Great story Nanoda. The same thing happens here occasionally. Some people use an apple drink called appletize to make a champaign-ish brew. You unscrew the top, place a single grain of yeast inside, and then screw it back down. The idea is to get it to ferment and carbonate at the same time. Unfortunately, Appletize bottles are not made for this and will sometimes explode quite violently. They will also chain-fire, one explosion sets off the next bottle and so-on.
I know people that have wound up with a HUGE pile of broken glass soaked in semi-fermented apple drink. It is startlingly loud.
I’ve had beer do that before, once just as I was lifting the bottle from the case. I didn’t need stitches, but my arm and face looked liked I’d been wrestling a badger. Ouch. I backed off on the priming sugar after that one.
Thats actually the Pear juice which just got transfered from the fermenter. Sometimes the racking causes an increase in yeast acitvity which causes the foam to push out of the lock. That’s what happened in that case, foam pushed itself throught the airlock. I cleaned it up after taking the photos.
But was the beer good? That sounds horrible, especially when there is no way to tell whether a given bottle is going to let go or not. It makes them all somewhat suspect.
You need to get a case of these empty Rauch juice bottles. The things are seriously heavy and have a bail arrangement holding down a solid plastic or ceramic, rubber-gasketed, cap. I have heard of people adding enough sugar to lift the cap but I’ve never heard of one actually exploding.
I wonder if they sell this in the US? I have a suspicion that they only produce this for the Saudi market since the country has a seriously powerful thirst for grape juice.
Thanks. Point taken on the wild yeast. As an OBTW, isn’t there some kind of medeivel ale that is made using whatever blows in with the fruit? I can’t find anything but I’m sure I read an article about this. I remember that it was described as having a very different taste to modern brews.
We’re talking a whole different order of operations here. I lust for a proper keg. A few people have managed to more-or-less build a keg out of stainless and use welding fittings and other hardware-store stuff for the carbonation. It is well past my mechanical abilities to do this, unfortunately. What is an “IPA”?
IPA = India Pale Ale. Bass, in other words. Except I think that particular brew was an American IPA, which means it was a Sierra Nevada clone, with a ton of Cascade hops on the finish.
My kegging system is basically a bunch of 5 gallon soda kegs, with a CO2 source and a tap.
Blackberry’s my all-time favourite. You need three pounds for every UK gallon (160 oz) you’re planning to make. Mash 'em up (after defrosting, if you’re buying 'em frozen) and pour over a few pints of boiling water. Cool to room temperature and add yeast. Cover and allow to ferment for about three days. Now remove the liquor from the pulp, only now add the sugar syrup (making up the liquid volume as you do) and ferment under lock as before.
Note: Blackberry can go absolutely apeshit when the sugar hits it. It’s often wise to leave a lot - maybe 1/4 capacity - as airspace for the first few days, reserving some of the liquor in another bottle (stoppered with cotton wool) until things calm down.
You should end up with a rich port-coloured drink that is extremely full-bodied and flavourful. Blackberry ought to make a good flavouring when added in smaller quantities to red grape juice, too.
Well, I can sympathize with the desire. I’m about to have a glass of my “inadvertant port” myself. Fascinating stuff on the Lambics. I wonder what you could produce with the same technique if you were, say, downwind of Detroit, or maybe New Jersey.
Thanks for this. I’ve seen a few recipes but nothing that was actually recommended by anyone except the author.
I’ll give this a try in a couple of days as soon as my yeast cultures are done. I am also starting to get some resistance from my better-half as these fermenters are in the kitchen. She gets a bit peeved if one bubbles over.
Well thanks for asking. It’s coming along just fine, my airlock is still bubbling once every couple of seconds, so I’m still waiting for that to finish. On a side note, I tried to start a batch of lemonade but I dumped it after a week of no action, I’m guessing the acid killed the yeast.
I’ve enjoyed comparing notes with Casey1505 who is currently attempting his first batch of cider. I’m sure, however, that mine is going to turn out wonderfully and his will be hell’s skunk.
Great story Nanoda. The same thing happens here occasionally. Some people use an apple drink called appletize to make a champaign-ish brew. You unscrew the top, place a single grain of yeast inside, and then screw it back down. The idea is to get it to ferment and carbonate at the same time. Unfortunately, Appletize bottles are not made for this and will sometimes explode quite violently. They will also chain-fire, one explosion sets off the next bottle and so-on.
