Homebrew Digest Tuesday, 13 August 1996 Number 2145

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   FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
        Shawn Steele, Digest Janitor
        Thanks to Rob Gardner for making the digest happen!

Contents:
  Sulphites - who needs 'em? (Andy Walsh)
  guinness auction (Rscholz at aol.com)
  Re: giving recipies (Don Trotter)
  Sharing Recipes (Michael Caprara)
  Beet/cane molasses (rq at lysator.liu.se)
  Hopping/Extract Brewing (Paul Ward)
  Corny Keg Sanitation ("ESCHOVIL.US.ORACLE.COM")
  Zip City (talcottk at PENNIE.COM)
  CO2 Evolution in Secondary (Rob Reed)
  Giving up recipes (Steve Stroud)
  Where the hell is Zip City really?   ((George De Piro))
  re:autolysis and secondaries (Oliver Weatherbee)
  Oktoberfest vs. Scotch Ale / Lagale / Smoke / Rogue Smoke / Styles (Dave Greenlee)
  RE: La Chouffe (Steve Stroud)
  Re: New Miller: This "Heart of the Hops" ruse... (RUSt1d?)
  Re: secret recipes/ looking for Kolsch (lheavner at tcmail.frco.com)
  correction (M257876 at sl1001.mdc.com (bayerospace at mac))
  zip city bottles (Rscholz at aol.com)
  I forgot the Irish Moss! ((Billy Cole))
  Rice Hulls Source?/Gott Capacity/Bottle Cleaning (Eric Peters)
  How many #s in a 10 gal Gott? ((Preston Merrick))
  IFTIM, recipes (RUSt1d?)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Andy Walsh <awalsh at crl.com.au> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 18:59:03 +1100 Subject: Sulphites - who needs 'em? So if metabisuphites just give you a pathetic 99.9% kill factor, who needs 'em? Narziss has shown that a sulphite content in beer of 8-9 ppm leads to the most stable beer flavour on the shelf. Although yeast produces some during fermentation, some breweries add more to act as an antioxidant/preservative. The taste (whoops I mean "organoleptic" - gotta watch what I say!) threshold is about 25ppm. Sulphite binds with acetaldehyde, but not the higher aldehydes. (Aside: Acetaldehyde-bisulphite is found in beer but not the other aldehyde-bisulphites, such as trans-2-nonenal-bisulphite. Since trans-2-nonenal is responsible for cardboard staling, sulphite does not contribute to beer stability by a masking activity. Kaneda et al. from Sapporo contend that sulphites have a free radical scavenging activity instead). ie. sulphite acts as an antioxidant, but don't worry too much how this happens. Just about all wine has a ton (whoops again, I didn't really mean a *real* ton, not unless we're talking zillions of litres - oh s***, what's a zillion?) of sulphite in it for this reason. When acetaldehyde is bound by sulphite, it can no longer be reduced to ethanol. The normal fermentation pathway is blocked. For this reason sodium metabisulphite should not be used in bottle-conditioned beer as it can lead to high acetaldehyde levels. Sulphite should be added after fermentation has ceased. Personally I drink all my kegged beer way before it has a chance to stale. I like to keep some bottle-conditioned beer, but sulphite is clearly a no-no at the bottling stage. Sulphite reacts with hypochlorite (bleach). If you have plastic fermenters that have become impregnated with bleach, sodium met. can be used to help get rid of the chlorine. I routinely clean/ sanitise (better not say the 's' word around these parts!) with bleach, and keep a weak solution of sulphite in the container for storage afterwards. I am always careful to rinse out the container well before each use (maybe even give a bit of an H2O soak). Many people have a bad reaction to sulphite. It is really horrible stuff to use, and is unnecessary in homebrewing (exceptions above). I suspect its widespread use is a throwback from homebrewing's original links with winemaking. I really wish kit manufacturers would stop recommending it for all the wrong reasons. I also wonder how much of the homebrew/kit cider taste is a result of the brewer rinsing the bottles in a solution of this without rinsing with water afterwards (as I have also seen recommended around the traps). Andy "sterilise is not a dirty word" Walsh. - -- Andrew Walsh CHAD Research Laboratories Phone (61 2) 212 6333 5/57 Foveaux Street Fax (61 2) 212 1336 Surry Hills. NSW. 2010 email awalsh at crl.com.au Australia. Return to table of contents
