HOMEBREW Digest #3457 Fri 20 October 2000

[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]


	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org


***************************************************************
       THIS YEAR'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY: 

          Northern  Brewer, Ltd. Home Brew Supplies
        http://www.northernbrewer.com  1-800-681-2739

    Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********


Contents:
  competition announcement (Jim Hinken)
  Mash to lauter transfer (Ant Hayes)
  All grain attempt (Brad McMahon)
  Small quantities of Star San ("Walter H. Lewis III")
  Re: All-Grain Attempt and Combi-tun (Matthew Comstock)
  California ("Hill, Steve")
  RE: Star San ("patrick finerty jr.")
  Re: Rye in Pre Pro Lager? ("patrick finerty jr.")
  IMBR? (chuck calvert)
  Thermometer calibration (David Harsh)
  How is Zymurgy / AHA these days? (Nathan Kanous)
  Heating a freezer ("Murray, Eric")
  Re: Rye in Pre Pro Lager? (Jeff Renner)
  American Brewery History Page (Jeff Renner)
  Honey character (Keith Busby)
  RE: In Line Oxygenation (Steve)
  Honey Character (Petr Otahal)
  DMS musings ("Dave Sapsis")
  Freezer and IPA ?  hm.. ("Cass Buckley")
  Distilled Water Yeast Storage (james r layton)

* * Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! * Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!! To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!** IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to the digest as we canoot reach you. We will not correct your address for the automation - that's your job. The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit. More information is available by sending the word "info" to req at hbd.org. JANITOR on duty: Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen (janitor@hbd.org)
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 22:12:08 -0700 From: Jim Hinken <jhinken at accessone.com> Subject: competition announcement Entries are now being accepted for Novembeerfest 2000, the Pacific Northwest's premier homebrewing competition. Novembeerfest is a MCAB qualifying event and will be held Saturday, November 4 at Larry's Homebrewing Supply, 7405 S. 212th St. #103, Kent, WA 98032 Three bottles are required for entry with an entry fee of U.S.$5. The standard AHA entry form and bottle labels may be used. Entry forms may also be downloaded from www.brewsbrothers.org. Entries will be accepted between October 8 and October 28, 2000. They may be shipped to Rick Star 7640 NE 123rd St. Kirkland WA 98034 (425) 821-9388 e-mail: we_stars at msn.com Entries may also be dropped off at: Larry's Homebrewing Supply, 7405 S. 212th St. #103,Kent, WA 98032, 206-872-6846 Mountain Homebrew and Wine Supply, 8520 122nd Ave NE, Suite #B-6, Kirkland, WA 98033, 425-803-3996 Cascade Brewing Supplies, 224 Puyallup Ave., Tacoma, WA 98421, 253-383-8980 Rockfish Grill and Brewery, 320 Commercial, Anacortes, WA 98221-1517 360-293-3666 A BJCP exam will also be held at Larry's Brewing Supply on Friday, November 3. Contact Alan Moen for details, e-mail alanmoen at televar.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:12:16 +0200 From: Ant Hayes <Ant.Hayes at FifthQuadrant.co.za> Subject: Mash to lauter transfer After describing a first attempt at all grain that sounded a lot like my own, Chad Mundt asked, "What is the easiest/best way to transfer the grains and wort to my lauter-tun from the mash-tun?" I played around with separate mash and lauter tuns for about a year before switching to a combination mash-lauter tun for the following reasons: 1. Transfer is a messy business - hot and sticky stuff going everywhere - unless you can do it like the big boys with a large bore pump, and a screw of some sort. 2. I usually lost a lot of heat on transfer, reducing my sparge efficiency. 3. Preheating a separate lauter tun adds another thing to remember. 4. After transfer you have to wait for your filter bed to form. 5. I saw a couple of micro's that used a combination tun. Phil's Phalse Bottom at the bottom of your spigotted cooler will save you a lot of hassle (just read the bits on preventing it floating) I would also avoid the step mash approach until you get your saccrification part right. For a long time, I used a simple infusion mash at 66C, and it did the trick. Ant Hayes Gauteng; South Africa Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 18:16:40 +0930 From: Brad McMahon <brad at sa.apana.org.au> Subject: All grain attempt Hi Chad, I laughed so hard when I read your first grain attempt. Your "disasters" have happened to me, time and time again. A session doesn't go past where I haven't spilt water or wort everywhere, hit the wrong temperatures, forgot hop additions or have plumbing fly apart. I have had stuck mashes. I have sworn at most major deitys. I have told