Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site tymix.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!sun!idi!oliveb!tymix!kanner
From: kanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner)
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: Re: My first homebrew
Message-ID: <654@tymix.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Feb-86 16:33:38 EST
Article-I.D.: tymix.654
Posted: Sat Feb  8 16:33:38 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 06:21:42 EST
References: <393@watmum.UUCP>
Reply-To: kanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner)
Organization: Tymnet Inc., Cupertino CA
Lines: 49

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