first attempt at yeast from bottle

[eungaibitter1]

Just a basic question here. I went off the suggestion on the coopers site and added the malted water to the dregs of a pale ale longneck. They recommend three stubbies. Will the longneck give me enough yeast for a 23l brew?

 

[yum beer]

You would need to step it up a few times I would think.

 

[hoppy2B]

I started my Coopers yeast from 1 stubby only and it worked out fine. As per yum beer, you just need to build up the amount of yeast till you get sufficient to pitch to your 23 litres.
You want to keep everything sanitized as best as you can. That means to make sure all the wort is boiled, including your 23 litres.
When your Coopers longneck has reached high krausen pitch it to a 1 litre starter. The 1 litre starter can then be used to inoculate your 23 litres.
I love the taste of the Coopers yeast when it is fresh and still in suspension.

 

[eungaibitter1]

Righto, thanks hoppy2b and yum beer. Just to be clear, once I pitch it into th 1 litre starter, I should have enough for the brew?

 

[JDW81]

Righto, thanks hoppy2b and yum beer. Just to be clear, once I pitch it into th 1 litre starter, I should have enough for the brew?

You're going to have to step your starter up from 100mL or so, and build up to one litre. You don't get much yeast from one long neck, and the viability of it is also a bit of a mystery.

My standard reculturing process is as follows:
1: Sanitise my 300mL flask (I boil water in it, with foil wrapped over the top, which I then use to cover the starter).
2: While sanitising my flask, mix 200mL of water with 20g of light malt extract and boil it for a few minutes.
3: Once boiled, pop the lid on and cool in a water bath.
4: Decant the starter wort into the flask and shake the s*&t out of it to aerate.
5: Take a coopers stubby (or long neck) out of the fridge and spray with sanitising solution (or wipe the bottle and cap with alcohol). I also sanitise my bottle opener.
6: Open the beer (DO NOT ROLL PRIOR TO OPENING) and pour into a glass leaving ~1cm of liquid in the bottom*.
7: Swirl what is left in the bottle to pick up all the yeast and pour it into your small starter and recover with the sanitised foil cap.

*I normally pour 3 beers out of the bottle at this time (two for me and one for Mrs JD) so I can get a good hit of yeast into the starter.

I usually leave this one for about 12-18 hours before stepping into a 400mL starter, then to 1L and finally into 2 litres. Depending on how well the yeast performs will depend on how long it takes to be ready. Some have taken a few days, others nearly a week.

If you get a good healthy starter going 1L should suffice for a 23L batch.

JD

 

[eungaibitter1]

brilliant JD, cheers.

 

[hoppy2B]

Just an after thought. If you did add 500ml of wort to the dregs in a Coopers bottle that might be enough to go into a 23 litre batch. Normally 1 litre is the recommended rate. Pitching a lower amount and fermenting in the low to mid 20's will give you the nice pear esters that people talk about with Coopers bottle yeast.

 

[eungaibitter1]

Thanks hoppy2b, I was going to cut ny losses and start over using JD's method, but yes I used 500ml boiling water and 5 tablespoons light malt, then cooled it before adding to the longneck. It's just starting ferment now. Should be ok to pitch into tommorow's brew.

 

[maxim0200]

I have my first one on right now, i boiled up a 2l dme wort at about 1.043 then let it cool, i then pitched the dregs of 2 longnecks into it.
Its been 3 days now and it appears to be going fine.

 

[bradmccoy]

Do you have to use malt or could you start with dextrose (if that's all you have on hand)? I got some Vale IPAs the other day and it turns out they're bottle conditioned, so I'll try to extract yeast from one.

 

[rheffera]

brad, While its possible to start with dextrose i wouldn't recommend it. The non-technical explanation of it is it makes the yeast lazy and less likely to eat through as much malt as it would have, resulting in a higher terminal gravity of your brew. (Malt is a more complex sugar than dextrose is, thus making the yeast work a little more for thier meal. If you give them Dextrose, they get used to eating eating the simpler stuff. It's sorta like raising kids. If all you give them is junk they will refuse healthy food._

 

[hoppy2B]

Dextrose will lack the right nutrients on its own, for example nitrogen. I use brown sugar for mine, after all, the people that produce yeast commercially just grow the stuff on molasses as far as I'm aware.
That said, I decant the liquid and pitch the yeast at the bottom. If you use malt extract or wort then you can pitch the whole lot without it affecting your brew. Should give you a better result as you can pitch when the yeast is more active I would think.

 

[JDW81]

Dextrose will lack the right nutrients on its own, for example nitrogen. I use brown sugar for mine

I don't think brown sugar is particularly great for making starters either. While it does contain a little more than white sugar, it is still essentially a simple sugar and therefore not ideal for making starters.

Best option is use dried malt extract as it gives the yeast a much stronger start, and gets them use to what they'll be consuming during fermentation. If you have it add some yeast nutrient too.

JD

 

[fletcher]

if you get a chance to measure the mL of what you're culturing too, this calculator can help mate: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

i use cleaned pickle jars to store my yeast but have 50/100mL marker measurements on the oustide of them to get a better idea of the amount i'm pitching. can help if you're concerned about how much is "recommended" for a particular sized brew and the respective OG

edit: spelling

 

[GalBrew]

You need to use malt extract in your starters to encourage the yeast to metabolise maltose rather than the simple sugars. You start your yeast with sucrose, guess what it will be primed to metabolise the most efficiently?

 

[Bribie G]

Just grab half a kilo from your LHBS and keep it well sealed and keep it for starters.

I normally use three longnecks which is a nice drink, but keep them for a week beforehand to settle right out. With three bottles worth of yeast I get a good fermentation in the jar after three days, pitch on the fourth, and have not had any problems. My favourite brew is the Coopers Sparkling.

Edit: as posted above if you are weaning kittens you feed them proper kitten food, not bread crusts or porridge if you want them to grow up to be healthy cats.

 

[GalBrew]

Dextrose will lack the right nutrients on its own, for example nitrogen. I use brown sugar for mine, after all, the people that produce yeast commercially just grow the stuff on molasses as far as I'm aware.
That said, I decant the liquid and pitch the yeast at the bottom. If you use malt extract or wort then you can pitch the whole lot without it affecting your brew. Should give you a better result as you can pitch when the yeast is more active I would think.

I thought only dried yeasts were raised on molasses. I was under the impression that liquid yeasts are raised on malt based substrates?? Anyone?

 

[hoppy2B]

I thought only dried yeasts were raised on molasses. I was under the impression that liquid yeasts are raised on malt based substrates?? Anyone?

I think they just use what is cheapest, that being molasseseses normally. The yeast are propagated aerobically thus multiplying rather than producing alcohol.

 

[eungaibitter1]

Turned out the longneck with 500 ml and 5 tablespoons of light dry malt has worked a treat. Took around 24 hours to my knowlege, as I pitched it yesterday morning and at first glance today I have a healthy ferment underway. Thanks again for the tips, I'll go in alot more confident next brew

 

[rheffera]

As a side note, i have dregs from two stubbies on a stirplate right now and im seeing a scum ring! My first dregs is a success as well.