Going Wild

Yakima 728
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Ha, thanks Barley_Bob! I just think it's awesome to think of what our "styles" are in America using local yeast. Like how there's all the variations throughout Europe from thousand plus years of them brewing and refining their localized yeast.

Man, that's honestly a great question and I truly don't know. I'd love to have one that would go well in a brown ale, but also can't wait to try my hand at brewing some saisons and get refreshing, local yeasty beers [emoji6]

Also, I highly recommend reading Mutedog's blog and Sui Generis' blog as well! Great info on there!
 
That's interesting. I'd love to try this, but I can't stand saisons. I don't know what I'd use it for. Is it doable to refine it into something that can be used in an American or English style?
 
Barley_Bob said:
That's interesting. I'd love to try this, but I can't stand saisons. I don't know what I'd use it for. Is it doable to refine it into something that can be used in an American or English style?
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Shoot, I honestly have no idea bud. I honestly don't even know if I like saisons lol. In my mind I'm imagining a refreshing, earthy light colored beer with flavor but honestly have no clue lol.

I will probably make some hefe's with it and some golden ales. I guess just depends on their profiles.

Knowing me, I'll brew them in a brown ale anyways for the fun of it to see how they do. Just depends on their attenuation and what not.
 
Tactical-Brewer said:
Shoot, I honestly have no idea bud. I honestly don't even know if I like saisons lol. On my mind I'm imagining a refreshing, earthy light colored beer with flavor but honestly have no clue lol.

I will probably make some hefe's with it and some golden ales. I guess just depends on their profiles.

Knowing me, I'll brew them in a brown ale anyways for the fun of it to see how they do. Just depends on their attenuation and what not.
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If you get one working in a brown or golden ale, I'll pay for a slant.
 
Barley_Bob said:
If you get one working in a brown or golden ale, I'll pay for a slant.
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Shoot I wouldn't charge ya for that! I think it would be awesome to trade yeast with people who've harvested local wild yeast!

Imagine drinking a blue ridge ipa, a badlands brown ale, a Missouri porter, etc.

Just think that would be awesome! I wonder just how different the strains are though throughout the country. There's obviously a ton of different yeast that produce the same style, but slight slight variations in their taste.
 
Tactical-Brewer said:
Shoot I wouldn't charge ya for that! I think it would be awesome to trade yeast with people who've harvested local wild yeast!

Imagine drinking a blue ridge ipa, a badlands brown ale, a Missouri porter, etc.

Just think that would be awesome! I wonder just how different the strains are though throughout the country. There's obviously a ton of different yeast that produce the same style, but slight slight variations in their taste.
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...

Then you'd better brace yourself for an Illinois strain.
 
@Tactical-Brewer, I just listened to a 2013 episode of Brew Strong "Yeast FAQ" and their process to collect wild yeast was to have a jar of wort covered with cheese cloth place under a fruit tree.

Just thought I'd share!
 
cannman said:
@Tactical-Brewer, I just listened to a 2013 episode of Brew Strong "Yeast FAQ" and their process to collect wild yeast was to have a jar of wort covered with cheese cloth place under a fruit tree.

Just thought I'd share!
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Yep, I had read about this method, and hope to try it this fall. From what I was reading a lot of people had better luck when the temps were mid 50's otherwise they were getting too much mold in their samples.

I think it's just so hit or miss though. On that episode of Beersmith where he interviewed the couple from Florida, they just set out cups of wort, and the one that worked was one that a bee fell into.

So many variations on the methods for catching wild yeast it's not even funny. I definitely want to try the wort/cheesecloth method this fall and take them to various parts around me. Fields, woods, gardens, fruit trees, etc.
 
Just read through this thread - I'm loving it! I kind've left a hydrometer sample on top of my fermentation chamber for a couple weeks a few months ago and I just pitched the wild yeast from it into a liter of wort in hopes of some magic.
 
Thanks FatDragon!

Day 5!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1463941624.015855.jpg

The honeysuckle still has a slight "funk" smell, but has the most bubbles.

The hedge has a nice, honey, sweet, floral aroma and has a decent amount of bubbles.

The roses/daisies has a very neutral smell. Little hints but not anything like the others, very neutral. This one has bubbles, but also some sort of silky umm, snotty(?) looking wavy things that hang down from the bubbles. Kinda weird. Definitely doesn't stink though so who knows.

It should be noted, none of them at this point are "overwhelming" smell wise. More of just hints. I can't wait for another couple weeks to start building these up. I can only presume it's yeast in there? Of some sort anyways. None have any sign of mold so that's a huge bonus! Or at least your normal looking "mold". Maybe that's what that white silky snotty things are hanging down from the rose/daisies bubbles?

Stay tuned to see how these develop along.

Tac
 
Day 6 update! Looks like krausen has dropped a bit! Check it out! *oh, by the way, it's crazy what pics with flash and pics without flash change what things look like!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464036739.947396.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464036750.046426.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464036759.578217.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464036768.746866.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464036781.545520.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464036792.014722.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464036802.744213.jpg

Beer geek porn for your viewing pleasure haha!

