Bottle Conditioned Beers - Supermarkets

[VincentG]

Hi people.

What bottle conditioned beers have you successfully used the yeast from that are available in the big 4 supermarkets?

I have all 4, Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco, and Morrisons near where I live in Leeds.

I have used "hens tooth" in the past and Duvel, with good results. What have you used recently? Can recommend?

[jonnyt]

Thwaites via Old Dam
Hopback via Hopback Summer Lightning
Fullers also.

[VincentG]

I've just been for a wander round ASDA and the only one I could find was this

http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/s ... tid=319814

Tesco only had one and it was a 7.5% jobie.

Not good

[jmc]

Fullers (1845 & Bengal Lancer) on the go at the moment.
In past
St Austell (Proper Job, Black Job <- I got these in Cornwall not always available near me unfortunately)
Duvel
Chimay Red

[seymour]

I don't know what's available in your stores (at least some of these were listed on the ASDA link you posted), but here's a list I've been compiling of bottle-conditioned beers which are believed to contain the primary strain. I'm sure there are many more which I've missed, and perhaps some of these listed contain a secondary bottling strain. As always, I'm eager for corrections and rebuttals.

Adnams (mini-kegs contain the primary dual-strain, but bottles do not)
Brakspear Oxford Gold, perhaps Triple as well
Cantillon (classic source for diverse lambic cultures)
Chimay
Coniston Bluebird Bitter
Coopers
Courage (some)
D'Achouffe
DeDolle (excellent Belgian multi-strain)
DuPont (classic saison culture, but reportedly a triple-strain, results vary)
Duvel (probably contains primary strain, some dispute)
Fullers Bengal Lancer and 1845 (extremely popular)
Gales Prize Old Ale (classic primary strain, but so old it's likely dead)
Hook Norton (some Flagship IPA and Double Stout bottles are believed to contain primary strain)
Hopback Summer Lightning
Itchen Valley Godfathers
Kindl Weiss (good Berliner Weiss lacto blend)
Marble?
Maredsous (yes-primary, but same as Duvel)
Marstons (some: Oyster Stout or Tesco's IPA?)
Morland Hen's Tooth
Ommegang
Orval (excellent blend of Belgian primary strain + brett)
Ridgeway Bad Elf, Lump of Coal, probably others (brewed by Hepworth, same primary dual strain used in bottles)
Ridleys (some)
Rochefort
Samuel Smith Stingo
Schneider Weiss (supposedly the only hefeweizen bottled with primary strain)
Sharps (some, perhaps the only way to obtain historic Morrells strain)
Shepherd Neame Spitfire and 1698
Sierra Nevada
St. Austell Proper Job and Black Job
Tesco's "Finest Belgian Abbey Ale" by the Huyghe Brewery
Thomas Hardy (some)
Thwaites (some)
Unibroue (a Belgian-style brewery in Canada, very spicy, a mutation of Chimay?)
Westmalle
Westvleteren
Widmer Hefeweizen (not a true Hefeweizen strain, Americanized version of historic Zum Uerige alt strain)
Worthington White Shield (probably not primary strain, but a nice high-attenuating strain anyway)
Wye Valley (filtered but then bottle-conditioned with fresh, primary, single-strain)
Youngs Special London Ale

A couple more ideas for fresh yeast:
Many local microbreweries have imperfect filtration, and likely skip reseeding with a secondary yeast, so it's always worth a try.

Just because a beer doesn't specifically state "bottle-conditioned" doesn't automatically rule it out. If you hold it up to the light and see a layer of white at the bottom, that's yeast. A member here obtained primary yeast from a cloudy bottle of St. Peters Golden Ale. An email to the brewery confirmed they had a recent problem with their filtration!

Other members have reported local pubs giving them the dregs of an "empty" real ale cask, which is almost surely the primary strain.

http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/ ... techniques
http://hbd.org/mbas/yeastht.html

[Befuddler]

Marble?

I don't know why, but it's never occurred to me to try culturing from a Marble bottle. I can't imagine them putting a filter anywhere near their beer, so it's most likely the primary strain. I'm in Manchester next week, so I'll grab some fresh ones from the brewery and give it a bash.

Whatever their yeast is, it's a rocket-powered hop delivery vehicle of the highest class.

[seymour]

Marble?

I don't know why, but it's never occurred to me to try culturing from a Marble bottle. I can't imagine them putting a filter anywhere near their beer, so it's most likely the primary strain. I'm in Manchester next week, so I'll grab some fresh ones from the brewery and give it a bash. Whatever their yeast is, it's a rocket-powered hop delivery vehicle of the highest class.

Yeah, let us know how it goes. I haven't tried it yet, but plan to. If you search, several members have acquired the Marble yeast different ways, with rave reviews. Some say it's an adapted form of Boddingtons or Gales.

[jmc]

I don't know what's available in your stores (at least some of these were listed on the ASDA link you posted), but here's a list I've been compiling of bottle-conditioned beers which are believed to contain the primary strain. I'm sure there are many more which I've missed, and perhaps some of these listed contain a secondary bottling strain. As always, I'm eager for corrections and rebuttals.

