HOMEBREW Digest #1138 Tue 11 May 1993

Digest #1137 Digest #1139


	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  mash vs. extract table (ROB THOMAS)
  Belgian souvenirs (Mark A Fryling)
  Musings on Commercial Beer (Jack Schmidling)
  re skunks (Chip Hitchcock)
  Isomerized Hop Extracts vs. Skunkiness ("Spencer W. Thomas")
  Sam Adams...... a Microbrewery (STROUD)
  Re: Beer Machine Infomercial ("John D. McCalpin")
  Pierre Rajotte ("William A Kitch")
  Re: Where's the Hops? (Diane Palme x2617)
  Draft Beer (was effects of light) (Ron Natalie)
  Nepalese and Tibeten Chan(g) (Markham R. Elliott)
  Hops/2 Liter Bottles (greenbay)
  Isomerization ("Anthony Johnston")
  Sugars ("William A Kitch")
  Re: thin mashes & not mashes (Jeff Frane)
  Chill Haze Remover (Robert Schultz)
  Mash Stiffness (korz)
  Soda Keg relief valve replacements (TAYLOR)
  Micro and Brewpubs equipment requirements (Bruce=Kiley)
  IBU's for Weissbierxxxzen (Bill Szymczak)
  Book recommendation (Matthew Mitchell)
  re ethylene and ripening (POLLARD)
  FX Matt Brewery (Kirk Anderson)
  out on my own (Joe Rolfe)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:53:55 MET DST From: ROB THOMAS <THOMASR at EZRZ1.vmsmail.ethz.ch> Subject: mash vs. extract table Hello All, Here's table of mash thickness vs. temp vs. extract, taken from Malting and Brewing Science, vol 1, D.E.Briggs, J.S.Hough, R.Stevens, T.W.Young, Chaman and Hall, 1981. Hope it's of some use. Rob Thomas. Influence of mash temperature and concentration on the composition of sweet wort {Data of HALL quoted by HARRIS (1962) [221} Mashing temperature 60!C (140!F) 65 6!C (150!F) Mash thickness (%) (2) 67 39 29 67 39 29 Wort analyses(1) Hexose 12.3 10.1 9.5 11.9 9.5 8.1 Sucrose 2.8 3.4 3.4 4.1 4.2 3.8 Maltose 43.9 48.3 49.5 38.8 43.9 42.8 Trisaccharide 14.3 14.3 13.8 12.6 13.6 15.0 Dextrin 17.5 15.5 14.6 24.2 21.2 22.3 Fermentability (%) 73.3 76.1 76.2 67.4 71.2 69.7 Extract ( %) 55-63 76.2 75.6 73 4 75.3 74.2 Soluble N (% of wort 6.2-6.6 5.34 5.50 5.58 5.22 5.03 solids) pH 5.46 5.40 5.50 5.31 5.33 5.38 (1) carbohydrates expressed as % of wort solids. (2) Parts of grist/100 parts of water. Mashing temperature 68 3!C (155!F) Mash thickness (%) (2) 67 39 29 Wort analyses(1) Hexose 11.0 10.2 8.0 Sucrose 3.7 5.0 4.0 Maltose 36.9 37.0 39.0 Trisaccharide 12.8 12.7 14.3 Dextrin 27.6 26.2 26.9 Fermentability (%) 64.4 65.0 65.3 Extract ( %) 73.3 74.6 74.0 Soluble N (% of wor 4.90 4.77 4.85 solids) pH 5.31 5.35 5.30 Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 8:04:53 EDT From: Mark A Fryling <mfryling at magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> Subject: Belgian souvenirs Hi gang! I'v got a question for all of you worldly travelin' beer lovers out there. My girlfriend is going to be in Europe all of next month and will be spending the last week of her trip in Belgium. So naturally, I have asked her (and she has agreed) to bring me back some local Belgian beers. My questions to you are: 1) Whats the duty rate on alcohol over the duty-free limit (and for that matter whats the duty free limit)? 2) Is it best just to pack the beer carefully and carry it on the plane as extra luggage or to ship it? 3) Does anyone have any particular recomendations about Belgian beers not available here that she might easily find there? She will be spending most of her time in Antwerp. Any and all assistance can be sent either directly to me at mfryling at magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu or posted if you think your comments are of general interest. Thanks in advance. Mark "Never let your sense of morality prevent you from doing what's right" Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 08:00 CDT From: arf at genesis.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling) Subject: Musings on Commercial Beer My C-P bottler is down for re-design so I bought a bunch of commercial stuff to take to a party. Always wanting to turn a beer drink into a learning experience, I bought some things I have wanted to try/compare. Draft Guinness in the can is not only lousy beer but the nitrogen gizzmo is just plain silly. I thought the beer had a metalic taste and was lacking in anything worth mentioning. Bass ale was about as bland as the Guinness but lacked the metalic taste and just about any other, for that matter. Take the coloring out of Beck's Dark and you have Beck's regular. It