open fermentation in the backyard?

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davefleck

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First of all, never tried a sour yet... figured i'd put that on the table

what are the thoughts about brewing up a batch, pitching brewers yeast, racking to a secondary bucket covereing with cheese cloth and leting it sit in the back yard? Of course you'd want to do it when temps are favorable. Is this a good method of harvesting local bugs and yeasts?
 
You'd probably get better results from just putting it out there from the start. This is how spontaneously fermented beers are traditionally made.

However, what you end up with might not be too desirable. If I was going to try this, I would do so with a small batch (maybe 1 gallon) and see if it produced anything that you would want to actually drink.
 
If it were me, I'd just make up a bunch of pint or quart sized starters, and put them at a few different places around the yard/open windows in the house/etc (without brewers yeast). Let them roll with the wild bugs for a little while. Give them a taste, and try to take the "best" one and build it up from there. Maybe all will be awesome, maybe all will taste like vomit. I think I'd rather find that out before devoting a full 5 gallons or more...
 
Funny, I just tried this last night. I had some extra runnings that I didn't have room for. I tested gravity, and it was at 1.034. I didn't want to toss it, so I figured what the hell. I have 2 quarts sitting out on my front porch .... I figure its not loss, but it could be something cool.
 
Did you boil those runnings, or just take them straight from the mash? If straight from the mash, you may have a lot of bugs from the grain itself still in there. That's how a lot of folks do "sour mashes." If you boiled them, then you'd be starting fresh with bugs and wild yeast from your nearby "nature."
 
I had lots of bugs around for the last brewing. All yellow and black. It's sweets season for the yellow jackets. With my luck an elk would take a dump in it.
 
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