HOMEBREW Digest #4108 Mon 02 December 2002


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  turkey fryer ("chad. . . .")
  Acid fluff (EdgeAle)
  Oh Turducken! ("Michael O'Donnell")
  Turkey Fryers and Brewery Planning (Bob Hall)
  YCKCo (Randy Ricchi)
  cleaning aeration stones (Randy Ricchi)
  Glucose Syrup? ("Jodie Davis")
  I Can't Believe What I Did (Kevin Elsken)
  Frying Turkey (jodysdad)
  Fried Turkey Safety ("Tom Clark")
  gas on secondary (Marc Tiar)
  Australian Cream Ale (Darrell.Leavitt)
  Using banana juice (=?iso-8859-1?q?greg?=)
  RE: Yeast slant recipes ("Doug Hurst")
  bottle conditioned commercial beer (Teresa Knezek)
  AHA Club-Only Competition ("Mark Tumarkin")
  re: iodophor and plastic/rubber - What happens? ("C.D. Pritchard")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 21:07:12 -0800 (PST) From: "chad. . . ." <eclectic_solitaire at yahoo.com> Subject: turkey fryer Why cook a turkey in the oven anyway? Down here in louisiana we either smoke them or fry them. As far back as memory serves we've fried turkeys. Of course I never purchased a turkey fryer. I have a fish cooker/gumbo pot that works just fine. (same thing) The turkey/duck/chicken is known as a Turducken and while expensive, are positively delicious. butterfly-debone a chicken and a duck. season to taste. stuff the chicken into the duck then stuff the duck into a turkey. Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 00:57:58 EST From: EdgeAle at cs.com Subject: Acid fluff HBD, I mixed up some acid a few months ago (concetrated lactic acid and reverse-osmosis water) to get a pH=2 solution to use for adjusting the pH of my mash water which I stored in a glass bottle. Now there are some large strange balls of white fluff at the bottom of the bottle. Does anyone know what they are? Is the solution safe to use? Thanks, Dana Edgell - ------------------------------------------ Dana Edgell Edge Ale Brewery, Oceanside CA http://ourworld.cs.com/EdgeAle Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 00:52:16 -0800 From: "Michael O'Donnell" <mooseo at stanford.edu> Subject: Oh Turducken! Ah, but it is real! Just do a search on "turducken"... http://ismybrain.com/~jsalmon/turducken.html But the funny thing is that it doesn't "originate" in Cajun country. Apparently, one of the oldest recipes written in English (well, I guess I've heard that one of them is for beer, just to get this back to the purpose of HBD, but another one) is for "A large fowl into the cavity of which is stuffed another fowl..." and so on down to a partridge or sparrow or something. Those middle-ages Britons knew how to make an artery-clogging feast! cheers, mike At 12:32 AM 11/30/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Now, I got a response to my post from a HBD lurker in Singapore. His buddies >told him about putting a chicken inside the turkey. And even going further, >they told him about stuffing the turkey with a duck that was in turn stuffed >with a small chicken. Now, apparently these guys are from New Orleans & I >believe the whole turkey frying thing started with the Louisiana Cajuns, but >I'm pretty sure these birds aint gonna fly. Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 06:19:25 -0500 From: Bob Hall <rallenhall at toast.net> Subject: Turkey Fryers and Brewery Planning Hello All, Deep fried turkeys are great, though I don't own a fryer myself (Phil, I actually prefer them natural with no injections ... add the cranberries later). Just a note to be extremely cautious. I've had friends burned; slowly lowering a turkey into the pot of boiling oil is a tricky venture. J.B. Walleye's Brewpub on Middle Bass Island (Lake Erie, Ohio) burned to the ground this fall when employees dropped a turkey into a fryer on the back deck. The oil overflowed, caught fire, and the whole place went up in flames. I had a ringside seat from atop Perry's Monument on South Bass Island where I was a ranger. On a "constructive" note, one of my brewing buddies just broke ground for a new home .... large house with full basement. We've been kicking around some ideas, and my question to the collective ... if you could start a new basement brewery from scratch, what would you plan? Any tips on equipment, arrangement, plumbing, etc. would be appreciated and fun to play with (at least until the compromises begin). BTW, he's currently a 5 gal partial mash brewer on his way to