Wild Yeast Capture Attempt 1

I started an attempt at capturing wild yeast last night. I think there is a low probability of success but we shall see.

I am basing my notion on how to do it on how you would inoculate a batch with wild yeast in the old farmhouse ale tradition... just on a MUCH smaller scale. I figure if the wort ferments I will try and isolate some strains and see if anything makes tasty beer. That is of course if I managed to get anything that will ferment wort.

more notes and pictures to come.

Stand back I'm doing science! excited.. and anticipating massive failure..

Subscribed and interested in hearing results. That said it's probably best you are anticipating massive failure for a project like this. Can only go up from there.

The first 2 are from last night, the next 2 are from this morning.

This thread is worth reading

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/

I did this last year. Just took some wort from the mash and poured it into shallow containers. Waited 24 hours (give or take). I found what appeared to be a worm growing in it. Though when I touched the growth it broke up. I asked the owner of my local homebrew store, and was told "not sure, good luck with it".
I made up a new starter and tried to pour the just the growth in it as best I could. The results were amazing. Caught some seriously ravenous yeast. Ended up using it to make up a " colonial" beer. It turned out really good. May use the same yeast this year to make a pale ale just for a comparison. Keep us posted, I would like to here how you make out. Good luck.
Cheers
Kev

thanks.. so far nothing new to report... not that I expect anything this soon. I figure I'm looking at at least a week before things grow enough to do something. I am going to try and avoid worrying about it until Sunday when it will have been sitting for a week. hmmm.. I probably should have taken a gravity reading when I started. fail! I think I'll take one tonight with a refractometer... and pretend that is start (which it probably is) and then I can measure in a week and see if there is any change.

Try changing the location of your "traps". When I did it I put out three containers each in a different area of my yard. The one that did the best was in an area that had the most air flow across it. Good luck
Cheers,
Kev

Keep the reports coming. I have been wanting to do this as well. I live in the mountains and have always wondered if we have great airborne yeast to use in brewing.

I took a measurement via refractometer and it was at 1.0375 last night. Probably not any real sugar eaten yet so I am assuming that is my starting value. When I pulled the small sample a little white slimy substance came with it so there is SOMETHING growing in it. I will wait another week before taking another sample and see if there has been any attenuation by then. I am feeling hopeful at this point.. well.. not that hopeful.. but at least there is indication that something is alive in there.

theonetrueruss said:

I took a measurement via refractometer and it was at 1.0375 last night. Probably not any real sugar eaten yet so I am assuming that is my starting value. When I pulled the small sample a little white slimy substance came with it so there is SOMETHING growing in it. I will wait another week before taking another sample and see if there has been any attenuation by then. I am feeling hopeful at this point.. well.. not that hopeful.. but at least there is indication that something is alive in there.

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Just remember, refractometers need correcting if there is any alcohol present in the beer... you likely have something.

Whereabouts do you live?

Subbing

Just noticed the airlock in the pics. You need oxygen to get in there for yeast growth to occur don't you? Tin foil or foam stoppers for starters, airlocks for beer making. And the tin foil has the added benefit of stopping aliens from controlling your yeasty beasties from afar. Nothing worse than alien controlled yeast. Don't ask me how I know.

Good point.. I normally use foil for starters... I was thinking the length of time it would be in there would make an airlock better.. I think I will switch to foil tonight. Do toy think I should put it on a stir plate?

Ok, today there was a very small amount of bubbles on top of the wort. I put a sanitized stir bar in, switched to foil and put it on my stir plate.

When will you step it up? I hope you captured something good!

My plan is to plate from whatever is in there and try to isolate a few colonies and then step up and make something from there. I want to make sure I slant and keep whatever strain I am working with so I can keep the strain going. I got dreams here. I made a few blank plates last night. I figure on letting it grow another week then do the plating. (I wanted to have the plates ready well ahead of time so that I would know if I screwed that part up and got them contaminated before then. First time plating as well.

I also just gave it a smell and there was definitely the smell of CO2. Kinda had a farmhouse ale smell to it. Of course I just bought some farmhouse ale so I could be imagining that part. lol but the CO2 for sure.

TANSTAAFB said:

Whereabouts do you live?

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I am in GA, northwest of ATL

theonetrueruss said:

I am in GA, northwest of ATL

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It will be interesting to see what you come up with in that neck of the woods. Are you rural or urban? I plan to do something like this here in VERY rural Colorado. Keep us posted!

[ame]http://youtu.be/L3sijnoW5HU[/ame]

Check out this video from Brewing TV. Jeremy in the video works at Northern Brewer here in Milwaukee. He successfully isolated a native Wisconsin yeast for Lakefront Brewery to use.

aryoung1980 said:

http://youtu.be/L3sijnoW5HU

Check out this video from Brewing TV. Jeremy in the video works at Northern Brewer here in Milwaukee. He successfully isolated a native Wisconsin yeast for Lakefront Brewery to use.

