Cloning Yeast

I drink a Porter here in Central Montana called "Pig's Ass Porter" by Harvest Moon Brewing. I love this beer, and after all the other porters I've tried, those others can't seem to come close to the taste and flavor of Pig's Ass! (I'm actually taste and flavor challenged, so for others who have tried it, it must be a really sharp taste and flavor! - I also like NY sharp cheddar cheese on my hot (warmed) apple pie!).
I've come close to matching it, but still, there's something missing, so I thought maybe it's the yeast!. I once saw a video
(can't find it now), which showed how to take the yeast leftovers from the bottom of a bottle (they just used the paper-thin amount of yeast from the bottom of 1 bottle!) to re-create the same yeast for another brew.

Fortunately, where I live, I'm not limited to just one bottle, so I'm more than willing to save the yeast out of 1 .... 6 .... 12 ..... or even 24 bottles (all in the name of scientific experimentation, you understand ....... ), if absolutely necessary!!!
(You wouldn't even have to twist my arm!).
Does anyone know where I might find some instructions - (keep it simple, I'm an old fart!), or a video that would explain this process? Did I mention I really LIKE this beer??
TIA,
MT Brewer

There are very many articles on forum posts on harvestin yeast from the dregs of bottles. Below are a few links found by searching "harvest yeast dregs".  Keep in mind the brewers often use a different yeast for bottle conditioning than fermenting so you may not be harvesting the fermentation yeast.

I suggest you call them and ask. https://www.harvestmoonbrew.com/contact-us/

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/yeast/yeast-from-commercial-beers
https://byo.com/article/yeast-culturing-from-bottles-techniques/
https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/06/homebrewing-how-to-harvest-yeast-from-commercial-beer-for-home-brewing.html

I've learned a lot from http://suigenerisbrewing.com/.  Very straight forward and easy explanations with video for those of us slow learners.

jomebrew said:

There are very many articles on forum posts on harvestin yeast from the dregs of bottles. Below are a few links found by searching "harvest yeast dregs". 

I suggest you call them and ask. https://www.harvestmoonbrew.com/contact-us/

Click to expand...

Yeah, I tried that .... the first time the wouldn't answer any questions, the second time they hung up on me - I don't think they would be too forthcoming if I tried again!

jomebrew said:

Keep in mind the brewers often use a different yeast for bottle conditioning than fermenting so you may not be harvesting the fermentation yeast.

Click to expand...

I didn't know that, I wonder what the advantage would be in that?  ... Thanks!

jomebrew said:

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/yeast/yeast-from-commercial-beers
https://byo.com/article/yeast-culturing-from-bottles-techniques/
https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/06/homebrewing-how-to-harvest-yeast-from-commercial-beer-for-home-brewing.html

Click to expand...

Thanks for these links, the only thing I found by searching - before I asked here - was how to re-use, how to can, how to harvest from your brew, etc. so I didn't bother to search here - BUT - I see that I may have used the wrong search terms, so thank you for those as well!

Oginme said:

I've learned a lot from http://suigenerisbrewing.com/.  Very straight forward and easy explanations with video for those of us slow learners.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll take a look at that.
UPdate: WOW! I read one of the articles and a few comments - I still don't know what I read! That stuff was miles over my head - I didn't take chemistry in school (not smart enuff), and have no idea what the study of microbiology is about. They kept mentioning slants, and unless they were saying to keep the bottle on a slant while you're trying to harvest the yeast, they lost me ... so they lost me, becuz I know that's not what they meant! Hopefully, the links that jomebrew gave me will be a lot less technical. I've bookmarked the link you gave me, so that if I get to where I can understand a bit more, I'll go back and try to learn something ;>). THX

@ jomebrew - the BYO link is worthless unless you're willing to pay a fee for the article. The fact that I have taken their magazine for about 10 years in subscriptions means little to them, they want another 30 bucks a year for their digital/online articles which ar a copy of those you get in the magazines, no thanks to that!. I don't know what year or month Chris' article was published, but if I have it, it's at my son's house in another state! I'll end my BYO rant here!
The other two links worked and are bookmarked and now that you have given me some better search terms, I'm sure I'll find more! THX!

