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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  Re:  Stuck fermentation (John Treacy)
  St. Patricks Day (Chris Shenton)
  Nitrogen in Kegs ("MR. DAVID HABERMAN")
  Signs of Fermentation (John DeCarlo )
  My 'rating' ? ("Every sperm is sacred. Every sperm is great. If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate. 8)")
  Re: Quick Yeast (Pete Soper)
  Quick yeast. (Mark Freeman)
  Re: Quick fermentation (pyt)


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Date: Mon, 5 Feb 90 09:33:01 PST
From: treacy at Sun.COM (John Treacy)
Subject: Re:  Stuck fermentation

Chuck Coronella asked about fermentation that stopped
prematurely. I've had my share of these and usually its the temperature
of the brew that causes the problem. Take a sample and take its 
temperature. If its in the low range for your yeast, try moving
the brew to a warmer place in the house.  I live in a two story, so
I can get 5 degrees F difference just by carring the whole
mess up a flight of stairs. I've tried adding yeast nutrient  as well
but if the temperature is wrong it will do no good.

John Treacy


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Date: Tue, 6 Feb 90 12:33:09 est
From: Chris Shenton <chris at asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: St. Patricks Day

Steve Fowler writes:
> Well folks, March is almost upon us and that means the celebration
> of St. Patrick's day.  With that in mind I am looking for some recipes
> for 'green beer'.  

You could start your batch only 7-10 days before St. Pat's day
(sorry -- not helpful -- but I couldn't resist 8-)

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Date: 6 Feb 90 10:18:00 PDT
From: "MR. DAVID HABERMAN" <habermand at afal-edwards.af.mil>
Subject: Nitrogen in Kegs

I have a cheap (free) source of nitrogen.  Can I use it instead of CO2 in my 
kegs?  Actually I don't have a keg system yet, but I am in the process of 
looking for sources at resonable prices.  Thanks.

David


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Date: Tuesday, 6 Feb 1990 14:52:26 EST
From: m14051 at mwvm.mitre.org (John DeCarlo )
Subject: Signs of Fermentation

Hello,

When discussions of fermentation take place, I often hear people talk
about "bubbles" in the airlock.  I interpret this as actually seeing
bubbles of gas float to the surface of the liquid in the airlock.

I have never seen a bubble float through the water in an airlock,
either the S-shape or the other type.  The water looks carbonated
(tiny bubbles on the sides of the container) during fermentation,
but nothing like actual bubbles coming through.

John "Am I interpreting the remarks incorrectly, or is my
      experience unusual?" DeCarlo

ARPANET:  M14051 at mwvm.mitre.org (or M14051%mwvm at mitre.arpa)
Usenet:    at ... at !uunet!hadron!blkcat!109!131!John_Decarlo
Fidonet:  1:109/131

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Date: Tue, 30 Jan 90 08:26 CST
From: "Every sperm is sacred. Every sperm is great. If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate. 8)"
Subject: My 'rating' ?

Batch number 5 is now in bottles, and batch number 6 (which I've called "it's
in there") is in the secondary, fermenting away.  All of my brews (with the
exception of the first one, which was KOd by chlorine contamination (faulty
bottle cleansing)) have been pretty good, if a bit slow to age really well
(perhaps because of such ingredients as honey).  

The last batch contains 3.3 lbs of dark hopped malt extract syrup, 1 lb of
chocolate malt, 1/2 lb of dark patent malt, 1/2 lb of crystal malt, 2 lbs of
corn sugar, 2 lbs of "government issue" honey, a couple of tablespoons worth
of spruce extract (enough for 4-5 gallons), 1/4 tsp of Irish moss, and
filtered water.  I decided to get rid of some inferior ingredients, since I've
decided to not use corn syrup for bottling purposes, so I decided "what the
heck".  I hope it finishes fermenting by Saturday evening, when I've made
plans to borrow.

 - Ted
- --
"Strategic withdrawal.  It's running away, but with dignity." -- Tarrant
ptgarvin at aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu / ptgarvin at uokmax.UUCP | Eris loves you.
in the Society: Padraig Cosfhota o hUlad / Barony of Namron, Ansteorra
Disclaimer:  Fragile.  Contents inflammable.  Do not use near open flame.

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Date: Tue, 6 Feb 90 16:45:16 EST
From: Pete Soper <soper at maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: Re: Quick Yeast

From: Mark Freeman <MFreeman at VERMITHRAX.SCH.Symbolics.COM>
Subject: Quick yeast.

    >>we can take to kick-start the fermentation?  (Or Are we guilty of the ultimate
    >>sin, needless worrying?)

>Yes, but you can absolve yourselves by relaxing and having a
>homebrew.  Consider yourselves lucky, I bottled a batch yesterday
>that had been fermenting for seven weeks and the fermentation
>lock indidcated that there was still activity, but I decided
>enough is enough.  There are a wide variety of factors that
>influence the rate of fermentation: temperature, amount of
>fermentable sugars in the solution, age of the yeast and so on.
>I've only used liquid yeast and have had vastly different
>results.  Some will start fermenting withing hours and be
>finished in 3 - 4 days, and others won't even start for 3 - 4
>days!  So, relax, your beer is probably just fine.  

>P.S.  Take a hydrometer reading to find out if the activity
>stopped because the fermentable sugars are used up, i.e. the
>yeast are "finished".

  Fantastic. I had a good laugh at myself when I read this. I'm so used to
60 degree, 6-8 day ale fermentation cycles that I missed the obvious possibility
that these guy's beer is fully fermented already! I'd bet money that Mark
is right and these guys had such a strong, warm fermentation that it flew by.
  The question for beginners, though is what hydrometer reading should
be seen? The answer for an all-extract batch with "average" yeast is a
terminal gravity of about 1/4 the original. So if the Brews Brothers started
with, for example 1.048, then a "normal" ending gravity would be roughly
1.012.
  As for the rest of your posting, Mark, I have to gently suggest that
differences in lag between "hours" and "3-4 days" are not due entirely
to the different yeast strains - something else is going on.

- --Pete Soper

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Date: Tue, 06 Feb 90 18:23:46 PST
From: pyt at hprvlc0.hp.com
Subject: Re: Quick fermentation
Full-Name: Pierre-Yves Thoulon

>  Fermentation was visible (via bubbling through the fermentation lock)
>  within 4 hours, much to our excitement.  It bubbled like nothing I've seen
>  for two days, after which it slowed down, and within another day,
>  all signs of acive fermentation stopped.  The question is, did we do
>  something wrong?  Will we still get good beer?  Is there corrective action
>  we can take to kick-start the fermentation?  (Or Are we guilty of the ultimate
>  sin, needless worrying?)
>
>     Thanks in advance for any advice,
> 		    Chuck and Ashok
> 		    [The Brews Brothers]

I don't have a *lot* of experience yet (two batches, so far, but I'm
working on it...:-), but my first batch (an English bitter) fermented
for about 15 hours and that was it. My second batch (a porter) fermented
a little more than a day. In both cases, the final gravity was about
where I expected it and yes! it was great.

So my best advice is: no matter when it stops, it the final gravity is
fine, rack it to the secondary, and don't worry !

Pyt.
pyt%hprvlc0 at hplabs.hp.com.

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #353, 02/07/90
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