Spontaneous Fermentation First Attempt

After reading through wild brews several times, studying the madfermentationists blog, and getting inspiration from others on this site who have tried a 100% spontaneous fermentation I went for it. I brewed a basic lambic recipe on 10/13/2013 let is sit with the lid cracked over night and today there's a pretty substantial krausen on it.

The first pic is where I had it sitting exposed over night. The next 3 are a timeline of it's krausen through today (pics were taken at 7am, 9am, and 9pm)

nice - congrats!

do let us know how the final product tastes.

Does anyone have any experience with spontaneous fermentation? Any tips or words of wisdom as to what's in the beers future?

my understanding is that it's a crap shoot: you might get something awesome or you might get something awful. all depends on what critters got in there.

That has been my experience. I decided to make a starter, and based on the starter whether to ramp it up or not. I'd hate to waste 5 gal when I can only waste a liter.

sweetcell said:

my understanding is that it's a crap shoot: you might get something awesome or you might get something awful. all depends on what critters got in there.

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yeah that seems to be the consensus. I heard a lot of people say that it can often be a pretty clean fermentation. I'll wait a few weeks and pull a sample to see what kind of a start it's off to. It filled up all the headspace in the carboy and blew off a little through the airlock. It has since dropped down and I can't see any visible activity.

How does the offgas smell?

it's just kind of a bready/yeasty smell. it smells pretty clean. I'm not sure at what point i should be smelling sour and funk

Let it ride. It may or may not have any funk, but provided it has that good beer brewing smell and no rotting garbage smell it will be drinkable. The nice thing is no matter what strain of good yeast grows it will be in 'style'

I've had some success gathering ambient yeast. Best advice is to wait until air outside feels, tastes, smells "sweet". I know it sounds kind of zen, but we all know not to harvest ambient yeast in summer for all the crap that's living in the air and inversely not the in the dead of winter because there is nothing living in te air. So there is a sweet spot between summer and winter and another between winter and summer. Basically what I do is brew a lot of beer during these times and set my BIAB grain bags outside overnight. there is always about 300-400ml that will continue to drip through the bags into a bowl just by waiting. The next day I put it into a starter flask and it always takes off. This is unhooked and unboiled but when it ferments it is enough of a sample to know if he yeast is "good" or not. When it is good I step it up to 2 gallons and then to 5. If it sucks then I dump it. Let your senses be your guide I say. I've gotten pretty good at sensing when a good tasting ponta nous fermentation will occur. For example in South Jersey where I live it is too early to attempt. Air still seems to have too much crap in it...

Best if luck!

I've had some success gathering ambient yeast. Best advice is to wait until air outside feels, tastes, smells "sweet". I know it sounds kind of zen, but we all know not to harvest ambient yeast in summer for all the crap that's living in the air and inversely not the in the dead of winter because there is nothing living in te air. So there is a sweet spot between summer and winter and another between winter and summer. Basically what I do is brew a lot of beer during these times and set my BIAB grain bags outside overnight. there is always about 300-400ml that will continue to drip through the bags into a bowl just by waiting. The next day I put it into a starter flask and it always takes off. This is unhooked and unboiled but when it ferments it is enough of a sample to know if he yeast is "good" or not. When it is good I step it up to 2 gallons and then to 5. If it sucks then I dump it. Let your senses be your guide I say. I've gotten pretty good at sensing when a good tasting fermentation will occur. For example in South Jersey where I live it is too early to attempt. Air still seems to have too much crap in it...

Best if luck!

jesran said:

I've had some success gathering ambient yeast. Best advice is to wait until air outside feels, tastes, smells "sweet". I know it sounds kind of zen, but we all know not to harvest ambient yeast in summer for all the crap that's living in the air and inversely not the in the dead of winter because there is nothing living in te air. So there is a sweet spot between summer and winter and another between winter and summer. Basically what I do is brew a lot of beer during these times and set my BIAB grain bags outside overnight. there is always about 300-400ml that will continue to drip through the bags into a bowl just by waiting. The next day I put it into a starter flask and it always takes off. This is unhooked and unboiled but when it ferments it is enough of a sample to know if he yeast is "good" or not. When it is good I step it up to 2 gallons and then to 5. If it sucks then I dump it. Let your senses be your guide I say. I've gotten pretty good at sensing when a good tasting fermentation will occur. For example in South Jersey where I live it is too early to attempt. Air still seems to have too much crap in it...

Best if luck!

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I like the zen idea. I tried to go by the books in terms of watching the average temp and make sure it was away from the city and around things that might have some good bugs on them. it'll be a fun experiemnt. How have your attempts turned out? Were they clean or did you get some sourness? If sour could you see a lacto pellicle or pedio ropes while it was fermenting?

My attempts have turned out fantastic by and large. I have 5 gallons of Peach Lambic aging right now that if it tastes like the pilot batch is Cantillion-like. The Peach Lambic pilot batch was slightly sour, creamy texture, other wordly aromatic and dry as a bone. The perfect foodie beer. My sister said it tastes "expensive". Funny because in reality harvesting your yeast, using minimal hops and the simplest if grain bills (100% pilsner) is just about the cheapest thing you ok'd whip up. I did put about 10 lbs of Jersey peaches at $1.50/lb in too, but I've had just the straight Lambic and it was pretty good too. Some starter I chuck like I said and sometimes it's because there's bandaid smell/taste. I've been told this was an oxygenation issue, but not sure. Generally all ambient harvest come out pretty good, but again never in dead of winter or summer. Never when pouring rain outside either come to think of it. Just be sensible. Wait until the air smells crisp, clean and sweet (think November and April) and go or it.

I have a porterish brew fermenting now with wild yeast that I caught in the woods this spring. I let the starter go and go and go and it developed nice fruity and tart character over a few months so I stepped it up and then I infected my wort. I'm looking forward to the final product. Good luck!

just got back from a weekend away and looks like i've got a pellicle starting to form. It looks like it's doing all the things i want it to, so far atleast

The lambic has continued to show some very slow airlock activity the past few weeks. Today when i came home from work I saw this It's going crazy! I'm not sure if the yeast had stalled out and is now just taking off again or if this is another strain taking taking over. I'm fascinated by this so if anyone has any info or thoughts please share them.

I pulled a sample of this last night it's down to 1.015 from 1.052. some sourness in the nose with a little bit of hay. tasted like cereal, hay, and maybe some light citrus fruit. hoping it continues to ferment down.