tjsmedley@watmum.UUCP (Trevor J. Smedley) (02/06/86)
Well, I must say that I am quite pleased with the number of responses
to my original article. My first brew is now in bottles, and I can
hardly wait. There seems to be a general consensus that things must be
*clean*. (I even went so far as to sterilise my hands before mixing
things up.) Unfortunately no one told me to carefully figure out how
many cups are in a gallon, and I somehow used less than half the
required amount of water. Upon realising this (at bottling time) I
added the extra water, and prayed. I figure that as long as the
alcohol concentration didn't get high enough to kill the yeast, things
should be ok. Anyone have any ideas as to whether this will work out or
not? (I figure that there was about 2 gallons of liquid where there
was supposed to be 5. These are Imperial gallons, so that's 2.5
American gallons instead of 6.25)
In any case, I am not discouraged. The first batch was made from a can
of malt/hop goo, sugar, and yeast. Next time (which will be soon) I
plan to be a little more adventurous. First I think I will buy a book
on the subject (The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
was suggested to me by Mike Herbert, and if I can find it I will
probably buy that one. Anyone else have suggestions?). Then I
intend on making a brew with no added sugar (except at bottling time -
I think it's necessary then. Am I wrong?) and that isn't already half
prepared in a can. I've already had one suggestion for a recipe,
anyone have some others? Also, I'm not exactly sure where to buy the
ingredients. Are brewing stores the only source? Or would health food
stores or something like that also have the stuff?
So, after I master the basic art of brewing I hope to attempt my
ultimate goal for this whole business. While I was in Germany I fell
in love with the Weizenbier (wheat beer) that they have there. As
nothing comparable is available on this side of the Atlantic I hope to
duplicate (or at least approximate) this delicious drink. Does anyone
know anything about this beer, or how it is brewed? All I know is that
it uses wheat instead of (or as well as) barley, and that you can get
it like normal beer, or with yeast in the bottle. Any information
would be greatly appreciated. In particular recipes will be welcome (I
already have one which uses both barley and wheat).
Thanks very much, and drink up!!
Trevor J. Smedley University of Waterloo
{decvax,allegra,ihnp4,clyde,utzoo}!watmum!tjsmedleykanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner) (02/09/86)
It has been about 25 years since I regularly made homebrew in 5-gallon batches, but I have some very clear recollections of successes and failures, and my experiences may be of value to others. At that time, the only easily available starting material in Houston and Chicago, the two places in which I indulged in this activity, was hop flavored malt syrup. I found that the maximum amount of syrup I could dissolve in water yielded a brew of about 3% alcohol, so I learned to add cane sugar in an amount I don't recall to produce a beer that was between 5% and 6% alcohol. Adding sugar beyond this point yielded beer with an unpleasantly fruity taste. The first couple of times I made beer, I attempted to bottle before fermentation was complete, so that final fermentation would take place in the bottle. This was supposed to be done by careful measurement of the specific gravity of the brew with a hydrometer. Lots of luck! Try measuring specific gravity while carbon dioxide bubbles are forming and clinging to the hydrometer, raising it before your very eyes! I either got flat beer or exploding bottles. So, I changed to fermentation to "completion" and adding a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle. In order both to maintain cleanliness and to evaluate fermentation rate, I rigged a water seal. The fermentation vessel had a one-hole rubber stopper, with a glass tube through the hole, and a rubber tube leading from the glass tube down into a glass of water. I could thus see the carbon dioxide merrily bubbling. When the rate of bubbling went down to about one percent of its maximum rate, I considered fermentation to be complete for all practical purposes. Within a few days of bottling, the secondary fermentation had occurred; the beer was now carbonated and tasted bloody awful. After about six weeks, it became drinkable. The only yeast I had success with was the common baking yeast that can be bought at any grocery store. The one total failure--5 gallons down the drain--was made with some very special yeast a sample of which a friend of a friend stole from a brewery. My theory is that this yeast was intended for the brewing of lager, which is supposed to ferment at about 45 F., and the temperature of my basement was 65 F., a temperature at which the yeast obviously made a few ill-tasting by-products. Hope all this bumpf is of some use to someone. I quit brewing because I got bored with it. There were no degrees of freedom left. If I wanted to experiment, the only possibility I saw was malting my own barley, and that seemed a bit much. -- Herb Kanner McDonnell Douglas (TYMNET) ...!hplabs!oliveb!tymix!kanner
rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (02/11/86)
> It has been about 25 years since I regularly made homebrew in 5-gallon > batches, but I have some very clear recollections of successes and > failures, and my experiences may be of value to others... Herb Kanner's article continues with discussion of various problems and techniques which don't work (for pretty much the reasons he describes). It's interesting background, but we can do a lot better these days. Homebrewing is legal now (even in Texas:-) and this means that good ingredients and proper techniques can be easily found. Get some good books; find some homebrewers in your area; check out Zymurgy and the American Homebrewer's Association. I started brewing in 1978, with help from one not-very-good book and trying to figure out most of it on my own. Over several years I went from making awful beer to hit-or-miss successes. After I finally figured out that I needed some advice and help, and found out where to get it, I solved the few problems that were causing most of my failures. The big thing was getting help from other brewers, 'cause when they tasted something bad they could tell me WHAT was bad and WHY it had turned out that way. It was about a year between starting to explore brewing with other brewers and winning a first in one category of a national competition--plus I was having a lot more fun. (I've also only had one bad batch out of about 20 since then.) -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Worst-case analysis must never begin with "No one will ever want..."
sharp@dairy.DEC (Don Sharp, CAD software engineer) (02/13/86)
This message is empty.
sharp@dairy.DEC (Don Sharp, CAD software engineer) (02/14/86)
Trevor J. Smedley, University of Waterloo ({decvax,allegra,ihnp4,clyde,utzoo}!watmum!tjsmedley) writes: >Unfortunately no one told me to carefully figure out how many cups are in a >gallon, and I somehow used less than half the required amount of water. Upon >realising this (at bottling time) I added the extra water, and prayed. I >figure that as long as the alcohol concentration didn't get high enough to >kill the yeast, things should be ok. Anyone have any ideas as to whether >this will work out or not? (I figure that there was about 2 gallons of >liquid where there was supposed to be 5. These are Imperial gallons, so >that's 2.5 American gallons instead of 6.25) Take this with a grain of salt, since this is not from experience, but just a guess. It seems to me you've got a great chance of exploding most if not all your current bottles. My reasoning is this: the fermentation will stop not when all the food (starch/sugar) is consumed by the yeast, but when the alcohol concentration gets to the point of inhibiting further growth. It depends on the yeast, but chances are what you've got in those bottles is some live yeast, and some quantity of unconsumed yeast food, probably more than the normal dosage. If your yeast has a high tolerance for alcohol then all the sugar in the brew would have been fermented out, and everything is OK. If your yeast is especially sensitive to alcohol it might all be dead, in which case your brew will end up flat, sweet, and light (i.e. low alcohol) I think you could try opening a bottle early to see how it's doing. If the cap flies off and beer froths all over you might consider popping them all rather than lose many bottles to undesirable explosions. Maybe some other expert on the net will set me stright on this. Good luck, Don Sharp. UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...} !decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-dairy!sharp ARPA: sharp%dairy.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA Snail Mail: Digital Equipment Corp. MKO1-1/B7 Continental Blvd. Merrimack, NH 03054
geoff@burl.UUCP (geoff) (02/14/86)
