How to Produce Your Own Yeasts

[Koula]

It seems like nobody is talking about this. I can't image that prior to 150+ years ago, brewers were bound to rely on a half dozen monolithic yeast producing companies, and therefore also can't help but wonder, how did traditional cultures maintain and isolate the best brewing yeasts? I'd also like to know if you've attempted to produce your own yeasts, and can share some stories about the experience. Also certainly mention any equipment required and a description of the setup (lab, sterile environments, laminar flowhoods, petri dishes, growth mediums, sterilization rates, isolation techniques, etc.) This is more or less a guess on my part, as I only have experience isolating fungi cultures of mushroom producing fungi, not yeasts. Are they one and the same? Could one buy a great pack of yeast, grow it out on agar, isolate the strain and reproduce mass quantities of home grown yeast? Do fire away with any books or sources of information on the subject, etc. Thanks and cheers!

[MDH]

Yes. I've done this numerous times. The issue is that when we turn to wild yeast, it's largely for the sake of complexity, a lack of "Domesticated taste". If you've ever had a good bottle of Mezcal you'll know what I'm talking about. When we take only one of those yeasts and attempt to use it all on its own, we're subjecting the yeast to a completely new environment because there is a lack of metabolism byproducts/breakdown occurring from other bacteria/yeast that can be helpful for it. On its own, that yeast may produce way more acid than several hundred different yeasts working together, and so on.

Take some berries from your back yard, throw them in a ziplock bag, crush them a little bit and push the remaining air out before sealing. Over time the bag will begin to rapidly expand, then you know you have yeast, and you can ferment a lot of the fruit that way. That's the best way to do wild yeast. With some fruits and berries the yeast is ultimately an invisible taste because it's well adapted to the fermenting medium.

[drtaylor101]

When fermenting this way, does it need to be at room temperature or higher? also, can you save yeast for another batch?

[Koula]

I have harvested wild yeast several times in the form of sourdough cultures. I agree, they aren't monocultures but rather an array of various yeasts growing hopefully in harmony with eachother. So what are commercial yeasts then, single strains?

I wish we could find an insider here from a yeast lab - seems that almost all brewers yeast in brew shops is all from the UK despite the branding.

Just found out the concept of "re-pitching" yeast. This might help others who are curious about producing or at least preserving yeasts. Has anyone here done this and how sustainable is the practice?

[rockhounder]

Here is an informative article explaining how to make yeast starters a couple different ways. I know it's more geared for bread making, but the "drying" instructions at the bottom are pretty interesting. Be aware though that this is a very crude version of yeast but may be helpful for those preppers out there who wanna keep off the grid.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2012/09/2 ... own-yeast/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[CleanRun]

Rockhounder,

Thx so much for the article and ref. Not only was that an interesting read, but now I'm reading
other articles on that site. Thx again.

CR