HOMEBREW Digest #3951 Fri 31 May 2002


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  steam jacketed boiler (Darrell_Leavitt/SUNY)
  home breweries around the word (Jeff Renner)
  We're Baaaaaack! (Pat Babcock)
  Judging Fruited Meads ("David Craft")
  Wheat Wine Gravity Problems ("Colby Fry")
  Re: further to hsa/oxidation silliness (Spencer W Thomas)
  Great Taste Tickets Going Fast ("Bruce Garner")
  Re: Re: further to hsa/oxidation silliness ("Robin Griller")
  Wanna be a beer writer? (Bill Wible)
  Siebel Response-Hot Break-Lyn Kruger ("Rob Moline")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 07:15:00 -0400 From: Darrell_Leavitt/SUNY%SUNY at esc.edu Subject: steam jacketed boiler Due to renovations at my worksite, I am now the proud owner of a Vulcan- Hart SL-30 Steam Jacketed stainless steel kettle! It is huge: 30 gallon capacity, with ss dome (drop type handle), kettle interior sloped for smooth product flow out of a tapered 2" draw off valve,... It has a 15 psi relief valve, steam supply valve...and even a rotatable fawcett on top... I suppose that if I can get a good heat source for the steam, it would make a real good boiler? Anyone have any experience/ toughts on this ? I looked on the Vulcan Web site for specs and the smallest model listed was the SL-40, which makes me believe that they no longer make this 30.... ..Darrell Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 09:50:44 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at comcast.net> Subject: home breweries around the word Brewers There is a great web site at http://pub9.ezboard.com/fbarleysforume.showMessage?topicID=184.topic with photos of 82 homebrewers breweries and links to each. It's a remarkable array. Jeff - -- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 09:57:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Pat Babcock <pbabcock at hbd.org> Subject: We're Baaaaaack! Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager... Ah! After wrastling in the virtual mud with our ISP, NSI and Dotster (Dotster being the easiest to deal with in the herd), I am please to say we're a back! Please advise me of any abnormalities you encounter in accessing the network in email, or the web. Particularly, missing webpages, domains that fail or go to the wrong place, or weird email errors received AFTER 5/29/2002. Thanks! (Just to fill you in: Our ISP poorly planned the migration, and the HBD network in total was inaccessible from about 3pm Friday until about noon Tuesday. DNS records propagation seemed to have completed late Wednesday, and I was able to restart the mail server this morning.) - -- - 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 [18, 92.1] Rennerian "I don't want a pickle. I just wanna ride on my motorsickle" - Arlo Guthrie Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 20:48:49 -0400 From: "David Craft" <chsyhkr at bellsouth.net> Subject: Judging Fruited Meads Greetings, I hope everyone had a nice holiday. I just received my score sheets from the Southern Region AHA. A prickly pear mead (so many people that have read the book must try this, I did) was entered in the Other Fruited Mead category. It got a so-so score. Both judges knocked it down for lacking fruit aroma and flavor, but said it was oxidized and had "sherry" flavors. I did not add as much fruit as I have seen in other recipes, so this makes a little sense. But the sherry flavors, that is what it should have had. Every description of PP Mead I have ever read refers to the sherry flavors. It seems neither judge knew what the fruit in the mead was supposed to be. I found this to be the case in another more local contest. I am not complaining, just confused. If you are judging fruited mead then you should know up front what fruit you are looking for. How else can you determine how balanced the flavors are? What is the routine for judging fruited mead? Regards, David B. Craft Battleground Brewers Homebrew Club Crow Hill Brewery and Meadery Greensboro, NC Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 07:58:25 -0400 From: "Colby Fry" <colbyfry at pa.net> Subject: Wheat Wine Gravity Problems I recently made a wheatwine with an OG of 1.142 and I used Wyeast wheat blend and White Labs dry English Ale for the primary hoping to take the gravity down to 1.040-1.050 and then finish it off with champagne yeast. Each was a quart starter. I checked the gravity after two weeks and it was 1.070 and no sign of activity. I added 10grams of champagne yeast and some 'yeast energizer' and shook for a little bit. (two weeks later) The gravity is still 1.070 and last night I added 25 grams of rehydrated champagne , 10 tablets of yeast food, 3 tablets of energizer and shook for 20 seconds. Can anyone validate my actions? Is this the right thing to do to get the gravity down to ~1.020. Any suggestions? The following is the recipe 21 lbs. Muntons Liquid Wheat Wxtract 4 oz hallertau hops (90 minutes) Wyeast Blend (weistephan and irish ale) Whitelabs Dry English Ale 10 grams champagne yeast for finish. 