---

	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator

Contents:
  Champagne bottle capping (Mark J. Bradakis)
  Root ginger (Jeremy Cook)
  Rootbeer (Long Distance Voyager               )
  Storing homebrew (Andy Newman)
  A number of different things (CRF)
  Sake recipe (David Herron)

Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com


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

Date: Mon, 9 Jan 89 23:31:57 MST
From: mjb%hoosier at cs.utah.edu (Mark J. Bradakis)
Subject: Champagne bottle capping

Just a quick tip.  Since the lip around which the wire wraps on champagne
bottles can interfere with the bell of the capper, it is possible to get
less than adequate seals.  Chuck Hansen, one of the Fat Chance brewers,
found that using two caps stacked together works pretty well. The top cap
is bent enough to force the lower cap to give a better seal.

mjb.

Return to table of contents


Date: Tue, 10 Jan 89 09:03:42 +0100
From: Jeremy Cook <jeremy at kheops.cmi.no>
Subject: Root ginger

Mike Meyer writes:
>My batch of 'Slow Lori's Ginger Lager', ...
>... this batch has a really
>nasty bacterial infection, though, and I suspect that I should have peeled
>the ginger, which doesn't seem to dominate the flavor much so far.

I don't know the details of how the ginger was added  but  here's
my  experience from a really delicious ginger wine that I made at
the end of '87. I took the root ginger and scrubbed it well under
the tap with a vegetable brush. Then I bruised the ginger well by
thumping it with a rolling pin and boiled it up (with  lemon  and
rasins  for the g wine) and simmered for an hour. The boiling ex-
tracts all the flavor from the ginger whilst  making  sure  there
aren't  any  nasties  left.  There  is  one side effect from this
method and that is that the wine was a bit  on  the  cloudy  side
when  it  was  finished  and  I  couldn't  get rid of the haze by
filtering or any other means. I either clogged my filter with too
much  powder  or  didn't use enough, letting the haze through. In
the end I gave up. It is now crystal  clear  after  standing  for
over  a year in the cellar (I only managed to keep one bottle for
that long!).

Hope this helps.

-- Jeremy Cook
   jeremy at kheops.cmi.no

Return to table of contents


Date:    Tue, 10 Jan 89 08:22 EST
From: Long Distance Voyager <VOYAGER%IRISHMVS.BITNET at UICVM.UIC.EDU>
Subject: Rootbeer

Not that I make it or anything, but
what of rootbeer?
And I once had something called "birchbark beer" kinda snuck up on
ya....
I hesitate to mention these things since I have found that of the
dozen or so homebrewer's I've met, the majority tend to look down
on anything "non-alcoholic."
Am I just being paranoid or should I sit back down?
R.allen Jervis
Voyager at irishmvs.bitnet

Return to table of contents


Date: Tue, 10 Jan 89 10:48 EST
From: Andy Newman <NEWMAN at Venus.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Subject: Storing homebrew

Up to this point I have yet to find a really good way of storing the
brew that I make.  

12 oz bottles clear quickly and fit in the refrigerator conveniently but
are a general pain in the neck to clean and sterilize in bulk.

Pressure kegs are much easier to clean but even the smallest seem to take
up too much fridge-room.  More seriously, they seem to always have either
too much or too little pressure.  I seem to get 5 or 6 pints of foam 
followed by about 2 pints of acceptable ale.  After that, the keg 
threatens to gulp air and I have to inject more CO2 which essentially
puts me back at square one.

Recently I have been reading about using champagne bottles.  This would
seem to be a good compromise except pouring anything less than the whole
bottle would stir up the yeast at the bottom.  Since I don't have a lot
of 25.4 oz beer glasses :^) I would presumably have to either limit my
intake to one pint at a time :( or I would have to open several bottles
in parallel.  

Currently I bottle most of my beer in 12 oz bottles because it has the
fewest drawbacks.  I am curious as to whether anyone has found a 
substantially better solution.

				-Andy Newman

Return to table of contents


Date:     Sun, 8 Jan 89 16:20 EDT
From: <CRF%IFASGNV.BITNET at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject:  A number of different things

Hi there!

Our system was down for maintenance for a few days, so this will be another
multiple-topic set of comments.

