True Wild Ale experiment

[elburrogrande]

Batch size: 2.5 Gallons
Boil time: 60 minutes
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.008 and 1.012


Grain Bill
3lbs – Pilsner Malt
1.25lbs – White Wheat
0.3lbs – Vienna Malt
1 lbs – Acid Malt
0.3lbs – Flake Oats Malt

Hop Bill
60minutes– Fuggle – .5 oz


Yeast
wild yeast from pineapple & ale yeast


First I grinded half my pineapple in a blender and chopped the rest. I placed the entire pineapple in a mr. beer barrel with about 1 gallon of unboiled tap water. I added about 2lbs of brown sugar and left it alone for about 5 days. I strained the pineapple at this point and discarded the yeast cake that had developed. I placed the liquid in a pitcher and proceeded to consume it. (highly alcoholic and delicious btw) I then saved the developing yeast cake from that pitcher as my wild yeast.

I then mashed the grains at 158 for 60 minutes then added the acid malt and mashed another 45 at 160. OG was 1.055 which I was happy with. My original plan was to ferment the entire 2 gallons with the wild yeast but I chickened out fearing I would ruin 2 gallons of beer. So I separated it into two gallon batches. I pitched the wild yeast into one and a half a pack of standard ale yeast I had laying around in the other.

After two weeks I measured the OG in both. The wild yeast gallon was at 1.008 and the standard ale gallon was at 1.012. A taste test at this point favored the wild ale yeast which had a slight pineapple taste. Last night I bottled one 12 oz bottle of each and blended the rest of the two batches on top of 2/3 liter of apricot puree and pitched the dregs from a St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition. I might dry hop in two weeks with .5oz of fuggles I have left over.

Planning on making a full 5 gallon batch depending on how the beers taste in a few weeks. Any thoughts or critiques?

 

[Aristotelian]

Batch size: 2.5 Gallons
Boil time: 60 minutes
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.008 and 1.012


Grain Bill
3lbs – Pilsner Malt
1.25lbs – White Wheat
0.3lbs – Vienna Malt
1 lbs – Acid Malt
0.3lbs – Flake Oats Malt

Hop Bill
60minutes– Fuggle – .5 oz


Yeast
wild yeast from pineapple & ale yeast


First I grinded half my pineapple in a blender and chopped the rest. I placed the entire pineapple in a mr. beer barrel with about 1 gallon of unboiled tap water. I added about 2lbs of brown sugar and left it alone for about 5 days. I strained the pineapple at this point and discarded the yeast cake that had developed. I placed the liquid in a pitcher and proceeded to consume it. (highly alcoholic and delicious btw) I then saved the developing yeast cake from that pitcher as my wild yeast.

I then mashed the grains at 158 for 60 minutes then added the acid malt and mashed another 45 at 160. OG was 1.055 which I was happy with. My original plan was to ferment the entire 2 gallons with the wild yeast but I chickened out fearing I would ruin 2 gallons of beer. So I separated it into two gallon batches. I pitched the wild yeast into one and a half a pack of standard ale yeast I had laying around in the other.

After two weeks I measured the OG in both. The wild yeast gallon was at 1.008 and the standard ale gallon was at 1.012. A taste test at this point favored the wild ale yeast which had a slight pineapple taste. Last night I bottled one 12 oz bottle of each and blended the rest of the two batches on top of 2/3 liter of apricot puree and pitched the dregs from a St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition. I might dry hop in two weeks with .5oz of fuggles I have left over.

Planning on making a full 5 gallon batch depending on how the beers taste in a few weeks. Any thoughts or critiques?

My only thought is: awesome experiment. I may have to copy this. I am actually glad you did a split batch so you have a baseline of comparison. That's amazing that the wild yeast attenuated better. (I am a big fan of dry beers). Let us know when you taste the bottles!

What temp did you ferment at?

Did you save any of the original yeast cake before pitching the Geuze dregs? If you ever want to replicate, won't you need to build up a starter from your wild yeast bottle?

 

[elburrogrande]

Yeah Im glad I split it for that reason. I fermented at room temperature which is probably right around 60 degrees but that is just a guess. I thought about saving the yeast cake but I figured it would not be viable by the time I want to use it. Plus it give me an excuse to make more of the pineapple tepache drink to harvest more yeast. You got me thinking though. I might not be able to replicate this since there might be different yeast in different pineapples. or even multiple yeast.

 

[m00ps]

I highly doubt youd get the same results from another pineapple. Id say best bet is to keep a small culture of your current stuff to build up if you like the taste

Lots of good info here on wild yeast harvesting. Chronicles the whole process. Pics too
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=419725

I managed to get a really tasty sour blend from a tomato plant on my porch

 

[NTexBrewer]

I would wait to dry hop before you plan to bottle. You still have a lot of sugars that could take awhile to attenuate not to mention the apricot puree.