HOMEBREW Digest #4079 Tue 29 October 2002


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Contents:
  Re: Bottle Labels or Label Glue for Home Brew (Mike Harkness)
  Re: Secondary fermentation (Jeff Renner)
  Mindnumbingly Simple Labels ("Eric R. Theiner")
  Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day ("Gary Glass")
  scottish ale yeast, mash hopped barleywine ("Czerpak, Pete")
  RE: Secondary, fusels (Kevin Crouch)
  Re: Bottle Labels or Label Glue for Home Brew (Alan Davies)
  Yuengling (pronounced Yeng'-ling) (Marc Sedam)
  FW: Permanently Marking Stainless/Glass & Fluid Gauges ("Hedglin, Nils A")
  HBDer Looking for Wine links ("Jay Wirsig")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 01:55:38 -0500 From: Mike Harkness <mharknes at umd.umich.edu> Subject: Re: Bottle Labels or Label Glue for Home Brew After trying several different glue solution, I use regular old milk as my glue (any will do). You can print the labels on an ink jet and do the Kinko's coping thing (my preferred method). My best results have come with 20 or 24 paper anything heavier gets difficult to work with. To apply the laels I use a small 1/2 to 1 inch paint brush to coat the back of the label and apply it to the bottle. The labels are very easy to remove by wetting with running water for a few seconds and the label will literally fally off. This does create a problem when the homebrew will be in ice or another wet environment (I have not had any problems with them falling off in a refrigerator), in this case I coat the labels (before cutting them) VERY lightly with a spray on polyurethane which makes the labels water proof. The labels stay on really well even when submerged for long periods but can be easily removed after about a 10 minute soak and lifting a corner to peel the label off the bottle. This technique also lets you print the labels on an ink jet and make them run proof as well. Hope this helps. Mike Harkness Howell, Michigan Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 09:29:00 -0500 From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at comcast.net> Subject: Re: Secondary fermentation Kevin Crouch <kcrouching at yahoo.com> of Vancouver, WA writes about the continuing discussion of secondary fermentation. Here are some of my thoughts. Secondary fermentation is an old term from English brewing when very slow fermenting bacteria and/or wild yeast began their noticeable fermentation after the primary fermentation by brewers yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisae was completed. This was poorly understood, as was all of fermentation, until the late 19th century. Brettanomyces species are one group of yeast that was isolated from this secondary fermentation, as I recall from an old British brewing text from the 1930's, and no doubt Lactobacillus was as well. This secondary fermentation could take place in casks, bottles or large vats such as those used by 18th and 19th century London porter brewers. We don't much get or want get these secondary fermentations in our beers nowadays (although my "solera" ale is one exception), but we continue to use the term for the period after the most active S. cerevisae fermentation is over. As Kevin mentioned, it is a chance to rack the green beer off trub, dead cells, and other unwanted sediment and to allow the beer with a minimum of potentially problematic headspace as well. Any continuing fermentation is not secondary in the old sense but rather a continuation of the first. It can, however, continue for quite a long time if there are slow fermenting complex sugars (dextrins). >the homebrewer >might choose to "drop" his or her beer <snip> Dropping >is the practice of siphoning the beer from beneath the >head, which contains those nasy hop-headache resins Never heard that hop resins cause headaches - can you document this? I believe that fermentation with the cold break can produce more fusel oils (higher alcohols), which are implicated in headaches. >Dropping is >usually executed just as the primary starts to slow, >before the head subsides, at around 2/3 attenuation. Dropping as I have heard it used means racking off the trub, etc. with aeration to invigorate the yeast as well. This is done traditionally in Britain at about 24 hours at high kraeusen, or at the rocky head or cauliflower head stage. At this point, adding O2 to the yeast is not a problem for the most part (but it can raise diacetyl levels, and may be beneficial to some yeasts that need it. Dropping, at least with aeration, at the later stage you mention, would seem to me to introducing O2 at a point where it would lead to off flavors (such as aldehydes) and staling. 