Wild yeast collection in our area?

Has anyone in the Hill Country attempted collecting wild yeast? I'm curious what might be in the air, if it's worth trying, or if everything out there is so god-awful that it's not worth sacrificing a 1/2 pint of wort.

Brewsit said:

Has anyone in the Hill Country attempted collecting wild yeast? I'm curious what might be in the air, if it's worth trying, or if everything out there is so god-awful that it's not worth sacrificing a 1/2 pint of wort.

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Jester King does it. I love Jester King beers, so I'd say give it a try...

I just recently discovered Jester King. I'll have to look in to that, thanks for the tip.

I tried on the Ft Worth side of DFW. While I did grow some really cool looking blue mold, it was nothing I'd brew with. That was in the spring. I'll try again in the fall.

Out of curiosity, how would one go about doing that? Besides, getting far away from the city.

There are a few threads on it. Considering my results, probably best to look at those.

I mixed luke warm water and extra light DME in a wide jar. The extra light to not get too much flavor from the DME. I added a few hop pellets too after reading they could discourage undesirables from taking hold. Then I folded and tied some cheese cloth over the mouth with string. It's got to be very tight to keep ants and such out. This went on a stool under a tree. After about a week, I had white skin looking mold with fuzz on it. There was a green hue to it as well.

My next attempt was the same but for two weeks. That's when I got the blue mold. There were these salt crystal looking things too. Nothing that looked like the pictures online.