Captured Yeast

Blackmuse

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So, last summer I put a small vial of wort out on my front porch for a few hours and snagged a wild yeast... I did this for fun and honestly expected to get something funky! What I eneded up with was something extraordinary! The vial smelled like hard liquor when she was done fermenting but the beer tasted like a hefe almost! Lots of cool esters!

Anyway, I started growing the yeast in small batches until I had enough yeast to make about a gallon of basic beer. I took about a gallon of second running from a blonde ale 1.030ish and made a small beer. That beer came out a bit thin without the esters I had hoped for and it seemed to ferment WAY down. It wasn't bad or funky or tart/sour. It was just a thin beer with maybe too much hop. - So I went at it one more time....

I made a 5 gallon batch of my Blonde Ale - it ened up tasting way different than it usually does thanks to this yeast! At first it was cool! - This yeast does kick off some esters that again reminded me of hefeweizen... (My notes at day 20 said the beer was already below 1.010 (1.006) and that it tasted like a hefe or wit beer. Tangy and clove-like.)

However, what i tasted on day 20 eventually subsided in the keg! This yeast seems to just keep going! It really can dry a beer out!

Again, not bad! - Not sour, not tart, not funky. Just a straight up work horse! The blonde inevitably turned out thin, dry and a touch lackluster. - Bummer. (My brother even tasted the changes. He too was a little disappointed) So, I made a tincture of Cardamom (love the stuff!) and vanilla.... I added it to the last 4 gallons sitting in the keg and WOW! A Belgian Blonde ale! lol Crisp, dry and yet the vanilla and cardamom added a touch of sweetness and roundness to the beer!

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I'm thinking this yeast has at least 1-2 more batches in it! Next I feel like I need to make something darker, stronger and with more body... A bock? Belgian Dubbel? Nothing too crazy but just something with body...
I only wish I could get this yeast to keep the esters it first produces! It just keeps going - even in the keg at 36 degrees!

What could this yeast be?
NOTE: I fermented everything in the mid-60s everytime.
 
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Very cool experiment. There are so many variety of yeasts, who knows what it is. That's why regions of the world have different beers/yeast. They were all wild at one time or another.
 
Every yeast strain in use was "wild" at one point. Sounds like you got lucky and caught a good one: Most get something between nail polish remover and baby diaper. Congratulations on your catch and if it really is a stable colony (like a sourdough), you should be able to keep it living indefinitely, just keep feeding it.
 
ost get something between nail polish remover and baby diaper.
My local micro-fauna is full-on nail polish at high temp but spicy and interesting when allowed to work at low temps. Just like any yeast strain, there's a preferred temperature range in terms of the balance of compounds produced.
 
Had a friend capture microbes from the orchard at her farm. Very neutral at around 18C/64F, reminiscent of a Saison at around 25C/77F. She loves the warm fermented beer, he loves the cold fermented one.
 
That is the thing I need to figured out next... If I take my slurry and ferment a batch warm will it struggle next time I try and ferment with it at a low temp? Right now I have just been using it at mid 60s to be on the safe side. I would love to try it warm and see if I can get it to keep those esters!
 

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