July 2001

Issue 49

http://www.hbd.org/carboy

	This is the first in a mutating, evolving and constantly growing newsletter.  It will 
be re-calibrated.  PLEASE let me know what you think of it.  (I may not end up changing 
it the way you think it should change, but I still need to hear).

				Bill Pollard (blyrbow@bellsouth.net)

Lots to catch up on!  First off:

1) The NHD batch was a real winner!  Special thanks to Darryl from Rock Creek and
Mark Griswold for their efforts to get every last drop out of the fermenter.  There 
were plenty of  folks cheering them on.  They looked very thirsty.

	From Darryl, here is a sample reading of the beer from 5/25/01:

DATE: 05-25-2001

BATCH NO.  49

CUP NO.     1                   SAMPLE ID:                  SAMPLE TYPE: BEER

SPECIFIC GRAVITY		:	1.00722
ORIGINAL EXTRACT(% W/W)		:	11.57
ALCOHOL			(% W/W)	:	4.04
REAL EXTRACT		(% W/W)	:	3.71
EXTRACT/ALCOHOL INDEX		:	0.916
APP. DEG. OF FERM. ASBC	(%)	:	84.0
REAL DEG. OF FERM. ASBC	(%)	:	69.3
APPARENT EXTRACT	(%W/W)	:	1.85
ALCOHOL			(%V/V)	:	5.15
CALORIES		(12 OZ)	:	151.4

I also have the Brewsheet, if anyone is interested in seeing it.

June 2001 Meeting

2) Doug Sershen from TRUB spoke to us about the Great Taste of the Midwest trip 
that he is organizing.  It's a trip to Madison and Milwaukee Wisconsin through 
Chicago Illinois from Friday August 10 through Tuesday August 14.  Let Doug know 
if you are thinking about going.  I recommend a Goose Island Honker's Ale on the 
96th floor of the Hancock building in Chicago (the bar is called Images) just as the 
sun is setting, and the lights of the city are coming on full, but this is only from 
fantastic personal experience.

3) The monthly meeting went as follows:

a) EDUCATION:

	1) Note: a member state that he had made the counter flow discussed in the
	last meeting, and it worked great.
	

	2) Mike Dixon presented some thoughts on Keg Lube.  It can be a Petrol Gel
	Or a Silicon Compound.  Petrol Gel can wreck the head on your beer, so 
	Don't use a lot and you are ok.

	Don't use Wheel Bearing Grease, you want a tasteless, odorless, FDA 
	approved substance, so don't use Vaseline, or K-Y Jelly (it's water 
	soluble) either.

	If you can't find any Keg Lube, it's ok to skip it, rather than get it wrong.

b) Bill MacKenzie then shared with us his experience with making Oatmeal
   Pilsner .  Seems he wanted to see what Oatmeal was really about, and felt 
   a Pilsner would show that.  The GRISTMILL Weight was 20%, and the 
   decoction was a mess.  The Pilsner was very cloudy, even after all the 
   settling (NOTE: see Article below)

   Bill then let us know that the beer turned out so well that he finished it 
   before he could get some to us to share.

c) Octoberfest will be the last Saturday in September.  Richard Todd will be 
   Coordinating, please e-mail him at rtodd@nc.rr.com if you wish to assist.  The
   Statement has been categorically made that the need is there for lots of people
   To assist (nudge, nudge!)

d) BJCP Shamrock results were then discussed.  Apparently we still need to 
   send in our 2000 results.  We debated our standing (high) on some kind of
   "list". 

e) Thanks to Glenn Thomas's Dopplebock, we are apparently in a 5 way tie for  
   AHA Brew Club of the year.  Glenn's Dopplebock went to the to the AHA 
   Bockanalia Club Only Competition in Cincinnati. His entry took first place
   among 37 other entries. Way to go Glenn! Here's Glenn's recipe:

Doppelbock
All Grain - 5 gallons net

This beer took first place in the AHA Club Only Competition for category
#14 in Cincinatti, OH, 5/26/01, ,  First place in it's flight in the 2001
DEA Challenge, Greenville, NC , 4/21/01 First place in it's flight in the
2001 US Open, Charlotte, NC , 4/28/01, and was a Bronze medal winner in the
the ET Barnette Homebrew Competition, Fairbanks, Alaska, 7/13/01.

O.G.- 1.094
F.G.- 1.028

18 lb. Weissheiiemer Pilsen Malt
6 lb. Weissheimer Munich Malt
2 lb. 60L Crystal Malt
8 oz. Malted Wheat
4 oz. Belgian Chocolate Malt

Add all of the malts except the Munich to 7 gallons water treated with
2 tsp. calcium carbonate and heated to 130 degrees F.  Hold at 122 degrees
F for 15 minutes then slowly raise to 140 degrees F.

In another pot add 2-1/2 gallons and heat water to 110 degrees F before
adding Munich Malt.  Hold Munich Malt at 108 degrees F for 10 minutes then
slowly raise to 151 degrees F, stirring frequently.  Rest Munich mash at
150 degrees for 10 minutes then bring the mash to a boil and boil for 10
additional minutes.  Add Munich mash to main mash tun to raise the
temperature of the mash to 138 degrees F.  Slowly raise mash temperature
to 158 degrees F and hold for 10 minutes.  Raise mash temperature to
169 degrees F and hold for 5 minutes before starting sparge.

