HOMEBREW Digest #741 Wed 09 October 1991

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


Contents:
  Beer Paraphernalia Show (MIKE LIGAS)
  Article for New Homebrewers (MIKE LIGAS)
  Re: Various (Mike Sharp)
  Christmas recipe (lotus!"LDBVAX!EMCGOWAN")
  Christmas recipe
  Advertising for No Gain (MIKE LIGAS)
  Gibbs (08-Oct-1991 0920)
  re: Le Garde ("Jack D. Hill")
  Apple Flavor? (FSAC-FCD) <dward at PICA.ARMY.MIL>
  Opportunism on the HBD (a mild flame) (Kevin L. McBride)
  ice chest lauter tun (Darryl Richman)
  Best Beer (Kevin L. McBride)
  Greetings one and all... (lutzen)
  Re: Papazian Book-Signing in Boston (gonzalez)
  re: A Few Brew Questions (Darryl Richman)
  Kid Stuff ("John Reed in Waltham, MA")
  red thing on top (Carl West)
  RE- Shameless ad's... (Rad Equipment)
  RE: Shameless ad's...                 Time:8:38 AM     Date:10/8/91
  My best recipe... (night)
  Request for digest (Robert Neilson)
  Chimay yeast (Brian Bliss)
  Shameless commercials (Larry McCaig)
  Great Stout! (Peter Glen Berger)
  Ads on the digest. ("DRCV06::GRAHAM")
  Staleness Date (C.R. Saikley)
  Anker Beer (C.R. Saikley)
  SA holiday brew (Russ Gelinas)
  The votes are in, & we have a new Unit of Measure.... the SmU (Greg Roody - dtn 237-7122)
  Brown Ale (Bob_Konigsberg)
  Papazian coming to Boston (STROUD)
  papazian coming to Boston (STROUD)
  Requests for Brewpub Info. (palladin)
  Fave Recipe, Adverts (Martin A. Lodahl)
  Oxidising Wort (Ifor Williams)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Oct 1991 09:51:00 -0400 From: MIKE LIGAS <LIGAS at SSCvax.CIS.McMaster.CA> Subject: Beer Paraphernalia Show The Canadian Brewerianist (Golden Horseshoe Chapter) will be hosting a Buy/Sell/Trade session on Saturday, October 26th, 1991. The rest of the details are: Place: Gennaro's Time: 11:00am-3:00pm Address: 500 Queen St. E. Toronto, Ontario DOOR PRIZES! PUBLIC WELCOME. For tables and/or information call Larry (416) 465-3386 Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 1991 13:48:00 -0400 From: MIKE LIGAS <LIGAS at SSCvax.CIS.McMaster.CA> Subject: Article for New Homebrewers Here's a little article which I wrote a year ago for a local homebrew club. I wrote it to provide basic information for newcomers to the hobby. The only point which is missing which should have been mentioned is the need for extreme cleanliness. All pieces of equipment should be cleaned thoroughly and sanitized with a mild bleach solution prior to use. Large pails and carboys can be soaked for 30 minutes in a mild bleach solution containing 1/2 teaspoon bleach per 5 gallons of water. They do not need to be rinsed but must be thoroughly drained before being employed. Everything must be cleaned well after brewing to avoid the growth of nasty microbes on brewing equipment during storage. The article is written for first time brewers who will be using kits. The only reason this angle was taken was because the interested brewers wished to keep things as simple as possible for their first few batches. The procedure outlined in the article is one which will produce good, consistent results as simply as possible. Variations on the described procedure can no doubt be suggested (ie. length of boil, etc.) but simplicity was the objective. ******************************************************************************* ARTICLE: BETTER BREWING WITH BEER KITS. As you all know, brewing beer can be accomplished in various ways, from grain mashing, mash/extract recipes, extracts only, and from the use of prehopped 'kits'. You can brew excellent beer using any method as long as you pay attention to details, like thorough cleanliness, minimal use of adjuncts, healthy yeast, etc. Many new homebrewers start by brewing from kits and gain valuable experience this way. The quality and variety of kits available to homebrewers has improved drastically over the past few years and some folks brew exclusively from kits due to their convenience and tasty results. The choice to move into extract or mash brewing is a personal one, and is by no means necessary. Just do what suits you. Since many of you are new homebrewers and are using prehopped kits, we have prepared a step by step guideline to brewing beer from kits which will improve your results if you are currently employing the manufacturers suggestion of using corn sugar to raise the gravity of the wort. 1. Bring 4 to 5 litres (1 Imp. gal.) of cold water to a boil in a stainless steel or enamel pot (NO ALUMINUM). Stir in 1.5 kg light (pale) unhopped malt extract (dried, syrup, or combination) and bring back to a boil. Boil for 15 to 20 minutes. 2. Stir in the contents of your can of kit beer and bring back to a boil. Boil for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and pour into your primary fermenter. Top up to 22.5 litres (5 Imp. gal.) with cold water and stir well. If necessary, cool to 19-22C by immersing your covered fermenter in a tub of cold water and pitch yeast.* 3. Ferment for 3 to 5 days and then rack into a clean glass carboy and seal with an airlock.** Try to fill the carboy to 1 -2 inches below the bottom of the rubber bung. If the beer foams for a few days after racking, just put a tube into the hole in the rubber bung and immerse the other end of the tube into a pail of water. When foaming subsides, replace the tube with an airlock. 4. The beer will continue to ferment slowly for 3 - 10 days, and maybe longer for high gravity beers or slow fermenting yeast strains. When visible signs of fermentation are nil (very few rising CO2 bubbles) the beer is ready to bottle. 