SC - Rarity of Fermantation recipes (was FermentedBeverage

[marilyn traber]

On Tuesday, June 09, 1998 2:19 PM, Knott Deanna
[SMTP:Deanna.Knott at GSC.GTE.Com] wrote:
> Niccolo wrote:
>
________________________________________________________________________
_______
>   Even wonder what they used for timing and
> thermometers in the brewing; afterall, yeast is VERY temperature
> sensitive.
> 
> niccolo difrancesco
Now, as regards the fermentation itself, A good deep cellar will keep
about 50 degrees, year round, which is perfect temperature for Ale and
Wine yeasts, so a thermometer is not needed there.

For an experiment (and laziness) I made beer once without
instrumentation.

I cooked the malt mixture, boiling and skimming it as usual, and poured
the hot wort into a primary vat with a good tight lid. When the outside
of the container was cool enough to leave my hand on indefinitely, about
like a medium warm bath, I opened the lid and pitched my yeast. After
the bubbling subsided a little in about a week, I racked the beer into
carboys, and put them into the cellar until the bubbling mostly stopped.
I took a _fresh_ egg, and put some of the beer into a glass, and put the
egg in. When the egg dropped to the bottom just a little slower than it
did in water, I assumed the specific gravity was correct and bottled the
beer. The beer was fine, if a little flat.
I did not try to refine the "egg" technique any further, since, I had
just bought a new Hygrometer (to replace the one I had broken earlier),
and felt no need.  Between the cellar's relatively constant temperature,
and common sense, I needed no thermometer, at all, and never used one
since. 

Brandu


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