September meeting at Dr,Jeckyll’s 7:30 pm September 8

Officers

President J.B.Flowers
V.President Tom Brooks
Secretary Karl Williams
Treasurer Jim Case
Competition Chm. Richard Graham
Newsletter Editor Steve Wesstrom
 

WEB PAGE: http://hbd.org/kobb/

Webmaster: Joel Henderson(joepat54@flash.net)
 

Calender of Club Events:
 

September – at Pat’s shop - Club entries-Porter,
Richard on entering competitions for a novice
October - at Pat’s Shop - Improve your Beer Series- extract with specialty Grains brewed during the meeting-
October 23 - Saturday- Pumpkin Brewin and invitational at J.B.’s
Additional brewing , all grain, extract ( Richard’s Christmas Brew) with partial, contact JB if you want to brew or assist.
November - at Pat’s - How to package your beer !
November ? - a brewin using several of the members systems- possible 3 or 4 units- JB, Byron and Steve have 2 tier RIM systems we can use in a joint brewin'
 

December – Christmas Party!!!
 

January Meeting at Mike Porters Homebrew shop- Improve your Beer Series-Beginning extract brewing demonstration
February – Bottling at Mike’s.
Preparation for Bluebonnet!
March-Bluebonnet!!! Even if you don’t enter, you should attend!
 

Articles to - Improve your beer series!

Partial mashing, as a procedure, allows for the home brewer to make a quality beer without having to invest a ton of money on another or larger brew pot. It is a step towards a more personal relationship with your beer. Be forewarned... Once a home brewer takes the step towards partial mashing a transformation will occur. The beer will taste better and the rewards will be amazing. More time will be spent in the kitchen and each time a new beer is made a new person will emerge from the brewery. Each time a new beer is made new ideas will come to mind… Each time new ideas come to mind there is a guarantee that a desire for more will emerge. So be prepared for a change! While the partial mash allows the home brewer to continue to use malt extract, before beginning, it is necessary to know that there is a need for certain equipment. Know that you will need at least a five gallon pot, a lauter tun and wort chiller for this process. Mashing is the method of brewing which allows the brewer to break down starches, in grain, to fermentable sugars. Partial mashing utilizes this procedure, on a small scale, but requires the brewer to add some extra sugars during the boil. Usually there will be a combination of about 3-5 pounds of grain and 3-5 lbs. of malt extract. For stronger beers such as barley wines or imperial stouts partial mashes help lessen the financial blow delivered by buying 15-20lbs of malt extract. The resulting beer is always more robust and flavorful and more delicate and delectable.

Some would argue for or against the last statement but, the difference in cost is undeniable. Partial Mashes are cheaper because bulk grain is cheaper than extract!

Try this for starters...

4 lb. Pale ale malt
¾ lb. 40-60º lovibond Crystal malt
6.6 lb. Light malt syrup
3 oz. Hallertau hops
3 oz. E. Kent Golding
3 oz. Fuggle hops

1) Heat 5 quarts of water to 130ºf. Combine the crushed grain and water and allow to stabalize at approximately 122ºf. Hold at that temperature for 20 minutes. Measure out 2 ½ quarts of water and start raising to a boil. Apply heat to raise the temperature of the entire mash to 125-133ºf.

2) Add the 2 ½ quarts of boiling water to the mash to raise the temperature to about 155ºf. and hold for thirty minutes.

3) After thirty minutes remove a table spoons of the liquid part of the mash and place on a clean white saucer… Add three drops of iodine to the sample to check and see it there is a color change. If the iodine turns black continue to hold the temperature for another 15 minutes, clean off the saucer (don't put the iodine in the mash) and test again. Once there is no change of the color in the iodine it is time to mash out.

4) Move the entire contents of the mash to the lauter tun and sparge with enough 170º water (called brewing liqueur) to lower the "run-off" to a specific gravity to about 1008.

5) Have a homebrew while you take the "Run-Off"!

6) Gather the contents in your brewing kettle and apply heat… Dissolve the two cans of malt syrup and continue to apply the heat

7) Bring to a boil and hold for 90 minutes. After 30 minute add 1oz. of northern brewer hops and add the remaining 2 in five minute intervals (1oz at 30min, 1 oz at 35 min. and 1oz at 40 min).

8) Continuing to boil for five minute then, at 50 minutes, 55 minutes and 60 minutes, add 1oz. of E. Kent hop at each interval.

9) Boil for another 10 minutes then at 70 and 75 minutes add 1 oz each Fuggle hops then add the remaining ounce of hop at roughly 88minutes.

10) Ferment and bottle as usual.
 

