Looking for bottle conditioned beers

[jceg316]

Oh hey everyone. It's my birthday and for a present I got some Beer Hawk vouchers. I'd like to get some bottle conditioned beers so I can harvest the yeast for my own brews (another present I got was the Yeast book by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff).

I'd like to get some interesting yeast strains and was wondering if anyone knew what beers to buy where I could harvest them.

-Saison yeast - was planning on getting Saison Dupont.
-Belgian yeast - Was planning on Westmalle but do let me know if you have another favourite and why.
-A great English strain. Will use in stouts/porters and English IPAs etc.
-Would love an interesting lager strain if possible, but I do have W 34/70 to hand
-Alt strain and/or kolsch
-anything else interesting, whether that be a wit, American ale, sour beer etc. Please state why you like that strain.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Simonh82]

Apparently the Saison Du Pont strain is a mixed strain combining two or more strains. It is also suggested that they filter and then add a different strain at bottling.

I had good success harvesting yeast from Duvel bottles.

The Yeast book is excellent BTW. I'm about to start making yeast slants to be able to reliably store yeast for longer period.

 

[Covrich]

So far I have sucessfully harvested

Shepherds Neame from their 1698 a fruity yeast, I did it in GH ESB and its pretty good, am going to try it on an oatmeal stout
Wye Valley yeast from Butty Bach, seems a cleanish ale yeast, pretty good though not as fruity as the above..

 

[YeastFace]

Fuller's yeast can be obtained from Bengal Lancer.

Duvel yeast is their primary strain (despite some comments saying otherwise).

I've read Hoegaarden use a different strain at bottling, but I've cultured it before and it acted like a wit yeast for me.

 

[Thodd]

How about Orval

A really unique yeast and an excellent beer.
In fact I believe they use 2 yeast strains in their beer - their own Oval Yeast and a wild one.

 

[MyQul]

Av a look at this list
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58007

 

[jceg316]

I was thinking of Orval for the reasons @Thodd said, and I probably will get that as well to have 2 Belgian strains available. @Covrich the 1698 yeast sounds interesting and probably what I'm after in an English yeast. I'll have a look for Butty Back as well. @Simonh82 thanks for the heads up about Saison Dupont. I'll do some more research into what strain is in the bottle. @MyQul thanks for the link. I knew there was a list on this forum somewhere!

It seems most American style IPAs have US05 or liquid equivalent in so I'm not bothering with those. Thanks everyone for your recommendations so far.

 

[Covrich]

Just to warm you the SN yeast can be a bit lively.. a god 6 inch krausen

 

[strange-steve]

Dupont is a great beer but there seems to be some disagreement about whether they use the primary strain for bottling, though I have read about some people successfully harvesting it.

Westmalle is bottled with the primary strain and it's great yeast (Westvleteren and Ache use the same yeast) though personally I prefer Rochefort.

I'm not sure Orval is ideal for culturing, it has brettanomyces added for secondary, so the best way to use it is to simply add the dregs from a couple of bottles after primary fermentation is complete.

 

[jceg316]

Dupont is a great beer but there seems to be some disagreement about whether they use the primary strain for bottling, though I have read about some people successfully harvesting it.

Westmalle is bottled with the primary strain and it's great yeast (Westvleteren and Ache use the same yeast) though personally I prefer Rochefort.

I'm not sure Orval is ideal for culturing, it has brettanomyces added for secondary, so the best way to use it is to simply add the dregs from a couple of bottles after primary fermentation is complete.

Thanks for the advice. I have a recipe for a Belgian ale which I think was written for beginners and asks for a second pack of yeast once fermentation is complete. Makes sense to use this.

The reason I'm going for Westmalle is because I have a fantastic recipe which calls for Westmalle yeast. When I made it I used a Mangrove JAck's Belgian type yeast which was wrong for this specific beer - needed better attenuation. I do love Rochefort and would like to clone it one day. Have you managed to successfully take the yeast from a bottle?

 

[dad_of_jon]

Thanks for the advice. I have a recipe for a Belgian ale which I think was written for beginners and asks for a second pack of yeast once fermentation is complete. Makes sense to use this.

The reason I'm going for Westmalle is because I have a fantastic recipe which calls for Westmalle yeast. When I made it I used a Mangrove JAck's Belgian type yeast which was wrong for this specific beer - needed better attenuation. I do love Rochefort and would like to clone it one day. Have you managed to successfully take the yeast from a bottle?

Hi I used MJ's belgian ale yeast rehydrated in 150ml 30deg water
pitched at 29 degrees - fermenting at 22
og1090 fg1011 -10.37%

what did you get out of it?

 

[strange-steve]

The reason I'm going for Westmalle is because I have a fantastic recipe which calls for Westmalle yeast. When I made it I used a Mangrove JAck's Belgian type yeast which was wrong for this specific beer - needed better attenuation. I do love Rochefort and would like to clone it one day. Have you managed to successfully take the yeast from a bottle?

I haven't actually tried culturing from Westmalle or Rochefort, but in Brew Like A Monk it says these both use primary strain for bottling so should be ideal for using. I brewed a Rochefort clone last year but I used Wyeast 1762 which is supposedly the Rochefort strain. Tbh it wasn't too close to the real thing, but it was still pretty good, won me a gold medal in the NHC competition.

 

[jceg316]

Hi I used MJ's belgian ale yeast rehydrated in 150ml 30deg water
pitched at 29 degrees - fermenting at 22
og1090 fg1011 -10.37%

what did you get out of it?

I used M47 Belgian Abbey, OG: 1.091 FG: 1.018, but it tooks its sweet time getting there and I had to really coax it along. The actual target FG was 1.016. I think this yeast's flavour is a bit too subtle for a Belgian beer.

To be fair to the yeast it does says it's more subtle and attenuates less than the Belgian Ale yeast.

Do you find it gives good flavours into the beer?

 

[jceg316]

I did a Google search for "saison Dupont yeast" and the first result that came up was "wlp565 Belgian saison yeast" and on top of that it looks like the consensus is they use a different yeast for bottling.

Does anyone know any other bottle conditioned saison? Preferably on sale at Beer Hawk?

 

[YeastFace]

The Wild Epic Saison should be fine, one of the few beers they do without adding wild yeast and or bacteria.

 

[jceg316]

The Wild Epic Saison should be fine, one of the few beers they do without adding wild yeast and or bacteria.

Thanks for the recommendation. Speaking of which, do you know if all wild beer co's beers are bottle conditioned?

 

[YeastFace]

Hmmm, according to Ales By Mail they don't bottle condition. I'm sure there was yeast in there when I last had one, so maybe it's changed.

 

[YeastFace]

Other websites are saying all of their beers are bottle conditioned. Only one way to find out, I suppose.

 

[jceg316]

Other websites are saying all of their beers are bottle conditioned. Only one way to find out, I suppose.

I thought they were but last time I had one of those was a while ago. I'll send them a message...

Thanks for the help!