---

	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
		Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of 
		Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
				URL: http://www.oeonline.com


Contents:
  Strawberry Bock? (Charles Burns)
  Re: topping off (Scott Murman)
  Re: Oregon Fruit Puree ("Timothy Green")
  IBU Predictions (Fred Johnson)
  Say it ain't so ("Dr. Dwight A Erickson")
  Apolloingly incorrect ("David R. Burley")
  Magnets ("Dr. Dwight A Erickson")
  re: Too Hot (Lou Heavner)
  Cleaning brush idea. (Chris Cooper)
  filling the queue with many topics... (Lou Heavner)
  truth or prejudice? ("Michel J. Brown")
  Call for Judges and Stewards Spirit of Free Beer (Juniusiii)
  Preparing Converted Kegs for Use (BernardCh)
  breath-a-lier (John_E_Schnupp)
  bikini-clad hop pickers, growing barley (Bill Anderson)
  Classic Beer Style Series - Belgian Ale (Dan Cole)
  breatholyzer again (kathy)
  Lewis is a comedian.... Oh! Wrong Lewis. (Some Guy)
  Calif. Blonde Ale - Peanut Flavor ?? ("David Russell")
  O'Douls Amber??? (Richard Gardner)
  [Fwd: placebo?] (kathy)
  Huh? (dbgrowler)
  In the eyes' of the law - (Craig Wynn)
  Clean-running Burners (Wade Hutchison)
  wood casks (Jay Hammond)
  Two Pots,Scientific Proof, medical philosophy ("David R. Burley")


JudgeNet is under repair and will return online May 1.

BURP's Spirit of Free Beer competition is June 6-7 and entry information
is available by contacting Jay Adams (adams at burp.org).


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----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Sat, 25 Apr 98 09:50 PDT
From: cburns at egusd.k12.ca.us (Charles Burns)
Subject: Strawberry Bock?

Brewing with Jack Phillips is a blast. It turns out the Jack and I have a
lot more in common than we thought. Sure, we're both nerdy computer geeks
(and extremely proud of it), but we didn't know we also have some military
experience in common too. We were both smart enough to enlist rather than be
drafted back in the 60's. Our friends thought we were crazy, but neither one
of us ended up walking around in a jungle carrying a rusty rifle, dodging
bungy sticks (look that up in your Funk & Wagnal).

So, after 3 days of incredibly fantastic powder sking (in April - can you
believe it), Jack and I decided to brew a Strawberry Blonde for potential
serving at the County Fair (recipe below). A beautiful day, Jack shows up on
my doorstep with a truckload of equipment at 10:30 am and off to work we go.
Jack found out how much better the JSP MaltMill is than a Corona that
morning and I got some free labor in milling.

Jack also brought a very nice stout he'd made by taking Ray Daniels
Designing Great Beers book and using the Average entry for every ingredient
for his recipe. I think it is one of the finest beers that Jack's made (try
it if you get a chance). Anyway, we started drinking a little early and....

I don't remember a lot from that day. I do know that I pulled the last 5 lbs
of Hugh Baird Pale Ale out of its sack and went to my next sack for the
second 5 lbs. Well, if you don't look real closely, Pale Ale and Munich look
a lot alike. I ended up with 5 lbs of Pale Ale and 5 lbs of Munich in the
grain bill but didn't figure it out until the next day. When I started my
sparge Jack looked into the runoff and said, "Hmmmmmm, looks like a Bock".
It certainly wasn't Blonde by any stretch of the imagination.

Well beyond that Jack and I had some discussions about sanitation (he was
using much too light a mixture of Iodophor) and military service. I can't
remember most of the stories, but I do remember laughing a lot and just
having a great time. Brewing with a buddy is tons more fun that doing it
alone. We definitely have two very different versions of Strawberry Blonde,
and based on Jacks impression of the brew, mine will be a Strawberry Bock. I
can't wait to taste this malty strawberry fruit beer (think of an old
fashioned strawberry malted milk shake if you're old enough to remember what
a real one tastes like).

Strawberry Blonde all-grain (5 gal):
10 lbs Pale Ale Malt (Hugh Baird)
1 lb Cara-pils (crystal 10L works too)
Mash at 155F for an hour.
 .5 oz Saaz 60 min (or other light AA hop)
 .5 oz Saaz 10 min
Wyeast 1056

Rack beer to secondary with 1 tsp gelatin finings (my preference).
Clean and freeze 4-5 lbs fresh strawberries.
Thaw berries, place gently in stainless pot, just cover with water (takes
very little water, maybe 1 cup)
Bring to 160F (no higher!) and hold for 10-15 minutes (pasteurize)
Drop berries into secondary on top of the beer.
Leave 10-14 days - berries will turn gray, don't worry.
Keg or bottle as ususal.

