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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  BABBLE Brew Off Announcemnt (val.dan.morey)
  lawn mower beer ("Chad Stevens")
  Yeast ranching (Dylan Schwilk)
  re french country ale (Ken Pendergrass)
  More On Lawn Mowing ("Phil Yates")
  DCL 34/70 ("Phil Yates")
  RE: Re: braised plate heat exchangers ("Sasha von_Rottweil")
  Re: St Pats 3 level system (Kevin\)" <krstiles@agere.com>
  re: yeast ranching (Mark Tigges)
  Commercial Venture...? ("Eric R. Theiner")
  re: Oh, So Hot!! (John Schnupp)
  Great Decoction Experiment-next step (Denny Conn)
  Re:  Oh, So Hot!! (Cindy & Geoff Harrison)


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Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 22:02:59 -0600
From: val.dan.morey at juno.com
Subject: BABBLE Brew Off Announcemnt

ATTENTION BREWERS, MARK YOUR CALENDERS! BABBLE and The Onion Pub and
Brewery are pleased to present the AHA/BJCP sanctioned BABBLE Brew Off. 
The BABBLE Brew Off will be held Saturday, February 26, 2005 at The Onion
Pub and Brewery in Lake Barrington, IL. All 2004 BJCP beer and mead
categories will be accepted.

Schedule:
February 1-19, 2005 entries accepted.
February 26, 2005 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. judging
  The Onion Pub and Brewery
  22221 Pepper Road
  Lake Barrington, IL 60010

Rules, entry forms, and bottle labels can be downloaded from BABBLE
website:
http://hbd.org/babble/

We need BJCP accredited judges for this event. Novice judges are welcome
and will be teamed with experienced judges. Experience points will be
awarded through the BJCP Organization based on the number of entries
received. Those wishing to judge should contact:

Judge Director
Scott Clement
(847) 587-5320

Stewards are also needed. Those wishing to steward should contact:

Head Steward
Aaron Slocum
(847) 973-2598

Please see BABBLE website http://hbd.org/babble/ for additional
information.
Other inquiries should be directed to:

Organizer
Bruce Dir
(847) 556-8012

You can reach any of the BABBLE Brew Off staff by emailing: 
babble_brewoff at comcast.net

Cheers,
Dan Morey
Club BABBLE http://hbd.org/babble/


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Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 20:43:57 -0800
From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net>
Subject: lawn mower beer

So ol' Uncle Phil's lookin' fer the perfect lawn mower beer.  Far be it from 
me to think that a rotor head such as myself could possibly lend cogent 
commentary to a "Fat Cat" driver, but, here goes....

Wit (10 gallons)[I realize this is all in American and you Aussie's attained 
enlightenment long ago, but I'm sure you can muddle along]

9 lbs Turbo Pils
9 lbs Hard Red Winter Feed Wheat ($7 for a fifty pound bag at the feed 
store)
1 lb Feed Oats (also $7 for 50 lbs at the feed store)
1 lb Beet sugar in the boil
10 oz honey, pasteurized, into fermentor second day

Beta Glucan rest for 10 min
Protein rest for 20 min
149 f for 60 min
bump up to 162-165 and sparge at 170; collect 13 gallons.

1.4 oz 5.6% EKG 60 min
1.0 oz Cascade 1 min
1.2 oz Coriander knockout
 .5 oz Curacao orange knockout
 .75 oz Tangerine peel knockout

WLP 400 Wit Yeast

1.040 OG
1.004 FG

Because esters and some phenols are not out of place in this beer, a warm 
(summer) ferment is fine.  As a result of summer temps and low OG, this 
stuff ferments out quick, and because it should be a hazy beer, it can go 
into the keg and be consumed quickly as well.  My last batch went from 
kettle to draught in 15 days; could have cut that by half in a pinch.  Quick 
turn around, low hassle beer that I can drink all day long and not have 
cloud my ability to function.  The ideal summer brew.