From: Rscholz at aol.com Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 08:03:08 -0400 Subject: guinness auction brewsters, this isn't strictly brewing related but interesting none the less: NEW YORK, Aug 12 (Reuter) - Christie's East on Monday started displaying a large personal collection of advertising related to Irish brewer Guinness <GUIN.L>, ranging from 60-year-old posters to ceramic, boozy zoo animals, to be auctioned next month. Bar owners and advertising fans inspected the collection of Briton Ian Livingston, who recently decided that the collection of several hundred items had overtaken his life, Christie's spokeswoman Jill Potterton. Livingston, a games inventor, he sold half to the famous Irish brewer and half is scheduled to go on the auction block at Christie's in London on Sept. 11. He will keep only one item: a Guinness lamp that started his collection passion 20 years ago. Livingston, who launched Dungeons and Dragons in Britain, was attracted to the "whimsical, silly" character of the old-time Guinness advertising, Potterton said. Many of the posters, figurines and trays feature the lazy zoo keeper character who for decades battled animals that tried to swipe his beer. Ceramic pieces from 1956 include the exasperated zoo keeper, an ostrich who has swallowed a pint glass, a kangaroo with a bottle in his pouch and a seal, toucan and tortoise with beers. Some items, such as posters proclaiming "Guinness is good for you," or special edition children's books with added references to beer, might be controversial if introduced today, Potterton said. The Guinness company, which is about 200 years old, began advertising with posters in Scotland in 1928. The auction house expects interest from Irish pubs in Britain, Ireland, the United States and Asia. richard scholz bklyn ny Return to table of contents
From: Don Trotter <dtrotter at imtn.tpd.dsccc.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 08:33:59 -0500 Subject: Re: giving recipies To All: My point was a matter of encouragement, rather than criticism. I don't believe that you or anyone else reading HBD are inept. If you don't believe that you can write up a recipe from scratch, then give Suds a try. I have made some recipes myself, and I have used suds. Now I let suds do the calculations, but I pick the grains and hops according to style. I don't claim to be brewer extraordinaire. I have been brewing steadily for just one year, and have gone from extract, to partial grain to all grain, and have formulated every recipe myself. Some good, some not so good, some wonderful. I've even dumped 5 batches, for various reasons. I even finished a batch of English Pale Ale that started at 1.041 and finished at 1.024 -- talk about near beer. My point is you learn from trying. Anyway, give the recipe I put out yesterday a try. You should be pleasantly surprised. Of course it's a 10 gallon recipe, so you may have to do some math. The recipe and instructions, if done correctly will make a beer that will score 40 or more in a competition. IT DID. I will, however, give up no more recipes. :| Enjoy, don Return to table of contents
From: Michael Caprara <mcaprara at awwarf.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 07:35:52 -0600 Subject: Sharing Recipes Hello Fellow Brewers! Well, I have to put my $.02 in since everyone else is! I think that giving away recipes is a good thing. In fact I put my recipes on my homebrew club's home(brew)page. Some of these recipes are award winning beers. My philosophy is that another brewer cannot duplicate my or your beers exactly, they may be better or they may not. For example: Go to the LSD homepage (my homebrew club) <http:www.dimensional.com/~godbey/louthan.html> and look at my ESB recipe. It took first place in the first round of the AHA National Competition, and it was a real good bitter. In order for you to truly duplicate that beer, you have to have a stuck mash, pull the mash out of the mash tun and slowly heat it to about 165 degrees, put it back in the tun, bubble CO2 through the mash, and then sparge. (I thought this beer would suck because of the problems, and the only reason I entered it was to get more than 12 entries thus reducing my entry fee!!!) Also, I placed the fermenters on my Bass Amp and played some raunchy radical full volume bass licks through the beer (Yes, you CAN taste the Bass in it), keeping time with the airlock (which would invaribly speed up due to the massive vibrations from my thundering bass lines!). So, with that said, please try to duplicate my Bass Bitter EXACTLY! Brewfully Deadicated MC :{P} <---mmmm Bass Bitter You can taste the bass in it! # "Bass Bitter" and "You can taste the bass in it" are trademarks of the Dark Star Brewery, Littleton, Colorado Return to table of contents
