Wild Ale Project 2.0

For sour/wild/brett brewers, few things hold the interest of spontaneous brewing but most people who try report less than enjoyable results. However, many brewers have tried culturing yeast from various media (from the air to vegetation) and used a wide array of scientific and less-than-scientific means to try to select the right species to produce something tasty. After reading this thread at homebrewtalk.com I was intrigued to try my hand at culturing yeast.The first few posts discuss my first attempt at using my wild yeast, dubbed "hot carl". I froze some of the cake from that first batch and now I have a second attempt fermenting away. On the second attempt I am going to let it ride as long as it takes to develop some good flavors.

Capturing Hot Carl/First Brew

Part I - Quick intro

Part II  - Brief update on first attempt to capture wild yeast

Part III - Better explanation of the capture process, the brew and lots of pics

Part IV - First taste of the bottles


Hot Carl Wild Ale 2.0

Part I - Brief discussion of why I decided to rebrew and the recipe

Part II - Update four days into fermentation

Part III - Two months into fermentation.

Part IV - Four months into fermentation

Part V - Six months into fermentation, I give it a taste.

Part VI - I throw in the towel on expecting a really sour/funky beer and decide to use the resulting beer as a platform to taste Belma hops as a dry hop.

Part VII - Strange things start to happen in the bottle just days after bottling.

Part VIII - After a month in the bottle I gave it a taste and was pleasantly surprised to find the beer has taken a pleasurable turn to the funky.