HOMEBREW Digest #1405 Fri 22 April 1994

Digest #1404 Digest #1406


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


Contents:
  Re: Ammonia Beer/ Chlorine & Life/ High Hops- Hop Starts (COYOTE)
  Need hop oil suggestion (Carlo Fusco)
  Recycle hops, USA Saaz, hop compost (Mike Sadul)
  Pump me up! (COYOTE)
  Carapils vs Caramel Debate & Mashout/ Beer Hunters so cool/ Fruits & (COYOTE)
  exploding bottles (Joseph Edward Kain Iii)
  Old Egyptian Recipe? (Dave Pehling)
  Re: Cheap Airstone, or:Details Man, Details! ("McGaughey, Nial")
  Where to Get a Gott? (Doug Fettig)
  Cranberry Wheat Recipe (Timothy Staiano)
  Mashing Crystal (Darren Aaberge)
  Foodgrade (Algis R Korzonas +1 708 979 8583)
  Ammonia and cinnamon (Tri Pham)
  Pub Help (Ken Jackson)
   (I am a brainless twit)
  Toasted malt (KWH)
  20 min mashing, O2 saturation (Jim Busch)
  Re: Two Problems (with Light Lager) (Bill Szymczak)
  Las Vegas Brew Pubs (rnarvaez)
  cask ales, pt 1 (Jim Busch)
  Looking for special beers (MS08653)
  Fear of dry-hopping (BUKOFSKY)
  re: GuppyMasher(tm) (Mark Bellefeuille)
  cask ales, pt 2 (Jim Busch)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 11:12:53 -0600 (MDT) From: COYOTE <SLK6P at cc.usu.edu> Subject: Re: Ammonia Beer/ Chlorine & Life/ High Hops- Hop Starts I've been watchin' silently for a couple daze, so here's a banter from the Coyote for your listenin' pleasure! :) Hoppy Hoppy Days! >Jason Sloan sed... The airlock never seemed to start going, even after a couple of days. We got a bit impatient and looked under the lid and it sure looked like it had been fermenting so we decided to rack to a primary for the sheer unadulterated Hell of it. ^^^^^^^ * Ok, I'll bite. What was it in (bucket) if you were going to rack INTO a primary? Primary = First. Hence you would rack to a secondary. But really: Honey and Cinnamon. I say....yum, yum, yum... My guess is you never had good yeast going in there. Did you TASTE it before you dumped it? Have you ever SMELLED CO2 (not Co2, or C02)? It will make your nose burn and eyes water. Trust me.... Sometimes buckets of the plastic type will leak enough that a blowoff tube, or airlock will not be the place where gas is released. The early stages of a ferment can be rather nasty to the novice, then you come to appreciate the sulfury, noxious compounds for what they are: Potential Beer! I love to watch them churn! Hugging my Homebrew! I'd say- "Do it adain, Do it adain" (tweety bird). If you're worried 1. Don't be. 2. Go with a straight recipe 3. Make a starter *** Blue airstones and chlorine: FWIW: I had one of those LONG wall of bubbles type airstones that had once been in fishtank water, so I soaked it in a fairly strong chlorine solution. Guess what? The blue went partially away! AND...even after thorough rinsing it seemed that air pushed through it continued to smell of chlorine. SO I never put it in beer or mead. A metal tube (stainless is good) with one end crimped shut or capped, and holes drilled in it should do the trick. A simple air filter can be made with glass wool stuffed in a tube, and autoclaved (pressure cooked) if you're so inclined. There are commercial sterile air filters available. Check with a medical oxygen supplier. Chlorine and sperm: I need more specifics here. 50% reduction in sperm. It sounds like you were saying "due to chlorine intake in...water supplies?" Were there any specifics like....concentration, duration.... Or was it a matter of spewing sperm into 1. Conc Chlorine 2. Cl Soln??? I could easily see THAT killing them off! They do have a hard life... That's a pretty nasty statistic to just throw out w/o any specifics! What about dipping ones hands repeatedly into chlorine? Breathing it? Could you give us some more useful info from that article? *** High Altitude Hops: I forget who...was wanting to grow hops at 6000-6200 feet elevation. Wow duuuude. You're High! I'm at 4000, and have had good success, but you are pushing the limits of a growing season! Frost in august! Euey. I can tell you that 5 feet will not be enough for hops, even if you wrap them back and forth. I don't know what this greenhouse thingy looks like, but I picture HOPS everywhere, and nothing else if you try them inside. Suggestion? Plant them in a BIG pot (10 gal?) and let them start inside, so they can get an earlier start on the season, then when they are a few feet high move the post outside, and bury the pot in the ground after frost danger is past. Keeping a wall of water, or other cover handy. Then let them climb, climb, climb. Cuz they will! You might be able to make it work. But you might not. No harm in trying! *** Hop Starts- success in the making! Just an update: My attempts at rooting, and direct planting are mostly alive and well. I do think there is an advantage to putting cuttings in water until roots form, then placing in soil. I'd also suggest keeping a fresh tip. i.e., if the cut end rots before roots form, give it another cut to be sure the xylem-phloem have access to water directly. But- I also have shoots placed directly in a peat moss (not irish or spanish!), sand, soil, vermiculite mixture. Some are looking happy and healthy. A couple have wilted. But at least half are happily viable. My cascade has sent up NUMEROUS shoots, and I've wrapped the tallest on stringers already. I couldn't