Starting Wild Yeast

[i4ourgot]

I live in a part of california with lots of wild grapes and blackberries so I was going to try putting out a few low gravity starters to try and cultivate some wile yeast. The temperature swings are pretty drastic over the day 45 at night and 90's during the day. How many days should I leave my starters out for before I try and build them up? And am I just looking for desirable flavors and aromas?

 

[MileHighBrewer]

you'll probably be fine for up to 24 hours. No need to really go past that. Once something gets in there and takes hold you want that to take over, not compete with something else that shows up 3-4 days later. you could also put on some rubber gloves, sterile of course, and put a few berries/grapes into a jar of starter wort.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Sounds like a pretty sweet location. I'd leave it out for at least 24 hours, you could try longer as an experiment if you want. What size starter are you using? I'd try building them up a little at home, depending on the size, and just taste them as you can. Granted, time will tell with most of the flavors/aromas but you can get an initial idea if it tastes poor pretty quick.

 

[EpicCuriousity]

Like MileHighBrewer said, it won't take long for something to set in and you should be fine going less than 24 hours. Reduce the competition that yeast would have form other organisms. Also, to reduce the 'noise' of other bacteria/beasties getting in to the wort, I'd recommend setting something out overnight and picking up in the morning. Cooler temperatures slow activity and mean you'll likely pick up less junk. Alternatively, you could just drop some grapes or blackberries into wort and see what pops up.

 

[i4ourgot]

yeah I was just reading the Mad Fermentationist and he was suggesting cooler temps seem to be better warmer temps can get a lot of bad bacteria, and its been in the 90's for a while. He seemed to suggest that it is dependent on the season. I might just try dropping some berries in the wort, and wait until fall to try and get some local bugs.

 

[bleme]

What was the name of that Dogfish Head series? I remember one episode where they were in Egypt and it showed how to capture wild yeast. They did it at night, near the date palms.

 

[dantheman13]

What was the name of that Dogfish Head series? I remember one episode where they were in Egypt and it showed how to capture wild yeast. They did it at night, near the date palms.

They used agar plates, which makes it a lot easier to identify mold versus bacteria versus yeast.