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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Re: Labels & Cap Codes (gsferg)
  re: palm stuff for brewing ("Curt Speaker")
  Rauchroggenschwarzweiss bier (Tony Barnsley)
  Cranberry Beer (stihlerunits)
  Beta Testers Required ("Drew Avis")
  Re: palm brewing ("Chris Sheridan")
  RE: Scotch Ale ("Crouch, Kevin E")
  Pumpkin in a Can ("Eric Tepe")
  HBD Community Red Cross Match Fund (Pat Babcock)
  Saison baseline / Rennerian revisited (Brian Levetzow)


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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 06:53:09 -0400
From: gsferg at clary.gwi.net
Subject: Re: 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.

Hehehe.. I just can't resist trying a batch 2 or 3 days after I bottle it. Is 
this normal? How prematurely do people drink their beer? All too often a batch 
of beer is gone just about the time it starts getting really good so I've 
taken to stashing a 6 pack of each batch in a dark out of the way corner in my 
cellar- my "beerchive". Out of sight, out of mind..

On the subject of cap labels, I haven't gotten very sophisticated with my 
numbering scheme but perhaps I should rethink what I'm doing as I'm all the 
time referring back to my log book to see just exactly what a #8 is, whether 
there is in fact brown sugar in that #10, or when I bottled that #12.. I think 
I'll adopt some of the great suggestions people have posted.

One thing I do which you might find interesting is I chronical in my log book 
my and my friends impressions of my brews. I have one friend in particular 
whose opinion I value highly- his regard for my brews is inversely 
proportional to my own- the less he likes it, the more I like it. I have 
entries in my log like "Dan really hated this one, I must be doing something 
right." and "Dan says this is too hoppy, I should use another 1/2 ounce of 
fuggles next time."

The greatest compliment Dan can give me is spitting my beer out. I made a 
pilsner from an Ironmaster kit once, back in the beginning days of my brewing 
career, it ended up looking and tasting like stale Corona- it was really 
pretty pretty bad, and he loved it. I gave him the whole batch. I just bottled 
an all-grain Brown Ale and it promises to be pretty good- I'm sure he'll hate 
it.

George- Whitefield Maine

- -- 
George S. Fergusson <gsferg at clary.gwi.net>
Oracle DBA, Programmer, Humorist
PGP Key: http://clary.gwi.net/gsferg/gsferg at clary.asc
- --------------
I am a man, I can change, if I have to, I guess.




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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 11:06:52 -0500
From: "Curt Speaker" <SPEAKER at SAFETY-1.SAFETY.PSU.EDU>
Subject: re: palm stuff for brewing

Hi all:

Lots of good info...don't forget John Varady's excellent style 
guideline program for the Palm.  I have been using it for a couple 
years now...good stuff.

It is available for free at John's web page:

http://www.uberbeergeek.com/bih/index.html?redirect

Hey Scott!  How's life down south???

Curt


Curt Speaker                         
Biosafety Officer 
Penn State University                
Environmental Health and Safety    
speaker at ehs.psu.edu                   
http://www.ehs.psu.edu
^...^
(O_O)
=(Y)=
 """


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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 17:02:56 +0100
From: Tony Barnsley <tony.barnsley at blackpool.gov.uk>
Subject: Rauchroggenschwarzweiss bier

Hi oh great brewing collective,

Some time ago we on UK Homebrew were discussing brewing with rye as we were
going to put together an order of odd grains to benefit from bulk prices.
The idea fell through unfortunately but I still had the idea for a 'novelty'
beer. the recipe of which follows

Smoked Rye black wheat beer 20 Litres, OG 1.040, 30IBU's, ~100L 

2094g Rauch Malt (Weyermann)      (45%)
1187g wheat malt                  (25%)
1062g Rye malt (Weyermann)        (20%)
 500g Carafa III Malt (Weyermann) (10%)

It will be hopped with

  20g NZ Saaz Hops (8.5% aa - 60 Minutes)
  14g NZ Saaz Hops (8.5% aa - 15 Minutes)

I was intending to do a stepped mash 15 minutes at 40C to reduce glucans,
and then hot water infusion to 67C for 60 Minutes for conversion. Then I got
to thinking, (hmmmm Dangerous :> ) Its only the Rye and to some extent the
wheat that requires the Glucan rest, Why not mash those on their own at 40C,
and the other grain at 68C, then combine the two mashes and boost to 68C,
with hot water, that way I can do a minimal sparge, or even a no sparge.

