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


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Contents:
  grain bill for doppelbock ("Peter A. Ensminger")
  Insanity ("A.J deLange")
  Re: The Renner Decoction Mash (Jeff Renner)
  WLP 833? ("Rick Garvin")
  elusive toastiness/essential 21L pressure cooker (Aaron Martin Linder)
  Judges for North East Regionals -- and other competitions ("David Houseman")


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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:22:21 -0400
From: "Peter A. Ensminger" <ensmingr at twcny.rr.com>
Subject: grain bill for doppelbock

Thanks to all for your suggestions of a malt bill for a doppelbock! I 
brewed my beer on Sunday (March 11). Here is my recipe:

Grains:
6 lbs (37%) Weyermann Dark Munich
8 lbs (50%) M&F Pale Ale
2 lbs (12%) Weyermann Melanoiden
3 oz (1.2%) Weyermann Carafa-II
- -----
Infusion mash:
152 deg F for 1.5 hrs
170 deg F for ~20 min
- -----
Hops:
2 oz German Splatz, alpha=3.5, boil 60 min
2 oz UK Fuggles, alpha=4.0, boil 60 min
65 minute wort boil
- -----
OG = 1.086 (60 deg F)
Wyeast 2124 (Bohemian lager), from 2X starter
Yeast pitch at ~53 deg F
- -----
Comments:
1) Obviously, using a UK pale ale malt and UK Fuggles are "out of 
style". I used these simply because I had them available.
2) Several HBD'ers said that a decoction mash is necessary. Sorry, but I 
have sworn off decoctions because they are a PITA. Moreover, all my 
malts are highly modified and do not *need* decoction. Of course, the 
benefits of decoction with modern highly modified malts have been (and 
will be) debated.
3) To me, Weyermann melanoiden malt is a good substitute for decoction. 
One HBD'er seemed to really dislike this malt (not sure why). But, I 
have used it at ~10% in many other recipes and have been happy with the 
results.
4) The Weyermann web site recommends Carafa-I, -II, or -III for 
dopplebocks and several other styles.
5) My taste of the (unfermented) wort didn't seem to be "roasty", but 
I'll see how the flavor evolves.
6) The fermentation yielded no evident sulphur odor after ~30 hrs.

Cheers!
Peter A. Ensminger
Syracuse, NY
Apparent Rennerian: [394, 79.9]



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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:14:58 +0000
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Insanity

If you want further discussion of insanity and home brewing I can ask 
Mrs A.J. to get on here and type a paragraph or two. While I'm sure her 
comments would touch on the nature, size and number of brewing vessels 
on the premises here I have to say that I have met Jeff, Steve and 
Calvin personally and they all seem to be quite sensible guys to me. 
OTOH Christine and Rick do make a Killer Keller and Saturday's BURP 
meeting is at their house!

A.J.


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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:14:05 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <jsrenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Re: The Renner Decoction Mash

harry.backenass at charter.net wrote from Glen Carbon, IL:

> Jeff - you mention holding 1/3 of the grist separately for
> bringing to a boil for a decoction mash.  What water / grain ratio
> do you use for this separate mash?  I'd like to try this method
> with a German or Czech style Pilsner this spring.
>
> Would a decoction mash like this be beneficial to an Oktoberfest?
> It's that time of year!

I just use the same water to grain ratio as for my main mash, which  
is typically a bit over one quart to a pound.  If you are boiling (as  
opposed to using a pressure cooker), you may want a little looser  
mash to avoid scorching.

This certainly does work well for Oktoberfest.  I've done it myself.

BTW, I wasn't able to remember the name of the Austrian homebrewer  
that I think introduced or suggested this method to HBD.  It was  
Hubert Hanghofer.  A site search of HBD would probably document  
this.  Are you still lurking, Hubert?  His website seems to be down  
at present.

Cheers

Jeff
- ---
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, jsrennerATumichDOTedu
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943




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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:37:48 -0400
From: "Rick Garvin" <rgarvin at garvin.us>
Subject: WLP 833?

I'll second Jeff on the WLP 833 - das schmekt! It's done a great job on our
bocks this year. It is a very low sulfur producer. Our bocks were tasty
after 6 weeks and ready to rumble after 3 months. I could imagine turning
around a 21 day Helles with this yeast.

BTW, we just got our MCAB score sheets back. Gordon Strong described our 3rd
place Maibock's malt character as "brothy, meaty," I guess not in the best
way. There is a good bit of decoction maillard character, but nothing like
our traditional and doppel bocks. I think next year we'll back off the
decoction times a bit on the Maibock, going to 10 minute boils for first and
second decoction in a double.

Cheers, Rick



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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:27:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Aaron Martin Linder <lindera at umich.edu>
Subject: elusive toastiness/essential 21L pressure cooker


Andrew Tate is looking for some toastiness/breadiness in his ale:

I would recommend using "special roast" malt.  it gives a very distinct, 
bready, toasty, biscuity character that is really nice in lighter beers to 
make them more interesting.  (i'm not sure my use of "bready", "toasty", 
"biscuity" is well-defined, but it's hard to describe)  I've used 0.25 
pounds in a 6 gallon batch to get a very good idea of its flavor.  I think 
it also contributes a tangy, sort of sour note that you might or might not 
enjoy.  i found it turned my 3.5% ABV bitter into a much more interesting 
beer, courtesy of a Jamil Zainasheff recipe.

> All I can say is... can there be anyone else but Jeff Renner who has a 
> TWENTY-ONE LITER pressure cooker?!?!

I have to admit that i have one as well, and i agree, how would you make 
sterile starter wort/water without one?!

aaron linder
ann arbor, mi


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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:03:12 -0500
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman at verizon.net>
Subject: Judges for North East Regionals -- and other competitions

Like all organizers I receive a list of judges in my region that I'm
contacting to judge the Northeast Regionals of the AHA National Homebrew
Competition to be held in Philadelphia on April 20th and 21st.   But like
most of the organizers I find that about 20% of the judges in the region do
not have valid email addresses in the BJCP database.   So while I'm in
contact with most of the judges, and hope to have quite a number show up to
judge, I cannot contact the rest of you.

So if you are a BJCP judge, please take a few minutes to go to the BJCP web
site and update your personal contact information, especially your email
address.   If you're in the Northeast, I want to invite you to judge in this
region.  But even if you are in another region, that local organizer would
appreciate it if you'd update your BJCP contact information.   If you have a
problem with the BJCP web site contact me or your local BJCP representative.
If you are traveling in or near Philadelphia on the weekend of April 20/21,
and you do not live in the region, contact me if you'd like to judge this
competition.

David Houseman



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