HOMEBREW Digest #4803 Mon 18 July 2005


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Fortnight Of Yeast, 2005 (Bob Devine)
  Specific gravity yield of asian 'maltose' syrup (Oisin Boydell)
  Larger Batch Sparge ("Martin Ammon")
  First wheat beer (Matt)
  Fortnight Of Yeast, 2005 (Matt)
  Re: Ballantine Ale Clone) (Denny Conn)
  Turbo Tap; US Patent No. 5,842,617 (Marc Sedam)
  Solera Bourbon Barrel beers (Steve Jones)
  Malt Chart? ("Jodie")
  Blue Ridge Brew Off 2005 ("David Keller")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 22:47:10 -0600 From: Bob Devine <bob.devine at worldnet.att.net> Subject: Fortnight Of Yeast, 2005 Some questions about yeast. If any of these are answerable, please let me/us know. 1) what is the current status of brewing with immobilized yeast? I've read papers over the past decade on this topic that showed some promise. Will this ever make it into actual use (wasn't there a German brewery that tried it?). Granted, this is unlikely to affect us homebrewers directly but it could have a secondary affect if all the majors move to that style of brewing. 2) Genetic engineering has been in the news. Recently, a very simple virus was constructed. Grand claims of moving on to other artificial organisms have been proposed. Are there any groups contemplating building a better yeast? 3) Why do brewing yeasts die? Is it from lack of nutrients? Damaged cells, maybe from oxidation effects? Telomere limit? Or is there a sinister "lemming" conspiracy here? ;-) 4) Are the number of yeast strains increasing or decreasing? Have brewers winnowed down the number of active strains? Or are new and beneficial mutations still being developed? Bob Devine (sorry for not writing any "link of the week" recently) Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 09:45:25 +0100 From: Oisin Boydell <oisinboydell at gmail.com> Subject: Specific gravity yield of asian 'maltose' syrup I am interested in using 'maltose' syrup that's available from asian supermarkets in a brew. There is a recipe in the Cats Meow 3 recipe collection (http://brewery.org/brewery/cm3/recs/01_28.html) that uses it, and the brewer suggests not to use more than 20% 'maltose' syrup. Does anyone know the specific gravity yield of this type of syrup? The listed ingredients contain rice so I'd assume it would be different from the specific gravity yield of standard malt extract. I suppose I could dissolve 1lb in water to a total volume of 1 gallon, then measure the specific gravity with a hydrometer. Is this an accurate way to measure SG or is there a better method? Thanks, Oisin. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 07:31:46 -0500 From: "Martin Ammon" <SURFSUPKS at KC.RR.COM> Subject: Larger Batch Sparge Will as Grandpa said If you don't know you better start asking some questions. So here goes. I batch spare with a pump and a coil in the hot water tank and have no problems. I do two running to get the amount of wort 7.5 for boil. So much for the back ground here is my question. Why not have a larger coil that will hold more wort. So you could do one sparge and come out with the amount of wort to boil. Lets say at the beginning you purge your coil and mash in at one gallon to three pounds of grain so at 10 pounds you would have 3.33 gallons (that's a little dried than I like but for this lets use it) the grain will retain some and lets say your coil will hold five gallons of water. The mash will never see anymore than liquid than it has now because the pump will extract the same amount it pumps in. The wort is thinner than the first of two batch's but is the same end result. Your thoughts and where is if any the problems. Martin aka Kansas Swagman Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:25:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com> Subject: First wheat beer Here is another, more basic take on doing your first wheat beer. I try to make things as simple as possible for myself--depending on your style these observations may be useful to you. GRAIN BILL Many other illustrious folks suggest the same type of grain bill that AJ did. I used a similar one and love it. You can also get wheat extract if you don't mash. MASHING I used a single infusion mash at 151 for one hour instead of AJ's more traditional decoction scheme. Tastes great. There are many other possibilities such as decoction, protein rests (which I personally would avoid), ferulic acid rests, etc, and I have no idea how much worse my beer is for not doing them. But I will tell you that I REALLY like my infusion-mashed hefe, and will not change the mash schedule anytime soon. See the archives for a great post by George de Piro on his award winning recipe and its variations for infusion, decoction, rests, etc. YEAST You need to decide what KIND of wheat beer you want. For a first beer it seems smart do either an American style (Widmer is widely available) or a German style (if you're not familiar with them maybe you can try a Franziskaner/Spaten, Weihenstephaner, Hacker-Pschorr, or Schneider, usually labeled Weizen, Hefeweizen, or Weissbier). If you like Widmer you can use an alt yeast, as I believe that's what they use. Otherwise for an American wheat you can just use a clean ale yeast like WY1056 or maybe Nottingham. This would be a very clean, "generic" beer as Greg suggested. If you want to do the German thing, you have at least two choices. One is the Weihenstephan strain AJ suggested. I have heard many places that it is a bit tricky to achieve the clove/banana balance with this yeast unless you have decent control of your fermentation temperature. Generally Hotter = more bananas and Colder = less bananas. I cannot maintain 58 degrees with my current equipment. So to avoid this potential pitfall/complexity, for my first wheat I used Wyeast 3333, which I found to be quite forgiving of my poorly controlled ferment temp ranging between 68-72 degrees. With that yeast you probably won't get much clove, but you'll get fruity esters and the wheat taste will really come through. Not as traditional, but very very good. BOTTLING Just to clarify, you CAN bottle wheat beers with corn sugar just like any other brew if you want to. But the traditional way was to save speise and prime with that. If you use corn sugar, you might want more than 3/4 cup, since wheats traditionally have higher carbonation. I used 3/4 C plus two tablespoons, and wish I had used even another tablespoon or two. Matt Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:41:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com> Subject: Fortnight Of Yeast, 2005 Question: Can you please comment on the strategy of trying to aerate/oxygenate the yeast while they are in a STARTER rather than aerating the wort itself. (Please let me abuse the language and science a bit and just say that yeast need "a big swallow of oxygen" before they ferment beer.) I understand that this is exactly your strategy in the production of dry yeast--i.e. dry yeast can be pitched into unaerated wort because they have already taken their big swallow of oxygen. How feasible is it for a homebrewer to grow up a starter in similar fashion? Is continuous aeration of the starter required? A stir plate? If I have no stir plate, and no gas transfer equipment of any kind, is there a practical procedure I can follow to grow yeast whose oxygen requirements are already met? Letting air into the starter jug and shaking it, repeating this over several days, etc? Any temperature dependency? Any minerals or nutrients I can add to the starter to increase the yeast's efficiency at storing up oxygen-related compounds? Thank you for sharing your expertise. Matt Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 09:02:40 -0800 From: Denny Conn <denny at projectoneaudio.com> Subject: Re: Ballantine Ale Clone) Lee, I recently had the pleasure of trying a Ballantine Burton ale from 1934. It had been oak aged for 14 years and bottled in 1948. I'm in the process of putting together a webpage with tasting notes and Ballantine info. The bottle we tasted was graciously supplied by Bob Girolamo and after we tasted it, he broke out a bottle of his "clone" version of it. It was stunningly close. Although the recipe will be posted on the website eventually, I'd rather not post it here until after I talk to Bob. If you or anyone else would like see it, please send me a private email. --------------->Denny At 11:18 PM 7/17/05 -0400, you wrote: >Subject: Ballantine Ale Clone > >Does anyone have a clone receipe/formula for Ballantine Ale? >I would really like to hear from anyone who could help me out. >I can't find one searching the web. Very frustrating! >Thanks, >Lee Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:09:00 -0400 From: Marc Sedam <alechemist at bellsouth.net> Subject: Turbo Tap; US Patent No. 5,842,617 Don't let the fact that it's patented scare anyone. First, the patent is already relatively old (8 of its 20 years of life are over already), and second, the patent is in my (non-lawyer but frequent practicioner) opinion overly broad. For example, parts of the patent actually cover the draft system itself! Anyhoo, the gist of the patent is that the diameter of the opening of the "device" should be twice that of what the existing beer spout is. Second, the "button" on the bottom allows the flow of beer to exit in a laminar fashion and not just banging against the bottom of the glass (which knocks CO2 out of solution). Seems like the liquid flow goes across the bottom, up the sides, and back down the middle; the sum total of which keeps the CO2 in solution a little longer. Also seems he's playing on the concept that once the nozzle is submerged in liquid, you reduce splashing (and again keeping CO2 in solution). I think it's kinda brilliant, actually. For $99/year, it's a no-brainer. You would probably make the money back in spilled beer over the course of three kegs. So, for anyone trying to replicate a home version of this...seems like you start with some tubing that's 2x larger than the aperture of your existing tap, connect through an O-ring (perhaps one that both slides over the top part of your tubing and fits snugly on the existing tap, and find a way to move the force of fluid flow sideways instead of down on the bottom of the glass. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 14:16:21 -0400 From: Steve Jones <stjones1 at chartertn.net> Subject: Solera Bourbon Barrel beers Hi all, Some of you may remember that last year about this time our club (State of Franklin Homebrewers) began a project where 11 of us brewed a barleywine and we added them to a 53 gallon bourbon barrel. Some of you may have tasted it on Saturday afternoon in the Hospitality suite at the NHC in Baltimore. Anyway, the concept is that whenever we pull any of it out we top it off with fresh barleywine (solera style). As it went, the ullage grew to about 7 or 8 gallons this year, then last Saturday I received two more batches to be added and topped it up. I got up on Sunday morning and discovered about 2 gallons had leaked onto the garage loor. I racked 5 gallons into a keg to get the level back below the leak. Apparently what had happened is that the staves in the barrel that were on top, and not in contact with liquid before adding the fresh) had dried out enough to no longer be watertight. Our club members have perused this delimma and have not come up with a solution. In retrospect, I would have added rollers to the barrel stand I built so that the barrel could be rotated periodically to keep all he staves in liquid contact. The only solution we could ome up with was to empty the barrel, fill with water until it no longer leaks, then drain and put the barleywine back in it. Alternatively, get a new barrel and rack into that. Neither of those ideas really appeal to us as we don't want to rack if we don't have to. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make the barrel watertight without taking the barleywine out (or losing any more to the leak)? Steve Jones, Johnson City, TN State of Franklin Homebrewers (http://hbd.org/franklin) [421.8 mi, 168.5 deg] AR Steve Jones, Johnson City, TN State of Franklin Homebrewers (http://hbd.org/franklin) [421.8 mi, 168.5 deg] AR Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 21:44:29 -0400 From: "Jodie" <jodiedavis at adelphia.net> Subject: Malt Chart? Is there such a thing as a really thorough chart/listing of grain malts including degrees L? It often gets confusing reading recipes, especially when malts go by two different names. The clone brew books have a good one even with descriptions of the malts, but it's not as comprehensive as I'd like. Thanks! Jodie Davis Canton, GA www.jodieandcompany.com www.ccarhomebrewclub.com www.rubberduckie.net www.quiltersnewsnetwork.com Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 22:23:07 -0400 From: "David Keller" <batdave at blueridge.net> Subject: Blue Ridge Brew Off 2005 Mountain Ale and Lager Tasters (MALT) of Asheville, NC is proud to announce the 7th annual Blue Ridge Brew Off Homebrew Competition. BRBO 2005 will be held in the beautiful mountain town of Asheville, NC on September 24-25, 2005 at Skyland Distributing Company near Biltmore Square Mall. Entries are due by September 10, 2005. Out of town judges may deliver their own beers the morning of the contest. Registration will be open on our web site at http://www.malt-nc.com/OnLine.htm/ Two bottles are required for beer and two bottles for mead. We will have a BOS for mead if possible. Beer will be judged on Saturday and mead (and beer if necessary) on Sunday. Ribbons will be given for all flight winners and BOS. Prizes will be given for BOS. A PORTION OF OUR PROFITS WILL BE DONATED TO "POP THE CAP".. NORTH CAROLINA'S CAMPAIGN TO REFORM THE 6% ABV LIMIT ON BEER SOLD IN THE STATE AND/OR CHARITY! Additional contributions are welcome! The BRBO is the largest homebrewed beer competition in the Carolinas with over 450 entries in 2004. Fees are $6 for the first entry and $5 for each additional entry. The BRBO is a qualifying event for the Carolina and MidSouth Brewer, Master Brewer and Meadmaker of the year. We will need Judges and Sponsors. Contact Jay Adams, goosepoint at teleplex.net or Bernie Kessel, elkbernie8@yahoo.com who are our Judge Coordinators if you are interested in judging or sponsoring the event. Go to http://www.malt-nc.com/OnLine.htm/ for entry forms, bottle labels and other information. Contact: David Keller (Organizer) 828-625-9894 batdave at blueridge.net for information. Return to table of contents
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