Harvesting yeast from bottled beer

10 months ago | Bodger (Member)

I mentioned on here a couple of days ago about harvesting yeast from a bottle of M&S's Norfolk Ale by Woodforde's for a Timmy Taylor Landlord's extract brew.

Saracen kindly suggested that the brewery, might have used a different yeast for conditioning(was gonna do the quotey thing , but it seems to be beyond my computing skills). :-)

In the end I went with S-04 and it's looking good at the mo.

Getting onto my point.. Has anyone started a thread listing the bottled beers they have harvested yeast from and whether it was a success or not? If not my I suggest this could be the start of one. Reading around this forum, Tony looks like he's used a couple of harvested yeasts. Thanks.

Planning: WT Amarillo
Fermenting: Timmy Taylor Landlord
Conditioning: WT Amarillo
Drinking: WT Amarillo
Drinking: Nelson's Revenge

Read responses...

Responses

saracen:

Posted 10 months ago by Moderator

Hi Bodger. Yes, Tony's been known to harvest a few yeasts from bottles and he's the one to give advice. I spoke to the Head Brewer from Hall & Woodhouse the other day and he said they guard their yeast like Fort Knox. It never has, and never will, leave the brewery, so I can't imagine they would allow anything to be in the beer that leaves the brewery which can be cultivated as their yeast. Plenty of others would be the same. I suspect the only yeasts you might be able to harvest are the ones publicly available anyway, and I do know breweries often use a different yeast for bottle conditioning, largely because they need a strain that will pack down hard on the bottom of the bottle and not cloud the beer (I forget the name of it). I'm pretty sure you could harvest Worthington White Shield, but both White Labs and Wyeast have the strain readily available. Same with Guinness, if Kristen England is to be believed.

Take a look here: http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

Even if you did cultivate a yeast, how would you know it's the strain you're after?

If you're not living on the edge..... you're taking up too much space!!

Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!

E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com

Bodger:

Posted 10 months ago by Member

It makes sense that a brewery would use a specific yeast for conditioning.

I'm happy using regular yeast, I just wondered if you wanted to brew a particular beer and you could use the exact yeast the brewer uses you're half way there.

Planning: WT Amarillo
Fermenting: Timmy Taylor Landlord
Conditioning: WT Amarillo
Drinking: WT Amarillo
Drinking: Nelson's Revenge

Hamish:

Posted 10 months ago by Moderator

I bought a bottle of Woodforde's Sundew and Burton Bridge Burton Porter once with the intention of harvesting the yeast but didn't actually get around to doing it.

That was before I was aware that a lot of breweries use a yeast specifically for bottling. I think Saracen is right, most breweries will guard their yeast and if they don't its probably readily available anyway.

However, I did spot this over at Jims...

Re: St Austell's Tribute

Postby phatboytall » Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:42 pm
FYI i've had it confirmed from the brewery that Clouded Yellow holds the main brewery yeast. Perfect capture point for future clones etc...

"Subject: Clouded Yellow
Dear Mr Murphy

About the clouded yellow , yes we use the same yeast for fermentation and for our bottle condition
Yes is standard St Austell yeast
I'm happy that you enjoy our products if you have more question, please let me know

Kind regards,

Paola Leather
Technical Brewer "

Planning: Wheat beer fermented with Schneider Weisse yeast, a Stout, lots of hoppy pale ales
Fermenting: Marynka pseudo-lager
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Wheat beer, ESB, Vienna lager & shop bought stuff

saracen:

Posted 10 months ago by Moderator

Ah! Well! There you have it, Bodger. The quest for the Holy Grail!
This is what Toby Heasman from Hall and Woodhouse said in his E-mail to me when I remarked it was impossible to exactly reproduce a beer without the correct yeast.

Yeast. You are correct, we have been using our yeast since 1931. It is unique and we have had it registered which proved no other brewery in the world is currently using it. We treat it as one of the Woodhouse family and similar to our Chairman Mark Woodhouse and MD Anthony Woodhouse they will not be leaving our brewery!

There are loads of specific strains available, and that link to Mr Malty I gave you shows which are which, if you believe them. Wyeast also openly state where their yeasts come from if you ask. Fullers is 1968, Ringwood is 1187, Tomothy Taylor is 1469. Most are available, taking into account the breweries jealously guarding them.

saracen:

Posted 10 months ago by Moderator

Hi Hamish. That's interesting. Can't believe they openly gave that info away. On the other hand, it might just be a stock strain they buy in.

Nath:

Posted 10 months ago by Moderator

Nice find Hamish, time to start harvesting then have another go at tonys tribute again. Got some Loose Cannon breweries yeast (which is Rebelions yeast) coming soon. About a litre of the stuff, may beable to send some out to peeps if they are interested.

Drinkin' - nowt, it's all gone

Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!

nathbrew@gmail.com

Hamish:

Posted 10 months ago by Moderator

Real live brewers yeast hey, apparently it ferments like a small nuclear reaction. Any clues about the strain?, could just be the same as S-04.

Jim:

Posted 10 months ago by Member

I really never knew that there was so much to it, truly fascinating, I have not read much other material since I joined the forum!! :-)

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” (Albert Einstein)

Drinkin' - Midas Touch Golden Ale
Drinkin' - Coopers Real Ale (dry hopped)
Conditionin' - Tarwebier
Fermenting' - Admirals Reserve
Plannin' - A Wherry (with Saracen's enhancement)

Nath:

Posted 10 months ago by Moderator

There is a great book called "yeast" http://www.whitelabs.com/education/book.html its really good and written in a way that wont confuse but does delve pretty deep in the subject. Yeast is responsible for so much of the flavour of a beer its amazing to think you could brew a beer (like a pale with goldings only at start and some at the end for aroma) split it 5 ways and add a different yeast to each and they could be totally different to eachother.

Drinkin' - nowt, it's all gone

Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!

nathbrew@gmail.com

Tony:

Posted 10 months ago by Member

:-) Evening all!
OK firstly apologies if nothing I say makes sense.... been at the reserve stock of that big beer I made a while back. Surprising how little 9% beer one needs to get wasted. Or maybe it isn't!

Just reading above here ... I really am no expert on harvesting yeast .. I just tried a few for the hell of it and a bit of fun to be honest.

The Whiteshield took off great but read just after I started it that they use a conditioning yeast - went down the drain - not sure I like the whole 'blue-cheese' thing whiteshield have going on either.

Fullers Bengal Lancer went well and used it, took a few build-ups though. 100ml to 200ml to 500ml to 1 ltr to 2 ltrs and the potential for contamination is huge if not careful. Went like a rocket from the 2 ltrs in 25 ltr batch though.

Nath was supposed to be giving us the low-down from his yeast book I seem to remember ... Nath...?

To be honest, if I arrived at a decent yeast I'd keep pretty secretive over it. Wonder how they deal with mutations though...?

I have a beer going at the moment - 3rd generation 1028 and it's been happily bubbling away for 2 weeks .. bit worried about it to be honest - tastes pretty good though!

Night all - I can feel a collapse coming on

Beer will get you through the times of no money better than money will get you through the times of no beer
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)

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