Experiecnced brewing--

The Sweet or Dry Beer Question - St. Stephen

The sweet/dry beer question focuses the discussion to one area, and that is the activity of two enzymes: alpha and beta amylase. the important thing to know about these enzymes is that they both attack starch but in different ways.

Starch comes in different forms. One form is called amylose, simply a string of glucose molecules connected like a chain.
the second form is called amylopectin and this contains branches. The result is a complex structure.

Amylose and amylopectin are made up of chains of glucose, a simple sugar. They are the only 2 molecules that alpha and beta amylase do battle with in a mash. If you want a full beer with a low fermentability- sweet- steer your mash away form beta amylase. This means mash in toward the upper end of the alpha amylase temperature window. and keep the mash as short as possible.One technique to cripple the beta amylase is a thin mash.

A thin mash leaves a higher proportion of the enzymes floating around. If you use a thinner mash you will produce fewer fermentables than in a thicker mash.

If your objective is to make a dryer beer, then you need a very fermentable wort. Mash in cool- 140 degrees. Give your mash a good long hold. This will allow the betaamylase time to chop up the amylose and the tips of the amylopectin branches. Another way to get alpha and beta amylase working together is to slowly increase temperature from 140 after a 30-45 min protein rest, to 155-158 degrees. The most common way of slowly increasing the temperature is to heat from 140 to 142, then 144 etc. This is easier to control than a gradual rise. Some brewers do a bit of both. They mash in for a beta amlase rest and then rapidly raise the temperature to the alpha amylase rest to avoid too much dryness in the finished beer. Other beers mash in even cooler for beta glucanase or limited protease activity. This is where the topic of mashing starts to get big...
 
 

This is more than a competition,for anyone that has not attended one of the recent Dallas.Fort Worth events, your have really missed out on brewing information. The speakers that we present are those that write the books and articles we see in the brew shops. The forums on Saturday are invaluable!
 

Bluebonnet Items:

Meetings:

September 19-Fort Worth location

1:00 pm at The Flying Saucer
 

Sunday, the 19th the T-shirt, pint glass, stein,and poster logo designs are due.

Items to be determined-

Location for login TBD,

Location for Event TBD (Looking at Wilsonworld Hotel, ½ mile west of Holiday Inn on 183)
 
 

October - Net Hoppers Location, Date TBD

November- Dallas location 1:00 pm Gingerman DateTBD

December No Meeting-

January- Arlington location-J. Gilligan’s 1:00 pm date TBD

February- Fort Worth location- 1:00 pm date TBD

Login Location TBD

Early entry login (Saturday) 2/26, ( Sunday) 2/27

Late login( Saturday) 3/4,( Sunday) 3/5

First-round Judging is March 11 and 12 ( at COORS Distribution Center in N. Fort Worth)

The event (if at Wilsonworld ) will be held on March 24,25 instead of the 17th and 18th to avoid St. Patrick's Day.
 

Every serious homebrewer should attend the Bluebonnet!
 
 

Article:

The new disease that wiped out a portion of the hops crop in Washington's Yakima Valley may not make much of a difference to beer drinkers this year, but the long-term effects must still be measured. Powdery mildew disease forced hop farmers to destroy at least 10 percent of the crop planted. Because of an oversupply of hops in the world market, the losses, while still very real to the farmers who are out more than $20 million, won't translate into higher hop prices this year.

Powdery mildew is, however, one more obstacle hop farmers will have to deal with annually. "It's going to be here forever," said Thomas Huck of S. S. Steiner, a Yakima hops producer and broker. "We're going to have to live with it and take measures from this day forward. I figure the cost of production went up $150 to $200 per acre in Yakima."
 
 

The Pennsylvania Alcohol Control Board banned the sale of Manneken Pis White Ale in the state because of its label. The beer, produce by Brasserie LeFebvre in Quenast, Belgium, and distributed in the United States by Paulaner North America, has a likeness of the famous Manneken Pis statue on the label.

The statue, which dates back to the 16th century, is of a little boy urinating. It is one of Brussels' most popular tourist attractions. Pennsylvania Control Board official Silvio DeBein said the label suggests lewd and indecent behavior and that the people of Pennsylvania should not be exposed to it.
 
 

Richard’s Corner :

Six members of the Knights met at Dr. Jeckyll’s on Saturday, July 17th to judge the entries for the AHA - It’s a Mead, Mead, Mead World (Mead)/ KOBB - Wild Wild Wheat (Any Kind) competition.

I want to thank those that entered and those that helped in the judging. Ten entries were received ( 3 mead and 7 wheat). I can truthfully say all were very nice brews.

The top three scoring entries are listed below:
 

1st Place - Dave May - German-style Wheat.