FWIW,

Chad Stevens
QUAFF
San Diego

AFC Homebrew Competition.  Same judge crew as SW First Round Nationals. 
Register now at http://www.quaff.org/AFC2005/AFCHBC.html
(Haven't had any entries from Australia; whad'a ya say mate?) 



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Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 20:44:34 -0800
From: Dylan Schwilk <try at schwilk.org>
Subject: Yeast ranching

Todd asks about yeast ranching -

I've been yeast ranching for a few years now, it was one of the first 
things I did to bring down my brewing costs.  I would recommend using 
tubes (slants) rather than petri dishes for most storage.  Easier to 
keep sterile in a fridge.  I use large tubes, 50ml centrifuge tubes, 
which is bigger than needed, and I can keep 20 slants at any time in a 
small box in the back of my refrigerator.  You really only need petri 
dishes when you want to isolate a strain.  I've also managed without a 
pressure cooker.  I make up a batch of 20 slants, but only have 4-6 
strains around which is more than I need.

When I pitch from a purchased vial or smack pack, I streak out some 
yeast in a fresh slant.  When I want to make a starter, first I transfer 
some yeast to a new slant, then I pour a bit of sterile wort into the 
old slant and cap and shake.  After a day I pitch this into 100-150 ml 
flask, and so on.  Take a few days to get up pitchable quantity.  I've 
never got around to freezing on glycerine, but that would be a better 
way to do longer storage.  I transfer yeasts to new slants every couple 
of months.

 - Dylan Schwilk
   Three Rivers, California



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Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 23:50:49 -0500
From: Ken Pendergrass <kenp794 at comcast.net>
Subject: re french country ale

I'm currently reading Farmhouse Ales. I'm disappointed in biere de garde 
it's not what I expected. Apparently no one remembers what it used to 
taste like. The brewers didn't keep records. Under the Belgian influence 
there is no great respect for style which is fine. Most of the brewers 
use lager yeast. Pilsner and Munich are the most used malts. With 
Pilsner making up 70% - 99%. Essentially you can make whatever you want 
a Porter say garde it for 4 to 6 weeks and label it biere de garde. If I 
have my impression straight according to the author most of today's 
gardes could be described as medium.

Well on to the Saison section of the book hoping for a little more 
tradition.
Ken



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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:59:49 +1100
From: "Phil Yates" <phil.yates at bigpond.com>
Subject: More On Lawn Mowing

Kevin Morgan says, with regards to a lawn mower beer:
> For me it means low in alcohol AND low in F.G so I can drink lots of
> them  without getting too drunk to mow AND it doesn't fill me up too
>much.

I think all low alcohol beers would by nature have a low F.G. Unless of
course you started with a high O.G. and deliberately cut the fermentation
short (crash cooling, filtering etc), which would give you a malty, sweet
and sickly, low alcohol beer.

Not at all suited to lawn mowing!

I'd still like to hear some suggestions re my nightly entitlement. I'm
thinking along the lines of one beer per acre. In my case, that's 100 beers.
Jill would like to think of it in terms of one lashing per acre. But I'm too
quick for her to catch me with that god damn horse whip she keeps in the
car.

Phil



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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:07:15 +1100
From: "Phil Yates" <phil.yates at bigpond.com>
Subject: DCL 34/70


Pat Casey says:
>The dried 34/70 is supposed to be the same as the Wyeast Bohemian >and
Whitelabs German Lager. I've used it a fair bit over the last 6 months >and
found that first time round it can be very slow to kick off.

Not if you rehydrate, and use enough of it Pat. I'll bet $100 (that's a
dollar per acre!) you're underpitching. Check DCL's recommended pitching
rates.

Phil



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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 09:27:25 +0000
From: "Sasha von_Rottweil" <sasharina at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Re: braised plate heat exchangers

Re: braised plate heat exchangers
>
>In response to Martin's statments, my primary conern
>with brazed plate chillers is that since nothing is
>forcing liquid into the corners of the unit, there is
>no reason for build-up to be removed. The cold break,
>which is what I'm primarly concerned about, can just
>sit quietly in low flow areas as cleaning solution
>follows the path of least resistance.