5. For bottling, dissolve 3/4 to 1 cup of corn sugar (Dextrose) in a small volume of water (1 - 2 cups) and bring to a boil. Cool until warm and pour the sugar solution into your primary fermenting vessel. Siphon your finished beer into the same vessel, being careful not to agitate and thereby oxidize your beer. Gently stir to ensure that the dextrose is evenly mixed into the beer and fill your bottle to approximately one inch from the top. Secure caps and let the bottles stand for one to two weeks at room temperature in a dark place and then refrigerate. 6. You can start drinking your beer at this point but a few more weeks in the cold will help develop smoothness and flavour. You may wish to hide a few bottles away for a few months just to see if the particular style of beer you have made ages well. * Yeast must be treated with respect if you want a healthy fermentation. If you are not using a liquid culture, which is highly recommended, then you should rehydrate the dried yeast which is supplied with the kit. First, boil some water in a kettle and pour about one cup into a glass and cover with a plate. Let the this stand until the water temperature is between 35C - 43C. Empty the dried yeast into the warm water and let the yeast stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir the yeast slurry and pour into your wort and mix well. ** It is never necessary to suck on a hose to start a siphon. This is a common source of contamination. Just fill your hose with water and clamp it shut so the water stays in the hose. Immerse one end in the beer, place the other end at a lower level in a cup, and open the clamp to start the siphon. When the water has collected in the cup and beer is in the tube, clamp shut and transfer to your pail or carboy and commence siphoning. ******************************************************************************* Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 8:09:29 EDT From: Mike Sharp <msharp at cs.ulowell.edu> Subject: Re: Various Justin Aborn sasy/asks: > I have a pear tree in my back yard that produces prodigious > amounts of fruit that I usually wind up throwing away. As a > brewer, other possibilities come to mind... > > Does pear beer sound good or gross? umm, in a word, YES! I would suggest that you use these in either a wine or a mead. Of course this is only what _I_ would do with them. Your mileage may vary. and Chris Shenton asks: > A question for HBD-land: Wyeast wheat-beer is (unfortunately) a mix of > S. Delbrukii a basic beer yeast. Do you think repitching like this would > select for eventual domination by one or the other strain? I don't know of a way to guarantee which would dominate (if one ever does). However, if your goal is a pure culture of S. Delbrukii you can 'plate out' the Wyeast culture. You will note that there are two different size colonies. I _believe_ (someone who remembers help me out) the S. cerevisiae is larger in size than the S. Delbukii. So, you then take a culturing loop and grab up a bunch of these smaller colonies & grow them in ~5ml of starter solution. Then you perform the whole process again (plating, etc) until you don't seem to have any more S. cerevisiae. Of course it may just be easier to find someone who have already done this. Drop me a line in a week or two & I can tell you for sure if its the large or small colonies you want. Peter Karp asks: > Has anyone in the New England area had a taste of a contract brewed > beer called En Garde. It is said to be in the style of the French > Biere de Garde (eg. St Leonard, Trois Monts, Jenlain). Where can I > get some? Yes, I've had it, and I like it. IMHO, its a good biere de garde. Its similar to those you mention so it must be 'in the style' anyway. Its handled by 'Dark Cloud Distributors' somewhere in eastern MA. (in fact, I think they're somewhere near Tewksbury) I've seen it at most of the well stocked liquor stores in MA. Two that come to mind are Harrington's in Chelmsford, and Aubut's in Tewksbury. I wouldn't be supprised if both were running low now, I believe that this first run has almost entirly sold out now. Another should be on the way. and Greg Roody - dtn 237-7122 <roody at necsc.enet.dec.com> says: > So, how many people would like to see (even "non-profit") ads limited to > either 5 lines maximum or banned outright? I'll go for a limitation. I won't go so far as to ban a message outright because there are people out there who have useful products (lambic cultures:-). Provided that the ad is appropriate, in good taste, and doesn't appear more than 1-2 times per quater I wouldn't mind greatly. I'd prefer the ads to be <5 lines and direct those interested to an e-mail address for a full announcement. -or- perhaps have an 'advertisements' issue every few months? I can think of a few people who having interesting toys tey'd probably like to advertise. (hi Darryl) Finally, since this is a digest and we have a moderator, I'll leave it up to him to decide the issue. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 08:37:43 EDT From: hp-pcd.cv.hp.com!lotus!"LDBVAX!EMCGOWAN" Subject: Christmas recipe ~~inner_header~~ To: UNIXML::"homebrew at hpfcmi.fc.hp.com" Subject: Christmas recipe Source-Date: 8 Oct 1991 8:34 est I am planning to make a christmas ale so I was excited when some contributers mentioned a good recipe in digest #693. Alas, after searching through my local back issues, there was no 693 to be found. Could someone either email em or post the recipe. Thanks. Also, I didn't notice a date on the Charlie Papazian book signing. Will it be any day in particular? E.J. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1991 08:44 EDT From: MIKE LIGAS <LIGAS at SSCvax.CIS.McMaster.CA> Subject: Advertising for No Gain HD740 had quite a few letters which bring into question the use of HD as an advertising forum. One letter brought up the issue of discerning between ads for profit vs. ads for non-profit. Well, here's my two cents worth. I have submitted many postings in the past which could have been interpreted as advertising. Examples include a plug for the Canadian Amateur Brewers Association (CABA) which is a non-profit organization resembling the AHA, a notification of an upcoming CABA conference and competition, an ad for an International Beer, Wine and Food Festival, and an as of yet to appear note on a Brewerianist show coming soon to Toronto (I sent this one last Sunday and I haven't seen it in HD yet). In no case am I attached to these organizations as a representative or potential profiteer. I simply posted these letters because I felt they would be of interest to homebrewers and beer lovers. Still I felt somewhat put-off by the comments in HD740. Maybe a simple rule is for the person posting the letter there should be no monetary gain from the ad. Although this is a rather loose rule at least we won't be suppressing general communication on beer issues and confining ourselves to trading recipes and problem shooting, both valuable but tedious after a while. This is a homebrew forum which allows general reading on beer related issues and according to the "advertisement" for Homebrew Digest available through Seenet even wine and mead discussion is allowed. Let's not stifle free speech in the name of political correctness. RDWHAHB Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 06:24:24 PDT From: 08-Oct-1991 0920 <hannan at gnpike.enet.dec.com> Subject: Gibbs Gary Mason writes: > I am not certain about the origins of the name for Fritz Maytag's place, but > there is an Anchor Brewery in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. It brews under > the name of Gibbs Mew PLC. I did not have a chance to sample them this trip > (next time!), but they have several bitters and a barley wine in their suite. > Just looking at the place makes me think it may be older than the US version. Sounds like we had a similar itinerary in the UK... ;-) I visited Salisbury and sampled some Gibbs Mew beer. Good stuff but nothing extraordinary. Bishops Tipple I believe is the name of the barley wine put out by Gibbs. When we went into a pub (one of those fern bars that CAMRA's Guide to Good Beer complains about ;-) we asked the bartender what he recommended, and he said "So you want to play with the big boys huh?" and poured us Bishops Tipple at about 7.5% alcohol, thinking we wanted to get drunk quickly :-/. That stuff was TOO strong. Had a nice spicy hoppiness to it at first, with good malt body, but the aftertaste reminded me of cheap whiskey. Just too much. Anyway, did you get to try some Foilenfoel ("feelin' fowl") from Wales over there ? GREAT brew! Ken Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 10:15:30 EDT From: "Jack D. Hill" <jdhill at BBN.COM> Subject: re: Le Garde Le Garde (not En Garde) is brewed in White River Junction Vermont. I think it is contract brewed by WRJ (the same people who make Catamount) for another company. The stuff is fairly readily available in most respectable (and a few not so respectable) liquor stores in Massachusetts. I love French Biere de Garde and although Le Garde is very good, it doesn't quite hit the mark. Le Garde has that big, robust malty taste but it is not as smooth as the French. Also, the faint sourness that wonderfully balances off the malt isn't there. Still, this beer is definitely worth searching out. An interesting note, the people who make Le Garde also import St. Leonard, a wonderful biere de garde from France. They were at the last Brewers Offering (a beer tasting sponsored by public radio station WBUR) in Boston. Jack Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 10:30:38 EDT From: "Darren L. Ward" (FSAC-FCD) <dward at PICA.ARMY.MIL> Subject: Apple Flavor? I recently sampled my first attempt at "homebrew". I used a "Continental Light" recipe, and after waiting four weeks for the "aging", I was alittle disappointed in that there was very little "head"/carbonation, and a definate apple-like aftertaste. Is it possible that the beer merely requires more time to age, which might produce more carbonation and concurrently remove the sweet apple-like aftertaste? Does aging temperature have a significant effect on the end product? Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 9:35:49 EDT From: gozer!klm at uunet.UU.NET (Kevin L. McBride) Subject: Opportunism on the HBD (a mild flame) What Opportunism is NOT: Mike Sharp offering his services as middle man to buy yeast culturing equipment in bulk so that we may all benefit. What Opportunism IS: Another person using us as a free information resource to produce a commercial product of (IMHO) questionable merit and then having the gall to post a commercial offering it for sale in a strictly non-commercial forum. To the person who did this, and you know who you are: Please don't do it again. To everyone else on the HBD: I apologize for the flame but I know that some of you feel the same way. To counteract this, my next article will be my most recent "Best Beer." - -- Kevin Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 07:59:14 -0700 From: darryl at ism.isc.com (Darryl Richman) Subject: ice chest lauter tun > Those of you who sparge all at once in a big cooler, do you use a rectangular > cooler or a cylindrical one? How did you cut the slots in the copper tubing? I've got an 80 quart Coleman rectangular cooler. I've made 5 gallon batches in it that turned out just fine, although I must admit that I was prestty concerned that 8 lbs. of grain was not going to make a sufficiently deep bed to lauter correctly. I cut all of the slots in about 10 feet of tubing with a hack saw. (That's me, just an old hack.) Another brewer round here used a saws-all and ended up with a very professional looking job, with about twice as many cuts as I made... --Darryl Richman Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 