any tips on harvesting yeast from a bottle?

[mindless2]

Hey fellow Brewnosers,
I was away a few weeks ago and had a Belgian dubbel that was fantastic (Ommegang Valar Morghulis).

I brought 3 pints home to try and harvest the yeast.
any suggestions on how I should do this?
I read many methods. I planned on saving the last inch of each bottle and making a starter.

also, I'm wondering if I'm successful in making the starter, would I have to use it right away or could I store it for a month?
(I wanted to leave myself enough time to order yeast, if the harvest is a flop... )

Thanks
T

[RubberToe]

Yes, save the last inch.

Before you open the bottles make sure they're well settled. If you have 3 then you could hsare them with friends and open them the same evening or whatever. The more yeast you get the better.

Flame the bottle opening before pouring. Swirl well to get the yeast off the bottom.

Start with a small starter, something you can step up 10 x when it's done. I'm pretty sure you want to calculate the volume of your bottle dregs into your initial starter volume for acurate OG estimate.

Be careful with sanitation as there's lots of oportunity for baddies to grow in there and even then you're taking a chance. I'm pretty sure one time I made a nice big starter of Nova Scotia wild yeast - I even brewed a beer with it. It was pretty bad and I dumped it down the drain.

When it works out it can be awesome (private strain of Conan here).

Cheers and good luck!
-Rob

[Celiacbrew]

It can take a little while to start so don't freak out if you don't have any activity after a day. I just cultured up dieu du ciel's moralité and that isn't even bottle conditioned. Took two days in 250ml of 1.020 wort before I saw anything. I decanted it and added 1lt of 1.040 wort with yeast nutrient and verified that it is sacch and not wild yeast.

[Tony L]

If you are looking to get the yeast that the brew was initially brewed with, you might not get it. From my understanding, some brewers use a different strain to carbonate with than that which they brewed with.
Trademarked yeast and all that, I guess.

But, I have been wrong once before

[Celiacbrew]

I just looked on their website and they filter and repitch yeast. You might end up culturing bottle conditioning yeast. On the other hand sierra nevada filters and then pitches an exact quantity of their house strain so that they only have a light dusting on the bottom of their bottles. I also saw a few threads about people culturing Ommegang yeast, including a BYO story, so I think you are probably okay.
http://www.ommegang.com/#!brewing_process" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mindless2]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all the input!!

So if I succeed in harvesting the yeast.
Can I just store the starter in the fridge for a month, until i'm ready for it??

[LiverDance]

Yeah that will work but you'll want to make another starter from that before it goes into your brew


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[Tony L]

If you are going to store the yeast, try to get the good yeast out of it before you make a starter by washing it. Make sure the yeast you are using don't look like peanut butter

I did something like this to wash my yeast, you can see the color of the yeast http://www.donosborn.com/homebrew/yeast ... st_way.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;