HOMEBREW Digest #453 Wed 04 July 1990

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


Contents:
  Re: A possible cheap brew kettle? (Tom Longstaff)
  RE: spruce essence (mage!lou)
  Samuel Smith Ales (Marc San Soucie)
  Primary fermenter (Todd Koumrian)
  Brewing Equipment (Greg Beary)
  Spruce Beer (Norm Hardy)
  Gelatin Finings & Edme (Martin A. Lodahl)
  Wort Chillers and Fusel Alcohol (Mike Charlton)
  Spruce Essence (Mike Zentner)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 00:34:53 PDT From: longstaf at serval.llnl.gov (Tom Longstaff) Subject: Re: A possible cheap brew kettle? BTW, as a side note on the "keg as a boiler" discussion, a couple of us just went to the local Liquor Barn and simply paid the deposit for an empty keg. Had a sort of hard time trying to convince them that we were serious though... For a $15 deposit we got out keg, and didn't even have to drink 'ol Bud. Now does anyone know where we can get an old water heater? My first batch is almost ready for bottling... Very much like 'ol peculiar as it's a heavy ginger and molasses porter (Tumultuous Porter)... I love this hobby already! Tom Longstaff "Relaxing for the first time since my Dissertation!" Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 08:57:25 MDT From: hplabs!mage!lou Subject: RE: spruce essence In HBD #451 Gary Benson asks about spruce essence in beer. I made a spruce beer about a year ago using the same spruce essence. The following recipe for 6.5 gallons is based (loosely) on `Kumdis Island Spruce Beer' (TCJoHB, p.183): boil 1 hour: 6.6 lb. Munton & Fison dark extract 3 lb. dry dark extract 3 oz. Cascade hops (4.3% alpha) 3 tsp. gypsum add for the last 10 min.: 1 oz. Cascade hops 0.5 tsp. flaked Irish Moss add for the last 2 min.: 0.5 oz. spruce essence pitched Leigh & Williams Beer & Stout yeast at 72F O.G. 1.040 F.G. 1.018 My only tasting notes on this say that at 2.5 months after bottling it was "fair". This tells me that I was remarkably unimpressed with this beer. My recollection of it is that it was drinkable but unexciting. Perhaps the dark extract overwhelmed the spruce and more spruce essence should have been used. Where the bottle says "Sufficient for eight galons of spruce beer they may mean for a somewhat lighter beer. Louis Clark Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 09:32:48 PDT From: marcs at SLC.COM (Marc San Soucie) Subject: Samuel Smith Ales RussG writes: > Gary wanted to know about Oatmeal Stout, specifically Samuel Smith. I've > been fortunate enough to live near a store that is selling cases of all > types of Sam Smith ales for ~$18.00 US. I've seen them elsewhere for $12.00 > a SIX-PACK! So needless to say, I've had *alot* of SS ales lately, and yes > the oatmeal stout is tremendous; lightly sweet and VERY smooth. It is > exceeded only by the amazing Nut Brown Ale, IMHO of course. A few years back I was fortunate enough to be travelling in England with the now-wife and a beer-loving friend (aw heck, I dragged them both along, but where beer's concerned, who cares?), and I insisted, to their not particularly great dismay, on driving through Yorkshire for what was for me Yet Another Visit to the Samuel Smith brewery in Tadcaster, which among other things boasts still-working brewery equipment from the back in the days of Mozart, and a tour of the premises which lasts over two hours. Yeah, that's a recommendation. But this time, we missed out on the tour, so we were forced to eat a gut-stuffing roast beef dinner at the Angel & White Horse next door, quaffing Sammys left and right, washing the beef down with hot fudge cake and strong stout. How could life be better? Well, strolling to the shop next door, we found lovely English pint bottles of Samuel Smith beers, several of them styles not sold in the U.S., in bottles as clear and carved and elegant as the smaller 12-ounce jobs we get over here, but holding the full English pint. The beers I had space to bring home included their Old Brewery Bitter, a Strong Brown Ale which may as well have been the Nut Brown, and my favorite, the Nourishing Strong Stout, whose label will forever adorn my lagering fridge. Needless to say, these gorgeous bottles are the prize of the collection, and are always kept full of proper homebrewed English-style ales. A stiff Dogbolter is due next, I believe. Still fermenting... Marc San Soucie Portland, Oregon marcs at servio.slc.com Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 1990 10:04:32 PDT From: todd at NISC.SRI.COM (Todd Koumrian) Subject: Primary fermenter I'm getting ready to gear up, and am considering just going ahead and setting up for 2 stage fermentation. I am unclear from what I've read whether it is desireable to use a food-grade plastic pail or regular glass carboy for my primary fermenter (secondary will be a glass carboy for sure). The glass fermenter would be more durable, but is there some reason why I've sort of been led to believe I might want to use a covered food-grade plastic pail with a fermentation lock on it for the primary? Thanks in advance to anyone who responds! Todd Koumrian todd at nisc.sri.com Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 16:35:39 MDT From: Greg Beary <gbeary at uswat.uswest.com> Subject: Brewing Equipment I'm interested in the thread of late on using Stainless Kegs as brew-pots. I was going to use the ones I had to cask my beer (I still haven't made any,,,, I want to get the gear setup first) but was fortunate to come into foour Cornellius Kegs. I now need to get the correct taps for these barrels (Coca-colaa type connectors with "pins"). My question involves using the Stainless Kegs for brew-pots/primary fermenters. As I understand it, sanitation and contamination are the big issues in homebrewing. Why shouldn't I cut the top of the keg (7.5 gallons) so that I can use a LARGE stopper in the hole (assuming I can get one sized very large). Then when I brewed beer, I boil it in the barrel, blow some CO2 into the keg to displace air, stuff in my stopper with an airlock, cool to desired tempartature, add yeast quickly, restopper, and let ferment. It would seem that I'd have the advantage of a real clean fermenter, not much air exposure