it twice with half the water each time if you could be bothered) ... then empty that through a sieve into the pan with the first runnings, and boil the lot up until it reduces down to around 1ltr of wort (but at least for 15 mins) ...
that should get you a ltr of starter wort at around 1.040


... for the smaller amounts of lower gravity wort that are used in the instructions at the start of this thread you can take amounts of this and dilute it down to the gravity required (e.g. for 100ml of 1.020 wort, you can add 50ml of water to 50ml of 1.040 wort) ... you can portion any excess of this wort up and freeze it until you need it, but after defrosting boil it up to sterilise it (dilute it slightly to compensate for evaporation) before you add any yeast into it

Cheers, PhilB

I do this for my starters. Except I just stick a small pot in the oven and mash in that

 

[DavidHatton]

No, you shouldnt jjust use sugar as the yeast then will only ferment table sugar and wont ferment other types of sugar in the wort

You can use LME/malt extract. All the health food shops are still open such as holland and barret and you can buy it from their

Going to have a go at this in the coming weeks, will order some dme, but if I just buy H&B malt extract are the measurements the same as dme to water ratio.
D

 

[MyQul]

Going to have a go at this in the coming weeks, will order some dme, but if I just buy H&B malt extract are the measurements the same as dme to water ratio.
D

No you need more LME as DME is more concentrated. I'll edit the original post later this eve and add the amounts for LME. Coincidently I went to M&S today to see if I could get the M&S dark mild as it's made by Thwaites and is bottle conditioned. They didnt have any in the one I went to. I'll go to ASDA tomorrow and buy some Youngs or Wye Valley (havent decided which one yet) beer and start to culture that up

 

[DavidHatton]

No you need more LME as DME is more concentrated. I'll edit the original post later this eve and add the amounts for LME. Coincidently I went to M&S today to see if I could get the M&S dark mild as it's made by Thwaites and is bottle conditioned. They didnt have any in the one I went to. I'll go to ASDA tomorrow and buy some Youngs or Wye Valley (havent decided which one yet) beer and start to culture that up

thanks, going to start with the fullers 1845, If I remember correctly, you are familiar with the strain? As I brew alot of ESB styles, figured it's a good yeast to start with, any other suggestions for bitters.

 

[MyQul]

thanks, going to start with the fullers 1845, If I remember correctly, you are familiar with the strain? As I brew alot of ESB styles, figured it's a good yeast to start with, any other suggestions for bitters.

Tbh, I've only cultured the Fullers strain up once. Both the Youngs and Wye Valley strains I mentioned are English strains and can be used in bitters (iirc Wyeast 1318 London Ale III is the Youngs strain)

 

[MyQul]

@DavidHatton I've done the LME amounts. They're below the DME amounts in the OP

 

[DavidHatton]

Cheers, will pick up a jar on my way home from work.

 

[Drunkula]

going to start with the fullers 1845

I grew up a load from two bottles of 1845 and used it in quite a few brews. Eventually I accidentally killed it.

My Doom Bar clone had it that thankfully tasted nothing like Doom Bar used it and a few people think it's the best beer I've done.

I put it as London Ale 1968 or WLP 002 in brewing software.

 

[DavidHatton]

I grew up a load from two bottles of 1845 and used it in quite a few brews. Eventually I accidentally killed it.

My Doom Bar clone had it that thankfully tasted nothing like Doom Bar used it and a few people think it's the best beer I've done.

I put it as London Ale 1968 or WLP 002 in brewing software.

@MyQul @Drunkula Just bought a wyeast 1318 london ale III in a bulk order, might just start by growing it up in a starter and save half.

 

[MyQul]

@MyQul @Drunkula Just bought a wyeast 1318 london ale III in a bulk order, might just start by growing it up in a starter and save half.

There's a lota love for 1318. I agree put it in a starter and save some of it

 

[DavidHatton]

Anyone used the proper job yeast in a ale? other half picked up a couple of bottles, advice, how long can the dregs stay in the fridge in the bottle before they need their first starter?

 

[MyQul]

Anyone used the proper job yeast in a ale? other half picked up a couple of bottles, advice, how long can the dregs stay in the fridge in the bottle before they need their first starter?

I havent used proper job myself but I've read forum posts from other (on this forum and others) who have. It's supposed to be a fairly clean yeast with a big krausen that you can top crop.

I wouldnt leave the dregs longer than 2 week in the fridge before I'd want to culture them up.

 

[DavidHatton]

@MyQul visited Holland & Barrett, grabbed a malt extract, made a 200ml starter at around 1020 and added the dregs from 2 bottles of proper job, figured it was a good place to start with the contents i can happily lose.
dregs where in the fridge 3 days, did this thursdays day eve and took it to work friday to shake it every hour.
only started toshow growth maybe saturday morning.

2 litre bottle

 

[MyQul]

@MyQul visited Holland & Barrett, grabbed a malt extract, made a 200ml starter at around 1020 and added the dregs from 2 bottles of proper job, figured it was a good place to start with the contents i can happily lose.
dregs where in the fridge 3 days, did this thursdays day eve and took it to work friday to shake it every hour.
only started toshow growth maybe saturday morning.

2 litre bottle

View attachment 26790

View attachment 26791

Nice work!

You dont need to take it to work if you dont want to. About shaken about 4 times per day will be enough. Although the more oxygen the better

 

[DavidHatton]

Nice work!

You dont need to take it to work if you dont want to. About shaken about 4 times per day will be enough. Although the more oxygen the better

Knew I would be out the house for 12 hours so i took it with me!

 

[cushyno]

@DavidHatton you're about 3 weeks behind me with the proper job. Cushyno Brewdays etc..
Once it gets going and you step up to 500ml and more this yeast shows its true colours. My Tribute clone is proving well worth the effort to culture up the yeast.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Bump! Thanks for this thread. Just starting to culture up from a bottle of Schneider Weiss aventinus.

Martin

 

[MartinHaworth]

Stepping up! Thanks for the guide!