10:37:04 EDT From: gozer!klm at uunet.UU.NET (Kevin L. McBride) Subject: Best Beer My wife bought me a kegging system from Foxx for my birthday back in August and I've been producing beer like crazy ever since. This hyperactivity has resulted in one of the best beers I've made in my 4 years of brewing and it's an extract recipe. No, it's not 100% true to style, but I don't really care because it was a damn good beer and it was quick and easy to make. "Brew Free or IPA" India Pale Ale 4 lbs. Munton and Fison light DME 4 lbs. Geordie amber DME 1 lb. crushed Crystal Malt 1.5 oz. Cascade leaf hops (boil 60 minutes) 1.5 oz. Cascade leaf hops (finishing) Wyeast #1056 Chico Ale Yeast (1 quart starter made 2 days prior) O.G.: No idea (I didn't check), but I'd WAG it to be about 1.055 F.G.: 1.012 Add the crystal malt to cold water and apply heat. simmer for 15 minutes or so then sparge into boiling kettle. Add DME, top up kettle and bring to boil. When boil starts, add boiling hops and boil for 60 minutes. 10 minutes before end of boil I added 1 tsp. of Irish Moss. When boil is complete, remove heat, add finishing hops and immediately begin chilling wort. Strain wort into fermenter and pitch yeast starter. Primary fermentation took about 4 days. I let the beer settle for another 2 days and then racked into a sanitized, primed (1/3 cup boiled corn sugar solution) and oxygen purged keg and applied some CO2 blanket pressure. After one week in the keg the beer was clear, carbonated, and very drinkable although it had a very noticeable alcoholic nose. After 2 weeks the beer was incredibly smooth, bitter, and wonderfully aromatic. Several friends raved about this beer including one who lived in England for a while said that this was one of the best IPAs he's ever had and definitely the best homebrew he's ever had. After 2.5 weeks it was all gone because we drank the whole thing. - -- Kevin Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 08:06:38 CDT From: lutzen at phys1.physics.umr.edu (lutzen) Subject: Greetings one and all... Three topics today: First off, I was bothered by the add for the homebrewing video. True, Jack was giving us a price break and he surely wouldn't be make much money from a price of $12.95, or whatever it was. It bothered me because it was a misuse of this wonderful digest. But then again, isn't this message a bit off the topic of homebrewing? Second, many thanks to all the people for submitting new recipes. With all of the recent submissions, there are almost enough recipes for Mark Stevens and I to start on "The Cat's Meow, Vol. 2". Keep sending in the recipes, because we want Vol. 2 to be a winner. Right now we are just compiling, but if there are any suggestions for us please e-mail me at the address below. But please, please, please, do not send me any "Send me a copy when it is ready" requests. All such mail will be appended to /dev/null. (I have enough to do without keeping track of these requests.) Third, I am setting up an FTP account if you care to do direct submissions, get copies of "The Cat's Meow", or whatever (related to homebrew PLEASE). The address of the machine in which to FTP to is: 131.151.23.29. Currently I am testing it and so far so good. But please be warned that this connection is going to unavailable on Friday of this week. (Have some other network rewiring to do). This will be an anonymous FTP account, so have fun... Karl Lutzen lutzen at apollo.physics.umr.edu Physics Dept. lutzen at olson.physics.umr.edu University of Missouri - Rolla 314-341-6317 Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 08 Oct 91 11:09:40 -0400 From: gonzalez at BBN.COM Subject: Re: Papazian Book-Signing in Boston Kevin McBride discreetly mentioned that I had neglected to include the date of the book-signing. It is to take place on October 26th. Sorry about that. I'm undecided about attending the dinner. I've included the text of the description to help others to decide for themselves. -Jim. Begin excerpt -------------------------------------------------------- Ruggiero to Host Dinner in Papazian's Honor Later that evening, David Ruggiero, reknowned beer judge and proprietor of BM&V will host a dinner and beer tasting in Papazian's honor at the Boston Fencing Club in Watertown, MA. A large selection of locally brewed commercial beers, as well as some choice imports will be served with a buffet dinner who's dishes have been prepared with beer. Later that evening Papazian will provide his insight into six home brewed beers prepared especially for the occasion by local brewers. Copies of _The_Complete_Joy_of_Homebrewing_ may be reserved by contacting BM&V. Tickets to the dinner may be obtained at Barleymalt and Vine or by calling (508) 820-3392. Seating is limited so order early! End excerpt ---------------------------------------------------------- Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 08:30:37 -0700 From: darryl at ism.isc.com (Darryl Richman) Subject: re: A Few Brew Questions > What is the production limit for an individual in Pennsylvania? The feds limit individuals to 100 gallons a year; households with two or more adults to 200 gallons. A gallon of beer is roughly 10 12 oz. bottles. The individual states may have their own regulations. There are still a few that make homebrewing illegal, although the conventional wisdom is that if you don't flaunt it, nobody will notice. I believe (but have no proof) that Pennsylvania doesn't have any such nonsense. > Can more than one individual pool funds to purchase production > apparatus, and then combine their individual limits? An interesting question, but I've not heard of the test case being decided. Once again, let me urge you not to lose sleep over this, unless you're offering your beer to the neighborhood children. > To what extent is