myself it is too much hard work. I have collapsed from exhaustion after 7 hours of work to get 55% extraction rate. I told myself to go back to extract. Three weeks later I taste the beer and declare it all worth it. Don't worry Chad it does get easier and you get more organised. Just a little. :-) Keep at it! Brad McMahon Aldgate, Sth Australia Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 07:48:39 -0400 From: "Walter H. Lewis III" <wlewis at alliedlogistics.com> Subject: Small quantities of Star San With all the talk about Star san and storage I thought I'd pass along my trick for getting small quantities of star san. According to the directions I am to mix 1 oz in 5 gallons of water. I take 1 oz and mix it with one gallon of water, then when I want a small quantity of star san I mix MY mix 1 part mix with 4 parts water. This way I don't have a keg tied up, a carboy tied up just a small easily stored gallon jug. Walt Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 05:31:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Comstock <mccomstock at yahoo.com> Subject: Re: All-Grain Attempt and Combi-tun Chad told us about his all-grain initiation! Chad, Congrats on the all-grain. It may or may not make better beer, but damn do you feel like your really working for it. I enjoy it, but it does eat the time. Anyways, with regard to your comment/question about mash-tun to lauter-tun transfer.... Use a combi-tun and don't transfer at all. In fact, I have a hard time thinking about doing it any other way. Combi-tun: mash and lauter in the same 'container.' I use a bottling bucket wrapped in that shiny aluminum rescue blanket stuff, held with a couple belts. I have a CPVC drain (all home depot parts and a hack-saw - easy) and it screws onto the backend (inside)of the bottling bucket spigot. I also have a fine mesh grain bag that I place in the bucket to hold the grains better. I can mash about 15 pounds of grain max and it holds the temperature pretty well. When its time to sparge I just dump a couple quarts on top of the grain, recirculate about a gallon and then sparge until my kettle is full. No transfers from tun to tun. I haven't read Fix but with most 2-row these days I don't think protein rests are needed. I just dough in with 175 - 180 F water and hit my target 150 - 153 F. That T change is a factor you'll have to discover for your own setup as heat capacity of the apparatus plays a role as well as grain T, etc. Enjoy the beer, man Matt in Cincinnati __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Messenger - Talk while you surf! It's FREE. http://im.yahoo.com/ Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:05:43 -0400 From: "Hill, Steve" <SHill at advanta.com> Subject: California Hello: My soon to be wife and I are planning to go to California next fall (sept, oct, or nov) to see breweries for me and wineries for both of us. I would like to start the trip in Southern California and work my way up to Northern California. We should have probably about 1 to 2 weeks for vacation. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what places offer tours of both breweries and wineries? Any web sites? Thanks Private emails are welcome. Steve Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:21:09 -0400 (EDT) From: "patrick finerty jr." <zinc at finerty.net> Subject: RE: Star San howdy, as an iodophor user, i don't think your understanding of iodine based sanitizers is correct. once prepared, the solution can be used repeatedly as long as 1) it maintains its amber color and 2) it is not exposed to air during storage so that the iodine does not evaporate. -patrick in Toronto On October 18, 2000, Brian Lundeen wrote: > My understanding of iodine based sanitizers is that you can NOT keep a batch > made up, they lose their strength too quickly. However, Star San is very > good for storing, especially in a sealed container. I keep a batch for a few > weeks in a covered pail with no ill effects. - -- "There is only one aim in life and that is to live it." Karl Shapiro,(1959) from an essay on Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer finger pfinerty at nyx10.nyx.net for PGP key http://finerty.net/pjf Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:25:36 -0400 (EDT) From: "patrick finerty jr." <zinc at finerty.net> Subject: Re: Rye in Pre Pro Lager? Alastair asks about using rye in a lager. while i have never brewed a lager using rye, i did recently make a pale ale containing rye. my reciped also used 2 lb of rye but it was only 1% of the grist. this was an all grain batch and they rye was included in the mash but not milled by me. this may have been an error as i didn't really notice much of a rye flavor. however the brew did have amazing head retention and was quite tasty. i'll likely try this again in the next couple of months since i still have ~4 