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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Things Are Grim In Burradoo ("Phil & Jill Yates")
  Re:Odd problem with kegged beer ("RJ")
  The Biggest Night Of All ("Phil & Jill Yates")
  Re: Too much Oak (Jay\) Reeves" <jay666 at bellsouth.net>
  RE: Meade recipe (David Johnson)
  Practical Brewer pdf many chapters (David Harsh)
  Brew Books ("Bob Hall")


* 
* 2001 AHA NHC - 2001: A Beer Odyssey, Los Angeles, CA
* June 20th-23rd See http://www.beerodyssey.com for more 
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* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!
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Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 19:29:01 +1000
From: "Phil & Jill Yates" <yates at acenet.com.au>
Subject: Things Are Grim In Burradoo

I regret to advise all world travellers and hearty beer drinkers that the
one time "Hot Spot", luxurious, salubrious and all time favourite watering
hole has been brought to a close. I'm speaking of none other than the
Burradoo Hilton.

Within the confines of "The Hilton", such celebrities as Dr Pivo, Ray Kruse
and Jeff Renner, not to mention of course the Baron himself, have been seen
and noted deep in thought and consumption. Even Fred Garvin has been sighted
hanging precariously from a window on the second floor.

Why is it gone? Well the Baron has taken his eye off the ball (away in New
Zealand fighting kiwi pilots) and in his absence some serious decisions have
been taken. Wes Smith (a kiwi himself) has all but taken over the town and
the first thing he planned to knock off was the "Hilton". In its place
stands a very sophisticated Hotel full of pomp and ladies. Mind you, some of
those "ladies" Wes has employed, look remarkably like the girls I remember
in my Billiard room!

This is an outright act of hostility! The Baron is not happy!

Until such time as the "Hilton" can be returned to its past position of
glory, I recommend it be struck from the books as a sight worth visiting for
world homebrewers.

I went to New Zealand to fight the kiwis, only to return and find the
bastards have nearly taken over Burradoo!

Cheers
An Unhappy Baron





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Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 06:17:15 -0400
From: "RJ" <wortsbrewing at cyberportal.net>
Subject: Re:Odd problem with kegged beer


"Jamie Smith" <jxsmith at vac-acc.gc.ca> wrote:

"Recent Problem: periodically the last few glasses of beer out of the keg
are clear, odourless, tasteless.  Basically carbonated water on tap.  Fine,
but not the desired product!  The rest of the beer from the keg until the
'water' is just fine."

        Sounds to me like he may be fining his kegs with brewer's gelatin
and preparing         it wrong!

        If he is, he should use 1/2 tsp gelatin for every gallon of beer...
Let it soak in             cold water for 20 min, then stirring constantly,
gently heat to ~160F... the                 gelatin will be ready for use,
when it melds with the water (looks like clear                 liquid)... IF
IT BOILS, THROW IT OUT and start again!  While still warm, add it         to
the keg, carbonate, and allow 3-5 days for the keg to clear.

"He adds more water to his kits than is called for...."

        Adding more water should not produce a problem of this nature... If
he adds at         the beginning of the boil, he boil longer and get a
better utilization of his hops;         If adds after the boil, he'll get a
reduced OG; If he adds at kegging he'll reduce         his ABV percentage
and lighten his flavors, somewhat.

        Once, everything is mixed into the keg under pressure, I doubt that
this would         be the issue raised.

"His fridge temp is like mine, just at or below freezing..."

        This near freezing temperature, is probably forcing the gelatin muck
to the                 bottom.  Try raising the temp to 38-42F serving
temp.s.




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Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 21:02:26 +1000
From: "Phil & Jill Yates" <yates at acenet.com.au>
Subject: The Biggest Night Of All

I simply can't get over the loss of the Burradoo Hilton. Those of you in
America who have never ventured "down under" are never likely to appreciate
what a focal point it was for Aussie beer lovers.

Some most extraordinary nights have been had at the "Hilton". Perhaps the
biggest was the night we coaxed Dave Lamotte from his bunker in Newcastle (a
position he rarely leaves) for a visit to the Highlands. Dave is renowned as
a most conservative brewer and avid reader of Kunze. The last I remember, he
was up on stage with his pants down around his ankles, singing renditions of
"Oh Danny Boy" whilst Dr Pivo collected money from the audience in his
upside down brewing helmet.

Needless to say, Dave has never been seen in the Highlands since. Nor for
that matter has Doc Pivo.

With the closure of the Hilton, perhaps they will never be seen again.

Wes Smith, you had better have something good in mind to replace class acts
such as this!

Cheers
Phil



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Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 09:03:05 -0500
From: "James \(Jay\) Reeves" <jay666 at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: Too much Oak

In #3655, Nathan Matta sez:

(snip)
>which involved boiling with and fermenting on a small quantity of oak
>chips.  So, the mild is great, but there's a sharp bite right up front
(snip)

Putting them in the boiling wort?  May should have boiled them first for a
bit in water, then put them in the boiling wort.  Sounds like you've
extracted the tannins from the wood and no telling what else.

I can only think of trying polyclar since that is supposed to remove tannins
from beer to help reduce chill haze, but I don't know if they're the same
kind of tannins.  Wouldn't hurt to try it.

Jay Reeves
Huntsville, AL






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Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 11:33:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: David Johnson <dmjohnson at pol.net>
Subject: RE: Meade recipe

There are a lot of questions that probably should be answered before 
Michael (or anyone else) settles on a mead. 

1) How soon is the wedding? A lot of meads (especially those made with 
champagne and montrachet yeast IMHO) take a year before they are ready 
to drink. This is especially true of higher alcohol neads. If time is 
short and your brother and his fiance prefer a dry beverage then a 
lower alcohol sparkling fruit mead (melomel) or spice mead (metheglyn) 
could be what would work best. If you have plenty of time, then you 
have a lot more options. 

