July 27th 2019

In September I will be brewing my Raspberry Saison as an American Wild Ale fermented and aged in oak.  I will be adding 10lbs of raspberries from Silver Leaf Farm in Concord MA.  Silver Leaf is a small organic family farm that raises heirloom raspberries.  My plan is to cultivate yeast from the raspberry fields so today I dropped off 4 collection jars.  After collecting the yeast I will ferment and cultivate.  I’m following the process defined by Bootleg Biology.  Will update post through the process.

September 7 2019

I processed the collection jars today.  They all had mold but one had a ton.  Funny enough the one with the most mold had fermented the most.  The lid on this jar did not seal well so it got the most air.  All jars had a PH around 4, a lower SG, and smelled nice.  Since people would ultimately be drinking the beer made from this I decided to not post the mold pictures.  My plan was to separate the good from the bad and then cold crash the yeast but based on the SG not being as low as I had expected I decided to combine everything and move it to a stir plate for a few days in an effort to raise more cultures.  I added one can of of Propper Starter and turned on the stir plate.

September 14 2019

The first starter really seemed to develop a ton of yeast and took on a nice smell.  I would say it smelled a bit like apple cider.  I crashed this for a day in the walk-in and poured off the top liquid.  The SG dropped dramatically.  I poured in another can of starter (no water) and put it back on the stir plate.

A few days ago I sanitized and swelled the barrel and filled it with 9lbs of raspberries I picked that day.  The raspberries came from Silver Leaf Farm in Concord where I cultivated the yeast.

Today is brew day.