Anyone tried using Fossil Fuel's "45 Million year old" yeast?

[cegan09]

A little while back I had grabbed a bottle of the saison that Fossil Fuels Brewing made with the yeast pulled from a chunk of amber. At least that's the story according to them. I've not seen much activity from them in the last year or two.

I did propagate up the dregs in that bottle as I thought it might be fun to try it out. At the time I contacted them for some more info on the yeast and they were very forthcoming. Their advice was that the yeast basically goes to sleep below 68F, so you need to keep it warm, ideally in the 70s. It also wants a lot of oxygen when getting going. They claim it will ferment fast and vigorously. Primary takes around 7 days, but if you leave it on the cake long enough it can reach 100% attenuation. It's also very flocculant and tends to clump up as it's finishing up. The starter I have going looks like a snow globe after it's fermented through with the large clumps of yeast whipping around.

I'm finally building up a large starter to use this week. I have no idea what to expect in terms of flavor from it. It's been too long since I drank the actual beer it's from. I'm going to try it in a dark saison. Not the cleanest beer for learning a yeast's profile, but it's what I want to make and it will be fun to try.

I'm mostly curious if anyone else has played with it and had thoughts about what it's well suited to?

 

[hottpeper13]

A dark Saison sounds tastey, but I might brew an AMBER with it.

 

[cegan09]

I see what you did there...

maybe next. Ambers aren't my favorite style to be honest.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I need to get out more... I haven't heard of this beer/ nor yeast. Anyway, fast and warm for a saison sounds interesting. Keep us posted.

 

[cegan09]

They aren't kidding about it being fast and vigorous. I put the 1L starter in the fridge Monday night to decant it. Last night around 7:30pm I poured the 250mL remaining into a 2L starter and left it going on the stir plate. This morning at 6:30 there was minimal krausen but evidence of it having been right up to the top of my 3L flask overnight. I'll probably cold crash, decant, and feed one more time before pitching sunday night. I had a small volume of yeast and it had been sitting around for a long time before this so I want to make sure it's fully built up and ready.

 

[Smellyglove]

45 million years old yeast? Good thing you made a starter. Sorry couldn't help it

 

[cegan09]

One other note. I'm trying desperately to dig back and figure out what yeast I used when I made the single batch of mead I've ever done. Because the smell coming from the starter is dead on the same as what's in that mead. I can't place exactly what it is, and it's not unpleasant, but it's very much the same.

It was a norther brewer kit, but it looks like they no longer give you yeast options like they did when I bought it, and the instructions don't seem to say what they sell it with now... I'll see if I can find it.

 

[corax]

Interesting.

Google Maps says the brewery producing it for them (Schubros Brewery in San Ramon, CA) is permanently closed, but the Saison is still available at a few BevMo locations.

 

[cegan09]

Brewed yesterday and pitched around 6 last night. Looking at the brewPi graph it seems to have taken off between 2 and 3am since that's when it started driving the fridge temp down to keep beer temp at the set point. This morning there was a healthy Krausen going, and it looks a bit like a snow globe now with big clumps of yeast moving around. Lots of it falling from the top and then a lot of activity at the bottom as it swirls around. can't tell if it's climbing in the center or not. Not quite as explosive as the starter, but I am using temp control and started it at 70F. Ramping it to 74 over the week. When I reached out about this yeast they did say it would start by behaving like a top fermenting yeast, then fall and act like a bottom fermenting yeast.

Airlock activity is not constant. It will go from a bubble every second or two, to a steady stream rush for 10 seconds or so. Never seen that before, but i've never paid that much attention.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Would I be crazy to wonder whether they tested to make sure it doesn't produce some sort of toxin/carcinogen/allergen (other than ethanol)?

Anyway, seems really cool. Keep us updated!

 

[cegan09]

Would I be crazy to wonder whether they tested to make sure it doesn't produce some sort of toxin/carcinogen/allergen (other than ethanol)?

Anyway, seems really cool. Keep us updated!

They sold commercially available beer made with this yeast, so I'm fairly sure they were confident in it's safety.

This wired article goes into the history of the scientist that extracted the yeast in the 90's. He wasn't looking for brewers yeast, instead he was trying to find ancient microorganisms that might have medical uses such as new antibiotics. It's a cool story.
https://www.wired.com/2009/07/ff-primordial-yeast/

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I was at a beer and bird event over the weekend, and started talking with a brewer about a particular style that was traditionally made with 100% wheat. The powers that be looked at the recipe he submitted and said he couldn't call it beer with out some barley. So that's one of the hoops a micro nano craft brewery must pass through to have distribution. So yeah, the yeast should be safe. It's not from another planet... Probably not.

 

[cegan09]

Update, this yeast sure is a efficient. 3 days since pitch, down to 1.01. Krausen is gone, most of the yeast has fallen to the bottom. it's still pushing a bubble every couple seconds. I pulled a sample just to see where it had gotten to. That reading was with a lot of CO2 still in suspension, letting it sit a little and i'll try it again. The smell is nice, light roast and chocolate layered over some brighter smells. I'm not great with picking out individual smells, but I'm excited by this one.

 

[cegan09]

Kegged the beer today. FG reading was 1.004, around 93% attenuation. I bet if I had let it sit longer it would have kept going, but it was dry enough already for me, and with the behavior of the yeast, it had already dropped out nicely clear. The yeast did cling to the fermenter walls though, stronger than any other yeast i've used. It's a hugely floccuant yeast, and it clumps up sticking together when it falls. I think this is related to it's wall sticking powers. The film looked like yeast that was falling and just was near the sides of the fermentor. Should be fun to clean up.

The beer itself is nice. I'll get a better description once it's carbed up and has sat cold for a week. There's a bit of a drying chalkiness at the very end, but I'm not sure if that's yeast related or water related. Store was out of distilled so I used poland springs and kind of winged it on salt additions.