Potential House Yeast from Commercial Beer

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By DANIEL J. LEONARD

The character of a beer is often heavily determined by the specific strain of yeast used to ferment the beer. When trying to clone commercial beers or simply capture that certain je ne sais quoi, it may be impossible to do so without reculturing yeast from the commercial bottle. However, not all yeast found in bottles of commercial beer is fit for reculturing because either the yeast has been filtered out or because the brewery uses a different kind of yeast for bottling.

For these reasons, it's helpful to have an idea of which bottles of commercial beer actually contain the yeast used to ferment the beer in question, and if that yeast is viable.

If you're curious about how to reculture yeast from a bottle, here is a tutorial (it's not terribly difficult, but requires the upmost cleanliness): How to Harvest Yeast from a Beer Bottle.

The following is a list of commercial beers that potentially contain viable house yeast for reculturing. This list was originally worked on by Anders Lundquist. We are attempting to continue on with that work and in that spirit, if you have any corrections or contributions to add, please contact: dan@beersyndicate.com.

NOTE: This is living document and will be continually added to and refined as more data is shared and researched in an effort to provide increasingly better data. Corrections and shared personal experience harvesting commercial yeast is very much welcome!

In addition, Michael Tonsmeire provides a list of unpasteurized sour beers that seem to contain viable microbes (yeast/bacteria).

Notes about List Format

Primary strain: The strain(s) used for primary fermentation, which is also assumed to have provided (most of) the yeast characteristics of the beer.

Bottling strain: Non-primary strain added at bottling time or in the secondary. The implication is that the yeast will not give the same characteristics as the beer the yeast came from (but it might still be a good yeast).

Bottle conditioned: The label says the beer is bottle conditioned, and thus it has live yeast (unless the label is inaccurate). Note that the yeast may or may not be the primary strain.

Good result(s): To be strict, it only means that the yeast produced good beer, not necessarily beer that was close to the original.

Commercially available strains: When a strain is thought/known to be the same or very similar to some commercially available strain, I have pointed this out. This not only means there's one more (possibly more reliable) source for the strain, but also that there's more information available on its characteristics.

{1}: What follows comes from a single report. If you agree with the statement, please report to me. I'd much rather have this page reflecting some kind of consensus rather than single opinions. Of course, if you think anything is wrong, then report that.

[ ]: In general, anything within square brackets are comments by Anders Lundquist.

Disclaimer: No guarantees are made about the universal correctness of the list below. Some breweries close. Some breweries may eventually decide to bottle condition with a different yeast strain, or not bottle condition at all. Some breweries use multiple strains of yeast/bacteria at specific ratios, so it may be difficult to achieve the same blend-ratio, etc., etc., etc. In short: things are subject to change.

General Observations

Bottle conditioned British ales seems to have the primary strain as a rule. A few exceptions have been reported.

Bavarian Hefe-Weizens normally don't have the primary strain, and may well be pasteurized. Schneider Weisse seems to be an exception. Perhaps Schöfferhofer as well.

Bottle conditioned Belgian ales may or may not have the primary strain, alone or together with some other strain(s). Check extra carefully for aroma/flavor characteristics of the starter.

Yeasts Sorted by Brewery and Beer: A Work in Progress

Adnams

General

Bottled beer said to be sterile filtered or pasteurized, so no viable yeast. However, mini-casks contain viable yeast which is said to be characterful, but can get a bit sulfury if not treated carefully. Reportedly two strains are used which may fall out of equilibrium after many generations.

Anchor

General

All beers are probably flash-pasteurized.

Liberty Ale

{1} Difficult to culture. [apparently the flash-pasteurization doesn't quite kill the contents] Very strong fermenter, produces a strong green apple aroma during fermentation. Poor flocculation characteristics. Clean neutral flavors. Possibly a bottom fermenting lager yeast!

Anderson Valley

General

Anderson Valley is said to use Whitbread Ale yeast for all their beers, this would be the same as YeastLab A04 British Ale.

Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout

{1} Live sediment.

Arcense

Arcener Tarwe

Live sediment, strain?

Hertog Jan Grand Prestige

{1} Has yeast sediment, alive? strain?

Hertog Jan Tripel

Live sediment, strain?

Ayinger

Ur-Weisse

{1} Has yeast sediment, alive? strain?

Bells

See Kalamazoo Brewing

Berliner-Kindl Schultheiss-Braueri

Berliner Weisse

Not successfully recultured. A blend of soured beer and other beer.

Binchoise

Speciale Noel

{1} Mostly bad results.

Brouwerij Van Steenberge

Bio

General

{1} Said to use the same yeast for Augustijn, Augustijn Grand Cru, and Piraat.

Augustijn

{1} Live yeast, strain? Faster and higher attenuation than Wyeast 1388.

Gulden Draak

{1} Live sediment, however per the brewery, wine yeast is used for secondary bottle fermentation, so yeast strain will likely be a blend.

