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Contents:
  Fermentation temperature up-n-down (Chet Nunan)
  Kegbeer and pasteurizing ("Dave Burley")
  Session beers again ("Dave Draper")
  Pulque! ("Gary Smith")
  Re: making marmite (Wes Smith)
  session beer (Randy Ricchi)
  Re: Reinheitsgebot, frozen freezers ("Chad Stevens")
  Sanity Returns To Brew House ("Phil Yates")
  Keg Conversion ("Patrick Hughes")
  re: counterpressure filling ("C.D. Pritchard")
  Re: Cooking with beer (Jeff Renner)
  Re: Session beer (Jeff Renner)
  Oysters ("Ronald La Borde")
  Re: Concept of "Session Beer" (Jeff Renner)
  Link of the week (Bob Devine)
  Re: Gelatinization and corn malt (Jeff Renner)
  Braxonia brewing machines (David Edge)
  Re: CACA vs CAP (Jeff Renner)


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Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 05:53:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Chet Nunan <katjulchet at yahoo.com>
Subject: Fermentation temperature up-n-down

I brewed a sour mash 2 weeks ago and used Wyeast Dutch
Castle (seasonal) yeast, put it in my basement to
ferment.  Started fast, with typical big Belgian foam,
kept active for about 2 days, then settled down.  I
drained the trub from my uni, let it set till the
weekend, and found that the gravity had only dropped
from 1.043 to 1.033 (approx 6 days).  

Checked the temp recommendations for the yeast - 65,
great, basements at 60.  Wrapped in a heating pad,
which covers only 1 side of the fermentor, and which
has a safety feature of auto shutoff after two hours. 
Stem thermometer inserted between wrap and fermentor
indicates a high temp of 77.  The temp gradually
dropped back to 60 after the shutoff kicked in. 
Fermentation did restart, and the final gravity is
1.010 after another week of heat on/heat off...

Any ideas on what effects this will have?  Off
flavors, etc.?  Not worrying (much..), just
wondering...

Thanks
Chet



Return to table of contents


Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 09:35:02 -0500
From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net>
Subject: Kegbeer and pasteurizing

Brewsters:

Bill Dubas asks about pasteurizing beer and kegs and such.

Bill, pasteurizing beer used to be practiced on all beer that was packaged.
You may be too young to remember when "draft Brewed" beers first came out.
These were canned, unpasteurized beers that had been rendered
microbiologically stable by ultrafine ( like 0.1 micron I think) filtration.
This removed the yeast and any bacteria, while not requiring the heating and
cooling of the beer ( a big savings) and providing a fresher, non-heat damaged
beer.  It was an improvement.

This also helped to stop chill haze ( necesary in the light US lagers served
at just above freezing).  However, it also removed proteins and affected the
mouthfeel.

So, not  a perfect solution but perhaps a better one for the beer distribution
industry. Thank goodness we can make good beer without having to worry about
shelflife incesssantly.

Keep on Brewin'

Dave Burley




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Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 08:25:20 -0700
From: "Dave Draper" <david at draper.name>
Subject: Session beers again

Dear Friends,

I should just learn to shut up when Jeff Renner is on the case. :-)

Cheers, Dave in ABQ
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
David S. Draper, Institute of Meteoritics, Univ New Mexico
David at Draper dot Name
Beer page: http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer.html
Never trust a brewer who has only one chin ---Aidan Heerdegen






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Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 15:09:00 -0600
From: "Gary Smith" <mandolinist at ameritech.net>
Subject: Pulque!

