HOMEBREW Digest #3759 Fri 12 October 2001


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Scotch Ale (Casey)
  re: Pumpkin in a can (Andy Woods)
  Re:CO2 cylinder certification ("Dennis Collins")
  Re: CO2 Cylinder Certification (Todd Goodman)
  counterflow chillers ("the freeman's")
  Labels & Cap Codes ("John Herman")
  Greetings ("Wolff, Robert")
  re: Cranberry Beer ("Kensler, Paul")
  Re: winemaking (Jeff Renner)
  Palm Pilot Utilities. ("Hornberger, Brent")
  Split Rock Homebrew Competition ("Houseman, David L")
  re: Palm Pilot info ("Rogers, Mike")
  Re: French Method (Jeff Renner)
  Spooky Brew Staggers Into The 21st Century... ("Zemo")
  Re: palm brewing (joseph540)
  HBD Community Red Cross Fund Status (Richard Foote)
  Palm Brewing software ("Doug Hurst")
  BONES BASH - Final Call for entries (Bill Wible)
  How to Chill Your Homebrew Using Advanced Physics ("Bret Mayden")
  Re: Labeling bottles (Brian Levetzow)
  Tetley's Recipe. (William Jones)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 22:16:38 -0700 From: Casey <acez at mindspring.com> Subject: Scotch Ale Yet more questions: I'm really full of it...err...inquisitivness, I mean. So I'm making a scotch ale (wee heavy) and It's happily in the secondary at the moment, after about 2 weeks in the primary. Primary fermentation went great - I pitched two starters of Edinburgh ale yeast and it fermented at about 75 F in my closet. I now have it in a freezer at about 67 F and pitched another starter from the yeast at the bottom of the primary. The gravity out of the primary was 1.034 and it was about 1.078 OG. I want to get it to about 1.025...however, after a few days in the primary, I'm not seeing much activity at all. Do you think it the yeast will chomp it down to 1.025, or should I pitch some champaign yeast. Or perhaps a lager strain and cold condition it, perhaps. On that note, I hear sometimes people cold condition scotch ales for about 2 months or so. Wouldn't that make the ale yeast go dormant? Whats up with that? Let me know your thoughts. I kinda like my lager yeast (maybe something to give it a nice malty finish) idea. That would be kinda cool. I kinda messed up the style anyways, as they were outta the malt I needed and its too dark. Time to just have fun. Please let me know - thanks, Casey Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 02:22:03 -0400 From: Andy Woods <woods_a at ACADMN.MERCER.EDU> Subject: re: Pumpkin in a can > Question: What is the proper method for using pumpkin "puree" in a can. This > is the store bought, Libby's brand canned pumpkin meat. No added flavors or > any of that, just pureed pumpkin. Steve Lane, I recently brewed a extract Pumpkin Ale and this is what i did. I went with whole pumpkin instead of canned. I cut, cleaned, spiced about 1-1.25 lbs of pumpkin and cooked in the oven at 300 degrees for 1 hour...Just until the pumpkin becomes soft, this is so the sugars are easier to handle and more flavor will come to a brew. Took the pumpkin and placed it inside a grain bag so i didnt have to deal with the mess. Steeped the pumpkin and the grains together for 20 min till 180 deg. Added the LME and I decided to let the pumpkin boil for 20 min for the hell of it. Im going for a light pumpkin flavor, not a heavey pumpkin/veggy brew. I read from BYO magazine this month that the Lakefront Brewery only uses 0.064 lb of pumpkin per gallon. I tasted the wort after taking the gravity, and it was a very mellow/suttle pumpkin taste - not a liquid pumpkin pie. Very similiar to the taste of honey in a Honey Mai Bock. I guess with 3 cans your trying to go for a stronger pumpkin taste. Im only familiar with a few breweries and wonder if Troegs (PA), App. Brew Co(PA), Texas Cattle Co. (GA) are trying this style of beer this season. Id love to see what they come up with. Doing an all grain version of this seems to be a mess with the pumpkin, and i've read some horror stories in the archives about this. So, I guess i got lucky. Andy woods_a at acadmn.mercer.