using beer bottle deposit for making starter

[Xendelaar]

Most of my brewskies have a thin layer of yeast (?) on the bottom of the bottles.

I was wondering… Assuming this is yeast.. should I be able to use this deposit to make a new yeast starter? Or is this yeast completely dead after, say 6 months?

Do any of you guys have any expedience with this?

thanks

 

[jeffpn]

Lots of people harvest yeast from bottles like that. You have to let it grow. There isn’t much in there.

 

[BoomerBrian]

Better off collecting the yeast cake from your ferm bucket or overbuilding a starter before pitching and putting some back.

 

[Xendelaar]

Lots of people harvest yeast from bottles like that. You have to let it grow. There isn’t much in there.

Cool! So the don't die, but lay dorment until I feed them some sweet malts? That’s nice.

Better off collecting the yeast cake from your ferm bucket or overbuilding a starter before pitching and putting some back.

Taking a sample from the fermentation vessel would increase the cell count significantly . Can I store these samples for a longer period of time them as well?

Storing the yeast strain in a beer is off course more practical since I don't have to do anything extra.. which could cause infection.

 

[jeffpn]

It’s nice to have the exact yeast when cloning a commercial beer.

 

[Nosybear]

And often the beer that's left in the bottle is not the beer that fermented the beer, so even if you do propagate up from the dregs, don't be surprised if you don't get the same beer. Brewers filter their proprietary yeast out, then add back some generic yeast for conditioning.

 

[Mase]

And often the beer that's left in the bottle is not the beer that fermented the beer, so even if you do propagate up from the dregs, don't be surprised if you don't get the same beer. Brewers filter their proprietary yeast out, then add back some generic yeast for conditioning.

Yep

 

[Hawkbox]

I've done it with commercial beer, with my own stuff I just build a starter off the package and store about 1/4 of it in a sanitized mason jar for the next starter.

The time I did it with commercial beer I put 1L of wort in with it and was disappointed cause it didn't seem to do anything, then I checked the gravity. It had eaten it down to 1.006, so I flushed the "beer" out and put another litre of wort in, and damn it went nuts! So it's a good strain, turns out it's the Wyest Witbeer strain but it was still cool to do myself.

 

[BoomerBrian]

Taking a sample from the fermentation vessel would increase the cell count significantly . Can I store these samples for a longer period of time them as well?

Storing the yeast strain in a beer is off course more practical since I don't have to do anything extra.. which could cause infection.

Yep. What I do when saving yeast is save just a bit of beer when transferring, swirl it around real good with the yeast and pour into a sterilized jar. Store in the fridge and use at a later time. I have stored them for as long as 6 months. If you store them longer than a few weeks you can make a starter.

 

[jeffpn]

Brewers filter their proprietary yeast out, then add back some generic yeast for conditioning.

I’ve never heard that, but it certainly makes sense.

 

[Head First]

I’ve never heard that, but it certainly makes sense.

There are several strains developed just for that.

 

[jeffpn]

And often the beer that's left in the bottle is not the beer that fermented the beer, so even if you do propagate up from the dregs, don't be surprised if you don't get the same beer. Brewers filter their proprietary yeast out, then add back some generic yeast for conditioning.

What percentage of brewers use recovered CO2 to carbonate, instead of priming the bottles? I know Yuengling does it that way, not that they leave any yeast in their bottles.