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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  IR Thermometers (No-Contact) ("National Midnight Star Brewery")
  Berliner Weisse, finished! (Chad Hogan)
  Adding gelatin to the keg (Doug Moyer)
  Re: PU, weve been robbed (Braam Greyling)
  Dry Hopping & Berry adding ("Gary Smith")
  I've been robbed ("Jim Bermingham")
  lagering ("Shawn E Lupold, Ph.D")
  recipator is back! (Jeff Renner)
  RE: REcipator's back and other stuff... (Pat Babcock)


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Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 22:14:53 -0400
From: "National Midnight Star Brewery" <nmstarbrewery at charter.net>
Subject: IR Thermometers (No-Contact)

I have been researching IR thermometers for measuring the Mash Temperature
and the post wort chiller temperature (and as a neat toy!).  The concept is
that you point it what you want to measure and it gives you the digital
result without contaminating anything.  A fairly cheap model can be seen at
http://www.extech.com/instrument/products/alpha/IR201.html.  Anyone have any
experience using these IR thermometers to measure the mash temp (of course
you will need to mix well prior and it is only a surface measurement) or
liquid temps?  Any experience to share will help and if you know a better
model/price, even better.

Thanks in Advance!

William Menzl
Midland, Michigan  [99.8, 344.8] Apparent Rennerian
National Midnight Star Brewery
nmstarbrewery at charter.net



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Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 21:05:21 -0600
From: Chad Hogan <chad.hogan at gmail.com>
Subject: Berliner Weisse, finished!

Hi everyone,

A few weeks back I posted about my experiments with Berliner Weisse. I
have just started drinking this, and I'm extremely happy with the
results.

Briefly: 50/50 pale/wheat grain bill, just shy of 2kg each. 25 minute
protein rest, decoction to 155F with an ounce hallertauer simmered for
15 minutes in the decoction, 60 minutes saccharification, 165F
mashout, 23 litres collected and left to cool. ~1.032 OG. No boil,
with some raw grain added twice a day for four days for infection. A
wild ferment and krausen appeared for about three days. On the fourth
day I pasteurized, chilled, and pitched a dry ale yeast, with a
gravity of high twenties. It finished at ~1.006 or so. I primed fairly
heavily and bottled almost three weeks ago.

It pours a very cloudy pale straw yellow with a big white foamy head
that shrinks but doesn't go away entirely. Carbonation is quite high.
On the nose it's sour and somewhat grainy. The initial flavour is
quite tart and sour, very refreshing. In the aftertaste there is a
moderate wheaty grainy taste and a nice light but chewy finish. No
real bitterness at all. It feels quite light and effervescent to
drink. No DMS or sulphur detectable.

I don't know the pH of the beer, but for me it is about as sour as
lemonade (not from a mix, but real homemade lemonade). From what I'm
told, that's not quite as sour as the real thing. I've never had a
"real" BW so I have nothing to compare this to. I imagine I could have
just left the wild stage for a longer time, especially if I had an
accurate measurement of pH.

I highly recommend this beer to anyone. There is some level of risk of
bad infection from bacteria of ill repute, but I'll be doing this
again without a doubt. Raj A. suggested a citrusy dry hop, and I think
it would go beautifully with this beer.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions and advice.


 ...here's to hoping I get a HBD delivery tonight! 

Chad Hogan
Calgary, AB, Canada


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Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 20:57:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Moyer <shyzaboy at yahoo.com>
Subject: Adding gelatin to the keg

Brewers,

Do any of you add gelatin while kegging? If so, what
concerns or additional steps do I need to be aware of?

Brew on!
Doug Moyer

Star City Brewers Guild
Roanoke, VA
http://www.starcitybrewers.org




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Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 08:47:57 +0200
From: Braam Greyling <braam.greyling at azoteq.com>
Subject: Re: PU, weve been robbed

I was really worried that they would do this. 
I wrote a letter to the Pilsner Urquell 
brewery when they were bought by SAB. 
They gave me the assurance that they will not 
change the beer. 
This is really a great dissapointment. 
I guess money talks....


