Beer fermented with a log

[feldmann]

I saw this video where they ferment a beer with a log. Its a cool concept, I'm curious if just any random log would work.

Next club project?

[Roger]

Ha! Log Jamin!
That's essentially the same as our barrel instead of surrounding the wort with wood it's inside the fermenter. Cool project for someone for sure though!

[feldmann]

Its also very similar to a Kveikstokk but what I found interesting about this was that the culture came from the log. I watched the follow-up interview they did with him and he just found it in a park in Brooklyn.

[ECH]

Yeah, the purpose is to use whatever wild yeast is on that log to ferment you beer with.

Does kind of throw out the notion of everything having to be sanitized, when you just fire in a log you found in the woods!

Have thought about trying to collect wild yeast from around my yard, as I have some type of berry/choke cherry tree that grows wild. Thought of putting a collection device out there to see what I get. Do you do that mostly when the tree is flowering? Or does it matter.

Also thought of just picking the fruit and using them in a beer to see what it would do. I know you are supposed to sanitize/sterilize fruit like that before sticking them in, but when people are throwing logs in their fermenter they found in the woods, how much sanizatation do you really need to do?

[feldmann]

Milk The Funk has a pretty good page on yeast wrangling, as does Bootleg Biology (they also have wrangling kits for sale where you can send it in and they'll isolate and bank cultures for you).

I tried it a few times. I filled a few mason jars with extra wort on a brew day. I left two outside in my garden and another two I threw blackberries and raspberries into. The ones in the garden fermented aggressively but smelt strongly of cheese. The blackberry one actually wasn't bad, it just had issues fermenting anything more than a few gravity points to make a 1-2% beer.

[jamie_savoie]

Last summer I had good success using low gravity and hopped wort mixed with 3% alcohol to limit LAB as much possible. I then picked misc wild things like flowers, fruits and tree barks, place them inside a 25ml test tube, let it ride for a few weeks then step up. My best ones were from using plum and pear tree bark.

[feldmann]

I was reading a blog post from Mute Dog Fermenting which linked me to this video talking about how one of the best places to gather yeast from is leaf litter. Theres a park across the street from my house, might be worth an experiment.