Capturing Wild Yeast: Kauai

Well, i made 12 gallons of The Pious Westvleteren 12 clone from i cant remember who.

Put 11 gallons down with #1762 and set aside a gallon, open to the air for 3 days. Its fermenting pretty good...

 

Sweet! I'm interested in how this turns out. Good luck, and kudos for trying something different

 

Cool.

 

Is/was it next to a window or just on the counter? I've wanted to try this but I'm too afraid. Do you plan on plating/slanting the yeast to try to isolate healthy colonies?

 

Next to a window that got direct trade winds.

No need to fear anything about the brewing process.

I plan, if it taste's ok, on collecting.

 

Hope it's turns out for you. Gotta say, I visited your lovey lsland a couple summers ago, can't wait to come back. A simply beautiful place.

 

Thanks for the kind words. So far the beer smells fine.

 

Ok, well its finished and taste's like sour fruit.

Phase 2: Start barrel Project

Going to make 25 gallons of stout, with the wild yeast, then age it. Should be a fun project.

 

This sounds awesome. Please let us know as soon as you know! Subscribed!

 

Well, going with barrels isnt always that easy, and some barrels take some work to prepare. Unfortunately our barrels have dried out and need to swell again.

First, its time to check how loose the rings got. Find a good tool and keep it forever, the monks have had this barrel wedge since the beginning. I had to go to each ring and fit it back on with a few good whacks on each side. Then we find a nice place in the brewhouse and shim. I will let this barrel swell for two weeks. There are some nice leaks but should go away fairly quickly...

 

This will be the first barrel project in the monastery since the 90's.

 

Hey RJS - very cool project you've got going. Btw, you might find some good info over at the lambic & wild brewing forum. Several folks (including myself) have been playing with local, wild yeast fermentation. It's pretty amazing how well these projects can turn out. Good luck with yours!

 

Cool project. BTW, that "barrel tool" looks suspiciously like a masonry chisel.

I've never done anything with a barrel. I'm intrigued.

 

ive since filled 2 barrels. been super busy renovating brewhouse, new stainless fermentors, stainless countertops in fermentation house, and brewing. we will see how the beers turn out in a year. Good learning experience because i can see why we stopped our barrel projects a decade ago. Its a lot of work trying maintain barrels when your also trying to keep production of our flagships going, with all the ordering, inventory, brewing, cleaning, et cetera. Im done with barrels. Leaks are annoying too. Even if you get a new barrel, out here in the jungle a bore bug can make 5 holes in one night. Im glad i got it out of my system. Of course, if more than 1 monk were involved i could see it being enjoyable.

 

Alright, I'm bumping this old friend. I want to know what ever happened with the wild yeast capture and how the beers have turned out.

I'm on this interesting kick about sourdough breads/sourdough cultures, Rye beers and Rye Breads, and using things interchangeably. I'm thinking about brewing a small batch of rye beer with a sourdough culture starter, and baking a rye bread with the krausen from a rye ale (which was called a "Barm" in the 18th century.)

And also doing something like the Maltose falcons did with the King Midas beer and bake a sourdough rye bread that would be used to ferment the beer with naturally.

Michael Tonsmiers done some interesting stuff like this on his blog.

I'm also looking at culturing my own sourdough starter from my natural environment too definitely not as nice as Kuai though... more like Downtown Detroit (actually hamtramck) we have a lot old grape arbors with grape that the polish immigrants all made wine with back in the day that I'd like to see what I can get off their yeast this summer.

So I want an update on your wild brewing experiments.

 

I can't imagine ever having a better job title than Head Brewer at a Hindu monastery in Kaui.