Intentional Spontaneous Ferment

Like the other spontaneous ferment post, I had leftover wort that didn't fit into my main carboy.

I poured it into a plastic party cup and left it uncovered in my basement to see what would happen. I put my strainer over it to keep out any fruit flies or other insects.

Sure enough, two days later it was fermenting. Had a nice head that looked like it had just been poured. I must have a lot of critters floating around down there!

I'm eager to try it, but for now I want to let it run its course. Maybe I'll try to draw a tiny sample with a straw or something. I'm also thinking about sealing it up somehow now that it's going.

Sounds like the beginnings of a fun experiment, BTW there are yeast everywhere and bacterium on all those yeasts, so it would probably be fermenting wherever you put it. Maybe the yeast in your basement are desireable, I've yet to have a beer that was infected in a "bad" way.

Keep on brewing my friend

Take some pictures. I always curious to see what other people's wild fermentations look like.

Good Luck

Sorry no photos, but I regret that the "beer" came out horrible. I'm just glad it was only 12 ounces. Smelled quite vinegary, so that overwhelmed my taste impression... I'm thinking I should have maybe sealed it up once it started showing signs of life. That or my pitiful experiment was doomed from the start.

ksbrain said:

Sorry no photos, but I regret that the "beer" came out horrible. I'm just glad it was only 12 ounces. Smelled quite vinegary, so that overwhelmed my taste impression... I'm thinking I should have maybe sealed it up once it started showing signs of life. That or my pitiful experiment was doomed from the start.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you had some sort of fermentation -- likely with some kind of yeast -- and then acetobacter got in and turned it to vinegar.

ksbrain said:

Sorry no photos, but I regret that the "beer" came out horrible. I'm just glad it was only 12 ounces. Smelled quite vinegary, so that overwhelmed my taste impression... I'm thinking I should have maybe sealed it up once it started showing signs of life. That or my pitiful experiment was doomed from the start.

Click to expand...

I just did the exact same thing you did, but with 2 gallons of late runnings I couldn't use. It had a pellicle forming, some mold on top, and smelled like cleats. Cleats that had been soaked in the rain and then allowed to dry inside a gym bag by the summer heat.

I should have stopped right there, but for some reason I tasted it today. Needless to say I promptly dumped the whole mess in the storm sewer after I got over the urge to vomit.