In article <1132@decwrl.DEC.COM> sharp@dairy.DEC (Don Sharp, CAD software engineer) writes: >Trevor J. Smedley, University of Waterloo >({decvax,allegra,ihnp4,clyde,utzoo}!watmum!tjsmedley) writes: > >Take this with a grain of salt, since this is not from experience, but just >a guess. It seems to me you've got a great chance of exploding most if not >all your current bottles. My reasoning is this: the fermentation will stop >not when all the food (starch/sugar) is consumed by the yeast, but when the >alcohol concentration gets to the point of inhibiting further growth. It >depends on the yeast, but chances are what you've got in those bottles is >some live yeast, and some quantity of unconsumed yeast food, probably more >than the normal dosage. > >If your yeast has a high tolerance for alcohol then all the sugar in the >brew would have been fermented out, and everything is OK. > >If your yeast is especially sensitive to alcohol it might all be dead, in >which case your brew will end up flat, sweet, and light (i.e. low alcohol) I have made many batches of homebrew. I have NEVER seen the alcoholic content get great enough to kill the yeast (and I would usually use 3 lbs of corn sugar compared to the recommended 2 lbs). If you let fermentation continue through to completion ... then wait a few days more to be sure ... then mix in (mix WELL) 1/2 cup corn sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup or so of water ... then bottle ... you won't go wrong. The amount of priming sugar is purely personal preference. I used to use a cup of sugar, but I decided that that made the beer too 'fizzy' -- too much like soda pop. Anyway, this way lets you determine PRECISELY how much carbonation you will have. In 50+ cases of beer I have never lost a bottle due to excessive carbonation (I have broken the necks a few times while capping them, though). -- geoff sherwood ...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!geoff ...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!geoff
rcd@nbires.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (02/19/86)
Talking about the mistake in measuring on that first batch... > Take this with a grain of salt, since this is not from experience, but just > a guess. It seems to me you've got a great chance of exploding most if not > all your current bottles. My reasoning is this: the fermentation will stop > not when all the food (starch/sugar) is consumed by the yeast, but when the > alcohol concentration gets to the point of inhibiting further growth... > ...If your yeast has a high tolerance for alcohol then all the sugar in the > brew would have been fermented out, and everything is OK... Even with the problem cited in the grandparent article (off by a factor of two in quantity of water) you'd have a hard time killing off the yeast. Ale yeast can be used for barleywines, which have starting gravities pushing 1.100, without giving out. A typical first-batch homebrew will be in the range 1.035-1.045, so even halving the initial water puts you at 1.070-1.090. This is still ok for any good yeast. > I think you could try opening a bottle early to see how it's doing. If the > cap flies off and beer froths all over you might consider popping them all > rather than lose many bottles to undesirable explosions. If you suspect a potential for exploding bottles, be VERY careful. Be sure you're dealing with a cooled bottle, by the way. Also, a gusher can be caused by contamination as easily as by overcarbonation.
michaelh@tekecs.UUCP (Michael Herbert) (02/20/86)
In article <393@watnum.UUCP>, Trevor J. Smedley writes: > Unfortunately no one told me to carefully figure out how > many cups are in a gallon, and I somehow used less than half the > required amount of water. Upon realising this (at bottling time) I > added the extra water, and prayed. I figure that as long as the > alcohol concentration didn't get high enough to kill the yeast, things > should be ok. Anyone have any ideas as to whether this will work out or > not? (I figure that there was about 2 gallons of liquid where there > was supposed to be 5. These are Imperial gallons, so that's 2.5 > American gallons instead of 6.25) Although I've never encountered this problem, I agree with your assessment. Normal ale or lager yeasts work fine up to 12% alcohol, and then get killed off. If your 2 gallons of concentrated wort did "max out" at 12%, the resulting 5 gallons of beer would be about 5% alcohol (which is certainly acceptable for most ales or lagers.) Of course, there would be no active yeast remaining to carbonate the beer in the