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From: rcd@nbires.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: Re: My first homebrew
Message-ID: <618@nbires.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Feb-86 02:45:13 EST
Article-I.D.: nbires.618
Posted: Wed Feb 19 02:45:13 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Feb-86 08:14:19 EST
References: <1132@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO
Lines: 25

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.