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 08:16:10 -0400 From: "Dennis Collins" <dcollins at drain-all.com> Subject: Re:CO2 cylinder certification Tim asks about CO2 cylinder recertification. When I bought my CO2 cylinder, I was told that rarely would it be refilled and given back to me. What is more likely is that they (they being the gas supply company) will take your cylinder and swap that out with another used cylinder that they have which is already full. Well, needless to say, I have no idea where my original cylinder is that I bought, I just keep getting a different one every time I need CO2. In your case Tim, I would just use up what I had in that cylinder that you have, then take it to your local gas supply place and swap it out for another one. Dennis Collins Knoxville, TN Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 08:16:59 -0400 From: Todd Goodman <tgoodman at bonedaddy.net> Subject: Re: CO2 Cylinder Certification * Tim Membrino writes in HBD #3758: > Is it reasonable to wait until the tank is empty before getting it > recertified or should I play it safe and purge the tank and bring it in for > certification now? Any suggestions for where to bring the tank (I'm located > outside of Boston MA). > > Tim Membrino > Acton, MA Hi Tim, If it were I, then I'd wait until the tank was finished before bringing it in. The only place around Acton that I'm aware of is Wesco gases in Billerica (near Burlington on the Middlesex Turnpike). That said, what I've found to be the best is to contact Coke. I get a 20lb CO2 tank for a $40.00 deposit and then $13.00 for each refill. They've cracked down recently and begun to enforce their rules for not allowing a cylinder in a personal auto, but they've been good about working with me to find a restaurant or business that gets coke deliveries and then tagging the tank along with that. Much better price than refilling around here and you don't have to worry about the hydro testing yourself. Todd Westford, MA Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 07:46:16 -0500 From: "the freeman's" <potsus at bellsouth.net> Subject: counterflow chillers I use 2 Precision Brewing http://www.pbsbeer.com/ Maxichillers on "the perfesser" . One serves as a heat exchanger (reverse from chilling to heating) and the other as a regular chiller. In the instance of the all copper Maxi, the length is inconsequential as the temps recieved are within less than 1 degree of the water input. In my case the compactness of the chillers is important. Midwest Brewer of the BrewRats has built his own counterflow for a dollar figure much less than that charged by the commercial suppliers. This option is always viable if you are "handy". Hope this helps, Bill Freeman aka Elder Rat K P Brewery - home of "the perfesser" Birmingham, AL Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 08:48:45 -0400 From: "John Herman" <jherman5 at nyc.rr.com> Subject: Labels & Cap Codes My method for Cap Codes is slightly different. I use an alpha code for the style ( ESB, ST ) but I use a 4 digit bottling code. This way I know how prematurely I am drinking my beer. John Herman jherman5 at nyc.rr.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:00:20 -0400 From: "Wolff, Robert" <robert.wolff at lmco.com> Subject: Greetings Just wanted to say Hi to everyone. I have been away for 2 1/2 years. Hopefully I can add some helpful insight to brewing and winemaking. For the record I have a full RIMS (20 gal capacity). Designed it and purchased the equipment from Precision Brewing in NY. I have brewed one time with it. An English ale with some added biscuit malt and lots of Fuggles. Braam,. How ya doin' pal? Keep the sharks away this weekend. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:12:36 -0400 From: "Kensler, Paul" <PKensler at cyberstar.com> Subject: re: Cranberry Beer Colby, I've made a few cranberry beers - all of them based on a simple blonde ale / wheat ale recipe (your standard fruit-beer base). I'd have to check my notes at home to remember the exact amounts of cranberry I used, but I can recall some general information. I decided to sanitize / rinse them which is extremely easy with StarSan or any other no-rinse sanitizer. Just make up a few gallons of sanitizer in a bucket and dump the cranberries in. They float, so it helps to stir them up with your hands and push them down for a couple minutes. You'll be amazed at the amount of dirt and stuff you find at the bottom of the bucket when you're done. Its easy to scoop them out with a small colander or large slotted spoon, etc. I let them drip dry in a large colander for a couple minutes before continuing... After sanitizing, I lightly crushed them in a large bowl using a potato masher, put them in gallon ziplock bags, and froze them. The freezing really does help burst open the cells, and you get a lot better color extraction. You have to use a lot of cranberries to get a real "cranberry" flavor and color, even in a very lightly flavored pale beer. At lower levels they just contribute a nice fruitiness, tartness, acidity and some pale color but most people don't recognize it as cranberry, even after you tell them. I have to check my notes to remember, but I think I used up to 6 or 8 pounds and still didn't have a strong cranberry flavor. Somebody - I think its Knudsens - makes an all-natural 100% cranberry juice and concentrate (as opposed to