Bottle Conditioned Beers To Culture

[neonmeate]

Hi,

I've got a bottle of Morlands Hens Tooth in the fridge, which is bottle conditioned, has a nice layer of yeast on the bottom. Can't find any info on the net as to the yeast used for bottling, has anyone had a go at this? If I can fire it up I would like to give it a go at my next english ale (yet to be scheduled).

Ody

i used that once it was excellent. really aggressive yeast.

 

[neonmeate]

I believe Chimay bottle with a different strain.

where'd you get this info? i have never heard this.

of course braufrau is right - you will get better chimay yeast from whitelabs or wyeast than the stuff that's been sitting under 9% beer in bottleshops for years

and for the record i don't like WLP500 anyway - i'm more of a 530 fan.

 

[Stuster]

Hi,

I've got a bottle of Morlands Hens Tooth in the fridge, which is bottle conditioned, has a nice layer of yeast on the bottom. Can't find any info on the net as to the yeast used for bottling, has anyone had a go at this? If I can fire it up I would like to give it a go at my next english ale (yet to be scheduled).

Ody

I tried to culture this one up, but it was definitely dead. All I grew was an infection.

Having tried a number of times to get bottle conditioned beers going, I won't be bothering with it again any time soon. Excepting Aussie beers, most of the beers are old enough that it's fairly hit and miss and I can't really justify the chances of ruining a batch. That said, it's a fun experiment but just be really sure the yeast has fired up clean (smell, taste, gravity) before letting it loose on your wort. Start with a small starter (say 100ml) and then step it up from there.

I agree with neonmeate on the 530, a very nice yeast. :super:

 

[warrenlw63]

Having tried a number of times to get bottle conditioned beers going, I won't be bothering with it again any time soon. Excepting Aussie beers

+1 as an example Chimay is a real Jekyll Hyde to reculture... Once or twice it's made some great beers for me. There's also been times where its taken too long to fire. There's also the time where it made far and away the worst beer of my life. It smelled like a bottle of toilet cleaner.

Coopers OTOH I've recultured numerous times in the past 10 years and it's never failed.

I guess as a general rule the fresher and the lower the original gravity of the bottle you intend to culture from the better.

Warren -

 

[Barramundi]

Maybe a little off topic, but has anyone ever successfully cultured Hoegaarden?

have cultured what was in the bottle but am since let to believe they bottle with a different yeast that whats used in primary , beer i made turned out pretty good though , was just a kit and heaps of bits type of clone

 

[Ross]

Hi,

I've got a bottle of Morlands Hens Tooth in the fridge, which is bottle conditioned, has a nice layer of yeast on the bottom. Can't find any info on the net as to the yeast used for bottling, has anyone had a go at this? If I can fire it up I would like to give it a go at my next english ale (yet to be scheduled).

Ody

Got this reply from the brewery.

Good Morning,

I have spoken to one of our brewers here, and apparently it is a Morlands yeast strain.

He also said that we don't give it away but a good microbiologist could isolate it from the cask Old Speckled Hen here in the UK. Generally the yeast in the bottle will be dead but maybe 1 or 2 cells might have survived

I hope this helps you!!

Regards

Katie Bexon

Greene King Visitor Centre

Cheers Ross

 

[Odydoesbrew]

Got this reply from the brewery.




Cheers Ross

G'Day Ross,

thanks for that info, much appreciated.

Also, Neonmeate and Stuster, you both have opposite experiences with this, which is interesting, thanks for your comments. I'll certainly give it a go and see what happens.

 

[Odydoesbrew]

Just an update on the Morlands Hens Tooth bottle yeast. The dregs sat in the bottle at the back of the fridge with the original cap pressed back on for over 2 months. I made up a small wort of a few hundred mls and added the dregs. Went through the usual process, stepped up a couple of times to about 2lts. Yeast multiplied nicely. Seemed to smell and taste fine. Dumped the whole starter at high kruasen into the following (had a feeling I overpitched if anything):

1 tin Coopers Real ale
1kg LME (Saunders brand from the supermarket - experiment, was light and sweet)
250gm LDME
250gm Crystal
13gm Willamette 30mins
13g Willamette 15mins
13gm Willamette flame out

23lts @18-20C

OG around 1.051+ fg 1.013


Racked at 8 days onto about 15gm Amarillo.

Bottled 6 days later, primed with a flat half teaspoon castor sugar per 568ml bottle. This was 4 days ago.


The yeast was a true top-cropper, with a thick dark Krausen that just didn't want to drop. I noticed what looked like small oily dark amber spots on the surface amongst the yeast whilst racking. They didn't look sinister, but we'll see. I put it down to residue from the supermarket malt. Even after racking a thin layer of yeast formed on top in the secondary after the hops fell out. There was a huge yeast cake in the primary and I grabbed a couple of jars worth. Going to pitch some into a stout. Even the secondary had a decent yeast cake.

So I'm pretty happy with how it went. Yet to taste the finished product. Tasted nice while bottling, fairly bitter, with good malt flavour. Will update when I crack one in a couple of weeks.

 

[Fourstar]

Coopers OTOH I've recultured numerous times in the past 10 years and it's never failed.
I guess as a general rule the fresher and the lower the original gravity of the bottle you intend to culture from the better.

The next coopers i culture i might use the dregs from a few coopers mild stubbies, unless i can find a longneck of it. harder to find then hens teeth! Might end up with a better yield than the pale ale.

 

[rude]

Ive been buying smack packs & re-using the yeast from my HB bottles, probably not the best way.
Recon if I use it 5 times, $3 dollars a brew is allright.

 

[DR.RELAX]

im currently trying to reculture yeast from a bottle of erdinger wiesbeer.it hasnt really taken off but it smells like the beer and it has a lot of gloopy, stringy bits.from reading a few posts ive come to the assumption that it might be a bottling strain(as a lot seem to be),but im more concerned as to whether it has an infection or not,as i said it doesnt smell bad(to my un-educated nose!)but it hasnt taken off like the coopers recultures ive done in the past.id really like to get good at this as i plan on reculturing a chimay blue, and i like growing stuff! i kno a lot of people say not to bother an just buy the yeast but i already got the bottle of chimay and the minister of finance is tightening the belt to the point that im as blue as the chimay label!

 

[pint of lager]

Gloopy stringy bits sounds very bad. There is an infection that creates slimey string in brews.

 

[Murcluf]

Murray's beers are good to culture.

 

[bconnery]

Murray's beers are good to culture.

I believe Murray's use a bottling strain developed in house for a lot of their beers.

 

[DR.RELAX]

Gloopy stringy bits sounds very bad. There is an infection that creates slimey string in brews.

crap.

oh well, lucky it was only a starter then.
i used fresh bottled water(unopened)mixed with some dme and boiled for 5 min and put it in the PET water bottle that i just opened with about the same amount of water as what id just boiled to bring the temp down quickly.

is bottled water sterile??