Consume quickly, the delicate strawberry flavor will disappear within a few
weeks.

Enjoy - and brew with a friend, its lots more fun. Thanks Jack!



Return to table of contents


Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 11:07:09 -0700
From: Scott Murman <smurman at best.com>
Subject: Re: topping off 


> Actually, I feel it still doesn't make good sense to top-up in
> the secondary.  Infection and oxidation aside, there is little
> benefit.
>
> Al.

I think a case can be made for topping up, especially if you're
brewing lagers or high gravity beers.  I will typically pressure can
at least 1 qt. of wort by squeezing the hops (why waste it?).  When
I'm ready to rack to the secondary, I'll use this and some *fresh*
yeast to create a small ferment.  I add this to the 2nd'ary carboy
first, then the green beer on top.  I've read this technique is called
"afterkreusening" or some such.  The idea is that the fresher,
healthier yeast can do a better job removing the fermentation
byproducts and breaking down the higher alcohols, leading to shorter
aging or lagering times.  There is a risk of oxidation, but that's
always a concern when you start moving beer around.

The other nice advantage of this is that you're adding wort that has
been "cooked" at 240F for about 15 minutes.  If you've never done
this, the change is pretty remarkable.  The amount of break material
can be staggering, and the clarity and flavor of the wort is
wonderful.

BTW, I typically get another quart of wort from the spent hops/bottom
of the kettle which I split into 2 pint jars for making starters (1 pt ~
500 ml).  In case you were wondering:)

SM



Return to table of contents


Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 15:18:47 -0400
From: "Timothy Green" <TimGreen at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Oregon Fruit Puree


Steven Jones said


>I've heard that Oregon Fruit makes a fruit puree for homebrewers,
>but haven't been able to find out much about it. The closest HB
>shop of any size is almost 100 miles away, so I do 95% of my
>buying thru mail order. Does anyone know about how to contact
>Oregon Fruit to see if I can buy direct?

First of all, Oregon Fruit can be reached at http://www.oregonfruit.com .

They do not sell direct to consumers, (unfortunately) but they do have an
exclusive distributor for their canned fruit purees. The distributor is F.H
Steinbart at http://www.pcez.com/F.H.Steinbart/ .

Although they are a distrubutor, They also sell mail-order.

Hope this helps...

Tim Green



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Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 18:40:35 -0400
From: Fred Johnson <FLJohnson at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: IBU Predictions

 Brian Dixon responded regarding the potential error in using Tinseth's
formula:

>  using a general formula to
>        predict IBUs is generally thought to be a waste of time by
>        professional brewers.  There're just too many other variables involved
>        (open/closed boil, rigorousness of the boil, variations within the
>        hops themselve ... Zymurgy had a great article on this alone, etc.)
>        that are hard to estimate.  These first thoughts lead me to feel that
>        fine tuning formulas such as Glenn's is really splitting hairs and the
>        normal variance that occurs during brewing will far outweigh the
>        difference that fine tuning his formulas would make.
>
I don't believe I have ever seen an adequate test of Tinseth's formula under
any consistently
controlled conditions for us to know how well one can expect formula to
accurately predict IBUs.
So why should I use Tinseth's formula versus any other.  I suspect that the
fact that commercial
brewers don't use it either says something about its accuracy or perhaps about
the large difference
between brewing on a commercial scale versus the home scale.   Of course, the
commercial brewery
only needs to determine the hopping rate for the relatively few beers that it
will brew over and
over and over.   I presume that the commercial brewer's supplies are acquired
in large quantities
and their ingredients are consequently subject to less variablity than what
the homebrewer goes
through.  As homebrewers, we are constantly experimenting and designing new
recipes, and we
could save a lot of effort and make more predicitable brews if we have
reliable formulas for
predicting IBUs.

Because Tinseth's formula was derived using a wide variety of breweries,
gravities at different
times in the boil, etc.,  etc., etc., the formula will obviously have limited
usefulness, but it may be
the best we have at this time (and I know some would disagree).  It is no
surprise that  Tinseth's
formula predicts significantly different values than the three or four other
formulas I have seen.
The variation among these formulas is astounding.

I am not really advocating the fine tuning of Glenn's formula.  Rather I would
like to see
controlled experiments performed in which IBUs, gravities, etc. are measured
throughout the boil,
and worts of different pre-boil gravities are employed to provide data under
controlled conditions
for use in deriving the formula.  If the vigor of the boil (or any other
variable parameter) is indeed
a factor in determining the IBU level of the brew (as so many have claimed),
then the controlled
experiments should be performed to show how this is true.    I only regret
that I don't have the
time or resources to do the experiments myself.