From: rq at lysator.liu.se Date: Tue, 13 Aug 96 12:39:12 +0000 Subject: Beet/cane molasses Hi, I want to brew a porter with molasses. What kind of molasses should I use? Here in Sweden beet sugar is the most common kind of sugar, and I've only seen beet molasses here. It smells nasty!! I guess molasses from cane sugar would be better. What kind of molasses is commonly used in brewing?????? Post or private e-mail. Thanks in advance. Erik Roennqvist, Linkoeping University, Sweden email: rq at lysator.liu.se Return to table of contents
From: Paul Ward <paulw at doc.state.vt.us> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 10:05:19 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Hopping/Extract Brewing O.K., I've got several batches under my belt (literally), haven't had a major brewing disaster in the past couple of months, and am beginning to feel comfortable with what I'm doing and (more importantly) like my product. So now it's time to reflect and try to improve process. I only brew extract/specialty grain, and probably always will (I know, anathema!). My understanding is that we boil the extract with the hops at a rolling boil for a full 60 minutes not for the sake of the extract as much as for hop utilization (bitterness) because the alpha acid whatevers need to react with the extract components. Because I'm boiling 6 or 7 pounds of extract in about 2 gallons of water, my hop efficiency is severely restricted and I have to compensate by adding more and more hops as I use more extract. This doesn't sound like an efficient system to me. What I was wondering.....just exactly how much malt extract is needed to efficiently utilize hop products? Instead of adding my full 6 pounds of DME to the 2 gallons of water with 2 ounces of Cascade, what would happen if I only added 1 pound of DME to the water and hops and boiled this for 45 minutes, and then added the remaining DME for the last 15 minutes of boil? My thought is that this would cause less darkening (caramelization?) of the wort than the full 60 minute boil, hopefully giving a lighter product. Would the 1 pound of DME for the full rolling boil be enough for the hops to do their thing with? (<--grammatically incorrect) Would 15 minutes be enough boil time to produce any and all 'hot break' (do you really get this from extract?) from the remaining malt extract? Am I barking up the wrong tree? It just seems that lowering the specific gravity of the boil should increase hop utilization if that is the limiting factor in the first place. Should I take up another hobby and just buy good beer? (NAAAHH!!) Paul paulw at doc.state.vt.us - -- If vegetarians eat vegetables, what of humanitarians? Return to table of contents
From: "ESCHOVIL.US.ORACLE.COM" <ESCHOVIL at us.oracle.com> Date: 13 Aug 96 07:21:12 -0700 Subject: Corny Keg Sanitation I recently had a really bad experience. I just tapped my first attempt at kegging, and the beer was bad. I hope I never taste infected beer again! Anyway, I think I know what went wrong. The guy at my local shop who sold the corny to me told me to soak the keg and all of its parts in an iodophor solution and then let try overnight. This offended my sensibilities because I thought that letting it air dry overnight would definitely present a possiblity for infection. Could this be what happened? I am very new to the hobby, and up till this time, I have used bleach for my glass/plastic items with no problems. Any ideas? Also, I have read here and elsewhere that it is possible to use twist-off bottles. Do you need the special thinner caps, or will the regular one work fine? Aufwiedershreiben, Eric Schoville Think foreign languages are fun? Try Klingon! Return to table of contents
From: talcottk at PENNIE.COM Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 10:53:49 -0500 Subject: Zip City FYI, Zip City Brewery is located at 3 West 18th Street in the Chelsea/Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan. (212) 366-6333. While you're in the neighborhood: Nearby (within stumbling distance) is the Heartland Brewery, 35 Union Square West, (212) 645-3400. I've been to Heartland and Zip City and would say they're worth a visit if you are careful (interrogate the bartender) before choosing your beer. A little further away is Neptune Brewery, 448 West 16th Street, (212) 229-2129; I've never been there as it's a little out of the way, but have read some good reviews. If anyone would like a more complete list of NYC brewpubs I'd be happy to respond via e-mail; if I get enough interest I'll just post a list here. Kelly Talcott; talcottk at pennie.com Return to table of contents