SAKE:  Here, including the name and address (for accreditation purposes) of
the sender, is the sake recipe I obtained.  Mr. Herron is also a member of the
historical re-enactment society I belong to.

Date: 4 Jan 89 19:09:39 GMT
From: mailrus!ukma!davids.UUCP!david at cis.ohio-state.edu  (David Herron)
Subject: Sake recipe
Message-Id: <8901041409.AA06367 at davids.UUCP>

I have one.  I cannot vouch for it's accuracy as I've never tried it,
however it comes from a printed collection of wine recipes, the entire
booklet it Copyright (c) 1976 by Raymond Massaccesi, is titled _Winemaker's_
_recipe_handbook_.  It's avaliable for low cost from:

Semplex of U.S.A.
PO Box 11476
Minneapolis, MN  55411

About the only thing I would do to this recipe is remove the raisins.
I typed it verbatim from the book and there is no warranty as to fitness
or merchantability of the product described.  All rights reserved :-).

I wasn't going to post it to the newsgroup, but since a third voice
popped up asking for it ...  (This is a cute little booklet, anybody
interested in the recipe for Onion Wine?)

---------------------------> Cut Here <----------------------------------
Rice Wine -- Saki

2 1/2 lb  Rice (husked or raw rice, if available)
  1/2 pt  Grape Concentrate or 1 lb Lt raisins
7     pts Water (hot)
2 1/2 lb  Sugar or Honey
3     tsp Acid Blend
  3/4 tsp Energizer
1         Campden tablet, crushed
1     pkg Sherry Yeast

Method.

1. Wash and coarse crush rice.  Place rice and chopped raisins
   into nylon straining bag, tie top, and place in primary
2. Pour hot water over and stir in all other ingredients EXCEPT yeast
   and energizer.  Cover primary.
3. After 48 hrs add yeast and energizer and cover primary.
4. Stir daily, check Specific Gravity (S.G.) and press pulp lightly.
5. When ferment reaches S.G. 1.050 (2-3 days) add another 1/4 lb
   dissolved sugar per gallon (or 1/4 lb honey, of course).
6. At S.H. 1.030 (6-7 days) strain juice from bag.  Syphon wine off
   sediment into glass secondary.  Attach airlock.
7. At S.G. 1.020 add another 1/4 lb dissolved sugar per gallon.
8. When ferment is complete (S.G. 1.000, about 3 weeks) syphon
   off sediment into clean secondary.  Reattach lock.
9. To aid clearing syphon again in 2 months and again if necessary
   before bottling.

Optional: You may continue to build up alcohol by adding additional
doses of sugar until ferment ceases.  To sweeten add before bottling
1/2 tsp Stabilizer, then, add 1/4 lb dissolved sugar per gallon.

CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES:  Are wonderful things, *if* you remember that you want
bottles from _cheap_ champagne, such as _Andre's_.  If the champagne had a
real cork, with a wire restraint, it'll never take a bottle cap.  Also:  you
will need a bench-top bottle capper; the little hand-held types are only good
for long-necks.

SUGAR:  I have always known that sucrose produces a cidery flavor, which is
undesireable in beer.  When using a kit, I've always assumed "sugar" meant
corn sugar (maltose, I believe).  Also good for substitution is crystal malt,
on a pound-for-pound basis, steeped in lukewarm water for 20 minutes.  The
water is then strained out to be used in the wort.

BOTTLE SANITATION:  The following remarks are based on my microbiology
experience.  When I rinse my bottles after chlorination, I allow them to drain
upside-down in a thoroughly scalded-out drainboard until I'm ready to use
them.  Then, I line them up on the newspaper-covered floor (I'm too much of a
klutz not to take spill precautions) _on_their_sides_.  Leaving them on their
sides will help keep them internally sterile, with minimal chances of
contamination (in microbiology, when you are culturing from tube-to-tube, you
hold the tubes parallel to the floor).  Once filled, the now-upright bottle
has a sterile cap placed on it.  This protects the brew until the cap is
crimped down.

KEGS:  General thanks to those who replied to my questions.

                                Cher Feinstein
                                "CRF at IFASGNV.BITNET"

Return to table of contents

---