Fred L. Johnson
Apex, North Carolina





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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 08:09:09 -0700
From: "Dr. Dwight A Erickson" <colvillechiro at plix.com>
Subject: Say it ain't so

HBDr's, I need help !
Six weeks ago I brewed a partial mash Hi-gravity (OG 1120) trappist
style brew.
I used Wyeast trappist hi-grav yeast. All went well, explosive
fermentation subsided in a week,  and it continued to ferment quite
vigorously for another week. I racked it to the secondary at two weeks
and following the recipe directions, left it in the secondary for
another month.
My problem is, that after two weeks in the secondary, it "cleared"
quite well, but at three weeks in the secondary, it started to ferment
again...OH NO !
It's bubblin along at the rate of a "blurp" from the airlock every
8-10 minutes, and isn't clear anymore, in fact it's pretty coudy
(yeast I suspect).
My thoughts are that even though I practice good sanitation, a wild
wee beastie yeastie contaminated my batch somewhere along the line,
probably when I racked to the secondary. What  I'm really hoping is
that the Wyeast Trappist Hi-grav is just doing some more of its
thing....but that's probably just wishful thinking.
I'd really like to bottle it soon, but at the rate it's fermenting,
I'm afraid of exploding bottles. What should I do ????
I've read that "stuck fermentations" can go on almost forever. I
really don't want to dump it (with a 1120 OG, you can tell it was
pretty expensive to make).
Does anyone have suggestions.........PLEASE (I'm going nuts).
Thanks bundles ! ! !
Doc Erickson

   



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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 11:22:43 -0400
From: "David R. Burley" <Dave_Burley at compuserve.com>
Subject: Apolloingly incorrect

Brewsters:

Cookie Monster (please use your real name on the HBD) says:

>That would be Apollo 1, and it wasn't just the pure oxygen,
it was O2
>at about 15psi.  In these conditions, as one poster to
sci.space.history
>aptly said "it's a wonder snot doesn't explode".  A condom
full of O2
>isn't going to be a fire hazard.  (At least, much less of a fire
hazard
>than than tank of O2 under what pressure?)

A lot of Apollo flights were crewless and I thought that this
was the source of confusion of the number of the flight crew
which were horribly burned on the ground. I sided with the
original author thinking that Apollo 1 and 2 were crewless.
But my wife - who worked for Lockheed Rockets developing
solid rocket propellants during that era - assures me that
it was indeed the unfortunate crew of Apollo 1.
( At least I'm married to a rocket scientist ! )

However, the atmosphere in the test module *was* pure oxygen
at 15 psi, since that is the pressure of the atmosphere at sea
level.  In space, the pressure of 5 psi of pure oxygen was to
be used ( since at sea level the oxygen of air is at 3 psi) and
that was the pressure on which all the multitude of specifications
were based.  Since all the craft's seals were developed to
hold when the pressure of the module was higher than the
exterior of the craft, they had to pressurize to at least be equal
to the external pressure. Thinking, I presume, that this would
be closer to reality, they mistakenly chose to use pure oxygen
rather then air.  Things like Velcro ( which owes its popularity
to the space race) which were not spontaneously flammable
in 5 psi oxygen were explosively flammable in 15 psi oxygen.

Actually, I believe an oxygen filled condom is a lot more
hazardous than (non-flammable) oxygen sitting in a steel tank,
since the rubber is flammable, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.


Keep on brewin'


Dave Burley
Kinnelon, NJ 07405
103164.3202 at compuserve.com
Dave_Burley at compuserve.com  

Voice e-mail OK  103164.3202 at compuserve.com
Dave_Burley at compuserve.com  

Voice e-mail OK 


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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 09:15:25 -0700
From: "Dr. Dwight A Erickson" <colvillechiro at plix.com>
Subject: Magnets

To the best of my knowledge, the magnets people are using for "pain
relief" and other maladies have been scientifically shown to do only
one thing,and that is to increase circulation in the area the magnet
is applied. If a person has a condition that would be benefited from
increased circulation, then the magnets might be useful. However, if a
person has a condition that would be worsened by increased circulation
(such as diabetic ulcer) then the magnets would be detrimental.
As for using them to treat water - - - probably hocus pocus.

Dr. D.A.Erickson



Return to table of contents


Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 09:33:01 -0500
From: lheavner at tcmail.frco.com (Lou Heavner)
Subject: re: Too Hot

     From: Troy Hager <thager at bsd.k12.ca.us>
     
     >Shawn writes:
     
     >>I use a cajun cooker(180,000 BTU), and this thing will really boil 
     >>away some wort!
     
