Yeast and finings - still possible to harvest?

[dennisdk2000]

Had a thought: would it be possible to harvest yeast from a commercial cask of cask conditioned beer? I mean, it's possible with yeast in bottle conditioned beer, but would the use of finings render the yeast unusable? If not, would it need any special treatment before use?

Dennis

 

[graysalchemy]

Wish I brewed beer back in the 80's I would have had all the robinsons yeast I could have ever wanted :lol: :lol:

I don't see any reason why not. Though marstons (and all their subsidiary brands) are now using these plug thingies called fastcask. They filter the beer add one of these which keeps the yeast in a gel, and probably isn't the primary strain of yeast (and probably wouldn't cuture up anyway in its gell thingy. :lol: :lol:

 

[Darcey]

I have done this successfully from Thwaites and Fullers casks. Thwaites use the primary yeast in cask but as I found the Fullers yeast was rather dull. As it turns out they filter and put a casking yeast in their cask products.

As most beer is casked between 3-1 million cells per ml which is not a huge amount. Make sure you take it from a fresh unbreached cask perferable before its settled out and get it cultured up quickly.

It worked for me!

D

 

[dennisdk2000]

Cheers, gents! This is most exciting as we sell Thwaites Wainwright where I work.

So reclaiming the dregs from a newly emptied cask would be no good? This was my original plan, but the finings worried me as they are meant to stick to the yeast to make it drop out, but then there was the issue of separating the two to get to the yeast...

However, I'm sure my boss won't mind selling me a pint of unsettled beer!

Dennis

 

[Dr Mike]

I think I read on Jim's forum that, by plating up on agar and then stepping up from a single colony, it is possible to harvest the yeast from a pint of cask conditioned ale served in a pub.

 

[dennisdk2000]

Thank you all - something I'll have to try!

Dennis