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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Capital Brewing (Michael Hartsock)
  Brewer's yeast and yeast infections - NOT just another mommily (Alan Meeker)
  Sealing a conical fermenter lid - Silicon Choice, my finding (FRASERJ)
  re: Hops Book ("robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com")
  Re: foxx beverage corp. ("Rob Dewhirst")
  Un-stump the HBD - you could be the one! ("Jay Wirsig")
  Star San in Europe ("Eric R. Theiner")
  ethanol fuel?? (Brew Wisconsin)
  Chimay yeast ranching (BrianS)
  high alcohol yeast ("Steve B")
  Cooling the Wort, Take Two ("Dave Larsen")
  Bottom Mashing ("Bill Tobler")
  Hop news/Sterling hops/Target hop alternative, Admiral ("Mark Kellums")
  Triangle Test & Acid ("pddey")


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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 06:30:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Hartsock <xd_haze at yahoo.com>
Subject: Capital Brewing

Kudos go out to this fine brewery.  This is just a
heads up to anyone who likes german style brews, but
hasn't much experience with this micro.  I bought a
"beer tour" sampler thing at the store the other day. 
Eight different beers for ten dollars, not a bad one
among the bunch.  Actually, not a one that wasn't good
among the bunch!

Anyhow, just my $0.02.

mike

=====
"May those who love us, love us.
And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn't turn their hearts,
may he turn their ankles
So we'll know them
by their limping."



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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 09:37:28 -0400
From: Alan Meeker <ameeker at mail.jhmi.edu>
Subject: Brewer's yeast and yeast infections - NOT just another mommily

Regarding female yeast infections and homebrewing: While it is true that
many infections are caused by Candida spp., other yeasts, unfortunately
including our friendly brewing yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, can, in fact,
also cause yeast infections in women. The problem of developing such
infections has been documented in the medical literature, especially for
women working in the brewing and baking industries (both use the same yeast
species).

As far as how a woman might become "inoculated" with brewing yeast via their
homebrewing significant other, I'll leave that to your own deranged
imagination. However, the recently discussed route through the digestive
tract is possible. Drinking fresh homebrewed beer with sufficient suspended
viable yeast (e.g. - if not decanted from the bottle properly) can lead to
viable yeast making it all the way through to the other end, as it were.
>From here, it is a short trip to the site of infection. Even though brewer's
yeast are not motile, they can still be carried over and establish
themselves.

Remember, sanitation in the brewhouse is not just important for avoiding
infecting your /beer/!

 -Alan Meeker

Alan Meeker, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Department of Urology
Marburg Building, Room 113
600 N. Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287-2101



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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 10:13:21 -0400
From: FRASERJ at Nationwide.com
Subject: Sealing a conical fermenter lid - Silicon Choice, my finding

Quite a while ago I posted my development of my conical fermenter that I
built using a TMS cone (bought before the price hike, fortunately).

After struggling with how to seal the fermenter lid, I have decided to go
with an o-ring that I am going to "glue" to the underside of the lid,
around the inside lip of the lid.  My first problem was the o-ring, but I
found a food grade o-ring of the correct size easily.  Next problem was the
silicon.  Try and find food grade silicon on the store shelves!  Ha!  I
searched the HBD history and found some related posts, but failed to find
one that specifically mentioned a product.

I finally located a good product at www.mcmaster.com, its a food grade
silicon by Dow Corning, rated at 500 degrees, perfect for steam
sterilization :) and its only $14.59 per cartridge!  Down side is that the
silicon is RED, not a big problem, but white would have been better for
noticing cleaning problems I think, but I just have to be very thorough!

Several people emailed me questions about how I was going to seal my
fermenter, so I hope this post answers those questions!  I will produce new
pictures on my brew website as I assemble the lid seal and should be
brewing for the first time with the new ferment this w/e, I hope!!