bare to just cut off the other shoots, so I've been rooting them. I have friends who'd enjoy them, plus a chainlink fence facing the high school which I'd be glad to have covered with hops! Privacy can be a good thing! :( I observed that the hairs on the stems became roots (green stems). But the below ground stems (pale-> red colors) don't have hairs. I now have a comparison set going of above, and below ground stems. I'll update on that later. ALSO: another observation: The underground stems from earlier shoots that had been cut have developed new shoot- branches, with roots right there. These seem prime for propogation too! So I'm basically going at it with all ends of the stick. Since this is only their second season I'm not really finding nice fat rhizomes like the ones I got from FreshHops. But maybe next year! For any that missed it: Cut a shoot close to the ground or below. Cut a slant close to a node (leave emergence point= bulge) and snip off the lowest leaves, leaving two or three sets from the top. Dip in rootone if ya got it. Place in shallow water (all leaves above) and sit on a windowsill- in partial to full sun. Not too hot or droopage! I'm still working on ideas for the new hop-yard, but it's going to be a while yet, so I placed the new rhizomes in some pots, soil-peat moss so they can get started. They had nice shoots, which are just starting to poke out of the soil now. God I love hops! They are sooooo coooooool! o |\ |\| \/| \-\-\- John (The Coyote) Wyllie SLK6P at cc.usu.edu -/-/-/ \ \ Originally in Logan, soon to be Smithfield (utah. shhhhhh) ---- "That's a beer that feels good on my moustache" Me! 8{|} Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 21:18:00 -0400 From: carlo.fusco at canrem.com (Carlo Fusco) Subject: Need hop oil suggestion Hello Brewers, I need just a little help. I recently made an English Bitter and I just tasted it out of the primary and into the secondary and found it to be lacking quite a bit in the bitterness. I would like someone to suggest a way to increase the bitterness of this brew before I keg it. Thanks Carlo - --- * Freddie 1.2.5 * email: carlo.fusco at canrem.com Sharon,Ontario,Canada Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 1994 11:39:00 -0400 From: mike.sadul at canrem.com (Mike Sadul) Subject: Recycle hops, USA Saaz, hop compost Has anyone ever tried recycling hops? Or to be more precise, has anyone tried reusing aroma hops (or even flavor hops) as bittering hops for the next batch? This occurred to me last weekend when I brewed two 10 gallon batches in one day :) (don't try this at home kids! it makes for one looong day PLUS dry, chapped hands from all the equipment washing and rinsing :( ). After siphoning the wort from the kettle of the first batch, I proceeded to dump the spent hop (pellets) onto the compost heap. Now, seeing my most expensive ingredients only being used for a few minutes and knowingly throwing away unused bitterness got me wondering... Could this green sludge simply be dumped into my next batch? Or would the hot and cold break cause problems if it gets reboiled for another hour. Perhaps the break could somehow be rinsed off (akin to yeast washing)? Maybe it would be possible with hop cones? Any brave souls willing to sacrifice a batch for experimental purposes? Perhaps one day spent aroma hops will be part of our recycling program! ************* It was the price of hops which brought upon the above questions. They don't seem as important any more since I found a store (in Toronto) that sells 1 oz. of Cascade pellets for $.89 and USA Saaz for a whopping $1.09. I was paying upwards of $2 an oz. before. I assume the USA Saaz are not of the same quality as the imported variety? Has anyone done any side by side comparisons of these two types? ************* Since one reason for using hops is for their anti-bacterial qualities, would dumping them onto a compost heap cause any problems with the breakdown of the compost? Enough questions, bring on the homebrew! Mike 'Where temperatures are still low enough to lager' Sadul mike.sadul at canrem.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 11:33:48 -0600 (MDT) From: COYOTE <SLK6P at cc.usu.edu> Subject: Pump me up! Forgot...to...ask....before. Anyone have a source of a reasonably priced (read- I'ma cheapskate) pump that is food grade, and will tolerate up to sparge temp water? I wouldn't mind developing some aspect of a RIMS-esque system in my new location. I hate lifting heavy things and hope to eliminate that from my new brewing arrangement. A pump around would be a handy thing! Please e-mail me with any info you might have, prices, catalog numbers, phone# Chow. (I'll skip the sig.line this time, ok folks!) Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 11:30:09 -0600 (MDT) From: COYOTE <SLK6P at cc.usu.edu> Subject: Carapils vs Caramel Debate & Mashout/ Beer Hunters so cool/ Fruits & FWIW: Carapils = Dextrine Caramel = Crystal. They are not the same cookie! In terms of enzymes and their chewing action: It all depends on temperatures as to which enzymes are active. Certain types of branches will leave poly-saccharides intact. Some oligo saccharides (several mono's) can remain unfermentable even with a long mash. That's why there is residual sweetness in beers. Adding them at the end of a mash may be more likely to leave any unfermentables undigested, BUT dextrins can be unfermentable PRODUCTS of a mash. Not all saccharides in malt starches are digestable by yeast. I always grind all my grain together and mash in one big goo. I feel I get plenty of maltiness in my beers. I usually follow something of a stepwise infusion-esque mashing regime. I think I'll go try one right now! And I don't do a TRUE mashout in my picnic cooler: BUT my sparge water is HOT so the mash temp does drift upward during the sparge and should have the same end result: Getting the sugars OUT of the grain. One advantage of a mashout is that you INACTIVATE enzymes. But I start my boils right away, so the time to inactivation is effectively the same. Inactivation is not an instantaneous thing. It occurs in a given time frame of LOSS OF ACTIVITY per minute (or hour) at X TEMPERATURE. Just my 2c. *** Hunter Airstat, Home made Cooler/fridge Just got me a Hunter Airstat (Cellar Homebrew 800-365-7660,$29.95, discl) and realized that this puppy does ALL KINDS of stuff, very little of it do I need! Unless I'm actually going to run a window air conditioner! But it's nice to know it can! Question 1: Is there anyway of tweaking these buggers to run lower than 40 deg f? That's their lower limit, I'd like the option of going to 32, but didn't want to spend $60 for the other model! Question 2: Has anyone tried making an insulated "room"? Thing is I do have one of those window air conditioners (refrigeration) that I picked up at a thrift store for $5. It works just fine! I was thinking of building a plywood, styrofoam BOX for storing kegs and carboys. Either in the basment or the garage. I've seen the Refridgerator Modification designs of building extra space off of a fridge, but I'd just as well keep the extra fridge I got for $10 (same place) with it's taps mounted, set at a colder temperature for serving beer, and have a separate space for lagering. I guess the question here is: Is there any potential harm in running one of these window air-conditioners in a closed space? When it sits in the window I have the understanding that it can/will draw air from the outside, and push cool air inside. I would guess it must be venting warmer air from the cooling coils too (like the back of a fridge). Are there any hazardous gases (like chlorine, to kill our sperm!) released which I should <gasp> "worry" about? I doubt it, but thought I'd ask the net knowledge source. If anyone has good ideas on building insulated boxes, I'd love your input. I'm figuring on painting some plywood for the outer walls, and lining the inner with thick styrofoam. Ideally the metal covered attic insulation. I'm also guessing that the Mrs to be would prefer I insulate the attic itself first (I'll just plan on having a little extra left over! Wink ;) *** Thanks to Rick Webb for that excellent fruity list! Do you have lovibond ratings on these too? But really; If you're not planning it, I think that would be an excellent list for the Mead Digest. I'll repost it if you ain't gonner! *** Beautiful Cask Hand Pumps at antique store in Salt Lake. Oh joy. Only $200! I was antiquing in Salt Lake, and came across a couple of very attractive porcelein beer taps which I figured must be hand pumps. Very nice images painted on (by hand I'm sure). The bad news was the price. The other bad news was that the Mrs to be did indeed want a washer and dryer more than she wanted me to have those nice looking antique hand pumps. Ah well.... I'm whipped, and poor! But I'll be cool! o |\ |\| \/| \-\-\- John (The Coyote) Wyllie SLK6P at cc.usu.edu -/-/-/ \ \ Originally in Logan, soon to be Smithfield (utah. shhhhhh) ---- "That's a beer that feels good on my moustache" Me! 8{|} Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 15:01:12 -0400 From: Joseph Edward Kain Iii <kainj at rpi.edu> Subject: exploding bottles My first batch of beer ever, an amber from a kit, turned out to be a little overcarbonated. I didn't think this would pose too much of a problem, until Sunday night. I was storing my beer at the head of my bed, for lack of a better storage space. About 4 a.m., something woke me up. When I was trying to go back to sleep, I started hearing the sounds of glass moving against glass. All of a sudden, I smelled beer! I turned on my light, and noticed that beer was pouring from the bottom of one of the cases. I looked in the case, and noticed that one of the bottles was shattered beyond all recognition. I then noticed that there were shards of glass in my bed, on my pillow, in my hair, etc... Moral of the story: Keep your bottled beer shielded (cardboard case, etc...) if it is overcarbonated, and DON'T STORE YOUR BEER WHERE YOU SLEEP!!!!!! Joseph "MOLE" Kain kainj at rpi.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 12:53:19 PST From: Dave Pehling <CE6431 at WSUVM1.CSC.WSU.EDU> Subject: Old Egyptian Recipe? Hi Folks, Although I'm no longer a member of this list, I hope you can help me. A friend of mine heard that a beer recipe several thousand years old was being translated from the original heiroglyphics and he wondered if I'd heard anything about it. I figured THIS was the BEST place to ask... Any takers? Anyone have the recipe? Please reply to my address below. Thanks in advance.......... Dave Pehling =========================================== | W.S.U./SNOHOMISH CO. COOPERATIVE EXTENSION | | 600 128TH ST. S.E. | | EVERETT, WA. 98208 | |PHONE - (206)338-2400 | |FAX - (206)338-3994 | |INTERNET CE6431 at WSUVM1.CSC.WSU.EDU | ============================================ Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 13:04:00 PDT From: "McGaughey, Nial" <nmcgaugh at hq.walldata.com> Subject: Re: Cheap Airstone, or:Details Man, Details! Bob, perhaps this is out of line, but the name of the device, as well as where you purchased it would be of more interest than 'I put this thing on the end of my cane and it WORKED GREAT..'