The_General
Well-Known Member
Having a little extra DME and hops on hand, I decided to make an attempt to harvest some wild yeast. I made a pint starter (OG=1.030)with a little hops and set it outside with a screen on top. Within a day, I had a mini-krausen forming so I brought the starter in and covered it with foil. It's now four days later and krausen has fallen but the problem is that I'm seeing no change in gravity and the taste and smell is just like unfermented wort.
So my question is where do I go from here? There are a few possibilities I've thought of. One is that I have very little yeast and it's unable to ferment to any detectable level. If that's the case, do I cold crash it and make a much smaller starter? Another possibility is that I didn't catch anything but that seems unlikely since a krausen formed. Another option I thought of is to warm it up and aerate to see if that helps. One other option I thought about is adding more starter (maybe with yeast nutrient added) and hoping it takes off. By the way, I do see some solids sitting on the bottom of the starter and some chunks floating near the top but I'm assuming that it's mostly if not entirely hops. So I'm all ears, wild yeast gurus...what's the next step?
So my question is where do I go from here? There are a few possibilities I've thought of. One is that I have very little yeast and it's unable to ferment to any detectable level. If that's the case, do I cold crash it and make a much smaller starter? Another possibility is that I didn't catch anything but that seems unlikely since a krausen formed. Another option I thought of is to warm it up and aerate to see if that helps. One other option I thought about is adding more starter (maybe with yeast nutrient added) and hoping it takes off. By the way, I do see some solids sitting on the bottom of the starter and some chunks floating near the top but I'm assuming that it's mostly if not entirely hops. So I'm all ears, wild yeast gurus...what's the next step?