Gonna harvest some Liberty ale yeast dregs tonight [emoji106]🏻
 
Day 7 update, no real change in appearance other than the hedge is now starting to get those whispy floaties like the roses and daisies. Aroma seems to be more intense on all.

Hopefully something bust loose here soon and starts changing more 👍
 
Update: I have also been getting foam and wispy floaties in my white clover sample. It took a couple more days and my red clover sample started as well. I decided to remove the flowers once fermentation started and noticed a dead worm and some black things (not sure if they were seeds or eggs) in the red clover starter, so I dumped that one.

Any idea what the wispy floaties are? I am scared to try the white clover but hesitant to dump it yet. It smells like beer although very vegetal and funky.
 
Aristotelian said:
Update: I have also been getting foam and wispy floaties in my white clover sample. It took a couple more days and my red clover sample started as well. I decided to remove the flowers once fermentation started and noticed a dead worm and some black things (not sure if they were seeds or eggs) in the red clover starter, so I dumped that one.

Any idea what the wispy floaties are? I am scared to try the white clover but hesitant to dump it yet. It smells like beer although very vegetal and funky.
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I haven't the slightest bud. I guess it could be pellicle, but I don't know. I'm just going to let them keep on trudging along for another 3 weeks or so and see what happens.

Luckily I haven't seen any nasties like bugs or seeds so I think all three are still good to keep.

I probably won't "taste" any of this until I've stepped them up after I let these initial test batches crash after a month. Then I'll start stepping them up enough to do 1 gallon batches and I'll taste that lol.
 
I love reading about this stuff. I've brewed a good number of sours, but still haven't gotten around to trying to wrangle local yeast. Maybe this summer or fall. Every time I think about trying it, I get busy and forget about it.
 
@signpost how do you brew sours? Brew just like normal, then toss in a souring bug like what I've probably got in these jars, and let it sit for a couple years?
 
My little batch with the hydrometer-sample yeast looked totally inactive for the first few days, but has since developed a small krausen after stepping up (gradually) from 16.5C to 18.5C. It had what looked like a thin lacto pellicle going in, but I don't see any of that yet. Not sure if I'm hoping for lacto to take off so I get a local sour or if I'd rather it not take off and just get a sample of local yeast.
 
FatDragon said:
My little batch with the hydrometer-sample yeast looked totally inactive for the first few days, but has since developed a small krausen after stepping up (gradually) from 16.5C to 18.5C. It had what looked like a thin lacto pellicle going in, but I don't see any of that yet. Not sure if I'm hoping for lacto to take off so I get a local sour or if I'd rather it not take off and just get a sample of local yeast.
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I'm hoping for just a local saccs so I don't have to learn how to deal with sours just yet lol.

Really just hoping for a good heavy hitting strain.
 
Tactical-Brewer said:
I'm hoping for just a local saccs so I don't have to learn how to deal with sours just get lol.

Really just hoping for a good heavy hitting strain.
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Looking at Mutedog's blog, it seems like he gets great results with whatever mix of yeast and bacteria he ends up with. With that in mind, I'm trying not to frame my expectations until I actually have a culture that's produced a test batch. That's not to say I wouldn't throw out something nasty, but I do want to be open minded about the process and judge success by actual, final results. You just never know.

Oh, I should say that I'm trying this too. It's infectious!
 
Tactical-Brewer said:
@signpost how do you brew sours? Brew just like normal, then toss in a souring bug like what I've probably got in these jars, and let it sit for a couple years?
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Yeah, that's the main way. Just brew up something with low IBUs and pitch a commercial souring blend (Roeselare, ECY Bug County or BugFarm). I've also pitched dregs from commercial sour/wild ales (Jolly Pumpkin and others) And I've done one sour mash where I pitched a 1/2 lb. of 2-row into a mash at around 115°F and held it around that temp for a couple days.

The sour mash beer was ready to drink pretty quick, because I did a quick boil after the mash was done that killed off the lacto and then did a regular sacch fermentation. The others though, they've taken anywhere up to 18 months to just get ready for bottling, then another few months or so after that before they really were starting to peak with great flavors.

I can't wait to find a chance to harvest some local microbes to really have some fun, though.
 
Tactical-Brewer said:
I guess I better actually try a sour beer before I even get the hankering to make one lol
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Right? I've only got a couple sours available to me in China so I've to very little experience drinking sours. People talk them up all the time here and I've definitely got interest in brewing one, but the reality is that I don't even know what different kinds of sours (or brett-fermented beers for that matter) are supposed to taste like...
 
FatDragon said:
Right? I've only got a couple sours available to me in China so I've to very little experience drinking sours. People talk them up all the time here and I've definitely got interest in brewing one, but the reality is that I don't even know what different kinds of sours (or brett-fermented beers for that matter) are supposed to taste like...
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Exactly! I'm still learning about all the other types of beers and what they're supposed to taste like let alone sours lol
 
I like the almanac sours, not sure you can get them out that far east though.

I brewed a parti gyle sour this weekend so that took a little longer than I was planning; otherwise I would have made a starter and tried this. Maybe this weekend.

