LEAVING FERMENTER IN THE SUN???? mexican cerevaz

more_beer · Post by **more_beer** » Sunday Feb 04, 2007 7:42 pm

G'day all! im doing a mexican style cerveza, and i hear it pays to leave the fermenter in the sun for 20 or so minutes prior to bottling or racking. Is this true? What does it do to the beer? What are the pro's and con's? All help much appreciated!!!

Tipsy · Post by **Tipsy** » Sunday Feb 04, 2007 7:50 pm

Chris reckons its true.
I'm a sceptic

Jonathon Sunshine · Sunday Feb 04, 2007 7:53 pm

1st con i can think of is that moving it anywhere regardless of into the sun or into another room will stir up sediment, i find 23kg easy enough to pick up and move around but its not the smoothest motion.

2nd, make sure you pull airlock out 1st, with a batch of lemonade i made recently, i moved the keg and made the airlock bubble, then when i put it down again the airlock bubbled the reverse way and some of the week old water went into the brew.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Feb 05, 2007 3:19 pm

Old Charlie Papazian recons it's true too.

All Corona that gets canned (hence is not exposed to light in glass bottles) is run past a UV source for the sole purpose of getting that skunky flavour that all you Corona-heads can't get enough of.

Bloody awful flavour, but if that's what works for you...

more_beer · Post by **more_beer** » Monday Feb 05, 2007 4:15 pm

Okay, sounds interesting so how long for? And what temp should it be outside? 38 in melbourne today is that to hot? Or should we go for 22-24 outside temp?

Pale_Ale · Post by **Pale_Ale** » Monday Feb 05, 2007 4:28 pm

Just a guess but it'd be more to do with cloud cover and time of day, as it's the UV rays that have the reaction not the heat...

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Tuesday Feb 06, 2007 9:05 am

Pale_Ale wrote:Just a guess but it'd be more to do with cloud cover and time of day, as it's the UV rays that have the reaction not the heat...

Spot on PA. Its the UV light that reacts with molecules in the beer to give it that 'skunked' flavour. Mid afternoon with no clouds. You can feel the bite on your skin, that the UV.

Scary fact, but during my uni days we had a chemical reaction that required UV light to go. 20 years ago they used expensive lamps to do it but when the hole in the ozone layer appeared they trialled doing the experiment on the roof and found it worked a treat.

As explained in another thread, modern glass bottles stop the UV light getting to your beer but the plastic fermenter will let the UV light in......so just plonk it in the sun for an hour and voila, piss...i mean, corona.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Tuesday Feb 06, 2007 1:12 pm

I wouldn't go more that 20-30mins myself. An hour really WILL make it piss.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Tuesday Feb 06, 2007 2:41 pm

drsmurto wrote:You can feel the bite on your skin, that the UV.

Actually, that's the infra red. Which is why you can get burned under light cloud cover: the cloud blocks the infra red but transmits UV, so you don't feel it burning you.

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Tuesday Feb 06, 2007 2:51 pm

rwh wrote:
drsmurto wrote:You can feel the bite on your skin, that the UV.
Actually, that's the infra red. Which is why you can get burned under light cloud cover: the cloud blocks the infra red but transmits UV, so you don't feel it burning you.

and i call myself a scientist........ you're right rwh, i stand corrected!

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Tuesday Feb 06, 2007 2:58 pm

but of course, you`re not really a scientist?

drsmurto · Post by **drsmurto** » Tuesday Feb 06, 2007 3:03 pm

sitting here in my labcoat..... But i brew so that makes it alright doesnt it?