[FOOD] Brew It Yourself Ginger Beer! QUICK & SIMPLE

[MrO]

"NASA, We Have Fermentation!"

For my first home brew project I wanted to try something simple and with a nice quick turn-around (being the impatient sort I am), so when I came across a recipe for ginger beer as commonly brewed across East Africa, I decided to give it a shot.

At day 1.5 (I started Tuesday noontime), it's nearly drinkable - the original author claimed 2 days to a nice drink, but I'm goin' for the gusto and trying for something with a little more kick. It should be ready for a test session this weekend

Here's what you need for 2 gallons of the stuff:

* 1# honey
* 1# crystallized cane sugar
* 2 packets of yeast, preferrably champagne yeast, but for this project baking yeast will do just fine
* 2 1 gallon milk jugs or whatever collection of containers you have on hand...
* some ginger (I'm using powder for this one),
* some cloves (powder again - for expediency),
* and some cinnamon

---

Here's the procedure:

* clean & sterilize your containers (boil them in water for a while)

* boil up a liquid mixture of water, cane sugar, and honey enough to fill 2 gallons... be careful when boiling only because honeyed water will sit there for a while then suddenly boil over in a flash...

* pour the mixture into your containers, then...

* add ginger and cloves in equal parts - a heaping teaspoon of each into each gallon jug, though you can mess with this as you like - and a pinch of cinnamon again into each...

* let the containers cool to room temperature (you don't want to be committing yeast murder in the next step)

* mix your yeast into some water (no need for sugar to start it) and let sit for a few minutes as per instructions on the packet

* ensuring that your honey mix is at room temperature, add the yeast/water to your containers

* cover the lip of the container with some cheesecloth. a sliced square of a nylon stocking also works.

* place the containers in a dark spot (ie. not in direct sunlight) in your house where you expect temperature to stick to near 70 - 78 degrees.

---

With my two containers, I messed a bit with the proportions of honey to cane sugar, and at day 1.5, a small taste of the one with more cane tasted almost exactly like ginger ale with just the slightest extra alc edge. It's mildly carbonated, and the ginger has really come to the fore in flavor.

Honey of course, is the most expensive ingredient in this little experiment of mine, so it's interesting that the version with more cane appears to be coming along very nicely. The author claims that commercial brewers will mix cane/honey as high as 10 parts cane to 3.5 parts honey, so you can probably mix cheaper without adversely affecting the taste of the result.

The containers aren't stoppered but left open because the fermentation reaction is quite vigorous... it's fizzing really good for me. The author claims that he's seen the stuff being fermented in pots in Africa and that it's so vigorous there it almost seems the stuff is boiling!

Anyhow, perhaps I'll be set for beverages for TB2K Friday or Saturday night chats. When the experiment is complete, I'll tell you all how it goes!

MrO

 

[Albuburbia]

Yummy! That does sound good~

Can't wait to hear what the burp/buzz factor is!

Printing this recipe ...

 

[kiki]

MrO, I am coming over to your house this weekend

Kiki

 

[old bear]

Thank you for the info. Please post how it turns out.

 

[Deemy]

Will plastic jugs do? How much space needed for fizz? Does it give amount for fresh ginger and does fresh ginger need to be ground? Will this work with just sugar and no honey? What is name of book?

 

[MrO]

Deemy:

I'm using one gallon plastic milk jugs from the local corner store - they work fine.

The foam that collects on the top starts quite thick, then tends to thin out - I left about an inch from the top of the container for any accumulated foam... and my taste tests have expanded that space a bit...

As for sugar w/o honey... I'm sure it would work, but there seems to be a bit of a honey component to the ginger ale taste that would be missing with sugar alone.

The recipe I'm using is a bit of something that I put together from a collection of sources on the net - got one factoid here, another there. The basic concept of a fast-brewed honey mixture I found here:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e08.htm

There you'll find a few interesting photos of how this stuff brews in Africa, and how it's sold...

Yeast choice, temperatures, flavorings have been gleaned from random other places on the net - (mostly home brewing/vintage sites). Unfortunately I can't recall where I got the ginger/cloves info from - likely from some site with info on spiced mead or a non-alcoholic ginger ale recipe - I would imagine that thin sliced fresh ginger would do very nicely as a flavoring too - likely nicer than the powdered stuff...

Anyhow... will update after the weekend's done Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit and I'll be able to open the window to my brewing room (spare bedroom) and speed up the fermentation a bit (it's running right now at about 68 degrees - a bit cool for Champagne yeast). 80 degrees or higher tends to cause the yeast to produce other stuff that affects flavors so it's best to keep brewing in the 70's range...

