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

Contents:
  The beer continuum (David Baer)
  Duplicates, Compuserve, etc (rdg)
  RE: Homebrew Digest #124 (April 11, 1989) (DEW)

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Date: Tue, 11 Apr 89 08:17:17 PDT
From: dsbaer at EBay.Sun.COM (David Baer)
Subject: The beer continuum

Gary Benson asks the insightful question:

>>What exactly is ale, beer, malt liquor, porter, bitter, stout?
What qualities do [stouts share] that their makers can...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? <<

In very brief, each of these styles of beers has a starting gravity,
specific ingredient, or certain type of yeast that allows each
to be classified with other beers.  The problem lies when styles of
beer are very similar: ie Porter and Stout.  There the line of
distinction blurs and the words often become interchangeable.

Michael Jackson has a book "The Simon and Schuester Pocket Guide
to Beer" that will give alot of details about what the differences
are between different beer styles. 
  

>>I understand that bock is the season's dregs,<<

I have a different understanding of bock.  Without my pocket
guide I don't have an exact definition, but I think bock beers
are usually brewed in the fall for consumption in the spring, 
they have relatively high starting gravities: ie 1055-1065(dopplebocks
are 1070-1080) and are called bock beer because the original bock
was brewed in Einbeck, Germany. The reason many bock beers have a goat 
as their mascot is "bock" is goat in German. I don't speak German and 
can't verify my last statement at this moment, but I think its true. 

Welcome aboard, Gary,

Dave Baer 
(Sun Microsystems, Inc. in lovely Milpitas,CA)

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Date: Tue, 11 Apr 89 15:59:42 MDT
From: rdg at hpfcmi
Subject: Duplicates, Compuserve, etc
Full-Name: 	Rob Gardner	

I'd like to thank everyone for putting up with both the duplicate
problem and the blank message problem. I predict that these maladies
will still be eradicated in our lifetimes. Be patient.

> to future editions of our digest. Oh! a piece of adminstrivia to the kind
> person who manages the digest:
>
> 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
> **********************************
> 
> Thanks again to all who are contributing to this fine publication. I
> look forward to reading the digest every time it comes.

Well, with all those compliments, how can I refuse? 

OK, now on to our regularly scheduled program.

Warning: Famous Gardner-style Diatribe begins here...

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

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

Wow, that's sounds good. But here's my personal, biased, opinion on
how successful homebrew will be on CompuServe. Consider that out of
the tens (or perhaps hundreds) of thousands of people who have access
to Usenet/BitNet/CSnet/Arpanet/etcnet, only about 350 have elected to
subscribe to the Homebrew Digest. Out of those 350, there are only
around 5 or 10 people who contribute articles regularly, and only
about 30 or 40 who ever contribute. (Diclaimer: these numbers are the
purest shimmering wild assed guesses.) The obvious reason for the
small number of subscribers (as opposed to say, Zymurgy circulation),
is that we are homebrewers with an interest in computers, and who work
with them on a daily basis, and happen to be lucky enough to have
access to the net.

Now, let's look at the people who will subscribe to the compuserve
homebrewing discussion. They are a similar group, but with one
important difference: they will have to be loaded with money. For in
order to access compuserve, you must own a modem, and a terminal or a
personal computer! You must also have bags of money to pay the connect
charges. Now, it is true that lots of people brew beer, and lots of
people have PC's, but how many people are interested in both? I
predict it will be a pretty small number of people who are willing to
spend the extra time and money.

For most of you out there, the time and money you spend on the Homebrew
Digest is close to nothing. How many of you would even bother if it
meant you had to go through a whole electronic ritual just to log in?

Well, that's just my opinion. 

Rob

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Date: Tue, 11 Apr 89 13:32 EST
From: DEW at vms.cis.pittsburgh.edu
Subject: RE: Homebrew Digest #124 (April 11, 1989)

Prior to receiveing the Homebrew Digest #124 the last Digest I received
was #117.  Is this a current problem or am I the only subscriber
experiencing this difficulty?  If possible I would like to receive Digests
#118 to #123.

Digestless

Doug ...

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