capturing wild yeast

Does temperature matter when capturing wild yeast ? It's 81 to 85 degrees here most of the day. That's way above the ferm. temps. for any ales. Just wondered if that matters when you try to catch to capture the wild yeast

I found it does matter. When nights were in the forties I got fruity smelling fermentation. With nights in the sixties to seventies I got fecal smelling fermentations.

Edit: forgot to say these were 'capture' temps.

I got my wild yeast when the night was in the low 70s. The fermenting beer (at 74 degrees) smelled pretty off-ish. Not terrible, but not pleasant like when I use regular brewers yeast when fermenting in the mid-60s.

Hmmmmmm, well I can only image what the yeast will smell like when captured in the 80's . LOL. I'm going to still let it go, just to see what happens. It will be a while before the temps get back into the 70's for a 2 week stretch.

I'm doing this for the first time tomorrow night myself. Its supposed to be in the 60s during the day and as low as 47 at night. I think its my last opportunity for temps this low (and a fluke i'm getting these temps at all) so I hope something good comes of it. I'm incredibly curious how this experiment will pan out

I cultured some yeast when it was at least in the 80s, if not 90s or 100s and it was fine. You're probably getting more bacteria at warmer temperatures though if you're prepared to use hops to reduce the viability of some strains and slant you can probably still get a fairly clean strain.

How long are you leaving your jars or whatever you use to capture your yeast in outside? I saw on another post that two weeks was the best time to wait and make your starter. Does that mean you leave your wort exposed to the air for two weeks, or you leave it out for a couple of hours and then wait the 2 week period?

I left the kettle out from about 10pm to 8am, so 10 hours.

I did mine last night, left a 1 gallon pale outside from 8:30 to 630a.m., so also 10 hours

Does anyone have any concept how these wild cultures turn out typically, or is it a complete toss up depending on what lands in my wort? I.e. do they generally have a sour element to them or does it all depend?

I was told the best capture temps are on the 40's and early spring and fall are the best times of the year to capture yeast

Yeah, spring and fall is the best typically. But temperature is not the key to what you're looking for. It's about what's floating around in the air. In fall and spring there is a lot of interesting bugs swirling around looking to propagate. By the time all the plants have entered their adult phase and have finished doing their things, so have the bugs. You end up with lots of lacto and other, less interesting microbes. The same is true for the back end of the growing process as well.

If you have an interesting growing season, try out other times as well! You might be surprised.

Get all your growlers together and try to collect from different places at different times and let them sit for a long time.