Gotta share my spontaneous wild ale

oliver

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end of December, I was brewing a NEIPA, (60/40 pilsner/oats) and had too much extra wort after the mash. So I drained off the rest and threw it into a large mason jar to do an experiment wild ferment, see what happens. Gravity: 1.045
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The first week or two, it smelled TERRIBLE. I mean it smelled awful, like rotting and moldy bread. This experiment was probably a fail, but I left it and forgot about it for another couple weeks.

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After a month of spontaneous open fermentation, I went back and smelled it again, and it smelled way better. Reminiscent of a wild ale. I poured a bit off and it was damn tasty. So to give it some extra flavor and zing, I tossed in some hibiscus orange peel tea I had laying around, plus some butterfly pea flowers for extra color.

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Drank it last night, (uncarbonated), and it was good. Had a couple tiny flaws, but it's fixable for next time. The ale finished at 1.010 and the pH had dropped to about 2.5, too low for my tastes. A little too thin and tart. And it had a huge floral punch. Bit too much. But it was good, going to try it again with a larger batch in the future.

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Heck yeah great work lovely looking colour pretty cool stuff.
 
Very nice. Do you think the characteristics are 'clean' enough to continue using the wild yeast you've captured? Some aging with oak and possibly some brett in future batches?
 
That’s both amazing and cool to me. I’m not brave enough to try that yet. Congrats Oliver!
 
Very nice. Do you think the characteristics are 'clean' enough to continue using the wild yeast you've captured? Some aging with oak and possibly some brett in future batches?
yeah it was quite clean, just too tart. I didn't cultivate any of it, oh well. I'm gonna try it out again on a large scale batch. I'm too fascinated and intrigued with just letting it do its thing and not inoculating it.
 
Open fermentation ROUND 2!

OK, I totally miscalculated this one, but we'll see what happens. I mashed 5.5 pounds of grain for a 2 gallon batch on Sunday night. 2.5 lbs Chateau Belgian Pils, 2.5 lbs Rahr White Wheat, .25 lbs Chateau Monastique, and .25 lbs Chateau CaraBlond (8ºL). I was expecting to hit ~1.050 in my confusion. Back in the real world I hit 1.075 OG. Whatever, I'll see what happens. I'm just worried that the wild yeast won't be able to get it to 8%, and I'll have a cloyingly sweet half attenuated ale. But I really have no idea, I'm legless on this one.

Tuesday morning has active signs of fermentation! Totally spontaneous and wild fermentation occurring. It's sitting in a glass demi-john container with a t-shirt rubber banded around the lid. I'll consider putting some fruit in the keg with it, or aging with some fruit. Not sure what's in season.



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Very cool Oliver you've deffinetly piqued my interest.
 
Two gallons is a great experiment. Dried figs?
 
Very nice! It will be interesting to see if you obtained a different strain and how it ferments out.
 

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