steven@tifsie (02/14/86)
The following comments about some previous articles (very previous, my system is more or less on another planet) are from my own experiences with several batches of beer that I made first in my home garage, then later in the attic/basement (depending on temperature) of my fraternity at Oregon State. I hope that anyone undertaking this frustrating, timeconsuming and very rewarding task has as much fun as I did! >/* Written 12:07 pm Feb 6, 1986 by watmum.UUCP!tjsmedley in tifsie:net.wines */ >/* ---------- "My first homebrew" ---------- */ >... There seems to be a general consensus that things must be >*clean*. ... This, along with the selection of bad yeast, was the single largest problem that I encountered. It was directly responsible for the demise of the "Crystal Springs Brew" label. You simply can't keep things clean enough. >... 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?... Hmm... I think this would work out OK if you were careful to sterilize the water that you added. One recipe I have actually calls for a very concentrated wort during the early stages of fermentation. Hop water is added later so that the taste does not become consumed by the fermentation (I guess). > ... Then I >intend on making a brew with no added sugar (except at bottling time - >I think it's necessary then. Am I wrong?) As is mentioned in the next article, you can stop the uncompressed fermentation early and bottle with some of the original sugar(s) still unconsumed by the yeast. To do this requires a hydrometer (the timing method doesn't work well) although I have not had the problems mentioned by KANNER in the next article. >... 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? I usually found the best stuff in brewing stores. One suggestion I can offer is to use corn sugar rather than cane or beet. It has been less refined and seems to make the beer smoother. You can get it at any brewing shop and maybe a health food store. Your best source of yeast is from a bottle of your favorite brew (if you are making a similar type) if you can get it, or from a pirated brewery sample and finally from a brewing shop. DON'T use fleshmans (sp?) or any other BAKING yeast, although the basic principle is the same the by-products will make your beer taste like bread dough - not real popular with most of my school chums and they were as un-picky as they come! >>/* Written 3:33 pm Feb 8, 1986 by tymix.UUCP!kanner in tifsie:net.wines */ >> >>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. This may sound crazy, but I had a similar problem in my first batch and I had already heard to avoid cane sugar. Not yet knowing where to find corn sugar, I turned to a friends uncle (a veteran brewer himself) and he suggested that we use raisins and/or potatoes (starch converts to alcohol and CO2 just like sugar) so we did and it turned out fine. I used raisins frequently later on in dark beers and it really made a nice flavor. >>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. I too had flat beer and bombs, but always BEFORE I had invested in my hydtometer (money was tight in the early days). The one I finally bought was long, thin and made of glass. I had no problem with the hydrometer catching the rising bubbles (mostly because the bubbles are few and far between by the time you need to use it) probably because of it's shape and size. This might be something to consider when shopping for one. >>The only yeast I had success with was the common baking yeast that can be >>bought at any grocery store. Wow! This actually produced my WORST beer! >> ...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. I had similar problems with my beers. The yeast usually has a pretty tolerant range in which decent performance can be obtained, but watch out! Should you go out of that range the results can be *disgusting*. >>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. This is unfortunately very true. I too got bored with the process. Except for occasionally getting a friend started, I have not made any beer since college (only a year ago). Although there are alot of recipes, the resources are usually what run out, but in the mean time, HAVE FUN (and don't leave young bottles anywhere that they can make an uncleanable mess, they really do explode) Have a grape day! -Steve