Welcome to my RU-vid channel, featuring videos on homebrewing, wild brewing, yeast wrangling, and brewing science. Visit my website at www.suigenerisbrewing.com for more posts on homebrewing, yeast wrangling and other beer-related topics.
@@rikardsundling6604 you don't need a farm - anyone can make cheese at home with some simple tools and store-bought milk. I'd recommend Gavin Webber's RU-vid channel for better tutorials on making cheese.
I was wondering if you are more likely to introduce harmful bacteria by capturing wild yeast from the air compared to capturing it from fruit. I've seen many people make yeast starters from fruit, as well as other starters like ginger bugs, and they typically use them within a week or so of fermentation starting. This has me wondering if there's a risk of contamination or infection when using the starter so early in the process. I once made a yeast starter using blackberries from my backyard, and I was able to use it in wine within a week. The wine was ready to drink in about a month, and now I'm curious if I should have waited longer. Could you clarify if there's an increased risk by using the starter so quickly? Or is this something to be more worried about when capturing yeast from the air only?
@@NoahKainWhittington when capturing wild yeast, we are relying on the acidity they release, plus alcohol, plus time to kill off any potentially harmful bacteria. This only takes a day or two once vigorous fermentation starts. If your capture was fully fermented and didn't have over signs of something being wrong (bad aroma, etc), than it was likely fine.
@@SuiGenerisBrewing Awesome! There were no off-flavors, and the aroma was heavenly! It actually reached 10% ABV, and it went dry. I was surprised I was able to get that far with wild yeast without trying to cultivate them on an agar dish. I enjoyed the flavors the wild yeast produced, and none of them were offensive. A lot of the grape flavor and aroma remained as well, which made it even better! I wanted to try taking a wild yeast starter, freeze-drying it, and making some yeast autolyze, along with adding some Epsom salt for nutrients, and mixing it all together into one yeast packet. It's just an experiment I wanted to try.
Good to see the project coming along. The spontaneous fermentation sounds really interesting, even if that means that the beer won't be ready for a while. I also like the traditional nordic farmhouse style route even if the yeast sourcing will breach the 50m rule. You could do a raw ale. But as for kveik, you could get some of the mixed strain cultures from the forums. Maybe you can even get a few different ones, mix them, and see if any straines flourish more readily within that 50 m perimeter. If you that's a thing (I'm not particularly educated when it comes to yeast.) You could even make a kveik-ring and air-dry the yeast for storage. Would that perhaps even induce a change to your local environment? As a general question, I was weondering how you'd go about isolating and culturing thermotolerant yeast strains. Wild capture in heated word? Purification on agar with heated incubation? Reading about old farmhouse brewing in Denmark, it seems that the process has been the same, meaning that it's likely that they've also had somewhat thermotolerant strains. It would be weird if they were indigenous to Norway, so it could be a fun project to find and culture more local varieties. Hope, the shoulder is getting better.
@@pukbobo1423 most wild yeasts are thermotolerant, in the sense that they grow fine up to 35 to 37C. So most yeast you capture will meet that criteria...as do most commercial ale yeasts. But generally speaking, yeasts fermented at those temperatures will produce a lot of unpleasant off-flavours. My guess is kveik was selected over time to taste better when fermented at those higher temperatures, rather than being that way pre-domestication.
@@SuiGenerisBrewing So the best way to go about something like this would just be normal yeast capture and isolation followed by trial by ordeal in whether fermentation at around 35C yields something palatable?
Glad to see your updates, I will be harvesting my barley this weekend yet, it has been super wet over here in northwest Iowa, also my hops seem to have a second season, I will be collecting some this weekend, but some new growths just started flowering, I have been following some of your advice, does threshing with the chain does not break the kernels? Thanks.
My vote is that you continue to use the capture from last year, unless you didn't like the flavor. In that case, new capture each season until you finally end up with a unique flavor that is yours alone and is a taste of your locale. But I'm just a spectator! :)
Nice to see the broject is going well! Please go with the stone beer if you have stones in 50m. I've tried it and the result is exciting. My malt was very light, more like pilsner, but the resulting wort was dark amber and quite complex. Be sure to mash with heated water though, I used stones in the mash and the conversion rate was very poor.
