mystery yeast???

[bob3000]

Over the last few weeks i have been trying to capure some wild yeast and i have posted some questions already about this so i hope i'm not going over any old ground.
But I'm still not really sure what to expect from my yeast. It seems to have changed character quite drastically a few times over the weeks and i'm confused.

Anyway this is how its gone so far:
made a brew and before adding regular yeast i poured some wort off into two jars using the tap at the bottom of my fermenting bin. I was really suprised when after only two days I saw signs of fermentation. I tasted a little and it seemed like regular ale yeast with a hint of mustyness. Waited four more days and it seemed to have taken on a real sour, dry and musty flavour a bit like dry sherry. I then poured off the fermented liquid and added a larger amout of fresh wort. After four more days I now have some thing more akin to a saison or wheat beer with distinctive spicy clove flavours but still with some sourness.

At first i thought i had seeded my origional jar with ale yeast from my tap (which I hadn't cleaned) but now it seems i definately have some thing wild.

Anybody know whats going on and more importantly what kind of beer I should attempt with this mystery yeast?

 

[TipsyDragon]

sounds like you got some wild yeast. looking into brewing wild and lambic beer styles.

 

[jtakacs]

it seems there's a consensus to try an american wheat style with low BUs to sort of be able to tell what flavor/aroma the yeast gives off... sort of a baseline for future brews.

haven't done it myself yet, but after successfully catching some wild bugs, that's what i'll be doing.

 

[bob3000]

What wild yeast styles are there apart from lambic?

I'd like to make beer from it that is ready in months not years.

 

[bob3000]

I've also seen the simple recipes people use to try out their yeast. Are these just stepping stones to brewing lambic or worth while in their own right?

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

It depends on what kind of flavors you get from your wild yeast.

I grabbed a wild culture that ended up having sacc, pedio (I believe) and brett. When it finally fermented down it has a huge brett funk to it. I could probably do a lambic-esque beer with it, but I don't think it has the same taste as lambic. However, it would be excellent in an oud bruin with some souring bacteria (or a sour mash).

Your culture may give you a very lambic-like profile, in which case it would be a good option for a lambic.

People use simple recipes as a first run on the wild yeast to see what the flavor is without having malt or hop flavors interfering. Regardless of the simplicity, I do enjoy the first run on my wild culture but I look forward to trying it out in other recipes.

 

[bob3000]

It depends on what kind of flavors you get from your wild yeast.

This is where I'm a bit confused. At one stage I was getting dry sherry at another the clove flavour of saison and witbeir.

Maybe its just too early to tell and I need to do a full scale test brew.

Any ideas for what i could brew that wouldn't need a year conditioning?

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

You could brew a beer with the expectation that it will ferment along normal time frames, but it would definitely depend on reaching stable gravity and having a good flavor. Part of the problem with taking a wild culture is that you're likely going to get pedio and/or brett which may not appear for several months, so you might end up bottling the beer and have it taste like one thing and then several months later open a bottle and it tastes completely different. I think to get a stable product you could be looking at as much as 6-12 months but by the same token it could be ready in three weeks.

 

[winnph]

Part of the problem with taking a wild culture is that you're likely going to get pedio and/or brett which may not appear for several months.

This is why streaking on agar and selecting distinct colonies is a good idea. You can at least greatly increase your chance of isolating particular species/strains.

 

[bob3000]

This is why streaking on agar and selecting distinct colonies is a good idea. You can at least greatly increase your chance of isolating particular species/strains.

I see, so at the moment I've got a multistrain yeast as used in Lambics ect. But I can isolate single wild strains that will work like more traditional ale yeasts.

Is this correct?

Can you point me in the right direction of somewhere that shows and explains the isolating process?

 

[winnph]

I see, so at the moment I've got a multistrain yeast as used in Lambics ect. But I can isolate single wild strains that will work like more traditional ale yeasts.

Well it's certainly possible that you have a single strain of wild yeast (perhaps even Sacc), but the best way to verify that fact is to streak it on agar, where you can see the yeast colonies form, and then take one of those colonies and step it up for brewing. Of course, actually determining what genus (let alone species) of yeast will be difficult. At least so I've been told when I asked this very question on these (or maybe other?) brewing forums recently.

Can you point me in the right direction of somewhere that shows and explains the isolating process?

I am at work and can't view this video, but it looks to be what you're asking for:

 

[bob3000]

I know this thread is long dead but i thought i would leave a note to finish it off.

I brewed up a smal batch with my wild yeast and at first it tasted pretty foul. i have opened a few over the last months and they have changed a lot. All are gushers but the lastest one i opened was quite pleasent. It had flavours i would associate with a weizen yeast and not really any sourness. Quite nice all in all especially as the wort i made was not very good to start with.

Yeast is odd stuff.