Ive read some articles and threads here on how to brew with wild yeast. Its not something I would till I have years of experience with regular brewing. Curious to know if anyone has tried it and what the results were from your experiment.
Has anyone brewed beer with wild yeast?
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Kickass
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I brewed a small batch with some funkies that I caught in my yard under my lemon tree one time. The attenuation was in the 50%’s and it wasn’t something that tasted good enough to drink.
That said I’ve moved and want to try it again using methods outlined by bootleg biology. You don’t need years of experience, it’s not hard. You just have to be diligent with the process.
Here’s a very helpful link:
https://bootlegbiology.com/diy/capturing-yeast/
That said I’ve moved and want to try it again using methods outlined by bootleg biology. You don’t need years of experience, it’s not hard. You just have to be diligent with the process.
Here’s a very helpful link:
https://bootlegbiology.com/diy/capturing-yeast/
Dgallo
Instagram: bantam_brews
You don’t have to be an expert to brew a wild beer. The question is how do you want to inoculated it. By capturing the yeast prior and building up starters until you have a proper pitch size? Cool ship?propagated by professional labs? mix cultured? Many ways to skin this cat. I got really into them this past year and so happy I did. It’s strongly believe it’s going to be the next huge style in the next 5 years.
this is you are looking for. The wiki seems intimidating because of its vastness but just stick to the table of contents and you’ll be fine. Milk The Funk Wiki
this is you are looking for. The wiki seems intimidating because of its vastness but just stick to the table of contents and you’ll be fine. Milk The Funk Wiki
Try using something like wild raspberries. Whatever method you choose remember that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. No worries, just try again. When it works, it’ll often taste Belgian-ish.
Long story short, I finally tried it by attempting to capture wild yeast in a variety of manners. What ultimately was the most fruitful was forced inoculation by local flora into a test tube of wort, as well as a full-scale (5gal) batch left overnight to cool (utilizing a variety of factors: pre-acidifying the wort, specific hopping rate, etc.).
Despite it being the most fruitful process, what I captured wasn't attenuative and (to me) didn't have a good flavor profile. The more successful processes I tried yielded the same or similar flavor profile, so I'm surmising that's what my local terroir is, so I don't plan on progressing because I don't like it.
That said, PLENTY of people successfully capture very good wild yeasts via a variety of methods.
Despite it being the most fruitful process, what I captured wasn't attenuative and (to me) didn't have a good flavor profile. The more successful processes I tried yielded the same or similar flavor profile, so I'm surmising that's what my local terroir is, so I don't plan on progressing because I don't like it.
That said, PLENTY of people successfully capture very good wild yeasts via a variety of methods.
mashpaddled
Well-Known Member
Wild yeast are more likely to be poor attenuators because they haven't endured years of selection to ferment malt sugars. If you go back and look before yeast isolation in the nineteenth century you'll find early FG readings are not especially low but if the beers sit for long enough then other participants in the beer have had time to work and ferment the remaining sugars. It doesn't seem to be until after Pasteur isolated yeast and brewing sacc strains were isolated and allowed to ferment without competition that they develop significant attenuation capabilities. For this reason I am always suspicious of claims that people/breweries produce low FGs under normal brewing timeframes with wild captures. It is likely brewing yeast is getting into the beer intentionally or unintentionally. I'm not saying there is definitely no way anybody finds superattenuative wild strains but the probability seems exceedingly low.
Oh, for sure, and I was good with that. As a result I fully resigned myself to that fact and would just use the inoculation for flavor purposes... until I decided I didn't like the flavor.
Low attenuators of you don't wait long enough. There's almost always something in there that can eat longer sugars, it's just not as quickly growing as the other yeasts. Give it some time and the attenuation will go down by itself. Talking about half a year minimum.
I did that myself.... Result tasted horrible
I did that myself.... Result tasted horrible
Not always. In October I tasted my latest attempt, one year after brewing. In one year it went from 1.048 to.... 1.048. It definitely had the terroir flavor, but nothing that could ferment. This was VERY surprising to say the least, considering I did see a very active (what I thought was a) krausen around week 2-3. As soon as I hit it with WY3711 it took off, but I had NO faith in the absence of botulism toxin after the unfermented wort had sat for a full year. (my notes didn't shed any light as to whether or not I pre-acidified, so I didn't want to take the chance and dumped it)Low attenuators of you don't wait long enough. There's almost always something in there that can eat longer sugars, it's just not as quickly growing as the other yeasts. Give it some time and the attenuation will go down by itself. Talking about half a year minimum.
I did that myself.... Result tasted horrible
Camelot Legends
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I wonder if anyone has tried to train them to ferment. Like say doing a starter every week for a year with washing occasionally instead of just building it up till you got a good pitch and try it in a beer? Sounds to me like they got to be trained like rocky! It’s got to pound some dead cow carcasses before taking on Apollo Creed.
I think the milkthefunkguys probably did stuff like this... there are also some really freaky guys out there who are isolating single yeast strains from wild captures and evaluating their brewing capabilities. I do not remember who, but somebody here did that for mead brewing with wild yeast from honey.
Some people do. Personally, I try to keep that out of my beer. That’s why I spend good money on PBW and Star San.
I am brewing my Spruce Amber Ale with yeast a wrangled from a cherry blossom. I held down the funk and absolutely love that yeast. I also did a blonde with yeast I collected near a rhododendron plant.
Camelot Legends
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What is your propagation method?
I do 225 ml or wort and lower the ph below 4.5. After 4 weeks, do a 500-600 ml of wort, again lowering the ph below 4.5. and ferment for 4 weeks. Next is 3 liters for another 4 weeks. I then will make a simple 5 gallon batch of blonde ale.
So, I threw ~1 gallon of Muscat Grapes from my vines into a food processor, fermented it part way with whatever yeasts were already on it, gave it a taste (it was good), and then threw the lot into 5 gallons of pale wheat beer. From there I have inoculated several other batches, and have held the culture going for the last three years. It's pretty delicious. I did have a feeling that it was too acidic (maybe too much acetic/vinegar), but The Mad Fermentationist recommended I mash for a more fermentable wort so there is less for the vinegar bugs to eat. I'll know in a year if it made a difference, but I trust the dude. He knows his s***.
On the other hand, I know of a pro brewer in the north area of Los Angeles county who collected about 50 samples of wild yeasts from his area, inoculated his foeders (100's of gallons) with it and I think it tastes like a$$ (expensive a$$ when you think of how much multi-hundred gallon foeders cost!).
When it comes to fermentations, wild or not, some of it is entirely subjective.
I will caution you here-I keep separate hoses and equipment for my wilds/sours and my straight fermentations.
On the other hand, I know of a pro brewer in the north area of Los Angeles county who collected about 50 samples of wild yeasts from his area, inoculated his foeders (100's of gallons) with it and I think it tastes like a$$ (expensive a$$ when you think of how much multi-hundred gallon foeders cost!).
When it comes to fermentations, wild or not, some of it is entirely subjective.
I will caution you here-I keep separate hoses and equipment for my wilds/sours and my straight fermentations.
Twinkeelfool
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There are plenty of commercially available wild strains. I don’t really understand just throwing some random dirt/branches into perfectly good wort.
I know it's not for everyone, but I used to be a chef. Sometimes, you just throw stuff into the pot and see what happens. Sometimes it's trash, sometimes it's the special that sells out in 5 minutes. It can be great fun and you always learn something.
monkeymath
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I think it's a matter of your general approach to brewing, with neither being right or wrong.
On the one side you have craftsmanship, precision and control, as exemplified (imho) by Bavarian lagers. On the other side, there is a somewhat mystic aura of letting go, letting nature take over and guide the brew to a unique final product tied deeply to a time and place, essentially unreproducible - lambics are the prototypical example here.
I find both of these philosophies appealing. Perhaps, the latter one resonates more deeply with me, as it is in such stark contrast to (my) everyday life. Ultimately I wouldn't want to restrict myself to just one side of it.