John M. Fraser
http://rims-brewing.tripod.com




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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 09:26:28 -0700
From: "robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com" <robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com>
Subject: re: Hops Book

Bill,
There's good news on the horizon. 
Mark Garetz will be updating USING 
HOPS sometime this year. And even 
better news is that he's planning to do it 
on CD, so it will be easy to provide 
updates!!
Here's the website for his book:
http://www.usinghops.garetz.com/
Per usual notes, I do not have a 
financial interest in Hop Tech nor 
Using Hops. I just happen to think its 
one of the best hops books out there!
Robert Marshall
robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com
- -------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 12:17:50 -0400 
From: Bill Wible 
Subject: Hops Book
This might be a good time to ask when 
someone might write a NEW and up to 
date book on hops....
 ...Using Hops is one of the best 
references I know of, but it is so out of 
date now to be almost useless. I have 
posted this before. Obviously, I'm not 
qualified to write such a book. 
Anybody out there think they are? I'll 
buy (and sell) it. Bill


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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 11:44:22 -0500
From: "Rob Dewhirst" <rob at hairydogbrewery.com>
Subject: Re: foxx beverage corp.

> From: "jim williams" <jimswms at cox.net>
> Subject: foxx beverage corp.
>
> I'm just wondering if anybody knows if they have a website, or a phone #?
I
> can't find them on the web.

I think you want <http://www.foxxequipment.com>.  Bear in mind they are
wholesale only.



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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 13:59:25 -0400
From: "Jay Wirsig" <Jay.Wirsig at usa.dupont.com>
Subject: Un-stump the HBD - you could be the one!

I have submitted a couple of questions (submitted twice for good measure)
yet no one has been able to answer them.  Every once in a while I get an
e-mail from someone asking me if anyone answered the question as they want
the answer too...it appears that the collective is stumped.  I'll post the
questions again you've got to think someone out there in HBD land knows
something.  Just think, you could be the one...the HBDer of the year... the
champ... the challenge is made...the prize is clear - the person who
prevented a beer related question to go unanswered on the HBD.

Question #1 -  Leffe Blonde Clone (yes it is by Interbrew - but it's good).
The bottle says 6% ABV,  and calls it a Tripple - (a small tripple?)
Does anyone have a Leffe Clone recipe or the specs (IBU, Colour,) - I'd
like to know the yeast

Question #2
A few years ago I made a great weizen using Yeast Lab W51.  I have never
been able to duplicate these results using WYeast Wiehenstephen Wheat.  I'm
trying to find a source for this Yeast Lab product - can anyone help?  I
found the following on the HBD web site:

Yeast Lab W51 Bavarian Weizen This strain produces a classic German style
wheatbeer, with moderately high, spicy phenolic overtones reminiscent of
cloves.
Medium attenuation, moderately flocculant. Evidently much more consistent
than Wyeast at producing a true Weizen flavor.



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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 10:26:09 -0400
From: "Eric R. Theiner" <rickdude02 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Star San in Europe

I don't know if Star San is available in Europe, but both Straight-A and 
One Step are being shipped into the EU.  My distributor, Das Bier!, is 
revamping their primary website, so I don't know if the following URL will 
work at the moment, but you might want to try: www.das-bier.com if you're 
interested.  (Their offices are actually about 100 - 150 km from Amsterdam.)

Although this is a relatively new development, my distributor is moving 
very quickly with these products, presenting them both to other 
distributors in other countries and to breweries.  I hope you'll be able to 
spot them locally soon, so if you are foiled in your attempts to pick up 
Star San, you might simply want to try some other options.<g>

Strongly affiliated, and, in fact, I own the company.

Rick Theiner




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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 14:36:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brew Wisconsin <brewwisconsin at yahoo.ca>
Subject: ethanol fuel??

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003 20:31:02 -0500 George & Lola
<georgelola at netscape.net> wrote:
>
> I am interested in producing a little fuel alcohol
> for myself.  Brewer's
> Yeast is only good up to around 10%.  If I am to
> produce any fuel I want
> to be up around 20%.  So my question is;  If I took
> a package of wine
> yeast that would work to make 5 gallon of 20% wine.
> How much water and
> sugar would I need to grow one package of yeast up
> to enough to ferment
> lets say 100 gallon?  Could someone give me a

What are you trying to fuel, a beer engine?
(Oooooohh, sorry, that was terrible)

Seriously, I'm not sure that what you suggest is
feasible or economical on a small scale.