Also... for people wondering about the smell of the stuff while it's brewing... It's not strong at all, and in fact it's quite nice - a mildly yeasty honey gingery smell that doesn't stink up the room at all... it smells, in fact, like ginger ale.

MrO

 

[Larred]

Very cool MrO, keep us posted as to how it turns out...

Darrel

 

[MrO]

Brief update: It's Day 2.5 of my brewing experiment, and taste tests seem to suggest that things are going very nicely... A taste of my higher cane brew continues to drop in sweetness, and there's alcohol there

I have no proper equipment to measure with... but the drink is now mildly warming when drunk. Sweetness tends to mask it while in the palate, but I would liken it to a mildly mixed ginger ale drink once it goes down.

With a warmer afternoon yesterday, the fermentation seemed to pick up speed as my room temperature approached the mid 70's. Fermentation continued at a good pace overnight as I wrapped the two containers in sheets to help contain the heat.

I've made one small change to the brewing set up this morning - now rather than leaving the concoction unstoppered, I've put together an improvised "cap" that allows the carbon dioxide to collect without allowing air to enter the milk jug... Likely this is unnecessary, but I'd like to see how it works, in case I choose to do a batch in future covered rather than left open...

 

[Larred]

Newbie brewing question here: So the longer you let it sit the higher the alcohol content will be? Just curious, my FIL has done some brewing, he made some excellent kiwi wine that had a nice kick to it. He likes to experiment with the fruits from his garden and has come up with some pretty good other types as well. Thanks for the update, glad things are bubbling along...

Darrel

 

[kiki]

Newbie brewing question here: So the longer you let it sit the higher the alcohol content will be? Just curious, my FIL has done some brewing, he made some excellent kiwi wine that had a nice kick to it. He likes to experiment with the fruits from his garden and has come up with some pretty good other types as well. Thanks for the update, glad things are bubbling along...

Darrel

Good question, Darrel!!!

Mr0, all I want to know is ......will it be 151 proof? LOL

 

[Larred]

Kiki, yer killin' me, I was already thinking that we need to have a TB2K get together at MrO's here pretty soon to uhhh, sample, his new found hobbie... Whatta ya say MrO?

Darrel

 

[MrO]

There's an upper limit to the amount of alcohol that you can get from just brewing something without further distilling it - somewhere around 18 % or so.

The theoretical limit is a function of the yeast you use - certain strains of yeast are more tolerant to the alcohol they produce - champagne yeast which I'm using for instance, will tolerate relatively high concentrations of alcohol, while yeasts for brewing ales or lagers are less tolerant.

In practice, there are other limitors on the end result:

Turn the temperature too high and your yeast produces esters and other non-alcohol compounds so the conversion isn't optimally efficient. Turn the temp too low and your yeast just sits there too sluggish to do its job.

In this particular experiment of mine, I'm brewing honey which I've read isn't an ideal thing for yeast to be eating... it's not quite nutritionally complete. If I were brewing mead instead of this quick "beer" then I'd have to add nutrients to the mix to ensure my yeast survives the long brewing process, and also to ensure that the yeast can reproduce well (I'm compensating by nuking my mixture with yeast to an extent). Nutrients include things like malted (germinated) grains, or in the case of wine fermentation, grape skins IIRC.

---

Over the course of my research, I found a great site on distillation - a real A-Z treatment of it. I'll see if I can dig up the link cause that's an interesting topic all to itself Particularly interesting was a collection of pictures of home made stills including one that was ingeniously simple:

* take a gallon pot and fill it with your starting material.
* put a raised glass container in it - like a stemmed wine glass - ensuring it can take the heat...
* take a curved-bottom pot like a wok, and place it over the other pot, with the curve over the raised glass container.
* place cold water, or ice into the wok

As you heat your liquid, the distillate condenses on the bottom of the wok and drips into the second glass.

Fellow from, IIRC, New Zealand, uses this setup to create Schnappses of various sorts.

Heh! Looks like this could be a fascinating hobby overall !

 

[MrO]

Hehehe!

A round of MrO's Hard Ginger Ale for everybody!!!

 

[kiki]

Darrel, Oh No..He's only giving us ONE drink!!!!

He's keeping it all to himself. I think a midnight raid is in order. Do you have a black ski mask ???