. Plus what was the function of the air filter in the whole scheme of things? I dont mean this as a flame,I love hearing about new discoveries in making BetterBrew(tm) (its one of the many reasons I subscribed to HBD) ,but its disheartening to somone interested in reproducing the techniques presented when little, if any specifics are attached. >Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 09:07:24 EDT >From: btalk at aol.com >Subject: cheap airstone >I found an airstone substitute that is essentially a 2 inch long piece of >light blue tubing with a zillion holes poked in it, plugged at one end and On the subject of bubblers for wort, would a garden 'soaker' hose (the porus kind that can be used for keeping vegetable soil moist) be useful for such a purpose? Incorrect type of hose material? Nial McGaughey My opinions probably not the same as Wall Data's Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 16:24:00 PDT From: Doug Fettig <DFettig at NYD.LEGENT.COM> Subject: Where to Get a Gott? Does anyone know where I can find a Gott cooler? I've called 2-3 sporting goods stores and checked at 2 department stores, but the closest I've seen is a squarish Rubbermaid. Have you homebrewers bought up all the supply?!? If anyone has a suggestion for where I can find a Gott (and a recommended size) please email me at my address below. I'll post a summary of any replies I get. Thanks. --Doug Fettig dfettig at nyd.legent.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:12:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Timothy Staiano <tstaiano at ultrix.ramapo.edu> Subject: Cranberry Wheat Recipe Howdy all! I'm going to brew my first own recipe extract beer and am looking for some input from the omnitent (sp?) recipients of the HBD. This is the recipe for my Cranberry Wheat Beer: 6.6# Irek 100% Wheat Extract 3# Light DME 4# frozen cranberries 1\2# 20lv crystal 1# clover honey 1oz hallertaur at 15 min (boil) 1/4oz hallertaur (steep) yeast (see below) Questions: 1. How many IBU's should I shoot for to stay in wheat "style"? Will the tartness of the cranberries throw off the malt/hop balance? Also, I might use Mt. Hood to finish, comments? 2. I figured to use the honey so maybe it would ferment out b4 the sugars from the cranberries in order to retain more cran flavor. What say thee? 3. When should I add the cran? At the end of boil to steep? (If so, should I dump them into the primary or remove from my concentrated wort and pour additional H20 through?) In the secondary? Should I mascerate, blend, or leave whole to get the most cran? 4. Should I add pectic enzyme to combat possible formation of pectins or is this just my paranoia talking? 5. Wyeast 3056: Is anyone still havin' any problems with attenuation/floccuation (sp?) as given in yeast FAQ? How about using Yeast Lab W51 (yeast FAQ says it might be better than 3056)? 6. How long should it stay in secondary? I'm thinking about 2-3 weeks. Sorry for the length in posting, but I haven't posted much so I don't feel so bad about it. Private e-mail only please (unless you think that your input would be appreciated by all). I'll post condensed version of replies and my results at a later date. Have a hoppy! Tim Staiano Ramapo College, Mahwah NJ tstaiano at ultrix.ramapo.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 94 14:18:07 PDT From: dra at jsc-ws.sharpwa.com (Darren Aaberge) Subject: Mashing Crystal Norm Pyle writes: >Bill H. writes: > >>...... She said, when you think about it, specialties such as crystal >>have already been mashed in the grain and the only thing left is >>unfermentables; therefore, being thrown in with the mash really can't do >>much more to them................................................... > >This isn't logical. The mash contains enzymes which work to break down >starches into fermentable and unfermentable sugars. The longer the enzymes >are allowed to work, the more fermentable sugars (smaller sugars) are >produced as the enzymes chop away (remember Charlie's picture of the little >lumberjacks?). I can't see how the unfermentable sugars in crystal malt are >immune to this enzymatic activity in the mash. If you are adding the crystal malt for the purpose of adding unfermentables to the wort because a high final gravity is desired, I would think that you would also be mashing at a high temperature. I believe, although I could be wrong, that at high mash temperatures the main thing happening is that long starches are being broken up into large sugars (both fermentable and unfermentable), but relatively few unfermentable sugars are being broken down further. If this is right, then it would seem that the large unfermentable sugars found in crystal malts could survive the mash, or at least a large percentage of them anyway. Also on the topic of whether or not to mash crystal malts, the article called "The Influences of Raw Materials on the Production of All-Grain Beers" by Gary Bauer in the 1985 All-Grain Special issue of Zymurgy, Gary states that crystal malt still has some starch left in it and it should be mashed. So, my conclusions on whether to mash crystal malts are that they really don't have to be, but on the other hand there really is no reason not to. I feel that it is easiest to just throw in the crystal malt with the mash and don't worry about it. From personal experience of doing this, I can say that my beers do not suffer from not having enough unfermentables in them. Just my $.02, Darren Aaberge Return to table of contents
