I’ve been brewing my own beer for almost two years now (my original kit was given to me for Christmas ’06), and sadly I have to admit that the sight you see here isn’t that uncommon for me. Out of the dozen or so batches I’ve brewed, more than half have spewed forth beer-flavoured froth as the yeast goes crazy trying to convert sugar to alchohol.
The weird thing is that when I was using brewing kits from the Homebrew shop in Camden (rest its soul), this wasn’t a problem at all. After doing a spot of research on the internet, turns out that the froth comes from overexcited yeast working too quickly, plus a lack of space at the top of the barrel. But I actually reckon it’s the sugar. Because every batch of beer I’ve done using Cooper’s Brewing Sugar has ended up creating a beer volcano through the airlock…
In any case, this particular batch went the way of the dodo last night – it got hot around here at around about 5pm, and although it was sitting at about 27-28 degrees when I checked it at that time, a couple of hours later it had crept up to 30-32, which is too hot for the yeast to survive. I immediately went into overdrive to bring the temp back down, but I fear it was too little too late – this particular batch (a stout, and my first attempt at a dark beer), has stopped fermenting.
I will hold a small memorial service for it as I tip it down the drain over the weekend. In the meantime, I need to find myself another homebrew store (and clean my barrel – that black ooze is thick and smelly…