     >Yes, I use one too and am having a hard time regulating the boil. I 
     >have heard that you should shoot to boil off about 10% of the wort in 
     >a 90 min. boil. I have boiled off as much as 40%!!! I know this is 
     >way too much but would like to know how others are regulating their 
     >boils. How do you know how hot your cooker is cooking? My cookers 
     >have a very low budget regulator on them and a airflow(?) regulator 
     >on the cooker itself. How should I control these accurately?
     
     Could you use an insulator between the flame and part of your pot?  
     Maybe you could use a small porcelain tile.  You may have to 
     experiment with size and shape a bit, but you should be able to reduce 
     the heat transfer rate into the pot and hence the boil-off rate.  You 
     might also reduce the likelihood of scorching at the place where the 
     flame impinges on the pot.
     
     Cheers!
     
     Lou Heavner


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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 14:35:39 -0400
From: Chris Cooper <ccooper at a2607cc.msr.hp.com>
Subject: Cleaning brush idea.

Greetings all!   
	I was just bottling up a batch (my part of the HBD Palexperiment brew)
	and started to clean up a corny and my bottles, I usually rack to a
	corny and use a ball-lock fitting with a short hose and a
	Phil's Philler (tm).  While cleaning stuff it occurred to my that my 
	daughter's trumpet cleaning brush might work well for cleaning the 
	dip tube in the corny and violla (or is it violins?) a new piece of
	brewing equipment was born!  The brush is a flexible spring with a
	small diameter brush on one end and a larger one on the other.  It 
	works great for cleaning tubing, tubes, blowoff hoses, etc.  These 
	are available at music stores for under $10.  There is a larger
	size for troumbones but it has a larger diameter spring and will
	not work in a corny dip tupe (but it is longer and usefull for 
	medium to large diameter tubings).  This has made my cleaning chore
	easier.
               

Chris Cooper , Commerce Michigan    --> Pine Haven Brewery <--
Chris_Cooper at hp.com                 --> aka. Deb's Kitchen <--
(about 15 miles North of the HBD server) 



Return to table of contents


Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 14:39:29 -0500
From: lheavner at tcmail.frco.com (Lou Heavner)
Subject: filling the queue with many topics...

     Greetings,
     
     I have arrived in Toronto and will be here for another week.  I'd like 
     to try something other than Labatts/Molson/Moosehead while I'm here, 
     but have found precious little other than Upper Canada brews and no 
     brewpubs.  Any suggestions?  I'm getting email here, but have no www 
     access.  
     
     I have been travelling quite a bit lately and have been generally 
     underwhelmed with local beers.  The best has been my trip to Montreal 
     where Unibroue's really were excellent.  I enjoyed them all!  And 
     Brutopia had several very nice beers and some very friendly people 
     (thanx for the rec Denis and others).  They had a nice scottish ale, a 
     nice rye ale, and the most honey flavored beer I've ever had.  I got 
     to try the famous Fat Tire in Cheyenne and Denver and it was good, but 
     I was expecting it to be.  
     
     Otherwise, nothing to really write home or the HBD about.
     
     I entered a couple of beers at the bluebonnet in Dallas. Hi Sam.  
     Congrats Ben on the O'fest.  Mine were recipes I was converting from 
     extract to all-grain.  One was a brown ale and the other was an ESB 
     which was fermented on the yeast slurry from the brown ale primary.  
     Both were too bitter and the brown got dinged for it due to not 
     modifying the hops when going from partial to full boil.  The ESB 
     graded thin which may be due in part to low sacc temp.  I misread the 
     thermometer and screwed up the hot water addition both.  Both also had 
     a short 135 DegF rest.  Based on HBD input and my own experience, I 
     think I won't be using that rest anymore.  Somebody was asking about 
     using SUDS for estimating mash temps.  I have found that the estimated 
     1st infusion temp is right on the mark.  However, the second infusion 
     temp is actually consistently 4 or 5 degrees lower than predicted.  I 
     don't know why this is, but just a word of warning to SUDS users.  
     Also, my brown ale got dinged for sourness which I had also noted.  
     Since the ESB didn't have a similar taste, I assume it must have been 
     a post fermentation infection.  And since all the brown ales seem to 
     have it, I assume it must have been in the siphon or bottling bucket 
     used during bottling.  I used the same equipment for bottling the ESB 
     a week or so later, so I must have gotten rid of the offending bugs.  
     Or is there another factor that could explain the sourness?  I've made 
     that brown ale from extract many times with great success and never 
     noted a sour taste before.  One judge even claimed it had a sour 
     aroma, although I'm not sure what exactly a sour aroma is.
     