lbs of rye. -patrick in Toronto On October 18, 2000, alastair wrote: > I've just become the proud owner of 2# of flaked rye and was thinking of > throwing it in my next batch (pre pro lager from Wyeast 2035). It will make > up about 10% of the grist and I'll be using Northern Brewer and Cascades > at about 35 IBU. > > Sounds like a good idea? I'm a rye virgin, so I'm not sure what the results > will turn out like. Has anyone done this sort of brew before? I've seen some > ale recipes, but no lager type beers. I was planning on something flaked in > it (corn or wheat), so the rye may be a sign ;) > > Alastair > > - -- "There is only one aim in life and that is to live it." Karl Shapiro,(1959) from an essay on Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer finger pfinerty at nyx10.nyx.net for PGP key http://finerty.net/pjf Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:39:44 -0400 From: chuck calvert <calvecg at concentric.net> Subject: IMBR? A real newbie-type question from a long term lurker (3 years? 4?) I made a barleywine, modeled mainly on "Breakfast Barleywine" on Cat's Meow. 15lbs of fermentables, IIRC. Like that recipe, after a month with the "Abbey II" I racked it onto some sweet mead yeast, to finish off any fermentables. The problem is, I added 3/4 cup of corn sugar for bottling, and it did *not* carbonate. Not a bit. It's nice and clear, tastes pretty good, but too sweet, the sweet tastes sickly-sweet after a while (well, by the 3rd one you don't notice anymore -har!). So, I am imploring the Lords of Homebrew for help. I was thinking maybe a dry mead yeast would have the tolerance to give me some carbonation? Or maybe too much tolerance, and give me bottle bombs? To give you some background, I've made 20 or 30 brews so far, learned lots of stuff either the hard way or reading this list. I've never done full mash and probably never will, and I'm *not* a chemist, physicist, nuclear scientist, or poet ;-) Any suggestions would be appreciated. -CHUCK- PS - anybody ever had Moretti's "La Rosa"? It's my current favorite, but tough to find. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:46:47 -0400 From: David Harsh <dharsh at fuse.net> Subject: Thermometer calibration The best way to calibrate: Ask around in your club to see if anyone has a NIST traceable thermometer. Your science and engineering geeks are the most likely candidates here. Have him/her bring it to a meeting and do a calibration near 150 F. It is a worthwhile club activity. You'll be surprised how incorrect some thermometers can be! Often, when an instrument lists error of 2%, it means 2% of full scale, not of the actual reading. BTW, Spencer's method is fine if you can't arrange something like this. Dave Harsh Bloatarian Brewing League Cincinnati, OH Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 09:07:49 -0500 From: Nathan Kanous <nlkanous at pharmacy.wisc.edu> Subject: How is Zymurgy / AHA these days? Hi Everyone, Glen Pannicke chimes in: >particular author's hard work) But now we come to the article in a previous >issue, which I think was on barleywine, but the point of the article is lost >due to ramblings of it's ficticious foul-mouthed characters. Now I can Here's my $0.02 on this. I didn't read the article with the foul language. I did read the letter of concern by one AHA member and the editorial response (Ray Daniels, I assume) and I was appalled. A dues paying member objected to the language used in Zymurgy and the editorial response was belittling and condescending to the member's objection. If the truth be known, I find this offensive. Many may say this is a silly thing to take so seriously and that is their prerogative, but I refuse to listen to the local radio stations because of the sophomoric morning shows they try to pass off as comedy. I don't expect I'll become a member of the AHA if they can't treat their members with a little more dignity. Feeling high and mighty about myself and putting on my fireproof polyester jumpsuit. nathan in madison, wi Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 10:31:59 -0400 From: "Murray, Eric" <emurray at sud-chemieinc.com> Subject: Heating a freezer How's it going fellow brewers. It's been a while since I have posted, I've just been lurking. I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to make suggestions on a simple and predictable way to heat my chest freezer this winter. I have a 15 cubic foot freezer that is currently being controlled with a Johnson temp controller. I have heard that using a reptile heater may work, but I did not know how hot that would make the freezer, and if it would over work the compressor trying to keep it cool. I will need some level of temperature adjustment, as I plan on doing some lagers in the near future. Emails are ok emurray at sud-chemieinc.com Thanks Eric