Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Just wondering if any one has ever tryed to grow there own yeast culture and if so what type of luck you had.

If you mean re using a mid gen yeast and reusing on subsequent washes yes, works well and fairly easy to do.

If you mean starting with a wild yeast, culturing it and testing/developing it why when the cost of a dedicated yeast is cents per gram. better to re work one of these dedicated strains imho.
I sincerely doubt anyone of us would have the equipment/skills/budget/time required to develop a yeast.

bt1

From what I understand, using wild yeast is very easy, but takes a while to ferment out.

If you mix up a wash and leave it open, stirring regularly, eventually wild yeast will take hold and ferment it out. If you then reuse the yeast bed over and over, the fermentation should speed up as the yeast selectively mutates.

It won't be a single strain (as is commonly used in fermentation), and it'll be pot luck as to whether it is good or not, but it's a fairly easy process.

If your wash doesn't fire off you can make a wild yeast starter culture. One I've used before is called a "ginger bug", as follows:
- Peel about 6 inches of unwashed ginger (organic would be best)
- Add the peel into a mug with a tablespoon of sugar
- Add warm water (avoid mains water, as the chlorine kills the yeast) and stir it up
- Stir every 12-24 hours for a week or so, adding a bit of sugar every few days

After a day or 2 you'll see bubbles in the cup, showing that the yeast is active. It'll be ready for use after a week or so.

I have just started making non alcoholic ginger beer. I tried using a 'ginger bug' recipe like above, it tasted like dirt. :puke-huge: :puke-huge: I just tried the same recipe using a pinch of bakers yeast and it tastes heaps better. Like blond said, really slow to ferment and can be hit and miss, in my case, miss.

with close to 30 rum ferments under my belt I have notice along the way that I have been getting inconsistent flavors with my rums. Part of this is due to molasses but I think I have solved that problem. The next main thing I would have thought that would play a big factor in the over all flavor would be yeats. I have used few diffrent types or brands all with diffrent out comes.
I have used turbo, tandaco, lowlans and allied mill. It was not by choice that I used so many diffrent brands. You can only buy what the shops have on the shelf on the day. But in saying that I have now found a shop that stock allied mill yeast in bulk and very cheap. Out of the brands I like the allied the best. To me it seems to start out the best and run stat to finish with the most consistent ferment. The weather probly plays a part in this as well with ferment and end flavor.
Yeast is the next step in making that same flavor drink every run.

I reckon the yeast would be a small part.

How you make your cuts and blend then how you age will make far more of a difference. Very hard to get these exactly the same each time ;-)

+1 Sam,

I've used premium imported yeasts in the past and some cracker specialist rum yeasts. ok they ferment better/faster/to higher abv. I'm a yeast nutter btw and would have 5 plus types on hand at any one time. net result...improved yields, minor settling diffs, very very slight diffs in flavours for same wash types /bills.

To quote the classic man himself (for a bourbon style) 80% of flavour comes from blending and timber... I don't have the numbers for molasses rum washes.
Add to that cuts, ageing, airing, vatting(not blending) I appreciate where the gains are to be had.

bt1

using wild yeast is like planting fruit trees from seed. So many variables you just never know what your going to get, pity to pump time and energy into something that might be total shit unless your out in the boondocks and got no choice :handgestures-thumbupleft: