Hoping for wild ferment...is this a bad idea?

[howamidriving]

I currently have 5 gallons of what I'm calling a "Greenhouse Saison" sitting in the closet. Basically what I did was throw in a bunch of food grade flowers at flameout. What I'd like to do is rack off a gallon and experiment with throwing in wild flowers and berries.

I don't expect any souring really, but maybe some secondary fermentation with wild yeast? If I go pick a handful of dandelions for example and just wash them off and throw them in am I going to have to worry about a bad infection?

This might be kind of a weird question so thanks for any input!

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

No telling what you will get since microbe selection is uncontrolled.

Doesn't mean it'll be bad.

 

[BugHunter]

Your biggest risk will probably be introducing enough oxygen to your beer when you add the flowers that any Acetobacter on them (and there will be) might manage to take hold and provide a noticeable acetic acid vinegar note.

If you use berries you will absolutely be introducing Acetobacter along with any wild yeast and Lactobacillus, so just make sure your oxygen levels are low if you can.

 

[BugHunter]

Just a general rule of thumb: Acetobacter are aerobic and need oxygen, whereas Lacto is anaerobic to microaerophilic and does best without oxygen. Control your O2 levels and you can select for one over the other.

 

[howamidriving]

Any advice other than minimize headspace? I don't have any extra equipment that I can purge with co2 or whatever you're supposed to do

 

[BugHunter]

If you can't CO2 purge I'd definitely minimize headspace and limit how often you open the container to get sample to the bare minimum necessary.

 

[sweetcell]

Basically what I did was throw in a bunch of food grade flowers at flameout.

did you add any yeast? or is it your hope that the flowers contain enough microbes to ferment the 5 gallons? (apologies if i'm missing the obvious here...)

 

[kingwood-kid]

As I read it, it's 5 gallons of "clean" saison. The flameout flowers were added at boiling temps, so no microbes there. You're setting 1 gallon aside post-fermentation with wild flowers and berries. Most likely, you'll get some wild yeast and bacteria that will dry it out and sour it a bit. How dry and sour you'll get and how long this will take are unpredictable. If you can't flush with CO2, you can add dry ice (CO2) or a tiny amount of table sugar that yeast will turn into CO2 to drive off oxygen. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

 

[howamidriving]

^ yeah that's what I did. I used Belle Saison which took off faster then I've eve had a yeast take off. So yeah, 5 gallons of "clean" beer and next week sometime I'll rack off a gallon to mess with.

Kind of having second thoughts but I think I'll still go through with it.

 

[kingwood-kid]

I have a bunch of gallon jugs I use the same way, albeit with dregs instead of wild mystery bugs. It's an easy way to get two beers from one wort, as well as a low-investment way to experiment. Sometimes I get beer that's so-so; sometimes I get a beer so good that I wish I had soured the whole 5 gallons.

 

[sweetcell]

so, to recap: you made 5 gallons of beer, fermented with Belle Saison, and you're wondering what will happen if you throw some berries or flowers into a gallon of that beer?

my guess: nothing. BS is a beast, so you'll have very little sugar for the bugs on the berries/flowers to ferment. there is alcohol in that beer and the pH is low - generally enough to stop anything from taking hold. if there are any bugs on the berries/flowers, chances are very high they'll take one look at their new environment (fermented beer), say no thanks, and drop to the bottom. now it's possible you get something hardy enough to deal with the beer, but i wouldn't count on it.

if you want to see what is on those berries/flowers, throw them into some weak, un-hopped wort.