Wild Yeast Capture Attempt 1

[theonetrueruss]

cool

Today I am feeling hopeful... it is smelling good today and there are either yeast rafts on top or mold... I think yeast rafts. Can't get a pic that is good enough to tell the difference. Excited and hopeful.

 

[theonetrueruss]

so here is an image of what it looks like now... I think that looks an awful lot like fermentation.

 

[theonetrueruss]

Measured gravity.. It is at 1.021, down from 1.0375.

must be some yeast in there

 

[rustym]

Subscribed also!!

 

[TANSTAAFB]

You caught sumpin'!

 

[rossi46]

This sounds like a fun experiment, might have to give it a try.

 

[theonetrueruss]

planning to streak my plates Sunday. Hopefully some colonies grow and then after that... I'll slant some of the colonies... then spread to some other slants... and grow some up and make small 1 G batches with the different colonies and see what comes of it.... another couple months and I might have some yeast of my very own! excited... raising chance of success from 1% to 5% in my mind.

 

[dmarc85]

Great thread. I will be following. Yeast fascinates me. Thanks for the post theonetrueruss.

 

[reed1911]

We plated our new friends and have growth. It is all yeast as far as I can tell. No fuzzy stuff anywhere. All small circular white to off-white. However, after a week the growths are all only the size of a pin head or flax seed. I'm not sure how large they as suppose to be so I'm going to let them go for a while longer, I don't see any problem with doing that.

 

[winvarin]

We plated our new friends and have growth. It is all yeast as far as I can tell. No fuzzy stuff anywhere. All small circular white to off-white. However, after a week the growths are all only the size of a pin head or flax seed. I'm not sure how large they as suppose to be so I'm going to let them go for a while longer, I don't see any problem with doing that.

Reed. Where in OK are you? I'm in Logan county, between Edmond and Guthrie. We're in a relatively rural area. I have a wild plum tree in my yard that each fall I swear I am going to try to culture yeast from.

 

[reed1911]

South OKC.

You should have lots of wild yeast up there, still rather high in elevation and of course windy,

 

[theonetrueruss]

measured gravity today in prep for plating.. just to know and it is at 1.01 down from 1.0375 OG... I think there is some potential here.

 

[winvarin]

South OKC.

You should have lots of wild yeast up there, still rather high in elevation and of course windy,

Is it a must to plate the stuff? With the yeast from my plum tree, I was planning on a handful of plums in some starter wort in a half gallon jug on my stir plate. Then step it into my 2L flask until I had enough to do a small test batch.

 

[theonetrueruss]

I have heard of many people going that route. Theoretically I should be able to step up what I have and pitch into a 5G batch... but I am trying to take it a step further and isolate some individual colonies in a way that lets me keep them relatively pure and continue to reuse those relatively pure strains for years. Anyway.. that's the vision.

 

[reed1911]

No, plating is a breeze. If you are just trying it for giggles, I'd opt for the Hobby Lonny route. They sell a 2 pack plating expermint kit for 2.99 that comes with 2 plates and 2 bags of agar which the box says is good for three rounds (6 plates) but I think it is closer to 4 plates. The only draw back is the plates are plastic and not glass, however they are heavy enough that they can take the hot agar/wort mix.

 

[winvarin]

My problem is identification and storage. I'm not sure I would know yeast growing on a Petri dish if someone drew me a map.

And even if I did manage to isolate a beer yeast, how do you store it and how long will it keep?

 

[theonetrueruss]

most of my plating went well.. I think I may have been rougher with my innoculation loop than necessary. We'll see what comes of it. I saved a 12oz bottleof the yeast/wort mix so I can replate if these plates go bad. I have glass plates and am using a pressure cooker. I plan to use slants for the colonies, grow them up... transfer each cnadidate colony to a couple other slants then grow 3 up in 1 gallon batches and see what I get. Then I pick one (or more though if I get 1 worth a damn I will be shocked).. and make sure I keep slants of it and make some batches and enjoy.

Anyhow that is the plan. I did taste the wort/wild medium and it was not bad.. I have good hope. We shall see.

I think it it works out I will be freaking thrilled... if not.. I will try again.... and again... and again... never give up. never surrender.

 

[theonetrueruss]

checked the plates tonight and lots of yeasty looking stuff grew. Too much. I am going to have to re-plate this weekend and be a bit more gentle. not posting pics of my current plates because they look like a 2 year old colored them with yeast markers.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

checked the plates tonight and lots of yeasty looking stuff grew. Too much. I am going to have to re-plate this weekend and be a bit more gentle. not posting pics of my current plates because they look like a 2 year old colored them with yeast markers.

Made me laugh...out loud...LOL just doesn't seem to convey what I am trying to say ...maybe I'm old!

 

[reed1911]

Interesting, mine have been at it for almost two weeks now, they grew well the first week and a few white spots, but have since done nothing. Makes me wonder if the bits I had growing did not get a good enough hold or possibly something else. I wanted them to get a bit larger so I could choose the biggest healthy individual colonies to start batching up. May need to make another attempt at capture. We'll see this weekend what they look like.

