Pretty easy to make alcohol

No wonder its been around so long. I left a sample from my weizen bock sitting on the kitchen counter (far away from where I added my yeast to my wort). I woke up the next day and it was fermenting!!!! The yeasties were bobbing up and down and bubbles were going and there was a good looking krausen on top. It smelled terrible, but still interesting how easy it is to catch some wild yeast and have them ferment sugars. Anyone else seen anything like this?

After 3 days it was down to 1.018 from 1.063

Did you drink it..?:cross:

Yeap capturing the wild beasts. To be honest, it pretty much happens %99.9999 of the time when fermentable stuff is left unguarded and precautions are not taken. To make sourdough starter you basically just sit a thick paste of Rye flour and water out and wait....where it gets really interesting is when say you made a sourdough starter and I took some home, there is a huge chance that mine will just become dominated by my locally strong strains. I have read about a lady who gave her friend that lived just a stone's throw away her sourdough starter on several occasions. Her starter was very mild always, with almost no detectable sourness...now her friend, try as she might, her starter would always ineviteably turn very sour.

This is the same concept behind say Lambics. The spontaneous fermenting yeasts and such are just the dominant strains in that particular locale...for whatever reason(s). If you have the drive to experiment, this is one really cool avenue to pursue for making a brew that cannot be replicated easily by anyone and for all practical purposes would be unique from the strain alone. That guy from New Belgium brewing spoke about this type of thing in a podcast from www.basicbrewingradio.com.

It sounds like you have some vigorous strains hanging around...which quite possibly is a result of all the brewing you do.

heh heh... the ol lambic brewdog You should try it... maybe its a yeast culture you want to hold on to???!

sirsloop said:

heh heh... the ol lambic brewdog You should try it... maybe its a yeast culture you want to hold on to???!

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Dude, it smelled soooo sour, I was tempted to take a sip, but DID NOT happen. I couldn't get past the smell. As far as culturing it, I might experiment with wild yeasts a little later in life. I'm gonna be moving across seas in a few months and don't want to get too involved in anything I'm gonna have to leave behind. That's why I haven't bought kegs and built a bar yet

I've got a hydrometer sample that's getting it's krausen on. Been tempted to try it. Also, I'm thinking about a mead experiment with wild yeast.

making alcohol is easy....making it taste good, well that's were the real challenge is!

seefresh said:

Dude, it smelled soooo sour, I was tempted to take a sip, but DID NOT happen. I couldn't get past the smell. As far as culturing it, I might experiment with wild yeasts a little later in life. I'm gonna be moving across seas in a few months and don't want to get too involved in anything I'm gonna have to leave behind. That's why I haven't bought kegs and built a bar yet

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Sounds like a Lacto Bacillus to me, not wild yeast. It's on grains to begin with.

Glibbidy said:

making alcohol is easy....making it taste good, well that's were the real challenge is!

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Glibbidy,

You hit the nail on the head! I'm going to quote that in my sig from now on, if you don't mind, of course! :rockin: