Pulling yeast "out of the air"

I enjoy "messing" with things so to speak, and so even though I've only brewed a few batches, I'd like to make something very unique.

What I would like to do is pull a wild yeast strain that you would normally not want in the wort so that I can use it as the primary yeast in a batch. I live in philly and I really enjoy the Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale so I'm considering making my own "Philadelphia Pale Ale" by cultivating a wild yeast strain in Philly and using it in a pale ale recipe.

My questions are about how to do this and how to cultivate it. I understand the yeast basically will multiply with ample amounts of sugar available to them, but how exactly would I "catch" them in the first place. Also, would it work the same way and re-pitching yeast? In that I could take a small sample and have that grow again? Also, anything else maybe I'm not aware of. I'm not really sure where to find this kind of information.

Have you ever made a sourdough starter?

The basic concept is you just make something that yeast likes, and the yeast will find it. No need to go catch anything. You might not be happy with the yeast you get, though. All the wild yeast strains I've ever gotten were more of the Brettanomyces type than Saccharomyces.

Here's a thread you might find interesting...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/

I would take some distilled water pump it with unfiltered air through a diffusion stone and an aquarium pump for a while 20 30 45 mins. this way all the yeast, bacteria, mold, and what ever else is in the air will be in the water. Take that water and culture it by puting it on a plate of agar and isolating a yeast strain( probably a lot of things will grow on the plate) and propagate from the strain you select from the plate. A pinch more in depth but this way you know your beer is less likely to become infected with other yeast bacteria mold etc. and you can reproduce your results. Who knows you could find the next greatest yeast strain. Good Luck

P.S. there is a great write up on yeast culturing at the top of this section of forum.

krops13 said:

I would take some distilled water pump it with unfiltered air through a diffusion stone and an aquarium pump for a while 20 30 45 mins. this way all the yeast, bacteria, mold, and what ever else is in the air will be in the water. Take that water and culture it by puting it on a plate of agar and isolating a yeast strain( probably a lot of things will grow on the plate) and propagate from the strain you select from the plate. A pinch more in depth but this way you know your beer is less likely to become infected with other yeast bacteria mold etc. and you can reproduce your results. Who knows you could find the next greatest yeast strain. Good Luck

P.S. there is a great write up on yeast culturing at the top of this section of forum.

Click to expand...

That's actually wonderful. I wanted a method like that since I have access to sterile lab equipment and all that. Thanks a lot for the replies, I'll check out the topics that were mentioned as well.

Don't get discouraged there's a lot of information to cover. It's not as hard as it seems

Yea, there's a ton of information, but I've got a general idea now and have some quickly made DME "wort" sitting out on my window. Incidentally, we have a sourdough starter that we started making a week ago (doing very well) so I chucked a piece of that in with it to jump start it.

cool I wound what will grow. Would you be able to post pictures of you plates after you've cultured. What type of agar do you plan on using?

No idea what will grow. I'm on the 10th floor of a building in center city, so I'm hoping it gives a decent taste. Anyway, I have plates, no agar though, so if I manage to find some I'll take pictures and post.

You can bet I'll be posting the beer that comes from it. I'm going to brew a batch of pale ale and seperate out a gallon to use with the yeast I collect to see the difference.

Thanks for all the help!