Into the Wild Beer Yonder!

Thought I would share my wild yeast harvest experience. So have always been intrigued by wild fermentation and specifically coolships. After finding a big sale on restaurant supplies, I aquired a 5 gallon food service pan to give it a shot. Given that my brewing area isn't really anywhere near the equivalent of a typical brewhouse, I didn't want to try coolshipping indoors, so I decided to try cooling some wort outside in the new vessel.

And I think I have achieved a successful wild yeast capture! After my usual mash procedure for an IPA, I added another dose of about 3 gallons of hot water into the leftover grain and collected about 2-2.5 gallons of low gravity wort. I then boiled it briefly and added several low acid hop pellets. The hot wort was added into the sanitized pan, covered with cheese cloth then placed outside overnight to cool.

The next morning I poured everything into a 3 gallon carboy and waited. After about 24 hours there was activity, and within 48 hours I had a fully krausened fermentation going on! The krausen was a little darker than I'm used to, but otherwise it appeared to be a fairly normal ferment. I let it go about 10 days then transfered about half a gallon into a flip-top growler to age just for fun and I washed and collected the yeast in a mason jar.

The fermented wort tastes good! A little funky with slightly sour finish. Tastes very much like a farmhouse/saison. Next steps I guess will be to build up the culture into a proper starter then brew a pilot batch of something. I want to have another go at yeast capture after first frost to compare the cultures.

Any thoughts/suggestions for a recipe?

 

Cool beans. So you think the slightly sour finish is due to the presence of bacteria? Or its just tart from the very light DME and absence of hops in the starter wort? Sometimes its hard to tell unless the starter has been sitting for a while. I would definitely build it up in some regular strength starter wort to get the culture more accustomed to fermenting beer sugars

I'd definitely try a simple saison to get a feel for it. Something around 70% pils / 20-25% wheat/oats/rye / 5-10% sugar

Try to figure out for sure if its a sour blend of some sorts though. You dont want to be bottling it on a normal schedule, assuming its a not a blend of various bacteria, only to get bottle bombs later

 

Not sure yet where the sour flavor is from, could just be youth. Assuming bacteria, but we'll see. I keg all my beers, but when I do brew a batch with this culture, it will sit in the corner for several months to see what develops.

 

Great stuff. Let it ferment out and see what happens. It is very cool having your own culture. Do a small test batch and save the yeast.

I captured some wild yeast and have been using it for about. 3 1/2 years.

 

Nice! What kind of beers have you been making? What is the flavor profile of your culture? Any sourness?

 

Spontaneous is what I love. I've been capturing wild yeast for a couple years now and have isolated many strains of Lacto and Sacc and a few Brett and Pedio as well. They all are very different but some share similarities. Most of the wild strains took a few generations to really shine. I still have them plated out in and in slants as well as the original cultures which I feed every once in awhile. Also a suggestion on doing it in a coolship that small. I'd suggest just doing it in a kettle. Cooling rate to surface ratio only comes into play in much larger batches. I use a insulated 10 gallon kettle to inoculate. Using a shallow pan like that will cause it to cool in only a couple hours. I've tested it with a few vessels and the insulated kettle matches the same temp drops as the Belgian's experience when they do it. There is actually an episode on the Sour Hour about it as well. Can't remember which one though. Also don't be surprised if its near undrinkable for a 6 months to a year+. Alot of wild yeasts produce butyric acid and it takes awhile for that to be eaten by other bugs that may be in there as well.

 

No sourness. Seem to a pretty clean yeast with very saisonish qualities to it. Ferments crazy low like 3711 or Belle Saison. Always goes down to 1.000 to 1.004.

 

Good advice. I was aware of the issue of cooling too fast, but I had also read about using these types of pans. I was able to get them for less than $5 a piece and it seemed so easy I figured why not. I was expecting it to taste rather nasty, but it didn't at all. If someone had served me a carbonated glass of this stuff I would have drank all of it. I drained the hydrometer flask with no bubbles, so anyway. I expect that the flavor will change quite a bit. I'll pop it open in the spring and report back.

After I finish building up my current starter for this week's brew I'll start building the culture up to something usable.

 

How do you plate bacteria? What media do you use, etc.

 

On a whim I tried combining it with 3711 and it got down to 0.996! Ended up at over 8%. That sucker sure can kick

 

We do it in our mini lab on media we make. For Sacc/Brett we use a grain wort or DME at ranges of OG's depending if its from a wild capture, etc. For LAB's such as Pedio or Lacto we use this

Lacto/Pedio Growth
Ingredient Amount
DME(Sterilized in Water) 100 Grams
Sterile Water 900 ML
Pasteruerized Apple Juice 100 ML
CaCO3 20 Grams
Yeast Nutrients 1/2 tsp

Then you'd add agar, 1 liter wort of this would need 15 grams of agar. If i'm looking to isolate bacteria directly then I'll add Cycloheximide for either LABs or Brett. Here is also the recipe we use for a couple other medias not using maltose sugars.

Lysogeny Broth - 1 Liter
Ingredient Amount
Tryptone 10 Grams
Yeast Extract 5 Grams
NaCI (can substitute non-iodized or sea salt) 50-200 Grams
Agar(if plating/slanting) 15 Grams
Bring volume up to 1 liter with purified water
PH buffers if needed TBD

Beef Broth Media- 1 Liter
Ingredient Amount
Sugar 10 Grams
Beef Broth(No preservatives) 500 ML
NaCI (can substitute non-iodized or sea salt) 50-200 Grams
Bring volume up to 1 liter with purified water
PH buffers if needed TBD


We actually use the beef broth media for quick detection.

 

Yea it will definitely work, there is no doubt about that. The cooling rate is only important if your looking to get LABs such as Pedio or Lacto as they prefer warmer wort. So if your looking for some sour power then kettle is the way to go. Minus upping the scale quite a bit of course.

 

Yeah, That stuff just goes bat chit crazy. That hardest fermenting yeast I have ever used. Starts fast and goes nuts.

How did the mix taste? I bet it would be a pretty good combo.

 

Its pretty different than I thought it would be. Has a nice musty nose that definitely wasnt from the 3711, but has the mouthfeel I always get from 3711. It tastes kinda like lemony hay with maybe a bit of allspice. It seems like its about to finish sweet (which im never a fan of), and then it just cuts off. I like it a lot