2) Dry or sweet? the easiest way to make a sweet mead is to add more 
honey than the yeast can ferment out. This can be done 2 ways. The 
first is a little more time consuming. You make a moderate gravity 
must (gravity 1.100) and start your fermentation and keep adding honey 
untill your yeast poops out. If you are using a beer yeast it is 
usually about 9-10% alcohol (though I used a belgian yeast and it went 
to 12% using the second method). Most wine yeasts will go 12-14% 
alcohol. The champagne yeast will get you to at least 18% by this 
method. I get the impression that this can be time consuming and I 
don't really use this method.

Method 2 is to be really familiar with a certain yeast and start at a 
gravity that will leave residual sugar. I generally use Lalvin D-47. 
In my hands, I consistently get a 115 point drop in gravity from this 
yeast. I like sweeter meads so I will start with a gravity of about 
1.120-1.130 and this will ferment out and leave some residual sugar. 

Question 3) Still or sparkling? Unless you want to leave residual 
sugar, sulfite, sorbate, and force carbonate your mead, there is no 
reliable and safe way to produce a sparkling sweet mead. This topic 
gets a lot of attention on the Mead Lovers Digest. Other methods are 
proposed, but would probably fall under the topic of "Advanced mead 
making". Dry sparkling meads are fairly easy and can be made a a 
variety of gravities much in the ways we do with beer. A suggestion I 
would make (and this is just MY opinion), I think that carbonating to 
beer levels is distracting in a mead and I would carbonate a mead to 
lower levels (similar to an english mild). 

Question 4) Crown caps or corks? This really refers back to #2. I 
would add that I think that mead ages out better when corked. Many 
mead makers feel that aging is inhibited by corks or caps.

Question 5) Flavor-What do you like? Melomels tend to be drinkable at 
a younger age than a lot of other meads. Strong honeys like buckwheat 
tend to take more time to age and mature. Cysers (cider and honey) are 
a good first mead, but this is the wrong time of the year. 

Question 6) How much work are you willing to put in on this? Some of 
the recipes can be rather involved. And working with some fruit can be 
a pain (they tend to gelatinize and make siphoning a nightmare). 

So, did I scare you off yet? I think in lots of ways mead is easier to 
make than beer, but it is different! Before you make mead, I would 
strongly suggest reading Dave Polaschek and Tim Mitchell's "Mead made 
Easy"!

Here is the link!

http://www.best.com/~davep/mme/contents.html

On a final note, a personal hint. I like to use commercial apple juice 
in all my sweet melomels. I substitute it for most of the water and it 
has a gravity of about 1.050. It seems to "fill in the corners" of a 
fruit mead without having a flavor impact of its own. Most fruit 
really has a negligible sugar content. 

My method is to heat 1 gal of preservative free apple juice with 1 gal 
(12 lbs) of honey to 150 degrees for 30 minutes to sanitize chill and 
mix with 3 gals of juice in a carboy aerate the must, hydrate the 
yeast, then pitch Lalvin D-47. The gravity of this mixture is about 
1.126-1.130. I use pectic enzyme here. After fermentation slows, I 
will thaw out my fruit and place it into my plastic fermenter where I 
lightly mash (just to crack) the fruit with a sanitized wine bottle. 
Then I rack the fermenting must onto the fruit. I add pectic enzyme 
again here. I make sure there is plenty of head space here because a 
violent ferment could push the fruit out of the fermenter. Or clog the 
opening and fermentation lock. After at least a week (sometimes 2) I 
rack off the fruit using a sure screen. This can be difficult and 
sometime you will lose a fair amount of product here. Then I let it 
sit until clear. I will rack again if there is a lot of yeast sediment 
after fermentation ceases. 

When the mead is cleared, I taste and adust the sweetnessbased on the 
opinion of my expert taster (read wife).

hope this helps!

Dave


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Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2001 12:25:46 -0400
From: David Harsh <dharsh at fuse.net>
Subject: Practical Brewer pdf many chapters

Pat Babcock <pbabcock at hbd.org> wrote that chapter 11 of the Practical
Brewer won't open.

I have a more extensive problem.  My files of chapters 3 through 12, 17,
20, and 21 won't open.

I knew it at the time, but because of the ridiculously low transfer
rates I got, I put off trying again until it was too late.  

Let me know if you have copies you're willing to share.

Dave Harsh				Bloatarian Brewing League
Cincinnati, OH



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Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 09:54:31 -0400
From: "Bob Hall" <rallenhall at hotmail.com>
Subject: Brew Books

The recent discussion of favored brewing books sent me scurrying to the 
basement to find the musty copies that got me started in college: Home 
Brewing Without Failures by H.E. Bravery (now there's a name for a time when 
the terms "home brewing" and "bottle bombs" were synonymous), c.1965, and 
The Art of Making Beer by Stanley Anderson with Raymond Hull c. 1971. Are 
there any other copies out there? They're both primitive by today's 
standards, but a fun read and about all I could find apart from picking the 
brains of all the old German farmers who kept crocks foaming in their summer 
kitchens through Prohibition.

I have a dozen or so books on the shelf, so for what it's worth here are my 
favorites:

If I Could Only Have One : Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels
Quick Reference: Brewmaster's Bible, Stephen Snyder
Standard Gift to a New Brewer: Homebrewing Vol. 1, Al Korzonas
Most Thumbworn: Clonebrews, Tess/Mark Szamatulski and North American 
Clonebrews, Scott Russell

Bob Hall


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