Date: 20 Apr 94 23:09:00 GMT From: korz at iepubj.att.com (Algis R Korzonas +1 708 979 8583) Subject: Foodgrade Klaus writes: >Years ago I purchased a rubbermaid roughneck garbage container to use >as a primary fermenter for a batch of cider myself and a friend were >making.Before using it I became concerned about whether the garbage >container was safe for food storage I don't know about the plastic garbage bags, nor do I know about *COLORED* Rubbermaid Brute containers, but I know that *WHITE* Rubbermaid Brute containers ARE food grade (USDA and NSF listed for FDA food storage). If you have a questionable container, they do make plastic food-grade liners from 4mil to 10mil, which you can put inside anything from a 55-gallon drum to a toilet bowl if you want to. Al. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 19:58:10 -0700 From: cromwell at holonet.net (Tri Pham) Subject: Ammonia and cinnamon Jason Sloan asked about that ammonia smell and cinnamon in that batch of brew... I don't know about that smell but I can tell you a little about the cinnamon and what seemed like a problem with the fermentation. I'm a baker at a bagel shop and the cinnamon raisen bagels are the ones that give me the most trouble. It seems that cinnamon does funky stuff to yeast. If you put too much cinnamon in the dough and/or not enough yeast, the bagels just won't rise. I would assume this is analogous to putting the yeast in your wort and have it not ferment. My guess would be that you'll have to compensate for the cinnamon that you put in by adding more yeast... But then again, seeing as how you only put in a total of 1/2 tsp, it could most probably be something else... or not... Tri Pham cromwell at holonet.net Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 07:28:30 EDT From: ken at memtec.com (Ken Jackson) Subject: Pub Help Greetings fellow HBD'ers, I live in Maryland and will be taking a traveling vacation to Portland, Maine in a couple of weeks, with stops at Braintree, Mass on the way up & Plymouth, Mass on the way back. Can anyone recommend some pubs in these areas that serve some of the local brews? And,if your feeling especially helpful, some good restaurants would be of interest as well. Many Thanks, KJ send e-mail to ken at memtec.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 08:25:13 -0500 (EST) From: I am a brainless twit <MB77945%LTUVAX.bitnet at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: sign off Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 09:38 From: KWH at roadnet.ups.com (KWH) Subject: Toasted malt An article in the Winter 93 Zymurgy details an all grain, 10 gallon recipe for Oregon Nut Brown Ale. I want to convert it to a 5 gallon, extract with specialty grain recipe. My problem is dealing with the toasted malt. According to the article, the grain is put in a 375F oven for 40 minutes, then cracked and added to the rest of the grain in a step infusion mash. The first problem is that I am forced to buy my grain already crushed. Will toasting precrushed grain give the same result as toasted-then-crushed grain? Secondly, should this grain go through a partial mash schedule, or could it simply be steeped along with the crystal? If it must be mashed, should I include a certain percentage of pale malt along with it? What would be the contribution of this to the gravity (pts/lbs/gallons)? Finally, are there any suggestions on a source for the hazelnut extract? There are some candy supply stores in the Baltimore area that carry just about every kind of flavoring imagineable, and I have been tempted to try them for fruit beers and wines, etc.. What particular ingredients in these should I look to avoid (such as potassium sorbate, corn syrup, etc.)? Any helpful suggestions by private Email would be very welcomed. Thanks, Kirk Harralson Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:21:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Busch <busch at daacdev1.stx.com> Subject: 20 min mashing, O2 saturation Mark writes: > > homebrew mash schedules. In a commercial brewery the > mash schedules are likely to be as short as possible > (20-30 minutes) and they want to make a very consistent > product, so a quick stop of the enzyme activity is probably > necessary (they also want to control their alcohol content > as close as possible). I dont think this is an accurate statement, 20 minute mashes? I know of only one micro who uses such a short mash schedule, and Im quite sure the big industrials use more complicated mash programs. What is accurate is that in most mashing programs, rests