Wild yeast caught, now what...

After reading several posts and discussions on the topic I finally decided to catch my own wild yeast. I live in port st lucie, fl. I made a 1.040 small starter and highly hopped it to inhibit any bacteria. I placed it in the neighbors fruit garden with mango, papaya, citrus, etc. I left it over night covered with cheese cloth and then brought it in the house fitted it with an airlock, and after a few days I had a ton of bubbles and had a high kreusen fermentation. I prepared a three litre starter of the same gravity and poured 1/2c cup of the caught, fermenting, wild yeast through a very, very, tight hops bag into the new stater. I did this to strain out hops particles etc. etc. I placed the new stater on a stir plate and let it get to high kreusen then I put that in fridge at 60 deg F. Two weeks later and I know have an inch of yeast slurry at the bottom, no bad smells and a general finished beer taste. I would like to use the caught yeast in a full batch of beer but don't know what style to try. Also I really don't know anything about my yeast. Any ideas how to find this info out.

I usually hear people using wild yeast for Belgian Lambics but I'm not sure someone could answer better.

I was thinking of contacting White labs and seeing if they could help. I was originally thinking lambic, but the flavors seem fairly clean and neutral so now im curious if it would go well in an IPA or even something else

Just use a standard, very basic, APA recipe and let the yeast be the star. See what you end up with from that.

I like the idea about the APA, I'm also thinking of stirring the main yeast, stealing 2 vials, and retaining the rest for future use. Can anyone give advice on storage considerations

If it tastes like beer, it is likely that you had some residual domesticated beer yeast in one of your vessels. Wild yeast is very sour/acidic/tart, especially in the first few generations since the contamination levels are so high.

One test I have heard of to confirm wild yeast is to heat the sample to 53*C for 5-10 minutes (like in a water bath on the stove) and then to step it up with some new malt sugars. If the yeast survives that kind of temperature then it would be a true wild yeast. Our domesticated Saccaromyces cerevisiae dies at those temperatures.

Ok, so I posted thismorning and it has been about a week since I tasted the wort containing this strain of yeast. I decided to taste again when I got home so that I would not mislead readers, I wanted to give an updated flavor profile. It has a mango or apricot smell to it, however the taste is slightly sour and slightly vinegar I think. I was doing some reading and found out the vinegar could be created in oxigenated beer. When I prepared the starter wort I used an oxygen tank and carb stone to oxygenate the wort for vigorous fermentation, I think this may be the culprit. I am going to decant the old starter steal a small amount if yeast, and repitch into a new non-oxygenated wort and see if this improves the flavor profile. If it stays the same I am going to use the yeast for a flanders red ale (sour ale)

Theredben, I used a new, never used glass carboy to capture, the only thing re-used was the air lock and that was sanitized in star san. The flavor p profiles I posted were taken very early, I tried again thismorning and it was tart and acidic.

theredben said:

If it tastes like beer, it is likely that you had some residual domesticated beer yeast in one of your vessels. Wild yeast is very sour/acidic/tart, especially in the first few generations since the contamination levels are so high.

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That is not true. The large amount of sourness and tartness in openly fermented beers comes from lacto and pedio bacteria not wild strains exclusively (some will, some won't)

To the op: try a Belgian pale ale

Kcarrier513 said:

I like the idea about the APA, I'm also thinking of stirring the main yeast, stealing 2 vials, and retaining the rest for future use. Can anyone give advice on storage considerations

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Cool Thread... have you seen this wiki?

This one on washing yeast might also be helpful.

Keep us posted!

i'd make a wheat beer just to figure out a general taste of the yeast... moderate BUs, something neutral tasting so you can figure out the individual characteristics of the yeast. that's what i did...

I think I will decant the wort that is in with the yeast right now, then inoculate new wort with the captured yeast, I will not oxygenate the new wort and when fermentation subsides, I will wash the yeast, retain the captured yeast, send a sample to a lab and then brew with a sample.

Thanks to mcwilcr, for the links they will help alot

What is the latest news on this yeast?

If you want to take extra care that you have clean yeast, there is an acid washing procedure in the yeast section of probrewer that you could try. They say that it helps "reduce" bacterial contamination.

Materials:
1. Distilled water
2. 75% phosphoric acid, food grade
3. Pitching yeast
4. Sealable sterile container
5. Sterile mixing paddle
6. Rubber gloves
7. Eye goggles
8. pH meter or pH paper
Method:
1. Dilute the phosphoric acid to 7.5% by adding 0.4 cup of 75% phosphoric acid to 3.8 cups of distilled water. Use goggles and wear gloves! Store in a sealed and well labelled plastic container at room temperature.
2. Measure the volume of yeast to wash and add 0.25 to 0.5 cup of the diluted phosphoric acid solution to 4 gallons of yeast in a sterile sealable container. Mix and measure the pH, ideally the pH should be between 2.2 to 2.4. If the pH is too low, add more yeast; if the pH is too high, keep adding more diluted phosphoric acid solution.
3. Keep the yeast-acid solution for a maximum of 2 hours between 32-40°F with regular mixing then pitch directly. Do not store acid-washed yeast!
4. It is important to follow the guidelines above to avoid damaging the yeast. The slurry may appear more fluidized after the wash.
5. Acid washing can be performed after every brew for preventive measures or every so many brew when contamination occurs.