might have caught something good

I have been trying, for a couple years, to catch some wild yeast that is good for beer. I have had some wort out (for the millionth time) for three days. I caught something... It smells fruity (like an English yeast). Normally everything I catch tastes and smells gross. I am hopeful for this one. We have a lot of fruit trees etc and yeast is abundant. I just always get gross ones or other bacteria, or moldy stuff. Cant wait to taste my catch. I used an ipa as bait this time.

How much are you using, I hope it's just a gallon or so, I would hate to see a whole batch go to waste.

I have been using under 1 quart. I put out several baby food jars full in different places. I set it aside every time I brew. I have caught stuff before but it always looked like puke etc. This time it actually looked like a nice beer krausen and smelled nice (very fruity). I took pictures. If it is anything good (Ill taste soon) Ill put them up.

It's an interesting experiment, and you're not really losing anything so why not.

If you stick to hoppy wort, you should do a fair job of keeping out the unwanted cooties.

Well... It smelled fruity, but tastes spicy almost peppery. Not what I was looking for but Ill make some beer with it for the novelty of using my own caught yeast.

This is great. Please keep us posted along the way.

lowlife said:

Well... It smelled fruity, but tastes spicy almost peppery. Not what I was looking for but Ill make some beer with it for the novelty of using my own caught yeast.

Click to expand...

Mmmmm sounds Belgian.

Not the best picture, krausen has fallen pretty much and Im currently stepping it up on the stir plate. This is the small sample i caught it in.

Nice. I just watched an episode of Beer Hunter where M. Jackson visits several Belgian breweries, one of which uses wild yeast. He claims it's the only brewery in the world that does this.

Here's the link
[ame]http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/travel_and_culture/watch/v19943448PQkr5pN7[/ame]

pharmhouse said:

Nice. I just watched an episode of Beer Hunter where M. Jackson visits several Belgian breweries, one of which uses wild yeast. He claims it's the only brewery in the world that does this.

Here's the link
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/travel_and_culture/watch/v19943448PQkr5pN7

Click to expand...

He actually says that only Belgian breweries do spontaneous ferments, not that only one does it--many Belgian breweries have an unbroken tradition of spontaneous fermentation going back many decades (well before Jackson was commenting).

I think the Beer Hunter came out in 1996, by which time Gulpener had already brought back spontaneous fermentation in Holland (which had died out in the 1940s or 1950s). Bristol Brewing in Colorado was also using wild yeast by then in a more controlled form (they cultured up several local wild yeasts and lactic bacteria, then pitched those known strains).

Nowadays there are several others. In the US, Allagash has certainly done some open spontaneous ferments in their coolship series, and I'm pretty sure that Russian River and Jolly Pumpkin have well--I'd be shocked if there weren't a few other American breweries that do so as well. Melbourn Brothers in England has been doing spontaneous fermentations for a decade or so.

Is there a reason you're just trying to catch yeast with open air jars vs inoculating some wort directly with some of the fruit you have growing around your area?

I captured a nice yeast for brewing after three tries of dumping some grapes from my yard into small samples of wort and then sealing them with airlocks.

How about an update on this? Do you have a full batch fermenting?

I made a small batch with just pilsner malt and hallertauer. 1065 og 1012 fg. Its weird part of the yeast flocs very well. Part of it is just staying in suspension and makes the beer look like bad orange juice. Im trying to only get the yeast that flocs well by collecting the yeast of the bottom and pouring off the top part that doesnt floc well. Not sure if that will work in the long run. It doesnt taste bad, just looks ugly. Im about to upload a picture of a glass of beer (uncarbed) and a shot of the floc'ed yeast (washed) I collected. Looks to be pretty different

I tried just throwing fruit in there a couple times. I got yeast but always ended up getting something else with for some reason. (I don't claim to know what I'm doing).

is your beer still fermenting? I've found that my wild yeast ferments down to pretty much 1.000 So the yeast still in suspension may still be active.

How does the beer smell?

I dont think it is still fermenting. I didn't take multiple hydro readings though so it is a possibility. Ill make sure to let the next go for a month or so in the fermenter. I should be making some other beer in a couple weeks and Ill try to pay closer attention to the fermentation. It tastes ok.
My original catch of it fermented Pretty quick and clarity wasn't bad. Maybe you are right though. Ill look into it.

subscribed

Subscribed as well. If you need other testers, you can send a ball jar starter to me and I'll test it

Next time i make beer it will be an ipa. ill ferment some with this yeast and see how it tastes. i washed the yeast and stepped it up. Ill probably brew in the next few weeks.

Made another ipa, fermented at 65. Yeast did an ok job 1.070 down to 1.012 ish . Hops overpowered most of the yeast taste. Im not so sure about the yeast, its yeast and it was fun to catch, but Im not saving it. Stays cloudy and looks like puke for quite a while. Tasted pretty good though. nothing spectacular.

I think you were on the right track with selectively pulling the high floccing yeast, I would run that route a while and see what happens. Either way, a few months in the bottle and you should end up with a clear beer.

Is there a certain reason you decided to use this yeast to ferment an IPA? Would it not have been better to do some sort of wheat beer where the yeast would have had more of a spotlight?

If I'm not mistaken the high hops content cuts down on the risk of infection of unwanted stuff while farming the yeast into a usable crop. Or maybe he just really likes IPAs

I really like IPAS. That's all. I like the belgian yeast/american hop ipas a lot as well and was hoping for something like that.

did you ever end up with any pictures of this beer? i'm interested in a description of its flavor, mouthfeel, etc.