How about yeast STEALING?

[BeerBilly]

I got one for you all.What's the procedure(or link to one)for harvesting yeast from a commercial bottle-conditioned beer?Our neighbor just brought us a bottle of "Fred Golden Special Ale" from Hair of the Dog Brewing Co.in Portland(Oregon).It says it's bottle coditioned and 10%abv.It has a fair amount of sediment.Can i try to salvage this?Should i call the brewery and ask?Any ideas fellas?I thought i read how to do it before but can't find that source.Thanks in advance.
BB

[Ó Flannagáin]

I don't know how this is done, but I can tell you how I would try. I'd boil up a cup of water and a small amount of DME. I'd have to work on the math to figure out exactly how much, but it wouldn't be much.

I'd our that cup of wort into the bottle (after cooling of course) swirl around, then pour back into a small container you could put an airlock on. This is much yeast, so you want it to be extremely sterile. After a week, I'd boil up some more DME, maybe 2.5 cups of water worth to make it 1.040-1.050. I'd add that to the previous starter.

I'd leave that week, then add that to a regular sized, 1pint, starter. Watch for action.

I don't see why that wouldn't work, it's definitely what I'd try.

[sanders5x]

I think Papazian describes that in one of his books

[DrunkenSatyr]

Flan has it down. Pour a starter solution into the bottle after you flame the lip of the bottle. Pour back into a sterile container and build your yeast from there.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Didn't think about flaming the lip, good call. I figure sanitization is super important when it's such a small amount of yeast.

Also remember that many of the bottle conditioned (on lees) ales use a different yeast strain for bottling.

[BeerBilly]

I was just reading about yeast harvesting/washing on the Wyeast site and it said not to reuse yeast from high abv beer(it's 10%).So i'm thinking it might be a bad idea.Any thoughts?
BB

[DrunkenSatyr]

You just end up with stressed yeast. I would move them into a low og starter and propagate them from there.

[Ó Flannagáin]

We discussed that a little on DS's other thread: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=267 (http://www.homebrewchatter.com/home2/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=267) .. certain High gravity beers you want that estery profile that stressed yeast give off. That's why I reuse in my belgians that are 8 to 10% abv.