Jun 27 2006
Toxic Homebrew
I made some homebrew a few weeks ago. After I bottled it, I took the dregs from the bottom of the carboy and bottled that too — 3 pints worth of it. Earlier today I noticed those three pint bottles had ballooned out (they’re made of plastic) from the extreme fermentation that’s erupted from the 2 inches of sediment in each bottle. So I decided to open a bottle. I’ve posted some photos of the event.
UPDATE: Photos have been removed because I got sick of using Flickr.
Interesting discovery. But when you’ve been homebrewing a few years, you don’t even attempt to assume there’s anything drinkable in that mess at the bottom.
Experienced brewers apparently use it to start a new batch, but I don’t have the patience. I just open the yeast packet that comes with the kit.
Yeah, I didn’t expect to get anything too drinkable out of it, but I thought it might be an interesting experiement. I threw in a handful of regular sugar before I bottled it, and that’s what caused the extreme fermentation. 2/3 of the beer fizzled out of the bottle as soon as I opened it, and the when I poured some in my mouth (I didn’t swallow), it immediately began to foam over. I tried to keep my mouth closed as long as I could, but the build up of gases didn’t take long to explode.
Someone’s been hanging out with too many wild dogs.