Hi,
The cold break is not as big of a deal as I thought. I have a Therminator 
(not affiliated.... satisfied customer) and am still amazed at how well it 
performs:
40L  sucked through with a March pump in about 15 minutes cooled down almost 
the cooling water temp.

I found that cleaning break material (and the hops sludge when a nylon bag 
with 28gm opened up accidentally) was very easy when running water in both 
directions through the wort connections and 'bumping' the water pressure by 
turning the water on and off. What I did notice about the corners is that it 
is difficult to drain the final iodophor rinse since no matter how you 
orient the plate chiller there is residual liquid that is impossible to 
shake out. Finally my wife told me to roll up some paper towels and place 
into the openings to wick out residual liquid and after changing the paper 
towels two or thee times the inside was dry.

I searched for alternate sources for plate chillers and found that there are 
plenty for sale by people converting diesel engines to run vegetable oil. 
Seems like the vegetable oil needs to be warmed to make it more viscous. The 
one plate chiller I purchased on ebay had 1"  openings but the plates were 
spaced further apart (and had less plates) than the Therminator.

Prost,
Marty




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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:13:28 -0500
From: "Stiles, Kevin R \(Kevin\)" <krstiles at agere.com>
Subject: Re: St Pats 3 level system

Noah Bolmer asks about the St Pats 3 level system (SP3LS). I've used one
of these for the past 5 years, and it works well. Before that, I ran a
RIMS system built out of sawn-off kegs with brew partners who were at
least as thrilled about building things as brewing beer. Before that, I
did solo kitchen/pot-type mashing, tinkering with the stovetop and oven
as heat sources (early-mid 90's). A few general observations:
 
1.    Moving the brewing out of the kitchen is mandatory to the long
term maintenance of the hobby & relationship with other kitchen user(s).
SP3LS enables this nicely.
2.    Brewing with a brew partner is the way to go; SP3LS enables a
~12-gallon brew length, which is fine to split 2 ways.
3.    The all-gravity feed with SP3LS is superior to a system w/pumps in
many ways: simple to operate, debug, no grain compaction, etc. Of
course, it would be pretty simple to RIMS-ify SP3LS if so desired.
4.    SP3LS's triple propane burner system provides maximum BTU
capability at every step.
5.    Temperature control is difficult with SP3LS. The thermometers are
of questionable accuracy. Also, it's hard to get/keep the mashed mixed
well enough to maintain a uniform temperature throughout the mash. You
could retrofit the mash tun with insulation, which would help.
6.    Getting clear runnings is more difficult with SP3LS than with a
RIMS system. More grain gets by the screen than you might think.
 
Aside from 5 and 6, operating the SP3LS is pretty much trouble-free, and
gets you right to brewing if you're not so interested in design/assembly
of you own system.
 

 -Kevin Stiles

Allentown, PA 

446.7, 102.3 Apparent Rennerian




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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 08:37:25 -0800
From: Mark Tigges <mtigges at shaw.ca>
Subject: re: yeast ranching



Janie Curry asked about beginning ranching of yeast;
> It's time to start yeast ranching!  With pitchable tubes selling for
> over $6 each and smack packs getting harder to find, I'd like to
> start plating out some cultures and banking some yeast in a library.

Are you sure?  It's a lot of work, which loses (IMO) its attraction
quite quickly.

> Over the years, I have successfully stored yeast under beer in
> flasks in the refrigerator for months.  I would split the
> refrigerator culture each time I brewed.  Half went into one flask
> for brewing and the other half was used to innoculate the flask that
> would go back into the refrigerator.  I'm sure they weren't the
> healthiest of yeast cultures by scientific standards, but it worked
> fine.  

It sounds like you're already economic about it.  A bunch of plates
takes up room too.

> I have a nice stir plate, alcohol lamp, and several 500ml flasks.

