From: osicoop@bwdls138 (Doug Gould)
Subject: Re: Fast fermentation
Organization: Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 18:41:08 GMT

adw@cci632.cci.com (Allen Williams (co-op)) writes:
: 
:  Last Saturday I tried out the "Sun Has Gone Down On Us Steam Beer" recipe

You must mean "The Sun has Left Us On Time Steam Beer"   :)

: from "The New Home Brewer's Guide". As my local homebrewer didn't have 
: Alexander's Light ME, I substituted Cooper's Light. Here's a summary of
: my recipe:
: 
:  2 cans (7.5 lbs) Cooper's Light
:  1/2 lb Crystal malt
:  1.5 oz Northern brewer's hops (boiling)
:  0.5 oz Cascade hops (aroma)
:  24 grams (2 pkgs) Whitbread Lager yeast 
:  Yeast nutrient
: 
:  The initial SG was 1.041
:  

OG reading sounds a little low, Did you adjust for temperature?  Did you mix 
your wort well after sparging into carboy?

 <description of incredibly vigorous fermentation deleted>

:  On Monday, the fermentation lock only gave a morose "bloop" every five minutes
: or so, so I racked it to a secondary carboy and put it aside. The SG was
: 1.012
: 
:  Although I know I shouldn't worry, I've never seen anything like it before.
: It's the first time I've used Whitbread yeast, but all other yeasts I've used
: usually took about four or five days to ferment out. 
: 
:  - Is this behavior normal, or is my beer possesed?

Definitely possesed.  That is possessed by the spririts of long dead, 
mischevious, prohibitionist basement brewers, determined to confuse, amaze,
and delight us home-brewers that got it good!

:  
:  - Will it taste good given the fast acting yeast?
: 

Who knows?  It'll probably taste O.K., possibly even great.  Don't give up on
it just because those yeasties pulled a fast one... <groan>  When you decide 
to bottle take a sample - smell and taste it.  IMHO it usually gets better not 
worse while bottle conditioning.

:  -  I plan to keep it in the secondary fermenter for about three weeks before
:     bottling. Is this a good idea?

It's not a bad idea, but if you feel like bottling sooner don't worry about it.

: 
:  -  Should I strain my beer when racking? I have a stopper on my wand when I
:     siphon the wort that filters only big chunks of debris, but not the little
:     particles.

Most of the particles should settle out during secondary fermentation.  What's
this about a wand for racking?  Bottling wands are for bottling - many think 
they're not advisable even then...  If you're talking 'bout a plastic
attachment that fits on the business end of your siphon hose to keep the trub 
out, it should work like it's supposed to.  Don't worry about it.

: 
:  -  Has anyone used "Dogbiter" ME? I saw it on display at my local homebrew
:     supply place, and it looks interesting. Apparently, it has a higher SG
:     so as to brew beer with a higher alcohol content. 

I've never seen nor heard of dogbiter.  Sounds cool.  Just be wary if it
says it has any adjuncts like corn sugar.  When one buys malt extract, one
likes to get malt extract, not corn syrup.  If you want to add brewing adjuncts
do it yourself. That way you get known (and hopefully small) amounts.

: 
: 
:   Well, that's a lot of questions, so I'll stop now. Thanks all for being
: so wise and sagely and putting up with novices like me! Any help would be
: deeply appreciated.
: 
:                                                           Derrick

--
Doug Gould  at  Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, Ontario.
(The above views are my own - BNR probably doesn't even know I wrote them.)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing