HOMEBREW Digest #251 Tue 12 September 1989

[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]


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


Contents:
  Homebrew Digest #250 (September 11, 1989)
  Homebrew Digest #249 (September 10, 1989)
  doubts about SG temp corrections (Dick Dunn)
  "How not to open a beer" (Alex M. Stein)
  CASEY at MIT.MFENET (CASEY)
  Color of Crystal Malts (Mike Fertsch)
  Buffalo brewpubs? (David Carter)
  Lagering Temperatures  ("Brian CapouchA.hduSM:8:8")
  Re:  Papazian's CJoHB (John DeCarlo)

Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Sep 89 02:23 CDT From: postmaster at ihc.att.com Mail to `estes' alias `local!estes' from `arpa!hplabs.hp.com!homebrew%hpfcmr' failed. The error message was: corrupted mailbox. The message was: Received: from hpfcla.hp.com by hp-sde.sde.hp.com with SMTP (15.7/SES42.42) id AA05222; Mon, 11 Sep 89 00:03:48 pdt Received: from hpfcmr.HP.COM by hpfcla.HP.COM; Mon, 11 Sep 89 01:02:23 mdt Received: by hpfcmr.HP.COM; Mon, 11 Sep 89 01:00:02 mdt Date: Mon, 11 Sep 89 01:00:02 mdt Full-Name: Rob Gardner Message-Id: <8909110700.AA15193 at hpfcmr.HP.COM> From: homebrew-request@ hpfcmr.hp.com (Are you SURE you want to send it HERE?) Reply-To: homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com (CHANGE THIS IF NECESSARY) Errors-To: homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com Subject: Homebrew Digest #250 (September 11, 1989) Apparently-To: realhomebrew at hpfcmr.hp.com HOMEBREW Digest #250 Mon 11 September 1989 FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator Contents: Homebrew Digest #249 (September 10, 1989) doubts about SG temp corrections (Dick Dunn) "How not to open a beer" (Alex M. Stein) CASEY at MIT.MFENET (CASEY) Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 89 03:06 CDT From: postmaster at ihc.att.com Mail to `estes' alias `local!estes' from `arpa!hplabs.hp.com!homebrew%hpfcmr' failed. The error message was: corrupted mailbox. The message was: Received: from hpfcla.hp.com by hp-sde.sde.hp.com with SMTP (15.7/SES42.42) id AA16059; Sun, 10 Sep 89 00:53:04 pdt Received: from hpfcmr.HP.COM by hpfcla.HP.COM; Sun, 10 Sep 89 01:02:26 mdt Received: by hpfcmr.HP.COM; Sun, 10 Sep 89 01:00:01 mdt Date: Sun, 10 Sep 89 01:00:01 mdt Full-Name: Rob Gardner Message-Id: <8909100700.AA11386 at hpfcmr.HP.COM> From: homebrew-request@ hpfcmr.hp.com (Are you SURE you want to send it HERE?) Reply-To: homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com (CHANGE THIS IF NECESSARY) Errors-To: homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com Subject: Homebrew Digest #249 (September 10, 1989) Apparently-To: realhomebrew at hpfcmr.hp.com HOMEBREW Digest #249 Sun 10 September 1989 FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator Contents: doubts about SG temp corrections (Dick Dunn) Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com Return to table of contents
Date: 9 Sep 89 01:04:58 MDT (Sat) From: hplabs!gatech!raven!rcd (Dick Dunn) Subject: doubts about SG temp corrections I've been watching the discussion of temperature corrections for hydrometer readings for a while. I guess it's time to toss in my twopence. A quick check in the Rubber Bible seems to indicate that the temperature coefficient of expansion of water over some interesting range (say 50-100 F), while not linear, is not warped enough to give you as much as a point of error relative to a 60 F reference. So that's cool...however: - How does the expansion change with sugar in the water? There are two questions here. First, how much does the coefficient change--that is, do you have to apply a significantly different temperature correction factor depending on the gravity? Second, does it get more or less linear than the expansion of water? - What about the expansion of the glass in the hydrometer itself? Is this really negligible? I've always gone by the (safe, but perhaps overly conservative) rule that you shouldn't try apply temperature corrections outside the range of per- haps 50-75 F. This seems like a good idea given the potential for non- linearity in expansion coefficients, difficulty in getting temperature measurements right, tendency to warm/cool while you take the measurement, etc. One other note-in-passing: Somewhere there was a discussion of the "poten- tial alcohol" scales on hydrometers. I have two hydrometers. Both show potential alcohol, and both clearly say "by volume", but they're not the same. However, the one that's different (:-) has the zero for potential alcohol at a gravity value other than 1.000. Is this just a simple screwup, or does someone know a reason this might make some sense? Seems wrong to me...I'd expect water to have SG of 1 and potential alcohol of 0. --- Dick Dunn {ncar;ico;stcvax}!raven!rcd (303)494-0965 or rcd at raven.uucp Return to table of contents
