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

Contents:
  Aging in wood (Bruce Buck)
  Ooops! (Michael Bergman)
  Homebrew Digest #206 (July 21, 1989) (ferguson ct 71078)
  Re: cider (dw)

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Date: Fri, 21 Jul 89 09:46:35 PDT
From: bbuck at East.Sun.COM (Bruce Buck)
Subject: Aging in wood

Is it possible to use wooden kegs, such as oak, to age the beer after secondary
fermentation is complete?  
Has anyone tried it?
Is it worth the effort?
Do lagers work better than ales or is there no difference?
If so, where can one get, say, 5 gallon oak casks that are suitable?

-Bruce

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Date: Fri, 21 Jul 89 10:11:30 edt
From: bergman at m2c.org (Michael Bergman)
Subject: Ooops!

Damn.  Never, ever hit "r" without checking the "To:" and the "CC:"
fields afterwards...sorry about the junk.

To avoid this being more non-brewing junk, here's a couple of old Mead
recipes that I promised to post a long time ago:

MR CORSELLISES ANTWERP MEATH:

To make good Meath, good white and thick Marsilian or Provence-honey
is best; and of that, to four Holland Pints (the Holland Pint is very
little bigger than the English Wine-pint)of Water, you must put two
pounds of Honey; The Honey must be stirred in Water, till it be all
melted; If it be stirred about in warm water, it will melt so much the
sooner.  
	When all is dissolved, it must be so strong that an Egge may
swim in it with the end upwards.  And if it be too sweet or too
strong, because there is too much Honey; then you must put more water
to it; yet so, that, as above, an Hens Egge may swim with the point
upwards: And then that newly added water must be likewise well stirred
about, so that it may be mingled all alike.  If the Eggs sink (which
is a token that there is not honey enough) then you must put more
Honey to it, and stir about, till it be all dissolved, and the Eggs
swim, as abovesaid.  This being done, it must be hanged over the fire,
and as it beginneth to seeth, the scum, that doth arise upon it, both
before and after, must be clean skimmed off.  When it is first set
upon the fire, you must measure it first with a stick, how deep the
Kettel is, or how much Liquor there be in it; and then it must boil so
long, till one third part of it be boiled away.  When it is thus
boiled, it must be poured out into a Cooler, or open vessel, before it
be tunned in the Barrel; but the Bung-hole must be left open, that it
may have vent.  A vessel, which hath served for Sack is best.

Since this recipe has no fermentation instructions attached to it, I
thought I'd add those from a couple of previous recipes.

Excerpt from Metheglin as it is made at Liege, communicated by Mr.
Masillon: 

...There are some that put either Yeast of Beer, or Leaven of Bread
into it, to make it work.  But this is not necessary at all; and much
less to set it into the Sun.  Mr. Masillon does neither the one nor
the other.  Afterwards for to Tun it, you must let it grow Luke-warm.
for to advance it.  And if you do intend to keep your Meathe a long
time, you may put into it some hopps on this fashion.  Take to every
Barrel of Meathe a Pound of Hops without leaves, that is, of Ordinary
Hops used for Beer, but well cleansed, taking only the Flowers,
without the Green-leaves and stalks.  Boil this pound of Hops in a
Pot and a half of fair water, till it come to one Pot, and tis
quantity is sufficient for a Barrel of Meathe.  A Barrel at Liege
holdeth ninety Pots, and a Pot is as much as a Wine-quart in England.
(I have since been informed from Liege, that a Pot of that Countrey
holdeth 48 Ounces of Apothecary's measure; which I judge to be a
Pottle according to London measure, or two Wine-quarts.)  When you Tun
your Meath, you must not fill your Barrel by half a foot, that so it
may have room to work.  Then let it stand six weeks slightly stopped;
which being expired, if the Meath do not work, stop it up very close.
Yet must you not fill up the Barrel to the very brim.  After six
Months you draw off the clear into another Barrel, or strong Bottles,
leaving the dregs, and filling up your new Barrel, or Bottels, and
stopping it or them very close.
	The Meath that is made this way, (Viz.  In the Spring, in the
Month of April or May,which is the proper time for making of it,) will
keep many a year.

Finally one more, from the immediately preceeding recipe:White
Metheglin of My Lady Hungerford; which is exceedingly praised.

...Then pour it into a wooden vessel, and let it stand till it be
cold.  Then pour the clear through a Sieve of hair, ceasing pouring
when you come to the foul thick settling.  Tun the clear into your
vessel (without Barm) and stop it up close, with the Spices in it,
till you perceive by the hissing that it begins to work.  Then give it
some little vent, else the Barrel would break.  When it is at the end
of the working, stop it up close.   She useth to maske it as the end
of Summer, when she takes up her Honey, and begins to drink it at
Lent.  But it will be better if you defer pierceing it till next
Winter.  When part of the Barrel is drunk, she bottleth the rest,
which makes it quicker and better.

--mike bergman

(w)  75 North Drive, Westborough, MA  01581, USA +1 (508) 870-0312
UUCP: harvard!m2c!bergman    INTERNET:   bergman at m2c.org         

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Date: Fri, 21 Jul 89 10:32:20 EDT
From: ferguson%X102C at HARRIS-ATD.COM (ferguson ct 71078)
Subject: Homebrew Digest #206 (July 21, 1989)

Florian Bell, Boonesborough, Oregon writes:

>Hey, now that we are on the subject, can't soft drink glass bottles
>withstand the pressure of beer?  How could one get a bottle any thicker
>than a Pepsi bottle?

I took a tour of the Capital brewery in Madison, Wisconsin several
years ago.  It is probably typical of the microbreweries in the
region.  They kegged their beer themselves but bottling was performed
under contract by a soda-pop bottler.  The beer had to be delivered
flat as the contractor's equipment could not handle carbonated beer.
Also, the amount of carbonation in the beer was determined by the
abilities of the contractor's apparatus.  I got the impression the
contractor tended to overcarbonate since cola required it.  

The conclusion I draw is that the soda bottles are as strong as beer
bottles since this bottler was bottling both and was using about as
much CO2 for beer as he did for cola.

Chuck Ferguson             Harris Government Information Systems Division
(407) 984-6010             MS: W1/7732  PO Box 98000  Melbourne, FL 32902
Internet:                  ferguson%cobra at trantor.harris-atd.com
Usenet:                    uunet!x102a!x102c!ferguson

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Date: 21 Jul 89 11:30:39 EDT (Friday)
From: dw <Wegeng.Henr at Xerox.COM>
Subject: Re: cider

>The simplest thing you can do is pasteurize the cider (170 F for 10
minutes),
>add sugar (cane) to get OG ~ 1.080 (it will probably start around
1.045-50, so
>roughly a 5 lb bag per 5 gallon batch). Use champaigne yeast and proceed
just 
>as if it was beer. I reccoment a 2 stage ferment.  This will give a dry
sparkling
>cider. semi-dry to semi-sweet is trickier, especially with commercially
grown >apples.

I've never tried to make sparkling cider, though I have made a still cyser
(similar technique to the above, except subsitute honey for cane sugar and
bottle when clear several month later). The statement "...and proceed just
as if it was beer" isn't quite clear to me, however. If two stage
fermentation is used, how clear will the resulting beverage be? My
experience with wine and cyser is that you need to rack several times
before you'll get a nice, clear beverage. I'd also like some more info
about when to bottle the result (when fermentation is finished? or when the
cider is clear?) and how much priming sugar to use (3/4 C per five
gallons?).

Thanks,
/Don

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #207, 07/22/89

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