Hi all,

Like many of us I'll try anything once & if it's something 
fermented I'll try all the varieties. I was in a local 
Save-a-lot grocery store & tried Pulque ('Pull-kay') 
which was sitting next to the fru-fru malt/juice drinks. 
It was in six pack cans & there were four varieties: 
Straight Pulque & pulque mixed with passion fruit, 
coconut & Strawberry. It's made from the fermented 
juices of the century plant and according to the 
importer's web site is "the only alcoholic beverage 
certified as good for you" It is 6% and has a 
somewhat thick consistency not unlike a barleywine.

http://tinyurl.com/ywbh7

There's no hops and apparently it's documented back 
2000 years in mexican history & it has a very short 
shelf life. This particular one I found by the above 
company apparently processes it so the shelf life is 
extended. (Pasteurized or flash tindalized?) There's 
some good reading if you choose one of the google 
options listed here: 

http://tinyurl.com/3hdzh 

{ By the way, I'm using www.tinyurl.com to make 
these shortened webpages available. you copy 
the url of anything however long, go to the tinyurl 
site and paste that url into the obvious place & 
click on "Make tinyurl" and it makes the above 
urls for you and puts it in your clipboard so you 
then go to your email program & simply paste. 
This way you can put URLs here & not have 
them chopped up & useless!!!} Free too.

Anyway, I find the straight drink not particularly 
inspiring to my tongue but I didn't find it unpalatable. 
I do enjoy the one with passion fruit. The Strawberry 
& coconut are enjoyable as well but I'm not a big 
fan of coconut or Strawberry juices. 

As the century plant isn't something I will be able 
to grow or find the juices from, I'll not be able to 
homebrew this nor will most people. As it is a 
fermented beverage though I thought there would 
be some that would like to know it's out there. 
You'll probably have your best shot at finding it in 
a hispanic area, this grocery said the demand was 
too low to keep it on the shelf so they're discontinuing 
it. Now that I have tried it, I'll keep looking for it & 
maybe I'll reconsider a vacation to Mexico & get 
some of the fresh variety. Heck, they even had a 
God assigned to it so it must be good, right?  :)

Cheers,

Gary

Gary Smith
CQ DX de KA1J
http://musician.dyndns.org
http://musician.dyndns.org/homebrew.html

"I am." is considered the shortest sentence in the English language.

"I do." may well be the longest.




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Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 10:18:52 +1100
From: Wes Smith <wsmith at rslcom.net.au>
Subject: Re: making marmite

Bruce Bush's piece on "Making Marmite" caught my attention - many years 
back I researched the origins and makeup of both Marmite and Vegemite 
mainly to upset a certain group of parochial Aussies who kept insisting 
that Vegemite was "invented" in Australia. The origins of this unique yeast 
spread are quite interesting if you have a bent for assimilating useless 
information - try Googling up "marmite+history". Marmite is in fact a 
British invention although the process was developed originally in Germany 
around the late 1800's. Marmite went on the market in the UK in the early 
part of the 1900's and yes, it was initially used as a food supplement 
during the war - WW1 though, not WW2. Another interesting fact is the 
location of the original Marmite factory - in Burton on Trent! I would 
speculate that this followed the successful introduction of the Burton 
Union system and took advantage of the prodigious quantities of clean ale 
yeast from this fermenting system.

Vegemite was an Australian copy of the then imported Marmite here in 
Australia and became available around the early 1920's. Several other 
copies of Marmite also appeared in the UK - Promite being one. The original 
developer of Vegemite renamed his product "Parwill" for a short period of 
time when sales of Vegemite slumped (true!) before reverting to the 
original name. Today in Australia we have Marmite, Vegemite, Promite, 
Mightymite (gluten free),and Aussiemite. I think the US also has a product 
called Savita. The basic reprocessed and autolysed yeast is of course used 
in many other food products as well.

Vegemite used to made of autolysed yeast, salt (a lot), sugar (to balance 
the salt), heaps of caramel and celery and onion extract. Some years back 
and under pressure from dietary groups to reduce the salt levels and head 
off criticism about the amount of sugar being used, the product went 
through a major change in ingredients. Today, autolysed yeast still forms 
the base with some of the "salt" replaced with potassium chloride (means 
they can report a low sodium number) and sugar replaced with malt extract. 
Some caramel is still used for colouring along with extract of celery and 
onion.

