Wild Yeast Capture

Capturing wild yeast from blueberries

Philip de Greylonde
Published on
Updated on
2 min, 229 words

I haven't captured wild yeast in a really long time, and all of my existing cultures are well beyond their usable life (nearly 7 yeras old for most of them) so I decided to build up a culture with yeast from fruit

Starter Recipe

Target volume: 1 liter Boil Time: 15 minutes

  • 90g Light DME
  • 30g Maltodextrin
  • 3g Go-Ferm
  • 1.5g old hops

It's a super simple recipe, just add DME, Maltodextrin, and Hops right after the water starts boiling. Continue to boil for 15 minutes. Boiling wort for yeast capture starter

I then cold crashed it in an ice bath due to it being such a small volume. Cold crashing the wort in an ice bath

After cold crashing, I then transferred it into 2 santizied 1L Erlenmeyer flasks. Wort in sanitized flasks

I then collected fresh berries from blueberry plants in my back yard. I selected fruit from across several plants for both starters. Berries on plants in my yard

Berries added into wort

I then aerated them heavily and will aerate them a few times a day for the next few days.

July 16 There is now visible activity in both starters. There is bubbling occuring around the fruit.

Visible bubbling around fruit in wild yeast capture starter