are as short as 10-20 minutes "at each rest point". I just finished a upward step mash of a weizen, and I did just such a program, 25 min , 122F, 10 min, 126F, 2 min 132F, 20 min 147F, 45 min 159F, mash off. And if the 20 min mash stuff comes from Dr. Lewis, enuf said. BTW, Im back to decoctions on my next weizen. Jeff writes: > If memory serves, the 1985 Special All-Grain Issue of Zymurgy contains > an article by Rande Reed which thoroughly covers the subject of cask > conditioning. I also wrote an article on this subject in the last special issue of Zymurgy. Ill post it here also. BTW, beer engines can be ordered from a UK supply house as advertised in the latest New Brewer, but I bet they start at 300 pounds! > Subject: Re: Beer Accross America They just shipped a ton of Old Dominion Stout. Id like to hear feedback via private email. busch at daacdev1.stx.com > Subject: Aeration: not that crucial? > > So I guess my question now is: What is 25% saturation and how do I get it > with the least possible hassle? I am guessing that regularly aerated tap > water will have at least 25% aeration if not much more than this, so the > simple act of mixing tap water with cooled wort (which would have little > aeration) would probably put me in the ballpark for max aeration. The key here is saturation. You will never achieve saturation without using some kind of O2 bubbler/injector, period. Even aquarium pumps yield low dissolved oxygen levles, but they are a whole lot better than zippo. "regularly aerated tap water" will have very low levels of DO. Good brewing, Jim Busch Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 10:17:45 EDT From: bszymcz%ulysses at relay.nswc.navy.mil (Bill Szymczak) Subject: Re: Two Problems (with Light Lager) In HBD1404 Dave Knight mentions problems with a light lager: >(California Lager). Primary ferment at 70 degrees, secondary at 32 degrees >for about 3 weeks, bottled with 4 ounces corn sugar. After bottling it >was kept at room temperature for 3 days and then at 45 degrees for 2 weeks. >There is a small amount of sediment at the bottom (not much, though). I >tried one a few days ago and noticed two problems: >1) *NO* carbonation. There is a slight *pfft* sound when you open the cap, > but when poured, the beer is totally flat. By the way, I used Pure-Seal >2) The beer has little flavor (that's what I was aiming for), but a rather > strange aftertaste that I have trouble describing. The closest thing > I can compare it to is milk. I checked in the trouble shooting sections > in Papazian and Miller and couldn't find a reference to the taste I'm > describing. Has anyone observed anything like this before? It is quite > unpleasant. >By the way, the yeast was reused from another batch (steam)-- taken from My experience is that if no fresh yeast is added at bottling time a lager will take 2-3 weeks to carbonate even at room temperature. It seems reasonable to expect that the yeast, which has been sitting at 32 F for 3 weeks, needs a longer time to rejuvenate and eat the priming sugar. Put the bottles out at room temperature for a few weeks and monitor the carbonation each week. On problem 2, it may well be diacetyl, which can leave a buttery, or perhaps as you described, milky, coating on your tongue. Depending on how long your primary ferment was at 70 F this is likely a concern. That is, if you racked off primary too early, there could be a lot of diacetyl left which would not be reduced in 3 weeks at 32 F. See some of the articles in Zymurgy by Fix and others (probably the yeast special issue, but I'd have to look it up) on diacetyl production. Of course if the aftertaste is SOUR milk, you have another problem. Also 70F is a little high, even for steam beer. If I recall, Anchor Steam does its primary ferment at 60F. Bill Szymczak bszymcz at ulysses.nswc.navy.mil Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:24:06 -0500 From: rnarvaez at lan.mcl.bdm.com Subject: Las Vegas Brew Pubs I am going to vacation in Las Vegas in May and was wondering if there are any Microbrewery Clubs there. We have a couple here in Albuquerque NM and I enjoy them a lot and would like to check out some in Vegas if there are any. If anybody knows of any please let me know the Names and Address(if known) Thanks....... Ronald Narvaez RNarvaez at lan.mcl.bdm.com Never take life too seriously, it isn't a permanent thing. : ) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:32:45 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Busch <busch at daacdev1.stx.com> Subject: cask ales, pt 1 Cask Conditioned Ales by Jim Busch England has numerous distinctions to contribute to the brewing world, but none is as unique and important as the tradition of cask conditioned ales. Cask, or Real Ale as it is often called, is a special brew, served in a special manner, by hand pump from the cellar. Despite what you may have been told in the US, cask ale is not warm and it is not flat. It is dispensed at cellar temperatures, 54 - 59F, and is naturally, albeit lightly carbonated. As a result, the mouthfeel of the product is extremely distinct from that of a "gassy" keg beer. Temperature and carbonation have a great impact on the perception of the beer on the palate, and the combination of the cellar temperature, low CO2 volumes, and often a snappy hoppy aroma & flavor, all are blended in the mouth to reveal a distinctly different and satisfying ale. While the spectrum of cask ales can be difficult to generalize, the carbonation, temperature, hoppiness and fermentation products are usually dominant factors in the flavor perceptions of all cask ales. Many cask ales have numerous fruity notes that are created in the fermenter and gradually reduced and blended during the maturation and conditioning periods. The important point is that they are supposed to be there, and that they manifest themselves in varying degrees of complexity throughout the life of the cask. This is one of the wonderful aspects of cask ale, it is living, breathing beer that will change over the week or so between bunging of the cask and the final pull of the hand pump. Production of Cask Ales: Cask ales produced in England are top fermented beers, often produced in open fermenters. Open fermenters are just what they sound like, a vessal without a top. Often the fermenters are a large cylander with a hinged lid. Many are attemperated (chilled) by piping that is submersed in the fermenting wort. Either chilled water or chilled glycol is pumped through the piping, allowing the brewer to control the rise of temperature during the fermentation. While closed tanks are used in some of the bigger breweries, open fermenters are the traditional technique, and some noted breweries rely on the old Burton Union and Yorkshire Squares systems of open fermentation. Both of these subsets of open fermenters are designed so that the fermentation effluent or krausen is allowed to flow out of the fermenter, into a collection area, and either removed or allowed to return into the main fermenter. This technique tends to introduce added oxygen to the fermenter that will often result in slightly elevated diacetyl levels in the beer. This is generally not a negative aspect of these beers. The use of open fermentation may seem strange to brewers who go to great lengths to keep out airborne contaminants, but this is not a worry in English brewing. Like all brewers, English ale brewers are very careful to sanitize everything that comes in contact with the cast out wort, especially as the wort drops below 170F. A clean and sanitized fermenter, in conjunction with clean healthy yeast pitched with a cell content of between 6-12 million cells per ml will ensure a rapid start to fermentation, and the subsequent production of vast amounts of CO2 which will blanket the fermenting wort, and thus protect the beer from airborne contaminants. Once the fermentation is active, the pH of the beer will be dropping rapidly from an initial level of 5.4 down to the mid 4 range, and with some strains as low as 4.1. This acidulation of the wort, in conjunction with the large production of CO2 results in an environment quite unhospitable to most airborne bacteria. The key, as with all brewing, is to pitch an adequate amount of healthy clean, cultured yeast slurry. . In open fermenters, the brewer must skim the yeast head off the beer between days 2 and 3 of normal ferments. Often, the trub that rises to the top after day one is removed to reduce particulate matter that can lead to astringency problems. The use of open fermenters provides an easy method for the observation and skimming requirements of top fermented ales. With typical top fermenting strains, healthy white yeast is cropped off during day 3 or 4 of fermentation and stored for reuse. Yeasts collected from healthy ferments can be repitched for hundreds of generations provided the brewery is clean and the brewer is acutely noting fermentation performance. Any degredation in yeast performance should be corrected by replacement of the strain with fresh stock. Fermentation is usually complete within 5-7 days at 60-70F. At this time, the beer is racked into maturation tanks where it can sit for a brief conditioning period. Alternatively, the still beer may be racked directly into the cask. The important point is that the transfer is done with approximately one degree Plato (1.004) of residual extract left in the still beer, and between .25 - 2 million yeast cells per ml of still beer [1]. The residual extract may also be supplied in the form of priming sugars. This is accomplished by preparing a solution of brewers sugar (glucose) at a specific gravity of 1.150 (34P) and adding to the cask at a rate of .35 to 1.75 l/hl. Cast out wort as well as krausen beer can be used, but in the latter case, excessive yeast cells may interfere with the clarification in the cask. As the casks are filled, a fining agent is added to the vessal, usually in the form of isinglass in quantities of 1-5 litres per UK BBL [2]. Isinglass is composed of collagen molecules which carry an overall positive charge. Since yeast will exhibit an overall negative charge, an electrostatic attraction will result, leading to clumping of yeast & isinglass particles and then sedimentation. The process of clarification requires about a day to result in a "star brilliance" to the beer [3]. Beers with residual yeast levels of 2 million cells per ml or above will be more difficult to clarify. Many brewers also add whole hops at a rate of 1/2 to 3 oz/BBl at cask filling time. With the advent of modern packaging in vessals like polypins some brewers are using hop oil extracts to mimic some of the character found in cask hopped ales. At this point, the cask ale is ready for transport to the publicans cellar. ********end part 1********** Return to table of contents