I'll come and pick you up... wait for my signal LOL

kiki

 

[Larred]

Very cool MrO, thanks for the thorough explanation... I wouldn't mind that link if you can find it, I'll forward it to my FIL, and maybe keep it here for a TEOTWAKI scenario.

Keep us updated...

Darrel

 

[Larred]

Kiki! Ssshhhhh, we don't want him to know we're coming... PM me about it and we can work out the details...

Darrel

 

[MrO]

LOL!

Here's that distillation site I'd stumbled upon

http://homedistiller.org/

Tons of info there! Perhaps in future I'll give that all a shot as well

 

[Larred]

Thanks for the link MrO, I appreciate it...

Darrel

 

[Trivium Pursuit]

Ahhh. When I read the title of this post, I was thinking you were making one of my favorite soft drinks, Jamaican Ginger Beer, which I get at Jungle Jim's. It's a very interesting hot-spicy soft drink. But sounds like you are actually making a real beer mit alcohol. What I was going to add was that I have seen that the hottest ginger beers(at times, Jungle Jim's carries several brands) have 'gingerl oil' as an ingredient, not just ginger pieces or extract. Oh, well.

 

[MaxTheKnife]

Bump for the weekend crew.

I'm starting a batch this morning just to see how it goes. A little hint with any kind of 'homebrewing'. Substitute corn sugar for the cane sugar for a better ferment. Cane sugar doesn't convert as readily or completely as corn sugar. You can get it at most homebrew suppliers.

I'm looking forward to trying this out. I've been a homebrewer for years but haven't brewed anything in a good while now. I got burned out on it because I tried to get too fancy with it and I was spending more $$ on my fancy brewing methods than if would have cost to buy beer at the store. I'm going to go back at it now but I'm going to keep things simple. I decided to use one of my wifes old sun tea jugs for this ginger beer experiment. It's soaking in bleach water right now. Just a gallon for a taste test this first time. If it works out like I'm hoping it will I'll start brewing my own beer again on a regular basis. I don't know how long the ginger beer keeps it's carbonation so I don't know if I'll be able to drink it all before it goes flat.

Thanks for this thread MrO. A timely topic for the times we're living in. If all goes well I'll be sipping my brew Monday evening. Maybe sooner if I get impatient!

 

[epaul]

It's been a while since I brewed. I used to use a 5 gal commercial water bottle with a stopper and a hose immersed in a bowl of water for an air trap (lets gasses excape and doesn't allow any wild yeasts to enter). I never used brewers yeast only the common bakers powder, results probably would have been better with brewers yeast. I used malt extract and plain sugar (once used karo syrup) mixed with spring water and boiled then let cool. Put mixture in 5 gal water bottle with 2 packets of yeast. The last time I brewed I waited til the yeast started to die off and started adding a little sugar and yeast to the mixture. The result was a furious boiling for an hour of two. Each time I added more sugar and yeast the boiling lasted for a shorter period. I bottled the resulting beer? in clean soda bottles. Just before capping I added a little sugar (1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon according to size of bottle) and quickly capped the bottle. Let them sit in a cool area for a few days. When uncapped stuff was VERY fizzy and potent. If you jarred the bottle even slightly when setting it down damm near the whole bottle would foam up and out. I figure I had made a beer champagne!!!!!
Fun stuff and yep at least 18% in strength.

 

[Satanta]

We better send MrO some Vaigisil since he's gonna have a massive yeast infarction from tatse-testing all the yuong and growing yeastue beasties....

 

[KateCanada]

Thanks for the recipe MrO. I'm going to try this today since it's my day off. Boy, if we get it down right, this ginger beer could turn out to be our survival ITSHTF. Trade our beer for goods. hehehehe

 

[cipher]

Can you make ginger ale? or is this just for alcohol-containing ginger beer?

I'd LOVE to get the recipe for "Buffalo Rock" Ginger ale. Only available down South. Any Buffalo Rock drinkers?

 

[Mushroom]

MrO, If you like the taste of the beer you make with the dry ginger, you can get it by the pound for $2.95/ at http://www.herbalcom.com/
I like to store it in canning jars. It keeps very well that way.

Ginger and honey are both antibacterial/fungal. That is the reason you have trouble with the ferment. Honey ferments much slower than sugar, but might give you a better tasting product. At least with a different taste.