Despite this, was able to successfully culture yeast from a bottle of Gulden Draak with excellent results.

Piraat

Live sediment, strain? {1} Faster and higher attenuation than Wyeast 1388.

Per Brouwerij Van Steenberge, "We use for all the beers different yeast. We have 3 different types of yeast for the high fermentation and we have 6 different yeast types for the refermentation."

Blue Ridge

Wheat Beer

{1} Has yeast sediment, alive? strain?

Br. du Bocq

Blanche de Namur

{1} Live sediment, strain?

Regal Christmas

Bottle conditioned, strain?

St Benoit Blond

{1} Probably primary strain.

Brasserie Fantôme

Fantôme Saison
Great success reculturing yeast. Reportedly peachy, under-ripe strawberry, and earthy notes.

Bosteels

Karmeliet tripel

{1} Live sediment, strain?

Bridgeport

India Pale Ale

{1} Bottle conditioned, strain?

Brij De Smedt

Affligem Blond

Bottle conditioned, strain?

Affligem Dubbel

Bottle conditioned, strain?

Affligem Tripel

Bottle conditioned, strain?

Brugse Huisbrouwerij

Straffe Hendrik

{1} Live sediment, strain?

Butterknowle Brewery (Butterknowle Brewery closed in 1998, however it's reported that Butterknowle beers are brewed at Castle Eden Brewery and branded as Castle Eden beers. Therefore, the same yeast may be in use.)

Conciliation Ale

Good results. {1} Malty and diacetyl-y. A little slow to clear.

Caledonian

Tempest Fugit

{1} Good results.

Cantillon

General

{1} Full complement of microbes, though not always viable.

Cheval Blanc

Bière ambrée traditionnelle

{1} Probably primary strain. Good results. Top fermenting.

Bière rousse légendaire

{1} Bottle conditioned, strain?

Chimay

General

Apparently the same strain in all three versions. Appears to be primary strain. Several have had good results. Solvent and banana flavors at high fermentation temperatures or bad yeast health? Same as Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey?

Red

{1} Good alcohol tolerance. Balanced phenolics. Decent attenuation.

St. Christoffel

Blond

{1} Bottle conditioned.

Christoffel Robertus

{1} Live yeast. Good result.

Cooper's

General

{1} Probably the same yeast in all their bottle conditioned beers (Best Extra Stout, Original Pale Ale, and Sparkling Ale).

Recultured Cooper's yeast said to be consistent with characteristics of the bottle conditioned examples.

Sparkling Ale

Tends to be more flocculating when cultured than in the original bottle. Same as YeastLab A01 Australian Ale. Good all purpose yeast. Vigorous fermenter. Gives clean and nicely fruity beer. {1} Multi-strain yeast that is best in the first few generations.

Corsendonk

Corsendonk's Monk's Brown Ale

{1} Live sediment, strain?

Corsendonk's Monk's Pale Ale

{1} Bottle conditioned, strain?

Trippel

{1} Has yeast sediment, alive? strain?

Cottage Brewing Company

Norman's Conquest

Bottle conditioned.

Courage

Directors Live

Primary strain.

Russian Imperial

{1} Good result.

D'Achouffe

Chouffe [which of them?]

Primary strain? Some disagreement on flocculation.

La Chouffe

Primary strain? Good results. High flocculation. {1} Medium attenuation. Nice, estery character.

Mc Chouffe

{1} Live sediment, strain?

N'ice Chouffe

{1} Good performer. Complex ester-phenol profile. Relatively low attenuation.

Deininger Kronenbräu Hof

EKU Hefe Weißbier

Has yeast sediment, alive? strain?

EKU Hefe Weißbier Dunkel

Has yeast sediment, alive? strain?

Deschutes

General

{1} Primary strain. {1} Same ale yeast for all their ales.

Bachelor Bitter

{1} Good results.

Black Butte Porter

{1} The beer has very similar yeast characteristics to the Obsidian Stout. Has yeast sediment, alive? strain?

Obsidian Stout

{1} Very similar to Wyeast 1968.

Dolle Brouwers

General

Same cultures in Stille Nacht, Arabier, and Oerbier? Several strains. Extremely fruity fermentation products created. Several lactobacillus. They get their yeast from Rodenbach.

Drie Ringen

Drie Ringen [which? all?]

Live sediment, strain(s)?

Dupont

Avec les Bons Voeux

Live sediment. {1} Complex and spicy. Very good, but slow, attenuator. Phenolic flavors and brett. character.

Saison Dupont

{1} triple strain - 3 separate cultures which produce interesting herbal/phenolic flavors. {1} Very good result. Probably primary strain, gives beer with a similar flavor profile as the original.

EKU

Potential House Yeast from Commercial Beer

Notes about List Format

General Observations

Yeasts Sorted by Brewery and Beer: A Work in Progress

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