HOMEBREW Digest #4354 Mon 22 September 2003


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  San Antonio suggestions ("Dan Schlosser")
  RE:  Fresh Hops Off The Vine ("David Houseman")
  Re: Fresh hops ("Jerry Zeidler")
  Improving Clarity with Head Pressure (Jonathan Royce)
  RE:using Mr. Beer kits in normal brewing? ("Mike")
  Splenda (Fred Johnson)
  RE:  Fresh Hops off the vine! (val.dan.morey)
  Iron in well water ("Dave Burley")
  sourdough instructions (Jeff Renner)
  Subject: Alaskan Smoked Porter Recipe Question: ("Ira Edwards")
  The 20th Annual Dixie Cup Homebrew Competition - The Dixie Cup Get's Lei'd ("Mike Heniff")
  More on Iron ("Mike Sharp")
  Re: batch (Christopher Swingley)
  Medical Grade Gas ("Tanksalot")
  Good brew in Charlotte? ("Tray Bourgoyne")
  Need help with translation please (Jim Wilson)
  RE: How to sweeten a brew? (Gunnar Emilsson)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 23:48:21 -0500 From: "Dan Schlosser" <dan-schlosser at wi.rr.com> Subject: San Antonio suggestions I'm going to be vacationing in San Antonio for a few days and I am looking for some suggestions in my quest for good beer when on the road. We will be staying in the Riverwalk / Alamo area. We will not have a car which I know limits my options. My first hope is that someone can suggest a store where I can purchase craft beer to stock the hotel room. If there are any brewpubs in the area I would love to hear about them. If not, then any recommendations on restaurants and/or bars that serve good food and beer would be appreciated. Thanks; Dan Schlosser Wauwatosa WI Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 06:49:17 -0400 From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman at verizon.net> Subject: RE: Fresh Hops Off The Vine JP, I'm made a fresh hops ale. I picked my hops during the mash. Since I had a variety of hops that's essentially what I picked, so there wasn't a single identifiable variety. I just made a guess at alpha acid and added hops to the boil for bitterness. Since these were whole, green wet hops, I believe I estimated that were they to be dried, I'd lose 75% of the weight and worked back to consider how much to add. I also tossed some handfuls in for flavor and aroma. I also stuffed a hopback with hops and ran the hot wort through there on the way to my chiller. This turned out to be a pretty good American Pale Ale with noticeable hop character. I underestimated the total IBUs; I could have added more hops. This is an interesting experiment to try. Dave Houseman Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 07:34:34 -0400 From: "Jerry Zeidler" <gjzeidler at suscom.net> Subject: Re: Fresh hops JP is tempted to toss fresh, undried hops from his garden into the brewpot... I've been growing my own hops for about 7 years now, and I think anyone who has grown them has been tempted to use fresh hops while brewing. But, to be honest, you will probably not be happy with the results if you try it. While I've heard of some brewers using undried hops sucessfully, my personal experience has been that undried hops produce a grassy flavor that will dominate the beer. Take the extra time to dry the hops, either in a food dehydrator or on a couple of window screens in a dim, warm, dry room. It will be worth it, for certain. Jerry Zeidler Williamsport, PA Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 06:02:50 -0700 From: Jonathan Royce <jonathan at woodburybrewingco.com> Subject: Improving Clarity with Head Pressure Hi all: In the October Issue of BYO in the "Tips from the Pros" section (page 14), Todd Ashman of Flossmoor Station Brewery is quoted as saying the following: "Something else that works for us is to use top pressure when carbonating our beer. Essentially, this means that carbonation is pressing down on the beer in our Uni-tanks, which forces particulate to the bottom and lends to clarity." My initial reaction to this statement is: "Bollocks." I can think of no scientific explanation (based on good physics) which would explain how head pressure forces particulate matter to the bottom. The only way in which pressure creates motion is when a pressure differential is created, and my thought is that in a closed, pressurized vessel, there is no differential. (i.e. Everything (gas and liquid) is at the same pressure). Can anyone think of some other explanation (other than "pressure forces particles to the bottom") that might explain how clarity is improved by head pressure? Thanks in advance, Jonathan Woodbury Brewing Co. www.woodburybrewingco.com Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 17:38:06 -0400 From: "Mike" <brewski at inet99.net> Subject: RE:using Mr. Beer kits in normal brewing? I friend of mine got started with a Mr. Beer kit he got at Save-A-Lot. It probably wasn't fresh either. What I would do is replace all the sugar with pale malt extract, either dry or liquid. You said it had no instructions so you probably have no idea what it calls for however for the style of beer you are making, make sure you hit the S.G. Also, make sure there is enough hops in it. To freshen it up a bit I would add a pound of light color crystal malt. You might even roast the crystal malt in a 350 degree oven for 10 or 15 minutes. If you do this its best to let the freshly roasted grain mellow about a week before you us it but I have crushed used it right out of the