Post
by An Ankoù » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:43 am
Indeed, they're in party kegs now. I sent an email to Adnam's last year to ask them whether they used the brewing yeast or a bottling yeast in the kegs. They responded to tell me that having consulted the head brewer, the beer was filtered and contained no yeast at all.
Well, that's not quite the case! I harvested the yeast from an earlier keg with little trouble (I sanitised the red tap and then drew off the first 200 ml). This keg is a little older, but after two days in a malt extract solution, the culture is producing a foam after a bit of a swirl around the flask and I expect it to be fizzing away tomorrow.
I read elsewhere about another home brewer making a similar culture from the dregs after he'd emptied the can. I think this is risky as you have to let air in to get most of the beer out. So unless you're going to drain the can at a single draft, I'd go for the first way. But if you are going to down it in one, why not try both?
It's a dual strain, by the way, so I only use it for a couple of generations in order to have a chance of keeping them both, but every first generation bottle is the source of a new culture if you remember to keep one or two.
I'm cheap. Just give me beer.