the sale of the ingredients regulated, and is the > purchase of raw ingredients considered the same as purchasing alcohol > under the law? The ingredients are natural foodstuffs. There are no limitations on the purchase of barley malt (it's a common ingredient in cereals and baking), hops (the flowers of a trailing vine) or yeast. The government has more interest when you put them together and they create ethanol, especially if you try to sell it. For that matter, although the BATF may disagree, the product is a natural foodstuff. There is a theory gaining credence among archaeologists that beer is responsible for civilization. It's not uncommon in other lands for the population to obtain a significant amount of its nutrition from beer: lots of energy is available from ethanol and carbohydrates, the water content is pure, the yeast add a significant amount of vitamin B, and hops add a small amount of vitamin C. > After the initial capital outlay, about how much does beer cost, per > gallon? If you make it from scratch, as I do, your cost can be under 7c a bottle. If you buy extracts (where the mashing step has been done for you), the cost goes up significantly. I think it could be as much as 40c. Of course, these numbers reflect the cost of ingredients, excluding water and gas or electricity costs (which can be significant) and your time. > Where can I find out about how to start brewing? Get a book or two. I'd recommend "The Complete Handbook of Homebrewing" by Dave Miller (ISBN 0-88266-517-0) if you're a techie and/or "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian. There's a new edition of the latter just released. Sorry I don't have the ISBN, my copy is loaned out at the moment. But you can order either direct from the AHA at (303) 447-0816. Another thing to do is join a club. This is probably better than reading a book. You'll get to taste others' beers and probably see a variety of brewing set ups. --Darryl Richman Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 11:31:25 EDT From: "John Reed in Waltham, MA" <johnreed at BOSTON.vnet.ibm.com> Subject: Kid Stuff Does anyone remember Colt 45 Malt Liquor? I remember it from my younger days and am now hard-pressed to categorize it. Not that I would want to brew any, mind you...but I am indeed curious....How does one distinguish malt liquor from beer? Are there adjuncts? Is it an ale? A lager? Neither? S.G.? Does anybody care? Should I care or should I just RDWHAHB? Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 11:21:20 EDT From: eisen at kopf.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Carl West) Subject: red thing on top John, I managed to lose one of my red things, and found that a plastic cap from a soda bottle does the job of keeping ngucch out of the airtrap just fine, and it is less likely to act as a stopper. Carl Return to table of contents
Date: 8 Oct 91 08:45:02 From: Rad Equipment <Rad_Equipment at rad-mac1.ucsf.EDU> Subject: RE- Shameless ad's... Subject: RE: Shameless ad's... Time:8:38 AM Date:10/8/91 I agree that we ought to request commercial "blurbs" to limit themselves to minimal space. In general I'd prefer not to see advertising in the Digest unless there is some special offer to Digest readers. In your case Jack, the ending offer to the HD readers with about 10% of the discriptive text would have been better. Perhaps a short announcement of products and/or services, followed by "for more information contact (E-mail address, phone #, etc...)" would allow free enterprise to continue without increasing the S/N ratio too much. RW... Russ Wigglesworth CI$: 72300,61 |~~| UCSF Medical Center Internet: Rad Equipment at RadMac1.ucsf.edu |HB|\ Dept. of Radiology, Rm. C-324 Voice: 415-476-3668 / 474-8126 (H) |__|/ San Francisco, CA 94143-0628 Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 08 Oct 91 09:04:26 -0700 From: night at mapme7.map.tek.com Subject: My best recipe... Okay brewmeisters and beginners... here is my best recipe, by far!... Nightingale DoppleBock 7# Light Scottish Malt Extract 1# Dry Dark Malt Extract 1.5# 80L Crystal Malt 6 oz. Chocolate Malt 2 oz. Black Patent Malt 8 oz. Dextrin Malt 1/4 tsp. brewing salts 2 oz. Perle Hops (bittering) alpha=7.6% 1 oz. Hallertauer Hops (aromatic) alpha=3.9% 1/2 tsp. Gypsum 2 packets of Redstar Lager yeast 2/3 cup corn sugar for priming Water to 5 gallons Mash crushed Crystal and Dextrin Malts in a pan of water at 150F for 1 hour. Strain through collander into main kettle and sparged with 150F water until it runs clear. Add enough water to kettle to dissolve extracts (~3 gal.) Dissolve extracts, salt and gypsum into kettle and bring to a ROLLING boil. Stir in 1/2 oz. Perle Hops and boil 15 min. Stir in 1 oz. Perle Hops and boil 15 min. Stir in Chocolate and Black Patent Malts (UNCRUSHED!) and boil 15 min. Stir in 1/2 oz. Perle Hops and boil 15 min. Add Hallertaur Hops in the last minute of the boil. Strain though a nylon meshed colander into Primary fermentor. Top up to 5 gallons with cold water. Cool wort as fast as possible. (I cooled it to 80F in 9 minutes.) At 80F add yeast. (I put the dry yeast into a 1/2 cup of 95F water and let it sit for 6 min. first) My O.G. was 1.060 I placed the Primary in my garage surrounded by other containers of water to keep the temperature more constant. It brewed in the primary for 12 days at 40-48F. I then racked it into the secondary and let it sit and ferment VERY slowly for 1 month. (Temp ranged between 32F and 40F) (Visible fermentation stopped after only 10 days in the secondary.) I then racked it again into my primary. Boiled 2 cups of water with 2/3 cup of corn sugar and added. When bottling, top bottles to within 1/2" of top. I then lagered for a full month at 34F. The final gravity was 1.025. This brew is not quite as strong as a traditional