Reading off the Vegemite label (just had some on toast for breakfast - love 
the stuff!):
Protein 23.5%
Carbohydrate: 19.7%
(sugars: < 1%?? I think that should be sugar - singular. Last time I looked 
malt extract was primarily maltose)
Sodium: 3.08%

Ingredients are listed as:
Yeast extract, salt, mineral salt (potassium chloride), malt extract (from 
barley), natural colour (caramel), preservative (sulphur dioxide), and 
vegetable extract.

The manufacturer also claims niacin, thiamine, riboflavin and folate as 
ingredients but then as brewers, we already new about all those goodies in 
the yeast anyway.

So in summary I think we are looking at 73% or so of autolysed yeast (as a 
paste), 20% malt extract, 5% salt (a guess but made up of sodium and 
potassium chloride) with the rest being celery and onion extract and 
caramel colouring.

After all that I'm off for another slice of Vegemite on toast.

Wes.


>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 18:50:58 -0800
>From: bruce <bruce.m.bush at verizon.net>
>Subject: making marmite
>
>I have heard that Marmite (and I presume, Vegemite) is made of spent
>brewing yeast and was developed as a protein supplement during WW II.
>For those who don't know, Marmite is a very tangy, salty spead that many
>Brits like, and many Americans don't. I recently took the lees from a
>batch of my beer and boiled it down into a thick sludge.  It is not bad
>on toast, though it does not taste exactly like Marmite ( probably
>because of the hops).  Has anyone else tried this?  I hate to throw away
>good sludge.
>      By the way, the spent grain, after malting and sparging, is good as
>breakfast cereal and in breads.  It can also be used to make a very good
>crisp-bread  like rye crisp.  Bruce




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Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 21:37:12 -0500
From: Randy Ricchi <rricchi at houghton.k12.mi.us>
Subject: session beer

Move over, Michael Jackson! We now have another master of beer literature 
in our midst, and he is none other than the HBD's honorable Jeff Renner.

Boy, I enjoyed reading Jeff's description of what a session beer should be. 
Not only was it a perfectly complete and accurate (IMHO) assessment of what 
a session beer should be, it was just plain fun to read. Too bad I didn't 
have a nice ordinary bitter in me hand whilst reading it.

One of my favorite sections was:
"A session beer has enough flavor  to enjoy but not so much to be 
distracting.  Every once in a while, you should stop after a swallow and 
say to yourself, "Damn, this is a
good beer."  But you shouldn't be tempted to meditate on it.  You've got 
important things to talk about with your mates besides beer, even though 
beer may be one of the topics."

Makes me want to have a good supply of bitter on hand for sociable reasons, 
but also have a nice stock of "contemplative" beers on hand for the quieter 
times.

Randy Ricchi
Hancock, Michigan
(with no bitter on hand, but a nice, thoughtful glass of Bells batch #6000 
barley wine in front of him) 




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Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 18:48:10 -0800
From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net>
Subject: Re: Reinheitsgebot, frozen freezers

Dave Peters writ thusly:

> famous Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot) on which the whole reputation of
>  Bavarian beer depends (and which later was adopted for the whole of
>  Germany). The law has to be one of the first ordinances controlling the
>  quality of food and drink in the whole world....

Not by about 800 years.  The Norse codified brewing practices as early as
the 8th century in the Gulatingslov, which had an entire chapter devoted to
brewing beer for the mid-winter celebration in January.  Yuleol was required
to be made from extra malt for sheer alcoholic strength. The festivities
celebrated the Norse Gods Odin, Froy, and Njord as well as celebrated the
return of the Sun.  When the Norse adapted the tradition after bringing
Christianity to the country between 1000 and 1100, it was moved to December
to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  And as for taking beer seriously, a farmer
that did not set aside the best crop to produce beer could lose his house to
the king and church....

