Brewing experiment question

[NHbeerscene]

So I am brewing next month and for a while now I have wanted to do something kinda off the grid. I was listening to the Anchorage Brewing show (11/23/2012) and his barrels in the mountains program kinda struck my interest. I am thinking I would like to try a wild fermentation with the local wild yeast.

The Plan:
Place five - 500 ml containers with wort at different places for one day and allow them to ferment.

See which one smells/tastes the best and use it to inoculate the main batch of wort, if there are a few I will split the batch accordingly.

It's winter here in the northeast I figured this is as good a time as any to try this experiment. No flying critters and less airborne particulate matter to mess things up. I would think that there is enough ambient yeast in the air that I should get something.

Q1 -Would a smash style beer be the way to go, limit the flavors to see what the yeast/bugs can do?

Q2 - Would a neutral hop for bitterness be a good approach then dry hop later with something more interesting....Citra, Sorachi Ace (admittedly this May clash with q1)

Q3 - Is this one of the rare cases where using a plastic bucket is better than glass because of the permeability to oxygen?

Please feel free to tear this apart and give suggestions....thanks

[TheDarkSide]

When you say different places, are you talking about places around the house or different locations like your house, across town, etc.? I wonder what variability you'd get is they were all close together.

[NHbeerscene]

When you say different places, are you talking about places around the house or different locations like your house, across town, etc.? I wonder what variability you'd get is they were all close together.

One will go in my backyard and I have an apple orchard up the street that I will use as well, haven't picked any other places yet.

[Kbar]

Our Homebrew Club worked with Wyeast, given the proximity to them, to due a wild strain experiment. 12 of us took home basically yeast starters with no yeast and left them outside in places of our choice. The amount of time was too little. 24 hours is not enough. Did not get any good results from their lab. Extend the time out a bit. We did get some funky samples though...........

[NHbeerscene]

Our Homebrew Club worked with Wyeast, given the proximity to them, to due a wild strain experiment. 12 of us took home basically yeast starters with no yeast and left them outside in places of our choice. The amount of time was too little. 24 hours is not enough. Did not get any good results from their lab. Extend the time out a bit. We did get some funky samples though...........

Were any of the samples usable?

[Bobbie Dooley]

I can't imagine that you're going to want a highly hopped beer with a wild yeast. I'd do like 15-20 ibus with a moderate (7-10%) alpha hop. You might do yourself a favor by hopping the collection wort in the same way, you might as well choose the bugs based on how they perform in that exact wort.

[dogismycopilot]

I don't know how much wild yeast are going to be active, with temps in the teens/twenties. I would think fall or spring would be the best bet. Particularly fall, in the apple orchard. I haven't tried it, though, so I can't say with any authority.
Carry on, and let us know the results!

[Kbar]

Our Homebrew Club worked with Wyeast, given the proximity to them, to due a wild strain experiment. 12 of us took home basically yeast starters with no yeast and left them outside in places of our choice. The amount of time was too little. 24 hours is not enough. Did not get any good results from their lab. Extend the time out a bit. We did get some funky samples though...........

Were any of the samples usable?

From what we were told, no. Some samples showed signs of fermentation though. We are trying to repeat this in the summer time. FYI.