bottles. Nevertheless, I agree with Don Sharp's suggestion to open a bottle and test it. It's about time to taste some of that brew anyway :-) By the way, when I brew a batch of mead (which is 10-12% alcohol as opposed to 5-6% for my beers), I normally use champagne yeast to avoid this problem. > Then I intend on making a brew with no added sugar (except at > bottling time - I think it's necessary then. Am I wrong?) You're right. I've found that 3/4 cup corn sugar for 5 American gallons of brew is just right for my taste. I've never had a bottle explode, and only had one batch which was over-carbonated (and I suspect I bottled that batch before fermentation was complete.) > While I was in Germany I fell in love with the Weizenbier > (wheat beer) that they have there. As nothing comparable is > available on this side of the Atlantic I hope to duplicate > (or at least approximate) this delicious drink. Does anyone know > anything about this beer, or how it is brewed? All I know is that > it uses wheat instead of (or as well as) barley, and that you can get > it like normal beer, or with yeast in the bottle. Although I've never tasted wheat beer, I've heard a lot of good things about it. From what I've read, it contains wheat _in_addition_to_ barley. I've come across several homebrew recipes, but all of them use more advanced brewing techniques. This is probably due to the nature of the beer; that is, some sort of "mashing" technique is required to convert the starches in the wheat to fermentable sugars. Once again I'll suggest The Complete Joy of Homebrewing as a reference on mashing, but I'll send you the simplest of these recipes via e-mail. Happy Brewing, Mike Herbert tektronix!tekecs!michaelh --------------------------------------------------- "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!" -- Charlie Papazian
laura@hoptoad.uucp (Laura Creighton) (02/25/86)
In article <5962@tekecs.UUCP> michaelh@tekecs.UUCP (Michael Herbert) writes: >In article <393@watnum.UUCP>, Trevor J. Smedley writes: > >> While I was in Germany I fell in love with the Weizenbier >> (wheat beer) that they have there. As nothing comparable is >> available on this side of the Atlantic I hope to duplicate >> (or at least approximate) this delicious drink. Does anyone know >> anything about this beer, or how it is brewed? All I know is that >> it uses wheat instead of (or as well as) barley, and that you can get >> it like normal beer, or with yeast in the bottle. Trevor's article never made it here. You can get Anchor Wheat Beer here in San Francisco. If you send me mail, I will see if they can send you a case or so. it is made without barley here in what is supposed to be the German fashion. If I can't get them to send you some, I can bring you a case when I am next in Toronto -- probably in April or May. Laura Creighton -- drinking anchor Porter (dark beer -- yum yum) right now watmath!utzoo!hoptoad!laura -- Laura Creighton ihnp4!hoptoad!laura utzoo!hoptoad!laura sun!hoptoad!laura laura@lll-crg.arpa
tjsmedley@watmum.UUCP (Trevor J. Smedley) (02/25/86)
Well, my first batch has now been throughly tested. It's amazing how
easy it is to get volunteers for such a job. About one third of the
batch dissappeared in one evening, which I think implies that it was
not too bad. Some people said that it compared favourably to many
commercial beers, which isn't bad for a first attempt, especially
considering the somewhat unorthodox brewing technique I used. None of
the bottles exploded, and the yeast certainly did not die. I think
that the amount of sugar was a little higher than it should have been,
because it is *extremely* foamy (i.e. It is very hard to get less than
half a glass of head). In any case it certainly is encouraging to
have it turn out so drinkable, and I am just about ready to start
up my next brew. I haven't decided exactly what to do yet, but I think
I will do something with malt extract and real hops, as opposed to the
hop flavoured malt extract which I used for the first one. I may also
use some crystal malt.
Thanks for the bits of advice which people have sent along. Also,
someone said that they would mail me some recipes. I haven't received
these yet, so maybe whoever it was should try again. Any other hints,
suggestions, or recipes will be greatly appreciated. Also, anyone who
would like to try out my brew is quite welcome (Unfortunately, I can't
sent it on the net, and I doubt that it would fare to well in the mail)
Trevor J. Smedley University of Waterloo
{decvax,allegra,ihnp4,utzoo}!watmum!tjsmedley