seems a bit more beerish but hardly in line with the color. The good news (strike me dead) was Miller Reserve Pale Ale. I tried the "all barley" larger a few months ago and it seemed a farce but this stuff is real ale. It's fruity and wonderful. It has a very marvey aroma and the taste that follows is exactly was you expect from the aroma. By far the best beer to come out of the biggies in decades. No doubt they found the right combination of chemicals to do the trick but at least it tastes like beer. It does not taste like my ales but rather like most of the ales I taste at club meetings and the experts tell me that is what it is supposed to taste like. Needless to say, I wait with baited breath to hear what others think of it. js Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 09:21:37 EDT From: cjh at diaspar.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: re skunks > So, I offer a challenge to some incipient MOMILY BUSTER. Split a batch in > half and keep half in the dark and expose the other to 8 hrs of fluorescent > light per day. Bottle some of both when ready, then do the same every 30 > days till you smell a skunk and report back. > > My bet is, you will run out of beer first. I wouldn't suggest that anybody do this with a batch they value. Stiv Stroud runs periodic Dr. Beer sessions at which participants can sample beers with various off-flavors. At the session I was at a couple of years ago, the demonstration of light-struck beer involved some Molson's which he said had had a total of 6 hours of direct sunlight (well, as direct as you can get in February). The stuff was LETHAL; I could smell it a yard away almost the instant the bottle was opened and wouldn't even consider tasting it (I wanted to be able to taste something else that day). I expect this will vary quite a bit according to factors like carboy geometry and how dark the beer is; my assessment in private email was that it wasn't likely to be a problem because most homebrewers don't have flurorescents where they ferment. I also don't have any data on typical spectra for fluorescent lights, only the datum that they're efficient lights only by comparison with incandescents---something like a mere 85% (vs ~93%) of energy used comes out as heat, which would suggest that fluorescents might have less energy in the high-visible and UV range than sunlight. However, there are probably enough carboy-sized places in the typical homebrewer's residence without sun or fluorescent lighting that it would be a silly risk to take. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:13:12 EDT From: "Spencer W. Thomas" <Spencer.W.Thomas at med.umich.edu> Subject: Isomerized Hop Extracts vs. Skunkiness May 1 (National Homebrew Day), the Kalamazoo Brewery had a free homebrew "conference". One of the speakers was a "hop chemist" from Kalsec (I think I got that right), a company in Kalamazoo that does "spice extraction". He talked about the chemistry of hops flavors & aromas. The best part was the box of vials of extracted flavor/aroma components that he passed around (ranging from "cheesy/funky" through "esters" to pure isomerized alpha&beta acids (he said it was 1,000,000 BUs)). Apparently, Kalsec makes the hops extract that "2 of the 3 largest brewers" in the US use (hint: AB is the one that doesn't). They do the light-stabilization thing that lets Miller get away with clear bottles (even though the hops are just about sub-threshold, I imagine the mercaptans wouldn't be). (The rest of the day was fun, too.) =S Return to table of contents
Date: 10 May 1993 10:40:45 -0500 (EST) From: STROUD%GAIA at leia.polaroid.com Subject: Sam Adams...... a Microbrewery Far be it from me to take the position of defending Sam Adams, but there appears to be some confusion in the HBD-world about where SA is and isn't brewed. Jeff Frane sez: > Sam Adams is not and never has been a microbrewed beer. From its > inception it was contract-brewed, originally in Pennsylvania and for the > last couple of years here in Portland at the Blitz-Weinhard Brewery. Well, yes and no. Sam Adams LAGER was first brewed as a contract beer in the Pittsburgh Brewing Co. It still is, and in the last few years it has also been contract brewed at Blitz-Weinhard. The other seasonal bottled SA products are also contracted out of Pittsburgh. I don't know whether these are also brewed at B-W. Sam Adams BOSTON ALE (bottled