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


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Contents:
  Re: Pat's keg labels ("Michael O'Donnell")
  Wild Yeast/AFC ("Chad Stevens")
  ABL Club Night ("Rob Moline")
  Off-topic Floppies and On-topic Kegs (Robert Sandefer)
  Another way beer can increase longevity ("Gary Smith")
  Little room for beer... ("Papa Pat Babcock")
  Re: Natural beer fermentations, whether or not they come from the (Jeff Renner)
  Labeling Corney's ("Steve Laycock")
  Re: Corny ked labeling/tags (Scott Alfter)
  Labelling Kegs (Brian Millan)


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Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 20:59:56 -0800
From: "Michael O'Donnell" <mooseo at stanford.edu>
Subject: Re: Pat's keg labels

At 08:28 PM 12/14/2004, you wrote:
>(I find it entertaining going through stacks of 'em trying to figure out what
>they are...)

For even more entertainment, Pat could try writing the relevant data about 
the beer as a text file on an 8" floppy and then just pop it into a drive 
to check what's in the keg...

But actually, that made me think that old 3 1/2 floppies or AOL CDs would 
make a nice, waterproof surface for the writing of beer info... and they 
even have a hole through them.

I, myself, use one of those label printers which spits out 1/2" wide labels 
with the beer name or whatever... they are easy to read, and can be moved 
from keg to keg, but printing them can be a total pain as the label maker 
frequently disappears when needed... I'm going to switch to CDs or maybe 
some of the little tags people have suggested.

Mike
Monterey, CA




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Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:05:50 -0800
From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net>
Subject: Wild Yeast/AFC

Dave and Raj,

I really hadn't given spontaneous fermentation much thought.  I've been
blessed with a wonderful lambic starter, which if anything is a bit too
lactic (those of you who are complaining of leaning too much toward the
brett and can't get any sour, wanna do some blending?), and have 50 gallons
steeping in its own juices out in the garage.  Wonderful stuff.  Anyway, I
really hadn't given the actual mechanics of spontaneous fermentation much
thought, but both of you provided wonderful insight into that subject and
your contributions seem to hold great face validity; makes perfect sense.

Thanks.

- ---------------------------------

America's Finest City Homebrew Competition March 4-5th.
Judges/Stewards/Brewers:

http://www.quaff.org/AFC2005/AFCHBC.html

Chad Stevens
QUAFF
San Diego



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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 01:03:04 -0600
From: "Rob Moline" <jethrogump at mchsi.com>
Subject: ABL Club Night


				ABL Club Night
     Wow, Ames Brewers' League Club Night...
     Mark Simpson, Brewer of the Year!
     We had a few new brewers, who found us on the Web......and I hope are
intrigued enough to come back next month! Thanks to Mike Determan for his
web-work!
     We had a raffle, which raised over 300 bucks.....Thanks to 5 Star,
Steiner Hops, Cargill Malt, Iowa Beverage, Bud, Court Ave., RockBottom,
Raccoon River, Granite City, Olde Main, and the list goes on.....
     Mostly, I am blessed to be sitting next to a pair of newbies,
surrounded by a pack of experienced brewers....knowing all will benefit.
Cheers!
Gump
"The More I Know About Beer, The More I Realize I Need To Know More About
Beer!"
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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 00:51:03 -0800 (PST)
From: Robert Sandefer <robertsandefer at yahoo.com>
Subject: Off-topic Floppies and On-topic Kegs

>*DON'T* tell me if you're too young to remember. I'm
>feeling old enough with the admission that I've 
>owned an eight-inch floppy drive.)

Hey, Papa Pat...

I think that anyone too young to remember eight-inch
disks is too young to (legally) brew beer. :)

Relax...With years comes beer...

Since keg discussion is in vogue, does the collective
have any hints on how to use/chill kegs in an
apartment without overtaking the one and only large
refrigerator?

Robert aka Smart at s* Extraordinaire
Novato, CA


		


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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 06:52:22 -0600
From: "Gary Smith" <Gary at doctorgary.net>
Subject: Another way beer can increase longevity 


http://latakia.dyndns.org/~ruhl/beer-can-save-lives.mpg

It's a 3.2 meg download but good for a laugh.

Gary

Whos Christmas Ale is fermenting slower than 
expected...




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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 09:00:32 -0500
From: "Papa Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: Little room for beer...

Greetin's there, sonny! Take me to your geratol...

Robert Sandefer intones...

> Since keg discussion is in vogue, does the collective
> have any hints on how to use/chill kegs in an
> apartment without overtaking the one and only large
> refrigerator?

I'm a huge fan of cold plates. If you can't drill holes in your fridge (likely 
not, right?), drop into your favorite Big Box Store, Salvation Army, or St. 
Vincent DePaul (or other thrift store) and find one of those little cube 
fridges. Pop a coldplate in, drill any necessary holes, ad faucets and, voila! 
A draught system that takes little space. Hell, if you don't mind keeping it 
iced, you could even pop a cold plate into a cooler to the same end.

I'll look around and see if I still have that old Brewing Techniques article 
about the one I built, and put it online - if I haven't already. You know. 
They say the memory's the second thing to go...

