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


Contents:
  re: Boulder beer (Dick Dunn)
  Yeast and archives (att!kato!man)
  Boulder Beer Woes
  Ginger-honey beer; cyser (CRF)
  Michael Jackson TV series update (Pete Soper)
  New Improved Date Decoder (Pete Soper)


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


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Date: 6 Mar 90 01:44:07 MST (Tue)
From: hplabs!hplms2!gatech!raven!rcd (Dick Dunn)
Subject: re: Boulder beer

Tony Ernst asked whether Boulder Beer is having problems.  Indeed they are.
The problems are attributable to:
	- attempting to grow too fast (e.g., building the big new brewery
	  based on overambitious sales projections)
	- Sport - the disastrous ultralight in a clear bottle, which was
	  IMHO a brain-damaged attempt to compete with Corona using style
	  vs substance
Their beers in the past couple of years just haven't stacked up well
against other micros, and there's an idiosyncratic house character that
keeps them from gaining long-term loyalty.  (I have a couple other personal
complaints with their products, but they're not things which affect the
viability of the company.)
  ---
Dick Dunn	{ncar;ico;stcvax}!raven!rcd		(303)494-0965
			or	rcd at raven.uucp

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Date: Tue, 6 Mar 90 05:38:40 mst
From: Mark.Nevar at hp-lsd.cos.hp.com (att!kato!man)
Subject: Yeast and archives

In digest 370, florian says:

  >A couple of issues ago, Mark Stevens commented on my question about
  >SN yeast:

  >>good, pure strain.  Heurich said that if a brewery does NOT use
  >>only a single strain that they risk infection of the strains
  >>by each other and that by restricting your brewing to that single
  >>strain you can better maintain its purity.  This 

  >However, in the same issue, BRW commented that SN uses two yeasts in their
  >brewing.  I've heard a similar claim from other sources.

However, BRW said his information is from a local brewpubmaster.

And in digest 368, Dave Suurballe says:

  >Steve Harrison at Sierra Nevada tells me that they use one strain of
  >yeast for both fermenting and bottling.  They filter before bottling
  >to remove protein and dead yeast and then repitch for bottle conditioning.

Since this source is from inside the operation, I tend to put more stock 
in it.

So this won't be a total waste, could someone tell me how to request digests
from the archives via UUCP ?

Thanks,
Mark Nevar




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Date: Tue, 6 Mar 90 09:18:42 MST
From: bates at rossby.Colorado.EDU (John Bates)

Subject: Boulder Beer Woes

Regarding Tony Ernst's question about Boulder Beer, yes they are in trouble.
At this time future is uncertain.  I have only lived in Boulder 18 months,
so I don't know the whole story.  From what I understand they grew too
quick and also grew out of their market.  They tried to be some middle
ground by producing cheaper speciality beer that wasn't cheap enough for the
Bud crowd, but wasn't good enough for the speciality crowd.  In the process,
they became a brewery without a focus. (personally I can't stand any of their
beers)  I understand changes are now underway in management and they hope
to increase the quality of their beers.  I hope the succeed, they are kind
enough to let us rent the tasting room once a month cheaply for our
homebrewers meeting
				Not Worrying,  John Bates  (Norman's evil twin)

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Date: Wed, 7 Mar 90 09:47 EST
From: CRF at PINE.CIRCA.UFL.EDU
Subject: Ginger-honey beer; cyser

NOTE:  This posting is a second attempt at sending, and includes corrections
made after the first attempt.  I add this note because in the past I've had my
mailer tell me postings to this forum have bounced, only to see them appear
after all.  Thank you.


Hi, All!

In digest #368, the Zentners  asked about Papazian's recipe for honey-ginger
beer.  First of all, it is a honeyed beer and not a mead; the presence of malt
as the primary source of fermentables and hops makes that so.  The same holds
true for "Washington Apple Ale."

This being the case, the fermentation should have proceeded as described.  It 
should also have ceased as described.  The extended aging in the secondary is
due to the presence of the honey-- the molecular structure of the sugars in
honey are such that extended aging periods are needed to achieve good flavor. 

It is not, for example, unusual for a mead recipe to call for an aging period 
of 2 or more years.

