harvesting yeast from commercial beer

[jb-texshine]

Is it possible to harvest yeast from a bottle of beer? If so how?

[midlife-u-turn]

Yes it is - I did a you tube search and it returned 1,240 videos on harvesting yeast from small scale craft brews. (Bottle conditioned or carbonated) I've got an IPA fermenting now and I plan on washing and saving a few yeast starters from it. I've never tried harvesting yeast from a store bought beer however.

[Pikey]

I've got a fifty yer old beer making book, which explains how but it said that there were only certain ones which it worked with. I believe Double Diamond was one !

My guess is that it's now so "clean" that it would be quite unlikely to be doable.

[Swedish Pride]

Bigger breweries would not have much if any yest in there, but get a good craft ale you like and you could likely harvest the yeast from it

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Yes sir. I recently harvested 2 Hearted Ale yeast myself. Got me a 1/2 pint of sludge now to clone it perfectly. Here's what you do.

Get the freshest bottle you can. If it has yeast, you'll know cause you can see it in the bottom. First, prepare your 'starter wort". Boil a ratio of 2 cups water and 1/2 cup of DME . You can use regular sugar, just keep a low Sg, like 1.04 or so. Let that mixture chill to room temp. Keep it sanitized with Star San or alcohol ( if you can find some) and a cover.

Next, get a bottle or 2 with your desired yeast in it. . Crack them open, sanitize the neck of the bottle per protocol above, pour said beer into a glass, but leave about an ounce or 2 in the bottle. Pour slowly so the yeast doesn't get too stirred up. Drink the beer that is in said glass.

Give the bottle with the last ounce of beer and yeast in it a good swirl. Pour them into the starter wort you made. Put it in a dark closet. Give it a gentle swirl over the next 24-48 hours.

Do not be alarmed if you don't see much activity or yeast the first time you do this. Trust me, it's working. You have to keep adding wort and stepping up the colony. It takes very little time to ferment out each time. Usually within a week, you have a good yeast cake that can go into your brew.

Have fun. I got a fridge full of yeast. Just remember to sanitize everything that touches the yeast. Don't want a mutation....

...or do you...?

[Kegg_jam]

I did it once just to see if could do it.

Much easier to buy a packet of s-04 or 05 and propagate that.

[jb-texshine]

I think I'll give it a try just for fun. It'll be a bonus if i get it to work.
Jb

[The Baker]

I believe in Australia, Cooper's beer can yield usable yeast.
Made in South Australia.
Sparkling Ale: "This is a true taste of Coopers history. With its famous cloudy sediment"
Geoff

[contrahead]

It boils down to (no pun intended) whether the bottled beer was pasteurized or not. Most yeast cells are killed at temperatures above 122°F. Bottles of wine (seldom if ever pasteurized) can still carry live yeast that may be stunned but not actually killed by the addition of preservative sulfur or potassium dioxides.

There are actually recipes for making sourdough bread starters, using just an opened can of beer. Even a can or bottle of pasteurized beer (with its dead yeasts) if left out in the open for a week or two, will collect wild yeast from the very air and will provide them with the sugars and nutrients necessary to create a new “yeast culture”.