version and some of the draft) is brewed at Matt's in Utica, NY. Sorry, Lisa St. Hilaire, your tour guide was wrong. Utica does the brewing, not just the storage. It gets more confusing, however, because Sam Adams (the Boston Beer Company) does indeed have a microbrewery here in Boston where they make numerous draft beers (including Boston Ale) that are available at local taps in the Boston area. Some of these beers are experimental (like the recent "triplebock" and last summer's "dunkelweizen"). The draft beers that SA's takes out to the GABF are also brewed here in Boston. I have been told by the head brewer that they also make occasional batches of Sam Adams Lager (draft) in the Boston brewery. The heart of Sam Adam's microbrewery is a 10 bbl mashtun which was acquired from the now defunct Newman's Brewery in Albany. So to say that Sam Adams is not and never has been a microbrewed beer is not true. While it is predominantly a contracted beer, at least here in Boston, some of the product is microbrewed. Steve Stroud Oh, BTW, the Sam Adams that is sold in Germany is supposed to be contract-brewed IN Germany. I don't know the name of the brewery. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:39:43 -0400 From: "John D. McCalpin" <mccalpin at perelandra.cms.udel.edu> Subject: Re: Beer Machine Infomercial I did not see the commercial for this beer machine, but in the May 10 digest, Randall Holt (rxh6 at po.CWRU.Edu) asks: >The question I have, has anyone tried this system, or >even tried brewing in this fashion, by fermenting and carbonating >in the same container? I can imagine how tangy this beer would be, >being poured right off the trub. Of course the happy smiling 'real >people' are quaffing crystal clear, perfectly carbonated, 1 inch head, >beer. I have done this with a "Brew Sack" (tm). Instead of using a glass or plastic keg, they use a woven plastic bag with a plastic liner. The "Brew Sack" comes pre-loaded with hopped malt syrup in one of three varieties (Porter, Stout, Pilsner). Just add hot (~150 degree) water to dissolve the syrup, then add more water (20 pints total) to cool down to ~95 degrees and add the yeast. The bag is equipped with a pressure relief valve in the screw-on cap and with a tap near the bottom. I kept mine for about 7-10 days at a reasonable room temperature, then moved it downstairs to a room at about ~55 degrees for 4 weeks. It was pretty lively when I opened it, but the carbonation seemed external, somehow -- the beer never had much head by itself. I guess this is not surprising, since a plastic bag is not going to stand up to a lot of pressure. The beer (a Porter) was very rich and quite tasty. It was *not* clear (even for a Porter), but I was not bothered by any sediments. I did choose to pass on the last 2 inches of brew left in the bottom, though I suppose it would be a good vitamin B-12 supplement? This weekend I plan to start a Brown Ale that I will split between a standard single-stage fermentation technique and the "Brew Sack". Then in 6 weeks or so I will have an official comparison taste test --- provided that I can get the ! at #$%^&* screw cap off of the Brew Sack.... - -- John D. McCalpin mccalpin at perelandra.cms.udel.edu Assistant Professor mccalpin at brahms.udel.edu College of Marine Studies, U. Del. John.McCalpin at mvs.udel.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 09:04:08 CST From: "William A Kitch" <kitchwa at bongo.cc.utexas.edu> Subject: Pierre Rajotte Does anyone have an address for Pierre? Thanks, WAK |- William A Kitch (512) 471-4929 -| |- Geotechnical Engineering -| |- ECJ 9.227 -| |- Univ of Texas at Austin, TX 78712-1076 -| Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 09:55:01 -0500 (CDT) From: dspalme at mke.ab.com (Diane Palme x2617) Subject: Re: Where's the Hops? Hi all! Thanks ever so very much for the words of encouragement and wisdom. My mailbox overfloweth! :-) Anyway, I stopped out by the garden yesterday and lo and behold! The kids are here! The Hallertau and the Cascade have poked their heads up and the Tattenanger is still being shy. I swear they looked different between 12:00 and 4:30! Yikes! I haven't thrown any fertilizer on them (I am scared to!). Again, I will keep all of you up to date. There were too many respondants to thank each and every one individually. Let it suffice that your good thoughts and kind words have stopped my