Wild yeast

So I brewed a winter spiced ale this week, on Monday, but my yeast starter for whatever reason didn't seem to work. There was no accumulation of yeast in the bottom and no change in SG. Didn't think it was a big deal, got a new pack at the store and remade the starter, but the wort was already in the fermenter so I sealed it and left it assuming it would be okay for a couple of day until my new batch of yeast was ready.

I came home late Thursday night and thought of the starter before I went to bed so I figured I would toss it in, looked at the bucket and there was already a full healthy looking krausen on top. My mind was pretty much blown, has anyone else had this happen? I pitched the starter anyway, figured I'd ride it out and see what kind of product it made, is it a 100% chance that it's ruined or is there a possibility of wild yeast (or something else) making a decent brew. I know people do open fermentations and so on that might involve this stuff but I don't think they usually start solely with something besides proper brewing yeast, but I really haven't looked into that so I don't know the details.

There is a reasonable chance it'll go sour, but there is also a good chance it'll come out different than expected, but ok. I have a wild yeast I deliberately used, and so far it smells pretty good.

Let us know in a couple months.

You probably have a combination of wild yeast and bacteria at work.

At this point I think you gotta ride it out! Make sure you report back to us. I've fermented unpasteurized cider wild before and it's turned out great. But that's using the yeast that lives on the apples, I dunno how your "house" yeast will compare... call it a Mount Pearl lambic?

Thanks for the input, I'll see how it goes. With any luck it will be drinkable, I kind of hope it isn't too good though, probably won't be able to reproduce it if it is. I'll post again when it's done

No doubt it'll be the greatest beer in the world. Since you will never be able to repeat it, name the next one: The Greatest Beer in the World... Tribute.

pelipen said:

No doubt it'll be the greatest beer in the world. Since you will never be able to repeat it, name the next one: The Greatest Beer in the World... Tribute.

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Nice Tenacious_D reference!

So after about 8 days the beer is at it's FG, had a small sample yesterday and it seems to taste fine, not as much flavour as I would have expected from a 9% ABV spiced ale, but it doesn't taste bad, I think that's the main thing right now.

Would any bad flavour caused by bacteria take a while to come out, or am I in the clear if it doesn't taste bad right away?

Might be the best beer you ever unitentionally made I would let it ride out and see what happens.

So, I bottled this beer last night and it seems to taste fine. Its a spiced beer, so maybe off flavours are more likely to be masked or maybe it is just fine. But while transferring I noticed some possible mold in the fermenter. It was little white patches on the sides of the fermenter above the highest point of the krausen. Thought I washed it out but found one last bit left to take a picture, hopefully someone knows what it is.

Does that look like mold? and if it is, should I stop using that fermenter for other beers or will it be okay if I scrub it really good and sanitize. I already had the siphon going when I noticed the mold so continued on with bottling, could it be a problem to use that for other batches as well? I'm not really sure if mold is a big deal (or even if it is mold) or its just bateria that can be bad.

On the chance it is mold spores, don't disturb it wile dry. Dampen area gently with a spray bottle, clean entire fermenter throughly with PBW, fill it to the top with your sanitizer for at least an hour. Since your fermenter is non porous, you should be good to go.

Looks like Brett residue/ Pelicle to me

Thanks guys. If it is brett will the same cleaning process work? I've heard people who intentionally use brett usually have separate equipment for it, and since I started bottling before I noticed the patches, the beer has now been in two of my buckets and through my siphon, so I'm hoping it can be cleaned instead of replacing it.

From what I understand, the level of micro organisms that are present in the day-to-day brewing process is something that cannot be totally eliminated. Brett is most likely always in your beer but our sanitation process kills enough of the cells so that the cell count of bacteria and wild yeasts is so low that off flavors cannot be detected in your beers. I say this because whether you dose your beer with wild bugs on purpose or not, the exist on your equipment. The trouble comes in when your plastic buckets get a bit too used/rough and there are more bugs living on them than usual. If it is a plastic bucket you are fermenting in, maybe you can try one more batch to test it out. I'd make it a low grav light beer to see if something funky is growing there. If so then use that for some real sour ferments! If it is clean let it ride. I had this happen in one of my better bottles recently so i racked it to fill up a few sours and it is soaking in oxy right now. I may use it again for clean brews, but i'll test it out first with a "cheap" batch first.

Thanks for the input. My next planned batch was going to be an ipa. Maybe I'll parti-gyle it and bump up the starter a bit so I'll practically get the lighter beer for free just to toss in as a test and ferment the main batch in one of my buckets that didn't come in contact with the funky one.