oven. Mr. Beer kits can be used to make good brews but you have to doctor them a bit. Mike - --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 09:29:19 -0400 From: Fred Johnson <FLJohnson at portbridge.com> Subject: Splenda The list of ingredients on a package of Splenda, presumably in order of concentration by weight, are: Dextrose Maltodextrin Sucralose So how can this be a "No Calorie Sweetener"? What are the actual concentrations of the listed ingredients? Fred L Johnson Apex, North Carolina, USA Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 10:00:28 -0500 From: val.dan.morey at juno.com Subject: RE: Fresh Hops off the vine! JP asks about using fresh hops off the vine. The main thing to consider is that fresh hops contain quite a bit of water. Last year I weight the hops at harvest and after they had been dried. It went from over 6 lbs to about 3/4 of a pound. To get the same amount of alpha acids and oils, you will need to use 6 to 8 time the weight. Cheers, Dan Morey Club B.A.B.B.L.E. http://hbd.org/babble/ Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 11:42:03 -0400 From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net> Subject: Iron in well water Brewsters: Ira Edwards in Anchorage asks about water treating for his well water. First, Ira, be sure the source of the iron is the well and not the iron pipes in that old house you intend to rent. Ask the landlord to install a water softener, if the source is the well. If not, it may simply be acid water from CO2 in the water and aeration will fix it pretty cheaply. I once had a lot of iron from the rusting of new well parts. Iron ( ferric) in your water can dissolve any copper piping with undesirable leaking and loss of faucet parts, esp the brass screws, etc.. Perhaps these ion exchange treatments which attach to your faucet will work for drinking and brewing, but not for your laundry. You may be able to pipe water directrly to the laundry room with plastic pipe if the well is not the problem. There are other ways to solve the iron problem. I'd ask the water treating company. If you do install a water softener ( I have seen some that are rented, so check out your water softener companies) , use a membrane - Reverse Osmosis - treatment to remove the salt from the water to produce low sodium water that you can use in brewing and drinking. Beef up your personal mineral intake with pills. This RO water is totally mineral-less and therefore has no important trace minerals. Add the appropriate minerals for your brewing. Remember too much iron ingestion for guys is no good. I have two friends who go once a month to have a pint or so of blood withdrawn to reduce the iron content of their blood. I doubt this is due to too much ingested iron, as they have reduced that substantially, but be sure to talk to your doctor about the appropriate course of action. Keep on Brewin', Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 12:06:56 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net> Subject: sourdough instructions Brewers A number of people have asked that the handout I gave at my talk on sourdough at the National Homebrewers Conference in June in Chicago be put on the web. Spencer Thomas has just done this (thanks, Spencer). It is at http://hbd.org/aabg/sourdough_starter.html. Hope some of you try making some sourdough, even though you don't have my starter. You can find starters online. I recommend the newsgroup rec.foods.sourdough FAQ at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/rec/rec.food.sourdough.html. It is an incredible compendium of information, including culture sources. 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: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 16:57:18 +0000 From: "Ira Edwards" <ira_j_e at hotmail.com> Subject: Subject: Alaskan Smoked Porter Recipe Question: Hi All, being from Alaska and having ready access to Alaskan smoked porter, and being a fan of smoked dark ales and lagers in my brewing endeavors, there are a few things to remember about the Alaskan variety. they use malt smoked at the brewery with Red Alder (Alnus oregania). this gives it a strong smokey flavor that is also somewhat sweet (alder smoked salmon is wonderful). some of the commercial smoked beers I have tasted mellow to almost no smoke character with age and some stay very harsh for a long time. The Alaskan variety is labeled with the year on it and is definitely worth aging away. It mellows a lot while still retaining the smokey sweetness a few years later. since it is kind of a pain to smoke the malt if one is not already smoking fish, it is better to get a few friends together and do a larger batch. My method and that of some of the others in my club is to find one of the Chief Electric smokers and build an enclosure with some sawhorses, tarps and window screens. You cover the smoker and the sawhorses with the tarp, and then lay the malt (which should be dampened with water) on the screens. I have suspended the screens on grids of milk crates, but you can come up with your own way to keep the malt up in the enclosure. alder chips are easy to come by if you live near the Pacific Coast where some one is clearing brush, or you can buy it in bags from where ever you find the smokers. I only use one tray of chips in the smoker and then let the malt air out overnight. One of the guys in my club does a similar method but he says