---

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


Contents:
  misc. answers (Alan Duester)
  sugar in good beer (Chip Hitchcock)
  Idle Fermentation (Chris Yerga)
  Colors in light-extract brews (Tom Nolan)
  AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. (mark_koski)
  AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. (mark_koski)
  AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. (mark_koski)
  Fermentation Temperature (Andrius Tamulis)
  How long is o.k. in Secondary? (JEEPSRUS)


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: Wed, 25 Apr 90 10:00:13 EDT
From: capnal at aqua.whoi.edu (Alan Duester)
Subject: misc. answers

>From: ileaf!io!peoria!cjh at EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Chip Hitchcock)
>
>    I have been getting OG's substantially (.008-.018) above the figures
>given in the recipes. (This figures were temperature-corrected according to
>

Have you tried measuring plain water? Maybe your
hydrometer got dropped on its head, and the paper
inside slipped?

=========== ALSO ==============
>
>From: smithey at hulder.css.gov (Brian Smithey)
>
>I'm brewing the Fuller's ESB from Dave Line's "Brewing Beers Like
>Those You Buy."  For those unfamiliar with this book, most of the
>recipes call for the addition of saccharin tablets to increase
>
>I'd try lactose instead.  Would anybody out there like to suggest how
>much lactose would approximate the sweetness of 5 saccharin tablets

I like all of my brew sweet in the background, and
add 1/2 to 1 lb. of crushed Cara-Pils (sometimes
called Dextrine Malt) to all my 5 gallon batches.
I don't know equivalent amounts to give you the
replacement amounts for saccharin. Anybody else?

========== ALSO =================

>From: Steve Anthony <steveo at Think.COM>
>Subject: Commonwealth Brewery
>
>In #405, RussG write about the Commonwealth Brewery in Boston. I was there
>a few weeks back while they were preparing a mash. I was rather shocked to
>see about 30-40 lbs of good ole' granulated refined cane sugar being added

Commonwealth has a brew available now in bottles
(at least down here on the Cape). They might have
been adding priming sugar to the batch prior to
bottling.

Return to table of contents


Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 15:09:09 EDT
From: ileaf!io!peoria!cjh at EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: sugar in good beer

> From: Steve Anthony <steveo at Think.COM>
> 
> In #405, RussG write about the Commonwealth Brewery in Boston. I was there
> a few weeks back while they were preparing a mash. I was rather shocked to
> see about 30-40 lbs of good ole' granulated refined cane sugar being added
> to the kettle. No wonder the beers taste a little thin! Didn't get a chance
> to find out what particular beer they were brewing though.

There are some homebrew recipes which call for various sugars (Papazian's
Goat Scrotum Ale calls for molasses, brown sugar, AND corn sugar even though
he says elsewhere that replacing corn sugar with malt extract gives better
results). 

More relevant is that Commonwealth isn't the only brewer that adds a little
sugar to get good beer. The local (Boston) newsletters recently described a
visit to Fuller's, which said the recipe for ESB included some invert sugar
 -"so you could drink >=4 pints in a session"-. Fuller's ESB has been getting
good reviews in various publications in this country; I thought it was quite
good, much better than their London Porter (or Royal Oak? notes from
beer-tasting at BU last summer are obscure whose this was).

Also, they could have been brewing Golden Ale. The image of -"Gold Ale"- seems
to be something like a better grade of Pilsener than the commercial runoff
made in this country; I doubt you could get something that light with no
sugar.

> From: "Gary F. Mason
> Subject: Boston's Commonwealth Brewery...me too
> 
> I tried only the Burton's Best Boston Bitter, the golden ale, and the amber 
> ale.  I found the bitter to be too much so - unlike what I experienced in 
> England.
> 
> Q: Does anyone know how consistent they are between batches?  I would like to 
> try the bitter from another batch, hoping for less bittering hops.

When I was change-ringing nearby I went to Commonwealth fairly often(*); I
didn't notice any variation in the bitter (or in the stout, which has seduced
some English friends). Note that traditional English beers vary
substantially; regions have not just specialties in style (stout/bitter/mild)
but also particular preferences in each style, so the bitter you had may have
been a median but certainly wasn't the only style variety. Commonwealth's
Burton Bitter is related to Bass Ale and other brews (Double Diamond?) from
Burton-on-Trent (Northeast coast), which are supposed to be very hoppy. It
would be interesting if Commonwealth filled out the English line with a
brown/mild ale, since mild-and-bitter is a common mix.

(*) Ringing followed by beer is a noble English tradition that I was treated
to in both England and Australia---though some of our guests disdained the
Commonwealth bitter and one even asked for white wine!

