First Wild Beer

[JJack887]

I'll be making a small starter and adding local raw honey. If the yeast and microbes turn out palatable, I'll use it. But should I step up the starter a few times, or just pitch the original amount? Because I read some people will pitch just bottles dregs of wild beer into primary without making a starter, producing a sour taste.

 

[tagz]

What are you using to inoculate the starter? Honey? AFAIK honey has antibacterial properties, so I'm not sure you'll have much success. You can definitely pitch dregs.

 

[Sourz4life]

So as Tagz said you can pitch dregs as those usually still have some viable yeast. I've cultured off honey before, you can pretty much off anything really. With wild yeast you'll want to make a start with malt based wort ofa 1.020 as a higher OG is harder for wild yeas to handle. You'd want to step it up at least 1-2 times after the initial propagating

 

[Sourz4life]

If you have the ability to, its best to plate wild yest out on agar plates or some sort of medium. Then from the single colonies you can pick out the wild yeast without the other bacteria you may have picked up.