"Papa" Pat Babcock in SE MI
pbabcock at hbd.org




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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:05:57 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Natural beer fermentations, whether or not they come from the

  "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net> writes about 
spontaneously fermented Belgian beer and sourdough.  I want to 
comment on the sourdough part, which I have read a good deal about 
and have experience with as a commercial baker.

>I have read many times about ... the infection of sourdough
>with lactobacteria from the air in San Francisco. This supposedly explains why
>sourdough bread  can only be made in  San Francisco ...
>as no where else has has these specific bacteria . Hmmm, sounds a little like
>marketing doesn't it? ( Kind of reminds you of French Terroir and for the same
>reasons.).

The mix of organisms in the SF sourdough culture is only one of many 
stable cultures.  it does seem to be indigenous to the Bay area, 
although with care, it can be grown and maintained in other areas. 
In the Bay area, however, this kind of care does not seem to be 
necessary.

There are many other stable cultures with different mixes.  There is 
some good information at the Sourdough FAQ (some of which I wrote). 
One good article is at 
http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/whatisthemicrobiologyofsan.html.

I like this note from that article, "What is the Microbiology of San 
Francisco Sourdough?" , which illustrates some of the variety of 
organisms:

"Spicher in Germany characterised German sour rye. He found the 
dominant yeast species were Candida krusei, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 
Pichia saitoi and Candida milleri.  The Lactobacilli included L. 
brevis, casei, fermenti, pastorianus, bucheneri, delbrueckii, 
leichmannii, acidophilus, farciminis, alimentarius, brevis 
var.lindneri, fermentum, fructivorans and Pediococcus acidilactici! 
(This zoo of organisms present naturally in Rye flour is the reason 
why it is so easy to start a good sourdough culture from rye for 
example see "manuels starter" in the Laurel's Kitchen bread book.)"

Note that L. sanfrancisco is not among those critters found, though 
Candida milleri, the SF sourdough yeast,  is.

Sourdoughs International sells a number of different cultures from 
around the world.  Their web site http://www.sourdo.com/ has some 
good info.

At the National Homebrew Conference in Chicago in 2004, I spoke about 
sourdough, also called naturally leavened, bread, and gave the first 
75 attendees a starter.  I've heard back from a number of them, 
including folks on this list, who have used it with success.  It is a 
less sour culture than the SF one.  It came from the famous Poilane 
bakery in Paris about 15 years ago, but, while it started out 
producing bread very much in the French style, it changed in a few 
months to a  different, stable, character.  I feed it with rye flour 
now, which no doubt plays a part in the character.  While I don't use 
a natural leavening for most of my commercial bread, I love making 
bread that way.

My handout from that talk is at http://hbd.org/aabg/sourdough_starter.html.

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: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:25:55 -0800
From: "Steve Laycock" <slaycock at discoverynet.com>
Subject: Labeling Corney's

I simply use a sharpie and write on the stainless steel keg lid and
surrounding area.  It's a permanent marker but comes off nicely when
scrubbed lightly with a soft scotchbrite pad.  I always view my kegs from
the top, beings that I use a chest freezer for beer storage.  I suppose if
your looking at the kegs in a refrigerator, you'd want to mark the keg's
differently.
Steve




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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 09:49:48 -0800
From: Scott Alfter <scott at alfter.us>
Subject: Re: Corny ked labeling/tags

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 at 08:57:45 -0800, Dan Hansen wrote:
> Now that I have a good collection of kegs, I'm having a hell of time keeping
> track of what's in them, which ones are clean, which ones need to be
> cleaned, etc.  Has anyone come up with a system that easily label their
> kegs?

I use a labeler to mark kegs, carboys, and bottles (bottlecaps, actually)
with their contents.  They're fairly cheap now (starting around $20 or so)
and the labels they produce are waterproof and can be peeled off fairly
easily.  Mine is a Casio KL-60, which I've found for $12.50 here:

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=KL60-R&cat=PRN

(I paid a little more elsewhere earlier this year for mine.)

It can produce lettering up to about 3/8" high.  More expensive models allow
use of wider label stock that will produce even larger text, but I've not
needed it.  On its largest type setting, the labels are readable enough and
work well on the sides of kegs.  

I originally bought it to label bottles.  I had been scribbling some info
(usually the BJCP category/subcategory and the bottling date) on round paper
labels and putting those on the caps; with the labeler, it's no big deal to
make a label that says "Jever-Klon" instead of "2B."  Since the labels still
fit on the caps, you don't waste time peeling labels off of bottles.  If you
enter your beer in a competition, it's easy enough to peel the labels off of
the caps.

  _/_  Scott Alfter
 / v \ Visit the SNAFU website today!
(IIGS( http://snafu.alfter.us/      Top-posting!
 \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden            >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?



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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:18:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Brian Millan <ernurse at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Labelling Kegs

How about using some flexible magnetic material such as this:

http://www.fridgedoor.com/5x8flexmagsh7.html

I have a larger piece like this on my refrig that we use as a message board with
a dry erase marker. Works great!

Brian





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