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


Contents:
  Liquid Yeasts (Bill Crick)
  Culturing yeast ("Andy Wilcox")
  Too Sweet ("William F. Pemberton")
  Cassis beer (Donald P Perley)
  amylase enzyme powder (John Treacy)


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Date: 	Thu, 5 Apr 90 11:23:53 EDT
From: bnrgate!bnr-rsc!crick at uunet.uu.net (Bill Crick)
Subject: Liquid Yeasts

I recently tried a liquid yeast from Mev. This came in a double pouch
where you break the inner pouch, and it puffs up. It took too long to 
puff up, so I panicced, and threw in a dry yeast, because my beer was
sitting there naked! I then tossed the puffed pouch in the fridge to save it 
for use in another batch the next weekend.

The instructions said that if you stored the activated yeast in a 
fridge for any period, it should be put in a starter before pitching.
I made a started by dissolving a teaspoon of dried extract in 1/2c.
of boiling water. When it cooled below 100F, I put the contents of the 
pouch into the starter (like I would hydrate dried yeast). Nothing 
happened for three days (yet another dried yeast was used).
Does anyone know if the 90-100F water was what killed it, or is the idea of
storing it in the fridge after it starts to puff up is invalid?


Brewius, ergo sum! Bill Crick


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Date: Wed, 11 Apr 90 09:47:18 EDT
From: "Andy Wilcox" <andy at mosquito.cis.ufl.edu>
Subject: Culturing yeast


I'm sure this has been beaten to death over the past
digests... But, I didn't pay much attention to tips
on yeast culturing *until* my local homebrew store
started carrying Wyeast cultures last month!

The first batch made with Wyeast is pretty simple:

l # Crystal Malt
6 # DME
1 oz fresh cascade (boil)
1 oz fresh cascade (finish)

I used Wyeast 1007 (The german ale yeast) for this.
The gases eluding from the airlock have a terrific
aroma!

Anyway, it's ready for a secondary now (been about a
week), and I'm curious as to the right procedure for
keeping this culture alive for a few more batches.

Tips?  Experiences with Wyeast 1007?

 -Andy


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Date:     Wed Apr 11 10:06:38 1990
From: "William F. Pemberton" <wfp5p at euclid.acc.virginia.edu>
Subject:  Too Sweet


Hello,
    I have a general question about the flavor of beer.  I am fairly new
to homebrew (have made about 10 batches).  Everything has gone quite well
for me, but I have one thing I would like to change.  It seems (to me
at least) that most of the brews I have made have been a touch too sweet
for my liking.  Is there a simple recipe change that I can do that will
take care of this?  I have used several different yeasts, including
Whitbread.

Thanks for any help!

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Bill Pemberton               flash at virginia.edu  -OR-  wfp5p at virginia.edu   |
|(804)971-1894               +-----------------------------------------------+
|University of Virginia      |     Itch me, but please don't scratch me.     |
|Charlottesville, Va         |                                               |
+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

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Date: Wed, 11 Apr 90 10:49:26 EDT
From: perley at glacier.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley)
Subject: Cassis beer

>1. Malt - I'm told fruit beers are typically made with a lot of wheat malt.
>I haven't had any experient with wheat.  Is there any extract people would
>suggest?

Ireks has a wheat beer extract (6 pound or so can) that should be good.
Or they have a smaller can of pure wheat extract that you can blend as you
wish with barley malt.

>2. Yeast - what in the world yeast do you replace the wild Belgian yeast with?

Try culturing some from a bottle. 

>3. Black-currants.  What are these, where do you get them?  I have used
>frozen raspberries or blackberries, but I haven't seen these in the
>grocery.

They are generally sold dry, so they would be near the raisins, prunes, etc.
not in the freezer section.

>  The local homebrew store doesn't list any black-currant juice
>for making wine, but they do have cassis (black-currant) flavoring for
>making liquors with.  Any idea what this flavoring would do to beer?

I haven't used any syrups in fruit beers, but it might be ok.

General note on Belgian fruit beers: The fruit is usually added to the
secondary fermentation after the base beer has finished fermenting.
The sugar in the fruit of course starts things going again.

 -don perley

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Date: Wed, 11 Apr 90 21:21:30 PDT
From: treacy at Sun.COM (John Treacy)
Subject: amylase enzyme powder


Has anyone had any experience with a powdered product
labled "Amylase Enzyme" ?  I've always managed to get my amylase
in the old fashioned way, I carry it in on my malt. But recently
I had what appeared to be a hopelessly stuck fermentation. I had
tried everything I knew of to get the yeasties back to work and
still I had heavy sweet beer. I was ready to drain the mess when
my local supplier suggested that perhaps the sugar in the carboy
was not the yeast's favorite brand. So we decided to try some
amylase powder to break down the sugars and sure enough the yeast
woke up and are feeding madly ... like nothing I've ever seen !
Which brings me to my question(s) ... Has anyone here ever used this
stuff ?  What can I expect from this brew ?
Is there such a thing as too much sugar breakdown ? 

John

PS. The product is from a company called "Crosby & Baker" in 
Westport MA.

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #397, 04/12/90
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