Bread yeast will give you alcohol if that is your aim. Wine or beer yeast will give you a better taste and will fall to the bottom more firmly than bread yeast will, thereby giving you a clearer finished product. Bread yeast might take 6 months to completely clear while beer yeast will begin to clear within 2 weeks. In fact, it is a really good indicator for bottling. When the clearing line gets about halfway down the fermenting container, you can syphon it off of the lees and bottle it.

When using a gallon glass container, may I suggest using a piece of plastic with a rubberband to hold it on to act as a fermentation lock. Put it on just tight enough to hold the plastic firmly but not tight. The rubberband will give just enough to allow excess gas to escape but will not allow air to get to your brew. If you leave the plastic sheet loose enough, it will indicate the stage of fermentation by deflating when it slows down. You can use a baloon as a fermentation indicator on your milk jug, MrO. It will fill with gas while the fermentation is vigorous then deflate when it slows down.

If you bottle your brew, you can use the crocktopped beer bottles with the rubber gaskets. Remove the gasket each time you open a bottle so mold doesn't form underneath. The gaskets can be used many times and are replacable. You can even cut one from any food grade rubber you might have if TSHTF and you can't buy anymore.

Ginger beer is a very good idea to use with meals as ginger is one of the best digestives going. If you have to eat a lot of beans, it will help digest them. One of the best antinauseants (is that a word?) you can get. It is also a pretty good antibiotic/fungal. It will help kill intestinal paracites. It digests them to death. It will help warm you when you are cold and cool you when you are hot. It keeps blood platelets from sticking together so it prevents strokes. Be careful with it if you are on aspirin or blood thinners as it can make it so thin that it leaks through the veins. Just a few benefits of your ginger beer. I know you will enjoy it even more now that you know how healthy it is.

Happy Brewing.

Mushroom
Owner of The Malt Shop

 

[MrO]

Thanks Mush, Max, and epaul for tips! And it's neat to hear that others are trying this out! It's my first shot at this and I had a bit of the cane version late last night and a little today... pleasant buzz Not overpowering, just nice I am, however a bit of a poor judge in this respect, since I seem to have that legendary Slavic tolerance.

I'm leaving the jug with more honey to brew a little more, it now tastes like it'll turn out stronger than the first, though as Mush points out, I think it's always been the slower of the two. Flavor is nicer tho...

In future, I might try a slightly less powerful wort mixture to start with to make the final product a little less sweet. I've read that for meads, a 10:1 mixture of water to materials is actually optimal, so I imagine that I have some leeway in this regard.

I may also look into creating something of a more nutritional brew for my yeast to work with in future - perhaps some malt in the mix to make the whole thing more nutritionally complete for the little yeastlings

Finally, I'll likely stopper the next batch with a balloon as Mush suggests - mostly to beef up the carbonation which was light in this version of the final product. In fact, that is what I did towards the end of this batch. The "balloons" I used: well, lets just say that you get them from the drugstore in small packages, each individually wrapped When things got hot-and-heavy in my brew container, it was... um... quite apparent

Please all post how your batches turn out! Perhaps we can compare notes!

 

[MrO]

Can you make ginger ale? or is this just for alcohol-containing ginger beer?

I'd LOVE to get the recipe for "Buffalo Rock" Ginger ale. Only available down South. Any Buffalo Rock drinkers?

I imagine that my measurements for ginger, cloves, and cinnamon might make for a reasonable basis for plain ole ginger ale... Carbonation, I suppose, could be had from soda water, or plain ole water with a CO2 cartridge "fizz-ifier"...

 

[MaxTheKnife]

Well, even though the weather has been fairly mild around here lately, I couldn't find a place in the house with steady enough temps to get a good brewing. So, I decided to give my new AC/DC refrigerator a try and it works like a charm! That little gem will maintain any temp you set it on from 40 to 120 degrees. I put the jug in it and set the temp to 74 degrees and after about an hour it was humming along nicely at 73 degrees. Close enough I rekon. And it only runs about 50% of the time, so the cost is small. I was going to post this on the thread I started about that little fridge but I can't find it!

Anyway, I'll be giving my batch a taste test tomorrow about noon and I'll be sure to report in with my review. As a side note, I had a hard time getting my yeast starter revved up yesterday but went ahead and pitched it anyway as soon as the wort got down to about 95 degrees. I crossed my fingers and put the jug in the pantry in the dry cabinet and checked it about 4 hours later. It was bubbling along nicely and already starting to form the yeast cap. I wound up using brewers yeast with a pinch of bakers yeast. I only added the bakers yeast to help supercharge my yeast starter. That might have been a mistake but I'll find out soon enough. More later.

