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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Basho Haiku (edited a bit) (leavitdg)
  Racking to secondary ("Brian Schar")
  mash-less beer, brem (apte)
  Brewer's Rendezvous - Is it Closed? ("PAUL SMITH")
  What happened to Bell's Two-Hearted Ale? ("Kevin Kutskill")


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Date: Wed,  4 May 2005 09:10:25 -0400
From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu
Subject: Basho Haiku (edited a bit)


 A lovely spring night  
 suddenly vanished while we  
 drank fresh ale.  



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Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 08:14:41 -0700
From: "Brian Schar" <schar at cardica.com>
Subject: Racking to secondary

FWIW, I never rack to secondary, 
and never have in 15 years of 
brewing.  I don't do it for 
two reasons.  First, I'm lazy 
and it's a PITA to do it.  
Second, I am more concerned with 
contamination resulting from 
additional contact with tubes 
and buckets, as well as 
diacetyl from incomplete 
primary fermentation.  
I've left ales on the yeast 
for 4-6 weeks in the primary 
in warm weather when I've gotten 
busy, and never had a problem 
with off flavors.

Having said this, if I knew 
I wouldn't be able to bottle 
for 6 weeks or more after 
pitching my yeast, I might 
break  my usual routine and 
rack to secondary whenever 
I had an opportunity after 
2-3 weeks, just to be on 
the safe side.

Brian Schar
Menlo Park, California




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Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 17:28:58 PDT
From: <apte at parc.com>
Subject: mash-less beer, brem


Hi All,

I just got back from Bali, where I took beer-making lessons. Brem is a
rice beer made from a mixture of sweet white and sweet black rice. The
process is very interesting because there is no mashing or use of
Saccharomyces. In a nutshell, rice is soaked, boiled, and steamed until
it is fully gelatinized (cooked). The rice is then cooled and inoculated
with Rhizopus or Amylomyces fungus. This cake is wrapped in banana
leaves and rested for 3 days, after which the fluid is drained. The rice
retains carbohydrates and is eaten with coconut milk. The liquor is very
sweet on day 3, but by day 6-7 can become quite dry/sour. All of this
happens at 30C (room temperature at the equator). I learned this process
in Bali and recently reproduced the result back in California.

The Amylomyces apparently secretes its own amylase which converts the
starch. But yeasts of various genera race to consume the starch and
produce alcohol. The inoculant is a dry cake that is easily powdered,
and is called 'ragi'. It is available mail-order but is also easy to
make (see http://www.fao.org/docrep/x2184E/x2184E00.htm) The 30C room
temperature is important--part of the sample that was kept at lager
temps became gross.

Maybe y'all knew about this before, but I had no idea how effective
biological conversion could be. Hopefully, the frigid and sere
conditions in California will keep the Amylomyces from messing up my
homebrew!

raj



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Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 08:54:14 -0400
From: "PAUL SMITH" <pksmith_morin1 at msn.com>
Subject: Brewer's Rendezvous - Is it Closed?

Hello all -

Just wondering if anyone knows if Brewer's Rendezvous is still in operation. 
I ordered some yeast culturing supplies on 4/30, followed up with a couple 
of e-mails and a voice mail, and I have heard nothing from them.  I called 
their toll free order number, and the number links to a directory service - 
for $4.00, if used.  Their regular number makes no mention of "BobBrews" or 
"Brewer's Rendezvous," just an anonymous computer voice asking to "leave a 
message," or something to the effect.

Are they closed?  If so, can anyone make a recommendation on companies which 
supply lab supplies on a smaller scale?  Specifically, petri plates, 
autoclavable slant rack, autoclavable pipettes?

Thanks,

Paul 


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Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 10:32:13 -0400
From: "Kevin Kutskill" <beer-geek at comcast.net>
Subject: What happened to Bell's Two-Hearted Ale?

I just got done brewing one of my more favorite brews--a clone of Bell's
Two-Hearted Ale.  I was taking my final gravity readings, and realized that
I almost nailed the numbers perfectly--from memory, the o.g. for THA was
about 1.063, f.g. 1.010, abv 7%.  My clone was 1.064, 1.011, 7%.  Just to
confirm the numbers, I went to the Kalamazoo Brewing website and to my
surprise, the o.g. now listed is 1.058, with an abv of 6%, making the f.g.
about 1.012.  

I know this isn't a big difference, but I remember about 5 years ago, when I
started to clone this brew, that the numbers were for a 7% beer--I pulled
them from the website back then.  I even warmed and decarbonated a bottle of
THA to take the f.g. reading of the finished beer, because I couldn't
believe that the f.g. was that low in a beer with that much body.  So, did
Larry Bell shrink his big Two-Hearted Ale, or am I going nuts?  Could this
be a trend with Bell's beers--sneaking down the original gravities a little?


Kevin
beer-geek at comcast.net

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, pizza in one hand, beer in the other, body thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"





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