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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org


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Contents:
  Old Fridge Insulation ("Travis Nye")
  RE: too much beer... ("Edward D")
  Almonds! ("Nathan T. Hoskins")
  Re: too much beer... (Todd Goodman)
  RE: Too much beer (NO Spam)
  Re: too much beer... (Robert Marshall)
  AHA Pub Discounts ("Dave Larsen")
  Pressure cooking ("Chad Stevens")


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Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2003 23:50:36 -0700
From: "Travis Nye" <travis at nye.com>
Subject: Old Fridge Insulation

Hello,

I was drilling a hole in my old Admiral fridge (50's or 60's I would guess)
for a tap and was wondering about the fibrous insulation in the door. Is it
possible it could be asbestos or would it be some other material? It is
brown and fuzzy and has little "hairs" in it. Should I be concerned?

I was thinking of spraying foam insulation in the hole and then re-drilling
through the foam to put the shank in it to contain the material.

Thanks,
Travis



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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2003 16:51:55 +0800
From: "Edward D" <edwardd at dodo.com.au>
Subject: RE: too much beer...

Grant Family <grants at netspace.net.au> Asks how we get threw all the beer we
make.



Personally I had the same problem to the extent that I stoped brewing for a
year and then threw out some 50 Litters of beer. Comely recommended
solutions involve giving it to friends but most of my friends prefer macro
swill to a beer where you can taste both the malt and the hops. Heaven
forbid it should be any shade but light amber.



You should be able to do the small baches in the large fermented without to
much problem. Considering the volume of CO2 produced the O2 should be
displaced in the early part of fermentation. It probably isn't perfect but I
have twice brewed 10L baches in my 30L fermenter with no adverse affects my
inexpert taste could detect.



Edward



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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2003 08:34:02 -0400
From: "Nathan T. Hoskins" <nathanhoskins at adelphia.net>
Subject: Almonds!

I want to impart some Almond flavor into my beer.  I was thinking about
using  Almond Schnapps as a primer, to impart the flavor.  If I go that
route, what is the amount that  I should use?  I'm brewing a standard 5
gallon batch.  I have looked for Almond extract flavorings, but couldn't
find any.  Any suggestions?


Nathan T. Hoskins
Brewing in Kentucky
"there's brew in them hills"!
nathanhoskins at adelphia.net





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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2003 08:58:59 -0400
From: Todd Goodman <tsg at bonedaddy.net>
Subject: Re: too much beer...

* In HBD #4289, Grant Family <grants at netspace.net.au>, wrote:
> I was gonna say "I'm sure everybody has this problem..." but given
> your professed beer intakes, I'm not so sure... Anyway, my question
> is, firstly, how do you get through 5 gallons (23L) of beer?

I find that there's plenty of mates and family members willing to help
draw down the reserves (in fact, usually willing to give me a push into
blowing off something I needed to do in order to brew instead.)

If you're lacking in mates that drink, or SWMBO won't let them near the
house after the last time, then coworkers usually do a pretty good job
of sucking every last drop from a keg...

Todd
Brewing again in Westford, MA
[630.4, 84 Apparrent Rennerian]
(From memory, not responsible for your results if used...)


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Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2003 11:13:02 -0400
From: NO Spam <nospam at brewbyyou.net>
Subject: RE: Too much beer


I'll have to confess that sometimes I also find
5 gallons to be alot of beer.  I'm usually the
only one drinking what I brew, as my wife doesn't
drink much, if any beer.  And I don't drink every day.
So 5 gallons can be alot, and last for awhile, especially
when I have 2 or 3 batches, figure that's 4 or 6 cases.
I figure I *might* drink a six pack per week.

I also find I still buy just as much, if not more
commercial beer.  And good stuff - right now I
have Fuller's London Pride, Abbey D'Leffe, Czechvar,
and Hop Devil, along with alot of leftover bottles
from cases of things like Bigfoot, Celebration,
Young's Old Nick, etc - so I have alot of beer on
hand, especially  for one person.  But I like having
the selection and the choice.

One thing I've taken to doing is brewing 3 gallon batches
sometimes when I brew, especially for the bigger beers.
This usually works out to be about case plus 4 - 6 bottles.
for 3 gallons, I use a 5 gallon carboy as a primary fermenter
and then a 3 gallon glass carboy as a secondary.  I have
3 gallon carboys anyway, because I sometimes I use them
for 3 gallon wine kits, and I've also recently started
using them for mead - something else I've wanted to try for
awhile, but not 5 gallons.

I would certainly say there's no shame in brewing 3 gallons,
if that's a more comfortable batch size for you.  Lots of
advantages, too - fewer bottles to buy, (and fill), smaller
pot required, comes to a boil faster, cools down faster, etc.

Its very easy to formulate 3 gallon batches, especially if
you either own software like promash or you can use the
free calculator at beertools.com.

Give it a shot if you're finding 5 gallon is too much for you.

Best, 

Bill 



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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2003 09:30:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Robert Marshall <robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com>
Subject: Re: too much beer...

Hi Grant!