Bernz-o-matic propane torch is better.  Get some threaded erlynmeyer
flasks.  They're pricey but very very good.  These are what I use to
step up, and without the threaded caps, I use a wad of tin-foil which
just doesn't thrill me.  You should also get some of that funky
stretch plastic for sealing the plates, I can't remember what it's
called, but you'll see it on cynmars site.  Stuffs incredible.  Don't
live without.  You buy it in little boxes that are their own
dispensers.

> Any recommendations on gasketless pressure cookers / canners?

Get the biggest you can afford.

> Looks like Cynmar is a popular mail order supplier.  Any other
> recommendations?
 
I got everything from Cynmar.  No problem shipping to Canada 2 months
after 9/11.

> How do you get from the trub at the bottom of the fermentor to the
> culture plate?  I've read about washing yeast with distilled water.
> Is that the preffered method?  I assume you could then freeze washed
> yeast under glycerin and water after washing from the trub.  Where
> would plating come into play?  When do folks plate vs. freeze washed
> yeast?

There is no need to wash.  It's irrelevant with plating.  Here are the
steps;

  1. Prepare your agar plates (day before) let them solidify upside
     down.

  2. Rack your beer to secondary.

  3. Sterilize your loop, till white hot in flame.

  4. Dip into yeast cake, not far.

  5. Innoculate a plate.

        Do a Z pattern in the top left third of the plate,
        Turn plate 33 degrees, do another Z
        Another 33 degrees, another Z

        The first third will have the most growth.  The crosses of the

        Zs help spread more cells for colony growth.

        You're interested in the colonies that grow in the last third.

  6. Let them grow for a few days at room temp.

  
You don't need a sterile filter or any of that garbage ... this
technique ensures your colonies are pure.

After they've grown you'll have little milky spots.  You want to pick
the tightest little most perfectly circular spot and inoculate a
starter in a 5ml vial. Or, you pick it to put in a glycerine mix for
freezing, I've never tried that.  There should be several good
candidate colonies to pick from.  To pick, you simply sterilize your
loop, jab it into the agar to cool it, then swab the colony onto your
loop.

You may also have localized fuzziness ... don't worry about ... you
just don't put the loop in that stuff ... that's nasty bacteria.  The
WHOLE POINT of plating is to seperate yeast and bacteria.  The amount
of bacteria in your yeast cake is probably several orders of magnitude
less than the amount of yeast, so if you pick any on your loop it will
not overwhelm your plate.  I don't often see bacteria anyways.  And I
think it's probably innoculated when I open the plate up to take a
colony or something.  The fuzzinesses always take longer to grow, if
at all.

You should buy a book by Pierre Rajotte, "First Steps in Yeast
Culturing" excellent source for the homebrewer.

NB: A good compromise between glycerin freezing (and it is really only
completely useful at <-80C) and keeping plates, is a stab.  The reason
you don't keep plates is they dry out too fast.  A stab has very
little surface area and doesn't dry out as fast.  It is a 5ml vial or
10 ml, half full with agar medium (little less solid than plate
media).  Instead of smearing the yeast on the surface, you jab it into
the vial.  It grows inside the medium.  Because of the extra liquid
the yeast is kept much more stable than on a plate.  But can still
mutate.  I bank yeast on a stab.  When I make a beer with that yeast,
I plate from the starter again. and make a new stab.  When the beer
turns out fine, I get rid of the old stab.  This is generally six
months at the most.

Best regards,
Mark.

[Vancouver, BC]





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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:52:37 -0600
From: "Eric R. Theiner" <rickdude at tds.net>
Subject: Commercial Venture...?

Hope I don't tick anyone off with this, but I
thought this might be the best place to post
this question...

There is a contact I have made with a guy in 
Germany who is seeking to become the European 
equivalent of Mr. Beer. His firm, called Das 
Bier! is actually doing reasonably well... 
but then, so is Mr. Beer, I guess.

He is well intentioned and is doing business 
a bit differently than the Mr. Beer folks-- 
taking a kind of 'recipe' approach so that 
the homebrewer has more control and 
involvement in the process than just boiling 
water and opening a can (wait-- does Mr. Beer 
say to boil the water?).

