"Yeast Stick" Experiment - Advice Sought

[russell_c_cook]

Hi all,

I am fascinated by tales of traditional sticks used to stir worts and store yeast in some cultures. I want to try this myself, and would like to run my plan by everyone.

First, make some holes in a small piece of beech wood, to give yeast nooks and crannies to hide.

Second, after a brew, dip the wood into the yeast cake.

Third, hang out stick to dry thoroughly.

Fourth, put the dried stick into an airtight jar.

Fifth, a few months later, put the stick into hopped wort, and see what happens!

Any ideas would be welcome. Part of the interest is I'm curious about how yeast can be stored without electricity in places with hot summers.

 

[earle]

I suspect that you will pick up some wild yeast on your stick. A lot of these old "traditional" beers would have been "infected" with the local biota. From reading Bronzed Brews it seems that most Aussie ales had a Brett infection prior to the introduction of lagers which coincided with a big improvement in sanitation. Could be an interesting experiment though. I would set aside a particular fermenter for it though.

 

[Mardoo]

There's a great blog that goes into detail about the living Scandinavian tradition of this. Here's a link to one of the articles on the blog:

http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/264.html

It's fully worth digging around in the blog. I spent a couple nights reading most of the brewing posts.

 

[russell_c_cook]

Hi Earle,

Thanks for the input.

I was thinking of doing a small batch of porter for the experiment, do you reckon that Brettanomyces flavours (if that's what I get) would be compatible with that?

Russell

 

[russell_c_cook]

Hi Mardoo,

Yes, I've had a good read through those, where most of my interest in this topic came from .

It'd be great to see how it works in subtropical Brisbane.

 

[earle]

Hi Earle,

Thanks for the input.

I was thinking of doing a small batch of porter for the experiment, do you reckon that Brettanomyces flavours (if that's what I get) would be compatible with that?

Russell

Different Brett strains have different flavours but could go well. Having said that it could be a bit of a lottery as to what biota you might and not might pick up - but worth an experiment.

 

[russell_c_cook]

Hi Earle,

I'll bear that in mind. I reckon a porter's roasty flavours give me the highest chance of covering up any unexpected flavours from yeast.

 

[Dae Tripper]

I have been planning to have a go at this in the near future

http://poppylandbrewer.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/making-yeast-ring.html?m=1

 

[russell_c_cook]

Hi Dae Tripper,

Please keep us posted on that!

I started making my one today, a very simple one. I sawed the end off of a beech wood kitchen utensil, so I had a small, thin rectangle of wood.

I've used a reamer to make a hole in the wood, plan to do a couple more, and maybe saw some indents in the sides to give the yeast plenty of places to ensconce themselves.

Hopefully I'll be putting a brew on this weekend (using commercial dried yeast), so in a few weeks I'll have the chance to give the stick a go.

 

[russell_c_cook]

One more question, since there may be a high chance of a Brett entrance into the mix, would a long secondary fermentation be a good idea? My thinking being, if a strain of Brett is there, I should give it enough time to do its fermenting and avoid the possibility of bottle-bombs.

The fermenters I use make gravity readings a bit of a pain.

 

[hirschb]

One more question, since there may be a high chance of a Brett entrance into the mix, would a long secondary fermentation be a good idea? My thinking being, if a strain of Brett is there, I should give it enough time to do its fermenting and avoid the possibility of bottle-bombs.

The fermenters I use make gravity readings a bit of a pain.

Yes, long secondary and checking to make sure your gravity is stable for 1+ month is a good idea. You could also keg and avoid bottling.
I suspect that these yeast rings are most useful with super-weirdly-flocculant yeasts like Kveik. How these yeast rings have so little lacto/brett contamination when tested is a mystery to me, but I suspect that using this method in tropical/sub-tropical OZ will result in something very, very different.

 

[russell_c_cook]

Hey Hirschb,

I suspect you're right, the results with be interesting if nothing else!

To everyone, how about if I were to make a starter with the stick, and once the fermentation has got going, cold crash the starter so the yeast will settle to bottom. I've heard that Brett often get going after S. cerevisiae has done most of its work, so perhaps the yeast early on in a starter would be mostly S. Cerevisiae?

Certainly no guarantees but might tip the scales slightly in favour of S. Cerevisiae? Just an idea.

 

[russell_c_cook]

Further reading has made me lean towards "Dark Mild" as the style I'll go for in the experiment.

It doesn't need ageing, and from what I've read Brettanomyces is a slow worker, so I reckon if I can ferment, carbonate and drink within a few weeks, the Brett (if present) won't have time to have much influence.

 

[earle]

Further reading has made me lean towards "Dark Mild" as the style I'll go for in the experiment.

It doesn't need ageing, and from what I've read Brettanomyces is a slow worker, so I reckon if I can ferment, carbonate and drink within a few weeks, the Brett (if present) won't have time to have much influence.

That approach makes sense. IIRC from Bronzed brews, the colonial ales were drunk pretty young, probably so that the Brett and various other infections they had didn't have chance to take hold.

 

[pcqypcqy]

If you could use a sanitised dehydrator, you might reduce the chance of getting a wild yeast there. Then keep it wrapped up.

But if you want the wild yeasts just for the fun of it, then go for it.

If it were me, to innoculate the stick I'd just sanitise/boil it first after cutting all the lines/holes you're talking about, and then just throw it in when you pitch the first brew. No point waiting.

Keen to see how this goes.

 

[russell_c_cook]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback. A sanitized dehydrator is something that hadn't crossed my mind - will look into that idea.

Glad to hear some support for the "drink young" approach to this experiment.

In terms of when to try it out, I plan to grab some yeast from after fermenting a pale ale, which we put on yesterday.

I'll keep everyone posted, thanks for all the feedback and enthusiasm

 

[hirschb]

I would just try to limit any airflow to the yeast stick. I'd just brew like normal, boil the stick before using (preferably in your wort) and throw it in with the fermenting beer. Once you rack off the beer to bottles/kegs, fish out your yeast stick/ring and put it in a very dry place, with little/no exposure to outside air. I'd place it on a sanitized surface (maybe star-san a pan) and leave it in your temp controlled fridge to dry. Alternately, throw it in the oven at 35-40C to dry out for a day or two. Once it is nice and dry, you can put it in a ziplock bag and keep at room temp or in the freezer. Or, just take the dried yeast stick and use it again. What you want to limit is the amount of wild yeast in the atmosphere to contact the stick. It'd also be helpful to use this method in beers with decent IBU's as that will inhibit lacto and pedio.