The German Reinheitsgebot one of the earliest beer law's?   Ain't got
nothin' on the Norwegians.

- --------------------------------------------

All this talk about heating pads and light bulbs and aquarium heaters to
keep your yeast happy....  I'd just like to thank you all for reminding me
what a wonderful town San Diego is.

Chad Stevens
QUAFF
San Diego



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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 23:11:46 +1100
From: "Phil Yates" <phil.yates at bigpond.com>
Subject: Sanity Returns To Brew House

Being late Sunday night, I just thought I'd slip on over to the brew house
and check on my pilsner which is now kegged and ready to go. Just of late,
I've been kegging everything in very handy sized 10 litre Corny kegs which
Wes thoughtfully brought out in a container from England. I've got a Bock,
Pilsner and Hefeweizen all on tap at once. It doesn't get much better than
this.

But the big surprise for me tonight was finding my Wollondilly Water Frog
sitting quietly on the seat of the brew house loo. This guy is no monster
and certainly has no teeth that I can see. After hopping about on my brew
equipment, he left the premises without further fuss.

I think my luck must be turning. Though I was head butted by my horse today
(Jill claims it was an accident- he was shaking off flies and my head got in
the way), I feel sanity is returning to the brew house with the departure of
the Wollondilly Water Frog, and dare I say, no further wombat diggings
expected. I can't elaborate on the sudden departure of the wombat, but
unless he doesn't like it in the Nattai National Park, I'm not expecting him
back.

Bush Brewin is starting to be fun. But let me tell you, it certainly has
been different!

Phil



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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 08:44:38 -0600
From: "Patrick Hughes" <pjhinc at eriecoast.com>
Subject: Keg Conversion

Procrastination has paid off . I found a welder who needed my services
before I needed his. I love the barter system. So I am converting a keg to a
HLT.
I am thinking that instead of cutting the threads off of one end of a nipple
and welding it flush with the outside of a keg I will push the threads thru
the hole into the inside of the keg just in case I ever wanted to use these
threads for future connection of something inside the keg. I am a believer
in allowing room for future expansion when building anything. Does anyone
see a problem with this?
Another ?
Can I cut the entire top off of a keg, not just the inner circle but the
entire top. Wiil the keg top become too flimsy? The keg is too tall for my
stand.
A good example of not leaving room for future expansion skewers me again.
Patrick Hughes




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Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 10:29:42
From: "C.D. Pritchard" <cdp at chattanooga.net>
Subject: re: counterpressure filling

Someone asked quite awhile back about removing the air/O2 from the
headspace which results when a counterpressure filler is removed after
filling a bottle.  

It's very easy to ensure all air/O2 is removed from the head space by
filling the headspace with foam and then capping on the foam.  I do this by
tweaking open the CO2 valve (a needle valve works best for this) as the end
of the filler  is held above the top of the bottle.  This discharges foam
into the head space thus displacing the air that enters when the filler is
removed.  

On rare cccasionals, it's necessary to under fill the bottles a bit and
tweak open the beer valve to get enough foam.  That highlights the only
downside of the technique- it usually needs a bit tweaking from bottling
session to session.  The big variables are the level of carbonation,
temperature and heading properties of the brew and the bottling pressure
used.  It took me several bottles to arrive at a basic technique when I
first started using the approach, but, since then, it very rarely takes
more than a bottle or two get the volume of headspace foam dead-on.  

