Making yeast at home?

[Dana]

Hi, I'm trying to brew some beer but no one sells brewing yeast here, I have this idea of adding some barley to a sugary water mixture and let it ferment then use the liquid as my yeast for the brewing process. I figured it would have some kind of originality if I used wild yeasts on barley instead of other fruits like grapes.
(I've actually started a small bottle of this two days ago and it's bubbling now)
My question is do I have a chance of getting any good results this way?
How much of this liquid will be required? Is there a way to calculate it?

 

[Protos]

Do they sell baking yeast in Iran? It may be a better (more predictable) alternative to wild yeasts for clandestine brewing.
Some Nordic styles have been traditionally brewed with bakers yeasts.
I brewed a Finnish Sahti with it, the taste was unusual but it was definitely a beer and not a bad one. If I boiled it and added hops instead of juniper it would have been much better, but then it wouldn't be a Sahti).

 

[bracconiere]

i'd probably plate it and try and clean it up in a sterile environment...otherwise i'm thinking sourdough style beer? never tried it myself though...

 

[Dana]

Do they sell baking yeast in Iran? It may be a better (more predictable) alternative to wild yeasts for clandestine brewing.
Some Nordic styles have been traditionally brewed with bakers yeasts.
I brewed a Finnish Sahti with it, the taste was unusual but it was definitely a beer and not a bad one. If I boiled it and added hops instead of juniper it would have been much better, but then it wouldn't be a Sahti).

I've seen people do it here but you get a bread like taste I'd rather not use bakers yeast.

 

[Dana]

i'd probably plate it and try and clean it up in a sterile environment...otherwise i'm thinking sourdough style beer? never tried it myself though...

If I tried pating it(you mean in agar?) How can I tell yeast from other stuff in there? I don't know how yeast looks is it easy to distinguish?

 

[bracconiere]

If I tried pating it(you mean in agar?) How can I tell yeast from other stuff in there? I don't know how yeast looks is it easy to distinguish?

when i was growing mushrooms, it WAS the infection. and i always understood it to be the cloudy white spots? not completly sure.

also my understanding bleach will kill bacterial spores and not growing fungi, used that to clone store bought/wild mushrooms a lot also....


at any rate you got me thinking, a house yeast strain would be cool to have. and i haven't used my glove box in a LONG time. i might try making a sour dough starter and report back on if i can clean up some yeast for beer.

 

[Dana]

when i was growing mushrooms, it WAS the infection. and i always understood it to be the cloudy white spots? not completly sure.

also my understanding bleach will kill bacterial spores and not growing fungi, used that to clone store bought/wild mushrooms a lot also....


at any rate you got me thinking, a house yeast strain would be cool to have. and i haven't used my glove box in a LONG time. i might try making a sour dough starter and report back on if i can clean up some yeast for beer.

I grow mushrooms too
I bet the mushrooms are going to overrun the yeast this time

 

[bracconiere]

I grow mushrooms too

then you should be all set for doing petri smears of the wild yeast. might want to select a few diferent colonies, the only draw back to baker's yeast, is it doesn't flocculate out of the beer.

 

[khannon]

Those Kviek yeasts are pretty hardy.. Wonder if you could get someone to write a letter to you and dip a clean corner in some slurry and let it dry? Or leave a bit dried in the bottom of the envelope?

 

[Bobby_M]

Baking yeast is closer to what you want than wild yeast unless you're looking for a Lambic-style sour beer.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I used wild yeasts on barley instead of other fruits like grapes.

I am not sure that yeasts are know for hanging out on grains like barley. They tend to only eat very simple sugars like those found in fruits. On the other hand, I have been taught that raw grains are a potential source of contamination/souring of a beer (due to lactobacillus?). I suspect that it will be a challenge to make a drinkable beer just using barley as your source.

I know people that have harvested wild yeasts, but it is often a lot of trial and error to find a yeast that ferments the more complex sugars in beer, and also does not produce a lot of phenolic flavors (generally not desired in beer...though some Belgian/Wheat yeasts produce desirable phenolic flavors).

 

[bracconiere]

i'm going to try a batch. just so this thread isn't all conjecture. i just ground a handfull of homemalted wheat crystal malt.....added water cover with dish towel, and a plate (because i don't have a rubber band....

i'm thinking as soon as i get active ferment, i'll whip out the glove box, and do up some agar plates with wheat germ for nutes, and do some smears, see if i can clean up something good for beer....

i've been told my pictures suck, so this will be just a text thing...lol

 

[bernardsmith]

Why not get hold of some fruit - raisins, berries, figs, dates and see if you can grow yeast in a solution of fruit and water. With fruit it is far more likely that you will grow yeast rather than lacto-bacilli. Once you have successfully fermented different batches you might add some sugar and see if you can "cultivate" the more vigorous, more alcohol tolerant cells. I would tend to aim for starting gravities of about 1.035 to 1.040 so as not to stress the yeasts overmuch. I would also taste the alcohols you are producing: indigenous yeast can sometimes create delightful wines and sometimes they make awful wines. Reject any yeast that you are culturing that makes a crappy tasting alcohol from the fruit. BUT remember that you are NOT making wine with this technique. You are GROWING yeast cultures and the yeast that you are growing is on the fruit. I sometimes do this for fun and might use 100 g of fruit in about 500 ml of water in bottles I can cork with a drilled bung and airlock so I can observe the activity (bubbles) BUT measure the change in gravity.