all-grain. Thanks, Bob Hall, Napoleon, OH [73.7, 126.8] Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 06:26:41 -0500 From: Randy Ricchi <rricchi at houghton.k12.mi.us> Subject: YCKCo Dave Reynolds mentioned he had some strains of yeast from Yeast Culture Kit Company, but didn't know what they were. My records show A61 is Royal Oak, A78 is DeDolle . I recently placed an order with YCKCo, and found out Dan McConnell was closing down operations that week. This was a real blow to me, since his product quality and selection was outstanding. Of all the strains he had that I have tried, the one I will really miss is the Brugge wit yeast, A41. Does anyone know if any of the other yeast suppliers have the Brugge strain? It makes an outstanding Tripel. Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 06:54:09 -0500 From: Randy Ricchi <rricchi at houghton.k12.mi.us> Subject: cleaning aeration stones After all this talk of cleaning aeration stones, I decided it was time to do a little maintenance on mine. I've used my aeration stone for probably 100 batches, and my cleaning/sanitation regimen has been to thoroughly flush with water after use, air dry storage, and then just before using I would drop the stone and tubing in boiling water, cover, remove from heat and let stand for at least 10 minutes. I figured by not boiling, but steeping in near-boiling temp water, I would reduce the risk of mineral deposits clogging the stone. It seems to have been a good method, since it was only recently that I noticed while rinsing the stone that the water no longer seeped out on it's own, but had to be blown out of the stone. Looking at the inside of the hose barb I could see a white film, which was hard enough that it couldn't be scratched with a metal probe. Further, for quite some time I have been aware of a rust-colored area on a small section of the stone. It wasn't rusty in the usual rough, crusty way I think of rust, but just a glossy, rust or copper coloring on the surface of the stone. Anyway, I decided on a two-pronged attack on the stone; clean for organic deposits, then for mineral deposits. First, I pulled the stone apart (the barbed fitting easily pulls out from the hollow, cylindrical stone). I then made a strong solution of bleach and hot water. I soaked the parts in this solution for 15 to 20 minutes, then flushed them out thoroughly with water. I let them air dry overnight. The next day I noticed that the white film on the inside of the hose-barb was still there, as was the rusty spot. Water would not seep through the stone strictly by gravity, either. I don't think the bleach solution did anything to improve the stone cleanliness, so I figure I didn't have a problem with organic build up in or on the stone. I then poured a little Lime-away in a glass and dropped the stone in. I let this sit overnight, probably around 12 hours. I then took the parts out, flushed vigorously, and voila! The rust was gone, the white film was gone, and water seeped through the stone by gravity alone, without having to be forced through. The stainless is as bright as I have ever seen it. Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 08:50:57 -0500 From: "Jodie Davis" <jodie at ga.prestige.net> Subject: Glucose Syrup? I'm making Spitfire Premium Ale from "Clone Brews" shortly. For priming the recipe calls for wheat DME and glucose syrup. Found something (no help in the book) that leads me to believe this is corn syrup. Is this correct? Thanks in advance, Jodie Davis off to do her first full boil ;) Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 09:14:28 -0500 From: Kevin Elsken <k.elsken at worldnet.att.net> Subject: I Can't Believe What I Did Was transferring 8 gallons of a Dubbel to the secondary ( a 5 gallon and a 3 gallon corny keg). Put some iodophor (12.5 ppm concentration) in each keg, and swirled it around for a few minutes. Opened the 3 gallon keg, drained it, filled with beer. Grabbed 5 gallon keg, filled it with beer (notice something missing here?). After finishing, I was draining my iodophor back into its storage jug and thought to myself, "Self, you sure used alot of iodophor!". Aaaaaaargh. I did not drain the sanitizer from the 5 gallon keg . So I figured I have no more than 16 oz. of 12.5 ppm sanitizer in a 5 gallon keg. That is about 2.5% of sanitizer by volume, or about 0.3 ppm iodine in the beer. Anyone else ever pull this particular bonehead