Massachusetts Harvesting Wild Yeast in Boston

[2BedroomBrewing]

Given that in Massachusetts we have access to local malt (stone path and valley malt) and local hops (four star farms), I thought it would be an interesting challenge to brew a beer with Massachusetts only ingredients. The one problem of course is there are no yeast companies (to my knowledge) in the state. The only option would be to harvest wild yeast and with spring arriving, now is the time to start planning.

One complicating factor is that I live in Boston, which brings me to my question to all of you, has anyone had luck harvesting wild yeast in Boston? What concerns me is that there is a lot more crap in the air here and there is much less vegetation.

Here are the three ideas I've had so far:
1. Leave a jar in the window of my apartment and hope for the best
2. Take a walk with some jars to a park with a decent amount of flowers
3. Abandon the city, get in the car, and lay out some jars in an orchard

Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

[monkeymath]

I don't think city air is any worse in terms of microflora. Why do you?
Cantillon is in the middle of Brussels and they seem to be doing fine. (Of course their brewery is fully saturated with all kinds of critters, so the influence of good old Brussels' air would be smaller than for someone starting from scratch.)

 

[2BedroomBrewing]

I don't think city air is any worse in terms of microflora. Why do you?
Cantillon is in the middle of Brussels and they seem to be doing fine. (Of course their brewery is fully saturated with all kinds of critters, so the influence of good old Brussels' air would be smaller than for someone starting from scratch.)

Honestly I've never done this before and most resources I've read (bootlegbio/milkthefunk) focus on placing jars around gardens/fruit trees/plants. I suppose thinking about it that way makes sense that there will be plenty of yeast in the air no matter where I am.

Perhaps option 2 would be the best?

 

[DBhomebrew]

When I lived there in 2007-12 there were three different community gardens along my usual routes through Somerville/Cambridge. The one by Davis Sq was pretty sizeable. I'd think those types of folks would be more than amenable to hosting a capture jar or two.

 

[Dland]

Perhaps acquire and propitiate some yeast from the bottom of can/bottle/keg of a local craft brewery before messing w wild/unknown yeast.

 

[2BedroomBrewing]

Perhaps acquire and propitiate some yeast from the bottom of can/bottle/keg of a local craft brewery before messing w wild/unknown yeast.

Plan B for this challenge is definitely harvesting from a MA brewer's spontaneous fermentation or other wild ale although those are few and far between. If I get really fed up Ill go to Plan C... harvesting from any unfiltered MA beer haha

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Trillium has an open coolship in Canton in an industrial park just off of128 l. Take a trip out to some of the harbor islands. Im sure even the rangers would be into helping you. Skins of fruits are also easy.

 

[jdauria]

A guy in my club lives in Hingham and has a cherry tree in his yard and he collected wild yeast from that and made a very good wild ale.

 

[2BedroomBrewing]

Trillium has an open coolship in Canton in an industrial park just off of128 l. Take a trip out to some of the harbor islands. Im sure even the rangers would be into helping you. Skins of fruits are also easy.

A guy in my club lives in Hingham and has a cherry tree in his yard and he collected wild yeast from that and made a very good wild ale.

Thanks for the input! If Trillium has no problem where they are located then I have no more fear about where my apartment is haha

My final plan is going to be to move forward with both fruit skins and laying out open jars. I'm expecting much more luck with the fruit but will be pretty excited if I manage to catch something good myself. I will follow up with my progress!

 

[jrgtr42]

Maybe a bit late to this party, but maybe try the Arboretum. You may be able to find something interesting there.