Pliny Harris
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2013
- Messages
- 6
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First off, I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum if there isone at all, but since the forum section mentions "other home brewing talk," then I'll assume it is. It's a query on brewing fizzy pop, but I'm sure this question isn't completely alien.
As an introduction I've been brewing for only two months. I'm a student nearing the end of his long holiday, and instead of handing in CVs to every shop within 10 miles of me, I thought home brewing would be a good hobby and opportunity to make money on the side without destroying my soul. A good friend and I have decided to brew fizzy pop, and I'm not sure if that sounds babyish compared to making wines and beers, but independent pop brewing seems widespread in the USA but almost non-existent in the UK, and we don't see why market stalls, delis and bars can't take on interesting pop flavours when real ale's currently so diverse. And again, it's a good hobby and fun to create.
Sadly I was very naïve initially, and even having heard stories I left a few glass bottles of ginger beer around without pasteurising, and the yeast really got going. A few exploded, created a huge mess, wasted a lot of time, a bit of money, and most of all the explosion would've risked my health and dented my confidence a great amount. This was around six, seven weeks ago.
So once my brews are bottled I now do the obvious and release pressure from the caps regularly until the amount of fizz is satisfactory. I'll then do some home pasteurisation by immersing their bottom halves in water over the hob. So far this had worked, all the yeast was killed and the fizz came to a very safe limit each time. It was very rewarding to open a pasteurised bottle and seeing the perfect amount of fizz in the glass.
Then today happened, and I made a test batch of a peach drink. I must have used far too much yeast as the bottles became very fizzy just overnight, so I went straight to pasteurising. One then exploded and I had to clean the entire kitchen. Very grim. But again, nothing matters as much as personal safety and confidence.
However the fact this has happened a second time, while pasteurising it to avoid such an explosion, has really got me down. I've invested a lot of time and money in getting to this, and now it feels like I should quit before summat bad happens. I'm unhurt physically but mentally I've been destroyed.
To go ahead without drastically altering what I do and making everything industrially precise would be completely idiotic. On the other hand I'd only earlier paid a subscription to become a member of the NMTF to sell excess bottles on the market, and will have shelled out a lot of money on nowt but a waste of time if I leave it now.
Does anyone have tips on where to go from here? I really would love to keep it up, but I want to make my brews perfect and risk-free from now on. I want to know exactly what I'm doing. So gutted though.
As an introduction I've been brewing for only two months. I'm a student nearing the end of his long holiday, and instead of handing in CVs to every shop within 10 miles of me, I thought home brewing would be a good hobby and opportunity to make money on the side without destroying my soul. A good friend and I have decided to brew fizzy pop, and I'm not sure if that sounds babyish compared to making wines and beers, but independent pop brewing seems widespread in the USA but almost non-existent in the UK, and we don't see why market stalls, delis and bars can't take on interesting pop flavours when real ale's currently so diverse. And again, it's a good hobby and fun to create.
Sadly I was very naïve initially, and even having heard stories I left a few glass bottles of ginger beer around without pasteurising, and the yeast really got going. A few exploded, created a huge mess, wasted a lot of time, a bit of money, and most of all the explosion would've risked my health and dented my confidence a great amount. This was around six, seven weeks ago.
So once my brews are bottled I now do the obvious and release pressure from the caps regularly until the amount of fizz is satisfactory. I'll then do some home pasteurisation by immersing their bottom halves in water over the hob. So far this had worked, all the yeast was killed and the fizz came to a very safe limit each time. It was very rewarding to open a pasteurised bottle and seeing the perfect amount of fizz in the glass.
Then today happened, and I made a test batch of a peach drink. I must have used far too much yeast as the bottles became very fizzy just overnight, so I went straight to pasteurising. One then exploded and I had to clean the entire kitchen. Very grim. But again, nothing matters as much as personal safety and confidence.
However the fact this has happened a second time, while pasteurising it to avoid such an explosion, has really got me down. I've invested a lot of time and money in getting to this, and now it feels like I should quit before summat bad happens. I'm unhurt physically but mentally I've been destroyed.
To go ahead without drastically altering what I do and making everything industrially precise would be completely idiotic. On the other hand I'd only earlier paid a subscription to become a member of the NMTF to sell excess bottles on the market, and will have shelled out a lot of money on nowt but a waste of time if I leave it now.
Does anyone have tips on where to go from here? I really would love to keep it up, but I want to make my brews perfect and risk-free from now on. I want to know exactly what I'm doing. So gutted though.