2nd Place - Sandy Sandlin - Sweet, Still Mead.

3rd Place - Richard Graham - American-style Wheat.

Sandy’s mead will be forwarded to compete against other clubs in the AHA Club Only Competition - It’s a Mead, Mead, Mead World. Good luck to Sandy and his entry.

As a reminder, our KOBB competitions are normally held in conjunction with the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Club Only Competitions.

There is no entry fee for club competitions and all that is needed is one bottle of brew labeled with your name, phone number, and the style of beer.

The AHA sets the styles for the Club Only Competitions but we often add an alternate style if there is not sufficient interest expressed by the KOBB members in the AHA style. The entry scoring highest in the AHA style will be forwarded at KOBB expense to AHA nationals for judging against other AHA clubs (one entry per club) from across the country.
 

Experienced brewing:

YEAST WASHING FOR THE HOME BREWER

Reprinted from the Wyeast web site: http://www.wyest.com

Objective:

To recover yeast from a finished batch of beer for repitching or storage for future use.

Materials:

One primary or secondary fermenter after beer has been siphoned or removed.

Three sanitized 1 quart mason jars with lids, filled half full of sterile or boiled water which have been cooled and chilled to refrigerator temperature (38°F).

1. Sanitize the opening of the carboy.

2. Pour the water from one of the quart jars into the carboy. Swirl to agitate the yeast, hop residue, and trub from the bottom.

3. Pour the carboy contents back into the empty jar and replace the cover.

4. Agitate the jar to allow separation of the components. Continue to agitate periodically until obvious separation is noticeable.

5. While the viable yeast remains in suspension. pour off this portion, into the second jar, being careful to leave as much of the hops and trub behind as possible.

6. Agitate the second container to again get as much separation of yeast from particulate as possible. Allow contents to rest, then pour off any excess water from the surface.

7. Pour off yeast fraction, which suspends above the particulate into the third container. Store this container up to one month refrigerated. Pour off liquid and add wort, two days before brewing or repitch into a new brew straight away.

Upcoming Competitions

Following is a list of homebrew competitions from around the state and region. For club members interested in entering any of the out-of-town competitions, we will try to gather the entries and send the lot to save on shipping costs. For KOBB members only - You pay your entry fees and the club will pay for shipping. Be sure and let me know well ahead of time if you have out-of-town entries to insure the entry deadlines are met.

September:

Second Annual Cactus Challenge. Sponsored by the ALE-ian Society Homebrew Club, Lubbock, Tx., September 23rd. Early entries - $7 @ due September 13th. Late entries - $9 @ due Sept. 20th. See Richard Graham, Mike at the Homebrew Shop, or Pat at Dr. Jeckyll’s for entry forms and style guides. Also check the Ale-ian site at lubbock.homebrew@door.net.

You can drop your entries at Richard’s house, The Homebrew Shop, or Dr. J’s no later than 5 PM, the 3rd of September. Please have your entry forms completed, bottles labled, and check attached.

October:

AHA/KOBB - Porter! Style Numbers 9a and 9b. Entries due at the September meeting. We will have the porter judging immediately after the business portion of the September meeting, so be sure to bring or make arrangements to have your entries at this meeting. The top scoring porter will be forwarded to the AHA Club Only Competition to be held in early October.

The 16th Annual Dixie Cup Homebrew Competition. Sponsored by the Foam Rangers, Houston, Tx. Last leg of the Gulf Coast Challenge. Awards/party 22 & 23 October. $6.00/entry before Oct. 10th- $10/entry up to Oct. 15th. For more information and styles see - http://www.foamrangers.com/.

Is there any interest in a road trip to Houston for the Dixie Cup? Dave Dixon and some of the NEThoppers are planning on attending.

December:

AHA - Winter Warmer (Strong English/Scotch Ales)/ KOBB Holiday Cheer (spiced beer/cider). Style numbers 10, 22, and 28d. This is the final competition for the KOBB Master Brewer of 1999. Entries due at the November meeting. The top scoring Strong Ale will be sent to the AHA Club Only judging to be held in early December.

January 2000:

AHA - Barley Wine/ KOBB - English-style Bitter/Pale Ale. Style numbers 1, 5, and 7. Entries due at the December meeting. This is the first contest for the Y2K (Year 2000 Knight) Homebrewer of the Year. The top Barley Wine goes to the AHA in early January.
 
 

Sapporo is clean, crisp perfection!