You are right.  I checked links before I posted and saw the BYO had a members only block.  I thought I nuked that one.  Sorry.

Brewers will often filter their beer before bottling and then add back yeast for bottle conditioning.  Or, they may pasteurize then add back conditioning yeast. This is often a neutral yeast. 

I found it interesting they call it a witbeer. There is no mention of wheat but I would likely user 50% wheat in a recipe.  I'd use on of the London Ale yeasts and ferment cool (65f) to suppress esters assuming the beers doesn't have them.

Harvesting yeast from the dregs is popular sport in the sour beer world.  Here are a couple link that might help.
https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html
http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Commercial_Sour_Beer_Dregs_Inoculation
http://www.brew-dudes.com/harvest-bottle-dregs-sour-beers/5352



Good luck.

Here's what I have noticed from reading up on this:
the article in Serious Eats, says to make a wort of 1.040, but the chemist at  http://suigenerisbrewing.com/. says that this is too high, it will stress the yeast, and it must be lower than 1.040. Any personal experiences/opinions on this? See, I did get a little bit of that scientific talk, even if it was in the comments, and not in the article!
I think I understand now how this is done, so I just have to get a flask and see if I can DIY a stirplate out of an old computer fan. One question I have -that wasn't made too clear - is, when you get the yeast from the bottle, do you save up two or three bottles (leaving a little bit of beer in the bottom so they don't dry out) and then get the yeast out of all three at once, or do you pour each small amount of yeast, letting it build up in the wort, each time you empty another bottle? The reason I ask is that I would like to get the yeast out of maybe 6 bottles, but over a period of two or three days. Any opinions on this?

Here is what I do to propagate yeast from culture plates, which may be pretty similar to your attempts from beer dregs:

I transfer colonies to a 25 ml flask with about 5 to 10 ml of 1.020 to 1.024 gravity wort containing yeast nutrient.  This wakes the yeast up and allows them to build their glycogen reserves back up.  Since the yeast has been sitting in beer (or in my case in a plate), they have been consuming their reserves to stay alive and viable. 

From there, I use 1.028 to 1.032 gravity wort (5 to 10 ml) to start the yeast growth stage before transferring it to a flask with my standard wort at 1.036 to 1.038 gravity for greater replication.  I usually overbuild my starters and use cell counts to pitch what I need for each brew, so I don't necessarily go for the greatest cell growth rate and use the 1.038 to 1.038 wort for most of my starters.  I really have not seen a difference in these slightly lower gravity starters versus my old method of 1.040 wort, but I changed my process once I started routinely doing cell counts.

@ Oginme - I like that schedule, starting small and working up. Do you give it a day or two in between each of the lower OG and the next raise in OG? Just trying to get a handle on it so I can try that and prepare for a brew. I think that I can figure out if the yeast is working just by the activity of the wort, but knowing how many billions of yeast cells is another thing.

One article/comment I read said that he would take a little of the wort from the flask to gather the yeast off the bottom of the bottle, and then pour it back into the bottle. I figure that if I do that, I'd be pouring some of that yeast into the other bottles, thereby losing some of the collected yeast along the way, ..... so I think I'll pour out enough into a second clean DME bottle, so that when I pour out of that bottle of clean DME, it would be none of the collected yeast and then I wouldn't lose any yeast out of the collector bottle. I don't know if I made that clear enuff, or if I muddied the waters a taste ... two containers/flasks/glasses, one with new DME to pour into the yeasty beer bottles, and one to collect that DME and yeast out of the beer bottle.

After collecting, the collector flask would be covered with foil and go into the refrigerator for the next collection, and after the second collection, I would let it warm up to room temperature, put it onto a DIY Stir-plate, and let it mix. Another thing is how long do you let it stir ... is it minutes, hours, or days? I'll have to read some more articles to find out!

I want to make sure I do it right the first time, so I don't get in a bind and not have the correct starter that fits that brew. I always use dry yeast, because the first two times I tried (White Labs?) liquid yeast in tubes, they failed, and I had to rescue the batches with dry yeast. I've still got the empty screw-top tubes around somewhere, I think.
Thanks,
MTBrewer