Good Places to Harvest Ambient Microbes Tampa Bay?

I just moved to St. Petersburg and am interested in doing some experiments with spontaneous fermentation. Does anyone have any good recommendations for orchards or fruit groves in the Tampa Bay area that might let a person leave an open jar of unfermented wort for a few days? I'd do it in my back yard, but I figured with all the fruit production in the area, there must be some better spots.

I'm also looking to meet likeminded brewers in the area. Thanks in advance!

I live just north of St Pete/Tampa, so I'm subbed.

bumping this thread...nobody?

What a coincidence! I live in St Pete and just decided to play around with local yeasts last weekend. I'm not aware of any particularly good spots to do this, but file me under "likeminded."

FWIW, I got the idea from a guy who also lives in St Pete who accidentally left some leftover wort outside for a few days and found it fermenting, with a pellicle formed on top. He said he just left it for a while after that. He's not a sour beer fan, but he said the finished product tasted sour and not disgusting, so that's something. He might blend it with another base beer, but I told him to hold a sample for me before he does anything!

Francis, the owner at Booth's Brewing Sullies in Brandon has successfully captured some local wild yeast and made a nice saisson with it.

thanks, y'all. great to hear there are some folks out there with a similar mindset.

justin, did you put out jars of wort in your backyard? i've got a friend in south st. pete who has a lot of fruit trees and doesn't go crazy with the pesticides, so i think i'll set some jars out there this weekend. would love to compare the various things we've been able to collect! perhaps we could brew a few gallons for some test batches...

The podcast on basic brewing radio with Jean Van Roy from Cantillon should provide some insight.

I think more important than location would be time for you.
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USFL0438

Looks like January is your lowest average lows. If you had a forecast saying it was going to be a particularly cold night one of those weeks in January, I'd shoot for that. From what I've ready, you are looking for bacterial counts to drop. Not that you can't get lucky some other time of the year, but you will have the best chance of a successful culture if harvested on a cold night.

fivepoundpossum said:

thanks, y'all. great to hear there are some folks out there with a similar mindset.

justin, did you put out jars of wort in your backyard? i've got a friend in south st. pete who has a lot of fruit trees and doesn't go crazy with the pesticides, so i think i'll set some jars out there this weekend. would love to compare the various things we've been able to collect! perhaps we could brew a few gallons for some test batches...

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I'm actually going to make some wort today to try and harvest some yeast in my backyard. I have a lot of banana trees, so who knows what will happen?

JustinG said:

I'm actually going to make some wort today to try and harvest some yeast in my backyard. I have a lot of banana trees, so who knows what will happen?

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Any luck with this?......curious....have some friends with an assortment of tropical fruits in their backyard

I've harvested yeast off juniper berries in my yard here. I have fruit trees, but I did not attempt to get anything from them. The juniper berries conveniently fit into my flask and onto my stir plate. Most of my experience is in this incredible thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/can-i-culture-yeast-juniper-berries-169156/

after some further research, it seems that temperature is the most important factor here. must wait until january for the temps to drop as much as low as they will go. this, as levifunk suggested above, will increase the ratio of wild yeast to bacteria. (you want more yeast). stay tuned!

passedpawn, how did the juniper yeast experiment work out? what kind of beer did you use it in? very cool.

fivepoundpossum said:

passedpawn, how did the juniper yeast experiment work out? what kind of beer did you use it in? very cool.

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Mediocre. Jump into that thread at the link below, where I started to document my experience. The beer I made fermented fine, but with odd flavors. It didn't help that it was a very small beer with no place for odd flavors to hide, but that was my intent.

Harvesting wild yeast is a crap shoot at best, so don't be dismayed if it doesn't work out.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/can-i-culture-yeast-juniper-berries-169156/index3.html#post2221081

kempshark said:

Any luck with this?......curious....have some friends with an assortment of tropical fruits in their backyard

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I ended up talking with a couple very knowledgable folks who suggested I wait until the weather cools down. Fivepoundpossum pretty much summed up the conclusion I came to in his post. When it gets cool out, I'm definitely going to be playing around with this!