     For lifting a pot off of your kitchen burner(s), try wok rings.  They 
     come with wok pots that are to be heated on a stove, mainly for 
     stability, I think.  They hold your kettle a little high, but I think 
     they would work.  Of course, if you don't already have a wok pot, this 
     may be a little more expensive than some of the other posted 
     suggestions.
     
     Lastly, I've seen the the acronym ADA used frequently when discussing 
     gravities and alcohol concentrations.  My mind is drawing a blank.  I 
     can only think of DOD software or xyz challenged Americans and cannot 
     imagine what it stands for.  Can somebody enlighten me?
     
     Cheers!
     
     Lou - currently far from home (but closer to Jeff R) and unable to 
     brew :(


Return to table of contents


Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 17:12:54 -0700
From: "Michel J. Brown" <homemade at spiritone.com>
Subject: truth or prejudice?

Dennis or Janice Johnson wrote:

"By the way, was the doctor who told you about the benefits of magnetic
belts
for controlling back pain a chiropractor?  This use for magnets is a very
old quack remedy that has been proven worthless countless times.  For more
on chiropractors, see the following web page (I know this has nothing to do
with beer, but it sort of relates to Mr.. Bush's discussion of the magnetic
water treatment)"

I do not understand your apparent bigotry and hatred towards the profession
of Chiropractic. Have you ever talked to a CCE accredited Chiropractor?
Have you ever been to a CCE accredited school? If not, then how can you
believe these claims, which are anecdotal, and even admit the following:

"Because some of these studies were done long ago, and because some of the
chiropractors were not chosen randomly, their findings cannot be used to
calculate the current odds that consulting a chiropractor will yield
appropriate advice."

Boy, and how! What a disclaimer -- we interrupt this diatribe to disclaim
everything we just said as perhaps not being relevant to the present, or to
your own experience! If you want relevant, current, and scien tific data,
then try opening your mind to the following URL's: http://www.wschiro.edu/ 
or  http://www.amerchiro.org/  A lot has changed in the profession, and I
won't deny that you will find huckster's in my profession, but then again,
all professions have their skeletons, if you know what I mean. If you'rer
going to criticize, do it with current data, and not with sporadic
anecdotal experiences which are not representative of the mainstream in
Chiropractic today. God Bless, ILBCNU!

                          Dr. Michel J. Brown, D.C.   
                        homemade at spiritone.com
             http://www.spiritone.com/~homemade/index.shtml           
   "In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind"
                             L. Pasteur

   

                                



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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 20:41:18 EDT
From: Juniusiii <Juniusiii at aol.com>
Subject: Call for Judges and Stewards Spirit of Free Beer

The BURP Nation's Capital Seventh Annual Spirit of Free Beer Homebrew Contest
will be held at the Potomac River Brewing Company in Chantilly, Virginia on
June 7 and June 8, 1998.  Because of the large amount of entries, the judging
will be held for two days (1.5 points!).  We are planning an exciting pub
crawl in the DC area for Saturday night and can promise that a good time will
be had by all.  If  you are interested in judging, contact Colleen Cannon at
judges at burp.org or visit our web site at www.burp.org.

If you decide to judge at Spirit of Free Beer, you can preregister and prepay
your entries and bring your beers on the day of the contest.  Our reputation
for fantastic prizes continues!  In addition, we are an MCAB qualifying event
this year.  We look forward to seeing you and your beers in the Nation's
Capital!

Cheers!

Jay Adams
Minister of Culture
Brewers United for Real Potables


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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 23:06:38 EDT
From: BernardCh <BernardCh at aol.com>
Subject: Preparing Converted Kegs for Use

I've just finished converting 4 sankey kegs and installed false bottoms from
ABT.  There's quite a bit of machine oil and cutting oil inside the kegs and
on the false bottoms from the machining process.  Other than a good scrubbing
with washing soda, what else should I do to prepare the kegs for their first
brewing use.

Chuck
BernardCh at aol.com
Music City Brewers - Nashville TN


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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 22:32:17 -0700
From: John_E_Schnupp at amat.com
Subject: breath-a-lier

>sense because you are blowing the vapors from a 5% beverage instead of
>just the vapors from your lungs.  (The lady should have been convicted,
>incidentally, but as I said she had a clever attorney.)
This is true.  I once participated in an alcohol study for the University
of Vermont (UVM, Go Cats Go).  We had to "rinse and spit, rinse and
swallow" before blowing.  This was to remove all residual alcohol from
the mouth and throat.  It does make a difference and you're right about
the clever lawyer.

>I make it a practice to order a pint of water before leaving a public
>house, just in case.
A good idea, even better to have water thoughout the course of drinking.
As alcohol dehydrates the body.

