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Yeast in bottled conditioned beers

Wildrover

Grandmaster Brewer
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How likely am I to actually be able to get some yeast from a bottled conditioned beer, say some sort of Belgian?

Any advice on the best and easiest way to do it, if its at all practical?
 
Hi,
  You can only do it if the bottle has not been pasteurized or filtered.  Otherwise there will be no live yeast left in it.

Cheers,
Brad
 
Thanks Brad,

What if it hasn't been filtered or pasteurized?  I'm thinking about say a Hennepin from Ommangang in New York, I don't believe they do either to their beers. 
 
Well,
  If it still has live yeast in it you can basically use the beer to build a starter.  It might require a few step-ups but if you add it to sterile wort it should start to ferment.

Brad
 
I keep threatening to do this and there are several articles out there on doing it. I've hesitated to commit 15 lbs of grain to the experiment because my commercial brewing friend tells me that some craft brewers that bottle condition use a different yeast in bottling than they do in producing the beer.

If you remember my first post here, it was about getting yeast to stick to the bottom of the bottle. My masterbrewer friend told me that when he bottle conditioned, he used lager yeast, even in ales, because it is more sticky when it falls out. I've had some improved sedimentary stability (totally made-up phrase) from pitching a bit of champagne yeast with the bottle charge.
 
Well that definitley puts a twist on things.  Its way too hot here to lager anything without a fridge (that I don't have).  How can we know for sure?

I thought the whole idea of the bottle conditioned ales is that they were never filtered.  I guess you're saying they actually are and the yeast in the bottle is different?  Damn them I say
 
Damn them all to hell, yes.

Read the very interesting Chimay site. They centrifuge their beer prior to bottling. They claim to charge their bottles with the same yeast used in fermentation. I highly suspect Sierra Nevada of using lager yeast. You can't break that stuff off the bottom with a pick-axe.

Did you find those articles I mentioned?

- Hare
 
I went to a couple Belgium inspired US beer sites, Allagash I believe, and though they say they don't use lager yeast to bottle condition they do say they bottle condition at cellar temps which leads me to believe that is indeed what they are doing. 

As far as some breweries that make ales with lager yeast, I don't know for sure but I recently took the Yuengling tour here in Tampa and they say that very few breweries actually use ale yeast for anything anymore.  I don't know how they know that but they did say that their "Ale" is actually made with lager yeast.  Who knew? 

What articles?  If you provided a link somewhere then I went to it. 
 
harebare said:
improved sedimentary stability (totally made-up phrase)
I like Improved Sedimentary Stability (ISS) I think you made up a new acronym... NICE! ;D

Cheers

Preston
 
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