The purpose of this experiment is to capture wild yeast and bacteria found on fruit and flowers around Santa Fe. The first round of tests will consist of 8 mason jars with 175mL of 1.040 wort that has been soured to a pH of around 4. We'll add one type of flower or fruit to each jar and watch it for signs of fermentation. Anything that grows mold will be discarded and considered a failure. We're hoping to get something propagated into a large enough amount that we can brew a full batch of beer with it.

1. I rode my mountain bike up into the Sangre de Cristo mountains here in Santa Fe with 5 ziplock bags and a marker. The goal was to collect wild flowers from different elevations and climates to add to the starter wort. In all, I collected 5 different kinds of flowers from the Winsor trail.
2. Once I returned home I brewed a 1.040 SG wort with 1500mL of water and 150g of dry malt extract plus a little bit of yeast nutrient.
3. When the wort cooled I added enough lactic acid to drop the pH to around 4. This will help inhibit any mold or other unwanted bugs from taking over.
4. I added one type of flower to each sanitized half pint mason jar and filled it with 175mL of wort. After filling it I very lightly put on a lid to keep out any dust but to let any gasses escape in the case of fermentation.

Photos:

A fuzzy mold has formed in jars 3 and 6. No signs of activity in any of the other ones.

1 No visible activity	2 No visible activity	3 Mold growth. Failed	4 No visible activity
5 No visible activity	6 Mold growth. Failed	7 No visible activity	8 No visible activity

Three of the jars ended up with mold so far. I'm not sure if it's because the flowers weren't fully submerged or the bad bacteria was simply stronger than anything that could be used for brewing. So far the only jar to show signs of a viable culture is #8 which formed a pellicle and smells tart.

1 No visible activity	2 No visible activity	3 Mold growth. Failed	4 Mold growth. Failed
5 No visible activity	6 Mold growth. Failed	7 No visible activity	8 Pellicle with tart smell. Good so far! Photo of pellicle

Another couple of jars ended up with serious mold growth. So far we're down to three jars that have some potential. I removed the flowers from jars #1 and #2 because there was some slight bubbling rising up around them and I didn't want mold to take over. I'm not sure if I left the flowers in too long and already contaminated it with mold but we'll see. Jar #8 is still the most promising. I removed the flower from this jar as well to hopefully prevent mold growth. The pellicle was growing very large when I opened the lid to check on it (see a pic in the #8 box below).

1 Some light bubbling activity. Removed flowers and will hope no mold appears.	2 Some light bubbling activity. Removed flowers and will hope no mold appears.	3 Mold growth. Failed	4 Mold growth. Failed
5 Mold growth. Failed	6 Mold growth. Failed	7 Mold growth. Failed	8 Pellicle with tart smell. Good so far! Photo of pellicle

I stepped up three of the jars (#1, 2 & 8) from 175mL to 500mL in quart mason jars. I prepared another starter worth with an OG around 1.040 but added too much lactic acid which brought the pH down to 3.6. We'll see if that has any adverse effects. I used a brewing-only turkey baster to remove some of the sediment and liquid from each small jar and then added it to the bigger one. Between each one I washed the baster in bleach and then re-sanitized it to prevent any cross contamination.

Out of the original 8 jars, two of them have progressed to something useable. Jar #1 has produced a lot of CO2 and foams quite a bit when swirled. Jar #8 has a really good pellicle growing on it and still smells tart. Jar #2 hasn't shown any signs of activity since being stepped up. I think jar #1 will be good in some sort of saison or hefe. I'll cold crash this soon and build up a larger starter and then pitch it into a one gallon test batch. I'm still not sure what to do with the lacto in jar 8. Maybe I'll sour it and then turn it into some kind of berliner by pitching either more yeast from Jar 1 or some normal brewers yeast.

Jar #1 is being cold crashed right now. I'll leave that in the refrigerator for 24 hours and then I'll decant it and add it to a starter on a stir plate. Jar #8 is being left alone right now while I figure out what I want to do with it. Jar #2 went down the drain since it still hadn't shown any signs of fermentation.

I made up a 900mL starter with 90g of DME and a pinch of yeast nutrient. I then decanted the liquid off the cold crashed Jar #1 and added it to the starter and put it on the stir plate at a very low setting. For the first one gallon test batch of beer I'll make a 1 gallon batch (3.78L) to which I'll add 378g of DME total (50% pils and 50% wheat). I'll very lightly hop it and boil for 30 minutes before chilling and pitching a portion of the starter.

After signs of activity in the starter stopped I poured off 175mL each into two sanitized half pint jars for storage / later harvesting. I'm currently cold crashing the remaining 600mL and will use this for the beer I described in yesterday's update.

I brewed up a 1 gallon test batch for the wild yeast today. 190g Briess Bavarian Wheat DME, 190g Pilsen Light DME, 0.2oz hops from Rio en Medio 2016, pinch of yeast nutrient, 30 minute boil. OG was 1.039. Pitched the yeast at 74'F and will ferment for 2 weeks at 70'F, checking SG along the way.

I brewed up a 1 gallon test batch for the wild bacteria in Jar #8 today. 190g Briess Bavarian Wheat DME, 190g Pilsen Light DME, pinch of yeast nutrient, 5 minute boil. OG was 1.037. Pitched 90mL of the yeast/bacteria at 90'F and will let it sit for 1-3 days at which time I'll test SG and pH and add US-05 to finish fermentation. Below is a picture of the pellicle prior to adding some to the wort. I think some yeast finally made its way in there as CO2 had formed in the jar.

The 1 gallon test batch from Jar #1 finally started fermenting again after 1 week of daily swirling and higher ambient temps (up to low 80's) have helped this. I'll do an SG check soon to see what the gravity is doing.

For the 1 gallon test of Jar #8, I modified the yeast schedule slightly and simply delayed the US-05 pitch by a few hours. I dropped the temp to 68'F and added about 1/4 packet of US-05. Fermentation is still going but airlock activity has slowed and krausen has dropped quite a bit. Will let this sit at 68 through the weekend and then I'll move it into my ferm closet for a couple months of aging.

I brewed a 3 gallon batch of berliner weisse using the Jar #8 lacto and US-05. I split the batch into 3 one gallon experiments and submitted the hibiscus rhubarb to NHC 2018. The beer placed 3rd in fruit/spice beer and moved on to nationals. Unfortunately it didn't place there.

I still have the culture going and will brew something with it again soon.