Another approach I played with used a 1/16" ID tube fitted to the CO2 line
with a tee and an in-line needle valve.  After removing the filler, the
business end of tube was placed below the surface of the brew in the bottle
and the valve was tweaked open.  I found it tedious to control the level of
foam and generally a pain- another gizmo to hook-up and juggle.  If you
want to try this approach, a hypo needle would likely work better the the
tube I used.  Fitting it to a compressed air "blow gun" (in addition to the
needle valve) would make it a bit less of a pain to use.

c.d. pritchard     cdp at chattanooga.net 
http://chattanooga.net/~cdp/



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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 14:25:19 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Cooking with beer

"Bill Dubas" <bill_dubas at hotmail.com> writes:

>One of the statements that I questioned was:
>"Keg beer offers a fresher flavor than bottle or can beer since the keg beer
>hasn't been pasteurized to kill the yeast.  Keg beer must be kept constantly
>at about 45 degrees so the yeast won't start working again."
>
>I would guess that brewpubs and small micros do not pasteurize their beer
>because of limited resources and distribution.  I can also see this being
>true for real ales served in kegs in the UK.  But is this practice (not
>pasteurizing kegged beer) something that is done by large micros and
>megabreweries?  I assumed that all large breweries pasteurized their beer,
>whether it was going into bottles, cans, or kegs.

Pasteurization of draft beer in the US is a fairly recent phenomenon 
 - I would guess some time in the last 35 years or so.  Before that, 
there was a reason to prefer draft beer over bottled or canned - it 
tasted better (as long as it was fresh and had been kept cold).  Of 
course, it was chilled to keep spoilage organisms from growing, not 
to keep the yeast from working again.

The fact that draft beer was not pasteurized has been the subject of 
some advertising campaigns for "real draft beer in a can."  This is 
beer that has been sub-micron filtered.  You would think that this 
would be the perfect solution - no heat to affect the flavor, but 
micro-filtering actually can affect beer quality, too.  I think it's 
by stripping large proteins that provide body and flavor. 
Micro-filtering is often used for draft beer (in kegs) too.

The traditional way of pasteurizing beer was to run the bottles or 
cans through  a tunnel with hot water spray or a hot water bath bath 
to raise the temperature of the beer to 140F (60C) for 20 minutes. 
Since this is obviously not possible with kegs of beer, beer for kegs 
is flash pasteurized by heating it in-line to a higher temperature, 
typically 160F (71.5C) to 165F (74C) for a much shorter time, 15-30 
seconds.

See http://www.iddeas.com/l2-1900.html for details on flash pasteurization.

It was the perfection of flash pasteurization of beer 30-some years 
ago that made possible long-lived keg beer and put one more nail in 
the coffins of small local and regional breweries.  Before this, 
while they might not be able to compete with big national breweries 
and their huge advertising budgets for the can and bottle market, 
they could at least compete with fresh draft beer.

Coors used to be famous for not pasteurizing any of their beer - 
bottled, canned or kegged.  To ensure that their distributors kept 
their beer cold at all times, they distributed to only seven states 
in the Rockies, which also helped ensure Coors' cult status.  I think 
they must now sterile filter it.

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: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 15:06:09 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Session beer

Dave Draper's comments on the state of UK gutters after closing time 
reminded my of the following, which I have printed on a tea towel 
from CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale http://www.camra.org.uk/) on the 
wall of my rec room.  Hope the formatting comes thru OK.

Jeff

- ----------

                  Drinkers Fault Finding Guide

Symptom              Probable Cause         Solution


Drinking fails to    Mouth not open while   Buy another pint and
give satisfaction    drinking               practise in front of
and taste; shirt            Or              mirror. Continue with
front wet            Glass being applied    as many pints as necessary
                      to wrong part of face  until drinking technique
                                             is perfect

Drinking fails to    Glass empty            Find someone who will
give satisfaction                           buy you another pint
and taste; beer
unusually pale and
clear.

Feet cold and wet    Glass being held at    Turn glass the other way
                      incorrect angle        up so that open end is
                                             pointing towards the ceiling

Feet warm and wet    Loss of self control   Go and stand next to nearest
                                             dog - after a while complain
                                             to its owner about its lack
                                             of house training and demand
                                             a pint in compensation


Bar blurred          You are looking        Find someone who will buy
                      through the bottom     you another pint
                      of your empty glass

Bar swaying          Air turbulence         Insert a broom handle down
                      unusually high, maybe  back of jacket
                      due to darts match
                      in progress

Bar moving           You are being          Find out if you are being
                      carried out            taken to another pub.  If
                                             not, complain loudly that
                                             you are being hi-jacked.