 

[reed1911]

Well, even with the small growths on the plate I went ahead and nabbed some, ran in 1 cup of 1.030 for a week on the stir plate, smelled slightly fruity more spice than fruit though, cold crashed for 2 days, just upped it to a 1/2L last night and even on the stir plate it has a 1" krausen on it and looking good. I plan to let that go for a week and then make a gal 1.045-1.050 with some Saaz and let it ride and see how it tastes. I'll update here what it looks like. I went ahead and left the plates growing I had selected two colonies from each plate for the best bet on my end. In the event that it is terrible I will select another set and try it again, if it has the same aroma though I won't bother stepping it up. Not pessimistic, just like to plan for all contingencies.

 

[theonetrueruss]

Well, even with the small growths on the plate I went ahead and nabbed some, ran in 1 cup of 1.030 for a week on the stir plate, smelled slightly fruity more spice than fruit though, cold crashed for 2 days, just upped it to a 1/2L last night and even on the stir plate it has a 1" krausen on it and looking good. I plan to let that go for a week and then make a gal 1.045-1.050 with some Saaz and let it ride and see how it tastes. I'll update here what it looks like. I went ahead and left the plates growing I had selected two colonies from each plate for the best bet on my end. In the event that it is terrible I will select another set and try it again, if it has the same aroma though I won't bother stepping it up. Not pessimistic, just like to plan for all contingencies.

sounds awesome..

I just re-streaked my plates tonight. Will snag some colonies in a few days and get something going with them. Still super excited. I am feeling hopeful. I did put some samples of the old plates into slants but they are definitely not single colony samples. keeping them for.. well.. not sure.. but keeping them.

 

[reed1911]

2 days later and the Krausen has fallen, big sweet banana smell from it, I'm getting anxious to use this now.

 

[theonetrueruss]

make beer.. sounds like it should work... I figure in a couple days I'll pick some colonies and start growing them up. I am planning a 3G batch split three ways with a small starter from each colony. That will give me some things to taste and see which one I like best (if any are palatable of course) and then that one gets grown up, saved on some slants, etc and goes into a 5G batch.

 

[reed1911]

Cold-crashed over the weekend, will brew up a gallon this week and let her rip. Lots of banana and bubblegum with some funk at the end. I did not detect the funk much, but my bloodhound-nosed wife did. So long as it makes beer I'll drink it, pleasing her OTOH is sometimes a challenge, but if it does everyone else will like it. She's my best critic!

 

[Brulosopher]

Cold-crashed over the weekend, will brew up a gallon this week and let her rip. Lots of banana and bubblegum with some funk at the end. I did not detect the funk much, but my bloodhound-nosed wife did. So long as it makes beer I'll drink it, pleasing her OTOH is sometimes a challenge, but if it does everyone else will like it. She's my best critic!

Pics, we want pics!

 

[theonetrueruss]

ok, so I finally got some plates that I could pull a few colonies off of. Just did that. Used 1 isolated colony per slant. Hopefully they grow in the slants then I will do sample 3G batch split between three 1G jugs each with one of the yeasts.

The picture is a but blury but you can see the yeast in the plates. One of the plates I was still too heavy handed with and didn't get enough separation but there was plenty on the other two that I could use.

 

[xtian116]

Subscribing.

I was lazy last weekend and forgot my cylinder with hydrometer out for two days. When I went to clean it, I noticed that the reading had dropped from 1.056 to 1.038 and there were signs of fermentation. It smelled good so I put it in a sterilized jar and added some starter. I now have who knows what growing and bubbling away, smells good, so I'm going to brew sometime this week and toss it in a five gallon batch and see what happens.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I have a few wild tests going, including the one in the picture here. Nice pellicle on this one. BUT, I used juice in this to drop the pH. I used 30% grapefruit juice in the wort for the initial capture of this stuff, then stepped it up with 250 ml of wort to 25 ml of lemon juice. No mold, just a nice looking pellicle, IMHO. Because of the juice, though, I can't properly judge the character. Smells like citrus!

So, that being the case, I want to chill this, decant and make a normal starter and see what I have here. With that in mind, what's the deal with that pellicle? Should I try to decant that off and just pitch what's settled? Or is it composed of top cropping yeast?

For the record, I have 4 sets of tests going. 2 used juice in the initial wort and both have what seems to be a better result, ie no mold and a nice fermentation. The 2 without juice both have white and green mold growing on them. Collection times and wort were different though, so it's not a proper control.

Base wort here at the start was Black IPA wort taken from a batch I brewed. Just siphoned off a bit after chilling. So, heavy hops here could have helped in addition to the juice.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

For comparison, here's one of the other tests with the mold growing on it.

These are both wort in jars, not petri dishes.

Base wort at the start was leftover from an APA I brewed. Some hops but not a lot.