First Wild Brew

Not a Lambic or Flanders, but about as wild a brew as it gets. I read the wild yeast thread cover to cover twice, but something just didn't seem right. For over five centuries the farmers of Wollonia have been brewing their Saisons with the yeast available to them, and I am fairly certain that agar plates weren't available, nor would they sacrifice a pint of their hard-won wort to get what was flying around in the air... Then it hit me, HONEY.

Honey is everything the agar plate is, without all the scientific method. It is somewhat immune to a lot of bacteria, almost all molds, but harbors yeast quite well. If you don't believe me, check out the white fog around the edges of the jar... It's a krausen.

So I took a little bit of my last batch of stout wort, added some honey, and airlocked it in a bottle. Beside it on the counter sat a mixture of a different honey, water, raisins, and some apple peel, also airlocked. After three days they are both actively fermenting and both smell and taste just barely alcoholic. The stout tester tastes vaguely of prunes, which is very new to me. So tonight I fired up the brewpot, and am doing two gallons in my old MR. BEER. Two pounds of Malteurop two-row, a lb of Briess wheat malt, and another quarter pound of the more prolific honey from the stout starter. I'll hop with some cascades, lightly of course. The two starters are sitting in the fermentor, along with the honey, waiting for dinner to be served.

I'm mashing right now, and will have the OG later on tonight. Once I see some activity I'll have some pics to post. Hopefully it turns out into something worth drinking, maybe even doing again.

Subscribed! I'm very curious of your results.

I'm glued to this thread.

I dumped my wort in at 80 degrees, will most likely ferment out at 62, that seems to be what my other batches do in my basement. OG was 1.047, temp corrected. The honey that seems to be the most yeasty comes from a local apiary in Newport, NY. That had a krausen formed on my stout starter in about 12 hrs. There was about 1/4 tsp of honey in about 6 oz of wort. I'm really, really anxious to see what kicks loose from this. Oh, I added another little box of raisins... I'm not exactly sure why, but I also couldn't come up with a good reason as to "why not?" So this will be a one-trick pony, since It will be utterly impossible to replicate everything I did, and I have a minimum of a dozen different strains of yeast munching away. I might save some yeast cake and bring it to Utica College and see if a bio major feels like streaking and isolating the strains involved.

passedpawn said:

I'm glued to this thread.

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ditto.. sounds sweet.

thanks for sharing your little science project with us

Woke up this morning to see a krausen already cooking away... Very exciting times.

I have been wondering about doing something like this for awhile. Interested to see how it turns out.

I don't believe honey was used as a yeast source for any Belgian beers. As much as I know they were all spontaneously fermented.

I believe honey typically contains schizosaccharomyces, which reproduces by fission rather than budding, like saccaromyces does. However, you might be getting some sacc. from the raisins. I hope it turns out well for you. I have a wild beer in the bottle from some yeast I captured in wort from a peach. I'll be cracking them open next weekend to see how it is.

It's tasting a little like how burning car tires smell... Along with some fruitiness too. I took a tsp from the spigot, an yep, tastes just how it smells. Hopefully it works through it's this. It's only day one, but I'm really anxious.

Oh, and even if it is a schizosacch, it'll munch down on sugars just like sacch. I'm sure, since you know about schizo you know it was originally isolated from millet beers of West Africa. How the yeast reproduces is of little consequence to me. All the things it accomplishes as it grows and reproduces do however intrigue me.

Holy KRAUSEN Batman!!! It looks a little more than 1/4" thick, and VERY dense. The burnt rubber flavor is already starting to subside, hopefully it will be all gone once it finishes out fermentation.



I took a gravity and it's already down to 1.034. Then of course I took a couple big gulps, and it tastes oh so slightly clovey, a little pruney, with a lot of citrus flavor. I only FWHed and boiled for 20 minutes with a quarter ounce each addition, so it is going to be low on the bitter and moderate on the citrus. I moved it upstairs after taking a temp of 59* in my basement.

That's a lot like how my wild yeast fermented.

Two days in and it's down to 1.020 and still quite sweet. The burning tires is gone, replaced fully with citrus and a little clove. There is something else there, but I can't quite put a finger on it. I think a day in the warmer temps gave it enough CO2 production to blow off a little more sulphur than it could fermenting at 59*. So excited to see what it turns out like.

So if the obvious plan is to reuse the yeast, should I top crop or reuse the cake? How low should I let the gravity drop before I crop off the top if that's how I go about it?

It's down to 1.010 and the krausen is falling. It tastes a bit tart, but very, very yeasty. Hopefully it flocs decently and that disappears a bit.

It's cleared up a bit, but still looks like a witbier. The overbearing yeast flavor is all gone, and it really tastes wonderful, like the proverbial "sunshine in a glass." It's light, dry and citrusy. I'll let it sit another couple days to clean up and bottle it. I think the yeast cake is going to be harvested and a one pint starter of it is going to go into a 3 gallon batch of my first saison.

It held at 1.08 for two days after it flocced, so I bottled it tonight. I primed it to 2.5 atmospheres, and now I cross my fingers. The tastings I have had since it started clearing have been very promising, I have very high hopes for it once it conditions up. I'm hoping it will be ready for the family Christmas Eve party.

el_exorcisto said:

it held at 1.08 for two days after it flocced, so i bottled it tonight. I primed it to 2.5 atmospheres, and now i cross my fingers. The tastings i have had since it started clearing have been very promising, i have very high hopes for it once it conditions up. I'm hoping it will be ready for the family christmas eve party.

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1.008

Ah yes, 1.008... It would be some truly WILD yeast that can synthesize sugars from the atmosphere.

Did the yeast floc out enough? Did the family like it at the party? I'm on the edge of my seat here...

Great experiment!

Great experiment might have to try something like this, We have a ton of apple orchards here in Wisconsin and after reading this and seeing Sam take wild yeast cultures from Egypt, this might be in the works.

Also, you probably did pick up some yeast from the raisins. We buy 2.5 tons of grapes every year to make wine and we never pitch yeast, we simply crush and let the natural yeast do the work. The wine turns out great every year.

Cheers!

All I am willing to say, is that I have seven bottles sitting in my basement...

Nah, can't do it... It came out freaking amazing. It attenuated like nuts, left a very nice citrusy ester profile that the cascades really augmented. The head is gorgeous, laces beautifully, and is hands down the nicest beer in the stable right now. Too bad it isn;t summer, or it would _really_ be a winner. All this from the microscopic amount of yeast colonies in the 1/4 lb of honey I added. I'm glad I did it when I did though, because I couldn't get the honey to culture out on a slant. Luckily I slanted some from bottle dregs, and have that working on an APA right now.I think I have a house yeast to play with that really gives neat results.





It's actually quite a bit lighter than the picture shows, the incandescent light is screwing with the color balance.

wow... i definitely need to try something like this! nice job

I am going to do this. Thanks dude!

Make a starter off the honey to make sure it fires up. Apparently I caught it on the edge, two weeks later the honey won't culture on a plate, so it's dead now. If you have access to a local beekeeper, get the freshest honey he has, preferably unfiltered if possible. I'm sure it will increase your chances.