What's this?

Caught it in the rafters of my barn.
Smells tropical and a tad cheese.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1443962297.821409.jpg


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Tropical cheese sounds like Brett to me, or maybe Sacc (formerly Brett) bruxellensis Trois, but it is probably a mixture of things.

What media/wort/liquid did you use?

I used wort that was left with the trub. I do this often and have a fridge full of jars with different wild yeasts in there. Some ferment clean and drop out when I put them in the fridge. One of them though has a bubbly pellicle and seems to be fermenting some even in the fridge at 40f. Any ideas what this could be?
The one in the pic smells great.

There are a ton of yeast species that can grow (and ferment) at cold temperatures. It is impossible to identify what you have in there without a microscope and some basic biochemical tests.

As I mentioned, those jars contain a mix of different organisms. It sounds like you captured an aromatic mix with this last jar.

Have you made any full batches with these wild harvests?

It is impossible to identify what you have in there without a microscope and some basic biochemical tests.

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Bravo.Bravo..Bravo.

. It seems that a lot of amateur micro biologist here look at a pellicle and say with great authority that it is a lacto infection. There are so many organisms that can infect a brew and produce a pellicle that it is impossible to tell what it is without a microscope and a knowlege of microbiology.

It does not matter what it is. If you want to experiment with it, just make a small one gallon batch with some DME nad very minimal hops and see what it does.

^^^^ very well said. There are plenty of "looks like Lacto, bottle quickly" comments. Yes, but I've also seen brett pellicles that look like some of those, and if it is Brett it's going to overattenuate and make those bottles explode. Bad day.

Pet peeve of mine. Back to lurking.

Nobody said anything about lacto. Why get irate?


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No, nothing against your post. Just piling on the other comment. But it's true, you cannot tell what's in that culture visually. You may get a hint as to what it is based on smell and taste, but that's about it.

However, to offer a hopefully useful suggestion, try stepping it up a couple of times. The starter beer will give you an indication of the final product. If it's good, try it in a few small test batches. I've caught some really interesting yeast (note interesting, not necessarily good) doing these kinds of things. But it's a fun experiment!

Agate said:

No, nothing against your post. Just piling on the other comment. But it's true, you cannot tell what's in that culture visually. You may get a hint as to what it is based on smell and taste, but that's about it.

However, to offer a hopefully useful suggestion, try stepping it up a couple of times. The starter beer will give you an indication of the final product. If it's good, try it in a few small test batches. I've caught some really interesting yeast (note interesting, not necessarily good) doing these kinds of things. But it's a fun experiment!

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I want to know if there any any indications of how a captured culture will turn out before commiting a brew day and 6 months or more to it.
If it smells ok, does that improve the chances of a better outcome or can the funky smelling ones also develop?
I heard that some of the original lambics can put out some real off smells in their early stages.

Well... Sort of. If your starter is pleasant, it's a good sign that it's worth using in a batch. Yes, traditional lambic can taste and smell pretty bad at the start, but that's not usually due to yeast. various bacteria that we typically associate with spoilage are active in spontaneous ferments before the yeast kick in, and after a long extended fermentation their by-products can be metabolized into more pleasant compounds. But the only way to find that out is to let it ferment for several months.

So in my opinion, you can get a good idea if the beer will be decent if the starter smells pleasant. But you won't be able to tell if a foul starter will produce something pleasant unless you put in the time.

But that's not really what we're doing with a captured starter. Once it has fermented, you are selecting for mostly yeast and LAB, so the pitched microbes in the step up or even the actual batch will not have the diversity of the spontaneous culture. And after fermenting out once or twice, if it still is foul smelling, chances are good that it will not turn out well.

This rambling post is my experience, at least... Hope it helps!