Ocean Spray and the like which are mostly apple / grape juice and are loaded with preservatives). I used to get mine at Whole Foods Market. Using this gave me the most significant color and flavor contribution - I think I recall using a whole bottle of the juice in addition to maybe 5 or 6# of cranberries. I hope this helps, Paul Kensler Gaithersburg, MD Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:18:54 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at mediaone.net> Subject: Re: winemaking Brian Lundeen <blundeen at rrc.mb.ca>, who forgot to tell us where he was writing from, but we remember it's [314, 829] Rennerian in Winnipeg, wrote: > > #3: In wines, how come in france they do the whole smashing >> grapes with >> your toes thing and don't worry about infection like us beer guys do? > >First of all, apart from a few rustic wines made by peasants, this practice >is not that common ><snip> >Best way I've found? Wash my arm and >just get in there with my hand. Besides being easy, its also an incredibly >sensuous feeling plunging your arm through the hot cap into the >comparatively cool frothing juice below. This reminds me of one of my favorite wine making memories. About 20 years ago friend of mine got several hundred pounds of hybrid wine grapes. My friend inherited his Croatian father's wine making equipment, including a huge wine barrel with no lid for crushing the grapes. I had crushed grapes by foot before, but only in a tub, and alone. But an attractive girl friend of his wife was visiting and wanted to try. I'm not sure how much wine of a previous vintage we'd had, but soon the two of us were standing in the barrel together stomping grapes. She was slender, as was I, but there still wasn't much room. So we had to stand very, very close. And hold onto one another. It was like close slow dancing. And, as Brian says, grapes are very sensuous, especially popping and squishing under your feet. It's probably a really good thing for my marriage that my friend was there chaperoning! The wine turned out great! I heartily recommend this method of wine making. Jeff - -- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at mediaone.net "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 08:35:32 -0500 From: "Hornberger, Brent" <Brent.Hornberger at wcg.com> Subject: Palm Pilot Utilities. http://www.promash.com/PilotBrew/index.html has a few utilities for the palm. Hydro calc, Alc%. calc, & first strike calc. I've used these on and off over a few months. Another thing I use is a simple shopping program that i can see what I have in inventory for grains, hops & yeast and what I need to buy. What I woudl like to see is being able to export promash recipies to my palm pilot. Brent Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:39:55 -0400 From: "Houseman, David L" <David.Houseman at unisys.com> Subject: Split Rock Homebrew Competition The Annual Homebrew Competition at Split Rock Resorts will take place on November 17th at the Split Rock Resort at Lake Harmony in the Pennsylvania Poconos. This annual competition will be coincident with the Great Brews of American Beer Classic Beer Festival. Information about this competition can be found at the web site: http://www.splitrockresort.com/beerfest.html. Beer, Mead and Cider will be judged. The Homebrewers Competition is sanctioned by the American Homebrewers Association. The fee is $5.00 per entry and benefits the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Entrants and Judges should call 1-800-225-7625 x815 to have entry forms mailed or faxed to you. Brewers, please enter your beers as this competition aids a very good cause, MS. Judges, please register to judge and you can enjoy free attendance at the beer festival or the beer dinner on Saturday night. David Housemanall Call 1-800-255-7625 x815 to have an Official Entry Form sent or faxed to you. 1-800-255-7625 x815 to have an Official Entry Form sent or faxed to you. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:45:28 -0400 From: "Rogers, Mike" <mike.rogers at eds.com> Subject: re: Palm Pilot info Scott, thanks for the post. It pushed me to finally download the style guidelines and score sheet. The AHA publishes the BJCP guidelines in Adobe Acrobat .PDF format. You can download a free Acrobat reader for your palm at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readerforpalm.html. The guidelines and score sheet can be found on the AHA site, or on the Cass River Homebrewers website at http://www.geocities.com/cassriverhomebrewers/beer/brewtool/brewtools.htm Note that the guideline and score sheet .pdf files are not optimized for the palm OS, therefore when you add the files to your palm, you will get a