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: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 10:10:30 -0500 From: "Eric R. Theiner" <rickdude02 at earthlink.net> Subject: Mindnumbingly Simple Labels This is a method I use for when I give wine as gifts. (Unfortunately, I don't give my homebrew as gifts because my friends who appreciate it will already be drinking it with me. And the remote parts of my family just don't understand what good beer is all about.) Go to the stationary store and pick up some of those pens that write in gold or silver. They write very well on dry glass and, here's the kicker, look "artsy." Don't get me wrong-- I am not artistic by any stretch of the imagination, and it is a struggle for me to write legibly. But quickly scripting something like "Petite Syrah; Vintage 2002" on one side and a "Happy Holidays!" on the other takes about 30 seconds per bottle. Follow it with some squiggles, arcs, and circles arranged to approximate grapes on the vine (which could easily become hops) and you have a very personal bottle. I send out my best wines for the holidays (really-- the stuff is great), but what I get comments on is almost always the bottles. If it was crayon on paper, it would get a "B" for a first grader, but on a bottle with gold or silver ink, it gets raves. Rick Theiner LOGIC, Inc. www.ecologiccleansers.com Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 08:30:36 -0700 From: "Gary Glass" <gary at aob.org> Subject: Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day Just a reminder that this upcoming Saturday, November 2, is the American Homebrewers Association's 4th annual Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day, so get ready to spread the love! We already have over 100 sites registered. Details and the registration form are available at http://www.beertown.org/AHA/teachbrew/teachday.htm. Cheers! Gary Glass, Project Coordinator Association of Brewers 888-U-CAN-BREW (303) 447-0816 x 121 gary at aob.org www.beertown.org Boulder, CO [1126.8, 262] Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 11:54:10 -0500 From: "Czerpak, Pete" <Pete.Czerpak at siigroup.com> Subject: scottish ale yeast, mash hopped barleywine There has been some talk of the White Labs Edinburgh yeast lately (Darrell, etc). I have tried the White Labs and Wyeast versions for wee-heavies and much prefer the Wyeast version. It seems to perform better at cooler temperatures and have more of the charateristics I like. The White Labs unfortunately didn't meet my expectataions and seemed different as well as far as origin although these weren't tried on identical worts. Also, in the quest for more experimentation, I mashhopped an american-style barleywine this past weekend with CRystal and Fuggles hops at 3 oz total for 5 gallons. NOt wanting to give-in to Marc Sedam entirely, I did throw in 2 oz of aroma hops at knockout though. BIttering were 2 oz of Magnum and 1 oz of Centennial. We'll see in a few weeks. Yeast was White Labs version of Fullers ESB from a previous batch slurry. Thanks, Pete Czerpak albany, NY Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 09:26:56 -0800 (PST) From: Kevin Crouch <kcrouching at yahoo.com> Subject: RE: Secondary, fusels Thanks, Jeff for calling me on this... >>the homebrewer >>might choose to "drop" his or her beer <snip> >Dropping >>is the practice of siphoning the beer from beneath the >>head, which contains those nasy hop-headache resins >Never heard that hop resins cause headaches - can you >document this? >I believe that fermentation with the cold break can >produce more >fusel oils (higher alcohols), which are implicated in >headaches. Yes, sorry, I mispoke. I meant to refer to the fusel oils produced during some fermentations that, as I understand, are held withing the krausen. Don't know where that came from. Ironically, hops are said to help alleviate migraines! >>Dropping is >>usually executed just as the primary starts to slow, >>before the head subsides, at around 2/3 attenuation. >Dropping, at least with aeration, at the later stage you mention, >would seem to me to introducing O2 at a point where it would lead to >off flavors (such as aldehydes) and staling. I'm not exactly sure why you consider this a later stage. Most yeast I have observed are just at the tail-end of high krausen at this point. For a beer with an OG of 1046 and FG of 1012, this would put the beer down at around 1023. Also, and I know this is going to balk at conventional wisdom, but I experimented with late-stage aeration last batch and the results might surprise you. At about 1016 I inserted an aeration stone and juiced one of my fermenters with, yes, OXYGEN. After 3 weeks (1 in the fermenter and 2 in a keg) this beer has shown no staling or aldehyde production. It is, in fact, a delicious bitter with rich malt, citrus and a healthy dose of diacetyl. I do notice some flavor differences between the oxygenated beer and the control, but this mostly seems to be limited to some additional diacetyl. I've seen some sentences that gave me pause in brewing literature, such as in the March '95 edition of Brewing Techniques Troubleshooter in which Dave Miller suggest reaerating the wort in the case of a stuck fermentation. He states that "The most likely result of reaeration will be an increased level of diacetyl in the finished beer." I've also read that some British brewers circulate their fermenting beer by spraying it back on top of the head, though I don't know when they kill this process. The key here seems to be that the yeast must have enough nutrients left to use the oxygen for growth, otherwise autolysis might begin and the oxygen will go unused. Kevin Crouch Vancouver, WA Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 13:24:50 -0500 From: Alan Davies <aland at steltor.com> Subject: Re: Bottle Labels or Label Glue for Home Brew A small amount of milk brushed onto the back of the label works too. Doesn't seem to cause Inkjet ink to run. Sticks almost too well, but leaves no sticky residue (like glue can) after a quick soak in hot water. