[aaronwesternny]

I know that warm day temps 75+ F (summer in Western NY) aren’t good for spontaneous ferments.  I tried this in the summer with an extra gallon of wort and now have a fine nail polish remover ferment of foulness.  Is this a lost gallon?  Will this clean up eventually, and if so how long will it take?

 I am looking for advice to do this correctly with 5 gallons, so… what day and night temperatures should I look for, and how long to set my 5 gallon coolship out in the vinyard/orchard for spontaneous inoculation and fermentation of a pLambic? Ok, my 5 gallon plastic bucket, but you get the idea.   

What success are people having with fermenting in plastic and/or glass and how long are you leaving in each? 

I just ran across a thread where someone forgot to pitch the yeast in a starter and it began to ferment.  Maybe a couple low grav “starters” without yeast should be made, set out over night in the vinyard throughout the next month or so, and if they have a non-putrid ferment with no off aromas, then pitch that in 5 gallons of properly prepared lambic wort? 

Any help and advice are greatly appreciated.

[witsok]

The Burgandian Babble Belt homebrew board is an excellent resource for wild and spontaneous fermentation.  I participated in a swap a few years ago and had the pleasure of tating two well made spontaneous brews.  From my later interviews with the brewers, I came up with a hypothesis.  The details can be found in my blog on the morebeer buzz site:

http://morebeer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ambient-spontaneous-wild
http://morebeer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ambient-spontaneous-wild-1
http://morebeer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ambient-spontaneous-wild-2
http://morebeer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ambient-spontaneous-wild-3

In summary, I concluded innoculation is best when the daily high is in the low to mid 50's (F) and overnight lows get below the 40's.  My only attemp turned out surprisingly well.

Cheers

[aaronwesternny]

Thanks for your info, nice reads.  Not many people out there responding, or with knowledge.  I am reading Wild Beers, and just assumed that a spontaneous ferment would end with a lambic-like sour funkiness.  It looks like it could could also spit out a clean beer.

[tankdeer]

I was going to respond with a link to the BBB thread that witsok started, but it looks like he beat me to the punch.

I used the information he discovered, and tried this about 2 years ago in late December in San Diego. The beer is still again, but is coming along very nicely. At first it was rather bland and boring, but after some time it's really starting to funk up. Unfortunately the window down there is very small. Now that I live in Portland, I feel I have an almost ideal climate and will be trying this again soon.

For the record, I left my coolship (bucket) outside for about 24 hours with cheesecloth on top. Seems to have worked out well although it was slow to start fermenting. 3-4 days before visible signs IIRC, however after that it took off like a rocket.

PS, it's still in the same plastic bucket it was from the beginning. No racky for me.