Running Trail Wild Brew Experiment

[louisbrew]

So several weeks back I was running near my home when I came across a blackberry bush. I grabbed my empty water bottle and filled it with some blackberries from the bush expecting to take some home and do something with them in my brewing.

When I returned home I stuck them in the fridge overnight. The next afternoon over the weekend, I noticed something going on in my keezer and went to check and found over 1 gallon of ESB had spilled out a leaking corny. I sucked up what I could into a bucket and then was going to pitch it until I realized, this would make a great base beer for a secondary experiment with my new wild blackberries.

So I filled some sanitized containers with collected ESB beer and dropped in a couple blackberries. I left them for a couple weeks and this is what I found.

Looks like some type of fermentation is going on. I can see little white specs flaoting up into the white film so I am assuming CO2 is at work in there. Could just be from what was left in the beer when I put it in the bottles though. They have been sitting for 3 weeks now and they should be flat now but the krausen or whatever this is is still there.

 

[louisbrew]

I waited about two weeks, then I got some wild blueberries from a pick your own farm. One of the bottles that i had originally used for this experiment was a control with no blackberries. I wanted to see if it would get some wild yeast in it, but after 2 weeks no sign of anything. So I went ahead and dropped some hand picked blue berries in and voila - same situation. White murky film. Doesn't look like brett or pellicle. really fluffy stuff but it's the same whether it's blueberries or wild blackberries.

Any idea what this stuff is?

This beer was at about 1.010 or 1.009 when I kegged it so there is not much left in there regarding sugars. Whatever is in there is non-fermentable by Sachromycces but something might have started up from the little bit of fruit i put in there.

As another experiment I took when of the water bottles and dumped it into less than a gallon of apple juice I have used in the past to make Apelwein so we will see what that does in a month or so as well.

I am not planning on drinking this stuff unless I can figure out what this stuff is. However, it's fun just the same.

Any ideas?

 

[dantheman13]

Well, it doesn't look like mold. Generally when I've added fruit to a beer in the fermenter, it re-ferments the sugars from the fruit. I would guess that is what is fermenting the fruit, but I suppose there is a chance that the fermentation may be wild yeast. You should definitely have something wild in there either way. Since you added the fruit to beer, I wouldn't be concerned about getting sick from tasting it.

 

[louisbrew]

Cool I guess now I just wait and see

Should I air lock them now or just leave me alone and hope the co2 blanket from the refermentation protects the beer from further oxidation?



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[louisbrew]

I have also seen people say this is pectin release. However what's interesting is it happened with two different exposures one from the blackberry and one from the blueberries so I would think it would look different but blueberry versions looks almost the same as these do


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[dantheman13]

Airlock would be best. With a loose seal, the air will get inside and the gasses will mix.

 

[louisbrew]

I wonder what will happen with the pure apple juice? I have normally added dextrose to make Apelwein

Any experience with Brett? I was thinking if letting this all sit and ferment all out then combine it with some Orval dregs and let it sit for several months making a small Brett apelwein beer thing!!


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[louisbrew]

Here the recent pics

Blueberry bottle

And then Apple juice where I dumped a blackberry bottle into




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[louisbrew]

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[louisbrew]

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[louisbrew]

Great news as of today I have fermentation activity in apple juice after pitching one of the already fermenting beer bottles into the apple juice

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple months


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[louisbrew]

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[louisbrew]

Fermentation has started to slow down a bit on apple juice portion but not done still some bubbling. The plan next will be to brew a simple esb recipe and pitch the dregs of the apple into half the batch and one of the refermented beer with blackberry samples into the other half leave it for a month and see what happens

Stay tuned...tasting notes coming soon



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[louisbrew]

Ok so tasting notes are in

First bottle was ordinary bitter sg 1.040 fg 1.007 wlp007 repitched with 4 blackberries from trail run and let ferment for 5 weeks

Ended up being super tart and acidic much like a lemon but even a bit more tart if that's possible. Had some film on the sample that looked slimed. Not sure what this is but from what I have read this tastes like lacto not acetobacter ... Didn't get vinegary taste at all

Second tasting was pure costco apple juice with pitch 2 weeks ago from same sample that ended up being more lacto today. Taste is definitely normal cider clean tasting no vinegary or lacto at all.

Question if wild yeast was present in both samples and only difference was lacto sample was open fermented and cider was under airlock is that why cider is not starting to sour? I would think wild yeast in both sample would dominate.

Going to check back on both in 4 weeks or so.


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[louisbrew]

Just mixed on of the lacto bottles with cider version going to wait and see what happens


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[louisbrew]

Fermentation on apple juice stopped before I pitched lacto bottle last weekend


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[KyleHall]

Perhaps the simple sugars of the cider were chewed up by the Brett and any other Sacc yeast before the BacT could do anything. I read about a soir cider on Madfermentationist where he thought about adding maltodextrine to the next batch to give the BacT something to chew on specifically for them.

 

[louisbrew]

Did a tasting tonite on the pure apple juice turned cider and then pitched with lacto beer sample from July. All I can say is wow! Just a month after this cider is starting to turn more sour. Reminds me of a faint version of petrus pale ale ... Not nearly as sour yet but you can taste that flavor coming on... It's definately not normal cider anymore. I can pick up the apples but the sourness is definately there on the back of the sip. As this matures more I expect the sourness to play a bigger part in the brew from beginning to end but now it's just working it's way back from the finish to the start of the taste if that makes any sense!

I am rely excited to see how this turns out in a couple months. Based on the fact I am only taking 1/2 shot glass samples on ot at a time this one should last a long time some should be able to see it develop over time.

Check back in in a month for more notes. This is great fun !


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