Return to table of contents


Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 17:22:21 PDT
From: yerga at cory.Berkeley.EDU (Chris Yerga)
Subject: Idle Fermentation

I brewed up my second batch of homebrew 4 days ago. It's a porter that had
6 or 7 lbs of extract and 1lb of black patent, with a touch of crystal. 
OG was around 1.065 after the boil was finished, but I was only able to get
the wort down to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit after 30 minutes. Since it
was 2:30 AM, I crashed and pitched at around 8:30 AM. I used an 11.5g packet
of Edme dry yeast, which I chose over Red Star at the local homebrew hut.

The yeast had covered the surface of the wort by midnight and was bubbling
away at the rate of 3 or 4 bbles per second by the next morning. Fermentation
continued in this manner until the second morning (48 hours after pitching),
when the head on the wort had fallen. I haven't seen a single bubble since,
which seems strange because I tossed about 10oz of the wort into a bottle
fitted with an airlock at the same time that I pitched in the primary. The
bottle is bubbling every several seconds.

Although I am relaxed and am not worrying, I am quickly running out of homebrew
and would like to know if this is abnormal fermentation. I'm running a closed
fermentation in a 5 gallon carboy and havent disturbed it since pitching (that
was the point of having the separate bottle fermentingg - so I could monitor
it and not touch the primary).

Any help or comforting words would be greatly appreciated!

Chris Yerga
The Naked House of Wacky People

Return to table of contents


Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 10:28:38 EDT
From: nolan at heavax.DNET.NASA.GOV (Tom Nolan)
Subject: Colors in light-extract brews

Regarding the amount of darkening grains to add to a
light-extract-only wort, I have a couple of points
on the graph:

Starting with 5 lbs light extract and water
to make 4.5 gallons I have then added

(1) 2 cups crystal + 1 cup chocolate malt to get
    a beautiful copper-colored amber ale

(2) 2 cups crystal + 2 cups roasted barley to get
    a very dark-colored but light-bodied stout

I crush the grains by rolling them with a beer bottle,
not so much grinding that they turn to powder. I
steep the grains for 1/2 hour at 150-160 F in 1 gallon,
then strain and rinse.

During the steep, you can draw off a half-cup or so, then
dilute it to the full wort strength by adding a cup or so
of water, to get an idea of the color of the finished
product, and tweak as necessary.

 - Tom

Return to table of contents


Date:        24 Apr 90 17:52 -0700
From: mark_koski%02 at hp4200
Subject:     AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE.

I will be out of the office from Tuesday, 4/23, to Monday, 4/30, on
business.  If you require immediate attention to an issue, please
contact Eric Lewis at 720-3650.


Mark Koski


Return to table of contents


Date:        24 Apr 90 07:00 -0700
From: mark_koski%02 at hp4200
Subject:     AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE.

I will be out of the office from Tuesday, 4/23, to Monday, 4/30, on
business.  If you require immediate attention to an issue, please
contact Eric Lewis at 720-3650.


Mark Koski


Return to table of contents


Date:        24 Apr 90 07:35 -0700
From: mark_koski%02 at hp4200
Subject:     AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE.

I will be out of the office from Tuesday, 4/23, to Monday, 4/30, on
business.  If you require immediate attention to an issue, please
contact Eric Lewis at 720-3650.


Mark Koski


Return to table of contents


Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 21:57:20 CDT
From: Andrius Tamulis <tamulis at dehn.math.nwu.edu>
Subject: Fermentation Temperature


The summer months will soon be upon us, with the correspondingly high
temperatures. My current residence does not have any A/C, and is therefore 
subject to the outside temperature, which means that it can reach 90 degrees
in here, maybe even higher. The question is, can I brew beer? 90 is well out
of the suggested fermenting range, but just what will happen? Is it hopeless?
And if it is, are there refridgerator-type things that can keep my carboy at
a nice 65-75?
	Thanks in advance,
						Andrius

Return to table of contents


Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 11:47 PDT
From: JEEPSRUS <ROBERTN%FM1 at sc.intel.com>
Subject: How long is o.k. in Secondary?



G'day to all!

I am doing my first two stage fermentation. But, I'm not to sure about
what to do.

I am making a Maple Syrup Stout. I racked it into the carboy after the
krauzen(sp?) fell. It's been in the secondary for a week and a half now, as 
of 4/26.

How long can it sit in the secondary? There is still some activity in there.
There is also a fair amount of sediment buildup. I don't have a meter, so I
don't know what the SG is. 

It looks as though it is doing just fine. I'm just curious as to how long
to let it go. I have heard across the net of people letting thier secondary
go for a month or two. 

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanx in advance,

RobertN.

robertn%fm1 at sc.intel.com


Return to table of contents



End of HOMEBREW Digest #407, 04/27/90
*************************************
-------

---