> Ant wrote:
> 
> Tonight our BJCP study group tasted two Pilsner Urquell's. 
> The first had a sell by date of 2001 and the second 2004.
> 
> The 2004 beer was sweet compared with the 2001 version, 
> and had far less hop character. Bitterness and 
> maltiness were about the same, but the 2001 beer
> was far more complex.

> SAB claim to have merely standardised the process, 
> but based on our experience tonight, I am sure that 
> they have changed the hopping schedule,
> and that we are poorer for it.

- -- 



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Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 07:18:11 -0500
From: "Gary Smith" <mandolinist at ameritech.net>
Subject: Dry Hopping & Berry adding

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I've just added dry hops to two 
secondaries and it'll be interesting to see how well this comes out. As with 
many other things in our hobby there seems to be different ways to 
successfully do the same thing. 

I'll post my success or non-success as the beer ages.

Cheers all,

Gary


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Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 08:18:08 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
From: "Jim Bermingham" <bermingham at antennaproducts.com>
Subject: I've been robbed

 Ant Hayes is complaining about being robbed by SAB because they changed
their hop schedule for Pilsner Urquell.  I want to report that I too have
been robbed.  Dave Burley was telling me what to do to fix my walk in cooler
in Sunday's digest.  I just about had the thing fine tuned to where it would
hold a 48 degree temperature.  I got home last night and found it was gone! 
It had disappeared as fast as it had appeared.  Today I find out that it
must have been Steve Jones that took it.  It was nice while I had it.
Steve you had better keep looking over your shoulder.   Me and a few of the
Boys from Bubba's back room might just be planning a trip to Johnson City
one day soon.

Best, 

Jim Bermingham
Millsap, TX


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Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 10:06:46 -0400
From: "Shawn E Lupold, Ph.D" <lupolds at jhmi.edu>
Subject: lagering

Fellow brewers,

I think I'm finally ready to brew my first lager (after more than a
decade of brewing)!  I have a boatload of hopefully simple questions for
you lager heads:

1)  I bottle my beer.  How does self carbonation work after the long
lagering process?  Do I need to add extra yeast for bottling?  If so, an
ale or lager yeast?  After carbonation, do the bottles need to be stored
at a refrigerated temperature to avoid off flavors?  

2)  I don't have a PID temperature controller.  Can I still make good
lagers with a fridge?  I can control the temperature relatively well
from ~46 F to 55 F, but I won't be able to do a one degree step down as
I've heard some people ferment lagers.  

3)  Is it best to pitch at room temp and ramp down to 50 F or can I grow
my yeast starter at 50 F and then pitch when my wort has chilled to 50F?

4)  I've also heard of a higher primary fermentation followed by a much
cooler lagering temp.  What works best?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Lost in lagerland,

Shawn



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Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 12:31:52 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: recipator is back!

The subject says it all.  http://hbd.org/recipator/

Thanks for recovering this valuable resource, Pat.

Jeff
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 13:05:49 -0400
From: Pat Babcock <pbabcock at brew.hbd.org>
Subject: RE: REcipator's back and other stuff...

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

Agh! I've been remiss! As Jeff points out, the recipator is back in
operation(http://recipator.com works, too...); however, the
responsibility for this blessed event falls squarely upon the shoulders
of Mark Riley, who swooped in like a cyber Robin Hood to make right that
which he gave to the poor denizens of the HBD Forest long ago, and which
I had usurped in moving everything to another the kingdom. 

On another note, I've heard rumblings that the new mailing routine did
not, in fact, deliver an HBD to everyone last night. I noted, for
instance, that my work email had only one, though it had been receiving
it right along. I also noted that the one it had was from the OLD
routine. But, on the heartening side, I also had one in my hbd.org email
account which was NOT receiving it. This one was from (you guessed it!)
the NEW routine. So, I'd expect, some who were not receiving the Digest
did, and some who were maybe didn't, and, just by chance, a few who
received two?

How absolutely befuddling!

Today, assuming there are enough posts in the queue, only the NEW
routine will be in operation, but it will also request delivery and
"read" receipts, and write to a log file each and every time it
generates a Digest. The  former will help to diagnose what may be going
on "out there", and the latter will tell me more about what's going on
"in here". With that knowledge, maybe I can steer us out of the woods...

See Ya!

The Sheriff of Nothingham


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