How To...Reclaim Yeast From Bottled Beers

[A T]

Great how to JP

 

[Wez]

Nice one JP

 

[Dunfie]

Thanks JP - I have never had the confidence to do this yet. Do you store the yeast in the fridge and how long can you leave it before using it?

:clap:

 

[J_P]

I stored this particular batch of fullers yeast for neck end of 8 weeks I think. I brewed with it then kept it in the beer fridge until needed again.

If your planning on using fullers yeast them keep the fermentation temperature at around 19 otherwise you'll end up with a FV full of diacetyl!

 

[Vossy1]

Nice work J_P

 

[scarer]

Thanks J.P.

Love the atmospheric black and white shots

 

[MEB]

Great 'how-to' JP. :thumb:

 

[floydmeddler]

Cheers!

 

[pjbiker]

I've tried this with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale bottle. One suggestion, if you can't be arsed to separately make up wort to do this, just collect some of your current brew (from the copper) in a sterile 2L PET bottle and add your bottle sediment. I didn't bother with an airlock, just didn't screw the top on too tightly. Resulting yeast is still in a jar in my fridge as I havn't had the time to get another brew on with it yet. May do the same with the remains of a bottle of Leatherbritches Hairy Helmet. I never use packet yeasts and keep a constant culture of yeasts collected from earlier brews in the fridge in jars. My current culture is some I obtained from a friendly microbrewery.

The resulting "beer" in the 2L PET was lovely, even without conditioning

 

[pjbiker]

Update,

I've done a couple of brews, one 5 gallon, one 10 gallon with the bottle cultured SNPA yeast and it worked fine. A little slower to start than my usual yeast from the microbrewer, ferments down in about 7 days rather than 6.

Now I've started doing 10 gallons brews split into 2 fermenters I can pitch different yeast into each and compare results.

Does anyone else do this?

 

[Wez]

Update,

I've done a couple of brews, one 5 gallon, one 10 gallon with the bottle cultured SNPA yeast and it worked fine. A little slower to start than my usual yeast from the microbrewer, ferments down in about 7 days rather than 6.

Now I've started doing 10 gallons brews split into 2 fermenters I can pitch different yeast into each and compare results.

Does anyone else do this?

Ahhh! I didn't realise that SNPA was the primary yeast strain - how does it work flavour wise?

 

[OldGazza]

Has anyone compiled a list of bottled beers suitable for reusing yeast sediment, or those that have been successful reused, and are not secondary conditioning yeast. Think it would be useful.

 

[Wez]

Has anyone compiled a list of bottled beers suitable for reusing yeast sediment, or those that have been successful reused, and are not secondary conditioning yeast. Think it would be useful.

Top idea, a post for the Grain, Hops, Yeast and Water section I think... :thumb:

It's your idea, do you want to post it?

 

[OldGazza]

Yep, will do cheers

 

[pjbiker]

SNPA yeast works OK, not sure about the primary/secondary thing, all I know is it works and tastes good.
It's a kind of creamy and aromatic taste compared with my usual yeast from the microbrewery.

I've also cultured up some Leatherbritches (Ashbourne, Derbyshire) yeast from a bottle of 'hairy helmet'. It has a bitter,
grapefruity taste, as does their beer. the sediment produced however, doesn't appear to be very
flocculant. Havn't tried this in a full brewlength yet.

Are you posting these on a sticky in the yeast section Wez?

 

[MEB]

Has anyone compiled a list of bottled beers suitable for reusing yeast sediment, or those that have been successful reused, and are not secondary conditioning yeast. Think it would be useful.

Very usefull.

Does anyone have any Ales that the yeast shouldn't be reclaimed from-IE it's not too clever. I'm putting in an order for a few bottles to be sent over for my 40th from my family and friends.

 

[Moley]

Just to bump an old topic, I am trying this for the very first time, attempting to capture and breed the yeasties from the bottom of an SNPA.

Only 2 hours in so at the moment I have half a DJ which looks like flat cola. Who has done this and what sort of timescale are we talking about before it starts to show any signs of life?

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

When I've grown the yeast from bottles I'd use half a pint of wort in a pint bottle to start it off them transfer to something bigger once it's started to grow after about a week.

 

[evanvine]

You can also grow yeast from a pint of Cask conditioned.
Take a Litre PET bottle with you and ask for a pint of “carry out” (mark the bottle at 1 pint).

 

[pjbiker]

Just to bump an old topic, I am trying this for the very first time, attempting to capture and breed the yeasties from the bottom of an SNPA.

Only 2 hours in so at the moment I have half a DJ which looks like flat cola. Who has done this and what sort of timescale are we talking about before it starts to show any signs of life?

Hi, I've have found this to be very slow, up to a week before significant fermentation occurs. I used about a pint of spare wort from a brew in a 1litre PET bottle.
Done one recently from a fullers 'Bengal Lancer' using about a pint of last runnings from mash tun at about 1.016 and it kicked off after only a couple of days. There was visibly more sediment in the bottle than SNPA though.
To start with I left the top done up on the bottle, when it goes hard 'fnarr fnarr' you know theres something happening and you can loosen it to let CO2 out.
Really needs a second stage in a larger volume to get a decent amount of yeast but during your first full brew you'll have loads to play with.