You notice that the  You have fallen over   If glass is still full and
wall opposite is     backwards              no one is standing on your
covered with                                drinking arm, stay put.
ceiling tiles and                           If not, get someone to help
has a fluorescent                           you up and lash yourself
light strip across                          to the bar
it

Everything has       You have fallen over   As for falling over
gone dim,  and you   forwards               backwards
have a mouthful of
dog-ends and teeth

You have woken up    You have spent the     Check your watch to see if it
to find your bed     night in the gutter    is opening time - if not,
hard cold, and wet.                         treat yourself to a lie-in.
You cannot see
your bedroom walls
or ceiling

Everything has gone  The pub is closing     Panic!!
dark
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 15:00:21 -0600
From: "Ronald La Borde" <pivoron at cox.net>
Subject: Oysters

>From: "Ed Dorn" <edorn at cox.net>
>
>First - to Ron from Cajun country.  No, we don't smoke.  And in my
absence,
>please visit Acme Oyster House and have a few dozen oysters knowing
that I
>long to be in one of those seats again soon.

Ed, and any one else in the mood for oysters!

Sure Acme Oyster House it great, no doubt. It's well known, been
around a very long time, and is in the French Ouarter. This is hard to
beat. BUT! Yep, Yep, Yep, it can be beat.

Go to Drago's Restaurant in Metairie. I know this goes against all
common instinct and promotion by the media and hotels. But believe me,
get the 'Chargrilled Oysters'. You will think you died and went to
heaven.

Ron
=====
Ronald J. La Borde -- Metairie, LA
New Orleans is the suburb of Metairie, LA
www.hbd.org/rlaborde





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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 16:35:10 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Concept of "Session Beer"

I wrote:
>It should be interesting enough to be boringly tiresome, but not so
>strong in flavor to fatigue your palate, either.

I obviously meant to write, "It should be interesting enough NOT to 
be boringly tiresome ...

Jeff
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 14:50:21 -0700
From: Bob Devine <bob.devine at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Link of the week

Beer news sites are an interesting way to see trends and read
what is happening at craft-breweries and mega-breweries.

http://www.alestreetnews.com/ - US east coast craft brewing
http://www.celebrator.com/ - granddaddy of US craft brewing
http://www.beernet.com/ - big commercial and business oriented 
(subscription needed)
http://www.probrewer.com/beerweek/ - news on commercial breweries
http://www.yankeebrew.com/ - US east coast
http://www.breweryage.com/ - large breweries
http://sparging.co.nz/ - Australian and New Zealand news

More regional news links http://www.brewingnews.com/index.shtml

Bob Devine


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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 16:51:02 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Gelatinization and corn malt

"Jon Sandlin" <sandlin at bendcable.com> of Bend, OR wrote:

>I have malted some corn that I would like to use to make a "beer" from 100%
>corn malt; however, I have a concern with the fact that the temperature for
>starch conversion is lower than the gelatinization temperature for corn
>(70-75 degrees C).  I have a dilema, will I denature the enzymes in 
>the corn malt if I getatinize the corn?

I pretty sure that the malting of the corn will make the starches 
available for full hydrolysis at mash temperatures, making high 
temperature gelatinization unnecessary.  Fully modified malt would be 
necessary for this.  Barley malt is considered fully modified when 
the chit is as long as the grain.  I'm not sure how to tell if corn 
malt is fully modified, but you could probably cut it in half with a 
sharp knife or a razor blade and look for a change in hardness or 
other appearance.  With barley malt, this change progresses from the 
sprout end to the other end.