@@SuiGenerisBrewing IS that the traditional method? Where they bashed the grain on the treshold and then tossed it in the air using a sheet to have the lighter components blow away.? Or some variation on that.
@@rimmersbryggeri historically, grain was thresher with a flail (essentially a nun-chuck with a long handle), then winnowed by tossing it in the air on a windy day.
I did this very thing this year. Grew barley and rye, harvested with scickle, cut the heads with scissors, and threshed with a paddle bit chucked in a drill. Winnowing was done in front of a fan. Massively time consuming. Hard to imagine how I could do this on a large enough scale to satisfy my malt needs.
And I should tell you, your videos are what inspired me to do all this. I've grown my own hops this year as well, so by Fall I will have a beer brewed entirely with home grown ingredients.
Hello brian. I have taked to you earlier about a brilliant tasting lactic acid culture that creates a mucus like "pellicle" I think it is called Lactococcus lactis, if you make something like berlinerweisse or gose I strongly recommend experimentation with this, I think it may also be good to add acidity to other bevrages like for example mead and possibly flanders red style beers. In sweden we make a kind of cultured milk with it or at least in parts of sweden. There is a folk tale that it is symbiotic with common butterworth which grows in canada but a microbiologist like you may have more reliable sources for bacterial cultures.
@@SuiGenerisBrewing I think that is what I have accidently gott off elderberries and elderflowers and even the lab wort tastes good without any hops or anything else. it is supposed to be Lactococcus though not Lactobacilllus. Previously called Streptococcus Lactis. Is used in cheddar cheese? I will ask my brother where he got his cheese cultures when he was making cheese, is not always as easy as you would hope here in sweden.
Hi, I work in ABinBev Korea and I respect what you do for a project. I am thrilled to find a channel that is just genius beyond my understanding and expectation. Hats off to your Brettanomyces video.
could you use a yeast nutrient instead of wort to a) create a slant and b) re activate the yeast for pitching? We make a wheat beer and sometimes there are long time stretches between brews of this, so i don't trust the sterilised wort 100%. would be easier to make fresh before either tranfering or starting?
@@attunedosteopathy5074 There isn't really an answer to this as different brands of yeast nutrient are formulated in different ways. Most yeast nutrients will not work as they don't have everything the yeast need. An easy way to maintain stocks is dry malt extract. You can measure out enough for a slant or two at a time (0.5 to 1g for every 10 ml), and it's stable for years if kept dry. Another option is to move to lab-grade media. YPD is a ready-to-use yeast medium that can be purchased for not too much. Again, measure out the amount you need (~0.5g/10 mL), dilute in water, and pressure cook to sterilize.
@@SuiGenerisBrewing thanks so much sir... sir I have another question hope you can answer it... when you autoclaving your DME it looks clear and all the trub separate in bottom..how its happen? I try with my own way with boiling never got clear like when autoclaving or steaming...maybe you can record a content about how to make clear worth without chemical...thanks
I'm trying growing (some of) my own barley for malt and growing (some of) my own hops this year as well. I'm not expecting much of a harvest but if I can get enough malt for a 2½ gallon batch then I'm satisfied. My hops (a local variety) has a very subtle taste and aroma so I'm thinking of splitting the batch into one malt forward beer and one farmhouse/saison beer. We'll see what we got in the fall. It is very inspiring to watch your videos and I'm looking forward to the next one!
Your barley is huge already!!! Mine is just like like 15cm tall, good work in there!!! I am trying to replicate your project but in a little bit smaller scale, thanks for the content
@@SuiGenerisBrewing I had to plant in May because of the weather, also we have had a lot of water this year, thanks for your videos, have learn a lot from you.
Nice to see the hops doing well. I have a couple that I started a few years ago, and started a couple other this year, hoping to get them fuller for both the harvest, and to shade the house a bit. Have you got multiple bines going up each piece of twine?
You can, but you may capture yeast that can only ferment simple sugars. Which is fine for beverages like wine or cider, but if used in beer, may lead to underattenuation.
I've been using your keg purging technique now for about 3 years. I just use a mason jar with a plastic lid, 2 duotight bulkhead fittings and silicon seal. Your videos are top notch! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. My question deals with how much CO2 would be available to purge a keg if the beer is fermented at say 10 psi. Do you think there will still be enough CO2 to purge the keg? I'm thinking about fermenting an IPA under pressure. Thanks.