Finally, regarding cyser:  cyser is a mead with some apple juice or cider 
added.  As I remember, (I'm at work and so can't check-- if anyone wants to 
know the fine print, write me) the proportion of fruit juice in a melomel (mead
+ fruit juice; the generic term for spiced mead is metheglin) should not exceed
1/3 the volume of the wort.  I don't believe volume of honey content is in any
way affected; rather, the fruit juice is replacing some of the water. 


                         Yours in Carbonation,

                                      Cher 


"The first cup of coffee recapitulates phylogeny."  --  Anon.
=============================================================================

	Cheryl Feinstein              INTERNET:  CRF at PINE.CIRCA.UFL.EDU
	Univ. of Fla.                 BITNET:  CRF at UFPINE
	Gainesville, FL


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Date: Wed, 7 Mar 90 22:47:05 EST
From: Pete Soper <soper at maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: Michael Jackson TV series update

   A few weeks ago Chris Shenton reported that Discovery Channel was planning to
air a series of programs about beer. I have something new to report to shed
light about the series' content (but sadly not about when Discovery will
actually air it).
  This month's "What's Brewing" (the monthly publication of the Campaign for
Real Ale in Britain) has an article reviewing the series. It starts 
airing on Britain's channel 4 on March 27th, so if any digesters out there are 
living in the land of perpetual rain festivals, watch for it. Here verbatim
are the summary details of the series included with the review:

"The Burgundies of Belgium". Food and beer in a feast worthy of Babette at
the Michelin-starred Breughel restaurant near Bruges. Michael 
also tiptoes carefully around the dirtiest (lambic) brewery in the
world in order not to disturb the essential wild yeast microbe.

"The Fifth Element". Bavaria's elemental approach to brewing - smoked beers,
beers made using hot stones, plus a German Chancellor of the Exchequer gets a
soaking after tapping into a barrel of Hofbrauhaus Maibock during the 
traditional May Day ceremony.

"The Bohemian Connection". Michael in Czechoslovakia before the fireworks began,
points the way to the home of the world's first golden lager, the town of 
Pilsen in the Middle Ages kingdom of Wenceslas.

"Our Daily Beer". Trappist monks in a Dutch monastery talk (yes, really) about a
life of solitude and more importantly the brewing of their pilsner and Abbey
style beers.

"California Pilgrimage". Firtz Maytag was so impressed with his local San
Francisco brewery, Anchor Steam, he decided to buy it. Now every year
he takes the brewery workers to see the harvest in Hopland. Guess who's along 
for the ride?

"The Best of British" At last, we're back home and at the Batemans's
brewery in Lincolnshire more specifically as they make ready for the
Champion Beer of Britain competition at last year's Great British Beer Festival.

I swear "Beer Hunter" has got to be a coincidence. Jackson just *could not* be
consciously using the name of the McKenzie Brothers' movie :-)

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Date: Wed, 7 Mar 90 23:09:29 EST
From: Pete Soper <soper at maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: New Improved Date Decoder

  I took a hard look at that beer date decoder that went to the Digest by
accident in all its PostScript glory, after getting a request for copying 
permission. Darn, I somehow even got the width goofed up in that version!
Anyway, thanks to Dave Suurballe I also found out that a mirror image set of 
marks are needed to properly handle notches cut into either side of a label. 
  So I've completely redone the thing and sent it to A.E. Mossberg. He
has kindly set it up on the archive system so anybody can get it.
  What is this guy raving about anyway? I'm describing a PostScript file 
which, when printed on an Apple laser printer or emulator, produces a beer 
label date decoder card that works for several kinds of beer, (most 
importantly IMHO, Sierra Nevada products). You just cut it out, tape it to a 
business card and stick it in your wallet or pocket book for the next time you
are at your grocery store so you can be sure to get *fresh* beer (or cry over
the age of the imports as the case may be).
  I zapped the copyright which was a silly notion and I don't know why I had it.
Dave says that on his printer the fancy copyright symbol printed as a capital
"Sigma" anyway!
  Copy the decoder any place you want, any time, anyhow (but leave my name on 
it please).

  Here is how to get a copy of the PostScript file (quoting Mr. Mossberg):

Okay, it's in the archive as 'decoder'. People can retrieve it by sending

	send decoder from homebrew

to netlib at mthvax.cs.miami.edu or by ftp from ~ftp/pub/homebrew/decoder.Z

  Cheers,
  Pete Soper

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #373, 03/08/90
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