Mr. Beer Part Deux

This past weekend made two weeks since I brewed my Diablo IPA with my Mr. Beer Kit. This meant that it was time for me to make sure that the primary fermentation had gone according to plan. Speaking plainly, I got to try my beer.

The way fermentation works, as a tour guide in a winery once graphically put, it is that the yeast eats up all the sugars and craps alcohol. As a consequence, fermentation will be finished when the yeast has finished eating all or most of the sugar in the wort (ie, the mix of water and hopped malt extract). Therefore, if you try the beer and it tastes sweet, the yeast is not done eating.

Luckily, my Diablo IPA tasted like it should, like still beer. It was therefore time for the secondary fermentation, which would give it the carbonation it so desperately needed.

Since the yeast has at that point eaten mostly all of the sugar in the beer, you have to add more of it for their to be more fermentation. I added two and a half teaspoons of sugar to each of the previously sanitized bottles and filled them up with my still beer.

Even at that moment, you can already see carbonation starting to happen, as by the time the bottle is filled you already have a small head of foam. However, you should leave the tightly closed bottles in a dark and cool place for anywhere between one and two weeks, to ensure the beer is fully carbonated.

Just about two more weeks to go. Perfect timing, as my credit card bill from the summer has just come in and I am down to my last beer buying penny. Stay tuned for the saga's exciting finale.