Should be plenty to purge the keg. Keep in mind that the amount of CO2 dissolved at fermentation temps is fairly low, even at elevated temperatures. So you're only really loosing a bit of CO2 to the headspace of your fermenter. Your beer will still be making about 20 volumes of CO2, you might lose half a volume to the added pressure, but the rest will still flow through the keg.
Great video. I have two questions, which perhaps you have answered in other videos. First, you say a couple times that StarSan doesn't need to be rinsed because the organic material in wort inactivates StarSan residue (assuming at the proper dilution, etc). What makes that happen? Second, is it advisable or not to use StarSan for sanitizing regular cookware/dishware?
First question: dilution. Star san is quite acidic, but once that acidity is diluted out, it's no longer effective. Yeast can actually metabolize the diluted acid and surfactant. Second question: yes! Star san is an effective surface sanitizer for any food prep situation, so long as you're using it on a non-porous and clean surface. We use it for brewing, cheesemaking, sausage making, and general kitchen sanitation
Hi, Bryan. Could you talk about brewing without malt and with exogenous enzymes (with unmalted grains or alternative fermentables)? Good luck with the 2nd edition of this project!
I love this project and I'm glad you're running it for the second year! I've been hopng to do something like that mysef, so it's very interesting and informative. So thumbs up and waiting for more content in the future.
Brian, this was an amazing series. I just watched all three this evening. I am in the process of learning about solera beers and can't wait to creat one. What type of vessel do you keep your solera in?
Hi, I tried making candi syrup with 5% each of fructose and dextrose and the rest sucrose with 4 grams (1tsp) of DME. Heated to 140C +-5C and added 0.8 grams of NaOH which had been mixed in 20ml of water. Kept the sugar at 140C for 35 min and 160C for 10 min ish. What I ended up with was something I would describe as a very smooth caramel syrup. Perhaps something you could say has some fruit in the aftertaste. But it still has far from as much fruit as D-90 or D-180. Is there anything I can do to make the syrup more fruity? Increase the amount of reducing sugar or NaOH?
You could try more base and a longer cooking period. I go by colour, not time. D90 should be dark-brown bordering on black when spotted on a plate like I do in the video. D180 will be charcoal-black.
Also, the amount of time you used is on the shorter side. I don't think I've ever done less than 20 or 30 minutes at 160C. For darker Candis, 45 min to an hour would be typical with my stove and setup.
@@SuiGenerisBrewing I will try to increase to 1.2 grams of lye. Even with 10% dextrose/fructose, there is a lot of crystallization after 20 minutes at 140C. So I thought I'd try with 50% golden syrup (which I think only consists of reducing sugar?). It contains 0.1 gram of salt. Hope it's not a problem.😆 The syrup was a little lighter than D-90. But more flavor🤷🏻♂️
Do you think a solera made with just regular yeast would last years too? And also do you think it would affect negatively a light beer like a pilsner for exemple? Id be worried about autolisys and oxydation.
Regular yeast is typically going to be fine - keep in mind that you preferment with fresh yeast, so each refill "recharges" the Solera. That said, I don't think a pils would work. You need a beer (& corresponding yeast) designed for long aging. For a non-sour beer that will probably need to be 6.5% ABV or higher (8-10%) being preferred), and a yeast/recipe designed to age for years. I'd look to barleywines, RIS's, and strong Belgian ales for inspiration.
One question I had after all three videos was about the bacterial strains added in. Do you need to use them with every top-up batch? or do you rely on the bacterial strains being in the solera?
I have a Flanders red that was destined to be a solera but that was almost 4 years ago. It sat in the back and I recent smelled the keg and it was surprisingly amazing! Going to pull a sample soon but would you suggest I start over or begin a 50/50 replacement method?
I'd use it to start a Solera! That said, you may need to pitch a fresh culture as some of the original culture may have died off over that long a period.
@@rimmersbryggeri sherry Solera involve 3 barrels, typically, often stacked vertically. You take from the bottom/old barrel, fill that from the middle, fill the middle from the top, then put new wine to top up the top barrel.
I've been wanting to start into a lambic or flanders red this year, and started doing some research. Lo and behold, you've started these videos! Thank you, this one has been very informative, and I'm looking forward to the next!
