Identifying yeast without microscope

I almost 100% sure there is no way to verify something is yeast without a good microscope and other expensive gadgetry. A couple days ago I made some agar wort and put it in petri dishes to collect some local yeast cultures. I have one dish that has what I believe to be yeast on it, but I wanted to let the experts take a look and give me a recommendation. Without a microscope I know the only way to know is to build it up and brew with it, but I'm just hoping for someone to tell me whether or not I am wasting my time. Thanks.

I'm not an expert but I'd say no - the colony is too flat (or appears so in the photo). Yeast colonies, in my recall, tend to be more peaked but w/o a scope I certainly can't be sure.

I believe the yeast colonies tend to spread rapidly and tubular - not so much in circles?

It certainly is the right color/consistency. You could culture it and see what a starter smells like to form your opinion.

ajdelange said:

I'm not an expert but I'd say no - the colony is too flat (or appears so in the photo). Yeast colonies, in my recall, tend to be more peaked but w/o a scope I certainly can't be sure.

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icanbenchurcat said:

I believe the yeast colonies tend to spread rapidly and tubular - not so much in circles?

It certainly is the right color/consistency. You could culture it and see what a starter smells like to form your opinion.

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Thanks for the replies. I know the picture sucks and I apologize for that. It certainly looks like yeast when I'm looking at it. I think I will build it up and see what happens.

Let us know what you get - and where did you place this originally? I am interested to do a wild brew next summer. I have a wild blackberry bush nearby that I suspect would make a great spot to harvest from.

icanbenchurcat said:

Let us know what you get - and where did you place this originally? I am interested to do a wild brew next summer. I have a wild blackberry bush nearby that I suspect would make a great spot to harvest from.

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I placed the dishes next to an open window for about 2.5 hours then covered them and put them in my garage for a couple days. There aren't fruit bushes or trees in my yard, but there are some hop plants and other flowery plants my wife likes to grow.

Not sure why everyone tries to gather wild yeasts out of the air (the romantic notion that the organisms that ferment lambics come from the air via the cherry trees in Brussels? (disregarding the fact that Brussel's vast orchards are long gone and the organisms live pretty much everywhere in the brewery buildings now)*snicker*)...

Wild yeast already live on pretty much all wild fruit; you can even see the haze that they make on many fruits -plums & grapes as great examples; you want to get wild yeast in your area? Just peel the skin off of some local fruit and throw it in a teeny tiny starter / onto a petri dish then propogate it up from a good looking colony.

Easy peazy light and breezy!


Adam