 

[Mushroom]

Cipher,

If you want to make gingerale, just use 1/4 tsp of champagne yeast per 5 gallon batch. Mix it up to the way you want it to taste, then pitch the yeast, stir well and bottle. Let it stand at least 3 weeks to condition. Make sure you use bottles that are meant for carbonation. Do not use disposable bottles as they are too thin. There will be a minute amount of alcohol, but it will be unnoticable and will not get your kids drunk no matter how much they drink. You can also purchase soda concentrates at your local beer and wine supply that make some very nice sodas. They call for the champagne yeast also.

Mushroom

 

[dragonslayer2001]

Max

I am going to mash crystalized barley grains and make a beer from scratch. It is about 1/5 the cost of a beer "kit", and then only need enough corn sugar to adjust to the right gravity.

I mashed some corn and barley a few weeks ago for something else, and though I read about it for years, never did a real mash. Wasn't hard, just time consuming, but I learned enough to cut the time in half next time.

There are yeasts now that ferment up to 24%.

This ginger beer sounds fun, I'll try it in a few weeks.

 

[MrO]

Second container report: Much stronger! Two glasses worth feels rather like a bottle of wine in terms of effect.

Truth be told, I don't know what the difference was between the two containers - beyond the extra day of fermentation granted the second, and the slightly different mix. I suppose I'll need to do some more experimentation to figure out the nuances of it all

Nevertheless, I'm gratified by the fact that I seem to have been able to successfully brew something beyond unpalatable sugar water, in only a matter of a few days, with what smattering of knowledge I've been able to accumulate from the Internet

I'm looking forward to hearing about everyone else's brew! Myself, I'll likely start a new batch tomorrow and try out a few ideas that you all have given me! My goal this next round will be to shorten the brewing time, and to get a more consistent result - on par with or better than this second container in quality.

Na zdorovya*, everyone!
MrO

* Ukie: "To your health!"

 

[cipher]

Mr. O and Mushroom,
THANK YOU VERY much for the advice on the non-alcoholic Ginger Ale. I'll hot foot it over to the local homebrew store, get the bottles and supplies and make some up this week.

I'll tweek that recipe till I can make up something close to Buffalo Rock.

Mushroom, you are correct on all the things you said about Ginger. Ginger is used (along with other culinary/medicinal herbs) in Asia, and ginger tea is taken about as often as people here take over-the-counter meds for ordinary symptoms of cold, nausea and morning sickness.

Too bad we can't grow it here! It'd be the ultimate prep plant to grow in the garden!

 

[Mushroom]

Mr. O and Mushroom,
THANK YOU VERY much for the advice on the non-alcoholic Ginger Ale. I'll hot foot it over to the local homebrew store, get the bottles and supplies and make some up this week.

I'll tweek that recipe till I can make up something close to Buffalo Rock.

Mushroom, you are correct on all the things you said about Ginger. Ginger is used (along with other culinary/medicinal herbs) in Asia, and ginger tea is taken about as often as people here take over-the-counter meds for ordinary symptoms of cold, nausea and morning sickness.

Too bad we can't grow it here! It'd be the ultimate prep plant to grow in the garden!

I grow it in my greenhouse. It can be grown in pots in the house if there is enough sun coming in the windows. Start it in a pot indoors then set it outside when it gets warm enough. If you can't do that, just buy it by the pound and put it up like any other prep. I use the dry ginger in beans to help digest them. It cuts the gas by about 3/4 if you add 1/2 tsp/cup of dry beans.

Mushroom

 

[ChainedLightning]

I have ginger growing in a pot on my kitchen windowsill.

 

[MaxTheKnife]

Well, I did a taste test on my little batch of ginger beer and it's not quite beer yet. I filled a clean Grolsch beer bottle with it like it is and capped it and let it sit and work for half the day and then put it in the fridge. It should be carbonated and ready to drink tomorrow. Then I added about 1/4 cup more cane sugar to kick the rest into overdrive and remove some of the sweetness. I know, adding sugar to take away sweetness don't sound right but it works, believe me. It will also hike up the alcohol level and give it more kick. On the down side, it can cause some wild flavors to creep in. You pays yer dues and you takes yer chances.

The taste test was very pleasant but reminded me more of mulled wine or cider. I got a little carried away with the cloves and won't do that next time! It's a very nice tasting brew though. I was surprised and pleased. I'm going to let the rest of the brew bubble for another day or two and then turn that little fridge down to 40 degrees and slow down the bubbling action if it's still working. Depending on how that bottle I put in the fridge today turns out I may go ahead and fill up the other 5 Grolsch bottles and do the same with them. This ain't the way you're supposed to do it but I know I'll have this brew gone before any explosive pressure builds up in my bottles.