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 15:38:40 -0500 From: Marc Sedam <marc_sedam at unc.edu> Subject: Yuengling (pronounced Yeng'-ling) Another NC brewer is looking for the magic of Yuengling...well I do declare! Here's my recipe. It comes pretty damn close. 5 gallons 4.5 lbs 2-row pils malt 2 lbs light Munich malt 2lbs corn (flaked, grits, polenta...whatever) mash hop with 3oz Crystal Hops 0.75oz Horizon pellets (~12%aa) for 60 mins Yeast Either WhiteLabs German Bock yeast or Saflager S-23 dry lager yeast work well Single step infusion at 148F. If you're doing a cereal mash, I cool it down to at least 160F before adding. As long as the maize flakes are fresh, they taste identical, esp. since this recipe has lots of Munich malt. In my system I continuously recirculate the mash and direct fire the kettle to bring the temps up to mash out around 175F. So I suppose you could do a multi-step mash, but I think the key is LOTS of time in the low temps to get a well attenuated beer. That's pretty much it. Enjoy! - -- Marc Sedam Associate Director Office of Technology Development The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 308 Bynum Hall; CB# 4105 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-4105 919.966.3929 (phone) 919.962.0646 (fax) OTD site : http://www.research.unc.edu/otd Monthly Seminar Info: http://www.research.unc.edu/otd/seminar/ Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 14:32:03 -0800 From: "Hedglin, Nils A" <nils.a.hedglin at intel.com> Subject: FW: Permanently Marking Stainless/Glass & Fluid Gauges > Hi, > Does anyone have ideas how I can safely mark the inside of a > stainless steel pot? I brewed a batch yesterday that I was quite > pleased with, hit the OG on the nose. But, I wasn't sure what > my starting or ending volumes were since my brewing pot & most > of my carboys aren't marked. I'm guessing I started out with > about 7gal & ended with 5, but that seems a bit high evaporation. > I've marked the 5 gal point on some of my carboys with electrical > tape since it sticks when wet, but I'm not sure how to mark my > pot. I know I don't want to scratch the inside of the pot to > mark it since it would be a bacteria haven. I've thought about > using a permanent marker (Sharpie) for both the carboys & inside > of the pot, but am worried the ink would leech off the pot after > a while. Any ideas? > Also, I've always thought having a some sort of fluid gauge > would be helpful, like on the outlet of the hot liquor tank, so > you can know exactly how much water's gone into your mash tun. > Anyone know of a gauge like this? > > Thanks, > Nils Hedglin > Sacramento, CA > [1978.7, 275.3] Apparent Rennerian > (Still recovering from the BJCP exam) > > PS-I'm not sure if I asked this already, but have the text > formatting requirements for posting to the list changed? I have > to manually format my messages to 80 characters/line. I don't > remember having to do that before. This is the 4th time I've tried to send this message. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 20:31:33 -0500 From: "Jay Wirsig" <Jay.Wirsig at usa.dupont.com> Subject: HBDer Looking for Wine links I've recently re-located to the Santa Barbara Ca. I'm an experienced all grain brewer who would also like to learn how to make wine from Grapes. I have a source of grapes, but have no clue about wine making. the only decision to date is that I want to make a red wine. I can't seem to find the HBD equivalent for wine making. Can anyone help me? >>Jay This communication is for use by the intended recipient and contains information that may be privileged, confidential or copyrighted under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby formally notified that any use, copying or distribution of this e-mail, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. Please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this e-mail from your system. Unless explicitly and conspicuously designated as "E-Contract Intended", this e-mail does not constitute a contract offer, a contract amendment, or an acceptance of a contract offer. This e-mail does not constitute a consent to the use of sender's contact information for direct marketing purposes or for transfers of data to third parties. Francais Deutsch Italiano Espanol Portugues Japanese Chinese Korean http://www.DuPont.com/corp/email_disclaimer.html Return to table of contents
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