HOMEBREW Digest #53 Wed 18 January 1989

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

Contents:
  Homebrew shops in the Princeton area (Martin Weinberg)
  Steinbart's Catalog (rogerl)
  Sake and other things ("VAX865::HABERMAND")
  Psychoactive brew? (florianb)
  Where are the English pint bottles? (csun!fedeva!wrd3156)
  Fermentors (harvard!ima!wang7!klm)
  Psychoactive beer? (harvard!ima!wang7!klm)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 10:13:14 EST From: weinberg at duvel.ias.edu (Martin Weinberg) Subject: Homebrew shops in the Princeton area Frederic W. Brehm writes: > Can anyone recommend a good brew shop somewhere in the > Philadelphia/New York area? There must be one around here > somewhere! I also live (and brew) in Princeton. Although I order most of my supplies by mail from Hennessy Homebrew in Troy, NY, there is a shop in Hillsborough called Wine Hobby U.S.A. They do not have a wide variety of supplies but they have everything you need to start. Their address is: Plaza 401 Route 206 South South Somerville, NJ 201-874-4141 It is about a 20 min. drive from Princeton. Maybe some folks out there know of another shop? Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 10:18:37 EST From: rogerl at Think.COM Subject: Steinbart's Catalog florianb%tekred.cna.tek.com at RELAY.CS.NET write: Steinbart's of Portland, OR sells excellent bulk extract (light, amber, dark) in 7# jars for about $7. ... I can post an address if there is sufficient interest. Please DO! Roger Locniskar Return to table of contents
Date: 18 Jan 89 13:22:00 PST From: "VAX865::HABERMAND" <habermand%vax865.decnet at afrpl-vax.ARPA> Subject: Sake and other things I'd like to thank everyone for answers to my question about a Sake recipe. I already had the one forwarded by Cher from David Herron since I belong to the same Medieval Society. (That's where I got my start in brewing.) I thought it was interesting but since it did not get the fermentable sugars from the rice, it was not my idea of Sake. I visited the Sake brewery in Berkeley and got some information on the process. I walked up the street (I couldn't drive after the Sake tasting) and went to the local brew shop and purchased some koji. That's as far as I got. Re the coments about saliva turning starch into sugar, the ancient Japanese made "virgin" sake which came from rice chewed by virgins and spit into a vat for fermentation. I think that I will take Rob's suggestion and send away for the book he mentioned. I have only used brown sugar and corn sugar in my brews so far and haven't noticed any cidery taste. When I used the corn sugar for priming, I just added it to the fermentation vessel before bottling. I think that I might heat it up with some beer next time after reading the discussions in this digest. The brown sugar was added with the malt in the boil. I made one batch by mashing my own and was pleasantly surprised. I was able to get 1.065 starting S.G. without having to add any malt or sugar. I used a single step mash, keeping the temperature at about 152 deg. F. I put the stuff in a large plastic ice chest to sparge it. The ice chest has a spout on the bottom for drainage so It was perfect. The ending S.G. was 1.014 resulting in a slightly alcoholic tasting beer. After 6 months it still tasted a bit on the alcoholic side. Now, 3 years later, it has lost the alcoholy flavor and now tastes like I overdid the hops which I think I did. I like Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada a lot, so I have mostly been using their bottles for my brew. I also have quite a few Grolsch bottles (from rich friends) and some English bottles. I have even tried the larger Japanese bottles. I havn't had any problems capping any of the bottles. Since I havn't made a brew in a while, I decided to go with DME with dark crystal grain as an adjuct when I went by the brew shop this weekend. I got all jazzed about brewing again after joining this group. I think I might even join the Maltose Falcons. And now for another question: Up until now, I have always used the cheap dried yeast for my beer. When I bought the stuff for my latest brew, I decided to get the more expensive liquid ale yeast. How do I save this yeast so that I can use it again? How long will it last, and how many times can I use it? Thanks, David ------ Return to table of contents
Date: 18 Jan 89 13:15:32 PST (Wed) From: florianb%tekred.cna.tek.com at RELAY.CS.NET Subject: Psychoactive brew? In yesterday's posting, Mike Meyer asks: BTW, has anybody ever experienced a bacterial infection that made their beer slightly psychoactive? I had this one batch that was a lobotomy-in-a-bottle ?????? What? I've heard of ergot infections, but this is weird! Are you sure you finished this batch with hops? Were you the only one near the fermenter at all times? Anybody else have comments? Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 14:25:49 PST From: hplabs!csun!fedeva!wrd3156 Subject: Where are the English pint bottles? A couple of digests back, someone mentioned bottling in English pint bottles. Where does one {find,buy} such a bottle? They sound an ideal size; but then I will have to get bigger mugs. Oh well... bill daniels federal express, memphis, tn {hplabs!csun,gatech!emcard,mit-eddie!premise}!fedeva!wrd3156 Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 16:43:46 PST From: pixar!wilker at Sun.COM (Tom Wilker-'your obedient slave!') Greetings from the Homebrewers at Pixar! I've been scanning through the discussion of minimizing sedimentation in the bottle and would like to share my opinion on the subject. Sediments consist of various unfermentables and dormant yeast cells. If you are brewing all-grain batches, the amount of unfermentables which settle out of solution will always be higher than typical extract brews. Usually these settle in the primary and secondary, but on an early batch of mine, I even had some show up in the bottle. The solution I've used very successfully since has been 1/2 tsp of Irish Moss during the last half hour of the boil. The effect of the Moss is home-chemistry at its best; within 5 minutes, precipitates form and will drop to the bottom of the primary. So much for the unfermentables! My solution to the yeast cell sediment problem is simply mechanical. I find that if you take particular care in the racking process, and allow plenty of time for the yeast to settle while in the secondary, you will have no real problem with sediments. I feel it is worth while to top up the batch with a bit of pre-boiled water rather than risk sucking up any of the sediment trying to get that last little bit! I also leave the brew under lock for at least 4 weeks to allow maximum time for sedimentation. Aging in the bottle for at least 3 weeks helps to develop a stable thin sediment which allows a nice clean pour. I agree with the idea of cooling the secondary to maximize sedimentation, my back steps stay a nice consistent 40 F all through the winter and I've noted that my brews seem to settle out much faster. I'm surprised that 12-24 hours chilled would produce much of an effect at all, but I'll definitely give it a try when spring arrives! Now, on to something different! I've noticed that with all-grain brews I've had very little luck in duplicating the body or alcohol content of a typical extract brew. I've tried Infusion mashes and Upward Infusion mashes and have found that the Upward Infusion yields a more alcoholic brew with no perceptable effect to the body. But even using this technique, I've been unable to match extract brews. I think there is a lot to be said for the control of wort concentration you get from brewing with extracts. I find that the more whole grain I use, the more sparge water I need to extract the wort. My last all-grain was 10 lbs of Klages and a lb of Crystal and it took 6 gallons of water to sparge (6 gals is the limit for my brewpot, I'm sure I could have gotten more). The brew, while definitely very drinkable, didn't have the thickness I wished to get out of the batch. I'd love to know how much grain goes into a can of extract...I'm sure its quite a lot! The most recent edition of the digest, particularly the snippets from Darryl, Newman, and Dsbaer, have me psyched to continue the effort! I've decided that the volume of my Lauter Tun (3 gals) is way too wimpy for the amounts of grain I now mash, so I'm going to break down and build a bigger one. The water cooler version seems to be the best idea to me...any problems with this configuration? Finally, thanks to you contributors for the great information! Keep it coming! -- Tom Wilker...!{ucbvax,sun}!pixar!wilker Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 89 00:14:00 EST From: hplabs!harvard!ima!wang7!klm Subject: Fermentors To add my $.02 worth to the discussion... I picked up a 7 gallon carboy from my supplier. I use this as my primary fermentor, and make sure to never fill it past 6 gallons. It usually ends up at around 5.5 gallons. After primary is done, I rack the beer into a 5 gallon carboy and fill it all the way up into the neck. Because there was some extra in the primary I didn't have to worry about sucking up sludge while getting the secondary completely filled. The 7 gallon carboy works out quite well. I don't trust Papazian's method of using a blow-off tube ever since reading Byron Burch's book and hearing of somebody I work with having a carboy explode on him. I just put a fermentation lock on and I relax and don't worry because I've left plenty of 'breathing room.' Don't forget... not worrying is very important. Your beer knows. If you worry it will very likely turn on you. Kevin McBride McBeer Brewery ..!ima!wang7!gozer!klm Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 89 00:14:12 EST From: hplabs!harvard!ima!wang7!klm Subject: Psychoactive beer? Hey Mike! Where can I get some of this stuff? 1/2 :-) Seriously though, it's more likely that a mold is causing that effect rather than a bacterium. After all, I seem to recall that LSD is refined from ergot mold, which grows naturally on certain grains. ergot mold in pure form, though, is more likely to make you ill before it gets you off. Kinda like near beer. Good luck and let me know if fdkjhfdhdfiuydr98734r987erkjhfkjhv34ryug Oops, sorry, started hallucinating there.... :-) Kevin McBride McBeer Brewery ..!ima!wang7!gozer!klm Return to table of contents
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