When to use wild yeast

So after reading some of the threads on here I decided I wanted to try to capture some wild yeast. I made a small batch of ~1.030 wort with a bit of leftover hops added and I added the skin from an organic honeycrisp apple and a little honey. Without high hopes I figured at best I get something and at worst Im out a bit of malt extract.

On Friday I started to see what looked like krausen, so I pulled the apple skins out. By yesterday evening there was about a half inch of krausen



So my question is...how long should I left this sit before I start stepping it up to use it?

I used 1/4 lb of honey to brew a two gallon batch. I'm figuring I had an almost imperceptible amount of yeast and the first brew came out great. Wild yeast hasn't read the book on proper pitching rates. It's really hungry, and much less picky than cultivated, commercial yeast strains, at least in my experience. I'd pitch what that starter yields into a batch of something 1.040 or so and see what shakes loose.

My first wild batch was in a lightly hopped american wheat beer. I made a starter off some of the bottle dregs from that and made the best APA I've ever had. The only problem I found with mine is that it doesn't flocculate all that well, so the beer ands up a bit hazy.

Nice. I like the rubber grommet in the metal lid. Pitch it!

Thanks for the tips, and for the comment on the airlock. It's not perfect, but it seals well.

I guess I should expand on the first question a bit. I would like to brew a 5 gallon batch of saison with this in two to three weeks after I transfer my IIPA to secondary and my better bottle is free. Is that too long to wait? Should I do something like a one gallon batch in the meantime to give the yeast something to munch on?

I have a half gallon of wort left over from the IIPA (it's 1.070 and 100+ ibu calculated). If I were to use that should I dilute it a bit?

I'm tempted to just toss it in and see what happens....not sure about a wild IIPA though...

I'd do a small batch first if you don't have the room, just to keep it healthy and active. I'd do a simple smash brew for the first, just so you can get a handle on what the yeast brings to the table.

I'd be inclined to make a small batch and see what you have. IMO it might be better to source the yeast again (if possible) from the apple skins in a few weeks rather than try to keep this particular culture alive and kicking.

Reason being: A) you'll find out whether it's worth pitching into 5+ gallons of something to begin with and B) if you don't follow some fairly clinical procedures for maintaining the culture it could begin to select itself for undesirable traits. I suspect the culture found on the apple skins will be more stable than subsequent generations of it kept in mason jars.

Well just an update. I ended up pitching into the half gallon of left over wort from the IIPA. The hops will probably hide the flavor of the yeast some, but it was a good option since I already had the wort....plus I will be able to compare it to the IIPA fermented with American Ale II, so that will be cool.

I pitched it Wed evening and woke up to this on Thursday morning.




The krausen seemed to have fallen a bit overnight, so I cleaned out the airlock and replaced it. It's slowed down but it's still bubbling away.

Looks like it's working hard!

I should probably mention, I took a gravity reading on Wednesday and it was down from 1.070 to 1.017. The sample tasted great...probably the best warm uncarbed sample I have had. At this point Im going to bottle on Tuesday and brew a 5 gallon saison on Friday. Since I will only have a few bottle I'm not sure of I will put any of of them away, but I will hide at least a 6-pack from the saison. Now I just need to come up with a recipe.

I wonder how many different strains we get from a single sample from the skin of fruits, I assume there are somewhere near 20-30 strains in each sample of wild yeast? Is there a way we can find out? Do we just get a microscope and start counting? Should this question be in the science section? Is there any way of telling?

If you can figure out what everything is I guess you could go to town with a microscope and try to isolate different strains. I believe you can also pay White Labs to sort out what you have.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

If you can figure out what everything is I guess you could go to town with a microscope and try to isolate different strains. I believe you can also pay White Labs to sort out what you have.

Click to expand...

Yea I'm certain I would have a problem identifying everything.

Do you know anyone that has sent their yeast to White labs or Siebel or other to be tested, just wondering if it is worth it. Of course when you send it somewhere you are no longer in control of it, I imagine they can do whatever they want with it.

I'm happy with the three wild yeasts I have collected so far (Juniper, Airborne, Bacterium's)) but would like some "official" numbers/details on it without having to do a zillion batches of each one, etc. I guess that's "job" security huh?