New Brewer Question: The Nature of Yeast

[bacchus]

I've been bugging hawkinspm for a while now (bless him, he still answers my questions), but it's not fair to punish someone for showing some patience to your idiotic questions, so I thought I'd spare him...

I had switched the laptop off and was about to watch Jaws II I recorded last night, but this question kept bothering me and I couldn't settle. I'm sure it's probably been asked before her, as it's a pretty remedial type of question, but I had to power the computer back on and ask otherwise I'd never get to sleep.

I've made some Ginger Beer, it's the first proper go at home brew I've had. I took a hydrometer reading at the start which read 1021 and at the end, which was yesterday after 10 days, which read 1000.

Using the really dam useful post about how to use a hydrometer I calculated the strength of my demi-bru to be a fledgling 2.8%

A bit disappointing, but what's more annoying is that my ignorance to brewing means I can't level it in my head.

• is it low because I probably didn't put enough sugar in? should the starting SG be at about 1030/1040 for a decent MANS brew

• if I added more sugar tonight and left it another week, would it ferment out again or do you "use up" the yeast at the first attempt

• I think I know the answer to this one, but what limits the fermentation strength of a given yeast, why can't I for instance just keep adding sugar, after sugar after sugar to create a brew into the 20% 30% 40% region

• I've got 4 DJs down stairs, I've bottled one into 2 x 2lt plastic bottles, each with one tsp of regular granulated sugar, will this be enough to sparkle up the Ginger Beer over the next 24 hours so I can enjoy a bottle tomorrow night or will this take longer

• while I'm talking about sugar - I heard something about brewers sugar, I used to make proper sheeeeeeit cakes until someone told me about caster sugar, it amazed me the difference a slightly different refined product makes to the overall effect, is this the same with brewing, or does it make no real difference

• FINNALY... in the general world of home brew, can I really aim to make something as creamy as a Cafferies, or as sparkling as a Fosters or as rich as a Guinness or are these beers the processed mainstream equivalent to Mr Kipling’s compared to a homemade fruit cake - know what I mean? You get used to the high fat, high sugar, E number ridden things from supermarkets, you forget that the slightly less sexy homemade versions are where all the flavour, depth and interest is. SO you might take a while to "recalibrate" your taste buds. OR is it actually possible to make something a brew which is ACTUALLY clear, not like my Ginger Beer, even with Pectolase it's slightly murky

Thanks in advance for your patience

:grin:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

To make it creamy you'll need a 70/30 gas mix in a corny keg.

BB

 

[Moley]

is it low because I probably didn't put enough sugar in? should the starting SG be at about 1030/1040 for a decent MANS brew?

if I added more sugar tonight and left it another week, would it ferment out again or do you "use up" the yeast at the first attempt?

I think I know the answer to this one, but what limits the fermentation strength of a given yeast, why can't I for instance just keep adding sugar, after sugar after sugar to create a brew into the 20% 30% 40% region?

Yes, it's low because you didn't put enough sugar in. I generally aim to start my beers between 1.040 - 1.050 and wines around 1.090 - 1.100

If you add more sugar now and leave it for another week or so it will start fermenting again. Many of the yeasties will have already died but there will be a few billion left who will start reproducing again if you add more sugar.

With brewing yeasts there is an ‘attenuation’ percentage which means that they won't cope with all of the available sugars. With wine yeasts you can keep feeding small additions of sugar until the yeasties die of alcohol poisoning. Some yeasts are more tolerant than others, but the General Purpose wine yeast compound I use will handle 18-19% abv if pushed.

 

[tubby_shaw]

Further to what BB and Moley have said you can produce drinks that are far superior to commercial products, read learn an sack the accountant ;-)

 

[jonewer]

As moley said, yeast will die from the alcohol. Consider alcohol the yeast equivalent of toxic waste. They basically poison themselves to death!

Most yeast will die at about 10-12% but specially bred yeast can handle up to 20%. Any more than that and you need to distill.

The other point is that 20% ABV ginger beer will probably taste like diesel. :sick:

Yes, you can make stuff thats very clear. Ginger beer is supposed to be murky. And if you produce something that in anyway resembles fosters or caffreys then you are doing it very badly wrong indeed!