stunt? Any chance the beer will be drinkable at some point? I sampled both kegs and the contaminated sample did taste funny, but of course the beer is still young. I am planning to leave these beers in the secondary for 4 weeks, at least, so I do have time on my side. One option I suppose, is diluting the 5 gallons with the 3 gallons that is not contaminated, but I would rather have three good gallons that eight so-so gallons. On the plus side this is a Belgian beer, so no matter what it tastes like, I can probably find an example to match! Regards, Kevin Elsken Little Boy Brewery North Strabane, PA [A few hours South and East of Jeff] Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 09:50:42 -0500 (EST) From: jodysdad at starchefs.com Subject: Frying Turkey First let me say that I am a former chef and know a thing or two about food. This Thursday I had the honor of sampling a fried turkey for the first time. It was indeed, all it was advertised to be. I believe that deep frying has gotten quite a bad rap from the media, who has ironically featured fried turkey in every possible way this past week! This is (as usaual) simply a misunderstanding of what deep frying is and a lack of knowledge of how to do it properly. Cooking, in any form, is simply the transfer of energy (thermal) to the food product in order to alter its properties, rendering it more appealing, flavorful, digestable, and free of food-borne pathogens. Oil, is simply a medium through which that energy is transferred. Other mediums of course, are water, (both liquid and steam) and air (roasting, baking, grilling, etc.) Bad deep-frying is bad only when done incorrectly. The trick being to maintain the correct temperature. Since the properties of oil allow it be heated up quickly, it also allows it cool off quickly. The problems occur when there isn't sufficient heat energy to keep the oil at a high enough temperature to sear the surface of what is being fried. When the burner is not powerful enough, the temperature of the oil drops dramatically when a room temperature or even colder product is added to the oil. Since this does not sear the surface of the product, the oil just soaks into the product and leaves you with soggy, greasy, and artery-clogging food. When done properly, the oil does its job of transfering the heat and is simply drained off after the food is done. Sort of like lager yeast, it does its job and then moves on. So in essence, frying a turkey serves the same function as roasting, only there is no place for the moisture in the meat to escape, therefore it is trapped within the meat, thus producing a juicier product. I would say however, that frying a turkey is not "better" than traditional roasting! They are merely two different methods producing two different results. Each requiring certain skills and techniques to ensure a palatable result. My "chef's opinion" is that it is "easier" to acheive a juicy bird when frying but that it is still quite possible with proper roasting technique (which is actually much more difficult than the everyday cook realizes!) In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that roasting birds is one of the most difficult and challenging cooking techniques to do properly! Bon appetit. Michael Bock Columbus, Ohio No apparent rennarian, (With all due respect to Jeff, I refuse to believe that Ann Arbor is the center of anything!) Go Bucks! Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 11:22:31 -0500 From: "Tom Clark" <rtclark at citynet.net> Subject: Fried Turkey Safety I have fried several turkeys. People tell me it is the very best they have ever eaten. It is very moist and tasty, yet not the least bit oily. The first knowledge I had of this technique was with the late Justin Wilson, the most famous Cajun chef in the country at the time. This was long before Walmart began selling the equipment. I bought mine at Lowe's. Currently, Sam's Club seems to have the best price on an all stainless unit. There are definitely risks involved. so, to safely proceed you must assume that there is a real danger of fire. Therefor, never cook close to a building, let alone inside. Wear enough clothing to protect yourself from splatters because it will splatter when you first lower the bird into the pot. Long pants, long sleeves, an apron, shoes and socks and insulated mitts are the minimum. When immersing the raw bird in water to determine the