---

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


Contents:
  hop update (Pete Soper)
  beer sample (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


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

Date: Fri, 23 Mar 90 21:20:16 EST
From: Pete Soper <soper at maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: hop update

florianb at tekred.cna.tek.com spreads this wild rumor:

>I saw my first hops buds poking up through the soil this week.  Anyone else?

I've got two Nugget and two Cascade buds showing today (3/23) after planting
3/12. Go, hops, go!

I gave up on Freshops incidently. I know they are good people, but 5 (#$!#!)
phone calls without being able to place an order was too much for me. I ordered
Cascade, Willamette and Tettnanger from Nichols. The rhizomes arrived a few
days later, packed very well. I'd like to believe my experience with Freshops
was just weird bad luck and hesitate to say anything beyond this.

- --Pete Soper

Return to table of contents


Date: Sat, 24 Mar 90 20:34:35 EST
From: Pete Soper <soper at maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: beer sample

  I spent some time at a local supermarket today going over the beers for sale 
there and made some notes about their date codes that I thought you might 
find interesting.
  As a preface, I found an old "Zymurgy" that had an article about Anchor
written by Dick Dunn. Aside from a lot of other interesting stuff Dick explained
Anchor's date code system. You look at the label like a clock face and
the position of the notch cut in the label is the month the beer was made. I
was on the verge of buying some Liberty Ale but, thanks to Dick's information
I said "No thanks" to that idea after examining the labels. 
  Where I list the code as "reg notches" I mean that my decoder patterned after
Chuck (fastest something or other) Cox's and Dave Suurballe's information was 
used. Here are my notes:

  Beer			dates		code		notes

  Anchor Liberty Ale	1/89,8/89,9/89	clock notch	The layer of dust told
			10/89				me the Jan bottles were
							most likely last year's
  Anchor Porter		5/89		clock notch
  Anchor Steam		6/89,10/89	clock notch
  Bass ale				red line	A red line on the back
							label seems to indicate
							the date. We need to
							figure out this one.
  Carlsberg Lager					notches but nonsense
  Courage Amber Lager	5/10/89,4/20/89	reg notches
  Guinness Stout	10/2/89		reg notches
  Harp Lager		2/13/90		reg notches
  Kronenberg Lager					notches but nonsense
  Mackeson Triple Stout	11/24/88	reg notches	Now this is *old*
  Pironi		7/27/89		wide notches	like regular notches but
							spacing a bit wide
  Sapporo				3 lines		3 lines on back label in
							various positions
  Sierra Nev. Pale Ale	9/13/89,9/23/89	reg notches
  Sam Adams		6/89		notch on month
  St. Pauli Girl					notches but nonsense
  Swiss Lowenbrau					notches but nonsense
  Whitbread Ale		11/21/89	reg notches

  I've been tracking some of the British beers for several months now. I'm
convinced that this part of the world only gets these beers once or twice a
year. Sierra Nevada on the other hand is available 2-6 weeks old depending upon
where you look.

- --Pete Soper

Return to table of contents



End of HOMEBREW Digest #384, 03/26/90
*************************************
-------

---