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


Contents:
  RE: hop update  ("Dave Resch DTN:523-2780")
  Hops activity (Bob Clark - Sun Engineering)
  Canadian Amateur Brewers Association (H.W.) Troup <HWT at BNR.CA>
  Soda Siphons ("Allen J. Hainer")
  Frozen Liquid Yeast (techentin)
  hops questions (Mike Meyer)
  RE: hop update (Chris Shenton)
  Texas Brown Ale and Bosso Brewing Company ("Lance "Nuke" Smith")
  re:	Nobody home at Freshops? (florianb)


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Date: Mon, 26 Mar 90 06:14:26 PST
From: "Dave Resch DTN:523-2780" <resch at cookie.enet.dec.com>
Subject: RE: hop update 

In digest #384 Pete Soper writes:

>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, I think maybe you did just have bad luck with Freshops.  I have to put in 
a good word for them here.  I have placed several orders with them, the most 
recent being for Rhizomes which I received in excellent shape 4 days after I
placed the order.  I have also been very happy with the leaf hops that I have
bought from them.  Their products are extremely fresh, arrive quickly, and are
the least expensive I have found, and they don't even charge shipping!

Recently, they have gone to an answering machine for accepting orders.  While I
hate those machines, Freshops has repeatedly filled the order correctly and 
promptly.  So Pete, sorry for your bad experience, but I'm not sure it's 
indicative of Freshops overall.

Dave   

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Date: Mon, 26 Mar 90 09:24:29 PST
From: bobc at Sun.COM (Bob Clark - Sun Engineering)
Subject: Hops activity

The two rhizomes I planted last year, Willamette & Cascade, both have
a good half-dozen sprouts coming up!

I would have ordered more this year, except we in the SF Bay area have
a drought in progress...but I am going to try to make some new starts
from the sprouts I remove.

	Bob C.

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Date: 	Mon, 26 Mar 90 11:12:00 EST
From: Henry (H.W.) Troup <HWT at BNR.CA>
Subject:  Canadian Amateur Brewers Association

The CABA is not dead!  After over a year, I just got a newsletter and
notification of the 1990 contest.

The CABA can be reached at:

Canadian Amateur Brewers Association
c/o To Your Taste
317 Jane St.
Toronto
ONTARIO
M6S 3Z3

If you have questions, I can be reached at the addresses below.

HWT at BNR.CA (NETNORTH/BITNET) | Disclaimer: not an offical statement
uunet!bnrgate!hwt%bwdlh490   | of BNR nor of the CABA.
(613) 765-2337 voice/office  | Did you expect it to be ?

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Date: Sat, 24 Mar 90 16:36:19 EST
From: "Allen J. Hainer" <ajhainer at violet.waterloo.edu>
Subject: Soda Siphons

   I just had an idea.  Will soda siphons carbonate beer?  By soda siphons
I mean those bottles used to carbonate water that the three stooges keep
squirting at each other.  I have a funny feeling that it will all come
out foam, but was wondering if anyone has tried it or knows for sure.  If
it works, it would be great for those days when you've run out of home
brew but have 5 gallons sitting in the basement that you haven't gotten
around to bottling yet (actually, I have 10 gallons downstairs right now,
but nothing bottled :-).

  So, has anyone got a soda siphon that they have tried with beer?  Did it
work?

 -al (ajhainer at violet.waterloo.edu)

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Date: Mon, 26 Mar 90 09:02:34 CST
From: techentin at Mayo.edu
Subject: Frozen Liquid Yeast

My brewbuddy and I are about to make our first batches with liquid 
yeast.  We mail-ordered Wyeast lager and (Irish stout) ale yeast from 
Brew-For-Less in Chicago IL.  The lager yeast arrived promptly, but the 
ale yeast was back ordered.

It arrived last weekend while I was on vacation - first class mail.  It 
was frozen solid when I brought it in from the mail box.  (This is, 
after all, Minnesota in March. :-)  "Nuts!"  I said.  "But not to worry. 
 I will just call those mail order folks and express my concern about 
this package labeled 'DO NOT FREEZE'"  Bob Skilnik's response was 
"Relax.  Don't worry..."

Well, I didn't worry about it all week.  I started both packets of yeast 
up Saturday morning.  When I went to bed that night, they both looked 
flat.  When I woke Sunday morning, the previously frozen ale yeast 
looked ready.  I made up a starter while my wife fixed lunch for the 
kids.  By late Sunday night the lager yeast had caught up, and is now 
ready for a starter.

