Unintentional spontaneous fermentation.

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schiersteinbrewing

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Brewed a Bo Pils 12/13, transferred the still 205+ deg wort to my sanitized SS Brew Bucket, placed lid and star san airlock on bucket. Left in garage for 48 hours, moved into fermentation chamber on 12/15. Then I came down with pneumonia (12/16), and could hardly move much less to aerate and toss in dry yeast. I’m sitting in my chair with the Tv muted on 12/18 and hear air lock activity. I slowly get my sick butt over to the chamber, open the lid to the bucket, sure enough there is Krausen.

Do I just let t ride and see what happens, toss in some yeast anyways, or dump it?

It’s at 60deg right now. It smells like a normal beer fermentation.


I have used this process with great results for two years, this time I didn’t get the yeast added within 48 hrs due to getting pneumonia.
 
Looks normalish?
 

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First, congrats on your wild extra pale... mixed ferm ale?

It wouldn't hurt to inoculate with a sacch strain of your choice, but your dreams of bohemian pilsner have long left the harbor. My question is when did the sweet wort have an opportunity to have long contact with the local microflora at suitable temperatures? Did you cool the wort open?

The reason I ask is that depending on how rigorous you broke down and sanitized, there's also a possibility your beer is fermenting on whatever was in your bucket last. Things like seals and such can really hide small colonies. If that's the case, it's probably stressed as hell and an extra sacch strain could help. I've had that happen to some of my spontaneous attempts where I was purposefully trying to inoculate wild yeast/bacteria with cheesecloth etc. It was in sanitized glass jars that once held different brett isolates, and these re-emerged in the blends.

I like wild and funky stuff, so my take is let it ride, see where it goes. You might have to move it into a carboy and let it age a long time before you like it though (lambic style). Don't toss it out just because it's not good after 3 weeks. For what it's worth my local microflora makes a very thin cidery beer at first, but then it gets some very interesting brett-driven characteristics.
 
At first glance I'm leaning heavily on the "-ish". It's clearly fermenting but who knows with what.
Bucket up your chin strap and carry on to the end - whatever that might be :)

Cheers!
 
I tear down the siphon tube and valve assembly as far as I can between brews and everything is cleaned with PBW, a long soak in star san, air dried, reassembled, and tucked away. Just before the boiling hot wort goes in I spray everything with star san, spray up in the siphon tube and valve assembly. As soon as the hot wort was transferred it was covered and sealed with star san filled air lock. Almost has to be a little colony hiding in a place I couldn’t get cleaned.

It’s an Anvil Brew Bucket single piece valve. It is about to get a 3 piece valve or a Blichman knob style valve.

I tossed in a package of US05, time to wait and see how this ends up. This will also give me a excuse to buy a big mouth glass carboy for long term aging. I gave up using PET carboys a long time ago and went with buckets (way easier to clean) then that turned into SS Brew Buckets, and that’s where no chill brewing started.
 
A no chill transfer is a pretty foolproof way to wipe out anything left in the bucket. If that wort is sitting in your stainless bucket anywhere above 150ºF for more than a few minutes it should be just fine. That's one of the nice benefits of stainless compared to glass/plastic. US05 was a smart move, keep us posted on how that mystery ale turns out.
 
Brewed a Bo Pils 12/13, transferred the still 205+ deg wort to my sanitized SS Brew Bucket, placed lid and star san airlock on bucket. Left in garage for 48 hours, moved into fermentation chamber on 12/15. Then I came down with pneumonia (12/16), and could hardly move much less to aerate and toss in dry yeast. I’m sitting in my chair with the Tv muted on 12/18 and hear air lock activity. I slowly get my sick butt over to the chamber, open the lid to the bucket, sure enough there is Krausen.

Do I just let t ride and see what happens, toss in some yeast anyways, or dump it?

It’s at 60deg right now. It smells like a normal beer fermentation.


I have used this process with great results for two years, this time I didn’t get the yeast added within 48 hrs due to getting pneumonia.

I like wild ferments, esp with wine, but for a beer I would suggest you also pitch some commercial yeast. Whatever you planned to use will be fine. You may get a little funk, but probably not much. And who knows, it may be a roaring success that you try your best to repeat :ban:
 
I say let it ride. Wild yeast or something is going on. Hey, that’s how beer was discovered.
 

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