Bill Velek wrote:
[color=blue]
> I remembered recent discussions in which several reliable and
> experienced brewers said that it's just a myth that sucrose causes a
> cidery flavor ... and I take them at their word. Hmmm. Should I dump
> about three pounds of table sugar in with the kit?? Then I also
> remembered that the cidery flavor was attributed to stale extract, and
> there was no telling how old that can was, and I also remembered that
> just recently folks said something like 65F/18C is the ideal temp for
> ales, and without my cooler working, I'd be real hard pressed to get
> down below 70F. I therefore decided not to gamble with the sugar, but
> one of the first things I'm going to do when I get my cooler working, is
> to see how a brew comes out with a good dose of sugar. As for this
> brew, I used it to make a little tiny 2.5gallon batch and put it in my
> old Mr. Beer kit, so I've managed to come full-circle, so to speak --
> doing simple extract kits with dry yeast packs in my original
> fermentor. :-/ I knew that it would come in handy again some day.[/color]

If you want to give the sugar thing a true test, do it with an AG
beer...that way, without extract as a variable, you can see that up to
20% sugar works fine.
[color=blue]
> Now I've got a question, if you folks don't mind. Someone said (in a
> private email to me) that: "I never lagered at less than about 6-7C. I
> did a lot of reading before I started brewing lagers and I didn't see
> the need to go any lower. I did try dropping the temp down to 3C once
> and the yeast (wyeast 2308) just stopped fermenting. Once I raised the
> temp back up to 7C, the airlock started to bubble again. I believe I
> got similar results when I tried the same experiment with Wyeast 2278."
> Okay, 6C is 42.8F -- which suggests that I could do lagers by
> controlling temp with a house-thermostat that goes down to only 40F. I
> had been under the impression that it is a virtual necessity to drop
> down at least to the mid-thirties to condition a lager. Any comments.[/color]

There seems to be a confusion here between fermwntation temp and
conditioning temp. Fermentation is generally between 45-55F.
Conditioning (lagering) is between 35ish-45ish F.
[color=blue]
> Cheers and good brewing.[/color]

Same to you, Bill!

----------->Denny

--
Life begins at 60 - 1.060, that is.

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