Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Technique

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Hilltop
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Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Technique

Post by Hilltop »

https://vinepair.com/articles/wild-ferm ... ural-wine/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Interesting article
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Shine0n
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by Shine0n »

Nice read HT, I like the idea of wild ferments and did one last year with apples. It didn't turn out well due to my part but if I had stabilized it right after fermentation and gotten it off the yeast sooner I think I would've had a more palatable product. It wasn't good at all after 4 months but it was decent right after fermentation.

Like I said, I messed up with shotty protocols and it's a lesson learned for all that hard work and next year I'll take better care of my hard work for a better product.

I have a friend who works in the Vineyard in Williamsburg Va and can get the fresh pressed skins, although the wild yeast is killed I can still make a nice grappa with them :thumbup: With a little help from some invert sugar :econfused:
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by dukethebeagle120 »

i did a corn mash a month ago with a wild yeast fermentation
sodc mashing method
conversion with malt wheat
while waiting to cool i ground one pound of malt rye
after grinding i added about half a gallon of about 145f water and wrapped up in a 5 gallon stainless pot
placed in a hot place
24 hours later uncovered and it was chugging away
then added to my 26 gallons of mash
fermented out from 1.055 to 1.010 in 3.5 days
not bad for wild yeast
strong corny flavor and great sweetness
this is how i always start my wild yeast starters
did this three times so far and always works with rye
never had it ferment dry though
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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by kiwi Bruce »

The French Government on behalf of the wine industry, world wide - not just their own, have done wonders in making wine making, predictable and manageable, with truly great results. I'm not against "the wild west" approach to yeast, it's just not for me...I'm too cheap to risk my ingredients to a "Wild Whatever Yeast" over which I have no control. That's just me however...
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Hilltop
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by Hilltop »

kiwi Bruce wrote:The French Government on behalf of the wine industry, world wide - not just their own, have done wonders in making wine making, predictable and manageable, with truly great results. I'm not against "the wild west" approach to yeast, it's just not for me...I'm too cheap to risk my ingredients to a "Wild Whatever Yeast" over which I have no control. That's just me however...
I have been letting the wild yeast start on small batches a day or so then tossing Distillers yeast in, on some I have started my yeast immediately but leave it open to the air. Both have a better flavor than closed distillers yeast ferments.
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zio_gessi
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by zio_gessi »

hi guys , before having discovered this forum "grains" were a big mistery for me . (starch , enzimes , yeast) but i Always fermeted my fuits "mash" with the help of wild yeast ( also without know anything about). to be honest i didn't even know they exist !!!!

whether they were apple ,pears, peaches, kiwi , cherry ,(every fruit i had) i cut them in little pieces then i fill my bucket of 5 gallons of volume , add 2 kg of sugar , add pure source water enough to cover the fruits ... so my mash " magically " starts to ferment in 2/3 days and stop after more or less 2 month.
never took sg , fg , when the mash stop bubbling is ready.

then a i distill all (liquid and fruit) with the copper still you can see in my presentation post. to prevent burning the pot i use a bain marie sistem to heat the still. at that time i used to burn wood (cheaper than lpg)... result : good !!most of the time...

ShineOn : the frehs pressed skins are already fermented so they are ready to distill , off course adding "alcool" will increase the finally product,
here we put the grape skin in the still , we add some water and we distill them , this is the true grappa, and by the "law" the only one's.
if the the grapes skins are "low alcool" ( NOT ALL GRAPES MAKE A STRONG WINE) like the grapes here in my country we usually add less water and we add wine to increase the finally product.
home distiller can off course do anything he wants....
about the grape skins we store them in bags of jute in cold dark place , they can last months thanks they are a little acid and alcoolic before mold grow

i'm very interested about wild yeast ( now that i know they exist ahah ) especially if i can do a corn mash without using a store product !
this is my though, my phylosophy : making spirit with only i can obtain from nature.

dukethebeagle120 , i 'll try something like yours

cheers
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cranky
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by cranky »

kiwi Bruce wrote:The French Government on behalf of the wine industry, world wide - not just their own, have done wonders in making wine making, predictable and manageable, with truly great results. I'm not against "the wild west" approach to yeast, it's just not for me...I'm too cheap to risk my ingredients to a "Wild Whatever Yeast" over which I have no control. That's just me however...
+1
I'm not a big fan of wild yeast because you don't know what you are going to get. I have done an apple with wild yeast I got from a 100 year old blueberry farm and the results were OK but I find the results from store bought yeast have been far superior. If you think about it store bought yeast is just wild yeast that have been studied and isolated to give good reproducible predictable results. I work really hard to get my juice and don't like to risk it.
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by Texas Jim »

I may have joined the wild yeast group this weekend. After mashing, it was late, I had to go to work, so didn't get to pitching the yeast for 24 hours. By then, the wash had stated to smell a bit alcoholic. I got my normal yeast going pretty good and pitched to try and knock back whatever wild yeast there was. It's bubbling away now. I wonder what I'll get.
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Hilltop
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Techn

Post by Hilltop »

Texas Jim wrote:I may have joined the wild yeast group this weekend. After mashing, it was late, I had to go to work, so didn't get to pitching the yeast for 24 hours. By then, the wash had stated to smell a bit alcoholic. I got my normal yeast going pretty good and pitched to try and knock back whatever wild yeast there was. It's bubbling away now. I wonder what I'll get.
in my experience the commercial yeast takes over. I open ferment all my batches indoors with distillers or bread yeast. In the spring right after the dogwoods bloom once it warms up a tad like right now, I've had great success with no yeast. In the late summer not so much, made a barrel of vinegar last year in August.

Indoors I open ferment with distillers or Bread yeast year round. My spring wild yeast have a honey hint to it.
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Re: Wild Fermentation Is the Sexiest, Least Understood Technique

Post by Farside »

You make a critically important point. Sourdough bakers catch their wild yeast in the spring as did the ancient cultures.

The Hebrews even had a sacred festival in spring where they remove all the yeast from their houses for a period of time. Then of course they catch fresh ones after the festival is ended.
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