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


Contents:
  Kirschenbier (Conan)
  Carboys in Texas (seiferth)
  Addition of water at time of bottling ("Timothy R. Peters")
  Re: A-B Boycott? (dbell)
  Hop Storage (Mark Garetz)
  Kirschenbier results ("Steven W. Smith")


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Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1993 14:18:59 -0800
From: pascal at netcom.com (Conan)
Subject: Kirschenbier


( Catching up on old Home Brew Digests ... )

"Date: 01 Dec 1993 00:35:24 -0700 (MST)
 From: "Steven W. Smith" <SMITH_S at gc.maricopa.edu>
 Subject: Kirschenbier and stream of consciousness

"Whenever I can find cherrys again, I plan to try adding them to my standard 
 bock.  It seems reasonable (to me) to wash the whole fruit in a mild bleach 
 solution, rinse, dry, smash (how?), force into a carboy (how?), then siphon 
 from the primary onto them.  I'm thinking about 10 pounds of cherries to a 5
 gallon batch.  Maybe freezing/thawing before smashing? Do the pits matter?
 Any comments appreciated, I'm flying blind."


I was brewing a cherry-lemon-orange mead recently, and, lacking the cherries,
I wandered down to the local corner store and browsed through their freezer.

I found a wide variety of reasonably-priced two-pound packages of frozen and
pitted fruit. I read the label carefully, and could find no preservatives on
the package mentioned anywhere. I bought a couple of pounds of black bing
cherries, took them home, and pulped them with a metal meat tenderizer that
I had at hand ( like a hammer, but square, its working surface(s) covered by
variously sized small pyramid-shaped teeth, so that one may tenderize to the
degree of pulpiness desired :-), then added them to the hot protomead I had
near a boil, in the pot at hand.

So, cherries do not _seem_ to be hard to find, if one looks creatively. I
don't see much difference between picking them myself, pitting them myself,
freezing them myself ... and buying them in that last state ... except for
a few hundred thousand calories of energy and a lot of time.

The idea of rinsing fruit in a bleach solution, no matter how weak, sounds
unwise. I've heard other solutions suggested, um, copper permanganate, maybe ?
( Don't take this, alone, as sufficient authority for using it. ) Hydrogen
peroxide, I understand, is used by food processors ( according to this list,
at least ), for sanitation.

Generally, freezing and thawing is regarded as effective at killing a lot
of infective organisms, or at least putting them into a quiet state. Freezing
and thawing also breaks cell walls and allows flavoring elements to flow out
more easily. And, of course, dropping tenderized fruit into a boiling liquid
solution is regarded as suitable for any serious sanitation, or at least, a
solution over 170 Fahrenheit.


- -- richard


                     "Think of it as evolution in action."

   richard childers                                         pascal at netcom.com  

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Date: Sat, 25 Dec 93 21:29:14 MST
From: seiferth at cs.unm.edu
Subject: Carboys in Texas

I once had the address of a place in San Antonio which offer
7 gal carboys at very reasonable prices. I'm going there shortly
and would like to pick a few up. Could someone send me the tele.
number or address?

Thanks...
Justin
seiferrh at bandelier.cs.unm.edu

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Date: 26 Dec 93 00:19:26 EST
From: "Timothy R. Peters" <76307.3666 at CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Addition of water at time of bottling

I recently brewed a partial mash porter. For various undetermined reasons
I ended up with a volume that appeared to be under 4 gallons. 

I waited until fermentation was complete, primed with 3/4 cup corn sugar
in 1/2 gallon of water, added it to the beer and bottled. I now have a
feeling I should have done something earlier to correct the low volume,
or done nothing at all.  

Was this OK? Since I brewed with enough grain (9 lbs of grain and 3.3 lbs
of extract) to make 5 gallons and ended up with what was essentially a
concentrated wort, did the the addition of extra water this late do
anything to affect the beer aside from lowering the terminal gravity?

Thanks for your help and
Season's Greetings,
 
Timothy Peters 



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Date: Sat, 25 Dec 93 22:08:52 PST
From: dbell at cup.portal.com
Subject: Re: A-B Boycott?