Old time corn whiskey recipes call for sprouting corn and then 
grinding and mashing it as usual, without even bothering to dry it. 
Sometimes only part of the corn was sprouted and the rest was ground 
dry, then boiled, cooled and mashed with the sprouted corn.

I'm sure that you wouldn't be trying anything so patently illegal.

Please report back on your results.

Jeff
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 22:47:55 +0000
From: David Edge <david.j.edge at ntlworld.com>
Subject: Braxonia brewing machines

Have any of you good people any experience of these? They're made in 
Rostock (www.braxonia.de).
Some of the site is in English, but the most interesting stuff is in German.
I first came across them in Clive La Pensee's book "The Craft of House 
Brewing" and thought from the
rather "Star Trekky" look of the earlier model that it was an elaborate 
hoax. But, it seems not.

They come in 20, 50 and 100-litre versions and are intended for front of 
house use in small
pubs and restaurants. 20 litres is just bigger than a 5-US gallon Cornie keg.
They look smart and are PC controlled. It strikes me that the 20-litre size 
would be ideal for a home brewer
wishing to experiment; you could stick through two small batches with a lot 
less effort than our current 40-l system.

The system is configured with one vessel as a mash and brew kettle and the 
other as a lauter tun / whirlpool.

Prices are comparable to a motor car (EUR 15 000 +) and it looks a great 
deal more useful. The 20- and 50-l
versions would fit nicely into a kitchen or home bar. Some of the price 
could be offset against not needing to
build a brewhouse and some, depending on your circumstances, against the 
time saved.

So any thoughts, anyone?

David Edge
Signalbox Brewery, Derby, UK 




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Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 18:11:23 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: CACA vs CAP

"Ed Dorn" <edorn at cox.net> writes from Va Beach, VA with some 
details about his CACA and CAP:

The only thing somewhat out of the ordinary about his technique is that his CAP

>was then taken to freezing and remained so for 2 weeks.

That is a bit short for lagering.  Five weeks might be more typical. 
This might have left the beer a little less cleaned up in flavor.

>Some have suggested by private email that it's not surprising that 1056 is
>clean enough to brew a beer quite similar to a lager.  If that turns out to
>be consistently true, that's BIG NEWS.  To me, at least.  Maybe I was in the
>proverbial 10% that didn't get the word, but I was unaware that such is the
>case.

The Danstar website for Nottingham 
http://consumer.lallemand.com/danstar-lalvin/nottingham.html

has this:

"The Nottingham strain was selected for its highly flocculant 
(precipitating) and relatively full attenuation (transforming sugar 
into alcohol) properties. It produces low concentrations of fruity 
and estery aromas and has been described as neutral for an ale yeast, 
allowing the full natural flavor of malt to develop. Good tolerance 
to low fermentation temperatures, 14C (57F), allow this strain to 
brew lager-style beer.  Recommended 14 to 21C (57 to 70F) 
fermentation temperature range."

The pdf fact sheet you can download from the same site is also 
interesting, especially in comparison to the one for Windsor.

Ed also wondered what ale yeast I prefer for a Classic American Cream 
Ale or regular cream ale, as I had said I preferred a yeast with more 
flavor such as a Canadian or British ale yeast.  The Canadian one I 
used was reputedly Molson and was sold by the late, lamented Yeast 
Culture Kit Co. run by Dan McConnell.  Dan sent his wonderful 
collection of hundreds of yeasts to WhiteLabs, but I have no idea if 
they will ever release this one.  I think I have heard it rumored 
that one of Wyeast's yeasts was Molson's.

Beyond this, I guess I can't say I have a favorite (and the Canadian 
one wasn't necessarily a favorite, I used it to try to recreate a 
Canadian ale from the 50s).  I certainly like the WhiteLab 022 Essex 
yeast, which is a sample I sent them from the Ridley Brewery. 
Probably any other British ale yeast would work well but would, of 
course, give different results.

Jeff
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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