From: Rob Reed <rhreed at icdc.delcoelect.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 10:00:13 -0400 (CDT) Subject: CO2 Evolution in Secondary Al wrote responding to my post on the advantages of secondaries: > > >3) Two-step fermentation allows much of the dissolved CO2 to outgas > > and yields more consistent carbonation for bottled beers > > This is incorrect. The amount of CO2 in solution is simply a function > of temperature. All the time in the world will not reduce the amount > of dissolved CO2 in the beer at a given temperature. Yes, more CO2 > may bubble out in the secondary, but that's only because of fermentation, > rise in temperature during racking or agitation during racking. Perhaps in a particulate-free container of liquid, the rate of CO2 outgassing is *strictly* a function of temperature; however, my experience shows that beers racked to secondary usually bubble for 2-3 weeks after which they settle down. I attribute this to yeast flocs and protein-tannin precipitate acting as nucleation sites, much as the way polyclar or Si gel behave when added to my fermentor. Also, since I don't ferment my beer on an isolated foundation, there is vibration due to doors slamming, children and pets running through the house and the occasional pair of F-15s passing overhead. Cheers, Rob Reed Return to table of contents
From: Steve Stroud <strouds at cliffy.polaroid.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 11:25:12 +0000 Subject: Giving up recipes JimB> ...the last thing I want to see is Jim Koch marketing JimB> a HopDevil knockoff because someone gave him a great JimB> recipe in the Longshot program. Let the big boys JimB> develop their own beers! Well, OK, but personally I'd be happy if _any_ American brewer came out with a De Hopduvel lookalike at a cheap price; I wouldn't care how they got the recipe. The current BBC restrictions on Longshot beers (>6% alc., standard BBC yeasts) limit what they can brew. One of the nine winners this year was apparently a dubbel-like strong Belgian ale, but by the time the yeast is changed and the alcohol level is brought down it will probably drink more like a strongish brown ale - I hope that I'm wrong! Steve Return to table of contents
From: George_De_Piro at berlex.com (George De Piro) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 10:29:47 -0700 Subject: Where the hell is Zip City really? Sorry to waste space on this, but every post about the location of Zip City has been wrong, and it would be upsetting to see so many friendly homebrewers wondering aimlessly around Manhattan! Zip City is at 3 West 18th street between 5th and 6th avenues. It is not near NYU, nor is it near Columbus Circle, nor is Columbus Circle near NYU! Of course, all of these places are very near to each other on a planetary scale, but that's not relevant here! It is, like most NY city brew pubs, mediocre. Worth the visit if you're in the area, or collecting bottles, but that's it. Have Fun! George De Piro (Nyack, NY: a suburb just north of NYC) Return to table of contents
From: Oliver Weatherbee <oliver at triton.cms.udel.edu> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 11:38:57 -0400 Subject: re:autolysis and secondaries Al Korzonas replies to Rob's following arguments: >>1) Secondary fermentation allows time for yeast to drop and allows >> time for your beer to clear naturally (via tannin-protein complexing) >I just leave the beer in primary longer. >>3) Two-step fermentation allows much of the dissolved CO2 to outgas >> and yields more consistent carbonation for bottled beers >This is incorrect. The amount of CO2 in solution is simply a function >of temperature. All the time in the world will not reduce the amount >of dissolved CO2 in the beer at a given temperature. Yes, more CO2 >may bubble out in the secondary, but that's only because of fermentation, >rise in temperature during racking or agitation during racking.rise in >temperature during racking or agitation during racking. >On the subject of clarity, the yeast will settle out. I have gotten >comments from judges regarding the amount of yeast on the bottoms of my >bottles like: "nice lunar landscape..." so I do sometimes have more yeast >in the bottles than most, but this is also a function of how long I keep >the beer in the primary and how stingy I am siphoning every last drop out >of the primary. Al, I always find your postings interesting and informative but in light of your upcoming book(s?) I am also a little concerned with your (admitted) bias against using a secondary. Perhaps bias is not the right word, but from your own post I can see some advantages to using a secondary particulary for those of us who don't have ~40 fermenters. Providing adequate sanitation: Racking to secondary provides faster fermentation and clearing of the beer as per your response to Robs' (1) and I believe as you also allude to in number (3) the racking/agitation will hasten the fermentation to its FG. For me this means I can usually bottle 2 - 3 weeks after brewing (standard ales). Easily allowing me to stick to a once a month brew schedule. Also, avoiding too much bottle sediment has been a desire expressed by other beginners posting to this forum and r.c.b., a result achieved through the use of a secondary as you showed. I believe the issue is not whether there are benefits to using a secondary, but rather do those benefits outweigh the risks (infection, oxidation, etc.) and costs (time). For me I believe they do, for yourself apparantly not. Hopefully, when you present your material to a beginner, you will do so with an even hand. - -- ________________________________________________________ Oliver Weatherbee oliver at triton.cms.udel.edu First State Brewers http://triton.cms.udel.edu/~oliver/firststate/ ________________________________________________________ Return to table of contents
From: Dave Greenlee <daveg at mail.airmail.net> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 10:54:06 -0500 Subject: Oktoberfest vs. Scotch Ale / Lagale / Smoke / Rogue Smoke / Styles TOPIC 1, OKT VS. SCOT: What is the essential difference between Okt and an Export/Wee Heavy Scotch Ale? In most style guides, Okt fits neatly into the lower end of the O.G. gap between Export and Wee Heavy, and if one eliminates the 'can have's' and 'may have's' and the places where the style guides disagree with one another to get down to the lowest common denominator of each style, it would seem to come down to the fact that the Okt is a lager and the Scot is an ale, which would seem to be confirmed by my taste buds. The Scots seem to me to be heartier with the broader range of flavors (i.e. some esters and diacetyl, etc.) that ale brewing brings, while the Okt's seem to have a sharply-defined, clean malt flavor, and perhaps a bit of tostiness or caramel flavor (aren't they the same?) from the use of Munich or Vienna malt and lagering. The only other mostly-agreed upon difference in the style guides would seem to be that the Okt's can have that clean maltiness balanced by a bit of hoppiness, where hoppiness is not generally acceptable in the Scots, but my tastings would not seem to bear this out on the Okt side; if they're hopped to the point that it can be detected, I can't detect it. So: + From an lowest common denominator point of view, is my undisciplined brain or my unruly crew of taste buds missing something? TOPIC B, LAGALE: What kind of Frankenstein's monster would I be creating if I were to make a ScotOberfest Lagale? That is, a brew which is made basicly as an ale, but which strikes the balance between the two styles by using a ale yeast with lager characteristics? (I need to get a yeast that will let me work at higher temperatures; I can probably manage a fairly steady 65F, but not much lower than that. Wyeast California Lager Yeast 2112 is what I was thinking of using, or one of the brewing-Okt-as-an-ale yeasts - Wyeast 1007 or 1338 - suggested by Roger Bergen in Oktoberfest Alternatives at http://realbeer.com/brewingtechniques/oa_online.html , and most likely the 1338.) I'd also probably want to use some Munich, but that brings me to the next topic. TOPIC III, SMOKE: Having read how to home-smoke malt and how to home-toast malt, doesn't smoked malt have, per se, a toasty flavor, or is the toasty/caramel flavor covered by the smoke flavor? If I were to add some peat-smoked malt (from, I believe, Marris Otter [sp?]) to my lagale, to add a hint of Scots smokiness, but in a small amount so not as to create a RausScotBier - to which I'll return in a moment - would I get the toasty flavor I need in a Okt, or would I need to add some Munich as well? Would Belgian Special B, Victory, or Belgian Biscuit malts, none of which I have ever used or tasted, be of any