he uses 2 trays of chips for a more smokey flavor. with 2 big window screens, i can do 20# of malt which is about all I need for several batches (about 4-5 a year). It sound like a lot of work, but it is less than an hour to setup, mist the grain and start the smoker. Then I just leave it overnight, and vacuum bag the grains in the morning (on a weekend) and toss them in the freezer to keep them fresh. Hope this helps. -Ira Edwards Anchorage Alaska ================================== Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 01:00:26 -0400 From: ensmingr <ensmingr at twcny.rr.com> wrote There's a world of difference between peat-smoked malt (*very* strong; can be cloying) and Weyermann beechwood-smoked (mild). I have used beechwood-smoked up to 50% of my malt bill, but would suggest 5% or less of peat-smoked. Cheerio! Peter A. Ensminger Syracuse, NY Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 13:12:05 -0500 From: "Mike Heniff" <m.heniff at earthlink.net> Subject: The 20th Annual Dixie Cup Homebrew Competition - The Dixie Cup Get's Lei'd Well, it's that time of year again and the Dixie Cup is upon us. It's no different this year, lots of great beer and lots of great fun. As usual, we have a fun and interesting theme - Hawaiian - it will be the world's largest homebrew luau. Here's all of the info: Dates: 10/16/03 to 10/18/03 Location: Holiday Inn Select Greenway Plaza, Houston, TX Event Info: Reception on 10/16/03 at The Orange Show www.orangeshow.org, five renown speakers including Fred Eckhardt and beer writer Gregg Smith. More info at www.foamrangers.com (and follow Dixie Cup link) Entry Deadline: 10/3/03, $6 per entry, 3 bottles required per entry Late Entry Deadline: 10/10/03, $10 per late entry On-line entry registration will be available ASAP Entry Shipment Location: DeFalco's, 8715 Stella Link Rd, Houston, TX 77025 All 26 BJCP categories will be judged (and split into 42 medal categories) including "First Time Entrant" and "Special Dixie Cup Beer" categories (see website for more details). For more info, contact Mike Heniff at m.heniff at earthlink.net or call me at 281-489-3762 Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 11:50:25 -0700 From: "Mike Sharp" <rdcpro at hotmail.com> Subject: More on Iron I thought I'd add a couple points in response to some of the other postings. While cation exchange water softeners will remove iron by the same mechanism that they remove Mg and Ca, some have strict limitations on the amount of iron they will remove. It depends on whether the regeneration can remove the iron or not. And I believe that it's not a good practice to use a water softener to remove iron from naturally soft water. Regenerable manganese green sand is the way to go here. Also, I neglected to mention that the manganese green sand filters do have limitations on the concentrations they can handle, but it's pretty high--perhaps 10 mg/l or more. It depends mostly on the size, and whether they continuously regenerate. If you have REAL bad iron, oxidation by chlorination or aeration followed by sand filtration is probably the only viable alternative. If the iron-loving bacteria I mentioned are a problem, you might have to use chlorination anyway. You can always strip the chlorine out later. This is a pain for household water, though. Even though you're only treating household water, it might help to understand how you'd handle it if you were building an ultra-high purity treatment system. A typical pre-treatment process for feedwater high in iron and/or manganese, that is also fairly hard, would start out with either green sand filtration, or oxidation/sand filtration treatment, followed by dechlorination (if necessary), followed by cation exchange water softening. The pre-treated water then goes through the high purity treatment stages, which is usually RO following by mixed bed ion exchange, and finally ultrafiltration for polishing. The product water here would be too pure to drink. If you end up using chlorination, make sure you install the dechlorination *before* the water softener. Activated carbon dechlorinators are bacterial infection sources, and the resin in the water softener will significantly reduce the bacteria count downstream. In any case, as simple manganese green sand filter, that's exchanged by your local water softening company (don't bother with the regeneration for household use) is probably the way to go. The same companies that will manage your water softener will also provide the exchangeable green sand tanks. Regards, Mike Sharp Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 16:49:42 -0800 From: Christopher Swingley <cswingle at iarc.uaf.edu> Subject: Re: batch David, * Peters, David (D.T.) <dpeters3atford.com> [2003-Sep-19 06:48 AKDT]: > My experience leads me to a couple questions on the process that I > didn't see answers to: > 1. Should the 2nd sparge be stirred into the mash? I would think > due to compaction and streaming, etc. this would be required. > 2. Should the 2nd batch sparge be left to dilute the remining > sugars for a period of time prior to beginning the runoff? I'm not exactly sure what the established procedures really are, but here's what I do: * The first infusion is whatever I'd normally do for a fly sparge recipe, which generally is 1 quart of water / pound of grain. So at this stage, the mash is exactly the same as the fly sparge recipe, except I've got more grain to deal with. I used to use the equations to calculate scale up factors from the normal recipe, but now I just use a lower efficiency (my batch sparge efficiency is about 60%). * The first sparge is done with however much water is left to bring up the water to 1/2 the boil volume + the amount of water held by the grain. Grain holds about 0.52 quarts / pound. For the recipe I brewed today (smoked porter) I had 16.5 pounds of grain, my first infusion was 16.5 quarts, and the first sparge volume added was 6 quarts. I shoot for 7 gallons of pre-boil liquid. 