Sunday, January 30, 2011

Homebrew Digest #5784 (January 30, 2011)

HOMEBREW Digest #5784 Sun 30 January 2011


FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
Culturing Yeast Follow Up ("Joe Dunne")
RE: Culturing yeast from dregs ("\\-s@roadrunner.com")


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Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 09:38:35 -0600
From: "Joe Dunne" <jrdunne at rcn.com>
Subject: Culturing Yeast Follow Up

Thanks for the responses. As a follow up, it looks
as though my attempt is working. I decanted the
flask and added some fresh wort on Thursday night.
I had some obvious yeast growth activity within
24 hours.

I think my main problem was that I was starting
with too much wort at perhaps too high a gravity
to really get anything going. I did not start with
nearly as small a starter as Dave Houseman suggested.
But I'll be better prepared next time. My other
problem may just be impatience...

Anyway, I'm going to brew up a small batch and see
how it turns out. It is my understanding that
Ommegang bottle conditions with the same yeast they
use for fermentation, but we'll know soon.

As an aside, I'm quite pleased I've gotten my postings
to go through. I had to give up on my hotmail account
for posting to HBD as it just didn't want to work.
Outlook seems to work just fine.


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Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:43:59 -0500
From: "\\-s at roadrunner.com" <"\\-s"@roadrunner.com>
Subject: RE: Culturing yeast from dregs

I agree with David Houseman's excellent advice on culturing yeast from
bottles.
To expand slightly - unless you have a hood and good culture techniques,
then
culturing in the original bottle is probably safest.

Sanitize the entire bottle & churchkey in an iodophor solution, pour off all
but the last bit, flame the bottle lip, add a little sterile growth
media and seal,
shake gently. It's no problem if there is break matter or dead yeast
in the dregs.
Avoid airborne "pests" by choosing a clean location with little air
circulation and
use a facemask. Latex gloves dipped in sanitizer ...

I've had difficulty getting any growth from certain beers that seem prone to
yeast autolysis, OTOH I've also had numerous successful cultures from
flltered commercial beers.

After culturing up you should ideally plate-out to select a pure strain,
but then
we're back into the "need a hood & plates & technique" dilemma. At least
give the spent growth media a critical sniff/taste test.

A separate bottling strain isn't universal, and you'll know if your weizen
yeast media tastes like a lager.

-Steve

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5784, 01/30/11
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