Live Yeast At The Bottle Store

[Nick JD]

Hey All.

Was wondering about getting together a list of yeasts that are in bottle conditioned beers in Dans etc that are live and reculturable.

And what the yeast is. There's the usual suspects like Coopers ... but what others are there? What have you guys recultured successfully from the bottlo?

 

[mondestrunken]

I remember seeing a fairly long list of commercial beers with live yeast and equivalent wyeast/white labs numbers...

somewhere on the internet...

It might have been beeradvocate?

I know that's not particularly helpful, but it's almost definitely more helpful than the previous posts.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Hey All.

Was wondering about getting together a list of yeasts that are in bottle conditioned beers in Dans etc that are live and reculturable.

And what the yeast is. There's the usual suspects like Coopers ... but what others are there? What have you guys recultured successfully from the bottlo?

Great idea.
Someone else might know if White Rabbit, White Ale can be done. Says on the packaging, "live yeast, bottle conditioned".

 

[Northside Novice]

have heard that some breweries use a different yeast in their bottle conditioning to protect their original fermentation yeast from being cloned

 

[kenlock]

Articles section has this and this

Should provide a good starting point.

It would be great if this thread turns up anything new, that an update could occur.

:icon_cheers:

 

[mondestrunken]

Articles section has this and this

This.

 

[manticle]

I remember seeing a fairly long list of commercial beers with live yeast and equivalent wyeast/white labs numbers...

somewhere on the internet...

It might have been beeradvocate?

I know that's not particularly helpful, but it's almost definitely more helpful than the previous posts.

You're probably thinking of the Mr Malty Yeast comparison chart compiled by Kristen England.

Pretty sure Nick knows that one but here it is for those who don't:

http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

 

[Diesel80]

I have a bottle of vintage coopers 2011 version i will try and grow. Probably just the normal stuff.


Also have a sample tube of some belgian strong ale yeast but not sure if it is 'alive' or not. Is belgian yeast darker than other forms or does the fact that it is darker indicate some issues with it?

Cheers,

D80

 

[IainMcLean]

I know that Bridge Road use Wyeast 1056 as their main house strain for pale ales etc. due to its resilience - got it straight from the horse's mouth when Ben and I were talking about my fennel infused amber.

 

[mikec]

Nick was asking what commercial beers people have been able to reculture yeast from.
Knowing what breweries use what strains doesn't really answer the question.
I've only done Coopers Pale, but am interested in what others are possible.

 

[dr K]

Good quality, fresh cultures of 100 billion cells are available at around $12 or less. A significant part of the cost is priority airfreight from the US to keep them cool, your supplier will refridgerate them on arrival.
Assuming your bottlo beer has been bottle conditioned (a small percentage) and assuming the conditioning yeast is the primary strain (SFA) you still have to deal with the fact that whatever tiny amount of yeast that was in the bottle when it left the brewery has been treated like **** and only refridgerated days (if that) before you bought it...
If you seriosly want to brew good beer (cf homebrew) one of the many factors is yeast management.

K

 

[manticle]

^agreed. The only yeast/s I'm bothering to try and reculture at the moment are some of the Normandy cidre yeasts to try and replicate funky ciders at home.

Just currently (as of today) experimenting with a litre or so of preservative free juice and dregs from a bottle of ecusson cidre brut. Will see if it fires at all.

 

[prestonpaul]

Great idea.
Someone else might know if White Rabbit, White Ale can be done. Says on the packaging, "live yeast, bottle conditioned".

I've done the dark ale with good results. I remember reading somwhere they use the same yeast for the white ale, but I could be mistaken

 

[Wolfy]

Such a list is a good idea - in theory - however in practice there are a few problems.

Many local micro's use common/dry yeast for most of their products, which makes it pointless to try and reculture the yeast.
Those who don't (Red Hill and MoonDog as examples) use Wyeast that is easily obtainable to home brewers in pure/fresh/packet form.

Due to shipping and storage issues, most beer imported from overseas is not suitable to reculture yest from - there are various lists of - or well known beers from overseas that contain live yeast - however, usually once it lands in Australia most of the yeast is stressed/dead and does not re-culture well or at all.

 

[Nick JD]

I'm currently enjoying 3522 (so they say) from a bottle of La Chouffe from Dans. It makes a better Wit than 3944 IMO.

The 750ml bottle was $15, but it only cost me $5 because I now have 4 jumping samples of 3522 in the fridge.

Since I realised that smackpacks are very rarely pitchable as they are sold with low viability (check Mr. Malty as to how quickly that **** dies kept in perfect conditions) I'd prefer to buy a bottle from Dans and grow it.

And it's fun. Bit like fishing watching the starter to see if it'll fire.

Sure there are lists out there, but my thinking was it'd be nice to get a definitive Aussie list - what's in our stores. The lists out there are sketchy with a lot of maybes on them.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

I've done the dark ale with good results. I remember reading somwhere they use the same yeast for the white ale, but I could be mistaken

they have started using a lager yeast to condition the dark ale, so now you can't harvest the original yeast: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=835966

 

[bum]

I read somewhere on here (so don't bet the farm on it) that they also changed the primary strain for the white recently.

 

[Midnight Brew]

I read somewhere on here (so don't bet the farm on it) that they also changed the primary strain for the white recently.

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=136

Belgian Ardennes 3522 if memory serves correctly. Change was about a year ago. Not sure if the same strain is used to bottle condition.

 

[Nick JD]

So:

Coopers = WLP009 Aussie Ale
La Chouffe = WY3522 Belgian Ardennes

Anyone cultured the Chimays? They're 1214 and alive I hear ... but this list is interested in successful culturing, rather than hearsay.

What about Hoegaarden? Or some of the American Ales that use proprietary yeasts? After listening to the Stone guy, I'd like to try their yeast? People always say they all use US05, but I'm not sure about that.

What do Sierra Nevada use?

That's another thing about this thread - often people say, "Brewery X uses WYXXXX." But then you hear them say they use their own strain. If it's live in the bottle, I'd like to try it and see.

 

[mje1980]

I tried it with coopers a few times, i never got them to fire up. Im more suss about growing a sample from a bottle, than a smack pack or vial. The vials ( whitelabs ) and smack packs say you can pitch them directly, but i always make a starter, as i've done that, and they've done nothing. One exemption is when i want to under pitch, like a weizen, or a belgian.

It would be interesting if you wanted a strain that was not commercially available i suppose.