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FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
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Contents:
RE: Capping on foam (Bob Sheck)
The $20 question (for Brew-Scientists at least!) ("Anthony Torrez")
Sorghum Malt (Ant Hayes)
re: re high final gravity... ("Stephen Alexander")
Australian Castlemaine XXXX (Brewmasterwill)
50L kegs (JGORMAN)
home vs. micro brewery ("Bridges, Scott")
Brooklyn Weizenbock (John Baxter Biggins)
Hefe Weizen Esters ("Steven Parfitt")
Re: Center of the Brewing Universe (Jeff Renner)
Re: question re high final gravity... (Roy Roberts)
Re: home, micro, commercial brewing (Doug Hurst)
Re: headspace & carbonation ("Joel King")
Temperature Sensors ("Pannicke, Glen A.")
Floor Malted /Gambrinus ("Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies")
Lurker - Coming Out of the Closet (Gene Collins)
recirculating and hop scum (Frank Tutzauer)
Starting the Boil Before the Sparge is finished (R.A.)" <rbarrett at ford.com>
re: kettle volume, Grolsch sprayers, hop scum (Brian Lundeen)
War Of The Worts Winners (John Varady)
North Country Malt Supply (Richard Foote)
BrewPubs in the Billerica, Mass area... (Kim Hansen)
Spices ("Mark R. Boesen")
Phils Filler ("Axle Maker")
re: Bottling/headspace - capping on foam ("C.D. Pritchard")
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Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 00:51:39 -0500
From: Bob Sheck <bsheck at skantech.net>
Subject: RE: Capping on foam
The best solution here is to go to cornies. Carbonate
your beer however you like- I like FORCE carbonation,
cause I can drink it soon after racking!
Then, the only time you have to bottle is for
entering in comps! Then, you use a counter-
pressure filler (I think Phil makes a very nice one,
but there are other examples out on the WEB).
Also, you can use a cornie as a filler- just rack from
your secondary (or use the cornie as your secondary)
to the cornie that has been pre-filled with your bottling
sugars <whatever you use> and then use enough CO2
to force the beer out to your filling wand. If you want more
foam, shake the bottle about before capping!
Bob Sheck
bsheck, me-sheck, abednigo! Greenville, North Carolina
email:bsheck at skantech.net or see us at:
http://www.skantech.net/bsheck/
(252)830-1833
- -------------
"An independent station - WJAZ - With Jazz and
conversation from the foot of Mt. "Belzoni
<Donald Fagen- The Nightfly>
- -------------DOG IS MY CO-PILOT------------------------
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 06:15:56 -0000
From: "Anthony Torrez" <perpacity at hotmail.com>
Subject: The $20 question (for Brew-Scientists at least!)
Nowhere in the archives could I find any information pertaining to my
current curiosity; What types of sugars are extracted from "crystal" malts?
and Are these sugars fermentable by Champagne yeasts?
Thanx Again!
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 09:17:20 +0200
From: Ant Hayes <Ant.Hayes at FifthQuadrant.co.za>
Subject: Sorghum Malt
I have been incorporating sorghum malt in my mashes for the last 6 months.
The results are quite pleasant, and add a new dimension to tired recipes. Is
there anyone else who has tried this - I would like to swap notes.
Ant Hayes
Gauteng; South Africa
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 04:46:40 -0500
From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: re: re high final gravity...
darrell leavitt writes ...
>the final gravity really confuses me,
[...]
>Here is the data:
...
My reading is that you mashed 12.75# of grist & 18qt of water 60' at 155F(68C),
30' at 158F(70C).
You had 11# of pale malt (PA & wheat malt), 1.75# of roast (chocolate &
barley & amber).
A 62C mash will give ~80% attenuation and a 72C mash will give ~40%
attenuation (see Kunze on Jump mash). I would expect your 68C mash to yield
something like 55-60% attenuation of the wort, tho' it depends on other
factors.
>I collected about 7 gallons of 1.060 (about) wort.
>
>First runnings were 1.082
>OG was 1.072
7 gallons at 1.060 is 420 degree-gallon from your grist. That's a hair under
33 deg-gal/lb and is possible but unlikely after collecting only 7 gal from
12.75# of grist. If the 1.072OG was 5gal then you collected 360deg-gal
which is a lot more plausible (28.3 deg-gal/lb).