Murray Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 13:30:54 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu> Subject: Re: Rye in Pre Pro Lager? alastair <alastair at odin.he.net> writes >I've just become the proud owner of 2# of flaked rye and was thinking of >throwing it in my next batch (pre pro lager from Wyeast 2035). It will make >up about 10% of the grist and I'll be using Northern Brewer and Cascades > at about 35 IBU. > >Sounds like a good idea? Well, it sure won't be a CAP, but do it and let us know! If you want to be more authentic, spring for a couple of bucks worth of flaked maize (or rice) and use it instead. Jeff - -- -=-=-=-=- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, c/o nerenner at umich.edu "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 13:36:00 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu> Subject: American Brewery History Page HBDers I just stumbled across the American Brewery History Page at http://www.beerhistory.com/. Lotsa neat links, especially the Beer History Library http://www.beerhistory.com/library/, which has what looks like a couple of dozen articles. This is from the first part of the feature article on beer barons: The Rise of the Beer Barons by Carl H. Miller Captain Frederick Pabst strode proudly through the various departments of his Milwaukee brewery. Flanked by a guest, New York Governor Roswell P. Flowers, the Captain was always at his best when showing off his world-class brewery to some visiting dignitary. The Governor could not help but to be impressed by the sheer enormity of the Pabst operation -- the gargantuan copper brew kettles stretching two stories in height, the towering oak fermenters capped by pillows of white foam, the endless rows of rotund casks filled with aging beer, and the army of busy German workers tending to their various duties. The Captain was particularly proud of the brewery's work force. Many years spent as a steamship captain on Lake Michigan taught him the value of employing only the strongest and fittest men. Wishing to boast this to his guest, Pabst could not resist an impromptu demonstration. "You see that fire bucket hanging on the wall?" asked Captain Pabst. "Any of my men can fill that pail with beer and drink it down as you would a glassful." Turning to a nearby employee to prove it, the Captain said in a raised voice, "Isn't that so, Pete?" "Ja, Herr Captain," replied the worker, "but would you excuse me just one minute?" The worker retreated to an adjacent room. Upon his return, he filled the fire bucket with beer, hoisted it to his mouth, and proceeded to drain it in one long pull. Amazed and impressed by the feat, the Governor and the Captain congratulated the beaming employee and proceeded with their tour of the brewery. A curious Captain Pabst later asked the worker why it had been necessary to leave the room before emptying the bucket. The employee replied, somewhat embarrassed, "Vell, Captain, I didn't know for sure could I do it. So I just went to try it first." Jeff - -- -=-=-=-=- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, c/o nerenner at umich.edu "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 14:01:24 -0500 From: Keith Busby <kbusby at facstaff.wisc.edu> Subject: Honey character I don't know about the chemical conditions involved but I once had a Tripel which developed a honey flavour and aroma after 6 months in the bottle, this without honey in the recipe. The latter was simply DWC pilsner malt and candi sugar. I don't recall the yeast used but it was Belgian of some sort. Keith Busby Professor of French University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of French and Italian 618 Van Hise Hall Madison, WI 53706 (608) 262-3941 (608) 265-3892 (fax) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:13:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve <brewguy99 at yahoo.com> Subject: RE: In Line Oxygenation Hi all, Brad Miller asked about installing a 'sparge stone' inline on the outlet of a counterflow chiller. I can't really answer this question directly, but I will give an idea of how to do it after I explain what I do. I have just rebuilt my 3-tier gravity brew system, converting it to a HERMS on 2 tiers and incorporating a homemade counterflow chiller and a pump. I added a method of aerating the wort as it comes out of the chiller. My pump is at the lowest level on my rack, and I've built the counterflow chiller (3/8 OD Refrigeration tubing inside 20' of 3/4" ID copper tubing) into the rack below the Kettle. >From the kettle the wort travels thru the chiller, past a tee with a 1/8" needle valve and a HEPA filter, and on to the pump. After the boil, as I pump the wort to the fermenters I crack the needle valve slightly so there is some air drawn in thru the HEPA filter into the cooled wort. The pump churns the air into the wort so that