Sparge mash with 170 degree F water to collect 9 gallons.  Add ½ ounce
Tettnanger hops at start of 90 minute boil.  Add ¾ ounce Tettnanger,
1 ounce Hallertau and 1 teasp. Irish moss with 30 minutes remaining in boil.  

At end of boil cool wort and pitch with a 1 quart/ 2-step starter of
Wyeast #2206 Barvarian Lager yeast.  Ferment at 53 degrees F for 12 days,
raise temperature to 58 degrees F for 1 day diacetyl rest then slowly drop
to 38 degrees F after transferring to secondary . Lager at 38 degrees F
for at least 12 weeks.  Keg and force carbonate to 2.5 volumes Co2.

e) We then went into "TELL US ABOUT THIS BEER", and it all went 
   uphill/downhill from there.

SHARED WITH THE CLUB

NOTES: 	Todd Wenzel brought both before and after samples of his
	DunkelWiesen, which he had brewed earlier with Steve.
	He ended up getting wild yeast in it (before), and
	cleaned it up with:
		Polyclar, for the protien/phenal complex
		Isinglass, to settle both yeasts (wild and unwild)
	And the difference was quite distinguishable.
	Steve's part had no such wild yeast in it.

	Glenn was trying with this IPA to answer the age old
	question "How many HOPS is too much HOPS"?
	He got very close.

Next meeting is Wednesday, July 25, 2001.

Oatmeal Pilsner - Bill MacKenzie

I have been curious about oatmeal as an adjunct for many years. I have used small amounts of it in stouts and have been impressed with the challenging effects it has on sparging. Michael Lewis had some unkind things to say about the attributes of oatmeal as a brewing grain in his book in the Classic Beer Series- Stout. He claimed that it made beers cloudy and astringent, without adding any advantageous flavor or mouth feel attributes. He used a rest at 95% F. to allow beta-glucanase and phytase to digest the sticky carbohydrates that make oatmeal such a mess to sparge. I like oatmeal stout and have always agreed that there is a fuller mouth feel associated with it. I often wondered if Lewis’s lack of success was due to resting the mash at 95 degrees. I decided to test this theory once and for all and really get a handle of oatmeal’s contribution to beer by using lots of it in a light delicately flavored "Pilsner". I Was planning to try a Saranac Pilsner look alike and substituted 2# of "Mothers Quick Oats" for the wheat I cooked the 2# of oatmeal in a what seamed a reasonable gallon of water. And set it aside to cool while I ground the malt and heated my mash water. I went to the oatmeal to retrieve my spoon and pulled up a solid 8 pound steaming block of oatmeal on a stick! My wife loves oatmeal with hard lumps in it like her mother used to make and I have never been able to duplicate it for her until now. I figure I had enough there to last her to her judgement day. I dumped into the mash and broke it up and added water and stirred, and tried to balance temps until I had finished my aerobic exercise requirements for the week. Eventually, I had a reasonably good mash and at 152 degrees. With arrogant forethought I had added ½ # of rice hulls. I really needed several pounds but that lesson would become apparent after the 1.5 hour sparge. In fact my boil was over and I was still collecting wort from the mash tun. I have made a complete all grain recipe on my set up in 2 and 1/2 hours but the mash and sparge on this beast was 4.75 hours. Then a funny thing happened. In pumping the boiled wart through the counter-flo cooler and into the carboy, I noticed two things: the flow was very slow and the fluid, while a beautiful light golden color was milky. The ferment went normally but there was huge amounts of fluffy trub layer on the surface and swimming vigorously in "Gods ferment". When the time for racking arrived all the fluffy stuff had dropped to the bottom.

Siphoning was not difficult because all of that fluffy stuff collapsed as the liquid flowed out. The clumps of carbohydrate were tenacious enough to hang together so that the beer flowing into secondary was a very normal appearing Pilsner. The rather large layer of stuff in the first photo doesn’t look too different than the usual trub I get from the cold break because I use a counter flo cooler.

Post mortem

What did the oatmeal contribute to the beer? To the brewing it introduced a major, in fact, monumental reason to never use oatmeal again. By its very nature oatmeal makes the mash and sparge a "challenge". In fact, start a swear box at 25 cents a pop and you can send your kid to college with just one 5 gallon batch. But this might have been the best beer I have ever made. After all the trouble and consternation the end result was worth the effort. The oatmeal did make a cloudy bee that would humble wheat. The oatmeal didn’t contribute a unique taste similar to rye nor could I detect a unique "silky" mouth. The beer was clean and the very heavy dry hopping (steeped at the end of the boil) had no grassy character that I usually get. Perhaps, oatmeal and it’s sticky carbohydrates contributed a cleansing action that bound up all the bad flavors that haunt home brewers in it adhesive arms and carried them to the bottom of the fermenter. Maybe the quality of the beer was a fluke. I don’t know The only way I can find out is to repeat the process AND THAT IS A SCARY THOUGHT

Ps. That fluffy stuff at the bottom of the fermenter is probably the "soluble fiber" that makes oatmeal good for your heart so don’t knock it.