Hello Again,

"Frogleg" <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:l58qhv878bcl7btd0bloltdctdsv0f3ne7@4ax.com...
[color=blue]
> Thanks, Bill. "Racking" is siphoning the liquid off the yeast
> sediment? And re-bottling?[/color]
Correct. I drop a siphon tube into the carboy containing my beer or wine,
and draw off all the liquid, leaving the dregs ("trub" or "must") at the
bottom. It's then ready for rebottling. No harm in this, but, as always,
be sure that anything that comes in contact with the liquid has been
properly sterilized.
[color=blue]
> I had an idea of pouring this stuff through a coffee filter and
> re-bottling with very small amount of sugar. Why is this impossible?[/color]

A coffee filter may collect the larger sediment, but I don't think the
"mesh" is sufficiently small to filter out the tiny yeast cells. No problem
re-priming with a bit of sugar (for the sake of sanitation, I would make a
sugar water solution, boil it, chill it, and then add it to the re-bottled
sima).
[color=blue]
> One Q about wine/brewing yeast vs bread -- do the brewing strains
> produce less, um, excess yeast, or simply better flavor? I'm not
> concerned with making a gourmet treat to be discussed in terms like
> "full-bodied with just a hint of blackberry." Just fizzy lemonade with
> a (short) history.[/color]

I don't know which kind of yeast is the more prolific (wine/brewing vs.
bread), but just from the standpoint of making a tasty drink, I would choose
non-bread yeast. Also, bread yeast (I've been told) has been developed to
create CO2 (to make the bread rise), whereas beer and wine yeast have been
cultivated for flavor and for the production of alcohol as well as CO2.

One more thing: Some kinds of brewer's yeast are more flocculent than
others. This means that they tend, to a greater or lesser degree, to clump
together, and settle to the bottom of the fermentation vessel. You may want
to choose a yeast that is very flocculent, so it will settle out more
quickly. (Wyeast and White Labs are two well-known yeast labs, whose web
sites are well deserving of a visit for more information on this topic.)

HTH,
Bill Bell