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	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:
  Re: Green Hops (Scott Murman)
  drying hops (PVanslyke)
  Thoughts on American 19th C. ale and lager (Jeff Renner)
  RE: Oak Chips (nghab)
  reply to hbd # 2818 (9/7/98) ("Fred M. Scheer")
  Triple Decoction--Bock Beer (Thomas S Barnett)


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Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 23:12:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Murman <smurman at best.com>
Subject: Re: Green Hops

> Is there any reason why hops must be dried before use?
> 
> js

I believe hops are dried simply as a storage method.  Similar to
making jerky or sun-dried tomatos.  Remove the water and there's less
chance of molds and other contaminants getting hold.  

SM



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Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 08:39:10 EDT
From: PVanslyke at aol.com
Subject: drying hops

Good morning,
The last batch brewed, I used leaf hops (cascade) purchased in oxygen barrier
bags. Previously I have used either hops packaged as plugs or pellets. The
leaf hops were very green in color. Hops that I have picked and dried have
always "browned" to some degree.

My question is: How do the commercial growers manage to dry their hops and
maintain the fresh green appearance?

Paul VanSlyke >>> brewin' and relaxin' in Deposit, NY


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Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 12:44:48 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Thoughts on American 19th C. ale and lager

After Steve Alexander put me on the spot with:

>What were ales like in the mid 1800s in the US ?  Anyone know ?  Jeff ?

"Mort O'Sullivan" <tarwater at brew-master.com> came to my rescue with a
great, referenced answer that has already gone in my archives.  Thanks,
Mort, for a very informative post.  Steve rightly guessed that historic
American ales is an area of interest on my part, but one I've mostly only
been able to infer about.  The histories of brewing in America that I have
(e.g., "Brewed in American," Stanley Baron; Little, Brown & Co, Boston:
1962) are mostly non technical.

According to Baron, the first lager beer was brewed in the US in the early
1840's, apparently by John Wagner of Philadelphia, who brought the yeast
from Bavaria, where he had been a brewmaster.  It was first brewed in
Cincinnati, my hometown, in 1844.  There are references to the great
popularity of lagers in contemporary Civil War journals, etc, as Steve
surmised there were, and this certainly would have led to their more
widespread popularity after the war.

Noonan (New Brewing Lager Beer) dates the beginning of lager brewing to
1841 in Munich and Vienna by Sedlmayer and Dreher (I'm sure that this must
refer to commercial brewing as Bavarian monks had been doing it for
centuries), using mixed strains of top and bottom fermenting yeast, (which
is what Hansen found still at Carlsberg decades later).  But at lager
fermentation temperatures, I suspect that there was little contribution
from the top fermenting strain, and their growth would be severly limited
as well.

American brewing from the introduction of lager to prohibition is a subject
that fascinates me.  Steve said he wasn't a historian, but one of my
degrees is in history, so I guess I am.  (The other is in biology, so that
makes me a scientist, I guess.)   Someday I hope I'll have time to properly
research this and write a book about it.  After I retire.

BTW, I just tapped my best ever Classic American Pilsner (CAP).  I think
I've got brewing this down pretty pat now, and hope soon to write an update
to my BT article (Sept/Oct, '95,
http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue3.5/renner.html).
I'll post a preliminary version here first.

If you haven't brewed this great style yet, do it this season.  And
consider entering it in competitions.  We need to keep this in front of the
non-HBD brewers!  It was featured in Madison's Taste of the Midwest last
month, where about a dozen commercial brewers brewed versions (some may
have been ales).  I tasted Capital Brewery's version and liked it very
much.  A few other commercial breweries are brewing this.  George Fix says
that sales are brisk in Seattle for Falls River Brewery's lager, brewed by
Randy Reed based on a CAP George entered in last year's Brews Bros.
competition.  South Shore Brewery in Ashland, Wisconsin, on the south shore
of Lake Superior, brews one called "Immigrant Pilsner."  I suspect there
are others.

Jeff

 -=-=-=-=-
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan c/o nerenner at umich.edu
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943. 




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Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 15:01:25 EDT
From: nghab at juno.com
Subject: RE: Oak Chips

mlew at mail.ioa.com (Michael Lewandowski) wrote:

>Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 12:53:36 -0400
>Subject: Oak Chips
>
>I am considering adding oak chips to the secondary for some aging.  I'm
>concerned about microbes hiding in the wood pores infecting my brew. 
How
>should I sanitize the chips?  Thanks in advance!

Not to be _too_ sarcastic, but I would be more concerned about what
putting
oak chips would do to the flavour of the beer, sanitary oak chips or not.

Why do you want to do that to your beer?  I don't want to assume anything
about your beer, but the idea of homebrewing IPA (and I'm not saying
that's
what you've brewed) with oak chips because, historically, it was shipped
in
oak casks is one that won't die, and I've tasted my share of oak-ruined
IPAs
in judging competitions to know it's still going around.

If you must, do it sparingly!  Better to have a more subtle effect than
you 
intended than to make the beer undrinkable.

That said, I would imagine that steaming the chips would heat-sanitise
them.

Now go have a beer,
Bob Paolino                     nghab at juno.com or
rpaolino at earth.execpc.com
Vice President, Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild
   and Great Taste of the Midwest
Columnist, Great Lakes Brewing News

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Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 20:32:34 -0600
From: "Fred M. Scheer" <maltster at marsweb.com>
Subject: reply to hbd # 2818 (9/7/98)

The following is a reply to Charles Beaver's question about
GRAVITY CALCULATION.


9.5  X  1.059  +  1.5  X  1.040
_______________________________

      9.5  +  1.5

11.6205/11 =  1.056  (resultant spec gravity)


Fred M. Scheer
MALT MONTANA
maltmt at marsweb.com


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Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 21:48:45 -0500 (CDT)
From: Thomas S Barnett <barnets at mail.auburn.edu>
Subject: Triple Decoction--Bock Beer

Hello all,
	I just finished reading D. Richman's book on Bock Beer. Therein he
suggests a triple decoction mash to really produce an authentic dark Bock
Beer. I certainly would like to produce a good and authentic beer, but a
triple decoction mash would probably stretch my brew day to about 12 hrs.
Anyone used this method and compared it with a step-mash or infusion
procedure?  Are the results comparable?

More generally, is the decoction mash, (single, double, triple, whatever),
really appropriate for the home brewer?  Several books i've read suggest
that it is indeed the best method, yet in many cases, they seem to be
geared toward the professional brewer rather than the homebrewer.  
Thanks.  Tom Barnett. 



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