How to: Culture Bell’s house yeast from a bottle or can of Bell’s beer

We don’t offer our house yeast for sale. But since we don’t filter any of our ales either, you can harvest it directly from the bottle or can.

Any of our non-Belgian ales are good candidates for this. If you can get your hands on them, Oberon or Amber Ale are all good choices.

What you will need: 1-3 bottles of beer, a vessel, a flame source and the same ingredients required to build a yeast starter.

Refrigerate your bottle or can of beer for one week. Make sure you have a nice slurry on the bottom. Two to three bottles cans will yield better results.
Open bottle or can and sanitize the lip with a flame. NOTE: You may also want to spray sanitizer on and around the cap before opening.
Gently pour the beer into a glass, leaving the sediment (yeast) in the bottle or can.
Swirl the sediment/yeast in the bottle and re-flame the lip.
Pour sediment into a sanitized container.
Grow your yeast using a stepped starter – start with 75ML (about 1/3 of a cup) of wort, then let ferment for two to three days. Then add an additional 750ML of wort and let ferment an additional two to three days.