************************************* ------- Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 89 14:18:01 PDT From: rutgers!retix.retix.com!alexs at hplabs.HP.COM (Alex M. Stein) Subject: "How not to open a beer" Reprinted from Chemical & Engineering News: "A weird encounter with a non-screw-on beer-bottle cap was reported recently by physician Karanvir Prakash and colleagues at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, Bronx, N.Y. "The subject, a man aged 36, was `watching a tense baseball game on a hot summer afternoon.' He was opening a bottle of beer with his teeth when the compressed gas inside blew the loosened cap down his throat. Off to the emergency room. The cap had to be removed surgically because its serrations were `firmly embedded' in mucous membrane. The physicians' report of the episode describes the cap carefully as `measuring 2.7 cm in diameter and bearing the words MILLER HIGH LIFE.' The patient came out okay. "The episode `highlights the hazard of opening bottles of carbonated drinks with the teeth,` say Prakash, et al. They suggest that such drinks be marketed only in cans. You could cut your fingers, but that would appear to be preferable to a bottle cap in the throat." Alex Stein alexs at retix.com Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 89 21:07:46 PDT From: CASEY%MIT.MFENET at CCC.NMFECC.GOV Subject: CASEY at MIT.MFENET subject: amateur yeast experiment: I started brewing only four months ago, and am still in the wild experimentation stage. I quickly became confused about different brands of yeast available, and was able to get almost no reliable information, so I tried an experiment. The results are posted below. I just joined this bboard, so I have no idea if this sort of thing is common. I'd love to hear of other experience or comments along the same line. If this is an old subject, just flame to me directly instead of clogging up the board. First: I already realize that I used a pretty bad recipe for the test. It had far too much bittering hops for balance. The idea was to look for differences in yeasts, however, so I tried to look through it. I was also experimenting on yeasts suitable for my conditions (Boston in summertime), where the temperatures are ungodly hot, and mold runs rampant. I also realize the problem with my lack of gravity measurements and exact temperatures, sorry. Don't chew me out for these, but I would be interested to hear if one of the "bad" yeasts might be perfectly good under other circumstances. 7 gallon recipe: 2x 3.3# can M&F light unhopped .75# M&F light unhopped spray .75# crystal (steeped while coming to boil) 1 tsp gypsum 2oz clusters boiling .5 oz cascades finishing Divided evenly into seven 1 gal bottles, different yeast in each bottle. Fermented at about 75-85 F. Results were: 1st: Edme ale - best overall. rounded, slightly sweet. some diacetyl. nice balance. fermented rather slowly (3-4 days). 2nd/3rd: Whitbread ale - lighter, crisp. poorer head. some esters. very fast fermentation. 2nd/3rd: CWE ale - slight yeasty bite. very dry (attenuative). good head. no esters. extremely fast fermentation (frighteningly). ... these three were all quite good, and I have been using them successfully since then. they all rated fairly close together. the remaining four were all quite a bit worse (a very big gap in quality), and I haven't touched them since. none seemed to have spoiled, they just had unforgiveable ester content and/or carbonation qualities. (this could be due to temperature). 4th: M&F ale - heavy yeast bite. flat head. very little ester taste. 5th: Kitzengen lager - (fermented warm) this had the best head and carbonation quality. very dry (attenuative). extremely bad ester content. 6th: Doric ale - yeast bite. very estery. bad head. overall horrible. 7th: Red Star ale - same as Doric, but a little worse. these were the results of two different double blind tests, with only minor variations between the two events. I might try this sort of thing again with a better recipe after it cools down, and include some liquid cultures that I've tried since (with luck); unless somebody else out there has done it for me and can post the results. I have heard that the next issue of Zymurgy will cover yeasts - perhaps all this will be superceeded soon. Jeff Casey CASEY%MIT.MFENET at CCC.NMFECC.GOV Return to table of contents
************************************* ------- Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 89 08:41 EDT From: Mike Fertsch <FERTSCH at adc1.RAY.COM> Subject: Color of Crystal Malts Doug