Dopplebock. However, the resulting beer was none less than excellent. It had a good shot of malt flavor (esp. the chocolate!). The head quite creamy. The hopping was perfectly balanced. It is the smoothest homebrew I've ever had. I would love to tell you a brew that it compares to... but I can't. All of the Dopplebocks I've tasted are German varieties which are much higher in alcohol than this... It seems that we on the West Coast have a severe lack of good Lager breweries. The abundance of lager microbreweries are on the east coast. Thus... I make my own dopplebocks! Enjoy!!!!!! Mark Nightingale night at tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 09:29:42 PDT From: neilson at mprgate.mpr.ca (Robert Neilson) Subject: Request for digest Could you include me on the distribution for the homebrew digest? Thanks Rob ======================================================================= Robert J. Neilson Voice: (604) 293-5414 MPR Teltech Ltd. FAX: (604) 293-5787 8999 Nelson Way, Internet: neilson at mprgate.mpr.ca Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A 4B5 uunet!ubc-cs!mprgate!neilson ======================================================================= Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 11:36:00 CDT From: bliss at csrd.uiuc.edu (Brian Bliss) Subject: Chimay yeast a month or so ago, someone in HBD land described how they had cultured chimay yeast by using an agar plate, and individually culturing several different colonies, and using those which produced sweet wort. I would like to get in touch with this individual, but unfortunately, I wiped out my mbox about 2 weeks ago. - -------------------------- As for those little red things that go on the end of the siphon: Forget gettting them in different sizes - where can I get them at all? (without having to buy the whole siphon) I have at least 3 siphons laying around, and have lost all but one of the little red things. bb Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 13:53:45 EDT From: larry at evi.com (Larry McCaig) Subject: Shameless commercials In response to Greg Roody, > Shameless ad's - this is too much > Can I call for a vote on how many people found the ad for Jacks video to be > too commercial for the purposes of this file? When I saw the advertisement from "ARF", I was appalled. This digest is absolutely not the place for advertising. I can't stand it on the telly, and will have to remove myself from the digest it it starts to become common here. I believe that this is the first 'commercial' I have seen since I have been receiving the Digest, I hope it's the last. Jack should be ashamed of himself! Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1991 14:12:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Peter Glen Berger <pb1p+ at andrew.cmu.edu> Subject: Great Stout! Ok. My recipe rules after 2 weeks, and is tasting better every day. Thanks to all who helped. Here it is: "Bitch's Brew" Oatmeal Stout: 6 lbs. dark dry malt extract 2 lbs. amber dry malt extract 1 lb. crystal malt, cracked .75 lb. roasted barley, cracked .50 lb. black patent malt, cracked 2 oz. Bullions hops (boiling) .5 oz Willammette hope (finishing) 2 cups Quaker Oats 2 pkgs. Whitbread Ale Yeast Steep the Oats, and the cracked grains for 1/2 hr in cold water. Heat mixture and remove grains as boil is reached. Throw in malts and make your wort. NOTE: We were using a 5 gallon brewkettle and had to tend it for 15 minutes; the hot break is VERY assertive and hangs out for quit a long time. Boil Bullions for 45 minutes, Willammette for 5-7 minutes. Have fun. Starting SG: 1.052 Finishing: 1.019 Comments: I would cut back on the finishing hops, or boil them longer; the aroma was too assertive, although it is mellowing a bit now (after 2 weeks in the bottle). I would also change the proportion of malts to 4 lbs. LIGHT and 3 lbs. dark; there's enough color and lighter malt will yield more alcohol. Also, probably only 1 package of good yeast is needed for this mixture, I just got paranoid over my last stuck fermentation. I was very sparing on the oatmeal due to their oily character; if you put in much more, you'll lose the head entirely. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pete Berger || ARPA: peterb at cs.cmu.edu Professional Student || Pete.Berger at andrew.cmu.edu Univ. Pittsburgh School of Law || BITNET: R746PB1P at CMCCVB Attend this school, not CMU || UUCP: ...!harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!pb1p - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Goldilocks is about property rights. Little Red Riding Hood is a tale of seduction, rape, murder, and cannibalism." -Bernard J. Hibbits - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return to table of contents
Date: 8 Oct 91 14:25:00 EDT From: "DRCV06::GRAHAM" <graham%drcv06.decnet at drcvax.af.mil> Subject: Ads on the digest. I rather enjoyed Jack's ad for his video, and thought it downright decent of him to offer it to digest readers at a low price. I do not object to beer related advertising on the digest so long as it is obviously an ad and not an ad hidden as information. How many of you would read Zymurgy and skip all of the advertising? I didn't think so. I, too, like the high concentration of good material here, and wouldn't want things to get out of hand, but they haven't in the past, and I don't think we need to address a non-problem. When a person is in business for himself / herself, they need to take advantage of all opportunities to sell. I see no harm in Jack's mentioning of his new product here. Now, if he sold patio furniture, and advertised it here, I'd object, because it wasn't directly beer or brewing related. Again, let's not make a giant blowoff over a few bubbles in the airlock. Dan Graham, Beer made with the Derry air. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 11:58:40 PDT From: grumpy!cr at uunet.UU.NET (C.R. Saikley) Subject: Staleness Date From: krweiss at ucdavis.edu >Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Ale are widely available in California (in >Sacramento, at least). The bottles are tagged with an un-encrypted >freshness date, and I've yet to see a bottle on sale past the recommended >consumption date. I've got no idea how liberal the brewery is with regard >to the shelf life... I recently had a a bottle of SA Oktoberfest. The staleness date was March '92. I was with two professional brewers at the time who were both surprised that SA was willing to keep their beer on the shelf for at least 6 months. CR Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 12:10:45 PDT From: grumpy!cr at uunet.UU.NET (C.R. Saikley) Subject: Anker Beer From: GARY MASON >I am not certain about the origins of the name for Fritz Maytag's place, but >there is an Anchor Brewery in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. It brews under >the name of Gibbs Mew PLC. I did not have a chance to sample them this trip >(next time!), but they have several bitters and a barley wine in their suite. >Just looking at the place makes me think it may be older than the US version. The Anchor Brewery was founded in 1896 in SF. Don't know where they got the name. Fritz didn't get involved till '65. There is also a brewery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that produces a beer called Anker. Pronunciation and meaning are the same as our version, and the logo is somewhat similar, but the similarity stops there. Like most beers in that part of the world, Anker is a pale yellow fizzy thirst quencher. It tasted like it was made with rice, which is a common practice throughout SE Asia. CR Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1991 15:24:43 -0400 (EDT) From: R_GELINAS at UNHH.UNH.EDU (Russ Gelinas) Subject: SA holiday brew I heard from the local Sam Adams salesmen that SA is working on a cranberry lambic (!), which would unlikely be a real lambic. My guess is that we'll see it around Thanksgiving. No word on a winter warmer, but that'll probably happen too. I didn't notice the label change with SA Boston/Stock Ale, but it does seem that they've cut way down on the hops, so now it's only *really* hoppy. Anyone else notice it? Russ (Wall Drug? Who said Wall drug? Ice water, anyone?) Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 12:45:03 PDT From: Greg Roody - dtn 237-7122 <roody at necsc.enet.dec.com> Subject: The votes are in, & we have a new Unit of Measure.... the SmU Well, the results are in and unanimous. Out of the thousands who responded (well, ok, it was only three or four, but they all said the same thing) nobody wanted to see advertising in the HBD. As a side note, we did establish a new unit for homebrew ratings: the Schmidling Unit (SmU). This unit will vary inversely to the Quality; as the quality goes down, the Schmidling goes up. But be careful, this is a powerful unit; a slight chill haze would be measured in pico-Schmidlings, oxidation would be milli-Schmidlings, and full fledged infections (lacto, coloform, salmonella, etc) would be full Schmidling defects; 9 SmU's will blind you and 10 SmU's will kill you. So, there you have it. Happy Schmidling. /greg (oh it's so kind to be cruel) (it's not often you get to ridicule shameless Madison ave types) Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 13:01 PDT From: Bob_Konigsberg at 3mail.3com.com Subject: Brown Ale I'd like some advice on a Brown Ale a friend and I have been making. What I'm specifically looking for is what would provide the "nutty" character (a la Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale). This is an extract brew based on the following recipe for 10 gallons 6# light liquid extract 6# dark liquid extract 2# Medium Crystal Malt 8oz Black Patent Malt 12 AAUs per 5 gallons (24) Cascade boiling hops 2 oz Kent Goldings finishing hops 4 oz French Oak Chips The French Oak chips seem to have been a stumbling block so far, in that boiling them (as the original recipe said to) produced an unpleasant aftertaste. We've done 4 batches so far, and the two in which the oak chips were boiled were flawed. One batch we forgot to add them, and one batch we added them late with the finishing hops so that the chips did not get boiled. The latter two were pretty good, but none of the batches have the nutty character of Samuel Smiths. To answer someone's question on food grade plastic: I called the Rubbermaid company's 800 number and found that all of their food grade containers are tested with acid foods (organic acids), alkalies, strong oxidizers (inorganic acid, chlorine?), and are measured for weight loss (which would indicate seepage into the food), deformity, discoloration etc. I'm waiting on further information, so I will post it if I get anything else. BobK Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1991 16:08 EST From: STROUD%GAIA at leia.polaroid.com Subject: Papazian coming to Boston Here is an item that New England homebrewers in the Boston area may be interested in: To help celebrate the opening of their new store, Barleymalt & Vine has arranged for Charlie Papazian, the guru of homebrew, to come to town on Saturday, October 26th for a booksigning with a homebrew tasting and beer dinner to follow. To quote from BM & V's press release: 'Papazian will appear at the newest branch of Barleymalt & Vine on Route 9 in Framingham, MA where he will be from 10 to 2. At 2:30 Papazian will travel to Barleymalt & Vine's store in West Roxbury where he will stay until 6pm. Later that evening Dave Ruggiero (BM & V's owner) will host a dinner and beer tasting in Papazian's honor at the Boston Fencing Club in Watertown. A large selection