>FG after 11 days (no secondary) was 1.040 ? THIS IS WHAT CONFUSES ME
(72-40)/72 = 0.44 => 44.4% attenuation.
That's lower than I expected, but not vastly so. The whopping 13.7%
addition of roast and quasi-roast malts hurt attenuation, but I still think
your attenuation is too low for this grist and mash.
>It tastes very good, sweet, .not cloyingly so.but I am confused as
> to the high final gravity.
Sweet ! That's a give-away. There is no source of sweetness in your grist
bill - no crystal or caramel malt. Unfermentable dextrins are not sweet,
and alcohol has a sweet sensation but that's unlikely to be your case, so
the residual sweetness in your beer is almost certainly from unfermented
sugars.
>Any ideas as to the reason for the hight-than-expected final gravity ?
Stuck/slow fermentation, but I wouldn't give up on day 11.
>I kept the temp of the fermenter at real close to what it called for ,
> so I don't think that the yeast crapped
>out.
Yeast like it a LOT hotter than brewers do. 90F will make your yeast happy,
but your beer will be terrible. Listed fermentation temps are for making
good beer, not for making happy yeast.
>If I had used a secondary perhaps the gravity would have come down.??
No. Secondary fermenter transfer doesn't have any big impact on final
attenuation.
You seem to have pitched enough yeast, though their condition is
unspecified. Your yeast have most likely run out of some critical growth
factor, other than fermentable sugar. They may be fermenting very slowly,
but most likely you'll find they will be flocculating and clearing. You
could try increasing the fermenter temp a few degrees and stirring up or
shaking the fermenter regularly. This will improve their performance and
reduce CO2 in solution and may allow them to complete the fermentation. My
preference would be to repitch. See Al Korzonas' Stuck Fermentation FAQ at
'The Library' too
( http://hbd.org/brewery/library/stuck_fermentAK051195.html )
Yours is one of the few cases where the dreaded Clinitest would come in
handy (a test for residual sugars).
-S
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 00:01:28 EST
From: Brewmasterwill at aol.com
Subject: Australian Castlemaine XXXX
I'm looking for a homebrew recipe of Caslemaine XXXX. Any help would be
appreciated. I wolud like to try white labs new australian yeast.
brewmasterwill at aol.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 08:25:00 -0500
From: JGORMAN at steelcase.com
Subject: 50L kegs
I was at a local micro-brewery last week and found that they had 50L kegs as
decoration. I was wondering if anyone knows of any breweries that distribute
their beer in 50L kegs. Perfect size for a boiling pot.
Jason Gorman
River Dog Brewery
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 08:52:07 -0500
From: "Bridges, Scott" <ScottBridges at sc.slr.com>
Subject: home vs. micro brewery
Mike Capitain said:
>i am asking for the help of all those with experience and insights into the
>realms of home-, micro-, and commercial brewing. where is the line drawn
>between the three? what makes a homebrewery a homebrewery and not jst a
>microbrewery in someone's backyard? furthermore, if a microbrewery sells
it
>brew, what makes that different than a purely commercial brewery? i gather
>that the biggest differences are in size, but where are the boundaries?
I might not be the most qualified to answer this, but since I seriously
looked into opening a brewery a few yrs back I'll take a crack...
I think the first distinction is between a commercial (meaning the alcohol
is taxed and the brewery is licensed by the BATF) and a non-commercial
brewery (meaning it falls under the home brewing exclusion to the tax law).
Therefore, a home brewery is any brewery that isn't licensed to sell its
beer. There are a number of details here but the gist is that you can brew
100 gals/yr for your own consumption, or 200 if there is more than 1 adult
in the home (can you say SWMBO?). You can't sell it since it is untaxed
alcohol, and legally you aren't supposed to take it outside of your home
except for competitions and/or evaluation. Having said that, you can call
your own home brewery any d*mn thing you like, and many of us use cute
name's like Scott's microbrewery, etc. The name in this case has no
relationship to the commercial status or recognized names I'm using below.
Under the commercial heading, I think there are 4 generally accepted
categories, although these seem to blur at times. First is a Brewpub.