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that was one of the many tings that made me want to pursue this.. wish they would make more episodes

TANSTAAFB said:

It will be interesting to see what you come up with in that neck of the woods. Are you rural or urban? I plan to do something like this here in VERY rural Colorado. Keep us posted!

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I live in the burbs... so it was rural but now not so much though still far from any real downtown. Right now my hopes are high since it looks like I have some fermentation happening. I expect to have some yeast... the real question will be what kind of beer will it make well.. if any?

You should definitely give it a try in CO... i am having a blast just seeing what happens.

Slant up some of what you get and if mine is worth a damn we can talk about trading some yeast.

theonetrueruss said:

wish they would make more episodes

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I think Chip from BTV is still making episodes under a new name on YouTube now. I still haven't found it though. I saw a post by him somewhere on HBT but I forgot where. If I find the new videos I'll post a link here for you.

aryoung1980 said:

I think Chip from BTV is still making episodes under a new name on YouTube now. I still haven't found it though. I saw a post by him somewhere on HBT but I forgot where. If I find the new videos I'll post a link here for you.

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That would be great. I may even be able to meet the guy in person

aryoung1980 said:

I think Chip from BTV is still making episodes under a new name on YouTube now. I still haven't found it though. I saw a post by him somewhere on HBT but I forgot where. If I find the new videos I'll post a link here for you.

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Chop & Brew!!!!!!

theonetrueruss said:

I live in the burbs... so it was rural but now not so much though still far from any real downtown. Right now my hopes are high since it looks like I have some fermentation happening. I expect to have some yeast... the real question will be what kind of beer will it make well.. if any?

You should definitely give it a try in CO... i am having a blast just seeing what happens.

Slant up some of what you get and if mine is worth a damn we can talk about trading some yeast.

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Might be a while before I jump into capturing & slanting, but hell yes I'll swap yeast with you...wait...that didn't sound right...

TANSTAAFB said:

Chop & Brew!!!!!!

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Thanks!

Im thinking of trying this now. Wonder if it would work well in a saison?

Things are slow going. I measured again and the change in gravity was barely perceptible. I just added a pinch of yeast energizer to see if that helps it along. I am worried that whatever yeast I have is very weak and may not be suitable for the intended purpose.

Not giving up on this attempt yet though. Another week before I know.

And of course if this isn't a success... I'll be on to attempt #2! Never giving up.. I know this can work.

Thought I'd join you in this. My son (8) and I set up the experiment, we made some 1.030 wort, let it sit out from 5:30-9:00 in the back yard, transferred to a 1gal jug and air locked it. Within a day we had noticeable sediment, it still had a sweet smell, day 2 had a noticeable funk and rotten smell, day 3 the same, day 4 the funk stayed and the rotten smell had gone away. It had the smell of a good Belgium brew. We went to Hobby Lobby and they have a petridish set of 2 and agar for 2.99. went home and made a 1/2 and 1/2 agar wort mix, boiled and set to cool. sterilized the counter and equipment and used a paperclip for the yeast loop. We inoculated the two dishes and are waiting to see what we grow. We live in a neighborhood, however we are surrounded by quite a few open fields, and being in OK its always windy and fairly flat. Assuming we can harvest a good colony, we'll set up a starter on the stir plate (tornado maker we built a few weekends ago) and go from there. I'm thinking of using a Belgium blond recipe, assuming the yeast has a good funk to it.

cool

Today I am feeling hopeful... it is smelling good today and there are either yeast rafts on top or mold... I think yeast rafts. Can't get a pic that is good enough to tell the difference. Excited and hopeful.

so here is an image of what it looks like now... I think that looks an awful lot like fermentation.

Measured gravity.. It is at 1.021, down from 1.0375.

must be some yeast in there

Subscribed also!!

You caught sumpin'!

This sounds like a fun experiment, might have to give it a try.

planning to streak my plates Sunday. Hopefully some colonies grow and then after that... I'll slant some of the colonies... then spread to some other slants... and grow some up and make small 1 G batches with the different colonies and see what comes of it.... another couple months and I might have some yeast of my very own! excited... raising chance of success from 1% to 5% in my mind.

Great thread. I will be following. Yeast fascinates me. Thanks for the post theonetrueruss.

We plated our new friends and have growth. It is all yeast as far as I can tell. No fuzzy stuff anywhere. All small circular white to off-white. However, after a week the growths are all only the size of a pin head or flax seed. I'm not sure how large they as suppose to be so I'm going to let them go for a while longer, I don't see any problem with doing that.

reed1911 said:

We plated our new friends and have growth. It is all yeast as far as I can tell. No fuzzy stuff anywhere. All small circular white to off-white. However, after a week the growths are all only the size of a pin head or flax seed. I'm not sure how large they as suppose to be so I'm going to let them go for a while longer, I don't see any problem with doing that.

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Reed. Where in OK are you? I'm in Logan county, between Edmond and Guthrie. We're in a relatively rural area. I have a wild plum tree in my yard that each fall I swear I am going to try to culture yeast from.