Alchemy

"Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer" Henry Lawson

Beer brewing is part Art, part Science and part Magic, and sometimes luck.

When brewing was first regulated by the Bavarians in the 14th century, not much was officially known about the process of alcohol production or the effect yeast had on sugars, the purity act stated only 3 ingredients could make beer and yeast wasn't one of them. The brewers knew though, and realized that if they transferred a bit of sludge from the finished batch to the new batch, it would take off and ferment. The process was known as "Godisgood". all one word.

It wasn't till later in the mid 1800's when Louie Pasteur ( thats him ) and others discovered how the process worked, yeast was recognized as an integral part of the system.

So there is now 4 ingredients allowed in the German Purity act and luckily for us, nobody but the Germans take any notice of that, from Skittles to oyster shells, we all experiment and brew with whatever the hell we want with whatever we got..

All home brewers are aware of the need for sanitation and keeping the brew separate from the environment so that non target yeasts or bacteria are not introduces into the fermentation. Probably the most important factor in brewing.. Having said that ,

I do love a happy ending.

The other day I had a first taste (with great trepidation) of a pale ale I'd brewed a few weeks earlier that I was not expecting to keep. On brew day, I'd just pitched the yeast into my pressure fermenter and put a blow off tube into a bottle of sanitized water. The forecast said mild evening, t'was about 18 degrees so I didn't put on any heat source. I went inside, cracked a beer, or maybe two, and forgot about the brew.

Woke up next day to a really cold morning, temp was down to about 6 degrees. When I checked how the ferment was going, I discovered that the cold night had contracted my fermenter and my blow off tube had become a suck up tube and emptied the sanitizer bottle back into the fermenter.

I massaged the fermenter a bit to get it to regain its shape and in doing so sucked up a considerable amount of air from the brew room floor into my fermenting wort. I figured the batch was ruined and was about to toss it when apathy set in and I just walked away.

I didn't bother to dry hop as it would be a waste of money on a doomed beer, couldn't face it for a while, so just left it in my ferment chamber until my enthusiasm returned. I was expecting a soured moldy mess a week or so later when I went to clean up.

Surprisingly, it looked ok , I tested the gravity and it had fermented out, final gravity was on target and it looked great, smelled great too, I cold crashed and kegged it, still not confident.

Later I was thinking maybe the sanitizer had killed any contamination but not the yeast, maybe the floor is not as dirty as I thought, but surely that much sanitized water would negatively impact the beer flavor.

Cracked the keg the other day, it tasted great and I didn't die, so have since fed it to family and friends who have all made positive comments.

Either shows the resilience of modern yeasts, the advancement in science of modern sanitizer, the magic ability of a brew to overcome the mistakes of a stupid home brewer. Maybe some art or magic or maybe just dumb luck, or is some greater force watching over my brewhouse? Godisgood.

Brew Love.

Andrew.