Generally, anywhere that the beer is brewed and consumed on premises.
Depending on state law, some of these also bottle for off-site sales, and
some are prohibited from doing so. A Microbrewery is any who exclusively
bottles or kegs for off-site sales and has sales of less than 15,000
barrels. Usually, these tend to serve local markets, and don't get very
wide distribution although there are exceptions. A Regional brewery is over
15,000 but less than 1 Million bbl. Then you get to the large breweries
like AB, Miller and Coors who have sales in the millions of barrels. It's
been a few yrs since I've been really interested in the business side of it,
so the numbers might be a little different these days, but you get the idea.
Hope this helps clear it up.
Scott
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 09:03:24 -0500
From: John Baxter Biggins <jbbiggin at med.cornell.edu>
Subject: Brooklyn Weizenbock
So has anyone had the Brooklyn Weizenbock yet? I know it's out
there, but haven't had it yet.
- --
John B. Biggins
Cornell University Medical College
Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Student -- Program in Pharmacology
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Laboratory for Biosynthetic Chemistry
Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
lab:(212)639-6405 fax:(212)717-3135
http://www.ski.edu/lab_homepage.cfm?lab=189
"Science, like Nature, must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation.
Given the same state of integrity
It will surely serve us well."
-- Neil Peart; Natural Science (III) -- Permanent Waves
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 10:02:18 -0500
From: "Steven Parfitt" <the_gimp98 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Hefe Weizen Esters
Sunday after church I started my yeast for a Hefe Weizen. Warmed the blister
pack in 80F water (Wyeast 3068 Weihenspan from Williams) and then smacked it
to start. Shook it periodiacally throught the day. Yeast date was October
2000, so I figured it would take about two days to activate. Wrong. By 6pm
it was already inflated to 1".
So, Sunday evening, it is brewtume.
1/2 C Belgian Special B
1/2 C 60L Crystal Malt
Steep at 150 F for 30 minutes
add
6 LB German Wiezenmalt (Williams Brewing)
1 Oz Hallertau Hersbrucker
Boil 60 minutes.
Chill in bathtub of 55 F water till wort is 95 F. Areate while adding tap
water to achieve 80 F temperature (total = 5 Gal US). Pitch yeast.
This morning the temperature is down to 74 F.
OK, How do I get the estery flavors? The yeast is specified for 64-70F as
ideal temperature range. The last time I made the Hefe Weizen, I did not get
the estery flavors I desire.
Do I ferment at the high end of the range, say 68-70 degrees? Or do I
ferment at the low end?
What temp do I use during secondary fermentation? And aging?
Thanks,
Steven
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 10:08:51 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Re: Center of the Brewing Universe
Regarding Rennerian coordinates, Jason Henning, self appointed
"Senior Rennerian Coordinate Developer," prefers the radial method of
giving these important data. He suggests the first number be the
distance in miles from [0,0] Rennerian, and the second the bearing in
degrees.
Thus Jason, who lives 12 miles ~NNE of me in Whitmore Lake, MI, is at
[12,30] Rennerian.
Jason has also defined [0.0] Rennerian as me, not my brewery, and as
such, a mobile coordinate. In HBD last August, he wrote, "Only when
we plant you will [0,0] Rennerian be static." I can wait.
Regardless of how you define it, or even if you use it, it's really
good to let us know where you are when you post in HBD, and use your
name. It adds to the sense of community, might help answer a
question, and who knows, you might even find that there is another
homebrewer around the corner!
And just a little history into this amusing matter, it all grew out
of my semi-annual request as above. After one such request some
years ago, Dan McConnell, a former HBDer and owner of Yeast Culture
Kit Co., signed his post something like, "five miles south-east of
Jeff Renner, the center of the homebrewing universe." Spencer Thomas
(host of the archives) then posted that he was one mile south-east of
Dan, or six miles southeast of the center. It took off from there.
It was Jason who first used the term Rennerian. It's been lots of
fun.
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: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 07:33:40 -0800 (PST)
From: Roy Roberts <psilosome at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: question re high final gravity...
I had the same problem recently with a beer. I tried repitching but to no
avail. My guess was that my (single-infusion) mash temperature was too
high, killing off most of the beta amylase before it could do its thing...
