Wild Yeast Questions!

Yeast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From what i have read here about yeast ... Im confused please help.
Anyone have any other good reading on this subject?

-Is it possiable to Use wild yeast to make beer / wine / mead?

-Whats the difference from a wild yeast and a purchased yeast?

-Is not all yeast, wild - originally?

-Can I make good beer with wild yeast?

-Where can I find wild yeast? (please dont tell me air ... more specific)

-How can you tell from a good wild yeast from a bad?

-What power of microscope is needed to see a yeast cell?

If you're interested in this stuff, I highly recommend the book Wild Brews.

Yes, it's possible to make good beer with wild yeast. However, it's rather difficult Most of the Belgian breweries that produce consistent quality results rely more on the bacteria living within their walls and barrels than on whatever randomly happens to be floating around in the air. It's very unlikely (although of course possible) you would get good beer from whatever happens to live in your kitchen, for instance!

Also, if you open your beer up to the wild, you get a bunch of other microorganisms as well as yeast. Some of these can be desirable, others very much not so, and they all contribute different flavors. Wild brewers have some limited ability to control this through the composition of their wort, which affects what nutrients are available, and also their hopping rate, how much oxygenation they allow, storage times, etc. It's tremendously complex.

Even the expert Belgian wild brewers using established barrels can't produce 100% consistent results from one brew to the next. Instead, they blend the contents of many different barrels to even out the flavors and produce a more consistent end product.

Thanks for the help , got the book.

mmm... NJ Wild Beer... sounds toxic....