For some unfathomable reason, Japanese beers have re-garnered a reputation in this country for being lite, not miller lite esque, but somehow insubstantial and insipid. I’d like to put the to rest right now. Japanese beers are much more full bodied than their American counterparts. In fact Sapporo Draft is a perfectly delicious example of beer making at its finest. Perhaps it’s the distinctively clean taste that has sullied their image so. Or maybe it’s a smear campaign by jealous American beer makers, I don’t know. I’ll let the marketing honchos figure it out.

All I care about is the obvious quality that goes into Sapporo. Pour it into a tall glass, let the head settle, take a sip and savor the finely tuned c rispy snap of hops on th epalate. Wash it down and ponder the sharp malty clean finish.

Have I mentioned how clean Sapporo tastes?

Even the sturdy bottle bears the unmistakable stamp of relentless perfectionism: Where the neck broadens out, hundreds of inely raised bumps girdle the bottle, as if to provide boozer san with a handy grip. If you find Sapporo in cans, you’re in for a tactile treat: The thin aluminum and sensuous bulge are a far cry from the oil drums we’re used to swilling from. But what a shame not to pour this one into cold glass and release the brew masters art.

Named for the town where it first began brewing operations in 1876 (after a little visit from Admiral Perry), Sapporo Breweries now has headquarters in Tokyo.Check out its web site at www.saporrobeer.com, and you’ll discover a wealth of information about its cold ceramic filtration system, which removes all residual yeast. It claims, boldly, that" to enjoy beer as it is brewed to taste, the complete rremoval of yeast is a must"

Can you imagine the Belgians, beer makers extraordinaire, who love to leave yeast in screaming bloody murder?

Let the controversy reign: Sapporo is a fine brew, delicately balanced, flavorful, and delightful all around, .In fact, it’s my new favorite. This week at least.
 
 

In a continuing series on improving our home brewed beers, let’s look into adding a little CO2 gas to our brewing process. The improvement in your beer will be immediate, noticeable and as a side benefit, better on your back!

Let’s dispel myth #1 about Kegging and using CO2: It’s expensive! Sure, if you go out and buy a couple of new kegs ($75-$100 each), and you buy your own tank ($100-$200 depending on size) and you bought a brand new regulator ($60), yes you will run into a few bucks. But… used kegs (and admittedly they can be tough to find) run about $15 each, every gas supply place that I have used will let you have a 20# CO2 tank for a mere $25 deposit (+$12-$15 for the gas and heavy usage with a 20# tank will last you for a good 6 months) – I got my 20# tank years ago now and after a refill or two with this original gas supplier, I have gone off elsewhere for refills or swap outs (it is not uncommon that the gas place will take your empty tank and just swap it out with an already filled one). The original supplier (of my $25 deposit tank) never asked for their tank back. Finally you should be able to assemble or get a used regulator for around $30. Your total invest-ment for a 2 keg minimum system is a scant $100 with a tank of CO2 to get you rolling today!

Myth #2: I can’t refrigerate Kegs (Coca-Cola or DP, not full size!) hence I have no use for CO2! If your current (ideally 2^nd?) frig can’t hold the kegs (on their side is actually a common config-uration, at least until it’s time to drink), then Relax, Don’t Worry, Just Dave still highly recom-mends that you use CO2! As explained below, you do not have to have your final beverage "on tap" in order to enjoy the benefits of using CO2 along the way…

Far and away, the most common flaw that I find with HomeBrewed beers is Oxidation, the intro-duction of oxygen once fermentation is under way or completed. Oxidation leads to a slight sour-ness in the flavor, darkens the beer a bit and commonly leaves a slight dryness or flatness often characterized as a "cardboard" taste. Finally, in some bad cases, oxidation detroys head retention in your beer; the frothy head when poured dissapates quickly and surely leaving a carbonated but no head beer in its wake.

In a few styles, notably English Barley Wines and Old Ales, oxidation is a desired quality (the slight sourness contributes to an otherwise sweet to very sweet beer). For just about all other styles however, Oxidation detracts from what otherwise is a clean (no infection) beverage to be enjoyed by one and all. Let’s keep the oxygen out of our beer!

Oxidation is very tough to avoid on the HomeBrew level. A high fermentation temp, even under sealed conditions, leads to some oxidation. The time lag between when the beer is cooked until it undertakes active fermentation leaves the beer prone to oxidation (though honestly, oxidation at this point in time is not a bad thing, your wort needs plenty of oxygen for the yeast to use during its growing phase. However, this is the most likely time for infection while your wort is warm to cool and not under the protection of fermentation which kicks off…CO2! That’s why we have a yeast starter ready to go… correct!? ). Most importantly at our level, the moving of your beverage from primary to secondary (via siphoning), from secondary to storage and/or at the time of bottling, necessarily splashes the beer about and causes oxidation to the entire beverage. It is during these transfer times when CO2 can become our life-long friend with the added benefit of eliminating or nearly eliminating oxidation in the process – such a deal!

