HOMEBREW Digest #4523 Mon 19 April 2004


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Contents:
  Hop segregation ("Pat Casey")
  Low alcohol brewing... (Chris.Pittock)
  Lager Fermentation Photo (Rob Zamites)
  Mash thickness ("Dave Burley")
  Convoluted CF Chillers (Lonzo McLaughlin)
  Mash Thickness (gornicwm)
  DCL yeast (Scott Birdwell)
  The Return Of Mr Sanders ("Phil Yates")
  Recipe Translation (Bob Hall)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:25:36 +1000 From: "Pat Casey" <pat at bmbrews.com.au> Subject: Hop segregation Approximately when did it become the norm to cultivate only female hop plants and propogate them from cuttings? The anonymous author of The London and Country Brewer (1736), a retired professional brewer, talks about seeds in hops. So, in the British Isles segregation and propogation from cuttings was not probably not standard practice until after 1736. This would of course have an important bearing on using old recipes to recreate historical beers. Pat Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 15:05:00 +1000 From: Chris.Pittock at dpi.vic.gov.au Subject: Low alcohol brewing... Hi All, No, I haven't gone 'soft'! BUT I am trying to help out a guy who has beaten cancer. His quality of life would be higher if he could enjoy beer without high alcohol content. The drugs he's on give his liver/kidneys a good workout, but he enjoys his beer. Problem is alcohol could tip the balance on the health of his organs... SO! I was wondering about minimal pale malt, mashed with darker malts (light crystal or lighter...). I have seen maltodextrin powder available for non-fermentable 'body' addition to kit brews, so some of this may relieve some of the mouthfeel issues with very light beers. Is dextrin malt the unprocessed version? Residual femrentables aren't much good, whether balanced with hops or not... [killing the guy with a glass grenade would be a savage irony] So, I guess I'm looking to produce a bitter with some colour (but not very dark), some mouthfeel and less than 2% v/v ethanol. Or close to it... All ideas gratefully accepted, and summary willingly posted to the forum. (PS. Will be away from the office for a few days, so fast responses from me won't be likely!) Thanks in advance, Chris. (Err... approx 12,000 miles Universal Rennarian... OK so I made that up! It's Australia) Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 00:07:37 -0500 From: Rob Zamites <popeye at zamites.net> Subject: Lager Fermentation Photo PMR stated: Here's a link to a picture I took minutes ago - what is that crud in my beer? Is a lager fermentation supposed to throw a funky head like that? Calm me down, please! PMR http://webpages.charter.net/rede/First%20Lager Well, I got a bunch of gobbledygook from that link, so I can't tell you a thing. Sorry. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Rob Zamites Converse, Texas USA [1194.7, 227.1] Apparent Rennerian * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 08:59:29 -0400 From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net> Subject: Mash thickness Brewsters: SteveA picks on Bill's use of the word viscosity to describe mash thickness. While I don't want to be picky, it is OK to talk about a thick mash being viscous, esp in an agitation sense. It's just not the term commonly used in the brewing industry and can lead to the mistake that the visosity is referring to the viscosity of the wort. Mash thickness deals with the grist to liquor ratio. Mash thickness does affect the rate of enzyme reactions as Steve points out. The thinner the mash the faster are the enzyme reactions, largely due to a reduction of the inhibition of the reaction by the products, esp in the case of the saccharification. BUT the disappearance of the enzymes through a uni-molecular degradation is also faster in the thinner mash and higher temperatures, so it becomes a balacing act for the saccharification, as Steve chooses to focus his attention on these reactions, as well as other enzymes. Of course, there are many other enzymes in the mash which affect beer quality and to just focus on the saccharifiaction enzymes does not give a complete picture. In the case of the proteolytic enzymes, the thicker mashes increase the lifetimes of these enzymes. It is a fact that more concentrated ( thicker) mashes produce more nitrogen in the wort and if it survives the boil ( i.e. does not denature) a better mouthfeel results from thicker mashes. ( Which was I think the point of Bill's comments) Mashes with lower temperature holds also yield more soluble nitrogen with the same result. It is a balancing act of mash thickness and temperature. As M&BS points out on P 220 1st ed. " However, worts from mashes made at 150F ( 65.5C) sometimes have greater fermentability than more concentrated mashes probably because of the extended survival times of the heat-sensitive Beta-amylase." Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 10:07:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Lonzo McLaughlin <lonkelm at yahoo.com> Subject: Convoluted CF Chillers Hello, For those who have purchased the newer convoluted chillers like from St. Pats or Morebeer, how have you connected them to a pump system? They appear to come with 1/2" OD copper tubing for the wort in/out. The 1/2" id tubing I have is too big to make a tight fit. Have people attempted soldering? What a bout compression fittings? Lonzo Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:09:33 -0400 (GMT-04:00) From: gornicwm at earthlink.net Subject: Mash Thickness First, Don't shoot the messenger!!! The Horst Dornbusch book on Helles explains everything. That's where I got the beef for my "baloney". :-) While reading, I found it interesting that certain enzymes react differently to changes in mash thickness. Dornbusch suggests having a thicker mash creates a better environment for protein degradation and a thinner mash is better for sacchrafication. As a homebrewer, I tested this theory...well, to the best that a homebrewer can test a theory...I brewed. If I didn't experience this "Baloney" personally with a beer that I brewed, then I would not have tried to help others with what I found. When I obtained an expedited conversion with no perceptable changes to the desired body or flavor of the beer that I was brewing, while using Dornbusch's technique, I figured it was worth bringing to my club's attention. My experience was loosley based on Dornbusch's explanation. My final product was a clear, medium bodied beer that finished conversion noticably faster than If I would have left the mash thick throughout the entire mash session. If you're still in doubt...TRY IT!!! The result I obtained is as good as gold even if I cannot scientifically explain everything that enzymatically happened. Bill Gornicki CRAFT Homebrew Club Michigan Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:27:37 -0500 From: Scott Birdwell <defalcos at sbcglobal.net> Subject: DCL yeast Regarding the DCL yeast strains: Actually the old Edme strain is sold as Safbrew S-33. The old Whitbread strain is sold as Safale S-04. DCL American Ale #56 is, theoretically, a dried version of Wyeast #1056 (American Ale Yeast)/White Labs WLP#001 (California Ale Yeast). My vendor claims the yeast will be available in 10 - 11 gram packages sometime around September (it was apparently promised sooner rather than that). This will be very interesting to see how it compares. The yeast is currently available in bulk form only. Thought you'd like to know. . . Scott Birdwell DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies Houston TX Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 08:59:12 +1000 From: "Phil Yates" <phil.yates at bigpond.com> Subject: The Return Of Mr Sanders Graham I'm truly pleased to hear you are on the mend. Sounds like you've been through a dreadful ordeal. Just the night before your post, I sat up with Phoebe watching a vampire movie and people were getting stakes driven through them left right and centre. Youch!!, it certainly looked like no fun at all! I hope you will honour your commitment to post to HBD at least once a week. I thought you'd be back sooner or later. Now about this bus driver. I'd be checking his licence out and making sure he wasn't an ex Southern Stater. We have a bounty on QLD heads down here, but the practice is banned in Queensland. Further about this "Bloody Bastard Bus Vienna", what about a little competition to find a better name? I'm thinking "Tropical Vampire Wit-Sunday" This reflects your shocking ordeal in the hospital, whilst maintaining a local flavour. Shame you couldn't keep that SS rod as a souvenir. When you feel better Graham, start firing the shots. It's QLD versus NSW again. Nothing like a warm up before the "State Of Origin" footy starts. Cheers Phil Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 20:24:46 -0400 From: Bob Hall <rallenhall at henry-net.com> Subject: Recipe Translation I'm interested in doing a semi-authentic brew for a historical observance later this year, and would like to try something along the order of George Washington's recipe, which I have seen in a number of sources: To Make a Small Beer by George Washington "Take a large Sifter full of Bran Hops to your taste Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 gallons. Into a Cooler put 3 gallons Molasses while the Beer is scaling hot or rather drain the molasses into the Cooler. Strain the Beer on it while boiling hot let this stand til it is little more than Blood warm. Then put in a quart of Yeast if the weather is very cold cover it with a Blanket - & Let it work in the Cooler 24 hrs. then put it into the Cask leave the Bung open until it is almost done working Bottle it that day Week it was brewed." Now, my Colonial English probably isn't what it should be, and I must have been absent the day that the class converted sifters to other forms of standardized measurements. Thought it might be interesting to see how some of you would convert George's recipe into a typical 5 gallon homebrew batch. Bob Hall Napoleon, OH [51.2, 197.8] Apparent Rennarian "I am Robert A. Hall, and I have approved this message." Return to table of contents
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