the wort stream into the fermenter is extremely foamy. After pumping 5.5 gallons of wort into a 6.8 gallon carboy, there is about 4 inches of foam on top. By the way, as I was hoping it would, the addition of the CF chiller and pump has knocked at least an hour off of my brew day. It used to take almost an hour to chill my wort (12 gallons in a Sanke keg kettle) using an immersion chiller before I could begin racking, but now I can start racking to the fermenters within 5 minutes after turning off the boiler. I also now fill 2 fermenters much quicker with the pump than with gravity. Now to get back to the question: I suppose you could add an aerating stone in line using two sizes of copper tubing (one inside the other), a tee, and some reducers. It is easier to draw than to explain, so I've put a gif on my web site to show you what I mean. http://users.chartertn.net/franklinbrew/aerater.htm. If the output of the chiller is copper tubing, the aerator could be constructed right on the chiller output. Hope this helps. Steve Jones Johnson City, TN State of Franklin Homebrewers http://users.chartertn.net/franklinbrew __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Messenger - Talk while you surf! It's FREE. http://im.yahoo.com/ Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 10:04:06 +0100 From: Petr Otahal <potahal at postoffice.utas.edu.au> Subject: Honey Character I dont have any answers for Spencer, just another observation. I too get this honey character in my beers occasionally. I thought it was just a house flavour caused by local wild yeast. I bottle all my beers and bulk prime with dextrose. But I have noticed that as the beer ages this flavour dissipates. Now that I think about it maybe its not an infection because none of my beers seem to exhibit this character when tasting just before bottling, and infection flavours usually get stronger with age. Maybe youre right Spencer. Cheers Pete >Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 16:18:16 -0400 >From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer at engin.umich.edu> >Subject: Re: Honey character > >Looks like nobody's answered (yet). > >A honey aroma can be produced by 2-3 pentanediol. This is the "one >more carbon" relative of diacetyl, and is produced by some yeast. I'm >not up on the biochemistry that leads to this product, but it is >possible that the conditions inside your bottles are conducive to >producing it. > >Can anyone help with this? > >=Spencer Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 21:33:23 -0700 From: "Dave Sapsis" <dsapsis at earthlink.net> Subject: DMS musings After a rather hectic fire season, it appears it is over. Bummer. I keep trying to get a 6 months here -- 6 months in Oz gig hooked up, but alas... Anyway, here are a few musings: A while back, my usually rock solid friend Spencer offers up the suggestion to use a can of corn to diagnose DMS. I personally find fault with this advice, because I have not found DMS (yes -- the actual compound) when dosed into neutral beers to to smell much like corn -- whether creamed, canned, or otherwise. As an oft user of corn, I do however, often get comments back from judges indicating DMS in my corny smelling beers. As alternative diagnostic tools, I would suggest to smell Rolling Rock, dose light neutral lagers with kettle lid condensate, or best yet, get your hands on some food grade DMS. At low levels I find it adds a nice faintly sweet, matly-grainy-sulfur "beeriness" to golden lagers. At moderate levels I detect a somewhat more firmly sweet, lacquerish character that has some mustard family vegetal notes (like broccoli or kale). At high levels, it gets clearly fishy/oysterlike. I recognize that those are only the analogs for me, but please beware, actual corn DOES typically smell corny, likely with or without any attendant sulfur compounds. **** Richard Foote writes: >>Moisture is the worst enemy of grain. Uhhhh. Not in my experience, and not even close. Can you all say "catpiss"??? **** I for one am chuffed there has been a bowwow over the bleedin' censorship issue. Graham, I'm with ya mate, ya cheeky nutter. Those daft tossers can go whinge in the fen, 'kin hell. **** And finally, from the Dude Guha in Delhi we get: >Many thanks >Sapsi And all this time I been wondering where I got my "dark good looks".... - --dave, sacramento Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 22:31:24 -0400 From: "Cass Buckley" <cassnsyd at mediaone.net> Subject: Freezer and IPA ? hm.. Hey now folks - - I have a two part question. Question #1 is for the fridge guy or somebody else who has done work on fridges or freezers. I have a Westinghouse upright freezer that I got from my neighbor for free. OK so? When I got the thing in the basement, I tested it and it would freeze water at its warmest setting. I did not like that. I went to a