message (something like...) asking if you would like to have the files optimized for your palm. Just click OK. You also should choose not to include pictures/images (another option when adding to the palm). The guidelines transfer great, all 24 pages! Excellent to have at your fingertips! The score sheet, on the other hand, isn't as graceful. Mike Rogers Cass River Homebrewers (Frankenmuth, Michigan) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 10:22:47 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at mediaone.net> Subject: Re: French Method Alan Talman <AlannnnT at aol.com> writes of the traditional treading of grapes by foot: >when they smash the grapes, with feet or without, the >wine is already fermented. They are pressing the already fermented wine out >of the grape skins. > >The wine is highly alcoholic and very acidic at that point, so it can defend >itself against most foot-borne nasties. I hate to disagree with you on your first post in a while, Alan, but I will. There are two separate steps - crushing and pressing. The grapes are first crushed, either by foot or by mechanical means, then pressed in a wine press for the juice. For red wines, the crushed grapes are usually fermented for hours or days before pressing, depending on how much color and tannin is wanted. For whites and roses, the crushed grapes are typically pressed immediately to minimize color and tannin extraction. Believe me, it's much easier to press crushed grapes that have fermented - they break down and the juice flows easily. With unfermented crushed grapes it takes a whole lot more pressure. An interesting exception to this is carbonic maceration, practiced in Beaujolais for the nouveau wines (and nouveau wines in other parts of the world). Whole grapes are fermented under CO2, then this is pressed. Perhaps this is what you were thinking of? See http://www.smargherita.com/dizionario_e/carbon_maceration.html for details. Jeff - -- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at mediaone.net "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 11:07:31 -0500 From: "Zemo" <zemo at buyvictory.com> Subject: Spooky Brew Staggers Into The 21st Century... With Online Registration!! That's right - What could be simpler? Just go to www.chibeer.org and follow the links. Saves Time AND Paperwork! Want to Judge or Steward? Please contact Dave Newman - dave at chibeer.org Any problems? Contact me - zemo at chibeer.org To reiterate: Chicago Beer Society Presents Spooky Brew Review 2001 October 27 - 9am to 5pm - At Flatlander's Restaurant and Brewery - 200 Village Green - Lincolnshire, IL 60069 www.flatlanders.com PRIZES! RIBBONS! RAFFLE! GREAT BEER & FOOD! And if you're in the Greater Chicagoland Area, you can drop off your entries with paperwork and fees, Oct. 13-20, at: The Homebrew Shop 225 W. Main St. St. Charles, IL 60174 (630) 377-1338 The Brewer's Coop 30W114 Butterfield Road Warrenville, Illinois 60555 630.393-BEER (2337) Beer Gear 7901 W. 159th St. (inside the Threshold Music bldg.) Tinley Park, IL 60477 (708) 342-BEER (2337) and at Flatlander's. Or you can bring them to our monthly meeting on Oct. 17 at The Map Room 1949 N. Hoyle Chicago, IL See you there! Zemo Head Organizer - I organize the heads! Return to table of contents
Date: 11 Oct 2001 09:22:03 -0700 From: joseph540 at elvis.com Subject: Re: palm brewing Scott (who's way down in SC), asks about brewing software for Palm Pilots and such. Actually, I was thinking about this issue not long ago, and wondered why we haven't seen review articles so far either here or in Zymurgy, Brew Your Own, etc. (Or have I just missed them?) First, facts. There are a number of brewing-specific software titles offered at palm.com (follow the links to all of the software). It is indeed difficult to sort through all of the titles. The easy way is either to use their search feature for "beer" or "homebrewing" or to look in the software sections for hobbies/crafts (I forget exactly what this is category is called). I found several, and I tried some of them. Now, opinions. I personally found the software either a) too simplistic or b) very cumbersome to use. There is one program that combines brewing notes, recipe database, and bjcp guidelines which is cool, but in my opinion very frustrating to navigate. I actually gave up on these (figuring that it was too difficult to put in lots of data anyway) and got ProMash for my desktop. When I did, I saw on the ProMash website that they are offering (or will soon?) their own "lite" version for the Palm. I have not tried this, and have not even seen it. I don't know how costly it will be. But if it is a reasonable price, I will probably get it, since it should integrate well with the desktop version that I usually use. Finally, there is indeed a stand-alone BJCP guideline database ... in fact there may be several. The one I used was helpful and useful and straightforward. It still resides on my Handspring Visor. I know that Al Korzonas at one time was really into Palm use for homebrewing. Can anyone who's well connected goad him or someone else into writing a review article? I think there's a real need for one. Joe (who's way up in MN) - ------------------------------------------------- Get your free at Elvis e-mail account at Elvis.com! http://www.elvis.