John Schnupp, N3CNL
Colchester, VT
95 XLH 1200




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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 10:46:46 +0200
From: anderson at ini.cz (Bill Anderson)
Subject:  bikini-clad hop pickers, growing barley

George De Piro writes: < My arms got pretty red and itchy after a brief
time (I was wearing
short sleeves).  I seem to be allergic to hop vines.  Is this common?

I've seen films of young, bikini-clad, Czech. women stringing hop
vines ..... I couldn't help but wonder how common (or uncommon) my allergy
is, and how these women
felt at the end of the day! >

George, the videos you have been watching feature Bohemian women -training-
hops. When its time to pick, all workers wear long sleeve flannel shirts
and gloves to avoid the rash you have mentioned.
- -------
Regarding the question of growing barley, my mother-in-law states that the
rule of thumb is 180-200 Kg of barley seed spread over a 10,000 m2 area
will yeald 2,800-6,000 Kg of harvestable barley.

Barley for malting needs to be grown in very well-turned soil with
*extremely* low nitrogen, and be sure that your fertilizer doesn't contain
any nitrogen as well. As for how long, well, they say that when you think
you're ready to harvest, wait another 2 weeks or so. Be careful not to
over-water the plants. Bohemian fields tend to look like they are suffering
drought, and summer rains only come once or twice a week.

For garden plots, the best way to harvest is to wield the old fashioned
scyth. You'll be surprised how quickly you can cover the ground, and you
won't loose grain. Old-timers used to hang bundles of the grain upside down
and beat the hell out of it with a tool that looks like a single numchuck
attached to a rake handle. The seed then piles up on the floor ready for
malting.

Good luck!
 -Bill Anderson

Anderson Creative
Prague, Czech Republic
anderson at ini.cz




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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 05:59:50 -0400
From: Dan Cole <dcole at roanoke.infi.net>
Subject: Classic Beer Style Series - Belgian Ale

I just recently purchased copies of several of the Classic Beer Style
Series sold by the AOB (homepage www.beertown.org) (.. no affiliation,
blah, blah, blah..) and in browsing the Belgian Ale book, I can find no
mention (much less comparison) of the yeasts available to the homebrewer
(Wyeasts in particular). 

I bought this book because Ray Daniels didn't mention the Belgian Styles in
his book, Designing Great Beers, but I'm not sure its usefullness without
at least a chapter on the qualities of various yeasts.

Am I missing something, or did the author of this book miss something
really important?

Thanks,
Dan Cole
dcole at roanoke.infi.net



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Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 21:40:29 -0500
From: kathy <kbooth at scnc.waverly.k12.mi.us>
Subject: breatholyzer again

Hans Hanson talks about sloshing the mouth with water to defeat the
breatholyzer test.  

The procedure used was to have us wait 5-10' until after we had imbibed
food or drink.  In actual practice upon a traffic stop, I believe there
are a number of procedures undertaken before the breatholyzer test which
would allow a 5'min plus lag between drinking and testing.

A lot of lawyer tricks are used to create reasonable doubt in jurys'
mind; lets keep under .08 or have a designated driver.  Sloshing with
water would not be available when stopped on a roadside.  cheers,  jim
booth, lansing, mi

PS A club member and HBD'r reminded me that those who attended the
meeting on an empty stomach, consistently blew higher than they
expected.  WATCH OUT!

PSS  In response to off line inquiries of how my BA level of .009 could
be after 60oz of beer; was with a 3+ hour consumption time, a body
weight of 220# and a full dinner during the drinking interval. Burning
off 12oz of beer per hour, gut fill, and body weight seem consistent
with BA numbers.  Oh to be 140# like the Met Life charts; without beer
it might be.




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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 07:20:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Some Guy <pbabcock at oeonline.com>
Subject: Lewis is a comedian.... Oh! Wrong Lewis.

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager....

<tongue in cheek>

Following my recent Stout rant, I was provided an URL that I found rather
interesting! Pop by http://www.beermachine.com/profcorner.html to see just
how "one of the Brewing Industries (sic) most renowned and respected
authorities on the science and industry of modern brewing" makes use of
his supposed talents - when not writing highly informative tomes on what
really shouldn't be a style of its own, that is. Just shows to go ya: the
dollar is mightier than the pen! 

</tongue in cheek>


See ya!

Pat Babcock in SE Michigan         pbabcock at oeonline.com
Home Brew Digest Janitor           janitor@hbd.org
HBD Web Site                       http://hbd.org   
The Home Brew Page                 http://oeonline.com/~pbabcock/brew.html






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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 07:39:40 -0400
From: "David Russell" <drussel3 at ford.com>
Subject: Calif. Blonde Ale - Peanut Flavor ??