scrap yard (humming the mission impossible theme because they were closed) to get a temp controller from a fridge. I found one that was ascetically pleasing so I cut the wires and ran away. It has a 5" +/- temp probe thing (I'm talking about the metal thing sticking out of it). Anyway, I cannot get the freezer any warmer than 39 F. this is too cold. The freezer had coils under five shelves. I took out the shelves and bent the coils up to one side so I could stand two kegs in it. Can I get a new controller that will make this run warmer or does it have too many coils to run warm? I get frozen condensation on the coils and around them but according to my thermometer, the air is about 39 F (on top of one of the kegs). Can this work or should I get a regular old fridge? If I do get a fridge (used), what spec.'s/brand etc. should I look for? Question #2 I am an extract brewer. When I go to the beer store I just wing it as I choose ingredients. I go in with an idea and try it when I get home. This is the first and only IPA I have done so far. All other beers have come out either very good or pretty darn good. Still better than store beer. This is the first beer that did not do what I wanted. I brewed a 5 gallon batch of beer that was supposed to be an IPA. I used 1 can amber and 1 can light extract. I added (steeped) 1 lb. crystal 20 and 3/4 lb special roast. Hops: Full boil (1 hour) 1oz Chinook at 12% 1oz Galena at 11.7% Half Boil (1/2 hour) 1 oz MT. Hood at 4.1% Final 10 minutes (flavor? / aroma?) 2oz SAAZ at 3.6% Is this just not enough hops? this does not taste very bitter to me. should I add more hops at the end of the boil? OK... now I have another question. I thought that the high alpha hops would give me higher bitterness. they were in for an hour so I was under the impression that would give me good utilization of the acid. I also believe hops added at the end of the boil do not need to be high alpha because most of the acid is not utilized anyway. Most of the hops flavor that I like comes from low alpha hops so I add them at the end. Should I have more alpha at the end? Is this hop schedule way off for an IPA? I have been homebrewing for only 11 month. I have 17 batches under my belt, all with good results except this one. Please, any suggestions.. critique away... private emails welcome.. I would like to do a good IPA.... thanks in advance - - All good in NH but the IPA - - - Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 22:57:52 -0500 From: james r layton <blutick at juno.com> Subject: Distilled Water Yeast Storage Some time back, in response to a question from Graham Sanders, I wrote that I have been storing yeast under distilled water for some time. I further promised that I would report back when I re-cultured them. Here goes. I started my yeast bank in March of 1999, using the techniques spelled out in an article by Michael Graham in Brewing Techniques, Vol. 5, No. 2 (March/April 1997). Basically, a loop of yeast is harvested from a plate and stored in vials under a couple CCs of otherwise sterile distilled water at room temperature. My practice for reanimation is to shake the vial to suspend the yeast, then transfer a loop of the liquid to a few CCs of sterile wort. I initially had great success with this method, but at sometime around eight months in storage I began to have a few failures to restart (no apparent activity in the vial of wort in a period of 5-7 days). I put off reculturing quite a while, but Graham's question gave me the needed push. I knew that some of my strains were slow/no starters from a single loop of liquid, so I decided to use the entire contents of the storage vial. The starters contained approximately 15 CCs of sterile wort. Each strain which successfully started was plated out and eye balled for contamination, then sent back to distilled water. The results, with time in storage and time until activity was noted in the wort starter: BrewTek CL-120, Brit. ale, stored 18 months, started within 5 days BrewTek CL-160, Brit. ale, 18 months, <5 days BrewTek CL-300, Belg. ale, 18 months, <5 days BrewTek CL-380, Saison, 18 months, 20 days and still nothing BrewTek CL-660, Lager, 18 months, <5 days BrewTek CL-690, Lager, 18 months, 13 days BrewTek CL-920, Ger. Wheat, 17 months, <5 days Wyeast 2124, Lager, 18 months, <5 days Wyeast 2272, Lager, 18 months, <5 days A few comments: All of the successful starters plated out cleanly to the unaided eye. I've successfully brewed with several of these yeasts in the past year. The BT article recommends starting from vials by streaking on a plate, rather than directly inoculating a few CCs of wort as I have been doing. Jim Layton Howe, TX Return to table of contents
[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]
HTML-ized on 10/20/00, by HBD2HTML version 1.2 by K.F.L.
webmaster at hbd.org, KFL, 10/9/96