worrying. Happy Hopping! Diane - -- Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:58:36 -0400 From: Ron Natalie <ron at topaz.bds.com> Subject: Draft Beer (was effects of light) How about the fact that the beer isn't near-boiled after it's been fermented? -Ron Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 14:57:21 GMT From: u4imdmre at cpc41.cpc.usace.army.mil (Markham R. Elliott) Subject: Nepalese and Tibeten Chan(g) I have a question for you beer scholars out there. This past weekend my father- in-law and I were quaffing a couple, and he asked me if anyone on the network had ever mentioned "Chang". He told me a story of when he went to Nepal and began a climb of Mt. Everest (real story, fully documented etc, etc. he never intended to go to the summit or anything, just wanted to 'climb' it, and he went and climbed to one of the traditional base camps). At any rate, he said it is a brewed beverage, consumed during social and sometimes at ceremonial gatherings (sometimes spelled as "Chan" by those in Tibet). Said it was quite strong, and (given the altitude) would really 'do a number on you'. He wants to know if anyone out there in HBD Land knows a full history and recipe. I've seen a couple of posts lately from some student(s) doing research on brewing, so come on guys and gals, here is your chance to show us what you've got. Noch einmal, bitte!! Mark - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Markham R. Elliott u4imdmre at cpc41.cpc.usace.army.mil Information Technology Laboratory (601) 634-2921 Waterways Experiment Station Vicksburg, Mississippi USA - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:14:26 CDT From: greenbay at vnet.IBM.COM Subject: Hops/2 Liter Bottles I have two questions that I hope someone could answer for me. 1) On average, what does a single hops flower weigh? (A range would also be OK if that is easier.) 2) I heard a customer at a homebrew store saying that homebrew could safely bottled in 2 liter bottles. Does anybody have any information on this? Thanks, Bob Crowley Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:32:41 CDT From: "Anthony Johnston" <anthony at chemsun.chem.umn.edu> Subject: Isomerization Two issues ago my eye was struck by the statement regarding the processes involved in brewing and skunking "... isomerization is the process by which longer chain molecules are made." Well, I don't have a PhD in Organic chemistry, yet. Isomerization is simply a change in structure or connectivity in a molecule. I believe that in the alpha acids, the isomerization involves the shifting of double bonds to form a conjugated system (alternating double and single bonds in a chain) that would indeed be more photoreactive. I have been looking for a book that explains the chemistry of brewing in more detail from beginning (pH of Water, mineral effects) to end (the effects of light on beer, etc.) Does anyone know of any sources or titles that would have this sort of info? Thanks Anthony Johnston Homebrewer, Chemist anthony at chemsun.chem.umn.edu "Better living through Chemistry" "Zymurgy is Chemistry" "Better living through Zymurgy" A . Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 10:01:37 CST From: "William A Kitch" <kitchwa at bongo.cc.utexas.edu> Subject: Sugars I decided the hot Texas summer months were a good time to brew stong Belgian ales. I figured I'd better read up on the subject first; I started with Pierre Rajotte's _Belgian Ale_ (Classic Beer Style Series #6). A very interesting book w/a lot of info, but less than clear in a number of places. One of the unclear area is the subject of sugars. Rajotte devotes 6 pages to description of sugars used in brewing but left me confused. So I re-read Miller's (_Complete Handbook of Home Brewing_) section on sugars. Some of what Miller says seem to contradict Rajotte--more confusion. Here's what I think I know about various sugars. Corn sugar--aka glucose or dextrose. A single sugar 100% fermentable. Adds no flavor to beer. Cane sugar--aka sucrose. A double sugar made up of glucose and fructose. Must first be broken into glucose and fructose before it can be fermented. Fructose is apparently responsible for the cidery flavor in beers using a large amount of sucrose. Invert sugar--Sucrose that has already been split into glucose and fructose by acid reduction. Has pH of 4 to 6. Brown sugar--Partially refined sucrose. Produces