6 q in the first sparge + 16.5 q in the mash = 22.5 q liquid which should yield 14 quarts of wort (0.52 * 16.5# = 8.5 quarts held by the mash). With these numbers, 6 quarts of boiling liquid won't bring the mash up to 168 F, but it hit 165 F, so that's pretty close. I stir in the additional liquid before running it off. I usually recirculate a gallon of runoff before it goes into the pot. * The second sparge is done with half the boil volume (14 quarts in my case). I mix the liquid with the mash, but I do try to avoid scraping the bottom when I do this. I've got a stainless steel screen at the bottom of my lauter tun and I don't really want to disturb the very lowest layer of the mash. But it's probably not a huge deal even if you do because you've still got water underneath. I don't wait before running off the second sparge. As soon as I'm done mixing, I start the runoff. I recirculate another gallon before letting it run into the pot. I think there's plenty of time for the sugars to dissolve in the new slug of hot water, and I haven't noticed any change in the color or gravity of either sparge from start to finish. It's worked great for me. In a 10 gallon cylindrical cooler (mine is an yellow Igloo), I use no-sparge methods when my original gravity is below 1.050, and use a batch sparge when it's above (because there's not enough room in the tun for a no-sparge with 16# of grain). No-sparge (really it's more like a single sparge) is the same except I've only got one addition of sparge water, which I mix in with the mash, then drain. So far my efficiencies aren't statistically different between no-sparge and batch sparging (even though no-sparge methods should be less efficient), so it doesn't really matter for recipe formulation. YMMV, of course. Chris - -- Christopher S. Swingley email: cswingle at iarc.uaf.edu IARC -- Frontier Program Please use encryption. GPG key at: University of Alaska Fairbanks www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/ Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 13:47:33 -0400 From: "Tanksalot" <tanksalot at rogers.com> Subject: Medical Grade Gas I'm remembering this from about ten years ago, but the expanation offerred was that "medical grade" Oxygen or CO2 was available separately but at additional cost than "industrial grade" gas. The reason being that the compressors used for industrial gases were "oil sealed". It was a hassle for the manufacturers. When the technology improved, all gas comes from "non oil" compressors so we don't have to worry about oil or other odors in our O2 or CO2. Ask your supplier where the gas comes from, then call the manufacturer to be sure. Hope this helps. Larry at Tanksalot Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 12:16:35 -0500 From: "Tray Bourgoyne" <tray at netdoor.com> Subject: Good brew in Charlotte? Howdy all, The wife and I will be in Charlotte, NC for vacation in October. Can you point me to some good brew? Good pubs, bars, etc with good micro brews or even just a good beer selection. Thanks! Tray Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 09:02:08 -0700 From: Jim Wilson <jgwilson at adelphia.net> Subject: Need help with translation please Last week, Peter Brouckaert, New Belgian's head brewer was in LA for The Sheraton Four Points monthly beer appreciation night. We had a wonderful six course dinner accompanied by seven of New Belgian's beers. After dinner, Peter gave away posters for a variety of their beers. He inscribed mine "IL KOOP DATJE RIET VOROS EITITET WEETRJIK!" I'm not sure which language he used. Could anybody help with a translation please? Jim Wilson o \o __o /\ / `\ <> `\ `> `\ > (*)/ (*) (*)/ (*) (*)/ (*) I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle. Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2003 20:59:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Gunnar Emilsson <cdmfed_emilsson at yahoo.com> Subject: RE: How to sweeten a brew? Charles Gee wants to know how to make sweeter brew. That is the easiest question to answer I have ever seen on the HBD - USE MUNICH MALT!!!! - ---------- Jim Busch and Lori Brown are posting about where to go drink beer and eat delicious German food in Dusseldorf - damn, I'm jealous! Why go to O'fest in Munich with the crowds when you can go there? Any recipes that can make the 100+ pounds of elk/deer/antelope meat I have in my freezer taste like saurbraten or some other roasted caraway seed/pickle stuffed/cabbage concoction would be greatly appeciated - post away, folks! Gunnar Emilsson Helena, MT ===== Gunnar R. Emilsson, P.G., P.E. CDM Federal Programs Corporation 28 North Last Chance Gulch Helena, MT 59601 phone (406) 495-1414 x302 fax (406) 495-1025 email: emilssongr at cdm.com Return to table of contents
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