Using yeast from a commercial beer

[joejoe]

I have purchased a few micro/macro brews from my local liquor store that I really like and would like to replicate. On the bottle it states "bottle conditioned" and actually has a small bit of yeast in the bottom of the bottle.
Has anyone ever cultured a yeast slurry from the bottom of a bottle? I have been a home brewer for about a year now and generally use Wyeast pitchable yeast which has been infallible for me and yielded near perfect fermentions and great beer.
I do know that the yeast strain is a very important factor in determining many characteristics of an ale.
(the beer that I have bought are ales...not lagers)

How do I turn this small bit of yeast in the bottom of a bottle of commercial beer into a large enough quantity to use in my next batch of home brew!
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[Tweek]

this is not always as easy as it may seem. many times the strain that is in the bottle was not the main strain used. This is sort of a long topic here is a good link for you

http://www.nada.kth.se/~alun/Beer/Bottle-Yeasts/

that should help

cheers

[joejoe]

Thanks for the good article.
I would actually like to culture the yeast from a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The article you sent me states that the yeast in the bottle appears to be the same strain as the primary. It also states that it may be the same or similar to Wyeast 1056 American Ale which I have used in the past and made some pretty good ales from.

Any idea where I can get a Sierra Nevada clone recipe?
How about how to find out how to grow an adequate quantity of yeast from a few (or many) bottles of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale?

I really like this beer and it is one I would like to brew at home.


Thanks in advance for all your help.
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[Tweek]

cats meow is a good place to look for recipes online. I have never tried to make a sierra pale clone here is one recipe off cats meow
http://brewery.org/brewery/cm3/recs/01_98.html

another good source for clone recipes is a book called clone brews by szamatulski which has a recipe for seirra pale as well.

hope that helps

[b3s]

ironically enough, without actualy providing you with the exact formula, sierra nevada does tell you the ingredients to their ales. here is the pale web site: http://www.sierra-nevada.com/html/beers/paleale.htm

[joejoe]

Thanks for the info.
I never would have thought to go to the Sierra web site for the recipe. From the recipe they give I might be able to get pretty close to it.
Come to think of it, that is pretty cool that they actually list their ingredients. From what I understand, Sierra started out as a micro brew and grew because of their quality and their understanding of the "REAL" beer drinking community and home and micro brewers.
I'll also take a look at the recipe from the szamatulski book.
Between the two I might be able to concoct something drinkable...

Any input on how to "clone" their yeast from their bottles would definitely be helpful. If it works I'll let everyone here know.
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[b3s]

sierra nevada brewing is the only company i know that does that...and yes, i think it is cool, too. i just started in this hobby, partially because sierra nevada did that (i had their pale in bottles and liked it better than bass in bottles, found their website, saw the cooler, then i started looking at what caramel and two row and perle and cascade meant...and now three months later i have a bucket burping in the closet my water heater is in and am telling the fiancee that i'm going to grow hops in lieu of roses on our balcony...go figure).

anyway, i'm glad the info was helpful :)

[sallad]

joejoe-

i've been thinking about trying to culture yeast from a bottle conditioned ale (if i ever find the time for such an experiment). did you go ahead and try this? any luck with it? any pointers?

[Tom C]

Originally posted by b3s
sierra nevada brewing is the only company i know that does that... :)

That is not necessarilty so many micro brews tell you what malts, hops, etc they use whether on lables or websites. Go a step further and email them and many of the micro brews will send you percentages of malts used and give you very close recipes to their ales. I have done this with Pyramid, Harpoon and Smuttynose beers. The brewers have been very nice and excited to see other home brewers.

I am also interesed in try to reculture yeast from a bottle. I was going to try either a hefeweizen from Harpoon (UFO) or Ommengangs Abbey Ale. Would love to hear how things went.

Tom C

[wortchillergoal]

I have also been told that not only do they use a different yeast strain but some breweries coat their bottles with something so you can't harvest their yeast. My source is the owner of a mircobrewery.