rum like flavor in beer. Molasses-- I don't really know what the composition of molasses is. Demerara-- ? Treacle-- ? Candi--Sucrose that has been refined by slow crystalization. May be light or dark or camelized? Honey-- I don't know what sugars are in honey. Malto-dextrin--Long sugars produced it mashing malt. Not fermentable and tasteless. Common homebrew lore it this adds body to beer but Miller (pg 61) says this is not so! The questions are: Can you fill the question marks above? Any errors above? If sucrose must be inverted before being fermented, how does this happen in the brewing process? Is there an advantage to using invert sugar? Do you have sources for demerara, treacle, or candi? What sugars have you used for strong ales and with what results? Does malto-dextrin add body or not? Any suggested reading? Looking forward to your responses, WAK |- William A Kitch (512) 471-4929 -| |- Geotechnical Engineering -| |- ECJ 9.227 -| |- Univ of Texas at Austin, TX 78712-1076 -| Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 09:16:14 -0700 (PDT) From: gummitch at techbook.com (Jeff Frane) Subject: Re: thin mashes & not mashes Into the discussion about thin vs thick mashes, I would interject another source. Unfortunately, I don't have my copies of the old Amateur Brewer (under Fred Eckhardt's editorship) in front of me to check numbers, but there was an issue focusing on the production of wheat beers. These were specifically Swiss weizens, which aren't necessarily remarkable (and in fact have an extremely complex mash cycle as I recall), but it was in that article that I first heard that thin mashes were proteolytic. I believe the article gave specifics on malt to water ratios. I don't know the answer. My own experiences have been all over the map on thickness and I've yet to discover any real difference in the resulting beer. Rdeaver is a bit confused: > > A while back, I recall somebody posting a comment about boiling wort. > The post mentioned that if you brought the wort over a certain > temperature (I believe it was 153 degrees F), you would convert some of > the sugars to a non-fermentable form. > > I only have a half-dozen batches under my belt, and most have seemed a > bit sweet. The finishing gravities ave been around 1.002, but the brew > had a heavy taste to it. > > Planning to launch off on another brewing session of Heavy Scottish Ale, > I dropped into the local brewshop for a strainer bag. The question > raised was that if I did not boil the wort, would I have sterilization > problems. I will be using Briess DME, and this time will be using some > specialty grains. I always boil water ahead of time, to get rid of > chlorine. > > What is the general consensus? I have had this "sweet heaviness" with > several batches; it is not recipe-specific. The last batch, I went as > far as using yeast nutrient. > Once the stuff is wort, all the conversions have taken place and no amount of tinkering with the DME itself will change the relative thickness of your beer. If you are _really_ getting a finishing gravity of 1.002, it's pretty clear that the beer isn't finishing too high -- it's more likely that you are under-hopping (your bittering hops). Could it be that you're not adding hops at all but relying on a hopped extract? Another possibility is that you're misreading the hydrometer. Could it possibly be 1.020? If so, then the problem is probably something involving your yeast: you're not using enough, or you're not aerating the wort at pitching time so that the yeast have insufficient oxygen and poop out without ever finishing their fermentation. BOIL the wort! Make your best effort not to boil the grains you're adding, however, regardless of what certain books might advise. Better you should steep the cracked grains at about 150F for 1/2 - 1 hour, strain and rinse them with hot water and add your extract to the resulting liquid. Keep plugging away. - --Jeff Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 10:16:32 -0600 (CST) From: Robert Schultz <Robert.Schultz at usask.ca> Subject: Chill Haze Remover I saw some "Chill Haze Remover" - Cordon Bleu is the name (I think) made in Burton-On-Trent, U.K. in my lolcal brewstore the other day. The liquid is to be used 5 ml to 5 gal (U.K.) to remove Chill Haze. Has anyone tried it? Does it work? I have a Plisner (lagering as I speak) that appears to have some chill haze. I am likely to use it on half of the batch unless I hear glowing reports.... Thanks. Robert. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I'm going off half-cocked? I'm going off half-cocked? ... Well, Mother was right - You can't argue with a shotgun." - Gary Larson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 12:04 CDT From: korz at iepubj.att.com Subject: Mash Stiffness In personal email, Rich Goldstein pointed me to the passage I was thinking of (in fact, he saved me the trouble of typing it in -- Thanks, Rich!): Miller writes, in "The Complete Handbook of Homebrewing": Another factor influencing enzyme activity is stiffness (thickness) of the mash. A thin mash -- say 2.5 quarts of water per pound of grain -- ultimately favors a more complete breakdown of carbohydrates in the kettle. However, because the enzymes are more diluted, breakdown takes longer to achieve. On the other hand, a stiff mash -- around 1.33 quarts per pound, as I recommend -- initially favors starch breakdown; however, as amylolysis proceeds, the increasing concentration of sugars in the mash inhibits further enzyme activity. A stiff mash favors breakdown of proteins in the mash kettle, and it provides one other benefit: it protects the enzymes better. At any temperature, the thinner the mash, the faster the enzymes will be deactivated [p. 128] Also, Brian Smithey wrote to me me mentioning that he begins his stovetop mashing with a stiff mash and then thins it out later, I assume when going from the protein rest up to the saccharification rest. In a insulated cooler step infusion mash, where the temperature is raised simply by adding boiling water, this is inevitable, but in a stovetop mash, this is optional. This would be an intersting area for experimentation... no? Al. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 13:34:10 -0400 (EDT) From: TAYLOR at sbchm1.chem.sunysb.edu Subject: Soda Keg relief valve replacements I have a 5 gal keg with a screw-in, springed, relief valve which does not seal properly. Does anyone have an idea where I can get a replacement? Thanks. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 14:27:15 EDT From: Bruce=Kiley%SIG%SNI%sig at sni-usa.com Subject: Micro and Brewpubs equipment requirements Greetings, Once upon a time a saw a document somewhere that listed what equipment would be needed to start up a microbrewery or a brewpub. Does anyone have that document on know where to find it? If anyone has some info they could send me that would be great. Thanks, Bruce Kiley Please reply to brucek at sig.sni-usa.com Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 15:37:46 EDT From: bszymcz%ulysses at relay.nswc.navy.mil (Bill Szymczak) Subject: IBU's for Weissbierxxxzen While reading the recipies in Warner's book on German Wheat Beer it seemed to me that the suggested amount of hops (2.6 HBU's for a 5 gallon batch) seemed too small to attain 15 IBU's of bitterness. Especially, since he recommends boiling 1/2 of the hops for 60 minutes, 1/4 for 30 minutes and the remaining 1/4 for the last 10 minutes. Using the formula from Rager's article in the Zymurgy Hops Special Issue W(oz) X %A X %U X 7462 HBU X %U X 74.62 IBU = ---------------------- = --------------- = HBU X %U X 14.9 V(gal) 5 we get IBU = 1.3 X 0.30 X 14.9 (1.3 HBU's 30% utilization for 60 min) + 0.65 X 0.153 X 14.9 (0.65 HBU's 15.3% utilization for 30 min) + 0.65 X 0.06 X 14.9 (0.65 HBU's 6% utilazation for 10 min) = 5.81 + 1.48 + 0.58 = 7.87 (7.9 with rounding) This seems significant since it is only a little more than half the target of 15 IBU's that Warner claims! Even if you assume the full 30% utilization figure for all the hops added the value is 11.6. Checking the Glossary in Warner's book he uses the formula (bottom of p 139) for IBU as IBU = H X (a% + b%/9) / 0.3 (actually Warner has a typo and his formula for IBU reads HBU =...) where H is the weight of hops in grams per liter a% is the alpha acid per cent b% is the beta acid per cent 9 is a factor indicating that the flavoring power of alpha acids is about nine times greater than beta acids. 0.3 represents an approximate 30% efficiency rate in hop extraction caused by vaporization or precipitation. It seems to me that since Warner is dividing by 0.3 he is in effect assuming a utilization rate of 33.3%. With this formula (I'll omit the details) you get 13 IBU's (neglecting the beta acid per cent). Can anyone out there explain this discrepancy? I don't think that Eric Warner has a Ph.D in mathematics from Harvard so he shouldn't be making arithmetic errors (sorrry George). The only other exlanation I could think of is that Warner is assuming a 33.3% utilization rate independent of the time of boil and that the beta acid content is always about 1.4 times the alpha acid content. By the way, I think that Warner did a great job on his research for the book, and have found it otherwise well written and full of very useful information. Bill Szymczak Return to table of contents
