pint of lager
brewing on the verandah
- Joined
- 9/5/04
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Brewing beer is such a wide field. If you want to give your wild yeasts a home, then go for it. Some people grow hops, some have huge splendiforous bars, some boil their brews over fires, so do some research and you are on your way.
Wine was originally made from crushing grapes and allowing the many wild yeasts on the skins to naturally ferment the grape sugars. Maybe some of the vessels and utensils from wine making made it to beer brewing.
Fruit tree growers can either use grafted stock or self sown trees from seeds. People with small spaces and no time will select a known grafted variety. People with plenty of space in the orchard and time to allow a tree to mature to bearing can afford the space for some trees grown from seed.
Brewers will usually select a known yeast with a known profile. After all that effort to make wort, no-one wants an unknown yeast doing it's thing in the fermenter.
If you have the inclination, time and space in your brewery, then try some wild brews.
Do try and keep your wild brews away from your usual brews, especially if you yeast farm from slants or reuse yeast from slurries.
As MHB said, it is a bit of a lucky dip. There are many variables. What is the preferred fermentation temp of your yeast? 10 degrees? 25 degrees? What attenuation are you after? This plays a big part in the final balance. You may have lucked onto a great yeast that works best at 12 degrees, but at 20 it throws nasty flavours.
Vinegars are a specialty field of their own. You need a decent wine to start with, then a mother culture, some oxygen and time. Mother cultures are available from unfiltered and unpastuerised vinegars from hippy shops.
Good luck with your search for your very own house yeast.
Wine was originally made from crushing grapes and allowing the many wild yeasts on the skins to naturally ferment the grape sugars. Maybe some of the vessels and utensils from wine making made it to beer brewing.
Fruit tree growers can either use grafted stock or self sown trees from seeds. People with small spaces and no time will select a known grafted variety. People with plenty of space in the orchard and time to allow a tree to mature to bearing can afford the space for some trees grown from seed.
Brewers will usually select a known yeast with a known profile. After all that effort to make wort, no-one wants an unknown yeast doing it's thing in the fermenter.
If you have the inclination, time and space in your brewery, then try some wild brews.
Do try and keep your wild brews away from your usual brews, especially if you yeast farm from slants or reuse yeast from slurries.
As MHB said, it is a bit of a lucky dip. There are many variables. What is the preferred fermentation temp of your yeast? 10 degrees? 25 degrees? What attenuation are you after? This plays a big part in the final balance. You may have lucked onto a great yeast that works best at 12 degrees, but at 20 it throws nasty flavours.
Vinegars are a specialty field of their own. You need a decent wine to start with, then a mother culture, some oxygen and time. Mother cultures are available from unfiltered and unpastuerised vinegars from hippy shops.
Good luck with your search for your very own house yeast.