of locally brewed commercial beer as well as some choice imports will be served with a buffet dinner whose dishes have been prepared with beer. Later that evening Papazian will provide his insights into 6 homebrewed beers prepared especially for the occasion by local brewers. A signed copy of the new edition of Papazian's 'Complete Joy of Homebrewing' may be reserved by contacting Barleymalt & Vine. Tickets to the dinner may be obtained at one of the Barleymalt & Vine locations or by calling (508) 820-3392. Seating is limited so order early!' I talked to Dave today and here are some more details: Charlie will be signing copies of his new book at the two stores and just talking it up with other homebrewers if you'd like to tip a few with him and ask him some questions. The dinner will start at 7 pm and is being catered by Prince St. Caterers. Paul Correnty (cider maker, professional chef, and Wort Processor) will be assisting in the menu planning. Cost for the dinner is $30 ($37 if you'd like dinner and a signed copy of the book, that's $3 off the regular price of the book). Pre-registration for the dinner is required and seating is limited. If you're interested, call NOW! Steve Stroud Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1991 15:55 EST From: STROUD%GAIA at leia.polaroid.com Subject: papazian coming to Boston Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 08 Oct 91 16:54:18 EDT From: palladin at muscle.trincoll.edu Subject: Requests for Brewpub Info. Dear Net Readers: How do we handle requests like: I am travelling to XYZ and I want to know where the brewpubs are... death? I thought there was a compiled list on mthvax.miami.edu but couldn't find it. My particular XYZ is Seattle and Pullman Washington (hint hint). I would appreciate any direct mailings: palladin at muscle.trincoll.edu Thanks in advance, Joe P. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 13:59:01 PDT From: Martin A. Lodahl <hpfcmr.fc.hp.com!hplabs!pbmoss!malodah> Subject: Fave Recipe, Adverts My favorite recipe? Why, the one that's in the fermentor now, of course! It's a really great Scottish ale, with some of the malt smoked over a peat fire, and a new type of water treatment that'll get rid of the astringency this time for sure, and ... But here's my second favorite: _Trappiste_ Ingredients - 7 lbs domestic 2-row pale malted barley 4 lbs Munich malt 8 oz wheat malt 1.5 oz chocolate malt 1 lb dark brown sugar (in boil) Bittering hops: 1 oz Chinook (10.8% AA) Finish hops: 0.5 oz Tettnanger (4.7%), 0.5 oz Hallertauer (2.8%), 0.5 oz Kent Goldings (5.2%) Priming: 1 cup light dry malt extract Process - Mash water: 14 qts at 135F Mash-in: 3 min at 131F, pH 5.3 Protein rest: 30 min at 131-28F Conversion: 2 hrs at 150-141F Mash-out: 5 min at 168F Sparge: 5.5 gallons at 168-165F, pH 5.7 Boil: 120 minutes, adding bittering hops at 60 min and finish hops at end OG: 1.078 TG: 1.013 As students of Dave Miller will recognize, this recipe doesn't differ from his in any important detail. The most critical parts are the hops and the yeast. The only substantive change I'd make to the hopping is to dry-hop rather than finish-hop, using the same quantities of the same varieties. The yeast was cultured from a bottle of Chimay Rouge. After three weeks of fascinating fermentation, a strong beer was produced that was intriguingly complex and true to type. After a few months in the bottle it acquired a strong banana-ester component in the nose that priming with corn sugar rather than DME might have ameliorated. It was fermented in a 25L carboy, then racked to a 5 gallon carboy for 5 days of clarification, then bottled. Good stuff, IMHO. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= My $0.02 on the subject of advertising in HBD: Overall, it's been a rare sight, and until Jack's video ad, had always been a tasteful offering of something of unquestionable immediate interest to the HBD community. The only examples I can immediately recall were Mike Sharp's lambic cultures and culturing equipment, Kinney Baughman's almost reluctant admission that there is a company named BrewCo selling brewing equipment, a couple of folks offering yeast cultures, and, of course, a few beer festivals and contests. I'd hate to see us throw away a useful aspect of the forum in reaction to the crassness of a single posting. I support Greg Roody's suggestion of a (voluntary) length limit for commercial messages, but feel that the polling should be done off-line, and the results forwarded to Our Benefactor and Moderator, the ever-elusive Rob Gardner, as a sampling of group sentiment. Just One Man's Opinion ... = Martin A. Lodahl Pacific*Bell Systems Analyst = = malodah at pbmoss.Pacbell.COM Sacramento, CA 916.972.4821 = = If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, = = Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me! 8-) = Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 08:37:34 BST From: Ifor Williams <ifor at computer-science.manchester.ac.uk> Subject: Oxidising Wort I've recently read Dave Millers Complete Handbook of Home Brewing and was left with the impression that I'm not careful enough with the wort! For example, Miller recommends that the boiled wort should be cooled with an immersion chiller before being poured into the hopback so as to minimise oxidation. Similarly, he recommends taking care during sparging to avoid oxidation. This leads to my question - if the wort oxidises so easily, does it not oxidise during a long open boil? If not, why not? If so, is the oxidation not much more significant that can be expected during the other brewing stages? What am I missing? Ifor. Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #741, 10/09/91 ************************************* -------
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