Culturing Wild "Blackberry yeast"

DaQatz

DaQatz

I gather, and culture wild yeasts for both brewing, and bread fairly often. We have a lot of wild blackberries where I. They're prominent enough so they even named the area after them "Blackberry Hill" And every time I was passed a bramble I could smell the strong scent of yeast from the ripe berries. Figured I would document the process, well just because.
 
Some bramble
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Up close
 
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Fair sized, and ripe enough so that they are hard to hold without squishing.
 
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Quarter for scale.
 
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Now instead of just showing off the berries, being that I only want whats ON the berries.
 
Here's how I'm culturing my little yeasties.
 
First I sterilized a jar.
I mixed water, flour, a little sugar, and a little brewing yeast nutrient I had for beer.
I brought the mixture to a boil to sterilize it. I let it cool to room temperature, and tossed in the blackberries, and gave it a good shake.
 
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It's been warm day so it's going to move fast. I can already see small bubbles forming. (It's only been a few hours)
I'll keep this thread updated. Right up to what I use the yeast for =)
 
 
tctenten said:
Pretty cool and I will be following. I have only captured yeast once. It was a sourdough starter with just flour and water.

What will you be using this yeast for? Bread or beer?
Click to expand...
 
You might have already guessed it due to the flour in it. This batch is bread, it shouldn't be sourdough unless I'm not careful. Either that or the blackberries had to much plantarum on them. But it's not normally an issue. I do already have "wild cultured" strains that are more then 10 years old. But my bread strain I cultured for cold weather, it will raise dough at very cold temps. But it can be a little slower. The idea of this one will be to have a faster leavening yeast then my stand by wild.
 
Okies is the next morning, and we're already seeing some action.
 
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Little bubbles in the slurry, and the blackberries are floating now. You can shake the jar about, all the bubbles will float to the top, and will reform after a little while. So these berries were pretty fast action on the yeast. It helps that I fed them so well though.
 
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