BeerBorg

100% spontaneously inoculated wild ale. In December Yazoo installed two new 200bl fermenting tanks. They were so big that a section of the roof had to be temporarily removed so a crane could lower the tanks into place. The roof was open for a few days before the tanks arrived and as you can see in the pictures we had gorgeous cool weather for those days and the installation day. Now the area I work in is upstairs and being fairly close to that opening… combined with cooler, but not cold weather I knew it was time to go totally wild. I transported the hot wort upstairs to a large container (temp was around 140F) and left it open for 25 hours to cool and collect microbes then transferred into the fermentor. My main concern was making sure I didn’t have too much wort depth in the container. I tried to eyeball about 4-5 inches of worth depth, any more and I was concerned I wouldn’t collect enough microbes to ferment the total volume of wort. Was that the right call? At this point I’m not 100% sure, but the batch did kick off with active fermentation within 48 hours of hitting the “coolship” (for lack of a better term at this point).

swenocha wrote:Funk Fest yesterday, so nothing today. But, wow, yesterday... Had maybe nine Yazoo funky beers, including a 100% spontaneously inoculated wild ale they made using a hole in their roof as the microbe collection site.

I knew it was time to go totally wild. I transported the hot wort upstairs to a large container (temp was around 140F) and left it open for 25 hours to cool and collect microbes then transferred into the fermentor. My main concern was making sure I didn’t have too much wort depth in the container. I tried to eyeball about 4-5 inches of worth depth, any more and I was concerned I wouldn’t collect enough microbes to ferment the total volume of wort. Was that the right call? At this point I’m not 100% sure, but the batch did kick off with active fermentation within 48 hours of hitting the “coolship” (for lack of a better term at this point).

mashani wrote: Dude, your friend there is seriously channeling his inner Belgian crazy man. That is a very authentic way of doing it, it's done sometimes on rooftops - and the idea of a low depth / large surface area is spot on, they would use a large surface area / shallow depth vat or series of channels that the wort cools in, leave it out overnight, and then bring it back down the next morning to ferment. (yes, there is probably bird poop and bat poop and mosquitoes and god knows what else in it, but that just add character LOL).

The big question is more if your truly wild bugs make good beer. The ones around here don't do it so well, the industry around here seems to promote acetobacter types of bugs that really mess it up more often then not, and make vinegary beer, not good sour beer. So... How was that beer?

swenocha wrote: BTW, the brewer in question is this guy. You may have read his site before...