I wonder if that might be the case with your stout. Since then I've been
using the Fix 40-60-70 mash schedule with good results. You might try
adding amylase to the fermentation.
Roy Roberts
NYC
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 09:32:34 -0600
From: Doug Hurst <DougH at theshowdept.com>
Subject: Re: home, micro, commercial brewing
Mike Captiain Writes:
>"i am asking for the help of all those with experience and insights into
the realms of home-, micro-, and commercial brewing. where is the line
drawn between the three?..."<
There are specific definitions for home-, micro-, and commercial brewing. A
home brewery is not licensed to sell beer. They are limited to 100 gallons
per year or 200 for the "head of household". I'm guessing that some home
brewers break the law with regard to the quantity they brew and it would be
hard for law enforcement to monitor. Selling it is a different matter.
Don't do it. The government is very eager to get a slice of alcohol
revenue. I personally think that they should. A micro brewery is licensed
to sell alcohol, but brews less than a certain number of barrels per year.
I think it's 20,000. I'm sure someone else on the list knows better than
me. A large or full scale commercial brewery brews more than that.
Hope this helps,
Doug Hurst
Chicago, IL
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 15:41:22 -0000
From: "Joel King" <joel_d_king at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: headspace & carbonation
Chris Buck wrote:
>>Intuitively, it seems ulinkely that pressure-inhibition of the
yeast is the culprit. If there were high CO2 pressure in the headspace,
doesn't it stand to reason that, at equilibrium, there would be more CO2
dissolved in the beer?<<
I think pressure-inhibition IS the culprit - and it is a NON-equilibrium
culprit. I think the gas space pressure grows more rapidly for a higher
filled bottle, so the bottle pressure grows more rapidly, which inhibits the
yeast until the CO2 can diffuse into the beer.
Just my two cents worth.
Joel
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 09:43:43 -0500
From: "Pannicke, Glen A." <glen_pannicke at merck.com>
Subject: Temperature Sensors
Dave Howell and Pete Calinski have been discussing DS Temperature Sensors:
Aside from the many other cool things Dallas Semiconductors makes, these
3-wire devices (they call 'em 2-wire) work very well with the Atmel RISC
u-controllers - like the AT90S2023. A single 2023 chip (about $3 retail)
can control the thermometer/thermostat unit, a 16-digit key pad and an LCD
display. The RISC chip can also be programmed in the system without taking
it out of the socket. All you need to program the chip is your PC and a
parallel cable. The chips do not have to be programmed in assembly, you can
use the free version of BASCOM AVR and program in BASIC and actually
COMPILE your code, not interpret like a BASIC stamp.
OK, sounds like a commercial. It is. It's an ad for anyone who wants to
add microcontrollers to their brew process, but wants to spend more time
brewing and less time fiddling around with the electronics. I envision a
PLC/SCADA system on my brewing apparatus. Automatic temperature programmed
brewing in the mashtun with my yet-to-be-assembled HERMeS system.
Temperature controlled fermentations in the partitioned chest freezer with
ales on one side and lagers on the other! Charts and graphs galore!! A
SOLAR-POWERED GRAIN MILL!!!!
Huh?!? OK. I tend to get carried away at times...
An excellent source of info on microcontrollers is www.dontronics.com
And it's an Oz company to boot!
Carpe cerevisiae!
Glen A. Pannicke
glen at pannicke.net http://www.pannicke.net
75CE 0DED 59E1 55AB 830F 214D 17D7 192D 8384 00DD
"Designs which work well on paper rarely do so in actual practice"
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 09:56:28 -0600
From: "Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies" <orders at paddockwood.com>
Subject: Floor Malted /Gambrinus
Just a note to clear up any misconceptions about Gambrinus and floor
malting:
Gambrinus does not floor malt. They do use small Saladin boxes. They have a
clean small scale operation. What they mean by British style malting is a
darker colour, for richer malt flavour. The typical malt done in Canada is
for the big breweries which don't want malt flavour as that means they have
to add yet more corn to thin it out again too.
We carry their unique Honey Malt.
