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

Contents:
  CompuServe (homer)
  New Books (homer)
  Introduction, and a Few Questions (Gary Benson)

Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com


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Date: Mon, 10 Apr 89 13:29 MDT
From: homer%drutx at att.att.com
Subject: CompuServe

Charlie Papazian tells me that the homebrew forum on CompuServe is set up
and there is some activity.

The access is GO WINEFORUM. Library 14 and 15 are for beer and homebrew.

AHA members can get a free subscription and initial time on CompuServe. 
Call or write the AHA.

Jim Homer
att!drutx!homer

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Date: Mon, 10 Apr 89 13:29 MDT
From: homer%drutx at att.att.com
Subject: New Books

Randy Mosher's book "The Brewer's Workbook" will not be published by
Brewers Publications.

"Introduction to Brewing Science" by Dr. George Fix will be published
by Brewers Publications, it is currently in process.

Jim Homer
att!drutx!homer

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Date: Mon, 10 Apr 89 21:57:28 PDT
From: inc at tc.fluke.COM (Gary Benson)
Subject: Introduction, and a Few Questions

Hello! I've been reading the HomeBrew Digest for a while now, and find it
to be really interesting and informative. Thanks to all for making this a
friendly forum for discussing a mutual interest: getting snockered on the
fruits of our own labor! (Just kidding, <wink>, <wink>)

I'm writing to introduce myself, to let you know where I am with my hobby
and to ask a few questions.

My name is Gary Benson, and I supervise part of the Publications Department
here at Fluke. I recently resurrected homebrewing as a hobby, and this time
around is a LOT more fun...for one thing, it seems that in the past ten years
or so, things have gotten much more scientific and repeatable. My first time
around I brewed maybe 2 or 3 batches and gave it up for a lost cause. The
stuff made it to the bottle (maybe it shouldn't have!), and it never exploded,
but it was pretty raunchy.

Anyway, nowadays we have a CHOICE of yeast, all kinds of variations in the
brewing process, choices of equipment, and we can even make draft beer -- no
need to bottle it at all!

I am on my 8th batch or so, and I am making a beer I really enjoy. I will
porbably never graduate to all-grain brewing for two reasons: One, I am
unwilling to spend that much time, and two, I now make what I consider to be
an excellent Porter WITHOUT the added equipment and time that going
all-grain seems to entail. Perhaps my tastes will mature further (today it
is hard to believe how wonderful I once thought P-B-R was!) and my beer will
need the additional complexity or body that only all-grain can provide, but I
really can't say. I'm pretty happy with this. Here's the recipe:

    1 can Munton and Fison's dark hopped extract
    1/2 can Edme bitters kit extract
    1 stick brewer's licorice
    1/2 pound toasted barley made into a tea
    1 pound flaked barley (sparged in a kitchen strainer!)
    2 ounces Cascade hops (pellets)
    1 ounce Northern Brewer hops (pellets)
      Edme yeast (from Bitters kit)

As usual, I did not boil the entire five gallon batch. I did use boiling
water to sparge the flaked barley, though, so it was too hot for the yeast
until the following morning. To pitch the yeast, I normally do just that:
PITCH it onto the surface of the wort. This time, I took out about a quart
of the wort, added about 1/2 cup regular old refined white cane sugar, and
stirred it in after 15 minutes or so. Those yeast did not just activate,
they got down right EXCITED! I pitched the yeast on 2/24, at 7:00 am. By the
time I came home for lunch, it was bubbling furiously. Two days later it
slowed to the point that I thought it had given out, so I put it into the
secondary fermenter. That got things going again, but quite a bit slower
than initially. A total of only 7 days after pitching the yeast, I bottled.
I have never had a brew take off quite so fast, so I monitored S.G. closer
than usual-- I read it daily, and sometimes two or even three times in a
day. Beginning S.G. was 1045, and ending was 1005. When it was stable for
two days, I figured it was done, and it was. I ferment my brews right next
to the hot water heater, which seems to maintain a constant 74 degrees.

Some questions: is 74 degrees too warm for fermenting dark ales? does it
REALLY matter if you throw the yeast onto the surface, or proof it first
(given equally active yeast -- I know that both methods work, but does it
really change anything?)

I'll shut up here soon, but I did want to ask this group something I've been
curious about for a long time: it seems to me that all the world's beers
comprise a continuum from near beer, through LA, up to Budmiller, into
the Mexican exports, the British stay-at-homes, (hmmm... never thought of it
before, but Mexico and England could learn from each other!) and maybe
ending with barleywine or something. Is that a fair characterization? If so,
is there really a "definition" for the terms we use all the time to describe
our brews. What exactly is ale, beer, malt liquor, porter, bitter, stout?
The only two stouts that I can find locally are Guinness and Sheaf, and
there is a LARGE difference between these. What qualities do they share that
their makers can both put "stout" on the label? Are pilsner and lager
similar -- both are light-colored, right? And Lager is aged, but is that it?
How about Bock and dupplebock? I understand that bock is the season's dregs,
but is the double version the dregs of a season's worth of brewing starting
with bock?

Thanks -- I hope my questions are not too elementary. I am looking forward
to future editions of our digest. Oh! a piece of adminstrivia to the kind
person who manages the digest: I also usually recieve two mailings of each
digest, a day apart. I can send the path if it will help locate the bug. And
a suggestion: would it be possible to include the edition as part of the
"End" message", something like:

End of HOMEBREW Digest 199, 5/4/89
**********************************

I frequently recieve several new digests at one time, and it would be
helpful to be reminded as I reach the end what the edition was so I could
save it easily without returning to the mailer's header list to remind
myself. No problem if it's not easy to accomplish, but thanks a lot if you
can manage it!

Thanks again to all who are contributing to this fine publication. I
look forward to reading the digest every time it comes.

--
GaryBenson, inc at tc.fluke.COM-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-I was born to play shortstop. -Rey Quinones

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