Spontaneous fermentation. Coolships at home?

I have no experience with spontaneous fermentaiton, but here is a thread which also leads you to the blog of OldSock, aka the Mad Fermentationist.

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/wild-yeast-fermentation.83033/

Rather than building a coolship and possibly dooming a full batch, a spontaneous yeast starter might be a good starting place.

 

Agree with listening to everything the Mad Fermentationist says and also for the spontaneous starter. From what I've heard Jean van Roy say, a key factor in making a good spontaneously fermented beer is getting the wort to cool slowly, which may not be possible at a homebrew level. Also, it's important to make sure that it's not too hot outside. Cantillon only brews in the winter/cooler months because the bugs at higher temps go too wild (eh? ehhhh?). I think Jean van Roy says his best inoculations have occurred at about 32 F. Def think it's a worthwhile project though!

 

A few things to consider... Spontaneous fermentation in Belgium is going to be much different than here in the states. They have lots of wild bacteria and yeast built up over years all over their brewery walls, we don't, at least not the stuff we want. They had lots of good yeast and bacteria in the air from the local orchards, we would not living in the city. If you live in the country away from all the car traffic and smog and have access to a large orchard, then a full cool-ship spontaneous beer might be possible. Also, they use barrels inhabited by all the good yeast and bacteria that they want, we probably don't. If you have done quite a few wild beers and have lots of critters on your oak cubes, and have lots of wild microbes around the are you are cooling, then maybe you can go that route. I let my Lambic last year cool overnight in my garage open in the kettle and after 5 days of no activity I hit it with slurry from the previous Lambic as well as a culture from strawberries and dregs from 3F. It is a year old almost now and has received dregs from multiple homebrew and commercial sours, and it has a slight off acid note and bitterness that I find in 3F and Cantillon, but it is not sour or funky enough. I just added slurry of Brett L and Brett B from 100% Brett fermentations for added Brett funk.

All that to say, yes, you could, but it might not be a great beer. Better to use a culture of wild yeast you know is good. My first Lambic I cultured all the primary yeast and bacteria from blackberries in the backyard and local organic peaches. Second got it from local organic strawberries. I of course added dregs from wild and sour beers over the course of fermentation.

 

In issue 78 of BA, I talked a little about doing something like this.

For me, the real thing to do is make your wort, grab a growler of it and set it out somewhere agricultural and let her ride. If it looks like it's going well, then pitch that into the wort. I would use this the first time as a secondary type addition.

 

I had read that the ideal temp range is 65F during the day and 45F at night to capture the "good" bugs.

 

Usually after I fill my kettle to where I want it ill grab a sanitized growler/ empty gallon jug and run watever wort is left in my mash tun into that container. I then let this sit outside overnight for 10-16 hours. I then bring the container inside and insert an airlock/cap and I let it ride. They usually smell like vomit for the first few weeks. I have one that's a couple months old and its actually starting to develop a much more approachable funk/tart aroma than the once garbage/anus/fresh vomit aromas it started with. I'm afraid to ferment a full 5 gallon batch with these wild organisms but with enough time it may actually produce something quite pleasing.

 

I use a maple sap evaporator. It holds about 15 gallons of liquid. After boil just transferover to the evaporator and park it under the tree canopy. No cheesecloth covering or anything. It sits there from about 10pm to 7am the next morning. Drain it off into fermenters. I only do this when it is below 40 defress Fahrenheit out.

 

A friend of mine sent me a bottle of North Seattle Homebrew Beer. They had 17 people make the identical ale recipe, mixed them all together with yeast sediment from some Russian River sours and Cantillon beers. They aged the beer in a Chardonnay barrel. I'll be damned if it wasn't one of the best beers I've ever had in my life. Would kill for another bottle or two.

 

I remember hearing about this, do you have any more information/link to some info? If I remember correctly it was within a homebrew club or something along those lines...

 

All I have is a picture of part of the "label". This beer will be at mythical status for the rest of my life because it doesn't get much rarer than this and I loved it. Also, it was an extra in a trade. I may have used up all my beer karma on this.

 

While I agree with much of this, Cantilllon is not located in the middle of some idyllic orchard in the Belgian countryside. It's in a dense, gritty, urban part of Brussels. There may be better stuff floating in the air there, but it's not a country/city dynamic causing that.

 

Fair point. But certain regions of Brussels itself were once home to large orchards of sour cherries (the Schearbeek variety?). The presence of these orchards was undoubtedly a major factor in the development of Cantillon's terroir. Sadly, it is my understanding that most of the old orchards are now gone. Whether or not this has any implications for the long term viability of Cantillon's operation is an interesting question.

OP: I say "go for it." But as others have suggested, do a starter-size pilot and see what you think.

 

Also, at this point, much less of the inoculation is from the coolship and more from the barrels (in Cantillons case)

 

Once upon a time. Going through Schearbeek today it is a gritty,old industrial and warehouse area. I don't know where they grow fruit or cherries today.

As Drew says, it is the Barrels, and the building that has been inoculated via Lambic fermenting out of the barrels, that play the major part of making Cantillon what it is.

 

If I was on a pc and not my crap phone i'd link you to that turkey lambic thread. It goes over pretty much everything that could go wrong.

 

that was an epic, epic thread.

to touch on some points:

temps matter for one reason: vectors. less bugs in the late fall. can't do things when the temp it below zero because the wort will freeze. don't do it when it is 20 C out because you have bugs/flies.

surface area likely matters. the greater the surface area, the greater the innoculation rate.

wild yeast: they're everywhere. i'd do a backyard fermentation if i had the time and patience. betting you that even in Toronto, i'd get great stuff.

Brussels isn't necessarily magical. it's just where they did this type of thing with success.

I'm likely attempting this near Toronto in October (time permitting). not sure what i'll use as a coolship, but i'll basically cover the wort with mosquito netting. microbes will get in. bugs will stay out. will leave it overnight and put into carboys in the morning.