Spontaneous Fermentation?

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edgewoodbrewery

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So I made a 60 minute clone on friday. Didnt prepare a starter ahead of time, So I thought, I'll just stick it in the closet until the starter is ready and then pitch. Well, I opened the closet today and low and behold, there is a layer of krausen and airlock activity. I brewed outside, does this mean that I caught some form of wild yeast? What should I do? Just let it keep going? Re-boil the wort and pitch my starter? My sanitation (I thought) was good. Questions and Comments please! Thanks!
 
Woah... you just blew my mind.:cross:

If it is seriously fermenting, adding yeast may not do much at this point. Whatever is fermenting it has taken control and new yeast might not get a chance to do much. If it's barely fermenting, maybe pitching new yeast would help, but who knows. Just for experimental purposes, I'd be curious to see how it turns out left to it's own devices. After all, this is more or less what ancient brewers did, but it's not my 5 gallons of beer that may not end up drinkable.;) Have you tasted it? If it tastes good, it might be worth letting go.
 
So I made a 60 minute clone on friday. Didnt prepare a starter ahead of time, So I thought, I'll just stick it in the closet until the starter is ready and then pitch. Well, I opened the closet today and low and behold, there is a layer of krausen and airlock activity. I brewed outside, does this mean that I caught some form of wild yeast? What should I do? Just let it keep going? Re-boil the wort and pitch my starter? My sanitation (I thought) was good. Questions and Comments please! Thanks!

Let it go. You can't boil it. Cross your fingers and hope you got a nice yeast. It sounds as if its taken hold already.

If you wanted to halt it you could add camden tablets, then pitch your starter after the camden has killed the yeast. It takes about 24-48 hours for the camden to do its thing. Then add your yeast.

Personally, I'd let it go, and stash that starter in the fridge for the next beer. Next time don't brew without an active starter or a dry yeast pack. Adding the yeast now would be a waste of $6.

Go get yourself about 2-3 packs of dry yeast like Nottingham or Safale-05. Have them as back-ups.
 
Yeah, I too would be very curious to see how it turns out. Did you take an OG reading before putting it in the closet? I wonder how much alcohol it ends up having. I can't imagine that it will taste good though.
 
Go get yourself about 2-3 packs of Nottingham or Safale-05. Have them as back-ups.

Excellent advice. I always keep a few packets of Notty in the fridge. You never know when somethings going to go wrong and you just need a good strong flavor-neutral yeast for backup. From the pack, you can have it rehydrated and pitch ready within an hour. Or, if you're in a huge rush, you can pitch it dry, although that isn't recommended.
 
Yeah, I too would be very curious to see how it turns out. Did you take an OG reading before putting ine closet? I wonder how much alcohol it ends up having. I can't imagine that it will taste good though.

Not necessarily.... I have a batch with my local yeast going now. Its ready to 2ndary and it tastes pretty damned good.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/index9.html#post1195912

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/howto-capture-wild-yeast-101886/index15.html#post1269782
 
Exactly - If you have a valve full of yeast that might do it too.

Well I sanitized my carboy with onestep and gave it an extra little scrub before sanitation. Let it sit for about 30 minutes with sanitation solution. Emptied, no rinse, and in went the chilled wort and topped with a sanitized airlock and bung. 2 days later krausen with no yeast?! I'm kinda stumped. I'm seriously thinking of going back to iodophor. I may just let this beer go and see what happened. Just pissed to drop 40 bucks on a beer for this to happen... I'm meticulous with my sanitation for this reason.
 
Alot of times the lack thorough cleaning before sanitizing is the culprit. Don't take this too personally. You might need to take a deeper dive on what items that come in contact with your wort. Especially those things that are hard to clean; Valves, hoses, airlocks, bottle fillers and etc.

I mentioned the valve thing because I routinely find the valves have yeast in the crevices. I usually hit it with a toothbrush really good. I look really well at the lid too.

Scratches in plastic are bad. I use a sanitizing bucket to do all of that work. This way all those brewing tools won't scratch up my plastic fermentors.

