Collecting Yeast

[nwmalthead22]

Has anybody trapped their own local yeast/cultures? I have to grab my mason jars from my father's house, but I have 2 experiments going so far.
Jar A: oats, honey, chopped raisins
Jar B: oats, honey, dried cranberries
Both jars were sanitized proper; dried fruit was placed in bottom of jars. The oats were boiled for 5 minutes. Then added the honey at "flameout" and added mixture to jars. Covered with muslin to keep bugs out.
Placed jars near open window for 48 hours. Now they're covered with sanitized lids and I am patiently waiting for 10-14 days to go by.
I'll post updates weekly as long as I'm experimenting.
Anybody have any thoughts or experience on the subject?

 

[mxstar21]

I haven't done it, but check this place out. Should be good info.

http://bootlegbiology.com/backyard-yeast-wrangling-tool-kit/

 

[RPh_Guy]

Wrangling local yeast is definitely on my to-do list. For the growth media I would probably use some apple juice acidified to pH 4.5 to make it simple and keep out bacteria/mold. Maybe a bit of malt extract.
And at least 5 at a time since like 90% of wild yeasts aren't very good.
Need more research but seems like a basic starting point.

Keep a close eye on your jars because there certainly may be CO2 production... you don't want them exploding.

 

[bernardsmith]

I have cultivated indigenous yeast from honey, from marjoram growing in my garden, from apples and from dried figs. Best (I think) to growing solution with an SG of about 1.040 (and I added plenty of nutrients. Don't have a stir plate (I make mead and wine and tend to use dry yeast) so I used mason jars (sealed) which I agitated several times a day to oxygenate (and when fermentation began I would open the jars once a day to release the CO2. To date the only yeast I used was from the honey and it produced a very pleasant but low ABV mead (was not trying to see how tolerant this was to alcohol) at about 4-5% ABV

 

[howamidriving]

I managed to catch something interesting from underneath the elderberry bush in my yard this summer. The initial fermentation was a watered down Saison that formed a nice pellicle and smelled like a less intense lemoncello. Flavor was pretty bland but clean. It's currently sitting on some watered down quad.

I'm excited to see what this will end up being with some time. Fermentation took off in about 18 hrs with the second generation. Eventually I'd like to do 1 gal batches with just this yeast but also pitch some into all of my sours.