Wild Yeast from Grapes

I recently moved into a new (to me) house that has a couple grape vines in the backyard. The grapes are pretty good, but naturally the homebrewer in me saw the white stuff on the skins and thought, that's yeast... I wonder what I can do with it.

I am thinking about making a small starter with some DME and dropping a few of the grapes into the starter to see if I can get the yeast to grow and create a wild yeast bank.

I know there are also bacteria on the grapes so if the starter smells like $*** I'll just toss it out.

Has anyone done this with grapes before? If I'm successful in getting some wild yeast without a bacterial infection, what should I brew with it? I imagine the default is a belgian or farmhouse style.

I think it would be kind of fun to try the local yeast on a small batch and see what kind of flavor results.

I have not done it with grapes, but I have done it with peaches and apples. never have I tried to use this yeast on Beer though, only on cider and mead. However the default is a lambic or farmhouse style, as you will probably get a few bugs in with your yeast, which COULD (read: probably will) sour your beer at least a little bit. Your idea on the starter is basically what I do to start up the wild yeast the first time, except because I don't use it in beer, I use apple juice so it probably looses that enzyme to ferment Malt-based sugars, so the DME will work great for what you're doing. make a grape lambic! that'd be awesome and keep us posted.

Freezeblade said:

I have not done it with grapes, but I have done it with peaches and apples.

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Would you mind describing, precisely, how you harvested wild yeast from these for mead? What were the results? What was their %alcohol tolerance (if you know...)

I am starting up a few test-strains of mead in primitive conditions, and am looking for yeast sources... and hoping for an idiot-proof step by step

Cheers!

Doog_Si_Reeb said:

I am thinking about making a small starter with some DME and dropping a few of the grapes into the starter to see if I can get the yeast to grow and create a wild yeast bank.

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I think the procedure is to streak a plate, and then harvest/culture those growths that appear to be yeast colonies. That way you can isolate away from the bacteria. I am going to try this with some swabs from pomegranates on a tree in my yard.

Driftless said:

Would you mind describing, precisely, how you harvested wild yeast from these for mead? What were the results? What was their %alcohol tolerance (if you know...)

I am starting up a few test-strains of mead in primitive conditions, and am looking for yeast sources... and hoping for an idiot-proof step by step

Cheers!

Click to expand...

My process was pretty simple, I prepared a sanitized 12oz stub bottle and put some starter solution in there (for me it was just apple juice, for you it should probably be DME and water made to 1.040). I skinned the apple/peach when wearing rubber gloves, in a clean kitchen (to make sure there's no extra bugs from hands/environment), and placed the skin into the bottle, covering it with aluminum foil and let it sit out for a few days, untill it was good and foamy. I then poured the liquid off of the skin into some more starter solution in a bigger bottle to step it up, then just added it right to the must once that was good and started. YMMV.

Edit: Oh, you're doing a mead, your starter would probably be honey and water with an SG of 1.040

Just throw the fruit into a starter and ramp up as you go.

Juniper berries were used in this capacity long long time ago.

- WW

fratermus said:

I think the procedure is to streak a plate, and then harvest/culture those growths that appear to be yeast colonies. That way you can isolate away from the bacteria. I am going to try this with some swabs from pomegranates on a tree in my yard.

Click to expand...

Just wondering how this went. I am planning to domesticate some wild yeasts of my own, and I'm wondering which natural sources will be best. Let me know, thanks!

I know this thread is ridiculously old, but I successfully harvested wild yeast from some Vitis riparia that I picked last weekend. I put about 20 intact grapes into 8 ounces of DME starter. After I got activity after five days, I cold crashed, decanted, and pitched into another 750 ml starter. It looks and smells like yeast and there are no fecal or vomit aromas. I guess I need to try it on a beer and see how it turns out.