For the home brewer today, picking up the all important ingredient Yeast, is as simple as a trip to the store. But what if that convenience was no longer an option? Suppose you still wanted to make a homebrew from scratch, where would you find this ferment inducing fungi? In this episode we look no further than the fruit of the vine.
Yeast starters are an excellent way to get your batch of wort or must into the final stage of its desired potential. Wild yeast is quite common and can be found on the skins of most fruit such as the grape. Because it is ripe I decided to collect a few handfuls of the Blue Elderberry (Sambucus caerulea) at the local park.
To make your starter, collect enough fruit to make about a cup’s worth of juice. (Be sure they haven’t been sprayed). Using a medium size bowl take out a handful at a time and crush the fruit, squeezing out all the juice. Make sure to leave all the pulp in the juice since this is where the yeast is already living (Particularly on the skin), just be sure to remove any pieces of the stem. After you have juiced the Elderberry, take a clean jar and pour in the juice. Using clean, non-chlorinated water add roughly enough water as there is fruit pulp. Next place a piece of clean plastic on top (this will allow for gas expansion) and screw the lid on tightly.
The juice will now need to be aerated very well by giving the jar a good shake. Be sure to do this a couple times (Once every 4 hours) a day for the first few days until a good fermentation is evident. In between aeration we’ll keep the jar in a warm/dark place.
After a day or two the activation of yeast will be apparent by the production of carbon dioxide gas as you can see by the bubbles in the juice. The plastic on top has also expanded considerably. (SUCCESS!) If necessary we can relieve the pressure by sterilizing a safety pin and poking a small hole in the plastic dome.
At this point your yeast starter could be strained and pitched into your batch of fermentables. If however you would like to keep the starter around a bit longer, extending its life for a few weeks or possible months till use, we can transfer it into a sterile glass such as a chemistry flask. Using another glass and a strainer take the active yeast starter and strain out all the pulp. Next add a few tablespoons of sugar to the flask (this will feed your yeast and help build up its colony while its waits for its next meal). Then we can carefully pour in the yeast starter, give it a good stir, and pop on an airlock. If you don’t have an airlock a partly balloon will also work. Yeast activation will still be apparent by observing the Co2 bubbles. This starter should now keep for weeks or longer if stored in a cool/dark place.
If you have any experiences with making your own yeast starter, or If you have any suggestions on what I should try brewing, leave a comment down below. Who knows I just may use your suggestion in my next brewing video “Will it brew?”
Thanks for watching, please give a thumbs up, subscribe for more and as always, Happy Foraging!
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