I have the exact same problem as you do. Five gallons
for myself is a LOT of beer. I'm not a heavy drinker
so one or two in a day is my usual intake.

Anyways, to your question. I use the same 6 gallon
bucket fermentor for the primary. The co2 cap will
definately form in the headspace, especially if its
very violent like a barleywine. You just have to make
sure you have a built up starter so that the lagtime
isn't too long.

For the secondary, I'd recommend buying a 2.8 gallon
carboy if you can get them in Australia. Headspace in
the secondary will oxydize your beer pretty quicky. I
had a bock I did in one of the smaller carboys, yet I
came up short, with the beer only reaching the
shoulders. While the beer was consumable, all the
reviews I had from contests said they recognized the
oxydized flavor component. 

Another rather bizare option, taken from home
winemaking, would be to use a whole bunch of
sterilized glass marbles. Just fill the carboy ever so
gently with the sterilized marbles and them rack the
beer into the bottle. Its a pain in the butt and runs
the risk of glass chipping in the carboy when the
marbles hit the bottom, but it is an option. Not
knowing how much marbles cost, it might be just as
cost effective to buy the smaller carboy :-)

Good luck!!

Robert
- ------------
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 16:23:36 +1000
From: Grant Family <grants at netspace.net.au>
Subject: too much beer...

 ... I already have an (expensive) 5G fermenter, and
don't want to buy a smaller one, so would it be
criminal to try a smaller brew (with lots of
airspace)? Wouldn't the carbon dioxide push the oxygen
out fairly well?...
- ------------


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Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2003 23:18:45 +0000
From: "Dave Larsen" <hunahpumonkey at hotmail.com>
Subject: AHA Pub Discounts

I've never used my AHA Pub discount until recently.  Unfortunately, there 
are no participating pubs in Tucson.  That is why I got so excited this 4th 
of July holiday.  My wife and I traveled to Scottsdale to visit the wife's 
parents.

The girls went out to do some shopping leaving my father-in-law and I to 
hang out.  About lunchtime, I said, "Hey! I've got like a 20% discount at 
the Rock Bottom Brewery with my AHA card.  Isn't there one up the road?  
Let's go to lunch and give it a try."  So off to lunch we went.

The food was okay and the beer was okay, and when it came time to pay the 
check, we gave the girl my discount card and a credit card.  She comes back 
with the credit card slip to sign and we look it over.   Hmmmm.  The math 
does not come out right.  There is only about 10% taken off.

"Hey miss! Excuse me miss!  The math does not seem right on this check.  
There is only 10% taken off this check.  I think this discount card say 
20%."

"Oh that only applies to the card holder's food and beer, not the whole 
check."

My father-in-law and I kind of looked at each other with a look saying, how 
lame is that?

As we get up to leave the manager stops us saying, "I understand there was a 
question as to your discount card."

He proceeds to tell us that discount only applies to the homebrewer holding 
the card and that they can't go around discounting the check for large 
parties of people, or some such nonsense.

We try to argue that here they go going to all this trouble in participating 
in the AHA Pub Discount program.  You think 20% is a good deal so you check 
it out, and afterwards you feel like you were tricked into going there.  It 
was misleading.  They may have gotten and extra $2.50 that day, but I'll 
likely never go there again.  In essence it had the opposite effect that 
they were trying to achieve.

The sad part is that if the card had said 10% discount and they gave me 10% 
of the whole check, which would have come out to about the same actual 
amount, I would not have had an issue.  I would have thought that it was a 
pretty good deal.

They guy definitely did not understand, and it was really not worth arguing 
about, so we finally left.  I have to admit, though, that it left a sour 
taste in my mouth.

Has anybody else had any issues using their AHA Pub Discounts?

Dave
Tucson, AZ



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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2003 18:40:17 -0700
From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net>
Subject: Pressure cooking

Renner et al. talkin' 'bout cookin' grits reminded me of a fine paper by
Ralph Waniska: "Perspectives of Starch Functionality and Methods of Analysis
in Food Systems."

www.msstate.edu/org/fsfa/Vol1/4-1-waniska.htm

It's a good read.  Readers digest version: basically, starch is about 30%
amylose and 70% amylopectin.  Amylose breaks down easily in a boil and is
easily converted and subsequently fermented.  Amylopectin requires
time/pressure/shear forces to gelatinize.  Incidently, amylopectin is where
you get your beta-limit dextrin from.  If you're going for mouth feel, it's
best to boil the dukie out of the adjuncts.

Long story short, pressure cookin' is the way to go.

 Chad Stevens
San Diego

Over the last six months:

4.6% American Wheat
8.6% Yuleol
8.7% Strong Golden
7.2% Bierre de Garde
5.6% Dry Stout
4.5% Worst Bitter (don't ask)
5.2% American Wheat
9.8% Doppel Bock
7%? Chicha
5.2% Munich Dunkle
5.0% old Bruin
5.4% Bohemian Pilsner

(Good thing there are two adults in the household or I'm sure the feds would
take me away.)

0-3 per day, usually 2.

Benchmark Brewery



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