Can you ferment beer with the wild yeast and bacteria that exists on fruit alone? I am curious as to whether it could be possible knowing that yeast exist naturally on/ in fruit that hasn't been thoroughly sanitized. I'm considering experimenting with a small (1 gal) batch.
Fermenting via fruit
- Thread starter rubyroo
- Start date
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Yes. You can isolate on agar and grow up from a single cell fairly easily, or take your chances on a completely wild fermentation. Results will vary wildly depending on what other bugs join the party and variations of different wild yeasts.
you can indeed, but you're rolling the dice if you throw fruit into wort.
you have no idea what the inoculation (pitch) rate will be. if it's really low, could take a while before the yeast on the fruit get going - giving plenty of time for other things to take hold.
you have no idea what is on that fruit and whether it/they are any good for making beer.
but hey, this is homebrewing - the ability to experiment with little consequences if it goes bad is one of the many beauties of this hobby. as long as you're ok with potentially needing to dump it, give it a try. then let us know how it turned out!
you have no idea what the inoculation (pitch) rate will be. if it's really low, could take a while before the yeast on the fruit get going - giving plenty of time for other things to take hold.
you have no idea what is on that fruit and whether it/they are any good for making beer.
but hey, this is homebrewing - the ability to experiment with little consequences if it goes bad is one of the many beauties of this hobby. as long as you're ok with potentially needing to dump it, give it a try. then let us know how it turned out!
How would one go about isolating a single cell? I think I could get ahold of some agar. Or make something similar, but how do I know I'm getting one cell (or one type) without expensive special equipment? Also how would I know I have something usable?
I am okay with potentially having to dump it. I would like to have something drinkable but I find the experimental aspect as rewarding as the outcome. I am very intrigued by true wild and spontaneous fermentation right now. Just started to appreciate sour beers of all kinds in the past few months. I got the idea for doing something like this from pineapple Tepache. Which is typically fermented with the wild yeast on the skin of the pineapple. I'm thinking about adding diced pineapple, with the skin to a simple wheat beer base (50% pils, 50% white wheat) and seeing what happens. Maybe I'll try DME for ease.
If I do end up trying this I will post the results.
I am okay with potentially having to dump it. I would like to have something drinkable but I find the experimental aspect as rewarding as the outcome. I am very intrigued by true wild and spontaneous fermentation right now. Just started to appreciate sour beers of all kinds in the past few months. I got the idea for doing something like this from pineapple Tepache. Which is typically fermented with the wild yeast on the skin of the pineapple. I'm thinking about adding diced pineapple, with the skin to a simple wheat beer base (50% pils, 50% white wheat) and seeing what happens. Maybe I'll try DME for ease.
If I do end up trying this I will post the results.
it's lab work that you can do at home, some equipment is needed. check out some youtube videos that outline the process: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+isolate+yeast
I used nothing but dates as the source of yeast for the ancient Sumerian recipe a few years back. It turned out surprisingly quite good and scored a gold medal in competition. It was sour which surprised me a bit at the time but now makes perfect sense, as it was wild and contained no hops. Hops have a preservative quality and might have prevented or reduced the extent of the sourness. Anyway, the wild yeast initially threw off some sulfur but that dissipated quickly within about a week. If memory serves, the apparent attenuation on this beer was pretty normal around 70-80% or whatever. Here's how I did it:
I scrubbed the heck out of my hands and arms for a long time, like a surgeon would do. I then prepared the "yeast starter" just by placing several pounds of dates into a bucket with about one gallon of clean water, then went in with my sanitized hands and arms and squished up all the dates. Then, I let this ferment in the bucket for about 3 days or so. The fermentation took off quickly and very active within the typical 24-36 hours or whatever. Then 3 days later, I brewed the actual wort, and finally combined. It fermented for probably like 10-14 days or whatever, then was done. Total batch size was like 3 gallons, with 1 gallon of date "wine" and 2 gallons of wort, something like that.
It works. I would not be afraid to try this again with other types of fruit, but might want to make a smaller batch for experimental purposes, so then maybe just make 1 quart of starter with maybe 0.5-1 lb fruit and 1 gallon of wort, something like that.
Cheers and good luck, hope it works out for you whichever way you decide to go.
I scrubbed the heck out of my hands and arms for a long time, like a surgeon would do. I then prepared the "yeast starter" just by placing several pounds of dates into a bucket with about one gallon of clean water, then went in with my sanitized hands and arms and squished up all the dates. Then, I let this ferment in the bucket for about 3 days or so. The fermentation took off quickly and very active within the typical 24-36 hours or whatever. Then 3 days later, I brewed the actual wort, and finally combined. It fermented for probably like 10-14 days or whatever, then was done. Total batch size was like 3 gallons, with 1 gallon of date "wine" and 2 gallons of wort, something like that.
It works. I would not be afraid to try this again with other types of fruit, but might want to make a smaller batch for experimental purposes, so then maybe just make 1 quart of starter with maybe 0.5-1 lb fruit and 1 gallon of wort, something like that.
Cheers and good luck, hope it works out for you whichever way you decide to go.
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