El_Exorcisto

Recipes 

Another, much easier way to capture wild yeast is to use un-pasteurized honey. I have a post detailing my first wild brew, using mostly yeast from some local honey from Newport, NY. Look for honey with some white foam growing on the surface. Best I can tell, the white foam is a miniature krausen.

dcHokie

Recipes 

Love this thread!

My results, using a few ounces of leftover wort from a recently brewed Old Ale. I wasn't sure what to expect using a high gravity starter, but after 3.5 days:


And after 6 days (and it smells great):

__________________

Fermenting: Sour Pale Ale, Brett Belgian Rye Stout, FunkPaleI, FunkPaleII
Aging: Brett English Brown, Funky Fig/Date Saison, Drunk Owl Mango, OudBruin, FunkyDirtyBlonde, Solera
Bottled/Kegged: Brett IPA, Apollo Red, Hobgoblin, Brett Old Ale, FlandersPale, Dark Saison, Orval, JP BamBiere, Rapture RIS, RIS09, Oak Barleywine, Basil Saison

ericd

Recipes 

Sweet! Is the stuff on top just bubbles or is it a pelli of some sort?

dcHokie

Recipes 

It's a layer just sitting there, looks sort of krausen-like, but no bubbles or 'movement' to speak of. It went from pic one to a full layer covering the glass in one day, and grew in thickness after that. Anyone had similar results?

__________________

Fermenting: Sour Pale Ale, Brett Belgian Rye Stout, FunkPaleI, FunkPaleII
Aging: Brett English Brown, Funky Fig/Date Saison, Drunk Owl Mango, OudBruin, FunkyDirtyBlonde, Solera
Bottled/Kegged: Brett IPA, Apollo Red, Hobgoblin, Brett Old Ale, FlandersPale, Dark Saison, Orval, JP BamBiere, Rapture RIS, RIS09, Oak Barleywine, Basil Saison

ftlstrings

Recipes 

I hope that you collected some of this yeast for beer making! Could make a great Green Chili Ale!

~M~

El_Exorcisto

Recipes 

It's krausen, it's the way all of our wild yeasts look as long as they arent on a plate.

ajnachakra

Recipes 

I want to attempt to gather some tasty yeasties in my area. I noticed that there are a number of fruits that tend to collect yeast on there outer surface (grapes, plums, etc.) does anyone know if these are good sources of beer yeast or if I should stick to the air capture method?


Thank you!
-AjnachakrA

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“Rhythm is the basis of life, not steady forward progress. The forces of creation, destruction, and preservation have a whirling, dynamic interaction.”

Bottled
Abbey Tripel
Samuel Adams Oatmeal Stout Clone
Graff
Punkleweiss (Pumpkin Dunkleweiss)
Choco-Stout

Primary
Double IPA

Future Brews
Grapefruit Heffe

El_Exorcisto

Recipes 

Culture the fruit, it is WAY more consistent than capturing from the air.

Beernip

Recipes 

Grapes are supposed to be an excellent place to get wild yeast.

WilliBChrist

Recipes 

Update: Sorry it's been so long since I posted here last, but my wild yeast mead turned out excellent (I didn't step up the yeast in the sample, and it took a year and a half to grow to proper mass and ferment the test batch)

It's not as strong as the champagne yeast that I normally use (seems to be the only fermenting yeast I seem to be able to find here in Calgary, AB) but it left the mead very sweet and aromatic. It cleared beautifully (Just as good as the champagne, which surprised me)

I don't usually take gravity readings (Sorry!) but my vinometer says it's coming out at about 7 1/2% - 10% alcohol (I don't know how reliable vinometers are, but it sure doesn't taste at the normal 15% that it usually does). It oddly enough, tastes like a spring day in Calgary...

I have to say, getting weather stable enough here in Calgary for two weeks was more of a challenge then actually capturing the yeast itself. I lost a few initial attempts due to the weather suddenly getting too warm and it sprouting mold. As it was, the initial sample went to mold, but not before I extracted 10ml of yeast floating in the bottom of the capture jar with a syringe my wife stole from work for me.(I <3 my wife). Risky, I know, but the test batch (.75 gallon - a weird size I know, but I had to work with the carboys I could find) turned out fantastic.

I have since used the yeast from the test batch, swirled it around in the bottom of the little carboy, and added it to a new 3 gallon batch that I started for this purpose.

It's been four days since I started it, and I've noticed that it's forming krausen on the top of the batch. I've never seen krausen before, and it scared me because I thought it was forming mold. But research shows that it's alive and well, and it will subside as the batch ferments.

It's not producing any noticeable CO2 that I've seen (i.e. the bubbler isn't bubbling, but it's pressurized like it wants to) which, considering my inital batches were with bread yeast, and later with champagne yeast, is a little unnerving. But the fact that every morning, something new has happened in the carboy tells me that it's doing something. Good or bad, well I'll have to wait and see...

Thanks again for starting this awesome thread. It's took my mead making in an entirely new and exciting direction.