Can I culture a yeast starter from....?

[Chookers]

Hi, Im all new to actually brewing beer.. and I have heard of culturing yeast from past brews, but I want to know if I could culture a yeast starter from a bottle of Weihenstephan Hefe Weißbier I have bought..

How would I do that
What sort of yeast would I end up with good/bad
Does anyone do this?

Thanks

 

[Yob]

1. rinse and culture up, equipment required. (LINKY) there are more threads like this about, grab a beer or two and have a search/read
2. depends on your sanitation and care
3. yes, lots

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Plenty of brewers culture yeast from bottles

Cleanliness & sanitation will be you No1 priority.

You will need at least 6 bottles to get enough viable yeast to grow

 

[Chookers]

Ducatiboy, at least 6 bottles aye? heehee.. great excuse. :chug:
thanks for the link Yob..

so the yeasties I grow will be true to form, like they're not going to be mutants or weaker versions..

I wanted to make a wheat beer, and was after something fruity but not necessarily banana, so I was gonna taste a few and find the beer that reflected what Im after and then culture the yeast.

 

[Blind Dog]

One issue you'll have with many bottle conditioned beers is that the brewery uses a different yeast for bottling than they do for fermentation, so you may need to hunt around for decent candidates. Unless the brewery openly states they use the same yeast to bottle condition, you'll be somewhat reliant on information gleaned from the interweb and other sources, which may or may not be accurate. Might not be an issue for a hefe

 

[Yob]

I wanted to make a wheat beer, and was after something fruity but not necessarily banana, so I was gonna taste a few and find the beer that reflected what Im after and then culture the yeast.

any of the coopers yeasts should do that for you

 

[Mikeyr]

so the yeasties I grow will be true to form, like they're not going to be mutants or weaker versions..

Some chance of your beer suddenly turning green and bursting out of it bottle, but only if exposed to gamma radiation .... :lol: Hulk Smash!

Every generation will drift depending on the conditions hat support that "natural selection" process.

Flavour going to be very influenced by the temp at which you ferment as you probably well know.

Ditto to everyone else, sanitation is the key!

Happened to be in Ballarat and picked up couple of cheap 2l Erlenmeyers from wiltronics to go with the 1l ones that I already had. So easy to boil the water on the gas then dump it in cold water to get your sterilised water. You get a bloody good rinse when you are washing your yeasties for next time!

 

[slcmorro]

Happened to be in Ballarat and picked up couple of cheap 2l Erlenmeyers from wiltronics to go with the 1l ones that I already had.

Great tip! Will go in and get me a 1L one to compliment my 2L!

 

[manticle]

Will it tell it it has a nice hat?

 

[Reman]

I wanted to make a wheat beer, and was after something fruity but not necessarily banana, so I was gonna taste a few and find the beer that reflected what Im after and then culture the yeast.

Have you thought about doing an American Wheat? Might be more your style.

 

[mr_wibble]

From what I've read Blind Dog is correct.
Especially with wheat beer, it's common practice to bottle-ferment with a different yeast.

IMHO to make a German style wheat beer, i.e. a "Weizen", I believe the weihenstephan yeast (which is available (AFAIK) only in liquid form) is absolutely necessary.

 

[Chookers]

how damn sneaky of them.. using different yeast to bottle..

Reman, I am starting to think that I will do an American style, I have only read the descriptions, but I just got a new packet of US05 and I hear it give a crisp fruity beer with citrus.. so that is now what I am after.. I only have three hops to work with at the moment, but Im hoping they will work together.

Motueka flowers
Nelson Sauvin flowers
Summer pellets

Got no idea what the hop schedule or amounts should be, but my batch would be around 12L.. aim would be not higher that 30 IBUs

Would these hops work?

 

[Yob]

What software do you use?

 

[Reman]

I would say any of those hops should work. I've only used Summer (with Vic Secret) personally and it was really nice.

 

[danestead]

One of the wyeast strains originates from weinstephaner (3068?). Why don't you just buy a packet of that?

 

[Ditchnbeer]

If you want to make a good hefe imo just buy WLP300.

If you want to make a good aussie ale imo try harvesting yeast from Coopers Ale bottles. I actually just did this; bottom 2cms from 2 x Coopers Sparking Ale into 600ml starter, built it up for 24 hours, crashed then into 2L starter to grow enough for 21L batch. Fermented perfectly, I'm waiting for it to carb up a bit more but it tastes like a nice clean Aussie Ale.

 

[Chookers]

Yob I do not use any software

Reman I was thinking to go with Motueka and Summer.. it will be the first time I have used more than one type of hops

danestead I will buy it, it is the best option.. but I have been tossing up between good old US05, WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Ale Yeast or Wyeast 3333.

Ditchinbeer I do not think I have had a good hefe yet, I'd like to try some good commercial ones first.. but I will keep WLP300 in mind for future use.
The idea of harvesting Coopers Ale sounds good.. I plan on harvesting some of them. I think I am after a cleaner crisp beer, but with some good fruit flavours, that I can also put 4-5 on some fruit like raspberries or Nectarines(I don't know if they're a good choice).

 

[Moad]

3068 is great but throws a lot of banana if fermented right. Les will be here soon...

 

[Yob]

Yob I do not use any software

Perhaps you should to work out how many grams of %AA hops you need to reach your targeted IBU, particularly for this sort of lighter style.

Free software exists for this and is piss easy to use.

 

[Weizguy]

W3068 and WLP300 are both originally sourced from the Weihenstephan brewery, I'm advised.

If you want a good weizen, try Weihenstephan hefe, Schofferhofer, Schneider Weisse (bottled with the primary ferment strain), Paulaner, MooBrew wheat, and any number of local commercial brews including (shiver) Redback, which is quite nice when fresh.

Be aware that any yeast that throws phenolics (such as a true weizen yeast, and a number of Belgians) does not support a high bitterness, and a weizen only needs a low bitterness under 20IBUs, whereas an American-style wheat uses a clean yeast strain and supports up to 30-35 IBU in my experience.

Hope this helps.

Edit: BTW, Weihenstephan do NOT use the primary strain as a bottling strain, but it's probably quite good if you want to brew a Helles or Pilsener.