Hargreaves Hill Hefeweizen Yeast

[herbo]

I like this beer.

Would there be any reason why I couldn't harvest the yeast from the bottle so that I could brew up something similar?

This is bottle conditioned and there seems to be a nice layer in the bottom of the bottle each time I empty one.

 

[mika]

Wheat yeast is a fickle beast and doesn't travel well in the bottles, so most German brewers filter out the wheat yeast and add a more stable lager strain.
I doubt Hargreaves are going that far, but you never know. Ping em an e-mail and ask if they're bottling with the primary strain.
As long as they're using the Primary strain in the bottle, there's no reason you couldn't build it up to a pitchable quantity and use it, though you may well find it's nothing all that special. It has to be a pretty special sort of micro before they can get access to yeast strains any different to what home brewers can get hold of and a large percentage of them are using dried yeast.

 

[Wolfy]

Why not ask them if they use the primary strain for bottling, I'd assume they do but it's not always good to make assumptions.

 

[Nick JD]

Buy a pack of 3068 and you'll never look back!

 

[bum]

There is a user here who goes by the name of "Simon from Hargreaves Hill". Funnily enough he's a (the?) brewer at Hargreaves Hill. He's an approachable sort of bloke and I'm sure if you shoot him a PM he'll be able to tell you if the yeast in the bottle is the primary strain and if it is suitable to reculture.

 

[vic45]

Hey herbo, did you get the Hargreaves Hill beers in Ballarat? Loved the Pale and desperate to try the ESB.


Sorry about off topic.

 

[Simon from Hargreaves Hill]

There is a user here who goes by the name of "Simon from Hargreaves Hill". Funnily enough he's a (the?) brewer at Hargreaves Hill. He's an approachable sort of bloke and I'm sure if you shoot him a PM he'll be able to tell you if the yeast in the bottle is the primary strain and if it is suitable to reculture.

Best bet is to use a fresh 3068 pack. I am not a fan of reculturing yeast from a bottle. A packaged beer is a very inhospitatable environment for yeast to live, and by the time it has got to this stage, most of its life is well behind it. Better to start with a fresh culture. There is little guarantee that a few viable cells in the bottom of a bottle will produce the kind of hefe that you are after. More likely to produce flavours related to yeast stress and less able to absorb diacetyl, aldehydes or the like.

Simon

 

[herbo]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I reckon I'll contact Hargreaves directly and check it out. I'll probably end up better off just buying in a dried wheat yeast, but always looking to save on ingredients where possible, especially for a brew such as this that I'll probably only ever have a crack at every now and then.

Hey herbo, did you get the Hargreaves Hill beers in Ballarat? Loved the Pale and desperate to try the ESB.


Sorry about off topic.

Vic, I got the Hargreaves beer from the Ballarat Dan Murphy's. I'm pretty sure they didn't have the ESB on the shelf there though.

 

[herbo]

Best bet is to use a fresh 3068 pack. I am not a fan of reculturing yeast from a bottle. A packaged beer is a very inhospitatable environment for yeast to live, and by the time it has got to this stage, most of its life is well behind it. Better to start with a fresh culture. There is little guarantee that a few viable cells in the bottom of a bottle will produce the kind of hefe that you are after. More likely to produce flavours related to yeast stress and less able to absorb diacetyl, aldehydes or the like.

Simon

Thanks Simon for the response. Looks like I'll be adding a new yeast to the collection soon.

Nice beer you have there.