American Wild Ale- Has anyone brewed it?

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allynlyon

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I'm not exactly sure where to post this so I'm sorry if I'm in the wrong spot. I thought it would be fun to brew something a little different. I stumbled upon American Wild Ale's, but I'm having trouble figuring out the exact technique and yeast. Has anyone else brewed one of these? A search on here didn't bring up anything either.
 
do you mean a sour beer? if so you can brew a low IBU beer (10 ibu) with any or all of these: 2 row, some crystal, wheat, oats. mash at 160-165. your yeast can come from any of the american sour ales made by russian river or jolly pumpkin or crooked stave (there are others). pitch the yeast (make a starter fro the dregs) and wait a 8 months to a year or more. this is a very rough sketch but should get you on the way.
 
I did mine with yeast captured from the air. I did a 1gal extract batch just to see how it turns out.
1 gal batch
8 oz light dry extract
8 oz wheat dry extract
2g Cascade(7.2%AA)
after 6 months I added 2 oz dark Brown sugar.
Reading MadFermentist he mentioned feeding the souring bugs later on and it will speed up the souring process so I tried it. Tasting it recently it is nice and tart, only 5 months till bottling.
Really should do another batch with the fall temps getting nice.
 
do you mean a sour beer? if so you can brew a low IBU beer (10 ibu) with any or all of these: 2 row, some crystal, wheat, oats. mash at 160-165. your yeast can come from any of the american sour ales made by russian river or jolly pumpkin or crooked stave (there are others). pitch the yeast (make a starter fro the dregs) and wait a 8 months to a year or more. this is a very rough sketch but should get you on the way.

I think a sour beer is what I mean. I came across it via wikipedia (damn wiki-trains). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wild_ale

I saw the yeast was different and didn't know how. Thanks for the info. I didn't realize it was going to be so long. Now I really want to do it.. a 1 year labor of love sounds fun!
 
I did mine with yeast captured from the air. I did a 1gal extract batch just to see how it turns out.
1 gal batch
8 oz light dry extract
8 oz wheat dry extract
2g Cascade(7.2%AA)
after 6 months I added 2 oz dark Brown sugar.
Reading MadFermentist he mentioned feeding the souring bugs later on and it will speed up the souring process so I tried it. Tasting it recently it is nice and tart, only 5 months till bottling.
Really should do another batch with the fall temps getting nice.

I don't mean to be dumb but how do you capture yeast from the air? Is there not much info because it's a new way of brewing, the taste isn't good, or because it takes so long?
 
I don't mean to be dumb but how do you capture yeast from the air? Is there not much info because it's a new way of brewing, the taste isn't good, or because it takes so long?

It is a very old way of brewing, really it is how Lambic brews were/are done. Basically I put 2 jars of 1.040ish wort outside with voile fabric covering them to keep bugs out for a couple of hours and let them ferment for a few weeks to see how they tasted, one turned out horrible, one good. Also I made some wort and dipped a strawberry from the garden( where the good tasting wort actually had come from) and collected some yeasties/bacteria that way. The Mad Fermentationist covers the technique in one of his blogs.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/04/ambient-spontaneous-yeast-starters.html
 
It is a very old way of brewing, really it is how Lambic brews were/are done. Basically I put 2 jars of 1.040ish wort outside with voile fabric covering them to keep bugs out for a couple of hours and let them ferment for a few weeks to see how they tasted, one turned out horrible, one good. Also I made some wort and dipped a strawberry from the garden( where the good tasting wort actually had come from) and collected some yeasties/bacteria that way. The Mad Fermentationist covers the technique in one of his blogs.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2011/04/ambient-spontaneous-yeast-starters.html

Thanks this looks like a fun experiment. If you like the beer though how would ever get that exact yeast combination again? Do you or did you wash the yeast from the batch?

I also just looked in the lambic/wild yeast forum. I wasn't sure what that was so I never ventured in there. Thanks for the help.
 
Thanks this looks like a fun experiment. If you like the beer though how would ever get that exact yeast combination again? Do you or did you wash the yeast from the batch?

I also just looked in the lambic/wild yeast forum. I wasn't sure what that was so I never ventured in there. Thanks for the help.

I don't think you will ever get the exact same beer again since the bacteria/yeast ratio will be different after fermentation compared to before. The reason I did it was I was bored one day and if it turned out drinkable hey look I truly made beer.
 
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