The great yeast heist

[Hamish Jones]

Just getting gear together to start making yeast starters so I can start making yeast slants to build up a yeast library,

Just wondering if anyone knows what beers have which strain of yeast in them and of course which ones I get score some yeast from, thinking this way makes more sense as I get to drink most of the product before cultering yeast from it,

Also where are people getting the little vials for slanting from for the best price?

 

[martin w]

there's a yeast swapping group- http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/group/yeast-trading

which has a lot of information and in it

[Hamish Jones]

cheers will have a look, I won't start asking for yeast until have something to offer, I was going to use spirit flavour glass jars for my yeast but sadly they all got thrown out, is glass better than plastic or doesn't it matter too much?

[Chris P]

http://www.mrmalty.com/wyeast.php

http://www.mrmalty.com/white-labs.php

[Ralph]

Most commercial beers are filtered and you will not be able to grab the yeast from them. The commercial beers that are bottle conditioned are often bottle conditioned with a different yeast to what they were originally brewed with. You are better off buying/brewing with a couple of the liquid yeasts available and once you have some yeast start swapping yeasts with others.

There are a bunch of people in a Chch brew group on Facebook. Some of them are into swapping yeasts. http://www.facebook.com/groups/494714937209424/ and sometimes simply offer excess yeast out of fermentors etc.

[Hamish Jones]

yeah I was hoping some folk knew of some bottle conditoned beers that the strains were known, that way I get the best of both worlds cheap yeast on hand and to get to drink beer, ah life is good

[JR]

Also might pay to work out how much it will cost you in malt extract to get from the yeast on the bottom of a bottle to a full pitch big enough for a 20L batch.  Its a fun project but I dont think it will save you money.

[Hamish Jones]

I was just going to use pale ale malt instead of DME as at about $1.50 per KG it works out pretty cheap, I have been getting really good yields from my mash so reckon it would give me around 5L of 1.040 sweet wort to make starters with,

And not to mention my $3.19 stir plate made up from bits and bobs it'll be a laugh if nothing else, and who doesnt love the smell of malty grains mashing on the stove 

[martin w]

at +-$20 a smack pack/vial i'd question that!

[Hamish Jones]

5 x 1 litre starters and say 10 slants which you can make a further 50 1 litre starters sounds like a pretty cheap way of doing it if its only costing 1 KG of grain per 5 liter starter

 

that was the way I was going to do it, how are other people doing is as I have only been reading about this stuff and yet to put it into practice?

Cheers  

[martin w]

you don't need much to actually make the slants,250mls of wort plus gelatine will make a bunch of slants and like you say,a couple of kilos of grain will get you heaps for making starters with,once you have the vials you're away, i got mine from labwarehouse.co.nz,they can be had a lot cheaper in aussie but freight eats up the savings.

don't  let the naysayers put you off, it doesn't have to cost much.but like ralph says,a lot of bottling strains arn't the actual fermenting strain,theres a list of the strains on homebrewtalk somewhere but i can't find it at the moment.

cheers

[Hamish Jones]

sweet I shall have a look through the site that way the wife can't complain I am spending too much on brewing, cheers

[JR]

Sounds like your getting a pretty sweet deal on malt.  Where do you shop? 

If you culture from wheat beers you are sure to be getting the yeast they fermented with.