assistance? TOPIC d, THE TRUTH COMES OUT: Okay, okay, what I really want to brew is a RausScotOberfest Lagale; a basic brew which I could split out into three batches: a Oktoberfest Lagale (leave out all the smoked malt), a Scotch Ale (a very light touch of peat smoked malt), and the full RausScotOberfest in which a hardwood smoke flavor is introduced (perhaps through the addition of liquid smoke to the basic Scotch Ale) to create something resembling Rogue Smoke. TOPIC FIVE, ROGUE SMOKE: Rogue's brew page at http://204.152.97.15/rogue/ says that Rogue Smoke is brewed from: Northwest Harrington and Klages, Crystal, Carastan, Bamberg Beechwood Smoked, and Chuck Linquist's hand-smoked Munich malts (using alder and cherry), Perle and Saaz hops, plus their proprietary Pacman yeast. Does anyone have an idea as to the proper proportions for 5 gallons? Is there _really_ any difference between the various hardwoods in flavor, once it gets into the beer? TOPIC LAST, STYLE GUIDES: I have available to me, the style guides by Dawson (WWW), Papazian (HBC), AHA (1996), Walz (BJCESG), and Malt of the Earth (at http://www.maltbev.com/report/style.html); is Fred Eckhardt's book worth spending another $12-15 on with these at hand? Is it badly out of date as to styles and, even so, still an authority? I welcome the advice of anyone bored enough to have read all of this! Nazdrowie, Dave Greenlee Return to table of contents
From: Steve Stroud <strouds at cliffy.polaroid.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 12:07:04 +0000 Subject: RE: La Chouffe Mark Peacock asks for some direction for developing a La Chouffe-like beer and has received some good advice from JimB and BobW. I would echo most of what they say and reinforce the point that you should use la Chouffe yeast if at all possible. Besides those sources already mentioned, the Belgian yeast sold by RTP cultures is the La Chouffe yeast. Wheeler and Protz's book "Brew Classic European Beers at Home" gives a recipe for La Chouffe; the spicing in it is unusual. Here is an outline of their recipe: 5 US gallons OG 1.080 pilsner malt 87% caramalt 5% white sucrose 8% A mixture of EKG, Styrian Goldings, and Saaz hops, all boiled one hour to give ~30 IBU's. _Ground_ spices, all boiled last 15 minutes: 0.15 oz coriander 0.15 oz cumin 0.08 oz caraway seed (hmmmmmm......) Interesting addition of caraway; has anyone here ever used it in a Belgian ale? At 0.08 oz/5 gallons it must be barely detectable, just used for complexity. Steve Stroud Return to table of contents
From: RUSt1d? <rust1d at li.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 96 12:05:33 -0700 Subject: Re: New Miller: This "Heart of the Hops" ruse... >Miller Beer uses only the heart of the hop to produce a rich flavor >that diminshes the bitter and filling characterisitics typically >associated with full-flavored beers Funny, I never knew hops added to the "filling characterisitics" of a beer, and here i've been adding malt... >Miller Beer is brewed with four times as many hops as other premium, >mainstream beers Let's remember some math: 4*0 = 0. Real Hop Question: Looking at my hops the other day and comparing the leaves to a chart I got from the John Haas hop company, they all had three pointed leaves. According to the chart, only Cascade is supposed to have three points. (all the rest have five). I have Cascade, Chinook, Fuggles, Mt Hood, Perle, and Willamette growing. This is the first year for the plants. Do these plants only have three points on the leaf because they are young? I also noted that a forming hop cone looks alot like a sticky kind bud growing. - -- John Varady HBRCP11: Homebrew Software Made Easy Boneyard Brewing Co. http://www.netaxs.com/~vectorsys/varady/ "Ale today, Gone tomorrow" Return to table of contents
From: lheavner at tcmail.frco.com Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 11:06:16 -0500 Subject: Re: secret recipes/ looking for Kolsch This is a Mime message, which your current mail reader may not understand. Parts of the message will appear as text. To process the rest, you will have to use a Mime compatible mail reader. Contact your vendor for details. - --IMA.Boundary.839954054 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: cc:Mail note part Don Trotter <dtrotter at imtn.tpd.dsccc.com> asks: How many of us give up our recipes? Seeing all the recipe requests in HBD doesn't make me feel well. Can't any of the requesters develop their own recipes? It really isn't difficult. A little