Although Beeston's floor malted MO is no longer produced, we have some in
stock in limited quantities. We will certainly get others (Fawcett's or
Crisp likely).
regards,
Stephen Ross
Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies, Saskatoon, SK
orders at paddockwood.com www.paddockwood.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 10:36:53 -0600
From: Gene Collins <GCollins at cranecarrier.com>
Subject: Lurker - Coming Out of the Closet
Hello fellow Homebrewers
I've been lurking because this damn AOL 6.0 mail system uses MIME encoding
for rich text formating and I am trying to get around it.
I was wondering if it would be worth my time to grow hops here in Oklahoma.
It gets so hot here in the summertime that everything melts (me included).
Most posts on this subject comes from you fellows in the northern regions. I
have heard some lore about some individuals trying it here but no real
success stories. I'm sure that Jeff Renner probably has some wisdom about
this.
Gene Collins
Beer Consumption and Heavy Truck Specialist
Broken Arrow, OK
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 11:57:37 -0500 (EST)
From: Frank Tutzauer <comfrank at acsu.buffalo.edu>
Subject: recirculating and hop scum
Kevin writes first about recirculating to clear the wort:
>...I can't seem to get my wort to clear when I recirculate. I had this
>problem with my first batch as well, so it's either the method or the
>materials (and I'm betting on the method!) I use a 5 gallon Gott cooler
>with a copper tubing manifold setup.
I don't have much advice about what to do, but I do have an opinion on what
it's not. Jack Schmidling, he of EasyMasher fame, has always maintained
that it's not the manifold that does the filtering, it's the grain bed.
And I believe him. Sure, I think manifold design might alter the flow of
wort through the grain bed--John Palmer's experiments have convinced me of
that--but ultimately that's a question of efficiency, not of clarity. If
you've got a proper grain bed, the wort should run clear pretty quickly.
The two problems that come to my mind probably don't apply here. First,
the grain bed might be too shallow (but I can't see that happening in a
5-gallon Gott for a typical batch size). Second, the crush might be
inferior. But Kevin used a Valley Mill, which should be ok unless the mill
is grossly misadjusted. Other than that, I don't have much useful advice.
FWIW, I use a 7 gallon Gott with a spiral of copper (I know, John, I've got
to rethink that design), drilled with tiny holes, and mill my grain with a
non-adjustable JSP MaltMill. I clear in a quart or so.
Back to Kevin:
>The second question is with regards to "hop scum" (technical term). After
>the boil was complete, I found a large amount of hop residue clinging to
>the side of my kettle (I used pellets). Should I be watching more
>carefully as the boil progresses, and stir this stuff back into the wort?
If I have a big foam up and lots of hop pellet goo sticks to the sides,
I'll knock it back down. Otherwise I don't worry.
At yesterday's brew session, the oddest thing happened though. After
whirlpooling, settling, and racking I looked into the kettle. As usual,
there was a ring of hop scum around the top of the kettle at the boil line.
But, and I have never seen this before, there were also several really huge
globs of hop spooge stuck to the side of the middle third of the kettle.
And I mean *big* globs and lots of 'em. They looked like they were defying
gravity, stuck to the side of the pot like that. And they were on only one
side, much like the yeast-on-the-side-of-the-bottle phenomenon a while
back. If it makes a difference, I'm in Buffalo, NY, USA, and the hop globs
were on the east side of the kettle. I didn't notice any strange shout
phenomenon coming from Australia, but one never knows.
--frank
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 11:56:47 -0500
From: "Barrett, Bob (R.A.)" <rbarrett at ford.com>
Subject: Starting the Boil Before the Sparge is finished
When I was brewing yesterday I did something I have never done before.
Seemed to work ok, but I thought I would post the question and see what
other homebrewers have to say.
My brewing partner (my wife) was out of town and the system we have for all
grain batches is very manual. Lifting the Gott cooler. Lifting the 1/2 bbl
brew pot. etc, etc. With no one around to help with lifting a 1/2 bbl brew
pot with 7 gals of liquid inside, I decide to put the pot on one of my extra
burners before starting the lauter and sparge. This way it would already be
up on the burner and I would not have to try to lift it up there by myself.