I guess the moral of the story is that this liquid stuff can survive 
some cold weather without undue side effects.  Anybody care to comment 
on leaving liquid yeast in the mailbox in August?

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Techentin                              Internet: techentin at Mayo.edu
Mayo Foundation, Rochester MN, 55905 USA             (507) 284-2702
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: Mon, 26 Mar 90 11:22:01 PST
From: meyer at tcville.hac.com (Mike Meyer)
Subject: hops questions

While we're talking about sprouting hops,  can anyone tell me how long 
they should take?  My roommate planted 2 Nuggets and 4 Cascades somewhere
around 2/12 as well, and is starting to worry.  The Nugget rhizomes looked
pretty meaty,  with 2 or 3 buds sticking out, while the Cascades were spindly
and had little or no signs of life, beyond being moist.  He kept them
cool and soaked them in water before planting.  We got them from Great
Fermentations. They arrived packed in plastic ziploc bags, and were moist.

At this point, neither the Nuggets or the Cascades have poked through.  I
figure the Nuggets will make the first showing, being somewhat less dormant
to begin with, and that the Cascades will follow after; no way the Cascades
are coming up first.  My roommate is panicking, however, and wants to 
plant new Cascades right away, in case these are dead. 

I'm starting to think that home hops cultivation is not worth the trouble,
with the amount of worrying my roommate is doing.  Imagine the state he'll
be in when the aphids come out :-).  As it is, he's too worried to brew.
And this with BrewBash 5 in the planning stages, not to mention the Southern
California Regional competition coming up. (my first, wish me luck)


Mike Meyer

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Date: Mon, 26 Mar 90 16:46:10 est
From: Chris Shenton <chris at asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: RE: hop update

Pete Soper writes:
> 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!

Could you provide some hints? What kind of soil, how much light, etc? I
understand they're real climbers. Are you going to use a lattice, trellis,
or vertical string?


> 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.

On the positive side, I talked to them Wednesday and they had a price list
to me by Friday; I plan to order from them shortly.

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Date: Mon, 26 Mar 90 17:27:35 CDT
From: "Lance "Nuke" Smith" <lsmith at cs.umn.edu>
Subject: Texas Brown Ale and Bosso Brewing Company

I be wrong on this, since I haven't rechecked my sources, but I think the
Texas Brown Ale style is based on the brown ale that Belhaven (? the brewery
with Bill the fisherman for their logo) made especially for export to Texas.
I think there's a reference to this in the CAMRA Dictionary. Unfortunately this
is a dated source so I have no idea whether the stuff is still being made.
(Anyone wearing a stetson and boots wanna offer up an answer?) Belhaven
(assuming I have the name right) seems to make  a wide variety of beers
for export for specific markets. Are any still available in the states?

In any case, I too would be grateful for a good TBA (love those TLAs) recipe.

For anyone in the the Twin Cities (the Minnesota Twin Cities, that is)
The next Bosso homebrew meeting is coming up on April 7. For details
contact the folks over at Bosso (address in club section of Zymurgy) or
send me an e-note and I'll try to set you in the right direction.

Lance Smith (lsmith at umn-cs.cs.umn.edu)
Black Wombat Brewery -- Makers of Three Fingers Brown Ale

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Date: 26 Mar 90 16:31:22 PST (Mon)
From: florianb at tekred.cna.tek.com
Subject: re:	Nobody home at Freshops?

Pete Soper comments:

>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.

I don't know when you called, but there was a while there when Freshops was
out to mother nature for several days due to about a zillion tons of snow
that fell on the Willamette Valley.  On the average, it is hard to call them,
but once you have their catalog, you can mail order whatever they have and
they respond well.  I've been getting my dried hops from them to reduce cost.
It's good stuff, too.           

Last year, I bought some rhizomes from Nichols.  After coaxing them through
the summer, they still didn't come through with very much growth.  This year,
they seem to be back with a vengeance.  On the other hand, I bought some
cuttings from a local nursery, "Oh, we don't know what kind of hops it is...
It's not the kind you make beer with...nice and purty though...makes good
shade...give 'em to ya fer two 'n a half bucks a pot..,"  and they went 
crazy, all over my front porch.

Florian

PS  Did you catch Papazain's comment on hops and dreaming in Germany?


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End of HOMEBREW Digest #385, 03/27/90
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