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 12:59:08 -0400 From: Richard Foote <rfoote at mindspring.com> Subject: HBD Community Red Cross Fund Status Brewers, I'm happy to announce that our HB club, the Chicken City Ale Raisers raised $236.01 for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund! We did so this past Saturday during our annual brew demo at the Helen (GA) Oktoberfest. In exchange for a donation to the fund (we put the donator's name in a "hat"), we did hourly drawings for Helen Okotberfest liter tankards donated to us by the Helen Chamber of Commerce. Special thanks goes out to the NE GA Red Cross Chapter, who trusted a bunch of homebrewers not to disgrace their name; the Helen Chamber, for donating some really nice tankards; and CCAR members Dennis and Richard, who "worked the crowd". I worked with our local chapter on this so the money went to them (sorry Pat). However, the money is going to where it's needed. In meeting with our local chapter folks I learned about the thousands of meals they've provided and continue to provide to all the volunteers and other workers trying to undo that "mess" as well as thousands of counselings they've provided to those psychologically scarred by these events. Doing what we can in NE GA, Rick Foote Prez (for life) CCAR Murrayville, GA Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 12:01:17 -0500 From: "Doug Hurst" <DougH at theshowdept.com> Subject: Palm Brewing software Scott who's Brewing and vinting in Columbia, SC asked about brewing software for his new palm pilot. The Promash website offers some free applications. There's a Hydrometer Calibration calculator, an Alcohol calculator and a strike water calculator. http://www.promash.com/PilotBrew/indexpp.html I can't attest to their quality as I have yet to download them into my new PDA. And as usual: NAJASCYYY. Hope this helps, Doug Hurst Chicago, IL Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 13:46:42 -0500 From: Bill Wible <bill at brewbyyou.net> Subject: BONES BASH - Final Call for entries This is the final call for entries for the first annual BONES BASH. This competition will be held on Saturday, October 20th, at Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, PA. For entry forms and complete details, see: http://www.brewbyyou.net/BASH/BASH.html Thanks! Bill - -------------------------- Brew By You 3504 Cottman Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19149 215-335-2739 (PA) 215-335-0712 (Fax) www.brewbyyou.net - --------------------------- Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 23:06:07 +0000 From: "Bret Mayden" <brmayden at hotmail.com> Subject: How to Chill Your Homebrew Using Advanced Physics Even if you're not a big Dave Barry fan like me, you'll get some giggles out this article: http://www.miami.com/herald/special/features/barry/2001/docs/oct14.htm Bret Mayden Oklahoma City brmayden at hotmail.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 21:28:03 -0400 From: Brian Levetzow <levetzowbt at home.com> Subject: Re: Labeling bottles I use Avery 5160, standard labels, and MS Word. I use an 8 pt Arial font, and repeat this info 4x across each label. name of beer brew: mm/dd bott: mm/dd I make up one label (actually, four on one Avery), copy/paste across, and repeat until I have 48 total (12 Avery labels) for 2 cases of bottles. I peel off a label, cut it into the four sections, and put it right on the caps. As long as the name of the beer indicates style, it's easy to keep things straight. Easy cleanup, too! - -- Delta (aka Brian) ~ Rennerian coord = [428.204618,118.63256183] WGS84 Ellipsoidal distance / true bearing ~ For this calculation, the Center of the Homebrewing Universe [0,0] was fixed at the intersection of Huron River Dr. and Zeeb Rd. (is that close, Jeff?) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 21:49:36 -0400 From: William Jones <wbj59 at iwaynet.net> Subject: Tetley's Recipe. Hello List, Does anyone have a recipe (extract) for Tetley's ? Thanks Bill WBJ59 at iwaynet.net Return to table of contents
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