Seeing the note on the boycott proposal reminded me of the billboard
I saw no a business trip to Milwaukee a week ago. I believe it was
a Pabst ad, but that hardly matters:
   
   Why is Budweiser so expensive?
          Why ask why??

Lucky for Pabst that W-A-W? wasn't a Jim Koch slogan!

Dave
dbell at cup.portal.com

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Date: Sun, 26 Dec 93 12:27:37 PST
From: Mark Garetz <mgaretz at hoptech.com>
Subject: Hop Storage

Scott McLagan writes:

>I am interested in the 'rate of
>deterioration' versus bittering/aroma ability. The
>statement 'this will cut the rate of deterioration in half'
>makes me wonder if I should scrutinize how my local vendor
>(and their suppliers) handle their hops . As I venture into
>the more exotic varieties of hops, (which are less commonly
>used), should I assume that I will need more quantity to
>achieve the same quality because of aging?

>Has anyone developed a scale to indicate rate of deterioration
>of aroma/alpha over time?

I have just finished an article on this exact topic which will
appear in the January/February issue of Brewing Techniques.  It
has a formula for predicting alpha acid losses vs. time, temp,
storage conditions and the hop variety.

Mark                      

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Date: 27 Dec 1993 00:57:40 -0700 (MST)
From: "Steven W. Smith" <SMITH_S at gc.maricopa.edu>
Subject: Kirschenbier results

  Since it's been _so_ quiet, it seems time to share the fate of my first 
kirschenbier (cherry beer).  Good news: it's pretty tasty (I'm enjoying one 
now).  
  Ingredients:
2 "small ziplocks" German crystal malt
2 "big ziplocks" Briess dark malt powder
3 Oz Hallertau hops, loose
2 1lb cans Oregon brand sour cherries in water (Tip-thanks to John Wyllie!)
1 envelope "Munich dark strong" dry yeast

  I simmered the crystal malt and 1/2 handful of hops in 1 gallon for about 1 
hour, sparged, and added the wort to 2 1/2 more gallons of water I had heating.
Mixed in the dry extract (Gawd, I hate that part) and brought it to a low boil, 
then added the rest of the hops - boiled for about 1 1/2 hours. Chilled, 
brought it up to 5 gallons and pitched.
  I did the primary fermentation in my refrigerator.  After about 6 weeks (when 
I got the unholy urge to add cherries) I bottled half of it to prevent ruining 
an entire batch.  I pulverized the cherries (and water they were in) in a 
blender and added the resulting goo to a clean carboy, then racked the 
remaining 2 1/2 gallons onto them.
  It really looked disgusting for a long time. Eventually most of the cherry 
pulp settled to the bottom and I racked again (now it was _slightly_ less pulpy 
than OJ).  Another 2 weeks and I racked yet again, finally getting rid of most 
all of the cherry pulp.  
  I bottled it 3 days before Xmas, that I might inflict it on my relatives.  
Surprisingly, it had a pretty good cherry flavor, although it was, um, less 
than well carbonated.  I plan to do it again next year, but rather than run the 
cherries through the blender, I'll just freeze/thaw them first and use more.
I'm sure I lost nearly 1/2 gallon trying to get rid of the pulp.
  "Some day" I plan to buy a scale, record accurate dates, etc. and I may be 
able to share more accurate recipes.
  My sister showed up with a few bottles of spruce beer that someone in her 
office had made.  IMHO, 1/2 bottle was a good sized serving.  Now I've tried 
it - it was "good", but I won't ever make 5 gallons of it...  It was quite the
ego-boosting experience; since my beer tasted like cherries instead of pine 
trees, it was the clear favorite ;-)
  I wish you all a happy new year!
  _,_/|
  \o.O;   Steven W. Smith, Programmer/Analyst
 =(___)=  Glendale Community College, Glendale Az. USA 
    U     SMITH_S at GC.BITNET
          smith_s at gc.maricopa.edu
"They can't fix your brakes. You ask them 'where's my motor?', 'Well, it was 
 eaten by snakes'... _Flakes_, Frank Zappa

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #1308, 12/27/93