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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Conical fermenter ("Gary Smith")
  Berliner Weisse, continued (Chad Hogan)
  Better Bottle? ("Brian Schar")
  Jet City Triple 7 Nectar Apricot (Michael Gerber)


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Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 22:16:35 -0500
From: "Gary Smith" <mandolinist at ameritech.net>
Subject: Conical fermenter

As if I don't have enough toys already I'm about to add another... 

I have a RIMS using sabco kegs. I've got the Sabco fermenter which is a 
great size and has it all I need except for a dump port for the yeast. I 
thought about having a ferule attached to the bottom and using a 1.5" tri-
clover valve which I already own. With a bottom valve in place it would be 
unwieldy without legs and it wouldn't be a true conical anyway so it would 
be inefficient for removing the yeast/trub. so I nixed that idea. I'll leave it 
as it is; a really convenient fermenter.

Since a conical seems to have all that I want in terms of trub extraction/ 
yeast collection, the question now becomes the volume of conical to go 
for. I see some beautiful ready made ones that range from 7 Gal, 12.2 
Gal, & 24 Gal in size. 

The way it seems to me is if I were making a 5 Gal batch the 7 gal would 
be right. With my usual 9-10 Gal output with the RIMS the 12 Gal seems 
right & the 24 would be more than I need & probably tougher to sanitize. 

So... Anyone using a conical fermenter while using sabco size kettles to 
brew with? If so what size batches are you making & how do you feel 
about the size of your fermenter? Would you find a larger conical is better 
or is what you have just right?

Thanks,


Gary

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

"The only things worthwhile in life are music and cats"
 
 -  Albert Einstein  -



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Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 00:16:38 -0600
From: Chad Hogan <chad.hogan at gmail.com>
Subject: Berliner Weisse, continued

Thanks for the replies Marc and Raj,

Ouch. That sounds much too sour for my tastes. I have a very difficult
time handling too much sour in anything. I've given up and gone
off-style by stopping the souring at the point where I though it was
nicely tart but not too sour for me -- I'm sure I'm well off the
Berliner Weisse target. Ah well, maybe it won't win any awards, but
I'm sure it will be tasty.

Raj, perhaps you're extending the word "mash" beyond what I would, but
I don't think I really did a sour mash exactly. I mashed through a
protein rest and a saccharification, and let the wort cool with a
little raw grain for infection with wild bugs added periodically. It
was much more of a spontaneous fermentation. I had a krausen going and
everything, purely with the infection from the added grain. I left
this for several days before I did a short boil (10 min) to
pasteurize. Then I pitched yeast, and it has since gone through
primary attenuation. That was very quick, undoubtedly due to a large
pitch, good oxygenation, and low OG.

About DMS: Interesting point. Infections aside, I had always heard
that the bulk of DMS was itself a product of boiling (can anyone
comment?) While there can be quantities within the malted grain
itself, I understood that this portion was quite small except in the
case of low-quality malt, or perhaps some six-row varieties. So
boiling a covered wort generates DMS that stays, boiling uncovered
allows the boil-generated DMS to escape. Or something to that effect.
Perhaps I am mistaken? Perhaps DMS is generated very quickly, but
takes time to escape? I'm a scientist at heart and by trade, so these
questions interest me...

In any case, I did a short boil. I gathered that the point to a short
boil is driven by a few things. First, the wort itself is meant to be
*very* pale and cloudy, with no hot or cold breaks. Someone had the
idea that the BW was originally completely unboiled -- a wort was
collected and simply left until it was good to drink. I thought that
sounded like an interesting idea. Plus, the idea of a wild
fermentation, with all its funky depth, could be very interesting in a
small beer. I am very interested in small beers, and especially small
beers with a lot of depth and charatcter. For me, the only reason I
did even a short boil was for the pasteurization to stop the souring.
Some day I may get brave enough to try a fully wild + pitched ferment
without the pasteurization, but I fear the sour.

Oh yes, and there is one more reason for the wild souring: it is
somewhat challenging to get unusual yeasts and related products in
this part of the world. Possible, of course, but it takes several
weeks or more of planning. I rarely think that far in advance :)

Chad Hogan,
Calgary, AB


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Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 09:43:49 -0700
From: "Brian Schar" <schar at cardica.com>
Subject: Better Bottle?

Has anyone tried fermenting in the 
PET-based Better Bottle?  I've seen 
this advertised in BYO for a 
couple of months and I'm interested 
in trying it.  I have long been 
an advocate of non-glass 
fermentation vessels from a 
safety standpoint, because 
I've known two people who were 
seriously injured when their 
glass carboys broke.  I'd appreciate 
any feedback.

On a separate topic, I had 
an embarrassing experience 
recently when I took a couple 
of bottles of my hefeweizen 
to our homebrew club meeting, 
and they were both undrinkably 
awful.  They were definitely 
bacterially contaminated.  
I had run out of sterilized 
bottles about 3/4 of the 
way through bottling, and 
figured I'd just finish 
off with bottled I had cleaned 
and rinsed but not sterilized.  
Big mistake.  Be sure to clean 
your bottles thoroughly before bottling!

Brian Schar
Menlo Park, CA



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Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 12:10:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Gerber <enderwiggins23 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Jet City Triple 7 Nectar Apricot

I was recently reminicing with my fiancee about some
of our favorite beers from times past.

Jet City Apricot was remembered VERY fondly by us
both.

I did some research and it is clear that Ranier
Brewing was bought and no longer produces beer. But
does anyone have the skinny on Jet City?

Who was the genius (Brewmaster) behind the Jet City
Apricot? What is he doing now? Does anyone know of any
other Apricot Ryes? I know of Pyramid Apricot and the
Magic Hat #9 which I love dearly. Any other good
apricot beers come to mind?

Does anyone have a real recipe of the Jet City Apricot
Rye? I haven't found that one yet.

thanks,
 -Michael


		


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