...
Brakspear Oxford Gold, perhaps Triple as well
...

Great list Seymour.

Brakspear Oxford Gold - I had a look at a couple of bottles of this last week ( in Waitrose) as I wanted to try cultivating a Brakspear yeast, unfortunately I couldn't see a trace of yeast in the bottles so I didn't bother getting any.
Maybe Triple is OK

[seymour]

...Brakspear Oxford Gold, perhaps Triple as well...

Brakspear Oxford Gold - I had a look at a couple of bottles of this last week ( in Waitrose) as I wanted to try cultivating a Brakspear yeast, unfortunately I couldn't see a trace of yeast in the bottles so I didn't bother getting any.
Maybe Triple is OK?

Interesting. Maybe they've started filtering or something, I dunno.

In cases where there is only a little yeast, mostly in suspension, I've had some success "cold-crashing" just like we do with our fermentors, and with the same intent. Let the bottle get to a nice warm room temperature, then place it in the fridge or freezer. Hopefully all the yeast drops to the bottom, then you can rack off the delicious beer and pour some malt extract back in, step up from there...

[jmc]

...Brakspear Oxford Gold, perhaps Triple as well...

Brakspear Oxford Gold - I had a look at a couple of bottles of this last week ( in Waitrose) as I wanted to try cultivating a Brakspear yeast, unfortunately I couldn't see a trace of yeast in the bottles so I didn't bother getting any.
Maybe Triple is OK?

Interesting. Maybe they've started filtering or something, I dunno.

In cases where there is only a little yeast, mostly in suspension, I've had some success "cold-crashing" just like we do with our fermentors, and with the same intent. Let the bottle get to a nice warm room temperature, then place it in the fridge or freezer. Hopefully all the yeast drops to the bottom, then you can rack off the delicious beer and pour some malt extract back in, step up from there...

Maybe, but it did look very bright and no trace of anything at the bottom. I may well be wrong though so I'd be interested to hear if anyone else in the UK has had any luck with Brakspear bottles recently.

BTW: +1 for Schneider Weisse. I used this a few months ago & it was lovely. Fair amount on banana too

[vacant]

What bottle conditioned beers have you successfully used the yeast from that are available in the big 4 supermarkets?

Check the Best Before date.

I've only tried Proper Job which was very vigorous. I put this down to recent bottling. It had a BB date of July 2013 and I harvested in August so assumed it was bottled July 2012. This probably means you're better off buying from a supermarket with a high turnover rather than a farm shop.

[seymour]

...I've only tried Proper Job which was very vigorous. I put this down to recent bottling. It had a BB date of July 2013 and I harvested in August so assumed it was bottled July 2012. This probably means you're better off buying from a supermarket with a high turnover rather than a farm shop.

Excellent advice. The fresher the bottle, the healthier and larger the yeast population. That said, I recently cultured a 5-year-old bottle of Westmalle Dubbel following the same basic procedure. Of course, Belgian Trappist strains are more resilient and alcohol tolerant to begin with, which may explain it.

[oz11]

I think the Oxford Gold replaced the Live Organic in the range, which was bottle conditioned. As far as I am aware the Oxford Gold is not. For a while the Triple was not bottle conditioned either, but that has now been rectified

[Dr. Dextrin]

I've also used yeast from Shepherd Neame 1698 and Coniston Bluebird with success. Both are labelled "bottle conditioned". I suspect the latter is probably a generic strain because the beer has been brewed all over the place. However, as I've no idea which strain it is, I'm happy culturing it from a bottle.

Something I'd also like to work on (maybe next summer) is capturing yeast from real ale in the wild. I'm quite keen to get hold of the Wadworths yeast - it's quite distinctive and you can taste it in all their ales. Also the Black Sheep yeast. I imagine sauntering up to a pub with rucksack and walking boots, enjoying a nice lunch and a couple of pints - and departing with enough draught beer in a sterile container to culture a yeast from. When I'm enjoying the clone a few months later, it'll be a pleasant reminder of a nice day out. I've no idea how easy this is, but it has to be worth a try.

[jmc]

I've also used yeast from Shepherd Neame 1698 and Coniston Bluebird with success. Both are labelled "bottle conditioned". I suspect the latter is probably a generic strain because the beer has been brewed all over the place. However, as I've no idea which strain it is, I'm happy culturing it from a bottle.

Something I'd also like to work on (maybe next summer) is capturing yeast from real ale in the wild. I'm quite keen to get hold of the Wadworths yeast - it's quite distinctive and you can taste it in all their ales. Also the Black Sheep yeast. I imagine sauntering up to a pub with rucksack and walking boots, enjoying a nice lunch and a couple of pints - and departing with enough draught beer in a sterile container to culture a yeast from. When I'm enjoying the clone a few months later, it'll be a pleasant reminder of a nice day out. I've no idea how easy this is, but it has to be worth a try.

Last year a group of us had a great day out touring many great pubs around London including a few Belgian bars. I got a few funny looks pouring Belgian dregs onto some slants but about 50% of them grew. Theyre still in the yeast fridge.