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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!geoff
From: geoff@burl.UUCP (geoff)
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: Re: My first homebrew
Message-ID: <1029@burl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 10:04:42 EST
Article-I.D.: burl.1029
Posted: Fri Feb 14 10:04:42 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Feb-86 04:23:01 EST
References: <1132@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: geoff@burl.UUCP (geoff)
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC
Lines: 35
Summary: 

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