Date: 10 May 93 15:51:05 EST From: Matthew Mitchell <IEKP898%tjuvm.bitnet at TJUVM.TJU.EDU> Subject: Book recommendation From: Matthew Mitchell At the ASBMB last year, I picked up a copy of "The Biotechnology of Malting and Brewing" by J.S. Hough (Cambridge U. Press: 1985 :their address is 40 W 20th, NY NY 10011-4211!) which is now out in paperback. I cannot recommend this book enough to those of you who have an interest in all-grain brewing, yeast culture, and any of the more technical aspects of brewing. It covers the entire process from barley to barrel, with descriptions of how commercial breweries produce their swill. All aspects are clearly explained in terms understandable by someone who has taken freshman chem and bio in college. There are plenty of diagrams which serious homebrewers might try as a starting point for their experiments with equipment and technique. There's even some economic analysis and discussion of commercial aspects. Howzat!?! Matthew Mitchell <iekp898 at tjuvm.tju.edu> <iekp898 at tjuvm.bitnet> Former Brewmaster, Penthouse Brewing Co., Haverford PA makers of Barclay Beer, Penthouse Brown Ale, and Big B Malt Liquor Return to table of contents
Date: 10 May 1993 16:54:30 -0400 (EDT) From: POLLARD%FRMNVAX1.BITNET at uga.cc.uga.edu Subject: re ethylene and ripening Did somebody call for a botanist?? Effects of ethylene on barley have been studied. It stimulates the release of gibberellin-induced alpha-amylase from the aleurone cells into the endosperm. In English, that means it triggers another hormone (gibberelin) to induce the formation of an enzyme that will convert starches into sugars. So I guess there's some potential here ... (?) Joe Pollard Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 17:23:30 -1100 From: Kirk_Anderson at wheatonma.edu (Kirk Anderson) Subject: FX Matt Brewery I was glad to see Lisa St Hilaire's posting in HBD #1137 regarding the FX Matt Brewery. There aren't a lot of things I miss about living in Utica, but that's one of them. I always bought Saranac when I was a local, but when I went back for a visit, even the draft Matt's tasted pretty decent. I always sniggered during that part of the tour where you see the famous 'Brooklyn' beer, the 'Philadelphia' beer, the 'Boston' beer, and lord knows what others being created right there, two blocks from my house. More important, my letter to the president, FX Matt III (I'd suggested he not charge for tours, and promote Saranac more vigorously), received a response that was warm, polite and personal. I was impressed. In the same HBD, Randall Holt asks if any homebrewers have tried fermenting and carbonation in the same container. I was puzzled when I saw this is exactly what they do at Matt's (and the other big breweries, I assume). Is there a pressure control that guarantees the desired carbonation? Does their 'air lock' become a 'cork' at some point in the process? I don't think there was any mention of priming during the tour at all. How do dey do dat? prosit! to all and to all a good night Kirk Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 10 May 93 17:40:32 EDT From: Joe Rolfe <jdr at wang.com> Subject: out on my own hi all, just to inform some of you waiting for pierre rajottes feedback - it is comming. but recently i was laid off :) from wang to pursue other more intresting venture (see sig file). as a result i dont get much of chance to read the list or mail for that matter. i will asure those who sent questions to me for pierre and his book will get a response ASAP... happy brewing to all and support the small breweries nation wide! - -- joe rolfe - President/Brewer - Ould Newbury Brewing Company jdr at wang.com - X Wang Employee, but still have an account 508-462-1980 - the brewery Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #1138, 05/11/93