New brewing Method Means Faster Beer, Less Waste 72
thatshortkid writes "A brewmaster in Germany has invented a cylinder that fuses yeast to the sides, allowing the yeast to do its fermentation job faster. A process that normally takes 10 days now takes a few hours. Also, yeast that normally has to be changed out after three brews can now last up to six months to a year."
Re:Hopefully this equals (Score:4, Interesting)
It doesn't appear to change the process, only accelerate it. I can make all sorts of beer at home with all sorts of weird ingredients. But it takes 10 days to ferment, and another 3 day to carbonate. At that point, you've got a good idea what the beer will taste like. It may need a longer time to bottle condition before the best flavor comes out, but it's drinkable after ~13 days.
A commercial brewer skips the carbonation step, and injects CO2 into the brew. So commercial beer is ready after ~10 days.
The biggest advantage here is the ability to experiment. The new system is 1/10th the size and faster. Kinda like switching from a render farm of desktops to Dual Proc rack mounts. Now you can run a lot more tests in parallel. The density and speed allows you to try something out that you normally wouldn't waste more limited resources on.
Personally, I'm planning on setting up some 1 Gallon batches of beer, and trying a bunch of different things. If it's bad, then it's only a gallon of bad beer to drink. Those 1 gallon jugs of bottled water are perfect for experimental carboys.
Re:Hopefully this equals (Score:4, Interesting)
They had a nice kit for getting started that had 2 plastic buckets, an airlock, some plastic tubing, and a bunch of stuff that I don't use (hydrometer). You can get off even cheaper if you're willing to use more elbow grease. On top of that, I needed a bottle capper, bottle caps, and a beer kit.
Followed the directions included in the kit, waited 2 weeks, filled the bottles, capped 'em, waiting another week, and enjoyed some great brew.
Initial outlay was about $100 (Starter kit was $80, Beer kit was $20). It'll cost $20 to $30 for every 5 gallon batch, if I buy the hold-your-hand Beer Kits. 5 gallons makes me about 50 12oz bottles. At $10-$15 per twelve pack in the store, I save $10 to $45, depending on what I buy at the store.
Like any hobby, there are lot of toys you can add. I used the beginner setup for a couple years, but started to get tired of washing bottles my hand, and controlling the bottling flow by hand. Another $40, and I think I'm done with my washing and bottling accessories.
Re:What about Mead? (Score:1, Interesting)
Ethanol Fuel (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Taste? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not a brewer, but I do bake a lot of bread, and often a slow rise with sourdough makes the best bread. The goal is not just to break down the sugar but to produce flavor as you do it. As for yeast it will make itself in great quantities if you are brewing or baking.
Re:-1 picked on heineken (Score:3, Interesting)
in Holland Heineken is considered piss, according to the people I know who drink beer (I don't drink any alcohol out of principle) it is only slightly better then budweiser (which is described as pee from someone who drank Heineken). Brands like Dommelsch, Grolsch and even Bavaria are preferred over Heineken here....
Until you talk to someone else, who claims that only Heineken is perfect and all the other brands suck. Mostly which beer is considered best is regional (Heineken/Amstel in the west, Grolsch in much of the east).
In reality, all Dutch pilsener is very very close in taste (with a few exceptions, basically the really cheap C brand supermarket stuff - but perhaps I'm influenced by marketing even there). I've done many blind tests, where people get beer (from bottles) in glasses without a brand name, and had to guess what they were drinking. Generally people score about as well as you would expect from a random pick.
I've had someone who grew up with Grolsch, and claimed that was far better than Heineken, even though he had been running a bar with Heineken on tap for years now, mistake one for the other. Many of these "beer experts" claim that the difference between those two is huge...
In my opinion most (all major brands) are pretty much OK, if not very special. If you want to drink interesting beer, the Belgian stuff is available everywhere. German beers are much more varied as well. And of course there's plenty of great stuff in the Netherlands as well - but generally not the pilseners, and anybody who claims pilsener brand X is "piss" compared to brand Y is a marketing/groupthink victim.