The recipe (the Guinness Clone from Zymurgy which I am calling this time
"Lonely Stout") calls for FWH of 2 oz. Willamette hops and 1 oz of Fuggles
at 60 minutes remaining of a 90 minute boil. I put the Willamette (pellets)
in the brew pot and start the lauter out of my Gott cooler. Now normally we
would wait until the lauter and sparge was complete before starting up the
burner. But I decided to start the burner up after I had collected about 1
1/2 - 2 gallons of runnings. Needless to say the boil started in about
10-15 minutes and I just let her go and continued to lauter and sparge. I
started the clock on the boil when it started in the brew pot and added the
Fuggles 30 minutes later. This cut about 1 hour off my brew day because I
could overlap the timeline of the lauter/sparge with the boil and I didn't
have to bring 7 gallons up to boiling from around 135F.
Are there any repercussions from this process that will affect the beer? We
have made this recipe 5 or 6 times before and always wait to start the boil.
Is there anything that we should notice will be different about this batch
vs. the others? Do most homebrewers start the burner on the brew pot before
the lauter/sparge is finished?
We make the beer we drink!!!
Bob Barrett
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Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 11:02:15 -0600
From: Brian Lundeen <blundeen at rrc.mb.ca>
Subject: re: kettle volume, Grolsch sprayers, hop scum
David Harsh writes:
> Let me rephrase my post to avoid piercing your thin skin:
> Why would you
> want to do this, when it would be much simpler to use a dipstick with
> calibrated markings for volume?
> I think your proposed floating level indicator had a bit of a Rube
> Goldberg complexity to it and that's why I recommended the dipstick if
> you weren't going to use a sight glass.
OK, I'll admit to being a bit thin-skinned, especially when I feel my
intelligence is being insulted. Sorry for tearing into you. Most of the
time, I'm a pretty nice guy. I think I was having a bad day at work, too.
In any case, I should have mentioned that I find it increasingly difficult
to use a dipstick because of vision problems. Some kind of external volume
indicator would be my preference. Yes, the float is kind of Goldbergesque,
and on some level that sort of appealed to me, but as Mike Pensinger pointed
out, there would be the surface agitation problem to interfere with the
readings.
I have thought about a sight glass, and I suppose I could handle installing
a weldless version without too much assistance (although I have heard
drilling S/S is a tricky business). My concern (which obviously does not
seem to be shared) is that the wort that sits in the sight glass might not
get properly boiled. IOW, are the boiling temperatures in the main body of
wort also reached in the small volume of liquid that's sitting off in its
little glass home?
Jbooth comments on the suitability of Grolsch bottles for higher
carbonation:
> I couldn't imagine a roof leak, but one day while
> nearby I noticed a
> Grolsch bottle with a stream of spray relieving itself on our
> ceiling.
> Periodicly it acted as a safety valve with more distance than
> a boy baby.
At the opposite experience end, I have had high carbonated weizens and
(unintentionally) over carbonated stouts that open with a resounding POP
within Grolsch bottles. But I have also had leakers on normal carbonated
beers. Poor gasket condition and/or tension would be my guesses for any
problems, but as far as the strength of the glass goes, I haven't seen any
problems there.
Kevin Sinn (a fellow howling savage) asks:
> The second question is with regards to "hop scum" (technical
> term). After
> the boil was complete, I found a large amount of hop residue
> clinging to the
> side of my kettle (I used pellets). Should I be watching
> more carefully as
> the boil progresses, and stir this stuff back into the wort?
This generally happens to me the worst when I get a boil up, and is one of
the reasons why I boil for 15 minutes before adding my bittering hops (not
much you can do about FWH). I don't seem to get too much hop residue from
the normal attrition of liquid. IMO, if it froths up and deposits them on
the sides of the kettle, they aren't contributing anything to the wort, so
they should be scraped back down into the liquid. The rest I don't worry
about, although this perhaps could explain why I find 40 IBU to be lightly
bittered. ;-)
Cheers,
Brian
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Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 13:05:41 -0800
From: John Varady <rust1d at usa.net>
Subject: War Of The Worts Winners
War of the Worts Competition Results are posted at:
http://www.eveningneon.com/WOWwinners.htm
Congrat's to Dave Houseman for his BOS Ordinary Bitter.