Roberts and I am been discussing crystal malts - >> Is 'rich crystal' just a darker version of 'ordinary crystal'? I've >> noticed a WIDE variation in color in crystal malts. > So far as I can tell, it's just crystal that has been roasted at a > slightly higher temperature. Great Fermentations sells three kinds of > crystal malted barley: light, medium, and extra rich. Also, the > crystal has a number associated with it: 20 for light, 40 for medium, > and 90 for extra rich. I don't know what the number stands for, > however. These numbers are 'Degrees Lovibond', and are a measure of the color a grain will impart to a wort. The higher the number, the darker the grain, and the darker the beer. My current bag of crystal is marked Crystal-55 (55 Degrees L.), and is a bit too dark for my recipes. I use Degrees Lovibond to formulate recipes. You simply multiply the weight of the grain times its Lovibond rating and divide by the number of gallons or wort made. Do this for each grain, adding up the color contribution from each source. The special all-grain issue of Zymurgy (4 years ago?) has a table listing color for different beer styles. I'll post this table if I can rremember to bring the issue in to work. Mike Fertsch Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 89 09:59:58 EDT From: davidc at northstar27.Dartmouth.EDU (David Carter) Subject: Buffalo brewpubs? I'm going to be at the NYSIS (New York State Institute on Superconductivity) conference on 9/19- 9/21, and I am looking for recommendations on brewpubs or local beers in the Buffalo area. Also, if anybody else who reads this letter is going to be there, let me know. Perhaps we can trade a couple of homebrews. I'm e-mailable at: david.carter at dartmouth.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 89 18:40:48 -0500 (CDT) From: "Brian CapouchA.hduSM:8:8" <brianc at zeta.saintjoe.EDU> Subject: Lagering Temperatures I haven't seen anything on this yet in the short time I've been part of this forum--and it's something that for me, as a mostly-lager brewer, is of the utmost importance: How long do you experts leave your lagers to ferment? I tourned Anheuser-Busch last weekend, and they tell me that Budweiser takes about 20 days from mash to departure from the brewery. I have a refrigerator with a timer that controls the temperature, with a little twiddling, at just under 50 degrees. I have found that even after two weeks (using three different yeasts) that I still have to warm the beer up for a few days to finish fermenting, so as to avoid the costly and dangerous situation I had the one time that I *didn't* do so--all five gallons turned into mini-grenades when I bottled them. Even once that problem is solved, how long do the big boys of homebrewing lager for, and what price is paid for leaving the bottled beer at room temperature. Perhaps there has been ample discussion of this previously; I don't have the archives. Brian Capouch Thinking-of-brewing-as-an-adjunct-to-a-country-restaurant Saint Joseph's College brianc at saintjoe.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 89 10:20:17 EDT From: hpda!uunet!f131.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG!John.DeCarlo (John DeCarlo) Subject: Re: Papazian's CJoHB >From: kent at happym.wa.com (Kent Forschmiedt) > >My favorite two books are William Mares' "Making Beer" (I think that's the >whole title) and the well known "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing," by >Charlie Papazian. >... >Papazian's book is closer to a textbook; the anecdotes are short and it >isn't a chronicle. It has lots of recipes, including some unusual beers >and mead. The technical information is broader and more complete, but it >still isn't a reference manual. The book's worst feature is its lack of >an index. For those people who want an index to CJoHB, they can call Fidonet Node 1:109/327, at 301-891-SUDS (7837) and download TCJOHB.NDX. This file was developed and uploaded by Steve Conklin, to give credit where credit is due. John "Yes, the work has already been done" DeCarlo Fidonet: 1:109/131 Arpanet: M14051%mwvm at mitre.arpa Internet: M14051 at mwvm.mitre.org Usenet: John.DeCarlo at f131.n109.z1.fidonet.org (smart) or {...}!uunet!hadron!blkcat!1!109!131!John.DeCarlo -- John DeCarlo - FidoNet 1:109/401 - The Black Cat's Shack Internet: John.DeCarlo at f131.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG UUCP: ...!uunet!hadron!blkcat!131!John.DeCarlo Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #251, 09/12/89 ************************************* -------
[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]
HTML-ized on 06/29/00, by HBD2HTML version 1.2 by K.F.L.
webmaster at hbd.org, KFL, 10/9/96