What's the most outlandish thing anyone's tried to ferment?
I'm going to try and ferment Lucozade.
Sensible brewers need not reply.
Ok, so I've had a few brews but here goes:
The Chemist in me comming out (shades of Alien movies EEK!!)
Anyway back to the chemistry:
The major ingredient that will cause a problem is the Potassium Sorbate. The Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Sodium Bisulphite and Vit C will not inhibit fermentation.
The rest can be ignored but the OG needs checking to see how much glucose is present.
Just done it - its 1.070 Potential Abv: 9.3% :)
Pot. Sorbate does not actually inhibit fermentation - it stops yeast growth aka. budding. So after a bit of glucose cleaving the frustrated cells who can now not breed give up and die.
I learned this the hard way by pitching a sorbated wine yeast trub into a fresh 5 gallon batch and then seeing not a lot! Dooohh :'(
All is not lost:
So the yeast won't grow and we don't know the given sorbate concentration in Lucozade!
I would imagine its a lot less than I pitched into my 5 gallons of wine ( several grams )
Recall that Lucozade does not contain yeast that needs to be suppressed - its just in case a wild beasty and the misses colonises your OPEN Lucozade!
However by constantly pitching fresh yeast I overcame the sorbate and the wine fermented out.
So go for it I say
Will
I used Koolaid Singles as priming sugar a few months ago and it turned out amazing.
Like fizzy Raza with the mouthfeel and head of a beer.
Is there a yeast inhibitor in Koolaid?
When you ferment the sugar out from under the likes of lucozade you tend to end up with a very unbalanced chemical/medicinal tasting type brew. I think someone tried it before on Jims and said it was putrid, it's the same with most fizzy drinks.
QuoteIs there a yeast inhibitor in Koolaid?
sugar, fructrose, citrus acid, ascorbic acid (vitamin c), vitamin e acetate, calcium phosphate (prevents caking), acesulfame potassium, sucralose (sweetener), artificial color (red 40)
The yeast had no problem and did an awesome job of carbonation.
Here's how it looked. It was crystal clear in the bottle, but i chilled it too fast and it went cloudy.
The head was super smooth and creamy and lasted the whole way down.
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/cherrykoolaidbeer.jpg)
On another note, I also fermented cabbage once. That's how you make saurkraut. Totally not worth it as it takes months and it is really cheap to buy. Aparently though it is amazingly good for you.
That's a beautiful looking pint!
I'll give the lucozade a lash, then when people ask about it in the future they can say:
I think someone from NATIONAL HOMEBREW CLUB IRL did it, and it tasted rank.
QuoteThat's a beautiful looking pint!
I'll give the lucozade a lash, then when people ask about it in the future they can say:
I think someone from NATIONAL HOMEBREW CLUB IRL did it, and it tasted rank.
Yeah yeah, for science or something......