John
John Varady * New email address ***> rust1d at usa.net
Glenside, PA http://www.netaxs.com/~vectorsys/varady
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Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 14:19:57 -0500
From: Richard Foote <rfoote at mindspring.com>
Subject: North Country Malt Supply
Jeff Renner wrote of late:
>North Country Malt Supply, another family business, is the exclusive
>importer to North America. http://www.northcountrymalt.com/. I've
>dealt directly with them for Fawcett's malted oats and was very happy
>with the service. I also received prompt and thorough technical
>support via email from a Fawcett family member.
They have some interesting malts I've not seen elsewhere. I'm especially
interested in the Fawcett pale chocolate, MFB kiln coffee, amber and brown
malts. Has anyone tried these? I'd be interested to hear of the results.
BTW, I e-mailed North Country regarding shipping rates for us homebrewers
in GA. The response, FWIW:
Freight to your location for one bag would be $22.61. Please let me know if
your interested in having some malt sent to you and I'll get it out today.
Thanks again for your interest in our products and I hope to hear from you
in the near future.
Sincerely,
Bryan J. Bechard, Sales Dir.
Bryan at northcountrymalt.com
(888) 368-5571
They seem like helpful folks. No affiliation, YYY.
Rick Foote
Whistle Pig Brewing
Murrayville, GA
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Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 14:16:04 -0600
From: Kim Hansen <Kim.Hansen at bankfirstcorp.com>
Subject: BrewPubs in the Billerica, Mass area...
All,
I'm going to be in the Billerica, Massachusetts area for
about a week, and was wondering if there were any good
brewpubs in that area, or if anyone could recommend
some of the good local brews on tap around there.
Thanks!
Kim
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Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 15:49:24 -0500
From: "Mark R. Boesen" <mrboesen at mtu.edu>
Subject: Spices
Hello all,
I was recently at home from school and paid a visit to one of the local
micro-brewery establishments. They had a cinnamon spiced porter on draft
and it was quite tastey. It also sparked an interest in trying to brew
something similar.
Does anybody have any techniques for spicing brews or good recipes?
I'm fairly new to home brewing and have not tried any thing like this, I
just need something to point me in the right direction. I'm open to anything,.
Thanks,
Mark Boesen
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Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 18:29:39 -0500
From: "Axle Maker" <axlemaker at mindspring.com>
Subject: Phils Filler
Hi All !
I just bought a " Phils Filler " for my bottling day, i've never used one
before nor have I ever seen one in action. My question is > If the filler
leaked any faster I wouldn't have to worry about pushing down on the filler
to fill bottles, is this how they all are or did I get a bad one ?
TIA ! Axle...
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Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 17:16:51
From: "C.D. Pritchard" <cdp at chattanooga.net>
Subject: re: Bottling/headspace - capping on foam
Fred Johnson noted that he never sees foam atop the beer when bottling
before naturally carbonating. I never did either Fred.
He also noted, "some (many) commercial bottle filling machines disturb the
surface of the beer in the bottle with a fine spray of water to generate
foam just before the cap is placed on the bottle and sealed".
The water jet works because the big boys' beer is fully carbonated at
bottling and the bottles are counter-pressure filled so, there's much more
co2 in the beer to foam when the water jet distrubs it than there is in
beer in a HBer's bottling bucket. BTW: For HBers that counter-pressure
bottle, a water jet isn't needed- just remove the filler after filling so
its business end is in the head space, tease open the beer valve and raise
the filler as the foam that's discharged fills the headspace.
For non noncounter-pressure bottling, one thing that doesn't work is using
a pocket beer engine (a syringe used to suck up then discharge beer to form
a head). I just tried it on a sample of ale from a secondary that had been
dropped to 45 degF and topped up with ~2 psig of co2. This meant the ale
had more co2 in it than a brew in a bottling bucket would typically have.
The sample foamed when "beer engined", but not nearly enough to fill the
usual headspace in a bottle that'll be naturally carbonated. I also tried
bubbling some co2 from a cylinder/regulator thru the sample. It took
awhile to generate enough foam. With a 5 gal. bottling session, it'd be
way too tedious for me. Anyhow, if one already has the co2 cylinder and
regulator needed for bubbling, add a keg and counter-pressure filler and
you can bottle the best way IMHO.
c.d. pritchard cdp at chattanooga.net
http://hbd.org/cdp/ http://chattanooga.net/~cdp/
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