First, I'm not sure what kind of engine would run on
20% alcohol and 80% WATER.  And if you wanted to get
rid of the water, you'd have to DISTILL it and that
would be ILLEGAL without a licence.  Even if you did,
you'd end up with only 20 gallons of "200 proof"
ethanol.  [Yeah, I guess my car could be said to run
on "170 proof" (i.e., 85%) ethanol, but that would be
misleading because the ethanol component of the fuel
is an almost pure*, just under 200 proof/100%
(*denatured to discourage human consumption) and
blended with _gasoline_ for the other 15%]

Again, I'm not sure what you want to fuel, but it
would seem a lot easier just to look up the nearest
gas station in your area that sells fuel ethanol
(although that might not be easy if you live outside
the Midwest).

=====
Now go have a beer,
Bob Paolino
Columnist, Great Lakes Brewing News
Member, North American Guild of Beer Writers
 Winner: 2001--Culture Feature (Gold),
         2000--Travel Feature (Silver)
***Sometimes alcohol and driving do go together
  --my car consumes more alcohol than I do.*** 
***http://www.afdc.doe.gov/afv/ethanol.html ***



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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 11:53:54 -0700
From: BrianS <schar at cardica.com>
Subject: Chimay yeast ranching

Charles Boyer asks about ranching Chimay yeast for homebrewing purposes.

I just bottled 10 gallons of a Chimay red clone last night.  I fermented 5
gallons in a first fermenter and 5 gallons in a second fermenter.  I pitched
a starter of White Labs Trappist yeast in the first fermenter, along with a
starter of yeast I cultivated from two bottles of Chimay Red.  I only
pitched a starter of White Labs Trappist yeast in the second fermenter.

My wife and I tasted some of each after the bottling process.  Our
subjective opinion is that the beer from the first fermenter, using some of
the Chimay Red yeast, came out more "Chimay-like" than the beer from the
other fermenter.  Based on this admittedly-unscientific test, I'd say you
could ferment with bottle-cultured Chimay yeast, and I'd encourage you to do
so.  Have fun.

Brian Schar
Belmont, CA


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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 15:31:50 -0400
From: "Steve B" <habenero92 at hotmail.com>
Subject: high alcohol yeast


I was catching up on the weekend reading and saw this reference about high 
alcohol tolerant yeasts:

check out Turbo Yeast. It has
serious yeast nutrients and can ferment straight cane sugar to +20% alcohol. 
The US distributor/retailer is http://www.brewhaus.com/. They also sell 
absinthe concentrate.

The webpage references a Swedish yeast.  I think that might be where it is 
derived.  Just fyi.
S





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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 22:33:51 +0000
From: "Dave Larsen" <hunahpumonkey at hotmail.com>
Subject: Cooling the Wort, Take Two

A week or so ago I posted a question about low tech ways to cool off a 
fermentor and got several responses.  Well, I've attempted to use the "swamp 
cooler" method of cooling the wort by placing the fermentor in a shallow tub 
of water with towel over it and a fan blowing on it.  Unfortunately, I've 
been having some real difficulties with this batch of brown ale.

Part of the problem is maintaining a constant temperature, which may have 
contributed to my stuck ferment from which I have never fully recovered.  It 
seems to vary wildly from 64 F to 69 F, depending upon humidity among other 
things.

There is no fine toothed control whatsoever.  I tried to vary the 
temperature by only covering half of less with a wet towel, and varying the 
distance between the fan and the fermentor, but that does not seem to work 
very well.   In fact, that seemed to create a temperature gradient in the 
fermentor where the top is warm (70 F) and the bottom is cold (64 F).  I 
must admit that I'm pretty frustrated with the whole thing.

As a result, I started construction on my new fermentation chiller using the 
"Son of Fermentation Chiller" plans as a guide 
(http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.html), as some suggested.   
Hopefully, that will solve my problems.

Dave
Tucson, AZ





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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 18:38:22 -0500
From: "Bill Tobler" <WCTOBLER at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Bottom Mashing

A friend from our brewclub was over the other day and 
we were discussing how we brew over a few beers.  I 
have a HERMS system and he brews on a RIMS. When we 
got around to dough-in, he uses a procedure I have 
never heard of, and couldn't find a lot of information 
about.  It's called bottom mashing.  Here is what he 
does.  For dough-in, he puts the measured amount of 
crushed grain in the mash tun with a false bottom 
installed.  No water.  He then pumps the correct 
amount of strike water, at room temperature, up 
through the bottom drain.  He says this wets the grain 
down very nicely and it doesn't make any dough balls.  
He said it also takes a very minimum amount of 
stirring to get the grain bed mixed well. He then 
heats up using the RIMS. He says he gets between 90-
95% efficiency.  

