Culturing Conan from 45 day old Heady

I was going to mentioned 45 day old Heady? That's about 41 days past its Best Before!

Seriously though I would culture it up. I would add the bottom 1/10th (or less) to a cup of 1.020ish wort. Everything I have read about stepping up dregs (and the few times I did it) you should start dregs in small amounts of low gravity wort.

Obviously a stirplate helps this. I would let it ride for 48 hours then add 1L of 1.040, cold crash and find out how much slurry you have...

 

Has anyone out there done this successfully from cans of HT? I'm interested in this as well.

I would think the yeast are pretty well caked up with hop goo (I forget the scientific terms, its too early in the day). Don't extremely hoppy beers have an adverse affect on the yeasts cell walls? Will washing or rinsing the yeast help? I have a couple of cans I was thinking of trying to culture as well.

 

I cultured and used Heady in a beer I brewed successfully. It can be done, I cultured it with no stirplate at the time. I saved the bottom about 2 oz of the beer and tossed it in a tiny starter and stepped it up a few times.

 

I did this a few weeks ago. Super easy. I just left about 1-2 oz in each can after sanitizing the lid and pouring most of the beer into a glass. I swirled really well and poured 2 cans worth of dregs into a 250 mL 1.035 starter, left it on a stir plate for 3 days. Stepped that up to a liter IIRC (without pouring off what was already in there, so it was really only a 500-750mL step up. Left this on the stir plate for another three days. Cold crashed, now I have a nice puck of probably 30-50 mL pure yeast in the fridge sitting under a little bit of wort. Other brewing things got in the way, but I am planning on stepping it up once more at least in a 2L starter and then setting some aside to freeze with glycerine.

The cans I harvested from were probably 2-3 weeks old.

 

(when I say pure yeast, I am sure there are other organisms in there - I meant 30-50mL pure slurry)

 

Here are a few experiences of others who have cloned conan from HT cans...

http://www.bear-flavored.com/2012/09/culturing-conan-aka-alchemists-heady.html
http://www.signpostbrewing.com/culturing-conan-yeast-from-the-alchemist-brewery/

 

Worst case scenario, you are out a minimal amount of DME and 1-2oz of Heady.

 

My advice: if you make it happen, you know my address. I will help you spread Conan's seed across the nation!

 

This sounds like a tragedy to me...

 

It was a long debate... but I really wanted to try out this yeast and the homebrewer in me won.

 

When I culture from the bottle I usually pour the wort into the bottle filling it about 1/3 and cover it with foil.
I let that go a few days then step it up. Sounds like you basically did the same thing volumewise. I do not see why this will not work. I usually step up 1 to 5 so for you the next step should be into about a liter.

You could probably use a 450 day old heady and this would still work. Good luck.

edit: BTW, if this does not work you can send me some heady and I will send you back all the yeast you can handle.

 

I've never had the opportunity to try this beer that everyone talks about so much. What is unique about this beer's yeast that would make you go to this amount of trouble?

My thoughts on double IPAs (never brewed one, not my favorite style, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt, an ounce of hops, or whatever) is that neutral and attenuating are what you are looking for, and it seems like yeasts with these characters are commercially available.

 

Fresh vs old would mean the difference between higher and lower viability. Which means it will take a little longer to grow up, yes. It also means if you are trying to start at the same viable cell density at the pitch, you'd probably want a smaller starter to begin with, since you have less viable yeast cells. So, yeah, pitch into a very small amount of low gravity wort and let it go for several days before you step up.

 

I've stepped some up from harvested yeast.

I've got a 2L starter with a thick cake of around a quarter inch across the whole bottom of the flask of Conan.

Plan to use most of it this weekend, and the other will go back into my vial I keep in the fridge for safe keeping.

 

The beers yeast is the engine of this beer. It's his private strain I guess, and it gives off some insane peachy sweet notes. It's extremely attenuating, and well... it's just a bad ass yeast that eats away and leave a nice flavor that compliments an IPA.

Neutral is one thing, void of flavor is another. You can use a yeasts flavor to meld with profiles, such as a saison yeast.. this yeast is like a hops best friend.

 

Thanks for the info. There used to be a BA who talked about peachy off flavors from Chico yeasts. It really bothered him. I never really got it, bit it could have been a temperature thing (I typically ferment on the cold side). Anyhow, I guess this must be more noticeably peachy than that. If I get the opportunity, I'll give HT a try. Funny how it's an off flavor until people decide they like it.