---

	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  Refrigerator questions. (Mark.Leone)
  re: list (Mark Stevens) <stevens at stsci.edu>
  Failure in culturing yeast (John Mellby)


Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com
Archives available from netlib at mthvax.cs.miami.edu


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

Date: Mon, 19 Feb 90 09:44:49 EST
From: Mark.Leone at F.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: Refrigerator questions.


Now that I finally bought a spare refrigerator for brewing (only $35,
but getting it up the stairs was hell!), I've got a few questions:

 - What temperature should you use to proof/rehydrate a lager yeast?

 - I know it's best to pitch a lager yeast at an initially higher
temperature (60-70 degrees).  Should I put the fermenter in the
refrigerator right after pitching, or wait for signs of an active
fermentation?

 - After bottling, how long should lagers be kept cold?  Ideally I would
like to keep all of my lagers in the refrigerator, but I think I'll
quickly run out of space.

 - My local homebrew shop keeps their leaf hops in a freezer.  Is
this any better or worse than just refrigerating them?  What about
freezing pelletized hops?

 - Does it help to refrigerate or freeze grains?  Malt extract?

Also, a belated comment on the recent chill haze discussion: If you're
having trouble with chill haze, try using leaf hops *without* one of
those mesh bags.  It's not as neat, but when you sparge into the
fermenter the spent hops supposedly help filter coagulated proteins
out of the wort (according to Papazian).  I doubt that this makes
nearly as much difference as a good cold break, though.

- --
Mark R. Leone  <mleone at cs.cmu.edu>              "Don't just do something,
Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University     sit there!"
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 19 Feb 90 10:59:02 EST
From: (Mark Stevens) <stevens at stsci.edu>
Subject: re: list


First, kudos to Chris Shenton for putting together the comparison
chart of homebrew supply prices (HBD 360).

One other thing to keep in mind when looking for homebrew suppliers
is distance.  If you want to do business with a company that's
too far from your home, you'll end up paying as much for shipping
as you do for the merchandise!

Keep in mind that most of the things you'll want to buy are heavy.
It won't be difficult to put together orders of 20-50 pounds, or
more if you're buying sacks of malted barley.

In my case, I'm looking for shops in UPS zone 2--meaning that I'll
only pay a couple bucks shipping on orders up to about 30 pounds.
So I'm going to have to constrain myself to shops in PA, NJ, NC,
DE, MD, VA, WV.  

There's great prices to be had from places like Green Acres in MN
or Great Fermentations in CA, but I just can't afford the shipping!
Higher shipping costs more than wipe out the cost savings.

- --Mark Stevens
  stevens at ra.stsci.edu


Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 19 Feb 90 15:15:22 CST
From: jmellby at ngstl1.csc.ti.com (John Mellby)
Subject: Failure in culturing yeast

Yeast in a Bottle!  An experiment in culture

Well, my Thursday experiment failed.  I tried to culture some yeast for
the next batch of beer, and it didn't work.

As you know, most beer is pasteurized (or at least filtered) to remove
the active yeast.  But some good beer (especially American Microbrewery
beer) is bottle-conditioned, meaning it is bottled with live yeast which
continues to ferment in the bottle.  This matures the taste of the beer,
gives it a longer shelf-life, and adds nutrients to the beer.

If you are careful, you can pour the beer, leaving an inch in the bottle
which contains the yeast which has settled to the bottom.  (N.B. I am told
that even yeast which is called "top-fermenting" settles to the bottom.
Go figure!)

If you boil some dry malt (I used 1 cup which may be too much) in
about 2-4 cups of water (I used about 2 cups) for 20 minutes, then
let it cool, then add the bottom-of-the-bottle yeast, you can
establish a growing bottle of the original beer's yeast.  (Of course
you sterilize the bottle, and put an air lock on top.)
Theoretically this will have more live yeast and healthier yeast than
if you start from a dry yeast packet, or from liquid yeast culture.

I tried a bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale, got in D.C. in December,
and thus probably from California several months earlier.  After
3 days there is no activity, so I presume there wasn't enough yeast
left in the Bigfoot bottle to start a culture.

Well, tonight I try again.  I have some Celebration Ale to use which
should be newer and healthier.  Anyone know whether Sierra Nevada
uses the same yeast in Bigfoot and Celebration?  They are so different
it seems unlikely, but what do I know?

Surviving the American Dream
John R. Mellby                       Texas Instruments
jmellby%ngstl1.ti.com                P.O.Box 660246, MS 3645
                                     Dallas Texas, 75266
(214)517-5370                       (214)343-7585
***********************************************************
* "Its not what you've got, its where you stick it!"      *
*                Edmund BlackAdder, BlackAdder goes Forth *
***********************************************************

Return to table of contents



End of HOMEBREW Digest #361, 02/20/90
*************************************
-------

---