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Author Topic: Culturing from Commercial Beer  (Read 5741 times)

Offline erockrph

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #15 on: February 14, 2015, 05:50:52 am »
Place your thumb or the palm of your other hand over the fat end stopper and shake until the liquid is nearly all foam (you should hold the stopper in place; otherwise, Murphy will more than likely show up, and you will have wort on your ceiling)
what's the point of the stopper if I just use to shake? Couldn't I use the foil?
You could use something else (even your thumb if you're wearing a sanitized glove), but the stopper is certainly the best way to keep our boy Murphy from laying down the law all over your ceiling/walls/hardwoods/carpet/etc.

Edit - fix busted quote box
« Last Edit: February 14, 2015, 07:59:05 am by erockrph »
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Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #16 on: February 14, 2015, 06:32:21 am »

Hey, in FL you can get Bell's, and that house ale yeast is good for some clones of their beer and it is not commercially available. Culture from the Amber, Oberon, or one of the other beers at 6% or less.
Not a bad idea. Just thought to use the SN because that's the beer that it was going in.

Missed that you were doing a Sierra Nevada clone. The Bell's yeast is one I have done a few times, and is not commercially available.
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Offline bboy9000

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Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #17 on: February 14, 2015, 06:49:27 am »
Missed that you were doing a Sierra Nevada clone. The Bell's yeast is one I have done a few times, and is not commercially available.
Well apparently SN yeast isn't really commercially available.  I had no idea about  the genetic drift thing.  I may culture some SN yeast now.

I've cultured yeast from dregs a few times.  Once from Rogue because Morebeer's PA warehouse doesn't carry Pacman and the CA store wouldn't ship to my LHBS in MO.  Then when I started doing sours I made cultures from Boon Oude Kreik and Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere. 

When I cultured the Pacman I just sanitized with Star San and poured into a sanitized mason jar.  When I cultured the wild stuff from Boon and Jolly Pumpkin I flamed the lip, then transferred to a sanitized flask.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2015, 06:52:50 am by bboy9000 »
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Offline flbrewer

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #18 on: February 14, 2015, 07:34:09 am »
How did they turn out?

Offline bboy9000

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #19 on: February 14, 2015, 08:28:28 am »
The sours fermented but that was three weeks ago so they have a long time to go.  The Dead Guy clone tasted the same as it did with the Wyeast Pacman. 
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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #20 on: February 14, 2015, 01:53:10 pm »
You disagree with me. What else is new?  ::) I agree that the mention of expensive microscope was over the top, and I blame it on the whiskey, but if you are using older, undated bottles a microscope can come in handy. From fresh bottles, agree no microscope is necessary.

A microscope is completely unnecessary when culturing yeast.  A microscope will not tell one anything that agar plates made simple and/or selective growth media will not bring to light.  In fact, nine times out of ten, the reference culture can be separated from any contamination by observing colony morphology on an agar plate made with simple DME-base media.  White fuzzy colonies are mold.  Dark colonies are usually bacteria.  Round, domed shaped, cream colored yeast cultures are usually domesticated yeast.

Here's a plate that I streaked with Scottish and Newcastle's Tyneside strain:



Here's a plate that I streaked with Southern Tier's yeast culture:




The S&N plate was streaked from a culture that I grew from a slant.  The  Southern Tier plate was streaked from a 40ml liquid culture that I inoculated directly from a bottle of Southern Tier Live (I start my cultures in media bottles).  I transferred the well isolated colonies inside of the rectangle on the Southern Tier mini-plate to separate slants (that plate is only 60mm wide).   Hopefully, people noticed the complete absence of fuzzy and dark colonies on both plates.   The Southern Tier plate is proof that Southern Tier is not just winging biological quality control like many craft breweries.  That plate tells me that Southern Tier's quality control program is overseen by someone who knows what they are doing.  I have plated cultures from the two big yeast producers that were not that clean.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2015, 01:59:57 pm by S. cerevisiae »

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #21 on: February 14, 2015, 01:56:53 pm »
what's the point of the stopper if I just use to shake? Couldn't I use the foil?

Aluminum foil will not contain the contents of the bottle when shaken that hard.

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #22 on: February 14, 2015, 02:06:43 pm »
Would using the dregs from two beers be better than one during the first step if you used a mason jar instead of the original bottle?

