Should I Keep This Wild Yeast?

[WeirdBrew]

So I recently attempted to capture some wild yeast and or bacteria. I put out 3 jars of 1.020 unhopped wort made from Pilsner dme on a cool windy afternoon. It's now been a few weeks and they have all shown signs of fermentation and there is one that I am particularly interested in. It has a wonderful bright cherry aroma and after swirling it up a few days ago is now displaying a slight acetic acid aroma as well. Both of these signs have me thinking it might be some type of Brett strain since I know strains like wyeasts Brett Lambicus is described as having a cherry pie aroma (although I don't have any personal experience with it) as well as I know Brett can express some acetic character when exposed to oxygen (such as when I swirled it the other day).

My only reservation with moving forward and using this is that this starter has taken on a pinkish hue while the others remain a golden straw color to be expected from Pilsner dme. The reason I find this concerning is that on the Bootleg Biology website where it describes how to capture wild microbes he gives an example of a few starter that he collected where one of them developed a similar reddish hue. He discarded that particular starter stating that it grew a lot of fungus as well as changing colors. But, it's unclear weather he discarded it because of the fungus, the color, both, or some other reason. All three of my starters developed some level of mold that I scrapped off, however, the pinkish one had the most. Bootleg Biology mentions that you can scrape off mold development without much concern so I'm not necessarily put off by the fact that it had some mold. I'm just not sure if the fact that it changed colors is a problem.

So, what does everyone think? Should I give it a go or try again? Has anybody else seen a color change due to fermentation from yeast and or bacteria?

 

[gometz]

I have noticed that an IPA I made with almost 100% pilsner malt seems to have turned reddish. I feel like I have heard that a pale beer can darken over time if it is exposed to oxygen. The strange thing is that saison made off of the same wort is still a nice pale yellow.

This doesn't really answer your question, but could be somewhat related?

 

[madscientist451]

I'd get 3 gallon jugs and put 3/4 gallon wort in each and let it rip. What's the worst that could happen? You pour it out? I do wild yeast ciders every year and they always come out good. Beer is different, but its worth trying.

 

[beergolf]

I agree with madscientist451. Make a few small brews and see what happens.

Here is a post about my tries at capturing wild yeast. A couple of failures but one turned out great and I am still keeping it alive 3 years later. In fact I just made another saison Sunday using this yeast.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=419725

 

[WeirdBrew]

Ha it was largely your post beergolf that inspired me to try this in the first place. Thanks for the replies everyone, I actually just stepped it up into a larger volume so we'll see how it turns out.

 

[beergolf]

ha, it really does not take much to do a small 1 gallon batch to see what happens. I would recommend stepping up your yeasts and then trying to crash them. I had one that was promising but it just would not drop out of suspension.

Then if one is promising you can make a small test batch. Keep it simple so the yeast can shine.