light reading and a little light math, or a recipe formulation program is all it takes. I for one have given a few recipes away to strangers, but will give no more. The beers I make are good -- all of my friends tell me so. Shoot, Honorable mention and a First Place winners tell me so. I don't know about you all, but I plan to enter many more competitions and would not like to compete against myself, err, someone else using my recipe. So, go ahead. Give it a try. Formulate you own. Remember what ol' Charlie says, "Relax, ...." You'll never know until you try. Don, relax. not everybody who asks for a recipe wants to compete against you. Sometimes, we are just searching for that special beer that we have not been able to create/duplicate. I've been brewing longer than I care to say and I have never entered a contest. Until I got on the internet, I had no idea how many people were involved in homebrewing. I don't read zymurgy or any of the other mags and I don't have room on my pc for recipe software that looks interesting. Admittedly, experimenting can be easy and fun, but it can take a while unless you and your friends are heavy consumers or you get lucky in one of your first few batches. And it is hard to make a bad beer if you just pay attention to the basics, but not everybody is adventurous in the brewery/kitchen. Anyway, I will freely give away any recipes that I have tried. They won't have an official judges comments attached, of course. Now for a request. Is there a style defining Kolsch beer available in Texas? I recently brewed a Kolsch from a kit that was one of the best beers I've had in quite a while. The fruityness was incredible. I just don't know if it was true to style or not, because I am unfamiliar with the style. I used Wyeast Kolsch and fermented relatively warm due to our hot and dry summer. It was recommended as an alternative to American Lite which some of my lowlife friends are fond of and it has indeed been popular with them. Lou Heavner <lheavner at frmail.frco.com> ...this from a guy who drinks beer floats... - --IMA.Boundary.839954054-- Return to table of contents
From: M257876 at sl1001.mdc.com (bayerospace at mac) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 11:47 -0600 Subject: correction collective homebrew conscience: i need to clean up a misleading sentence from last time: >regarding racking to a secondary fermenter, i've done this with a few >beers this spring, particularly a couple of pilsners <SNIP> what i meant was, i DIDN'T rack the pilsners. sorry for the confusion. hey, let's write about brewing, guys. brew hard, mark bayer Return to table of contents
From: Rscholz at aol.com Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 12:48:56 -0400 Subject: zip city bottles brewsters, Paul A. Hausman replies to Ronald Narvaez: >>I was wondering if anybody has heard of this beer. The full name on the >>label was " Zip City Lager, Zip City Lager Brewing company Vienna" I am >>intrested in getting a bottle >Zip City Brewing Company is a brewpub located in downtown Manhattan >(New York City) somewhere around the Columbus Circle, NYU area. >"Vienna" is the name of one of their lager beers. The "cool >bottles" (I've got one in my collection) are available only for >take out, directly from the brew-pub. You hafta leave a hefty >deposit and are supposed to return it for refill or refund. Just to clear a few details up: Zip City Brew Pub is located on 18th St just off 5th Ave. ( I go there offen, no afil) They have recently bottled their AltBier a great german dark ale and are distributing it around the new york area. I can get it at my local deli in brooklyn (Park Slope) I hear they will bottle more types based on the good response to the AltBier. Keep on Brewin' richard scholz Return to table of contents
From: Billy_Cole at dgii.com (Billy Cole) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 09:54:38 +0100 Subject: I forgot the Irish Moss! I just brewed a batch of pale ale and forgot to add the Irish moss to the boil. The beer is still in its primary right now and I'd like to do something to clear it up a bit. I've heard conflicting information on the fact that the Irish moss can still be introduced to the beer. I plan on going to secondary in a couple of days. Can anyone supply me with any ideas on what I can do?? Thanks. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billy Cole / Senior Engineer / Digi International ph: 206-867-3893x628 / pager: 206-663-0229 billyc at dgii.com Return to table of contents
