My quest for wild yeast

[jedneck]

As some have noticed I have been hinting that I wanna catch a strong viable wild yeast. Well today is the day I start. I started with a wort of rye, wheat and corn with a sg of 1.03ish. To this wort I added about six feet of wild raspberry stems that had a good covering of wild yeast. If after a couple hour there is no activity I will pitch bakers.

[bitter]

Good luck!

B

[jedneck]

3 hrs and very little activity. Pitched bakers into fermentor. Still have almost 2 quarts of wort with raspberry canes in it. I'm gonna let it set and see how low it will go. I will pitch it in the next ferment if it goes dry.

[bitter]

The wild yeast thing always interests me. Be nice to get a nice culture that would add character to the whisky. I was wondering though... maybe a different way to get wild yeast.... could you not make a starter like you do sour dough bread?

I have a sour dough starter here maybe I will try making a 1g wash with it as the starter to see what happens. If it works maybe try making a 10g batch and see what happens.

B

[jedneck]

Bitter I have played with sourdough in the past for bread using wild yeast. Never had any luck. I am hoping that I can find a in the woods. In time I'm sure I will. This way I only loose 1 quart of wort instead of a 20 gallon ferment.

[just sayin]

Jed, it might be worth while canning 5 gallons of wort in pint or even half pint jars and use them like prepared Petri dishes. A bunch of jars would really increase your changes of finding something good. The jars would keep and would give you consistency in all your tests.

[MitchyBourbon]

Catching wild yeast can be a lot of fun, and rewarding too when you catch a good one. It can also be hit or miss. When it's a miss, you feel even more dejected if you end up discarding a lot of wort. Even worse if you find something good but are unable to reproduce the same results. This can happen if you don't isolate and save the isolated culture or cultures. Obviously you know what happens if you don't save or harvest. It's just gone. But if you don't isolate it first you may end up fermenting with any number of strains and bacteria. In this case harvesting the yeast after fermentation won't give you the original mix. You may be left harvesting just one last remaining strain.

Here are a couple links that you may find interesting and hopefully useful.

Making agar plates
http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/ ... /agar.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

catching wild yeast
http://bootlegbiology.com/diy/capturing-yeast/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

isolating yeast strains
http://bootlegbiology.com/diy/isolating-yeast/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Good luck!

[just sayin]

Great links, Mitchy! Bye for now, going back over there to read, great stuff so far.

[jedneck]

Just sayin good idea on canning wort
Mitchy thanks for the links. They are some damn good reading. I might have another hobby now

[MitchyBourbon]

Mildly amusing too... "just the tip"

[Bobdoe]

This is a fascinating idea, and those links from Mitchy were great. Quick question: is there a way to increase the chance of isolating a good wild yeast by picking a unique place to set your "yeast traps"? A winery? A pastry shop? The woods? A flower patch? Etc.
Thanks!
BDoe

[jedneck]

Bob that is what I am trying to do buy doing it the way I'm doing it. There is yeast everywhere, its jist trying to get a good strain. Next experiment will be asperigas. I was weeding the garden today and saw the the asperigas has a good coating of yeast on it.

[InglisHill]

I'd be looking to the fruits and veges as you are in order to find the most viable ones.........

Plenty of blokes do natural ferments, usually they are saying they don't use yeast cause it causes hangovers, little do they know.

Be interesting to see how you get on, I guess many beers have yeast that was wild once and some bright spark made it do what they wanted

[DAD300]

jedneck...Whole Foods and the organic stores sell pieces of Sugar Cane. While I'm sure they are washed, I planted one in yard. Because of sugar content it promotes yeast on it's surface.

[MDH]

Create a wort with a pH of 3.8-4.2 out of barley. Throw random things from your yard into it. Cap the air on it. Allow it to ferment to total dryness, and then keep adding increments of concentrated wort to see how high it will go.

The OP only waited several hours. This can take several days to get going.

[Tater]

I would set my collection jars near fields of whatever grain was near me or close to bee hive maybe

[jedneck]

MDH I knew that chances were that it wouldn't take off fast enuf to use as a starter in the mash that the wort came from. There is a little more activity today. I believe that the yeast are humping like teenagers and procreating.

[bitter]

Thats awesome! Let hope this works out!

B

[Usge]

Last time I did one, at the recommendation of someone here, I went to an place that sold good looking fruit, and got some grapes that had some white powder on them. I tossed a few (3 or 4 clumped together) of those in the fermenter...and next day it was bubbling away.

[Bobdoe]

Question: Instead of using jars of mash/wort as the yeast trap, why not use agar plates made from agar and mash/wort? I've been a science fair judge many times over the years and several projects interested in identifying bacteria in public places simply place open petri dishes of agar in the desired location. Catching yeast shouldn't be much different, and you'll start off with pure clonal isolates if using plates to start off. I'm thinking out loud here (well, you know, thinking as I type). You'd still need to make "mini-ferments" with each isolate to ensure that the yeasts make what you want. Just a thought.

Bobdoe

[MDH]

A full on wild ferment is capable of a lot more though. If I were trying to go for a select yeast, I'd simply find one with the right profile, correspond my needs with the offerings provided by the lab, and make a decision.

With wild yeast, there are multiple stages to fermentation: Non-saccharomyces, saccharomyces and Zygosaccharomyces, anaerobic bacterial fermentation (such as from lactobacillus) and then finally brettanomyces and other surface yeasts, though the latter will only produce flavor if allowed oxygen (which is a good thing since a lot of people do not like brett).

You will have a lot of flavors to this sort of ferment: strong fruit (Banana and pineapple), pear, candlewax, "dusty" smell, etc. You can make some fairly sophisticated whiskies if you do it right, especially at a high temp.

[jedneck]

Yeasties aren't having a teenager orgy. Its more like a 80 high school reuniun. They are working. I think that I was a dumb shit and put my yeast cover canes in to much wort. Should have started with a small starter first. I knew better.

[jedneck]

Warmed up the minny ferment. Activity increased to the point that I'm going to use it for a starter in the next ferment. I will feed it some new wort to build it up to pitch into a 20 gallon ferment.

[jedneck]

This strain seems to be one that likes heat. When it gets under 75° it slows to a crawl, in the mid 80s it ripps right along.

[bitter]

Sounds like will be great for the summer!

What the SG change? Start and current?

How it smell?

How it taste?

B

[jedneck]

Start sg was around 1.03-4. Havent checked since. Smells as good or better than the ferment with bakers that the wort came from. Have not tasted it yet ill wait till it goes dry if it does.

[LBHD]

Jed - if the ferment is in a good place, isolate some of the wort and streak a plate with it (or small jar with agar agar)

Soon the other wildies will get hold and take over. If you can isolate the yeast while it is the most active, you can propagate it much more predictably on your next round

[jedneck]

Colony is now working on 5 gallons of malted corn/wheat wort chewing away. Pitched the original 1/2 gallon into 5 gallons of on the grain wort. Couple hours later airlock is talking. Five gallon will get pitches as a starter for a 30ish gallon in a couple days.

[jedneck]

Smell and taste seems to be fruitier than the same wort that used bakers yeast.

[bitter]

Sounds like you making great progress!

B