In my system, when I dough in, I put the correct 
amount of water in the mash tun, heat it up to strike 
temperature using the HERMS, then add the grain and 
mix it up with a paint mixer attached to my 1/2" 
drill.  I usually get around 80% efficiency, and am 
very happy with that number.  

I did find a reference to Bottom Mashing.  It was in 
Pamela Sambrook's book "Country House Brewing in 
England 1500-1900".  Though I don't have the book yet, 
I read a reference by Clive La Pensee in a paper he 
wrote "Cottage Brewery Update"  

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/dpickett/docs/cba/cba3/v1
i3p4.htm

Here is what Mr. La Pensee had to say about Bottom 
Mashing. This is just one paragraph from his article.

"Anyone like me, looking for more inspiration into 
country house or cottage brewing should refer to 
Pamela Sambrook's fascinating and highly readable 
treatise "County House Brewing in England 1500-1900." 
I've readopted the Victorian habit of bottom mashing 
and it works a treat, giving far better homogeneity of 
temperature throughout the mash, with a minimum of 
stirring, which in itself leads to considerable heat 
losses. The malt is placed in the mash tun and the hot 
strike water run in through a manifold in the bottom 
of the mash tun and then left to rise up through the 
grain."

It looks like the only difference in what Clive does 
and my friend does is the strike water temperature.  I 
was just curious if anyone does this or at least tried 
it.  I'm planning on trying it the next time I make a 
5-gallon batch, though I may dough in with hot water 
instead of room temperature.  Cheers!!

Bill Tobler
Lake Jackson, TX. 
Way South of (0,0)





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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 19:16:48 -0500
From: "Mark Kellums" <infidel at springnet1.com>
Subject: Hop news/Sterling hops/Target hop alternative, Admiral

Steve A. writes:

If Mark Kellums or another serious hop-head wishes to be the
hop-news-reporter/leading-critic they'll certainly find the brickbats
waiting, along with a good deal of appreciation.

Me:

Actually I wouldn't mind helping out where I could. I love discussing hops,
growing them, and of course brewing with new varieties.


A little while back someone asked about a possible alternative to Target
hops. If you can find it I would recommend another English variety named
Admiral. The few times I brewed with it I liked it very much.


Also, check out Al K's book, Homebrewing Volume I, it is an excellent
reference for hops and is very descriptive of many hop varieties.

Mark Kellums
Decatur Il.





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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 21:12:16 -0600
From: "pddey" <pddey at netzero.net>
Subject: Triangle Test & Acid

Fellow Brewers,
In a quick search of the archives, I was unable to find a full description
of the simple "Triangle Test" nor did I find it in my Brewing Techniques
back issues...though I'm sure its somewhere in both sources.  Anyway, my
club will soon be comparing a beer that we all brewed from the same recipe
ala the great pale ale experiment of a few years back.  Folks tout the
triangle test as a simple objective means to establish that beers are indeed
different and seems ideally suited to the task at hand.

Obviously, even to me, someone is nominated the pourer with the task of
pouring one sample of one beer and two samples of another, presenting these
to the taster(s) in a blind fashion (albeit sans blindfold, cane, dog or
other accoutrements) and the taster is tasked with identifying the
"different" beer.  Now, how is this efficiently done with a number of beers,
say 8 and a number of tasters, say 10?  In one archived post, Herr Pivo
recommends a die (as in single dice), I suppose to randomly select pairings?

Now what stat tables are used?  It seems like a Chi Square sort of test - I
have tons of stat books that are ripe for a good dusting if I need to dig
out a stat table for reference.  Any tips on conducting the test would earn
a toast. Or an egg.

On a related note, anyone have a source for acid for removing beer stone
from stainless kegs? or other magical such elixir?  The jug of phosphoric (I
think) acid I bought years ago is gone and my kegs are getting grumpy.  The
stuff I had was targeted to the dairy industry but alas the old west is
light on holsteins and I can't find a jug around town.  Ok, its not a
related note.

 -Paul in Cheyenne, WY (or why not)
with a CAP, 2 ambers, a Pils, a mild, 2 barleywines, and a few assorted
meads in the cellar




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