tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post7719043365717204046..comments2024-03-17T14:10:05.912-05:00Comments on The Chuck Cowdery Blog: You Call Yourself 'Craft'? Make Your Own Yeast.Chuck Cowderyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12191121480961526039noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-24013238912792262352013-06-21T08:07:51.857-05:002013-06-21T08:07:51.857-05:00@ Kathleen - I can't send you our "recipe...@ Kathleen - I can't send you our "recipe", but here is our website that describes how we captured, isolated, and propagate our proprietary yeast strain.<br /><br />http://www.frdistilling.com/the-difference/proprietary-wild-yeast<br /><br />Rob Arnold<br />Head Distiller, F&R Distilling Co.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-12720674149807194512013-04-28T22:31:31.891-05:002013-04-28T22:31:31.891-05:00I see that the posts on here are rather old. But I...I see that the posts on here are rather old. But I am wondering how one would really go about making a brewing/super/distillers Yeast. I know how to make a sour dough starter, but I am one who wants to know more. These items may some day no longer be available to the average person, or may become not available at all to any one. I would love a recipe if any one has one. Thank you.<br />If anyone would like to send me one please do at kbergmanlmp at gmail. comKathleen Bergmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13076229715414107026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-30286264873925290632011-02-16T16:30:53.375-06:002011-02-16T16:30:53.375-06:00Jim Beam's yeast has a 'foxy' quality ...Jim Beam's yeast has a 'foxy' quality characteristic of wild yeast and you can taste it clearly in the white label expression.Chuck Cowderyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12191121480961526039noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-22209949425727733522011-02-16T10:02:15.268-06:002011-02-16T10:02:15.268-06:00@ Erik - capturing a viable, vigorous and good tas...@ Erik - capturing a viable, vigorous and good tasting sour dough culture is no big deal. I've done it often. I'm a commercial artisan baker, but it didn't take any special skill from that. Good instructions are on the web (rec.food.sourdough FAQ for one). Your local writer should have persevered.<br /><br />@ Matt - Bell's Brewery (formerly Kalamazoo Brewing) has a fine modern lab in which they propagate their proprietary brewing yeast.<br /><br />I have "made" brewing yeast a couple of times and it fermented out comparably to commercial yeast, but it had a strong phenolic tang. This is typical of wild yeast. Most brewing yeasts have been selected not to have this. I wonder whether distillers "made" yeast had it.Jeff Rennernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-2186984294281649402011-02-08T16:41:13.785-06:002011-02-08T16:41:13.785-06:00Doctor Tarr,
Very, very few craft breweries mainta...Doctor Tarr,<br />Very, very few craft breweries maintain their "own" yeast strains, and if they do, they are strains that have been originally purchased from a commercial yeast manufacturer or propagated from an existing commercial beer. The only breweries that I am aware of that keep their own strains are New Glarus, Anchor and Sierra Nevada. I'm sure there are a hand full of other large breweries who do so as well, but a very small percentage. New Glarus is the only brewery that I have been to that has a lab capable of propagating yeast, and I have been to many, many breweries. <br />The brewery I used to work in did manage their yeast, however. They would buy a small amount from White Labs, grow a "starter" by adding that yeast to about one barrel of low gravity wort, then pitch the rest of the batch onto that yeast starter. They would then re-pitch that yeast several times before buying more yeast from White Labs. The fear of mutation prevented them from re-using the yeast indefinitely.Matt Langehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09326016959723768026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-27474685767443466502011-02-06T21:56:18.324-06:002011-02-06T21:56:18.324-06:00Heh, it's a neat idea. Yes, Darcy has a point ...Heh, it's a neat idea. Yes, Darcy has a point about consistency.<br /><br />Amusingly, a local writer recently tackled a sour dough recipe which called for starting from scratch.<br /><br />His try at collecting wild yeast and using it to make bread ended up a complete failure.<br /><br />Maybe he should have been making whiskey?erik.ellestadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02845962797641281899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-12521848821485403422011-02-06T19:38:25.781-06:002011-02-06T19:38:25.781-06:00I think Chuck is talking about craft distillers bu...I think Chuck is talking about craft distillers buying their yeast rather than maintaining their own strain.<br /><br />In contrast, I think many craft brewers maintain their own strains of yeast.Doctor Tarrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02722106527742038069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-21109892419104292512011-02-06T16:50:46.930-06:002011-02-06T16:50:46.930-06:00On Sour mash
There's a number of reasons why s...<b>On Sour mash</b><br />There's a number of reasons why small distilleries don't advertise using a sour mash even if they do. A major one is that they make a number of different grain whiskies and spirits and it's not practical (without large investment in chilling/refrigeration) to keep backset for long.<br /><br />The large KY/TN distilleries today produce in such large volumes that it's fine to toss the low wines from their sour mash whiskey just to have a sour marsh starter, assuming they don't have massive refrigeration to keep batches fresh. Since there's no legal definition of sour mash, you can take backset from any bourbon brand in the next bourbon brand.<br /><br />In the old days, a small distillery say having a still in the 50 to 150 gallon size produced most likely one product. And that was based on the locally available grains. So it was no problem to start the season with your sweet mash run with the backset going to start your sour mash. And that first sweet mash whiskey wasn't thrown out, it most likely went into the same barrels with the following sour mash whiskey.<br /><br /><b>On Yeast</b><br />Even if Beam Brands is using the same yeast Jim Beam captured long ago, it's most likely that it's been scientifically isolated and multiplied to ensure they have the very same yeast.<br /><br />But keeping a yeast culture going from batch to batch isn't much different whether you started with wild yeast or cultured yeast. Perhaps Chuck is referring to people simply hydrating dry yeast and pitching fresh all the time.<br /><br />I personally think there's quite a bit of different between the available commercial yeast strains. From the craft brewing world there are maybe a hundred (or more for all I know) ale yeasts available that will produce different flavor profiles. There's probably interesting wine and champagne yeasts as well that may work. <br /><br />This is an area that's not being explored very much. And for the small distillery with a column on top of the pot, maybe it wouldn't matter.<br /><br />But I do think that interesting yeast cultures will make more interesting whiskey, and I think that's more interesting than where the yeast came from.Cheryl - Delaware Phoenixhttp://www.delawarephoenix.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-19605923355301000592011-02-06T15:25:58.023-06:002011-02-06T15:25:58.023-06:00Speaking from a biology point of view, the only pr...Speaking from a biology point of view, the only problem micro-distillers might face is consistency. Since most of them are running on a shoe-string budget, and trying to produce a recognizable, consistent product, using wild yeast strains could strain the budget.Darcy O'Neilhttp://www.artofdrink.comnoreply@blogger.com