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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  re: Question about yeast ("Gary Smith")
  Brewing in small batches (~2 gallons) (Oisin Boydell)
  Clove flavor in wheat beer (Augie Altenbaumer)
  link of the week - Chimay tour (Bob Devine)
  Re: Clove flavor in wheat beer ("Spencer W. Thomas")
  CO2 in freezers/Expected life of brewing freezers/Beer and Sweat (David Harsh)


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Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2004 23:13:06 -0500
From: "Gary Smith" <mandolinist at ameritech.net>
Subject: re: Question about yeast

I find a stirrer is a panacea for old yeast. I just made a recent IPA using 
Wyeast's London 1968 dated a year ago. I mixed some DME that I've had 
since 1994 that I bought from Nort's Worts & Skeins in Wisconsin (long 
since closed) and the yeast starter was from an old box of stuff I haven't 
opened in at least 7-8 years. 

With all that I used a magnetic stirrer and let things swirl for two days. I 
ended up with one of the most lovely active fermentations one could hope 
to see. I tasted the yeast before pitching it and it was just fine.

Last fall I was able to use a Wyeast mead yeast that was over two years 
sitting in the fridge. I gave it 2-3 days on the stirrer and it was absolutely 
as new.

Gary

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

Married men live longer than single men, 
but married men are a lot more willing to die.



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Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 20:52:51 +0100
From: Oisin Boydell <oisinboydell at gmail.com>
Subject: Brewing in small batches (~2 gallons)

Are there any problems associated with brewing smaller quantites
(apart from having less beer to drink at the end of course!)?

I want to brew batches of 2 gallons instead of the usual 5. I am
relatively new to homebrewing and making a 5 gallon batch that
sometimes doesn't work out seems a real waste. If I could brew smaller
quantities I could brew more often and also spend less on ingredients
each time.
I found a store that sells 2 gallon (10 litre) plastic kegs so there
would be no problem with equipment.

Your advice would be much appreciated,
Oisin Boydell.


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Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 19:55:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Augie Altenbaumer <afalten at yahoo.com>
Subject: Clove flavor in wheat beer

Hello all,

I've been working on brewing German wheat beers
lately.  Although they are turning out fairly well,
I'm still not completely happy with the flavor.  I am
getting more fruit flavor than clove flavor.  I would
really like to push the balance of the flavors in the
other direction (more clove...less fruit.)  
I did some investigating in the archives.  Here is
what I think I gathered from past posts: Yeast type
and pitching conditions will determine this balance
more than anything.  I believe my pitching conditions
might be causing more fruit than clove flavor.
I have been using Wyeast 3068 for my wheat beers and
fermenting at 68F.  I have been pitching at ~75F and
then cooling down to 68F.  I believe that I read in
the archives that pitching cooler and then warming up
to the fermentation temp would encourage more
development of clove flavor.  Am I on the right track
here?  Thanks for any input.

Augie Altenbaumer
Brownwood, TX


		


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Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 22:27:04 -0600
From: Bob Devine <bob.devine at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: link of the week - Chimay tour

Getting back into the swing of things, here's a good link
for anybody interested in Chimay.

http://www.whitebeertravels.co.uk/chimay

Bob Devine


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Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 10:49:06 -0400
From: "Spencer W. Thomas" <spencer at jstor.org>
Subject: Re: Clove flavor in wheat beer

Augie wonders how to get more clove flavor in his wheat beer. 

You don't say whether you're mashing or using extract.  If extract, then 
you're at the mercy of your yeast and the extract manufacturer.  Yeast 
type is definitely important.  The best results I ever got were using a 
Weihenstephan strain that I got from a local yeast purveyor (now, sadly, 
out of business).  I think that Wyeast and White Labs have a similar 
strain, but I'm not sure of the numbers.

But the best way to get more clove flavor is to use the proper mashing 
regimen.  In particular, you need a mash rest at 104F for 20-30 
minutes.  This will help develop the appropriate "precursor" chemical 
that the yeast turns into the clove flavor.  If you're not mashing, you 
might try using German wheat extract, which is more likely, IMHO, to 
have been mashed properly for a Bavarian-style wheat beer than American 
(or British or Australian) wheat extract.

=Spencer



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Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 13:56:54 -0400
From: David Harsh <dharsh at fuse.net>
Subject: CO2 in freezers/Expected life of brewing freezers/Beer and Sweat

Greetings-
	NTSTDBY   (Nice to see the digest back.....    Yadayada.....)

On CO2 tanks in freezers:
> Calvin Perilloux <calvinperilloux at yahoo.com> correctly points out 
> that the loss of CO2 due to putting it in the freezer is negligible.

I see only one problem with putting your cylinder in the freezer - 
namely the possibility of suckback into the regulator if your cylinder 
becomes empty.  If so, you'll need to completely dis-assemble your 
regulator and clean everything.  Yes, I speak from experience, no it 
isn't particularly hard to do, but yes, it is a pain to have to do so.  
(Just take it apart and re-assemble carefully...)

Few freezers (if any) have coils in the lid - its an easy place to 
drill through and if you are concerned about cooling loss, get a washer 
or some caulk to seal the hole.  Doesn't look as nice of course, but 
its your call.  There are other more elaborate methods - I saw pictures 
once where someone built a two by four frame to provide a space between 
the chest and the lid you could run your lines through.  Forget where 
or who did it, but it seemed like it could work.
- ------------------------
Ronald La Borde" <pivoron at cox.net> wrote about chest freezers:

> I had chest freezers for a short while, and while they worked, they
> were fine. But now the problem - they seem to work for a rather
> limited time. I suppose it's because I use them as refrigerators, with
> an external thermostat. I have heard that this can be expected. Well,
> four years seems like a short lifetime for what they cost.

My chest freezer recently died - it was a 15+ year old R-12 unit with a 
sealed system.  I talked to an appliance repairman who is knowledgeable 
in such systems and asked about the useful life of such units.  He said 
the external thermostat should have no effect on operating life as long 
as your operating cycles aren't too short and if anything the higher 
temperature should make the cycles longer, although the reduced run 
time for a higher temp may balance that out.

The end result is that as a brewing fridge it may not be acceptable - 
many external thermostats have adjustable over/under shoot controls and 
if you make that control too tight, you'll get a lot more cycling on 
and off.  For simple storage and dispensing of beer where temperature 
variations of +/-2-4 degrees are acceptable, it should work fine.  I 
think you could ferment under such temperature variations without 
problems, but I would be concerned about reproducibility.

As a replacement I'm looking at an upright frost free freezer that 
looks like it should hold about 10 kegs if my measurements were 
correct, but I want to make sure my measurements were correct before 
committing....
- ------------------
A reminder of Beer and Sweat 2004.  This is the Bloatarian Brewing 
League's annual all keg competition, held in August.  You can find 
details at http://hbd.org/bloat.  We'll take entries, judges, stewards, 
etc.   Last year we were around 150 or so entries.

Dave Harsh					Cincinnati, OH
Bloatarian Brewing League



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