Capturing Wild Yeast Question

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dRaPP

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I thought it would be a cool idea to try to catch some wild yeast from my backyard so I put about a half gallon of wort that I brewed that day out on my porch and left it for out uncovered for two weeks. I just brought it in yesterday, the wort was partially frozen and after thawing it and warming it up to 68F, I'm not detecting any activity.

My overall question is: Can you capture wild yeast in the winter?
I know it would be dormant in these cold temperatures, but I figured that since it was airborne, it wouldn't matter if it was active or dormant.

Not sure if it matters, but heres some info:
1.057 OG, the wort was a Hefeweizen and did have hops in it. It sat out in a screened in porch for 2 weeks and the temperature got as low as about 10F I'm sure.

Any help on the subject is appreciated.
 
I'm pretty sure capturing wild yeasts need to be in at least spring temperatures... the normal timeframe of "2 weeks" means that other bugs may get in the wort, but at that time, the yeast, in warmer temps, will be healthier and be able to take over the wort... Then you get the natural yeast that is dominant in your area, and hope it tastes good :)
 
The things that yeast live on are either dead or dormant, so there is no yeast drifting around on dust or pollen in winter. If you want to play with wild yeast, look for honey with a lot of white fog coating the surface. Try that in a starter and see if it takes off. My first try did, my next two didn't. It's not as romantic as plucking them from the air, but it'll get you started. My honey yeast comes from a bee keeper just up the street, I just let the bees do all the work for me.
 
Honey will contain some yeast spores, but it's not likely it would foam (or fog) the surface. That "fog" is probably hive debris (wax, pollen, etc.)

If you have any kind of fruit still left on trees/bushes, especially those that form a whitish bloom on their skins, you can inoculate your wort with them. Would probably work best to use a light-gravity wort...like making a standard yeast starter. The trick to getting good wild starter is to stir, and stir some more...a few times a day for a few days until fermentation is obvious.

Many strains of yeasts are very robust and prolific, and you may have as much luck capturing them indoors as out during the winter.

Tim
(beekeeper & wild fermenter)

p.s. maybe checkout Wild Fermentation Forum
 
Also, you will need to bring your wort up to a reasonable temperature. Even if some yeast falls into it, it probably won't hit a good growth phase until it's in the mid 60's.
 
The fog only appears where exposed to air, which tells me it is a microbe colonizing that requires oxygen to propagate. Since most everything is intolerant of the hyperosmolar environment in honey, I make the blind assumption that it is Saccharomyces or more likely Zygosaccharomyces yeast. Since I did in fact brew a beer and now have a usable strain of yeast from the honey method, I figure that assumption is a sound and justified one.
 
El Excorcisto, you can indeed (and I often do too) revive the yeast in your honey. But the haze you are seeing is likely minute air bubbles and small amounts of hive debris that invariably get trapped and slowly rise to the surface of honey. Unfiltered honey and crudely processed honey is obviously much higher in this debris and air.

I'm not saying you're not getting wild yeast from your honey...you definitely are. It's just probably not what your seeing on top. My honey is often VERY foamy after extraction because of my low-tech method.

The only exception would be if the hyperosmotic condition was broken by extracting the honey before it is properly ripened or if rainy/high-humidity conditions prevented ripening. It's not in the bees interest to have their honey turning into booze, and they take great pains to insure it does not.

If you want a really active wild culture from the hive, try using raw bee bread. The bees deliberately ferment the pollen to preserve it. The bees are brewers too, but not of their honey.
 
If you grabbed any airborne yeast they probably died when the liquid froze. Try again when it isn't freezing outside.

The yeasts are probably not dead (at least not all of them). They will become active if you bring up the temperature. But you need to really baby a wild starter (lots of stirring, aeration), otherwise it will become populated with bacteria before the yeasts take hold.
 
Tim, what exactly is bee bread?

In addition to bringing nectar into the hive, bees also bring in pollen. The pollen carries with it yeasts and bacteria. The bees also have a diverse gut flora.

The bees mix the pollen with digestive enzymes and small amounts of honey, then pack the pollen-honey-enzyme mix into the cells where it ferments and forms "bee bread." You would probably need to know a beekeeper willing to scoop a little out of some the comb for you.

The bee pollen you buy in granules is not quite the same thing. This is pollen that has been stripped from the bees before it enters the hive. But this pollen too is mixed with a little digestive juice and nectar (and yeasts and bacteria) in order to form pellets that the bees pack onto their hind legs for transport.

***I think we're getting a little off topic***

My overall point, though, is you can probably capture wild yeasts in the winter. You just may have to make a little extra effort. Again if you have any fruits/berries still clinging to plants in your yard, they may help inoculate your brew. As El Excorcisto points out, raw local honey is a good source of local flora. But you need a low(ish) gravity starter solution to get things going, as well as warm temperatures and lots of aeration.