amount of oil needed, put the bird in a plastic bag first. This will keep you from getting so much extra water inside the carcass. NEVER put a FROZEN bird into hot oil, it may literally explode. Place the cooker on a level, solid surface. Keep pets and children well away from the area where you are cooking. The oil will stay hot for a long time after you are finished cooking. I cook at 325 - 335 degrees F. For those of you down under, this is 162 - 168 C. Peanut oil works best because it will withstand high temperatures better than most other vegetable oils. Don't get into the beer too much until after you finish cooking. You certainly cannot afford to be the least bit tipsy. Turn the fire off while lowering the bird into the oil. This way, if you do have a spill, you are less likely to have a fire. Lower the bird into the hot oil very slowly to allow the steam to escape and the oil to settle down a bit before proceeding further. The hot oil will gusher up through the center of the carcass due to any moisture that is present being instantly turned into steam. It will settle down in a few minutes. Do not put the lid tightly on the pot while cooking. I leave my thermometer attached to the rim of the pot and it holds the lid up a bit. This reduces splattering of hot oil. 3 to 3.5 minutes per pound. Larger birds require lower temperatures and longer cooking times. Internal temperature of the meat should be 180 - 190 Degrees F. Put down plenty of newspapers before you remove the bird from the oil. It will drip. Allow it to cool for about 20 minutes before carving to keep the moisture inside the meat. Proceed with caution and you will be enjoying the best turkey you ever tasted. Regards Tom Clark Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 10:26:27 -0800 From: Marc Tiar <marc at tiar.reno.nv.us> Subject: gas on secondary Greetings to all, Although I've kegged once or twice before, I've bottled most everything, but now I'm slowly migrating to the status of bottle-free brewer. Need some advice on the following. I've got a (hopefully) tasty spiced holiday ale in secondary in a cornie keg currently, to be dispensed at a christmas party next month. Brewed exactly 2 weeks ago. It's oddly been a very slow gradual fermentation, didn't really take off for a couple days, nothing too violent, then bubbled steadily for a week. Some combination of factors such as low temps and a small starter probably contributed to that. But I digress... I don't really like the quick-carbonating method of higher pressure and rocking the keg for a couple hours on the day it's to be drunk. I also don't really want to transfer it to another keg, exposing it to air again and reducing my volume a little more (can't get every last drop!), but I do know that I'm going to have some amount of sediment. Although a lot was left behind in primary, I did see a lot going through the siphon into secondary. So, this situation is calling for CO2 being applied pretty soon to give it time to carbonate before the party. But it's still fermenting. Is this a problem? Obviously the airlock comes off and poppet goes into place. If I turn the CO2 up to 10-12lbs, should I have concerns about how much more pressure the continuing fermentation will create? How will my regulator handle this? What's the effect on the process? Do yeast perform well under pressure or will it cause bad effects? Oh yeah, I'm a bad lazy brewer and haven't taken any hydrometer readings from this batch. :-( Thanks to all for tips, both in the past and present. Keep the knowledge flowing. Marc Tiar Reno NV [1874.4, 276.4] Apparent Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 14:40:32 -0500 From: Darrell.Leavitt at esc.edu Subject: Australian Cream Ale I have been experimenting with Flaked Corn, and have just made an "Australian Cream Ale". It generally follows the CAP that Jeff has revived, but with the WhiteLabs Australian Ale yeast. I just tasted it and it is quite good, for a lighter ale. If anyone wants the recipe I will send... ..Darrell Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 23:50:34 +0000 (GMT) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?greg?= <invalid76 at yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Using banana juice Has anyone ever used banana juice? it's for a mead, so you can quit thinking i'm crazy. i was just wondering how fermentable it is. using 1 gallon of banana juice, 8 ibs of honey, 1 ib of DME, we got a reading of 1.074 does that look about right? Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 20:44:40 -0600 From: "Doug Hurst" <DougH at theshowdept.com> Subject: RE: Yeast slant recipes Wally writes: "then they [yeast slants] accumulate a fair amount of liquid in the bottom of the vial (I store them upright)." I think you're getting an inordinate amount of condensation. Some condensation will always occur, but it can be minimized. Try making your agar solution in a container other than the slant tube. Autoclave it, then let it cool to around 50 C (120 F) before pouring into your sterile slant tubes. Agar solidifies around 45 C (114 F). You don't want to imerse a thermometer into the solution. Test the temperature by comparing it to hot tap water. This procedure should help reduce the amount of condensation. Hope this helps, Doug Hurst Chicago, IL "Aye, now that's a wee drop of the creature." Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 23:41:36 -0900 From: Teresa Knezek <teresa at mivox.com> Subject: bottle conditioned commercial beer An interesting development I noted at the liquor store the other day... Deschutes Brewing Co. (makers of Black Butte Porter among other excellent northwest microbrews) is bottle conditioning their beer now! I don't remember ever seeing that when I drank Deschutes beers regularly, but when I looked at the packaging the other day, it had a little note on the 6pck about how "traditional bottle conditioning" left a fine layer of yeast in the bottles. I even picked up a bottle and peered closely at it's bottom, to make sure. ;-) - -- ::Teresa : Two Rivers, Alaska:: [2849, 325] Apparent Rennerian "It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." -- Abraham Lincoln Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002 08:46:38 -0500 From: "Mark Tumarkin" <mark_t at ix.netcom.com> Subject: AHA Club-Only Competition Hey y'all, We made it through Turkey Day and the next huge world-class event on the calendar is the AHA Club-Only Competition. Well, maybe not everyone's calendar....cause the judging is less than two weeks away, the entry deadline is coming up quickly; but so far the entries are just trickling in. I know everyone procrastinates till the last minute, but hey it is the last minute. So, hopefully you've already chosen whose Fruit or Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer is going to represent your club. It's time to package up your entry & ship it off. Here's the critical info - our website is http://hbd.org/hogtown/ and you can register online at http://www.hordsoffun.com/hbc/regwiz.asp?w=0A0B091F1C Please register online and ship off your entry asap. thanks, Mark Tumarkin Hogtown Brewers Gainesville, FL AHA Fruits & Veggies Club-Only Competition When: Dec 14 2002 - Gainesville, FL Who: Open to all AHA Registered Clubs, 1 entry per club. Styles: Categories 21 Fruit Beer and 22 Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer. Sponsoring Club: Hogtown Brewers of Gainesville, FL. Entry Deadline: 12/09/02. Fees: $5.00. Judging: 12/14/02. Ship Entries to: Wayne Smith 5327 CR 346 E. Micanopy, FL 32667 Contact: Dave Perez Phone: 352-316-6796 Email: perez at gator.net *** Please remember that both categories require that you specify the underlying style as well as the Fruit, Spice, Vegetable, or Herb used.*** For more information about AHA Club only competitions, please visit the AHA website http://www.beertown.org/AHA/Clubs/clubcomp.htm Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 01 Dec 2002 06:56:42 From: "C.D. Pritchard" <cdp at chattanooga.net> Subject: re: iodophor and plastic/rubber - What happens? Stephen T Yavorski posted quite awhile back: I recently have had two carboys stored (for approximately two months) completely full of iodophor solution and capped with rubber stoppers. The solution was in contact with the rubber. When I went to use the carboys, the bottom of the rubber stopper was coated with a black crusty substance. It looked like mold, but was hard, crusty, and appeared to be fused with the rubber stopper. I don't know what the process is that causes the stopper to corrode, but putting the stopper in a sandwich bag before stuffing it in the carboy eliminates the corrosion. c.d. pritchard cdp at chattanooga.net http://chattanooga.net/~cdp/ Return to table of contents
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