Local yeast for local beer

So my neighbor grows barley, I grow hops, so we decided why not try to make an all local beer? I wrote a recipie, dug out last year's centennial crop and he went to work figuring out how to malt some barley. Then it hit me, how can we call it a local beer with yeast from a lab somewhere? And that brings me to this thread, just figured I'd document my journey here to either a success or total failiure.

I was brewing a lemon pepper saison when I decided to try this, so I saved about 4 cups of my second runnings and gave them a quick boil on the stove. I then set them out by my cherry tree on a windy day, about three weeks ago. After three days there was no signs of fermentation, but I decided with a storm coming time to move it inside. The next morning I got up and checked it out and I had fermentation.

Day 10
The smell so far has been very tame with just a slight tart aroma but pretty clean

Day 14
it's hard to tell a difference from the picture but the krausen looks far denser and almost like a crust, not nearly as creamy. Also much more sour smelling, but in a very pleasant way

And that brings us to today, day 21

The smell is wonderful, cleared fairly well. I'm going to crash and decant it later and throw it on the stir plate to make a 1 gallon batch of something to see how it performs.

You may have something. It is a hit or miss with wild yeast. Making a small one gallon batch is a good way to figure out what you got. I would suggest making a small starter to see what happens and then crashing it to see if it drops out. I had one. that worked well, smelled pretty good but just would not drop out of suspension.

I tried it a few years ago and had some failures but ended up capturing a great yeast. Nice fruity/spicy flavor and it attenuated like a beast.

Here is a thread about my attempts.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=419725

Good luck.

What would you suggest for my first step on my starter? I was thinking 1l at 1.030. On a side note I talked SWMBO to take a slant into her microbiology class and for a class project they are going to seperate the strains and bacteria and try to identify what I have

nettekdl said:

What would you suggest for my first step on my starter? I was thinking 1l at 1.030. On a side note I talked SWMBO to take a slant into her microbiology class and for a class project they are going to seperate the strains and bacteria and try to identify what I have

Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, that is pretty much what I did. After it went for a few days I then put it in the fridge to crash it. Then went right to a one gallon test batch..Yeast performed beautifully. I am still keeping a few samples of this alive and using it occasionally. It has almost become my house saison yeast.

That would be cool if you wifes class could identify the strains and bacteria. I have no idea what is exactly in mine. All I know is that it works.

Subscribed. This is real brewing at its
finest. I hope the results are mind blowing and that biology happened to work in your favor.

Local Lambic...nice!

NEED to know how this turns out

Well I'd planned on running my starter yesterday to build up the cell count a bit for a 1 gallon batch, but ended up drinking a few too many hefeweizens so I will today. Update to come!

In for results! Good luck!

Well finally got around to decanting the original harvest to make a new starter. Took the harvest wort down from an unknown og probably in the 1.060 range to 1.014 and boy is it sour. Whipping up the first step of the starter now

Subscribed

I like this thread.

Well starter step 1 is done, cold crashing for step 2 now. My access to the local barley is pretty much limited to about 15 lbs so I think I'm going to do a test batch before I use that up as I will need it all between base malt and making crystal out of some of it. Decided to make a cherry lambic with the cherries off the tree this yeast was harvested by for that batch. Does anyone have a suggestion for what I should make for a test batch?

Cool...

Just do something very simple to get a feel for what the yeast tastes like. I did a simple extract one gallon brew. 1 lb light DME, 1/2 lb wheat DME, Some hops to balance it out and let it go. It gave me a real good idea of the taste of the yeast.

Keep it simple so you can taste the yeast. Then you can decide what flavor profile it has and you can make a recipe based on that.

Still haven't gotten around to brewing my test batch, maybe this weekend. However, the tentative and very amateur lab results are back. A little disappointed with the vagueness, but hey they are students what can you expect lol. I'm looking at multiple sacc strains, alot of Brett c and a mild percentage of lacto according to their tests. Also 2 strains they say they can't yet identify as of yet, still culturing away. Hopefully they finish this before the quarter is over!

Here is a box of motivation for you.....
Cheers

Test beer is down to 10 minutes left in the boil, will update throughout fermentation if anyone is interested or just when the beer is finished if not.

Throughout fermentation,please

Well the picture does not do it justice but the initial krausen is honestly terrifying lol it looks fine on camera, but in person is another story. It is very dense and almost hard looking, but the smell is very tame and normal. And I know it's alot of head space before anyone says anything, I made a three gallon batch and while sanitizing my three gallon carboy the slipperiness of star San caused me to drop it in my garage and cut the hell out of my foot, don't brew in flip flops, so one of my 6 gallon buckets is all I had.

Sorry forgot to attach in previous post

As long as it doesn't start growling at you or moving under its own power, I think this experiment will be just fine.

Well this morning we are to a pretty normal krausen and all is looking good, about 3 bubbles a second in the air lock and it smells fantastic.

Looks good. Keep us posted on how it goes.

Headspace in a primary isn't an issue because the yeast will consume the oxygen and the CO2 will fill the space. Too much headspace is a secondary is a different issue. I'm very curious how this come out. Cool experiment.

Subscribed, this is awsome!

Well krausen has fallen and all signs of activity have stopped, hoping the Brett start to take over soon as it is smelling lIke a very very clean ferment.

A-men

Update with an SG when able. I'm shocked that after only 2 days the ferment is winding down

I definitely want to keep up with this. Looks like you may be on to something.

I will pull the sg tonight after work, I can't imagine unless this yeast is some sort of super yeast that it'd be done by now, unless it just hit it's alcohol tolerance already and crapped out on me

Subbed, liking the idea. Any chance of getting photos from the class? I used to get to play with microscopes with cameras attached and always like the images that came out of them.

Awesome thread man... what kind of hops do you grow and do you live in the states? Just curious, when it comes to picking up wild yeast and location.

Looking forward to the results.

I grow centennial pretty much now, my chinook is not doing well this year and isn't looking like I'm going to get much out of it. I harvested the yeast out under a cherry tree in my back yard on a relatively mild day, about 65 and little wind. I live in the foothills of the cascades in western washington. As far as pics, my wife's school doesn't have very nice equipment so no pics sorry, she tried to take a couple with her phone through the scope but they didn't come out

Great experiment!

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Ok well sg is down to 1.018 from 1.060 in two days, so there is a fairly hardy sacc strain in there I think. There is no obvious activity really but there is a thin krausen again, I'm going to let it ride awhile then check again and if it's stuck I'll try raising the temp a bit. Hopefully if the sacc is done the Brett may come into play now. The hydro sample is actually really good, suprisingly clean with some Belgian character. I think I labeled some of the hops in my freezer wrong though because the supposed half ounce of saaz I used tastes more like a half ounce of apollo. Double check when you buy and package more then one hop in bulk!

I like these threads/projects!
Cant wait to hear about the finished beer.

Apart from the hops cock-up,looks like you are on to a winner.
Breath is held,awaiting further news