Anyone see any problems? Lautering this is going to be my biggest headache
both wheat and rye have no husk, and any excess glucans will gum up the
whole works. Its a shame that we can't get rice hulls here (Not food grad
apparently!!)

- --
Wassail!
The Scurrilous Aleman (ICQ 46254361)
Schwarzbad Lager Brauerei, Blackpool, Lancs, UK

UK HOMEBREW - A Forum on Home Brewing in the UK
              Managed by home brewers for home brewers

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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 10:03:19 -0800 (AKDT)
From: stihlerunits at mosquitonet.com
Subject: Cranberry Beer

I've used cranberries in beers several times.

For a five gallon batch I generally use about 3-4
pounds of cranberries.

As a base I brew a fairly light ale with to a gravity
of about 1.045-1.050 and lightly hop it (~8-14 IBU).

To slightly counteract the tartness I use 1-2 lbs of
crystal malt. I say slightly here because the beer still
comes out quite tart and refreshing.

In my recipe I use 2-3 cinnamon sticks and 3-4 whole cloves
added to the finally 10-15 minutes of the boil.

I usually pitch with a standard ale yeast. I've tried pitching
with a weizen yeast but the phenolic flavors just didn't meld
well with the spices I used. I've also left out the spices and
used weizen yeast but found that I preferred the spiced version.

I freeze the berries for storage. When I am ready to brew I
put the berries in a blender with some water and make a sort
of cranberry puree.

About 30 minutes into the boil of my base beer I remove a gallon
or so of wort and cool it down to ~150 F. To this I add the
cranberry puree and adjust the temperature until it is about 120-
140 F. I hold the temperature at this level for 20-30 minutes.
This will kill most of the bacteria and wild yeast. You should
not boil this wort/cranberry mixture otherwise you will extract
pectins and end up with hazzy beer. Actually you can boil this
mixture and still get clear beer but you would need to add pectinase
to the wort to breakdown any extracted pecitins.

Once your base beer is finished boiling cool it down to ~120 F and
then add the wort/cranberry mixture. I usually run this mixture
through a strainer plus a bit of sanitized cheese cloth to remove
seeds etc.

Continue cooling and pitch as usual.

Many people make fruit beers without santizing the fruit and
simply add the fruit to the secondary. Most of the time this
does not seem to be a problem. I sanitize the berries because
I don't brew all that often and just would rather not risk 
contamination. I may be a bit paranoid in this regard but my 
cranales have always turned out fine.

Cheers,

Scott Stihler
Fairbanks, Alaska


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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 14:17:49 -0400
From: "Drew Avis" <andrew_avis at hotmail.com>
Subject: Beta Testers Required

Hello brewers!

I'm gearing up to release StrangeBrew 1.6, and I require some fresh beta
testers to hunt for bugs.  If you're planning to brew in the next week or
so, have a Windows-based computer, and are willing to test some brewing
software, please contact me at drew at strangebrew.ca.

Cheers!
Drew Avis in Merrickville


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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 14:27:58 -0400
From: "Chris Sheridan" <chrissheridan at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: palm brewing

I have a unit conversion program that also gets a lot of use for remembering 
how many ounces in a gallon, milliliters in a cup, grams in an ounce, etc.

A document reader is handy to load yeast and malt profiles from MS
Word.

I like the recipe program HomeBrew (www.geocities.com/homebrau). A little 
simplistic but mostly I use it to keep an ingredient list on me for the 
unexpected stop at the supply shop.

I would really like to see one of these programs that uses the alarm
function of the Palm to remind me of hop additions. I would also like to see 
an easy way to keep an archive of batches that show the same basic 
recipe,but show the history of changes I make trying to improve upon past 
brews of the same recipe.