Date: 21 Apr 94 09:46:09 From: MS08653 at MSBG.med.ge.com Subject: Looking for special beers From: "MICHAEL L. TEED"<MS08653 at MSBG> Dist: INTERNET int homebrew at hpfcmi.fc.hp.com So many questions, so little time. I am looking for opinions on any beers that may be worthy of hunting down and bringing back home from Norway and the surrounding areas. The other half is traveling there in June. I am hoping to find a few beers that might prove worthy of culturing yeasts from, but that is not the only requirement. Any comments on the procedure of bringing beers back to the USA, along with spe cific specialties to the area worthy of the limited carrying space on board would be appreciated. Private EMail is fine, my address is MS08653 at MSBG.med.ge. com ( note the upper case ). Thanks in advance. Michael Teed Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:25:11 -0400 (EST) From: BUKOFSKY <sjb8052 at minerva.cis.yale.edu> Subject: Fear of dry-hopping All, I've been toying with the idea of trying dry-hopping for the first time in my next beer (a pale ale). I love a good hop flavor/aroma, but I have found many dry-hopped brews too overpowering for my taste. I like the flavor/aroma to be subtle, but very noticeable. My current method of steeping the hops the last few minutes of the boil doesn't give me enough aroma. Would dry-hopping a small amount (1/4-1/2 oz.) help me out, or is this too little? I don't wan't to overpower my beer with hops (I think SNPA is too hoppy for my taste, to give you an idea of what I consider "too much hops"). Any advice on dry-hopping small amounts, or for shorter times? Thanks, Scott No cute comment. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 08:00:56 -0700 From: Mark Bellefeuille <mcb at mcdpxs.phx.mcd.mot.com> Subject: re: GuppyMasher(tm) X-Mailer: Siren Mail (Motif 1.2 94/03/14) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-ID: <109_6532_766940455_25 at mcdpxs> Content-type: text/plain Please don't post this kind of writeup to the hbd again. I started chuckling when the manifold was built. Continued with the moto tool, and broke down and laughed when the chiller description was finished. My workmates started asking questions and to a non brewer something is lost in the translation. :-) I moved to all-grain quickly; however, since I was constantly improving my equipment for my extract w/adjunct brews the delta was only the cost of an EasyMasher(tm) from JSP. The cost of chiller should not be charged to all-grain, neither should the cost of a full wort boil brewpot. These items make extract brewers better brewers by themselves. I switched to full wort boils with an immersion chiller on my 3 third brew and I've had friends comment that my homebrew doesn't have 'that homebrew taste' from my first batch (cooled in a large ice bath in 20mins). I will continue to make improvements which will also cause me to buy new toys (What brand moto tool was that? Gee how many different attachments can I get for it? :-)) As long as we enjoy the process and the end product... keep brewing, mark - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark C. Bellefeuille INTERNET: mcb at phx.mcd.mot.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:34:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Busch <busch at daacdev1.stx.com> Subject: cask ales, pt 2 Maturation of Cask Ales: After the cask is shipped to the local pub, it is no longer the direct responsibility of the brewer to finish the conditioning job. This task falls onto the publican/cellarmaster. In the old days, it was the cellarmasters duty to add the finings to the casks as they arrived from the brewery, but this is not common today. Once delivered to the pub, the cask is placed onto its stillage, and allowed to sit for 2-3 days. During this time the cask is udergoing the secondary fermentation in the cask, or cask conditioning. One day prior to serving, the cask must be prepared for dispense. This is done by driving the hard spile (non porous wood peg) into the shive (round plug device on top side of cask, this would be equivelent to a bung on older US kegs). The spile is essentially a primitive CO2 valve, a nonporous one is used to close the cask for overnight storage while a porous spile is used during dispense to allow a path for air to enter the cask, allowing the beer to be pulled by the beer engine. When the spile is first hammered into the cask, the cellarmaster allows the CO2 to vent from the cask, preventing CO2 buildup levels that would not be welcome to real ale lovers. The final step in tapping the cask is to drive the tap into the keystone (actual port through which the ale is "pulled"). A minimum of one day settling is required to ensure that the tapping process did not disturb too much yeast. The next day, the cellarmaster will sample the beer to determine when it is ready. This is an extremely important part of the process and a major reason why many cask ales are not served at their peak of flavor. Some beers require a little more time than others to reach their peak. ********end part 2*************** Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #1405, 04/22/94