From: Eric Peters <epeters at harris.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 96 13:48:30 EDT Subject: Rice Hulls Source?/Gott Capacity/Bottle Cleaning Does anyone know a convenient source for rice hulls? Do health food stores carry them? (Never been in one.) Fifteen per cent oatmeal isn't enough anymore. I usually have several hundred lbs. of two-row around, so it seems silly to go out and buy six- row. Thanks for your help! ***** Steve writes (quoting Keith [quoting Dion]): >>> Did you somehow misunderstand, Keith? Gott Cooler?? An 18# grain >>> bill in *my* 10 gal Gott is 4" from the top. Where is there space >>> for another 10#?? How far from the top was your 20# mash? >> >>Me? Misunderstand? Never! I was obviously referring to *metric* >>pounds ;) > >This tweaked my curiosity. I routinely mash twelve pounds in a 10 gallon >Gott cooler for five gallon batches ( actually ~ 6 Gals. ). I use 1.1 quarts >per pound of grist and a copper manifold with no false bottom. While it >would be a stretch, I could double this mash and still fit it in the Gott. >Dion, do you use a false bottom? How much strike water per pound? My Mechanical Wonder IPA contains 29 lbs. of grain and mashes in a 10 gallon Gott. I think I may have gone as high as 31 lbs. at one point. It's just a matter of your water-grain ratio and how thick your willing to go. A nine-iron is must for stirring those really thick mashes. ***** On Fri, 09 Aug 96 16:04:49 edt Mike Spinelli wrote: > HBDers, > Regarding bottle baking, in my opinion is overkill. Several months ago I > explored this very thing on the HBD. Tried it twice and chucked the practice. > i think it was Russell Mast who wrote to me that he doesn't do jack to his > bottles other than rinse them with water. Didn't we have an HBDer who spat in his last, partial bottle every time, and claimed not to have a problem? I didn't do it. ***** From: Scott Dornseif <SDORNSE at wpo.it.luc.edu> >Hello; >I am writing to complain about all the people complaining in the HBD. People >whining >about how hard it is to read, what people write Blah, Blah Blah. If people >don't stop >complaining I am going to have to complain. > Thank you for your time. >Scott Dornseif <whiny voice on> Well, I'd like complain about people who complain about people who complain about people who..... <whiny voice off> From: Marty Tippin <martyt at sky.net> >Well, I've had about enough of the degeneration of the HBD and will be >unsubscribing shortly. Hang in there Marty! We just need a few good threads to really get the HBD going again. How 'bout these ideas: Dr. Crabtree - Genius or Crackpot? Turd Beer - What category should I enter it in? JSP Maltmill - God-given tool of the century? Uh oh. Too much coffee this morning. Eric Peters "My opinion is worth what you are paying for it." - David Harsh Return to table of contents
From: labmgr at magicnet.net (Preston Merrick) Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 14:00:18 -0400 Subject: How many #s in a 10 gal Gott? For Kieth, Steve, Dion and Elvis: I just finished a 27.5 lb mash in a 10 gal Igloo cooler. It was a rather thick mash but wound up with just over 1 qt/ lb. I would consider this the max. capacity and it wouldn't work with a thinner mash (smaller beers). Return to table of contents
From: RUSt1d? <rust1d at li.com> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 14:12:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: IFTIM, recipes >I just brewed a batch of pale ale and forgot to add the Irish >moss to the boil. The beer is still in its primary right now >and I'd like to do something to clear it up a bit. Why not just wait and watch it clear on its own? I forget to add I.M. often and have never taken any other steps to clear the beer. If after 8-10 days in the primary it's still not clear then add some gelatin or polycar. Typically, you'll find you need nothing extra (unless your yeast is a bitch). >A little light reading and a little light math, or a recipe >formulation program is all it takes. Not only do I give away recipes, but I give away the software I wrote to calculate them. Hopefully people are using it to create better homebrew. If everyone was so stingy, no one would progress past the level of novice in this explosive hobby and this list would dry (sic.) up. I seldom copy a recipe, but rather prefer to average together several winning recipes, taking pieces from each that I like to create my own. Return to table of contents