Brewing Experiment #2: Harvesting Commerical Yeast For Brewing

I grew up in Michigan, and when I was of age I grew to love the beers of Kalamazoo-based Bell's Brewery. Their American wheat ale, Oberon (originally called Solsun), was a particular summertime treat. I'm now living in Maryland, and Bell's beer is available all around us -- but not in Maryland:

So unfair! (Map excerpted from http://bellsbeer.com/brands/brand-finder/)

So I could drive to PA, WV, NC, OH, KY or DC when I want a Bell's. Or I could make my own. According to brewers on the internets, one of the keys to Oberon's unique flavor is the yeast they use.


Bell's beers are bottle conditioned, just like most homebrew, so there's a fine layer of active yeast at the bottom of every bottle. That yeast can be harvested and put to work in my own brews. Emboldened by my success with the BIAB technique and thirsty for this nostalgic taste of summer I decided to brew an Oberon clone. 

I hoofed it to DC, picked up a six pack of Oberon, and invited a few friends over to help with the harvest (by drinking most of the beer). Following the instructions on Bell's site and a few other sources, I was able to successfully harvest the yeast from three bottles of Oberon, and here's what it looked like after I gave it some sugar to activate it:

Harvested Oberon yeast, reporting for duty!

 And here's a video of the yeast happily bubbling away in the carboy (embiggen the video to see all the action):

 Like most things when it comes to homebrewing: harvesting yeast isn't hard, but does require cleanliness, preparation and attention to detail. It's definitely a useful technique, especially when you're trying to duplicate beers where the yeast character is a signature part of the flavor.