The One That Got Away...

[Sir Humpsalot]

Oh man do I feel stupid.

I have weird days off, I work second shift, and have been doing a lot of overtime lately. Monday, I was off and decided to brew my AG Pale Ale. I mashed and lautered, then before I knew it, it was 6am so I collected the runnings in my two 3-gallon brew kettles and a little extra in a 5 gallon bucket and went to bed. I figured I would either get up early and start brewing, or else I'd do it after work. I slept in.

Tuesday at work, all hell broke loose so I stayed late. Then one of my girlfriends asked to come over, so I agreed. I got home at 3am, this and that, I had breakfast in bed and went back to sleep and didn't brew Wednesday morning.

I go to work on Wednesday (tonight), stay late, come home, and decide to boil the wort. Now, to be perfectly honest, I knew the batch would start spoiling/souring and I was ok with that up to a point. I wasn't trying to sour the batch, but I thought it'd be interesting and my recipe is getting close to being zeroed in so I wasn't going to lose my data on the recipe... mostly I am focusing on clarity right now (it was my first time using plain rice and I was concerned about starch conversion and my mashing technique).

So... around 4am Thursday morning, I lift the lid on my pair of 3-gallon brew kettles and start to freak out. I have a solid INCH of foam. It looks nasty. There's brownish crap floating on top. It smells kinda weird... I shrug, scoop it off and start my boil...........

About 20 minutes into my boil, it hits me. Holy crap! That was krausen! I had an active wild fermentation going!!! And it didn't smell terrible! And I just boiled the f*** out of it. Damnit!!!!

Hmmm... I still have a pint or two left in the bucket. It didn't ferment like the stuff in the kettles did. I'm hoping if I leave it open for it a bit, it'll start the same routine... We shall see.

It was interesting. Who knows. Maybe I have some good wild yeasties (or, quite literally, a "house strain") around here.... So that's my story. The wild yeast that got away...

 

[Pappers_]

Then one of my girlfriends asked to come over, so I agreed. I got home at 3am, this and that . . .

Well played, sir, well played

As for your wild yeast, it seems like what you did is easily replicated, so give it another try and this time be kind to the wild yeasts. I suspect it won't end up good, but I've never done a wild yeast beer.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Well played, sir, well played

As for your wild yeast, it seems like what you did is easily replicated, so give it another try and this time be kind to the wild yeasts. I suspect it won't end up good, but I've never done a wild yeast beer.

I did taste the wort before I boiled it... and my thought was, "This is a little funky, but wow! It tastes really smooth and beer-like! I've never had wort taste this good before!"

So it might be something interesting. I'm trying to recapture the magic, as we speak......

 

[TNGabe]

So you've got multiple girlfriends and your wort spontaneously ferments into the nectar of the gods? What are you doing hanging out on the interwebs with us married old yeast pitching losers?