Fermenting without pitching Yeast

Brewed a Hefe late saturday, finished at 10:30pm, and didnt have my starter quite ready. I left it all day sunday and figured i'd pitch this morning but its already fermenting. The beer smells sour which is definitely bad, but i did santize well. I question if when i cooled my wort outside i didnt draw something in? I wouldnt have thought something would have kicked off fermentation under 36hours? The wort was a bit warmer when i brought it inside so it would have cooled some more, looked like my air lock lost some water. So i have 3 choices: Boil again, see what a Hefe is like as a Lambic, Pitch and hope like heck or throw it out and say lesson learned? Thoughts?

It's likely you're on your way to making a Berliner Weisse. I'd let it ride and see how it turns out.

I think I'd pitch the starter and hope for just enough funk to keep people guessing. Don't pass up an opportunity for an experiment by tossing it.

Or, split it. Do a gallon with whatever got in there, and yeast the rest.

Spontaneously Fermented beer... People pay big money for that stuff. As long as the correct yeasties got in there, you may have just made yourself a good beer. But chances are, its going to turn out the bad kind of sour.

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

Yea it smells quite sour and is starting to smell up the room. I have extra fermenters so i wont be down anything to leave it i suppose. Heres what shes looking like. I've seen worse looking fermentations, i'm surprised how well this one took off, i've had slower starts when ive actually pitched yeast!

Damn that really did take off.

I know!? Like WTF? You would have thought i was baking sour dough in there. I think i should leave this one, it seems just to crazy.

If it is a sour wheat, let it go. They are quite tasty.

My 2 cents, let it go and see what you get. Let us know how it turns out. I'm very interested. Hoping for a happy accident.

Cheers!

It was going to be a mango hefe but I agree I think this could be interesting. I think I'll leave it, not sure how long in primary or secondary but i'm going to stick it in a closet for a few months.

sub'ed. please keep us updated. this could be awesome. or a total disaster. can't wait to find out!

Will do, going to do some reading on sour wheats and keep posting on this one.

The fermentation is winding down, doesn't smell so sour any more either. My grain profile and hops are the same as the Berliner Weisse but I will be a bit more bitter at 15 but that's minor. Now wyeast claims 6 days ferment then bottle with fresh wort and some additional culture then wait 3-18months, does anyone have any thoughts on this? I was thinking of leaving it in the fermenter for a few months before I bottled and just use dextrose, perhaps I'll need to add a little yeast?

Subscribed as well! It looks like a clean fermentation so far!!

The ferment looks nice and strong....enough to wipe out any real nasties, and it looks like a true fermentation, not just an infection gone wild.
Be interesting to get a hydro reading and see what kind of attenuation you get. Might have just found yourself a proprietary yeast strain

It sure looks like good fermentation, looks like fairly flocculant yeast and i can still see activity in the wort and the air lock is still bubbling away. I'm going to wait a few more days and take a reading. I have a fair amount of trub so i'm curious how i could harvest this yeast successfully unless i rack to a secondary.

Amazing that you got that spontaneously, and it does look good. I once tried to leave a small amount of wort at the room temp and all I got after a week was a very thin layer of some gunk in the middle, and it had a weird, unpleasant but not sour smell.

Took a gravity reading today, 1.036, OG was 1.044. Smells more sour than it tastes, i'm going to leave it in the primary, it still has slow fermentation, bubble every 5min or so.

Toss in a Brett yeast to finish it off. That way it gets REAL funky.

Greatwhite4 said:

Took a gravity reading today, 1.036, OG was 1.044. Smells more sour than it tastes, i'm going to leave it in the primary, it still has slow fermentation, bubble every 5min or so.

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Wow, whatever it is, it's working slow. Maybe finish it off with something commercial? You'd lose the chance to harvest it if it's good though.

Greatwhite4 said:

Took a gravity reading today, 1.036, OG was 1.044. Smells more sour than it tastes, i'm going to leave it in the primary, it still has slow fermentation, bubble every 5min or so.

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Bummer....only 8 points in that amount of time kinda rules it out as a good strain to harvest. Might still be worth seeing if it will finish, but if the gravity doesn't move in a coupe days, I'd just pitch some Notty, or 05 and finish it up.

Its been cool in the house as of late to, i moved into the closet and raised the temp so it doesnt drop so low in the evening.

maybe the other micros will start kicking in now that whatever was working has started to decline. you COULD pitch a regular brewing yeast, but i, personally, would be inclined to see if a pelicle starts to form...

android said:

maybe the other micros will start kicking in now that whatever was working has started to decline. you COULD pitch a regular brewing yeast, but i, personally, would be inclined to see if a pelicle starts to form...

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+1

Most wild yeasts are much slower fermenting than the well trained commercial varieties that we usually use.

I vote give it time and let it ride. As for washing, just cold crash, if you can, and wash as you normally would.

Bubbling every few seconds now, picked up a fair bit bringing up the temp a couple degrees.

/subscribed

Sorry i only posted a quick reply on the last one. I am inclined to agree with leaving it alone for now, the activity is a bit slow, albeit surprising it picked up so much after putting it in the closet. I'll take another ready next weekend and see where it is and post. I would like to leave it in the primary and see if it gets down to 1.02 or less which should be low enough to give me ~3.0% ABV for the style.

Well its getting more interesting people, checked this morning, bubbles about every second, 2nd krausen, lots of activity in the wort.

im curious, subscribed

I'm intrigued as well, hope it turns out tasty!

this is too cool.... can't wait to see how it turns out.

to the OP, be sure to harvest some of the yeast when you rack/bottle. you might have something good and unique on your hands.

... or it could be crap. can't wait to find out!

subscribed, always wanted to try harvest wild yeast...

If this turns out good you have got to send some samples to us!

Great thread am very interested to see how it turns out. Keep the post coming.

I'm more excited about your hefe than my own lol

Very cool. Keep us posted! I've tried this myself, and ended up with slimy gunk in a gallon jug.

This is nearly beer geek reality tv. I vote to not pitch anything into this one now what with the ferment picking back up. Keep us updated, and although my sour experience is limited, I bet this one will attenuate and taste good if given the time. Good luck!

Subscribed! This thread definitely gave me a slight chubbin!

Took a sample today, 1.012. Almost don't believe it. I have a cold so i can't say much about the flavour other than tart, sour, blah blah blah. I'll take some pic's and post tonight or tomorrow. There is still activity, bubble every 1-2 min or so.