So I played with natural yeasts and cultivation. Had few strains isolated and kept in fridge. But recently one extremely resistant strain contaminated all of it.
Had some good brews, some bad, some meh. So what is yours experience, did you tryed it or want to?
I love wild yeasts and use them all the time. However, I do not brew. I am more of a wine/mead person… My knowledge of brewing with wild strains is limited and cannot comment.
So you just wait until it starts fermenting? Or do you use some more “scientific” method?
I do NOT wash the fruits of choice. I crush them, and let the wild yeasts on the skins/outsides do the magic for me. I WILL however, adjust the sugar content and acid levels BEFORE fermentation to how I want it designed, then, let it ride! It usually starts 2 days after, and not 24 hours. Oh, and I also maintain everything spotlessly clean during the entire process to make sure that just the wild yeasts are jumping in there vs. some random stuff… Have also experimented with open-top fermentation and wild yeasts where you leave the lid off.
For low ABV I definitely like wild. Good to have a ginger bug in particular.
I stick to commercially made yeasts and have really enjoyed the consistency and reliability of them, though the wild west of the yeast world does sound enticing. What brews are you using them with? I mainly focus on wines, meads, & makgeolli.
I made some ales, lagers and cider. It is mixed results, you made few small 2 liter batches (brew lots of beer/cider and test few strains) and then go bigger with most promising ones. After it stabilise it is as bought ones with some added work.
Not for me. Most wild strains are too sour.
Not for me I isolate single strain so it is more like commercial yeasts than wild.
That sounds like a nice weekend project. How do you isolate the strains? Do you make an agar plate and just spread around and then grow the colonies you like?
Weekend? It takes several weeks. You have few options to capture them - wort with fruit/leaves in mason jar, agar plate, wort sitting outside. Then let it ferment for 2 weeks, spread on plate, in incubator for 5 days. Then you take single “colony” repeat fermentation and agar plate step.
You don’t need special equipment just some Petri dishes and optionally incubator. For agar I made my own from wort. Everything is sanitised in pressure cooker.
After you have single strain on agar plate/tube you then have to propagate them and brew with it.
So several weekends then :D
What temperature do you incubate at? I reckon I could stick an airtight container in a dehydrator for temperature control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXrsvNLCxk&list=PLZ3Z2428mCTqDFK-3ZSNpZBXJfTaMtRXE
I used this as my reference (I have lots of lab experience). Generally you need about 25°C for yeasts and fungi but 20 is enough. I use the insulated cold box with heat pad and thermostat. Dehydrator is overkill if you want to try it, some place with constant temperature is enough.
I have with Cyser It greatly improved the flavor