and one less vessel to clean. Am I nuts. I was also thinking that you could use some stainless piping for a wort cooler. You'd add the piping during the boil, have both ends of the piping come through the large stopper, and then circulate water through the piping to cool the wort. Again, trying to keep air exposure to a minimum. One last question, any tips for using used Soda kegs for homebrew. I emptied the syrup and hosed them down with hot water at the local do-it-yourself car wash. I then, or rather my wife since she could get her arm into the barrel, scrubed the barrels and filled them with a bleach and water solution. I have th them sitting in my garage with the bleach/water sitting in them. Should I get new rubber seals for the barrels? Are there any problems I should be aware of? I didn't remove the connections on top, or the long pipe inside. Does this need to be done to clean the barrels or am I ok as is? Thanks, Greg Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 90 21:21:22 PDT From: hplabs!polstra!norm (Norm Hardy) Subject: Spruce Beer Gary Benson enquired about using essence of spruce in a beer. I believe that Charlie Papazian discusses it in his bible "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing." You probably will have to explore the effects of spruce on your own as very few brewers have ever tried the stuff. Speaking of the Cellar in Seattle, I would encourage you to keep after them as they are usually quite knowledgable about homebrewing. Bruce seems the best of the three, but Joe and Ron are always helpful to me. They probably have not had much exposure to spruce essence. Norm Hardy, Seattle Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 8:43:17 PDT From: Martin A. Lodahl <hplabs!pbmoss!mal> Subject: Gelatin Finings & Edme In HOMEBREW Digest #452, Ken Weiss observed: "I opened the first of my Ginger Pale Ale last night ... " "This was the first time I added gelatin finings to the beer at bottling "time, and I have a few questions for anyone experienced in such matters. "I was impressed by the clarity of the beer. However, I got really "large amounts of sediment, like 1/8 - 1/4 inch instead of the thin layer "I usually see. Is this normal? [...] " " ... Finally, for the first "time I saw what appeared to be yeast adhering to the sides of the bottles. "Could this be a function of the gelatin, or more likely the yeast "(Edme Ale yeast, dry)? I usually add the finings somewhat earlier, and have only once tried it at bottling time. It was not a notable success, in that I ended up with clumps of gelatin that I couldn't seem to avoid pouring into the glass. If that's my choice, I'll take the yeast. When I fine about 5 days before bottling, the gelatin and (most of) the yeast sediment out, and when I rack to the lauter tun before bottling I leave them both behind. That's probably why I've never seen as much sediment as you report: the surplus yeast never reached the bottle. And the adhering Edme yeast puzzles me: one of its virtues seems to be its readiness to sediment out, leaving the beer clear & attractive. My most recent batch, in contrast, is still cloudy 4 weeks after bottling (Wyeast 1007). " ... it's technically maybe my best brew yet ... Wow! That's saying a lot! The smoke beer, especially, was right tasty! = Martin A. Lodahl Pac*Bell Minicomputer Operations Support Staff = = pacbell!pbmoss!mal -or- mal at pbmoss.Pacbell.COM 916.972.4821 = = If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, = = Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me! 8-) = Return to table of contents
Date: 3 Jul 90 19:55 -0500 From: Mike Charlton <umcharl3 at ccu.umanitoba.ca> Subject: Wort Chillers and Fusel Alcohol Hi there. My brewing partner and I have just finished brewing a batch of pale ale. Partly because we have had alot of trouble with fusel alcohol, we used a wort chiller this time. According to Miller, one of the nice things about a wort chiller is that it lets you more easily separate the trub from the wort. This should let you cut down on the amount of fusel alcohol produced. He suggests in his book to let the wort sit overnight and then rack off the trub before you pitch the yeast. He maintains that since the wort is below 80 degrees F, contamination is not a real problem. We decided to pitch the yeast immediately (more for time reasons than for worrying) so we were not able to rack off the trub. I have two questions (finally). Despite the fact that we were unable to rack off the trub, will using a wort chiller result in lower production of fusel alcohol? Secondly, we used WYeast American Ale yeast for the first time (as opposed to the Doric and Red Star that we were forced to use before). Will the use of this better yeast culture reduce the amount of fusel alcohol. Note that I'm NOT worrying; I'm sure our beer will be quite good. I'm just curious to see if anyone else has looked into this problem and has some insight. Thanks, Mike Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 09:23:37 -0500 From: hpfcla!hplabs!gatech!ee.ecn.purdue.edu!zentner (Mike Zentner) Subject: Spruce Essence I used spruce essence somewhere in the middle of the boil. Here's why I'd be hesitant to add it at the end: The bottle I had smelled strongly of alcohol. When I poured it in the boil, there was a very strong (not good) smell, which smelled just like when you dump brandy in stew, or whatever. I assume it was alcohol. Anyway, I figured that I wouldn't want to add alcohol to my beer before brewing it, so I just let it boil. It probably would have boiled off as the wort cooled at the end of the boil as well, but I was following Papazians recipe for Tumultuous Porter, so I boiled it. Anyway, I hope I didn't boil away too much of the essence. Next time, I think I'll try to track down some spruce trimmings and do it naturally for comparison. Tasted great at bottling about 2 weeks ago. Can't wait to taste it this weekend. Mike Zentner PS. Does anybody else out there like the taste (or ever had) Xingu Black Beer from Brazil? Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #453, 07/04/90 ************************************* -------
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