10 grams yeast nutrients. Thanks Colby Roxbury, Pa Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 13:03:25 -0400 From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer at engin.umich.edu> Subject: Re: further to hsa/oxidation silliness >>>>> "Robin" == Robin Griller <robin_g at ica.net> writes: Robin> The conclusion I would reach from this is: if you want to Robin> brew colourless tasteless crap (i.e. megaswill) Robin> worry. Otherwise relax and leave your beer alone, it's Robin> doing just fine as it is! :) I don't necessarily agree. I will illustrate this with an anecdote. I'm a member of the "RealBeerTour" beer of the month club. A couple of months ago, the selection was "Red Biddy" from the Biddy Early brewpub in Ireland. It was a very nice "Irish Red Ale", of which Jackson wrote: Huge, coffee colored, head. Deep, dark cherry, color. Fragrantly fruity aroma (cherry ice-cream?). Toasty and jammy, with a suggestion of cinnamon. Becoming maltier and smoother. Herbal notes and a quite intense dryness in the long finish. Well, I didn't necessarily get all that in my tasting, but it was a very nicely made beer. Or so I thought. A month later, I still had some bottles left. I opened one and found it to be horribly oxidized, with wet carboard and cooked pineapple flavor and aroma in abundance. I don't know at what point in the process the oxidation occurred, but it sure as heck had a very negative flavor impact. I'll have to drink the few remaining bottles well-chilled to kill the flavor. :-) I've been keeping out of the "HSA" affray, but my take on it is this: if you're happy with your beer, if your beer doesn't deterioriate before you drink it all up, then *don't worry* and don't change. But if you want to make your beer better and longer-lived, one thing to look at is potential sources of oxidation in your process. =Spencer Thomas in Ann Arbor, MI (spencer at umich.edu) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 14:53:28 -0500 From: "Bruce Garner" <bpgarner at mailbag.com> Subject: Great Taste Tickets Going Fast The Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival tickets are selling twice as fast as last year. If you buy tickets through the mail get your order in as soon as possible. The Great Taste is Saturday, August 10th. One hundred brewers serving over 400 beers. Tickets are still $20. Send a stamped self addressed envelope with your check to MHTG to MHTG, PO Box 1365, Madison, WI 53701 For more details and photos check the web site. www.hbd.org/mhtg Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 14:09:32 -0400 From: "Robin Griller" <robin_g at ica.net> Subject: Re: Re: further to hsa/oxidation silliness Spencer wrote: > I've been keeping out of the "HSA" affray, but my take on it is this: > if you're happy with your beer, if your beer doesn't deterioriate > before you drink it all up, then *don't worry* and don't change. But > if you want to make your beer better and longer-lived, one thing to > look at is potential sources of oxidation in your process. Spencer seems to be reacting a little overly seriously to a tongue in cheek comment, but as he's missed the point of what I was saying, in response three points: (1) I do wish that the person whose messages I don't receive, but who is apparently posing as me in Spencer's emails and saying that oxidation doesn't matter would stop! I do recall saying some things about claims made about HSA in homebrew, but not about oxidation in general. So, of course Spencer is right: don't allow your beer to come into contact with oxygen after the beginning of fermentation. (2) So, some silly brewery probably kills off the yeast in their beer, exposes the beer to heat fluctuations in long shipping, etc., and anyone is surprised their beer tastes like crap? STOP killing the beer and it'll taste fine!!! When will those commercial breweries learn from us homebrewers and start leaving live beer in their yeast to protect it???? My god these commercial breweries do dumb things!!!! No wonder they have to take all the flavour out of the beer in order to make a stable product. (3) How is the taste of a beer about whose production processes Spencer knows nothing evidence of HSA? It is not. And yes, he did not specify where he thought the oxidation happened, but then that means he was not responding to my argument, which was about the claims made for HSA in homebrew. Add in that we just finished being told that HSA produces loss of bitterness and a sweet caramel note (still sounds good to me, if only I could manage it!!), and a beer having wet cardboard and pineapple flavours is evidence for ?????? Robin Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 18:31:48 -0400 From: Bill Wible <bill at brewbyyou.net> Subject: Wanna be a beer writer? See below. This was sent to me, I don't live in any of the areas they're seeking. If anybody is interested, contact these guys. God knows, many of you are qualified. One of you could become the next Michael Jackson! Bill ROCKY MOUNTAIN BREWING NEWS CALL FOR WRITERS Like writing about beer? Live in the Rockies? (Or know someone who might be interested who does?) How about writing for the new Rocky Mountain Brewing News? RMBN debuts this August throughout the Rockies! We're seeking a cadre of regional craft beer correspondents in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and northern Nevada. What does it take? Good writing, excellent people skills, and a passion for craft brewed beer. If you are interested and live in the Rockies (All Brewing News writers cover the regions where they live), send an email to: rmbneditor at brewingnews.com requesting the application package. We'll send you the Call for Writers document with complete guidelines for submission. Do it right away! We will be going to press in early July. If you think you know someone who might be interested, forward them this email. Learn more about the Brewing News at: http://www.brewingnews.com. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 20:38:03 -0500 From: "Rob Moline" <jethrogump at mchsi.com> Subject: Siebel Response-Hot Break-Lyn Kruger Brewers, Lyn Kruger has had some problems configuring her 'puter to respond and has asked me to forward these for her. More timely delivery to you has been delayed by the recent re-positioning of the HBD.....which brings us to truths un-assailable by any...the value of the HBD....Thanks Pat Babcock! Rob QUESTION: Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 13:21:37 -0700 From: Troy Hager <thager at hcsd.k12.ca.us> Subject: Siebel Week This question is about hot break. I have been brewing all grain for about 5-6 years and have done mostly single infusion batches. My water is very soft and I usually add a few grams of CaCl2 to treat my brewing liquor. Most of my beers have been ales made with either domestic 2-row or English pale ale malt. I have read about the importance of a good hot break and in the past have seen smallish particles of break material form in the first few minutes of the boil. These particles have been pretty small - no more than 1/16" and usually less. I have tried a variety of boiling procedures anywhere from a very high violent roll (evaporation rates near 20%/hour) to a covered low roll (evaporation rate closer to 8%/hour) but have not noticed much difference in the amount or size of the break material in the wort. I have started to brew lagers with more frequency and have purchased some of the Budvar undermodified Czech malt. Recently I used it for the first time in a Dortmunder Export using G. Fix's recipe. This recipe calls for a dough-in at 104F for 30 minutes and then a steady rise at 1 degree F / minute to mash out at 168F. When I started the boil I immediately noticed these HUGE corn-flake sized particles that formed at the beginning of the boil - I couldn't figure out what they were at first but quickly realized that they indeed were mammoth sized hot break. I had never seen anything like it! I have read about egg-soup sized hot break and this is exactly what it looked like. At the end of the boil I chilled it down to about 50F - and got a great cold break as well. After pumping to my fermenter I examined the break material and it was quite impressive in volume with large lightly colored clumps of particulate matter left behind. My questions: 1. Does the amount of rolling action of the boil (higher temperatures) have anything to do with the production of break material as many HB books tend to say? For example, general HB advice is that you must boil hard to get a good hot break. In my experience this does not seem true - my hot break usually occurs right at the beginning of the boil. I have actually talked to professional brewers that have said, "Boil the hell out of it!" Other sources say a boil of about 7-10%/hour evaporation rate is optimum and there is a balance between DMS reduction/break formation and thermal loading/excessive Maillard reactions. How does all this affect the quality of the break in the boil? 2. Why the big difference from what I have seen in the past to what I saw with this batch? 3. Was it the cause of the undermodified malt or the mashing regime? 4. If I had used German Pils or American 2-row with this same mash procedure would I see the same type of break? 5. Finally, it seems logical that since break material is the coagulation and therefore separation of tannin and phenolic materials (among other things) in and from the wort... that more break and larger particles of break material equals better beer... Is this a true statement? Thank you for your time! Troy Hager RESPONSE Troy: You are quite correct that most of the hot break forms very rapidly. Protein coagulates very quickly when it is heated. The main reasons for a "good rolling boil" is to get aggregation of the precipitated protein and to encourage DMS stripping from the wort. Generally about 8 % evaporation per hour is a good target (about 15% total evaporation). Excessive boiling can lead to the aggregates of protein breaking apart, darkening of the wort and "bready/cooked" flavors. It is advantageous to have larger break particles because they can be separ ated from the wort more efficiently. Undermodified malt will contain both more protein and larger protein molecules than a well modified malt. When these larger protein molecules coagulate one would expect larger particles of break. I would suspect that using a well modified malt, using the same mashing procedure, you would observe your "regular" break. Better beer relies on both obtaining a good break during boiling, but also removing this break. The two operations really go hand in hand. Lyn Kruger Siebel Institute of Technology Return to table of contents
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