So,
A week or so ago the idea of homebrewing piqued my interest. I'm not currently in a living situation that permits making something reasonable, but I thought it would be fun to play around with yeast, sugar, water, and see what happens. I don't plan on actually drinking my end results; I just want to play around and watch it ferment and do its thing in small quantities. I know, it's about as boring as paint drying, watching the bubbles of c02 rise to the surface, but for some reason I find it fascinating.
Anyway, armed with some cleaned and sanitized empty plastic containers, I mixed up some sugar, water, and baker's yeast. In one container, I mixed sugar+water, got some yeast going, and pitched it. It started showing signs of fermentation pretty quickly. In another container, I brewed some sweet tea up on the stove, cooled it, and then pitched the yeast. That showed signs of fermentation quickly as well, but seemed to be bubbling at a much greater rate than the sugar/water. A few days later, out of curiosity, I threw some loose green tea into the sugar/water. It caused the whole thing to go mad compared to what it previously was, and started really bubbling and getting its ferment on.
So, what in the tea is making the yeast work better? Is it providing nutrients and whatnot that it does not have in normal sugar/water?
Again, I'm not drinking this when it's done; I just wanted to play around and see what happens. I do plan on actually trying to make beer several months from now, however.
A week or so ago the idea of homebrewing piqued my interest. I'm not currently in a living situation that permits making something reasonable, but I thought it would be fun to play around with yeast, sugar, water, and see what happens. I don't plan on actually drinking my end results; I just want to play around and watch it ferment and do its thing in small quantities. I know, it's about as boring as paint drying, watching the bubbles of c02 rise to the surface, but for some reason I find it fascinating.
Anyway, armed with some cleaned and sanitized empty plastic containers, I mixed up some sugar, water, and baker's yeast. In one container, I mixed sugar+water, got some yeast going, and pitched it. It started showing signs of fermentation pretty quickly. In another container, I brewed some sweet tea up on the stove, cooled it, and then pitched the yeast. That showed signs of fermentation quickly as well, but seemed to be bubbling at a much greater rate than the sugar/water. A few days later, out of curiosity, I threw some loose green tea into the sugar/water. It caused the whole thing to go mad compared to what it previously was, and started really bubbling and getting its ferment on.
So, what in the tea is making the yeast work better? Is it providing nutrients and whatnot that it does not have in normal sugar/water?
Again, I'm not drinking this when it's done; I just wanted to play around and see what happens. I do plan on actually trying to make beer several months from now, however.