Chris S.
Grand Rapids, MI

>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.






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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 19:53:56 -0000
From: "Crouch, Kevin E" <Crouch.Kevin at emeryworld.com>
Subject: RE: Scotch Ale

Casey Wrote:"...[I] 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. "

Hi Casey, you stated that you used 2 starters of Edinburgh Ale yeast,  how
much volume was this, total? What was your procedure?   Noonan (Scotch Ale,
classic beer styles series) recommends at least a gallon of starter (not
slurry) for a wee heavy fermented with Scottish ale yeasts, which tend to be
weak attenuators anyway,  and I would concur.  

Regarding your current situation,  if you grew up a fresh starter from the
primary slurry and it hasn't done anything,  you could try giving it some
yeast nutrient and some heavy agitation.  Agitate it daily to keep the yeast
in suspension and you will eventually attenuate out.  The key is,  don't
panic, time IS on your side and patience is a brewer's most valuable virtue.
The other possibility is that your mash was too hot (if you mash??) or that
you used way too much Crystal/dextrin malt.  In that case,  it might make a
good beer to experiment with, or just enjoy as is.     

Kevin Crouch


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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 18:52:36 -0400
From: "Eric Tepe" <erictepe at fuse.net>
Subject: Pumpkin in a Can

Steve Lane asks about using Libby's pumpkin puree out of a can. This
is all I use in my Holiday Pumpkin ales. I mix the pumpkin puree with
about 8 pounds of 2-row malt and mash for 1.5 hours at 155F. I then
add my specialty malts (usually about another 2 pounds) and mash an
additional 30 minutes. The key to sparging is having a massive grain
bed and you have several options. 1. Brew a beer the day before or the
day of and save the grain bed, making sure you wash it very well or
keep it cold so no beasties grow in it. 2. Go to a local micro and
grab some spent grain in a 5 gallon bucket and use or 3. Purchase a
LOT of rice hulls. The pureed pumpkin works very well but sticks like
concrete if you do not have a large grain bed to spread out the
pumpkin. This can makes sparging a bitch and can make for a long,
frustrating brew day.

Good Luck,
Eric Tepe
Bloatarian Brewing League
Cincinnati, OH




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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:51:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pat Babcock <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: HBD Community Red Cross Match Fund

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

Well, I'm proud to say that I will have written a check for
$1000.00 to the Red Cross Match Fund by the time you read this
in this morning's Digest. Thanks to all who have given of
themselves financially and through service, both here and on
their own, to assist in these dire times. May the good Lord keep
you all.

And another thank you to my employer, The Ford Motor Company. It
is through Ford's Employee Contribution Match Fund that our
donations will be matched. 

Thanks!

- -- 
 -
God bless America!

Pat Babcock in SE Michigan         pbabcock at hbd.org
Home Brew Digest Janitor           janitor@hbd.org
HBD Web Site                       http://hbd.org
The Home Brew Page                 http://hbd.org/pbabcock

"The monster's back, isn't it?" - Kim Babcock after I emerged
                                  from my yeast lab Saturday




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Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:59:46 -0400
From: Brian Levetzow <levetzowbt at home.com>
Subject: Saison baseline / Rennerian revisited

I brewed up a wonderful Belgian ale (based upon research of several
Saison homebrew recipes), and would love to find a bottle of "real"
Saison to compare to. What are the brands to compare to, and how
available are they in the US?

On my last post (first with Rennerian coords, Henning method), I thought
I got smart, and used an estimated [0,0] origin somewhere in Jeff's
neighborhood.  Well duh... there's this thing called the HBD arvhive,
and I found his [0,0] GPS coords in #3515.

This threw my calcs off by 1.56 miles and 11' 4.2" in bearing.  I knew I
felt lost for a day or so.... now I know why!  ( B^)
- -- 
+++++++++++++++
Brian Levetzow
Laurel, MD
Rennerian coord = [426.644102,118.44805694]
WGS84 Ellipsoidal distance / true bearing
~


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