Also, should I cool this wort like a traditional starter?
« Last Edit: February 14, 2015, 02:24:31 pm by flbrewer »

Offline davidgzach

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #23 on: February 14, 2015, 03:25:23 pm »
Would using the dregs from two beers be better than one during the first step if you used a mason jar instead of the original bottle?

Also, should I cool this wort like a traditional starter?

Yes and yes.  This is a fun project, especially when it works.  My buddy brought a bottle of Westvleteren back with him from Belgium and I cultured the yeast.  I made a clone of their quad which is delicious and now a Dubbel.  So +1000 (for me) to culturing something that's hard to find.

EDIT:  However if you want to culture and clone the SNPA, have at it and enjoy!
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Offline erockrph

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #24 on: February 14, 2015, 07:13:23 pm »
Would using the dregs from two beers be better than one during the first step if you used a mason jar instead of the original bottle?

Also, should I cool this wort like a traditional starter?

Yes and yes.  This is a fun project, especially when it works.  My buddy brought a bottle of Westvleteren back with him from Belgium and I cultured the yeast.  I made a clone of their quad which is delicious and now a Dubbel.  So +1000 (for me) to culturing something that's hard to find.

EDIT:  However if you want to culture and clone the SNPA, have at it and enjoy!
I was under the impression that Westy got their yeast from Westmalle, which is WY3787. I'm wondering if there's any difference between the two, outside of the Westy XII yeast being more stressed since it's coming from a Quad.
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Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #25 on: February 14, 2015, 08:11:47 pm »
Would using the dregs from two beers be better than one during the first step if you used a mason jar instead of the original bottle?

Also, should I cool this wort like a traditional starter?

Yes and yes.  This is a fun project, especially when it works.  My buddy brought a bottle of Westvleteren back with him from Belgium and I cultured the yeast.  I made a clone of their quad which is delicious and now a Dubbel.  So +1000 (for me) to culturing something that's hard to find.

EDIT:  However if you want to culture and clone the SNPA, have at it and enjoy!
I was under the impression that Westy got their yeast from Westmalle, which is WY3787. I'm wondering if there's any difference between the two, outside of the Westy XII yeast being more stressed since it's coming from a Quad.

In Brew Like a Monk it was stated that the Monks from Westvleteren and Achel will drive to Westmalle and pick up a fresh pitch of yeast the day before they brew.
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #26 on: February 15, 2015, 06:21:02 am »
In Brew Like a Monk it was stated that the Monks from Westvleteren and Achel will drive to Westmalle and pick up a fresh pitch of yeast the day before they brew.

+1
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Offline davidgzach

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #27 on: February 15, 2015, 07:28:25 am »
In Brew Like a Monk it was stated that the Monks from Westvleteren and Achel will drive to Westmalle and pick up a fresh pitch of yeast the day before they brew.

+1

Interesting.  However, the yeast I use for my Belgians I got from the bottom of a bottle of Westvletern, which came across the Atlantic ocean, was propagated from the dregs and performs like a racehorse.  Much cooler conversation and story than "I went to my LHBS and bought some WY3787 to make a Belgian"..... ;)
« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 07:31:54 am by davidgzach »
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #28 on: February 15, 2015, 07:32:07 am »
In Brew Like a Monk it was stated that the Monks from Westvleteren and Achel will drive to Westmalle and pick up a fresh pitch of yeast the day before they brew.

+1

Interesting.  However, the yeast I use for my Belgians I got from the bottom of a bottle of Westvletern, which came across the Atlantic ocean, was propagated from the dregs and performs like a racehorse.  Much cooler conversation and story than I went to my LHBS and bought some WY3787..... ;)

Absolutely!  Culturing from a hard to get beer can be fun, and if it performed great, who cares ?
« Last Edit: February 15, 2015, 07:35:20 am by HoosierBrew »
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Offline davidgzach

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Re: Culturing from Commercial Beer
« Reply #29 on: February 15, 2015, 07:36:47 am »
In Brew Like a Monk it was stated that the Monks from Westvleteren and Achel will drive to Westmalle and pick up a fresh pitch of yeast the day before they brew.

+1

Interesting.  However, the yeast I use for my Belgians I got from the bottom of a bottle of Westvletern, which came across the Atlantic ocean, was propagated from the dregs and performs like a racehorse.  Much cooler conversation and story than I went to my LHBS and bought some WY3787..... ;)

Absolutely!  Culturing from a hard to get beer can be fun, and if it performed great, who cares ?

Exactly my point! 
Dave Zach