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

Contents:
  CO2 bubbles (Donald P Perley)
  Re: Irish moss taste (is there any?) (lbr)

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Date: Fri, 17 Feb 89 09:19:51 EST
From: Donald P Perley <steinmetz!perley at uunet.UU.NET>
Subject: CO2 bubbles

Paul Perlmutter writes:

>Not so.  I mixed up the batch in a plastic fermenter, pitched the starter 
>and THREE! days later no CO2 was coming out!  So this afternoon I removed 
>the cover and peeked inside ... there was a lot of froth, so I stirred it.
>(By the way, I tasted the wort, and it tasted fine).  I then replaced the 
>top.  A few hours later,  CO2 is coming out strongly.
>
>What happened?  It appears to me (the naive brewmaster) that the stirring
>was a strong catalyst to activating the CO2 production.  Is stirring valuable?

If there was a lot of froth, then it was fermenting fine. I suspect that
you didn't have a real great seal on the fermenter, so whatever CO2 was
coming out didn't have to go through the lock.  When you replaced the lid
after stirring you got a better seal.

I once did a lager that gave me no bubbles, and no head either, for over 
a week.  I was about ready to toss it, figuring if it hadn't started yet
it was sure to be contaminated.  A gravity check showed about a third of the
starting value, so it must have been fermenting slowly all along.

-don perley

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Date: Fri, 17 Feb 89 10:09:38 EST
From: lbr at gatech.edu
Subject: Re: Irish moss taste (is there any?)

In #79 unet!mccrae!jimmc at Sun.COM (Jim McCrae) says

> I added 1/2 teaspoon Irish moss to the boiling wort for the first time. 
> I did detect a faint taste that I couldn't identify. It tasted like it 
> might be from the moss. It was something that concerned me when I added it.
> The taste may be from the three stage hopping I used, with Tettnanger at
> zero minus ten and Saaz at the last minute. Whatever it is it will have
> mellowed out by the end of secondary, I'm sure.

Have you used Saaz hops before?  These have an unusual musty flavor that
I haven't found in any other variety.  It is present in Pilsner Urquell
in spades.  My wife once likened this to the smell of manure, not to
attack it but rather to attempt to describe it.  There is a similarity.
(It tastes like horse shit, but in a pleasant way. ?!?)

Assuming, though, that it's not the Saaz hops, lets talk about I.M.
I've been meaning to ask about it myself.  I use it in my grain beers;
it's suppossed to improve the kettle break.  It's so cheap I use it
even though I'm not convinced that it's doing anything.  But if I felt
it were doing harm....

Len Reed

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