I also find that I need to occasionally soak my pails in mild solution of bleach-water since they seem to get yellowed by yeast somehow.

Iodophor is a good sanitizer, I think one-step is as well. I tend to overdo the time they get exposed to sanitizer. It doesn't hurt. I am also super-anal about getting the correct mix concentration. I want the PPM high enough to kill but low enough so I will never taste it in beer.

You still might get an OK beer, it might be a bit farm-like of have a Belgian charactor. I would be very carefull with cleaning your equipment from this point on for now. You don't want the bug to transfer to your other equipment. I would be very patient with this beer it may not behave like typical beer yeast.

Good Luck. - You never know it might just turn out awesome. Sometimes mistakes can be good things.
 
Alot of times the lack thorough cleaning before sanitizing is the culprit. Don't take this too personally. You might need to take a deeper dive on what items that come in contact with your wort. Especially those things that are hard to clean; Valves, hoses, airlocks, bottle fillers and etc.

I mentioned the valve thing because I routinely find the valves have yeast in the crevices. I usually hit it with a toothbrush really good. I look really well at the lid too.

Scratches in plastic are bad. I use a sanitizing bucket to do all of that work. This way all those brewing tools won't scratch up my plastic fermentors.

I also find that I need to occasionally soak my pails in mild solution of bleach-water since they seem to get yellowed by yeast somehow.

Iodophor is a good sanitizer, I think one-step is as well. I tend to overdo the time they get exposed to sanitizer. It doesn't hurt. I am also super-anal about getting the correct mix concentration. I want the PPM high enough to kill but low enough so I will never taste it beer.

You still might get an OK beer, it might be a bit farm-like of have a Belgian charactor. I would be very carefull with cleaning your equipment from this point on for now. You don't want the bug to transfer to your other equipment. I would be very patient with this beer it may not behave like typical beer yeast.

Good Luck. - You never know it might just turn out awesome. Sometimes mistakes can be good things.


Well I'm not quite sure how I got contaminated. Everything was properly sanitized and since I use glass (for the specific reason that plastic is easier to get contamintations with ie: scratches, valves, lids) I'm really not sure where the contamination would have come from. Oh well, we'll see how things turn out.
 
Well I'm not quite sure how I got contaminated. Everything was properly sanitized and since I use glass (for the specific reason that plastic is easier to get contamintations with ie: scratches, valves, lids) I'm really not sure where the contamination would have come from. Oh well, we'll see how things turn out.

You didn't happen to get sloshed and pitch something in that you forgot about???

I did this once... I drank way, way too much cider. I passed out while I was waiting for the wort to drop 5 degrees.

The next morning, the sunlight was beaming me in the face and all I could think is WTF. I saw the fermentor where I left it, lid on, and the airlock was in place. I had to go check the trash to see if I pitched some yeast.

I sure did! :D
 
Pitching yeast quickly when the wort is ready is very important. No matter how hard you sanitize, your wort will never 100% sterile. If you don't pitch yeast quickly, you give other critters an head-start which is not a good idea.

Even though making a starter is recommended, if your starter is not ready by the time your wort is for whichever reason, pitch the vial directly without making a starter, it is better than waiting for your starter.

Should you want to keep wort for a few days, it should have some preservatives added (campden tablet) and be kept in the refrigerator.

You could also hot pack it in mason jars while it is still boiling and refrigerate. Although for a whole batch it might not be easy.


BUT: Now that the damage is done, I would not pitch the yeast if the wort is already badly contaminated. Just hope you got a good wild yeast in it. Also, if you want to keep it and see if it will become good, you will need to be very patient (1-2 years of aging). You could use it to add complexity to young fresh beer .. a pint of sour beer can add a nice tang to a 5 gallon batch of stout..
 
Hi, Billy Maze Here With Oxi-clean! Not Only Does Oxi-clean Clean Everything You Thought It Would, It Also Cleans Glass Carboys Too.
 
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