With that said, I have a winery accross the street from my house. I've contemplated going over there and asking for a single grape. Lol
 
OP, I'm willing to bet, with my limited knowledge, that each of your samples have a slurry of different microbes in each.
Do you have access to a microscope so you could plate a sample and isolate a yeast strain separate from the other bacteria?
I assume that is the proper way to get a local yeast without a full microbiome of organisms
 
Jwin said:
OP, I'm willing to bet, with my limited knowledge, that each of your samples have a slurry of different microbes in each.
Do you have access to a microscope so you could plate a sample and isolate a yeast strain separate from the other bacteria?
I assume that is the proper way to get a local yeast without a full microbiome of organisms
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I plan to build them out and them make multiple agar plates and isolate different colonies off the agar plates. Unfortunately I don't really have access to a microscope but will build up a multitude of samples and then isolate them based on taste, attenuation, and flocculation. That's my goal anyways.

Ultimately, regardless of building them up and isolating them, from my understanding, The yeast would basically isolate themselves by whichever is more dominate would eventually be the only one growing and after each batch the stronger yeast for lack of better words would isolate itself out.
 
Day 8 update!

So, I decided to take the Roses/Daisies jar and attempt to build it up. I swirled it up to get the stuff floating on top broken up and in suspension. It all eventually settled to the bottom and you could see a nice layer of "presumably" yeast on top of some sediment (which is weird to me that dme produces any sort of sediment).

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464201003.877358.jpg
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I made up a regular 2 cups water/half cup dme starter with some yeast nutrient and energizer. I decanted about half the jar trying not to disturb the layer on the bottom but it wasn't very compacted yet so I just poured in the last half of the jar into the starter.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464201103.163555.jpg

I have no idea how this will work, if I did it too soon, or right on schedule. The initial wort was hopped so hopefully it kept the bacteria at bay. I will see how this one builds up and decide if I want to do the others now or continue to wait, but if I caught saccs I want them to have the foothold as opposed to lacto or Brett since I don't feel like tackling sours at this point in my brewing career lol.

As far as the others, the honey suckle has a slight "bread" note to its aroma, not funky, nor floral at this point. Just kind of yeasty(?) would be about my best descriptor. Now the hedge on the other hand, boy it smells sweet and floral, almost like a honey suckle bush when you walk past (isn't that funny how that works). It's definitely not over the top, but the aroma is there. They both are looking good and hoping this roses/daisies starter takes off and builds up some confidence for the other two.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464201352.413447.jpg

Wish me luck! [emoji106]🏻
 
Day 9 Update!

The roses/daisies jar is growing like an animal on the starter and appears to be growing well. Only problem is that it doesn't smell too enticing lol. It doesn't smell the greatest at this point so I have no idea.

The other two, they will smell very floral and sweet and my initial thought that popped into my head when I smelled them was candy green apple. I could be way off, but that was just the first thought that popped into my head when they hit my nose.

I'll keep everyone posted and hopefully as this one grows, it'll loose whatever the funk smell is and go back to the floral sweet smell it originally was.
 
Tactical-Brewer said:
Yep, although my knowledge is rather limited and I'm still very much learning about brewing in general, I'm going wild. Or well, attempting to anyways.

The idea of using a wild, local yeast in a beer is absolutely fascinating to me. As yeast in general are fascinating to me.

After doing a ton of reading, I'm trying my hand at collecting some wild yeast and just going to see what happens. If I get any, and as they grow, I will isolate colonies using agar plates and try to purify them the best I can without a microscope or a microbiology degree lol.

Eventually decided to go on mute dog's method because it seemed pretty easy. Create some lower gravity, low hopped wort, put your flowers, tree bark, fruit in it for 6-12 hours, pull that out and let it set for a while and see if you get anything.

While over at my childhood property this evening for dinner, I got some flowers, put them in my cooled wort I made earlier and am staring at them like a small child stares at a snow globe. I'll keep you all posted or whoever cares about it. Should be fun.

Oh, for the flowers, I did one mason jar with daisies and roses, one with honey suckle, and one with little flowers off some hedge bush my mom said the bees love.

Wish me luck.

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Wow! this is such a great idea!! Honey looks more tempting with flowers inside. I think not all kinds of flowers can be there right?
 
Tactical-Brewer said:
I guess I better actually try a sour beer before I even get the hankering to make one lol
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I see you're across the river from me so you're fortunate enough to be near Side Project Cellar. You usually have to drink the beers on site because the production is limited. They actually have some bottles to go at the moment. You just have to check on their site. Fuzzy Blend #2 is really good and it's currently available to drink on-site. That one uses wild Missouri yeast and Mo White Peaches.
 
TimmyWit said:
I see you're across the river from me so you're fortunate enough to be near Side Project Cellar. You usually have to drink the beers on site because the production is limited. They actually have some bottles to go at the moment. You just have to check on their site. Fuzzy Blend #2 is really good and it's currently available to drink on-site. That one uses wild Missouri yeast and Mo White Peaches.
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That's Awesome TimmyWit! I'll have to look them up!
 

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