Anyway, this is encouraging, to say the least MrO. Next I think I'll make my wife some non-alcoholic ginger-ale so she won't feel left out. Hey, I like ginger-ale too! Well, that's it for now. How's your batch doing?

 

[MrO]

Hey that's great news! I'm glad that the recipe is working out

I was going to start another batch yesterday, but unfortunately the home-brewing shop was closed and I didn't have any extra champagne yeast to start a second round. I'll likely be dropping by this afternoon though and starting my second round armed with what I'd learned my first try.

One of the changes I'll be making is trying corn sugar as my additional sweetner. My understanding is that corn sugar is dextrose, which is stocked by the bulk food store down the street - I imagine it will be cheaper than the cane I purchased at the supermarket.

MrO

 

[MaxTheKnife]

Well, after I got back from my morning walk I was thirsty and figured I'd give that bottle of ginger beer/ale a try. What a pleasant surprise! The alcohol content is very low (1 - 3%) and most of the smells and tastes associated with fermenting seem to have dissipated. And it's nice and bubbly!!! Of course, after only one day it's still a bit cloudy but that's no big deal if you're a homebrewer. Heck, I'm one of those who intentionally shake up the last little bit of beer in the bottle to get the goody down in the bottom. He he. And any good homeberewer knows that you can use that last bit of 'stuff' on the bottom of a bottle of homebrew to start another batch. Lots of secrets to homebrewing.

Anyway, this ginger-ale is good stuff MrO. I'm going to let the rest of that gallon bubble for two more days and bottle the rest like I did yesterday and put it in the fridge after it sits out for a half day or so. After working for 5 days it should be much better and less sweet. Thanks again for starting this thread. It's got me interested in homebrewing again and it's long overdue for me. You could call me lazy but really there isn't much room for homebrewing in the house just now. I need to clean out a closet like I've been saying forever and set it up for wine and beer making. I was reading in my homebrew book yesterday and found a recipe for Barkshack ginger mead. I gotta make me some of that!!!

 

[moocollins]

but for this project baking yeast will do just fine

A real zymurgist would never think of using bakers yeast, it simply does not produce enough alcohol and overproduces CO2.

The correct yeast is so very important to get quality results.

It is easy to find as well.

My reccomendation is to not use bakers yeast for anything but bread.

 

[MaxTheKnife]

I agree with you 100% Moo. However, in this case it worked out perfectly. What MrO was looking for was a quick brewing and drinking beer/wine/ale and this recipe works quite well for that. The only reason I used a bit of bakers yeast in my jug was because the brewers yeast I had was old and tired. The bakers yeast helped get things going and in the end I'm very pleased with how it helped smooth out the flavor of this quick beer. I was really expecting the bottle I opened this morning to be skunky and taste like rotten honey. Not so! After letting the brew 'breathe' for a minute or so it was very tasty.

As to the alcohol content, it's just about almost perfect for this early in the game of brewing. You'll have to give this recipe a try for yourself Moo and see how it goes. For impatient folks like MrO, this recipe is just the ticket! However, if you want it bubbly you'll have to bottle it like I did or it'll be flatter than a flitter. I suspect the beer store won't be seeing much of me any more. I'm on this homebrewing again like ducks on a junebug!!!

 

[MrO]

I'm well into the second fermentation and this time, I'm armed with a hydrometer to measure sugar and alcohol content

Now, I'd started this second batch in a similar fashion to the first, but added a bit of yeast nutrient to the brew, and dextrose (corn sugar) rather than cane as my "filler" sugar... This batch is definitely going more vigorously than the last...

One thing did surprise me greatly though, and it has to do with my finishing the first batch proper today. At the bottom of my previous' batch container was some "leftover" yeast. I was going to toss it, but recalling what Max said, I instead pitched it into the current batch.

The effect was nearly explosive, and I'm glad to have had the cap in close proximity I'm shocked, but the whole brew has to be bubbling now at no less than twice, possibly three times the rate it was prior to adding this leftover yeast!

Needless to say, I'll be saving all of my yeast this time (I only had yeast from my second container to work with here), and I'll be pitching it at the start of brewing, rather than two days later. The rate at which my yeasty beasties are feasting is genuinely impressive