There are wild yeasts out there in the freezing temps right now. They just have to be found and revived.
 
Maybe I'm just lucky (which is seriously not the case) but last winter I caught wild yeast with freezing temps. I simply put some wort out in a sanitized cup with a papertowel covering it and held by a rubberband.

It took a few days and when I remembered leaving it outside, I brought it in. It was actually slushy at that time so I had low hopes as I had only meant it to stay outside a day or so. After leaving it inside for a short time to thaw, I found a nice krausen layer already starting to form. The temp of the wort could not have been more than 40 at that time.

Anyway, I used this "yeast" in a beer or 2 and have liked the results. It would basically take any wort down to 1.000 so you have to be careful when you bottle. Additionally, it will ferment in the fridge at those temps so it is very robust. Also, I've noticed over only a few beers, the dominate yeast(s) are already starting to be more noticeable.

As for the notion of leaving wort outside for weeks, I think that has been largely debunked. It is unnecessary and will most likely lead to mold colonies forming. A day or so is more than enough to capture yeast in most cases. The chart constantly referenced is MISreferenced as being a yeast "capturing" timeframe chart when it is actually a lambic fermentation timeframe chart.
 
I concur with Barc. In my opinion 48-72 hours is a more realistic time-frame to see active spontaneous fermentation. If I have a starter that sits longer than that without bubbling, I pitch it in the compost and start another.

I shudder at the thought of waiting 2 weeks to see fermentation.
 
Thanks for all the input. The wort has been at 68F for 5 days now with no signs of fermentation, bubbling, krausen, CO2 smell, etc. I'm pretty convinced that I didn't catch any yeast OR that the yeast I caught died in the freeze. Barc, I'm surprised that you caught yeast with a paper towel over your cup of wort. I had no idea yeast was actually that microscopic.

Tim Hall, thanks for the great info. I probably know a lot more information than I need to know about bees, but also some good yeast info.

I'm going to give this another shot when it gets to be above maybe 45F. Like I said initially, this was intended for a Wild Wheat for the spring, so hopefully I'll have time to catch some wild yeast and brew before Spring fully comes around.
 
Barc, I'm surprised that you caught yeast with a paper towel over your cup of wort. I had no idea yeast was actually that microscopic.

Yeast can live in the microscopic scratches in wood. The "huge" holes in paper towels don't provide a lot of resistance (but more than cheesecloth or something) and really keep anything bigger than something that small out. Just as an example, starters are expressed by number of million cells per mL of wort...
 
ITS ALIIIIIVE! For some reason, about 3 weeks after I brought it inside, I checked on it and there was a nice layer of foam on top! It definitely didn't smell like just wort, and it definitely didn't smell like regular fermentation. I'm not sure if what I caught was 100% yeast, or even yeast at all, but something was making my wort bubble and foam. So I let it go for a while to let it multiply and now its in the fridge.

So I'm going to go through the process of yeast washing, then make a starter, and if the yeast starts going, I'll get to brewing my Wild Wheat! Thanks for the help everyone.
 
ITS ALIIIIIVE! For some reason, about 3 weeks after I brought it inside, I checked on it and there was a nice layer of foam on top! It definitely didn't smell like just wort, and it definitely didn't smell like regular fermentation. I'm not sure if what I caught was 100% yeast, or even yeast at all, but something was making my wort bubble and foam. So I let it go for a while to let it multiply and now its in the fridge.

So I'm going to go through the process of yeast washing, then make a starter, and if the yeast starts going, I'll get to brewing my Wild Wheat! Thanks for the help everyone.


dRaPP - just noticed you're in Herndon, I'm just east of you in DC. Glad to hear you had some success with your "capture" and good luck with your wild beers!

Others with more experience may be able to offer some clarity here, but I'm not sure you necessarily need to go to the trouble of washing it.....


I left a glass of wort outside in the low/mid 40s for a day. After bringing it inside I left it on the counter, giving it a swirl now and then, and stepped it up 2x with an additional cup or so of starter wort, but it stayed at room temp (w/ just a cheesecloth covering for a month-5 weeks). Here was a pic: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/index44.html#post2493258

Last weekend i pitched the whole thing into a 5 gal batch and it started right up https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/index45.html#post2586065 , can't wait to see what I end up with.
 
Just tasted my beer fermented with wild yeast compared to the same wort fermented with White Labs Burton Ale yeast and the wild was BY FAR better. Thanks for everyones help. The wild beer doesn't taste too abnormal either, no sour tastes or off flavors. I'll definitely be keeping this yeast for later use.
 
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