For years, I have done primary fermentation in the 6 ½ gal glass bottles and then secondary in stainless steel kegs (in a recent and ongoing experiment, I’m using stainless for primary as well). From secondary, I move my beer to either storage or serving tanks (keep in mind as noted in "Getting over the Hump", that my avg beer is 4-5 mos. old prior to consumption…). In each of these steps, I use CO2 to PUSH the beer from point A to point B vs. gravity to siphon it DOWN from one container to the next. By pushing the beer with CO2, I do not have to LIFT the primary or secondary fermenter (and then usually let it settle for a couple hours to a day or more). Additionally, if my secondary storage is in a higher place (in a frig. or cooler for example), I can even PUSH the beer UP, not just level (or down) so that once the transfer is complete, I do not have to lift my beer at all! (well, I DO have to lift it from time to time, but in convenient 12-24 oz containers!!) As well, for any lifting that I have to do, lifting 5 gal. of beer in a lightweight stainless keg (with handles on it by the way) is a whole lot easier than lifting an unwielding and if wet at all, dangerous glass container.

Here’s the specifics on how CO2 can help you. With a two hole bung or rubber stopper and a "quick connect" fitting on your gas line (or somethiing as simple as a small hard straw), you have gas enter your primary fermenter via 1 hole, turn on the gas (10-15# or so) and it then pushes out the fermented brew out via a "J" shaped "siphoning" tube into your secondary fermenter, ideally a stainless keg. You have already "purged" this keg of oxygen by putting it under CO2 pressure prior to siphoning. You then "bleed it" by letting the CO2 out of the top fittings. You can still use glass or plastic for secondary but I’d recommend using one of your initial 2 kegs for secondary fermentation. I use soft 3/8" copper (about 2 ½ - 3’) for my "J" shaped tube; I can put it all the way into the bottom of my fermenter but it does not pull up (much) yeast because it curves back up pulling beer somewhere just off the bottom, not the bottom itself. The hoses to and fro are your normal 3/8" food grade plastic hoses you already use.

Once in the keg for secondary, be sure to bleed off most of the pressure for a couple of days while the final stages of fermentation are taking place. Just Dave recommends a final transfer of your beer from this secondary keg to a storage or bottling keg, just to take it off the dead yeast again. This keg to keg transfer is as easy as it gets. You have purged the new keg with CO2 already (I usually store my kegs with 30# of CO2pressure, bleed them off from time to time and hence they are ready to go for any transfer time!). I simply use a beer tap, open it up, and put in towards the bottom of the new keg. Put 10-15# of pressure on the sealed keg and let er rip! For bottling, add your normal amount of bottling sugar and add as normal. Mix well (and since you can add the sugar and then seal the keg again, you can "shake it up baby" to mix thoroughly) and "siphon" into bottles. Usually adding the sugar will immediately generate enough CO2 pressure in the sealed bottling keg to bottle your beverage. If not or once you get towards the bottom, add a bit of CO2 gas to the keg to continue your bottling process. Notice that in all of these transfers, you’ve got your containers side by side, as close or far apart as your hoses will go! No lifting. As well, note that a CO2 environment is very stable and sterile. Bacteria simply cannot grow in that medium; one of the reasons there is no life on Mars!

I’ll bring a bit of equipment to the next meeting to demo this easy process. Speaking of which, we have a couple of bonus items coming up. On Saturday, September 18, we have a Picnic arranged by the Cowtown Cappers. The event should be at the Lockheed Recreational Area (LRA) which is at I/S 20 and Bryant Irvin Rd in Ft. Worth. It appears that we can bring brewing equipment and have access to water, so, a brewing demo or two should take place at the Picnic. If no brewing is allowed, Tom Brooks and I will have a demo on the 18^th or 25^th at my place in S. Arlington to Commemorate my 20^th year of Brewing (maybe one of these days I’ll actually get it right!). We’ll be doing an all grain (Pilsner likely) brew in 15 gallon modified kegs. We’ll have everything from simple pots and pans to pumps that carry our wort to and fro. My preference is at the Picnic itself so plan to join in on the fun! Mark these dates off on your calenders. Further details at the meeting which is "early" this month on Wednesday, September 8^th.

Until next time, add a little gas to your process and….. Happy Brewing!

Just Dave.
 
 

From the Editor

I misspelled Rauch Beer incorrectly last month, never to be done again! Newsletter articles are welcomed, and requested.

Steve 817-229-3500 Email steph10344@aol.com