He is looking for an American associate to 
bring this stuff to the USA. I cannot help 
him out because of potential conflicts of 
interest, and I'm not sure if I want to 
venture into a new business anyway. Would 
anyone here be interested in talking to him 
about it?  

Email me privately if so.

Thanks,

Rick 

(rick at ecologiccleansers.com) 




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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 09:52:32 -0800 (PST)
From: John Schnupp <johnschnupp at yahoo.com>
Subject: re: Oh, So Hot!!

Phil wonders about lawnmower beer,
>This is very thirsty weather and it got me thinking that somewhere in my
>beer education, I must have missed something. We've talked about "lawn
>mower" beers for many years but I never bothered to ask what such a thing
>was. Is it supposed to be light in alcohol, so you can scoff down six or
>seven in as many minutes (and not fall off the ride on mower)?
>
>Is it supposed to be light in colour and flavour?
>
>Or is it supposed to be a heavy duty number to knock the wife right out so
>she forgets to ask you to mow the lawn tomorrow?

Ah Phil,

You are now getting to the real truth of beer.  So which exactly is it?  It's
hard to say.  I have the same dilemma when working on my Sportster.

Over on the XL-list at www.sportster.org someone will say, "that's a two beer
job."  So does that mean:
1. it's so quick and easy I will only have time to drink two?
or
2. it's so hard and complicated if I have more than two I'll screw it up?

Personally, I like you #2 option:
>Or is it supposed to be a heavy duty number to knock the wife right out so
>she forgets to ask you to mow the lawn tomorrow?

But in reality I think it's pretty much a swill beer.  I used to add some lemon
to mine at bottling time for a nice extra zip.  


 

=====
John Schnupp, N3CNL
Blue Moon Hombrewery
[560.2, 68.6] Rennerian
Georgia, VT
95 XLH 1200


	
		


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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:01:07 -0800
From: Denny Conn <denny at projectoneaudio.com>
Subject: Great Decoction Experiment-next step

I've posted a Brewer's Report Form and a Taster's report form and 
instructions at http://hbd.org/cascade/decoction/ . If you're participating 
in the experiment, please download these forms.



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Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:19:10 -0500
From: Cindy & Geoff Harrison <gharriso at up.net>
Subject: Re:  Oh, So Hot!!

Phil,

Lawnmower beer is generally light in color, light in flavor and lower in
alcohol, thirst quenchable.

Now, if you were Belgian, a lawnmower beer might be a Saisson, richer and
closer to 6.5% v/v; if you're from the British Isles, the beer would most
likely be lower in carbonation to be less gassy, like a mild or ordinary
bitter.

As far as I know, there's still no special category in the GABF or other
beer judging events for 'lawnmower beer', but I could be wrong?

>"Phil Yates" <phil.yates at bigpond.com>
>Now I know at this time of year in the USA, it's awfully hard to imagine
>that your southern Oz pals are really cookin. But today, we're really really
>cookin!
>
>This is very thirsty weather and it got me thinking that somewhere in my
>beer education, I must have missed something. We've talked about "lawn
>mower" beers for many years but I never bothered to ask what such a thing
>was. Is it supposed to be light in alcohol, so you can scoff down six or
>seven in as many minutes (and not fall off the ride on mower)?
<Snip>
>
>Also, living here on 100 acres, we've got an awful lot of grass to keep
>down. How many lawn mower beers am I entitled to drink after mowing/slashing
>100 acres? Actually, the cattle help me here a lot, but let's not include
>them in the equation.

One of the great fictional characters, Hayduke, from Edward Abbey's "The
Monkey Wrench Gang", always measured driving distances over the Colorado
Plateau in sixpacks. You could certainly start a similar measurement system
for lawns and lawnmower beers?

HEre in the Copper Country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, we're in the
midst of a roaring blizzard, so what are people's thoughts on a 'snow
shovelling' beer?

Cheers,

Geoff Harrison
Kreauseners


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