Yeast From Commercial Beers

[rysa555]

I have noticed that people often use the yeast from a commercial coopers beer for their home brew ales.

I was wondering what other commercial beers you can do this from, particularly any with lager yeasts in them?

Cheers

 

[chappo1970]

Don't think you will have much luck with lagers as they aren't generally bottled conditioned plus the lagering process I imagine would knock out any viable yeasties. Best bet is ales like coopers and even Chimay. I could however be wrong?

Cheers


Chappo

 

[discoloop]

The yeast in LCPA bottles is said to be a lager yeast. There's some threads floating around here somewhere with people talking about culturing it up with reasonable results....although I think they said it tasted a lot like US-05 so why would you bother....

 

[clean brewer]

Ive had this LINK saved for a while, may give some help......

:icon_cheers: CB

 

[manticle]

Essentially anything that's got sediment at the bottom or has been bottle conditioned. What actual yeast it is is often anyone's guess.

As far as I'm aware most trappists bottle with the same yeast with which they ferment. They're all ale yeasts though.

Schofferhoffer is bottle conditioned: it's a wheat beer (ale) but I've heard (can't vouch for surety) that they condition with a lager yeast.

Schneider's Aventinus Eisbock is a lager and is bottle conditioned. Not sure on the yeast and it is a dark beer. As far as I'm aware it's best not to ferment beers any lighter than that already fermented - not sure if that still holds true for bottle conditioning yeast.

Because lagers are generally meant to be cleaner and brighter (not always the case though , particularly with darker lagers), I'm guessing there's less of a trend towards bottle conditioning.

Sorry for the vaguness but hopefully it gives you an idea of where to begin looking, if no actual definitive information.

 

[mwd]

Think you can cultivate Hoegaarden yeasts as well IIRC.

 

[HoppingMad]

Searched around on this subject a while back. There are posts here from people who have successfully cultured chimay (and I think rochefort, another belgian/trappist style beer). A lot have tried culturing german wheatbeers like shofferhofer and weihanstephaner with limited success.

This is due to the yeast not being the primary fermented one (as manticle suggests) and also that the yeasts in these bottles tend to have travelled far and have been a little stressed, meaning that they take some effort to get going. Like manticle have no idea if this is an ale or lager strain.

More experienced brewers have said to me that local reculturing (like coopers) is best as it's one hell of a lot fresher and viable. The little creatures pales in the 1lt stubbies also tend to produce some yeast for culturing but not heaps like a coopers - I would suggest that being an ale in the little creatures case, that this stuff would be pretty similar to a US-05 or S-04 you can already purchase. Happy to be proven wrong.

Cheers,

Hopper.

 

[QldKev]

The yeast in LCPA bottles is said to be a lager yeast. There's some threads floating around here somewhere with people talking about culturing it up with reasonable results....although I think they said it tasted a lot like US-05 so why would you bother....

I done a LCPA and it was very bitter, wont try again.

QldKev

 

[Swinging Beef]

I have had success with culturing up a Hoegaarden and a Coopers yeast.
Was actually planning another coopers yeast culture this weekend.
Oh, the pain