Reculturing from my own brews

[poggor]

I have read the thread about reculturing form Coopers bottles and have made some batches with the technique (certainly best way to get a beer that tastes like CPA!) but for some reason I had never thought of doing the same thing with any of my beers.
I have about 10 different wyeast strains in various beers currently in my stockpile.
Rather than buying more (they are expensive!) could i just drink a couple of bottles of the relevant beer and get a starter happening from the dregs?

Has anyone done this? does it work? are the characteristics of the yeast generally preserved?


g

 

[ekul]

I've done this before when i was a really poor and it def works. I used to culture up from a single stubbie, less chance of infection that way.

 

[Dazzbrew]

Yep, quite common i recommend the mr malty yeast pitching calculator.

 

[4KingAle]

You can scoop a cup of yeast off the cake off your previous brew going from lighter gravity to higher or the same for about 6 generations ..... I personally build a starter culture from a liquid yeast and then build subsequent starters off those. There is no reason why you can't reuse your yeast as long as you practice good sanitisation techniques.

 

[Yob]

You can scoop a cup of yeast off the cake off your previous brew going from lighter gravity to higher or the same for about 6 generations .....

Not 'best practice' though, your also scooping dead cells, trub, hops..

blech..

You can keep yeast going much longer than 6 depending on how you go about it.. I once was at a brewery that had used the same yeast continuously fro 128 brews.. not a small barch either, were talking +1000lt

 

[Weizguy]

I have read the thread about reculturing form Coopers bottles and have made some batches with the technique (certainly best way to get a beer that tastes like CPA!) but for some reason I had never thought of doing the same thing with any of my beers.
I have about 10 different wyeast strains in various beers currently in my stockpile.
Rather than buying more (they are expensive!) could i just drink a couple of bottles of the relevant beer and get a starter happening from the dregs?

Has anyone done this? does it work? are the characteristics of the yeast generally preserved?


g

I have done this. I find that it's a reasonable way to get value from your yeast culture.