From: "glenn anderson" <glenn.anderson@canrem.com>
Subject: noobie's first brew i
Reply-To: "glenn anderson" <glenn.anderson@canrem.com>
Organization: Canada Remote Systems
Distribution: rec
Date: 2 Oct 92 12:16:56 EST


RH>We used de-ionized water provided (free) by the local Labbatt's.  For fear of

Labbats GAVE you something? Would they give you an old beat-up stainless
steel Keg? Do you know who I could talk to at Labatts?

RH>Two days later, nothing.  No fermentation.  No bubbles.  Nothing.  Just a
RH>slight yeasty smell when the lid is pushed to force a few bubbles.  The
RH>dealer advised us to take the mild step of adding new yeast (the provided
RH>yeast may have been bad)

This is possible, although not likely. Dry yeast is fairly viable, especially
the stuff that comes with Kits. It's more likely that you get infected
beer from bad yeast than no activity at all. 

rh> and the more drastic step of aerating the wort by
RH>splashing it about a bit.  We aerated it by tying a plastic bag onto one end
RH>of the siphon hose and squeezing it to bubble air through the wort.

Kewl.

RH>  We
RH>pitched new yeast, and sealed it up.  In a couple of hours, we had some nice
RH>vigourous fermentation going on...

I consider aeration of the Primary for fermentation to be a really good
shaking of the vessel. What I do is lay the carboy on the floor on it's
side and rock it back and forth and roll it around intil I get ALOT of
air into the beer. The wort usually has a "head" when I'm done areating.
I'm not sure, but a bag of bubbles is probably not enough oxygen, although
I do admire your creativity. If you're using a bucket as your primary give it
enough of a stirring to create a good head as well. A 3 minute "power" stir
will do it.

RH>For about a day or so.  Then it stopped again.  So, we said "To hell with
RH>it."  It's been five days since we started, lets rack to the secondary, and

I suspect you don't have enough oxygen in the wort. Do you have a Hydrometer 
to take gravity readings?

RH>Now the really weird part.  In the carboy, it started fermenting again.  All
RH>by itself.  It's been going for two days.  Now, I'm not complaining, or

Are you mixing the yeast into the wort or just dumping the package in? Next
time try this process, works well. 
1. open the pack of dry yeast and add it to about 1 cup of boiled cooled
   water. Let it sit 20 minutes.
   
2. Stir up your yeast so you have a cup of beige yeast stuff. Add this
   to the carboy or bucket with the wort.
   
3. Put a stopper in the end of the carboy, tip it on it's side and
   give it a good vigourous rolling around. Incedently, the carboy 
   should have some headspace in it, I.E. not full to the rim. I usually
   fill my carboy to the sholders. "Power" stir if you're using a bucket.
   
You should have evident fermentation within 24 hours. 
   

RH>Oh, and another thing: how is "wort" pronounced?  In his book, Papazian

Wort is pronounced wert, the same as "urge" or "burn", according to the 
dictionary.    Charlie is in Colorado, so he may have a slight 
"tonal inflection" in his pronounciation. Ask a Newfoundlander,a Quebecer
and a person from Ontario to say "carrot" and you'll see what I mean.

I usually say wort, like those nasty bumps that you get from toads,,
only because it confuses people that don't know what I'm talking about
and that's the habit I developed, before I took the time to look
it up.    

Good Luck....

--


Glenn Anderson                  Absence of evidence should never    
Manager, Telecom. Facilities    be mistaken for evidence of         
Sun Life of Canada              absence.                            
glenn.anderson@canrem.com               - Walter Lewin -            

---
  DeLuxe 1.21 #11377  
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044