In my most recent Ale-in-the-Mail shipment, I received some California Blonde
Ale from the Coast Range Brewing Co.  I perceived a most interesting and
enjoyable flavor, to me, of what I can best decribe as peanuts.  In my limited
experience in tasting various brands and reading what I can, I have not seen
any reference to a peanut flavor.  Their write up states "...cooler
fermentation and and extra week of cold conditioning...Liberty and Mt Hood
hops".  This is all the data I can provide.
1.  Has anyone else tried Calif. Blonde Ale and experienced this peanut flavor,
or is this just my imagination?
2.  What is the source of this flavor and could it be possibly reproduced?

- -- 
David Russell   drussel3 at ford.com    Plymouth, MI


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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 06:40:38 -0500 (CDT)
From: Richard Gardner <rgardner at papillion.ne.us>
Subject: O'Douls Amber???

I just saw an ad for (AB) O'Douls Amber - pushing the barley malt and hops.
I haven't seen it here (Nebr) yet, so are there any triers out there.  I
realize that reproducing this is beyond the capability of a homebrewer (let
us not, repeat not, dredge up that old thread), but has AB finally come up
with a decent NA beer?  (low calories too)



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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 07:22:14 -0500
From: kathy <kbooth at scnc.waverly.k12.mi.us>
Subject: [Fwd: placebo?]

Message-ID: <3543E6BA.6D9E at scnc.waverly.k12.mi.us>
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 21:00:26 -0500
From: kathy <kbooth at scnc.waverly.k12.mi.us>
Reply-To: kbooth at scnc.waverly.k12.mi.us
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Macintosh; I; PPC)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: hbdsubmitt <homebrew at brew.oeonline.com>
Subject: placebo?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Harry Bush talks of the placebo effect, but I don't think that is the
correct terminology.  Years ago GE had the notion the lighting
environment would change the productivity of workers, so the lighting
was redone and productivity went up.  They tried a different lighting
and productivity improved.  They reinstated the original lighting and
the productivity improved again.  The act of experimenting created the
change, not the particular treatment.  This became known as the
"Greenfield, or Greenwell or Greensomething (help Jeff!...someone!)
effect",  the name of the factory where the experiment occured.  My
text's are buried in the attic).

A placebo is where the treatment has a KNOWN neutral effect (sugar pill)
but the subject believes he/she MAY have received a treatment of
significance.

Electric belts are of unestablished effectiveness and the subject is
receiving the treatment expected, not some neutral impact "placebo".

Back to bier!   cheers   jim booth, lansing, mi






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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 08:52:00 -0400
From: dbgrowler at juno.com
Subject: Huh?

Sam writes:

>And I can imagine that magnetism has an effect on the human body,
>otherwise an MRI would come out blank.

Using this logic, wouldn't you have to conclude that conventional
photography has an effect on your body? All that reflection of high
frequency radiation and all... Note that I'm not saying some forms of
electromagnetic radiation don't have an effect on animal tissue (I do
have a microwave oven, after all.)

Mike Bardallis

Pickin' nits in Allen Park, MI

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]



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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 13:20:25 GMT
From: cwynn at sawyer.ndak.net (Craig Wynn)
Subject: In the eyes' of the law -

What constitutes a "brew club". Maybe someone could direct me to a
source that defines what a club is. 

Because:

I local bar owner where I've demo some beers I've made would very much
like to offer some...some way. Neither he nor I have the money to go
commercia,nor do I feel that there is a market. Besides these major
obsticles it would take more than just one location meaning bottling
and then I have to tie into a distributor.

It is a city of 25,000 - 30,000 and no brew clubs that I am aware of.

On Sundays bars can not operate in this city. What if this was the day
that the "Brew Club" had its meeting. "Members" could join on the spot
for maybe "one" day. They get a ticket stub that allows them so many
beers. 

Or maybe this club could have a core membership that brews the beer
and one month/one week/one day members for the "Sunday Club Meetings"

your thoughts
craig 

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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 09:26:06 -0400
From: Wade Hutchison <whutchis at bucknell.edu>
Subject: Clean-running Burners

I've found that my superb 35,000 BTU burner runs much dirtier than
my 170,000 BTU Cajun Cooker.  I think the difference is between the 
pressure the gas is dilivered at, and how efficient the burner is
at pulling air in through the venturi.  The low pressure superb has to
have the air gates opened all the way, and there is still a little yellow
flame showing, and I get soot on the bottom of my brew kettle.  The 
cajun doesn't seem to matter, and I don't get yellow flame unless I
close the gates all the way.
My Cajun cooker is the cheapest one I could find - 'prox $40.00 at Sam's
club.  If you have a jet-type one, those appear to be the worst offenders
for in-efficiency.
	-----wade

>Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 09:41:17 -0700
>From: George_De_Piro at berlex.com
>Subject: Burners
>
>     Hi all,
>     
>     With all the talk about burners, and the flaws in the recent Zymurgy 
>     burner article, I figured that I would ask a question:
>     
>     What burners are the cleanest burning?  I was really hoping to see 
>     that variable examined in the Zymurgy article.  I am unfortunate 
>     enough to own one of those Cajun Rockets (it is gathering dust and 
>     rust in my basement).  The major reason I don't use it is because it 
>     burns with such a sooty flame on anything but the highest output.  As 
>     many here have noted, the liquid literally leaps from the pot when you 
>     run the thing that high.  Not only useless, but dangerous; I was 
>     burned by wort from 3 feet (1 m) away once!
>     
>     Which burners can be run cleanly at all settings?
>     
>     Thanks for the info, have fun!
>     
>     George
>
>

	


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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 09:38:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jay Hammond <jhammond at bryant.edu>
Subject: wood casks


Does anyone know how I may get ahold of used sherry, whiskey, brandy
(etc.) casks. I would like to get a nice useable small one to experiment
with.  I have had beer that was aged in used whiskey barrels and thought
it was very interesting stuff. Any suggestions would be appreciated.



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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 10:14:31 -0400
From: "David R. Burley" <Dave_Burley at compuserve.com>
Subject: Two Pots,Scientific Proof, medical philosophy

Brewsters:

Sam Mize says of my advice to the brewer to use two cheap
4 gallon SS pots when he asked for a recommendation on
what size pot to use with his electric stove application:

>  If you move up to a
>stronger heat source, like a propane burner, you'll have a fun time with

>two small pots.

Not even the subject of the discussion, but your comment is obvious.
- -------------------------------------------
Sam also says:

>I'd be interested in any references to studies disproving the effect of
>magnetic water softeners

I'd say it is up to the suppliers to prove that it *does* work by
using a non-anecdotal, properly constructed, independent
test.  I have yet to see this and based on several decades
of being a professional chemist and study of several
centuries of science - it is impossible. Prove me wrong!

Sam also says:

> or magnetic medical effects.

>Again, if you have references to research in this area, they would be
>useful to me.

My point also.  I have yet to see scientific evidence.

I have heard that the magnets are supposed to draw blood
to the area because of the iron in the blood, but a recent
article in the April 20, 1998 issue of Chemical and Engineering
News p 55 comments on a new technique for separating
cancer epithelial cells from blood by attaching magnetically
responsive groups to these cells using antibodies.  These
cells are then drawn out of the blood with small magnetic particles.
This technique is commonly applied in other blood test applications.
This success points out that the blood will not be drawn
to weak magnetic fields or else this test could not be used.

>And I can imagine that magnetism has an effect on the
human body,
>otherwise an MRI would come out blank.

Of course, the use of (Nuclear) Magnetic Resonance (MRI) to
determine the state of the certain portions of the human body
has to do with the response of certain nuclei to radio frequency
energy being absorbed in a magnetic field and has nothing
to do with the response of the human body to a magnetic field.

>Otherwise, I'd put magnetism in the category of things you can try if 
you
>want, as long as they're CHEAP, and see if you get some relief.

>But if somebody tries to sell you an expensive product, keep looking.

Cost has nothing to do with it. The real danger is
that there is something wrong and like other placebos
which trick the brain into ignoring signals, you can be
ignoring a problem and gaining false hope or worse.
- ----------------------------------------------
On the subject of Chiropractors.  I know from experience that
they can fix certain mechanical problems which chemicals
in the form of medicine can't. They do have a stronger interest
and training in things like sports medicine than your average
practitioner and can often relieve stress by just being a
sounding board ( a role medical doctors often fill also)
while relaxing muscles tensed by stress.

I  do have the same argument with them,
however, they often try to cure medical problems with
mechanical fixes. This false hope so generated, does more
harm than good.

I have two philosophies I use in the world of health:

If you go to a mechanic and he can't fix your car - change
mechanics, don't keep going back. Same applies to doctors.

If you go to a surgeon he will operate, to a medical doctor
you'll get medicine and to a chiropractor your back cracked
and your neck twisted. Each of them will perform the service
for which they are trained, whether it is the correct treatment
or not. Be sure to ask a lot of questions and for proof and if
they want to cut, get a totally independent opinion.
- -----------------------------------------------
Keep on brewin'


Dave Burley
Kinnelon, NJ 07405
103164.3202 at compuserve.com
Dave_Burley at compuserve.com  

Voice e-mail OK 


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