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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Re: Music to brew by ("Byron Towles")
  RE: Music To Brew By (asemok)
  Music To Brew By (David Morgan)
  adding smoke in the secondary? (engwar1)
  Home grown hops (K.M.)" <kmuell18@visteon.com>
  Brewing Music (Russ.Hobaugh)
  Lambic questions (Paul Shick)
  Music to brew by (Mark Beck)
  Pressure Cooker Decoction (jjm1)
  P-cooker decoction ("Spencer W. Thomas")
  RE: Music to Brew By ("Gary Giachino")
  RE: Music To Brew By (neil)
  Brewing Music (Brian Millan)


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Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 22:10:42 -0500
From: "Byron Towles" <beer.man at cox.net>
Subject: Re: Music to brew by

In my personal opinion, nothing beats irish drinking music... There are CD's 
to be found,
especially around St. Patricks day, that are collections of Irish drinking 
songs. A bit of
the obligatory whiskey in the jar, all for me grog, mountain dew, jug of 
punch...

Nothing like people celebrating drinking the juice of the barley to inspire 
you while making
the juice of the barley. It's a blast.

Just my 2cents


Byron Towles
brewin' "Way down yonder in old New Orleans" 




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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:02:42 -0400
From: asemok at mac.com
Subject: RE: Music To Brew By


Hi all...
Interesting to hear about everyone's music faves while brewing.   
Brewing at home is (or should be) a means of relaxation and a form of 
self expression, and having my favorite music as a background just 
makes brew day all that much better.  For me, Procol Harum is a must as 
the main part of the bill (preferably via live recordings), with some 
Beatles as adjunct sweetening up the proceedings, and a bit of Steely 
Dan cynicism serving as a savory bittering agent.  What can I say...I 
like the old fart bands.

Makes for a most pleasurable and interesting 5 hours in the "brewhouse"
cheers, all, and shine on (brightly)...
AL



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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:15:36 -0400
From: David Morgan <voodooman68 at netscape.net>
Subject: Music To Brew By

I will have to jump in on this and say my favorite is Bluegrass, All 
though I prefer newer stuff, Yonder Mountain String Band, Dread 
Clampitt, Gypsy Wind, Adrienne Young, Steep Canyon Rangers.
Definetly keeps you going.

Dave Morgan
Dunedin Brewers Guild


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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 04:14:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: engwar1 <engwar1 at yahoo.com>
Subject: adding smoke in the secondary?

I brewed a smoked porter recently using an all-grain
recipe found on-line.

The beer is about ready for the secondary but upon
tasting I can't really taste any smoke.

I have no problem just going with the flow and adding
more smoked malt the next time I brew it but a friend
who is splitting this 10 gallon batch is interested
experimenting with his 5 gallon carboy.

So what options are there for adding a touch of smoke
flavor to the beer in the secondary? Smoking some wood
chips? Liquid smoke? If so how to do this without
introducing beer-destroying beasties?



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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 07:36:19 -0400
From: "Mueller, Kevin (K.M.)" <kmuell18 at visteon.com>
Subject: Home grown hops

I've started harvesting and drying some homegrown Liberty hops.  This is my
first year havesting, probably the 3rd of 4th growing season.  This year is
the first time that I've gotten the plant enough water to have a good crop!

Anyways, I've never brewed with Liberty, and really don't know what they're
like.  I received the rhizome as a gift from a guy that I taught how to
brew.  Any suggestions on what to brew?  Recipes?  Styles?

Thanks!

Kevin


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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 08:42:58 -0400
From: Russ.Hobaugh at erm.com
Subject: Brewing Music

While I listen to many types of music, for brewing, it has to be 
metal--Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Jag Panzer, Stratovarius, or some 
progressive metal like Dream Theatre or Nightwish. Which is yet another 
reason SWMBO evicted me from the kitchen long ago. But that's OK because a 
brew in the garage with my two Barracudas--What could be better, brewing, 
old cars, my beer fridge, and some good head-banging music!

Russ Hobaugh

Goob' Dog Brewery Birdsboro PA



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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:05:29 -0400
From: Paul Shick <shick at jcu.edu>
Subject: Lambic questions


Hi all,

    After encountering some interesting soured
beers in competitions lately, I'm planning to
make my first lambic-style shortly.  I've thought
my way through most of the brew and fermentation,
but I'm curious as to what more experienced
plambic brewers think about some things.

    First, rather than do a turbid mash (although
it sounds fun), I'm planning to use 60% pils and
40% malted wheat for the grist, then add about
half a pound of wheat flour to the boil.  I think
this should give me enough starches for the
nonSaccharomyces bugs to work on.  Does this sound
reasonable?  Will there be enough starches for
the bacteria to generate enough sourness?

    Second, I'm planning to use the Wyeast Lambic
Blend 3278.  It sounds like it has most of the
right microorganisms.  I'm also planning to add
the dregs of bottles of real lambics along the
way (maybe once a month or so) to try to get a
bit more complexity.  (If nothing else, it's an
excuse to but some Cantillon and Boon, among
others.)  Have others tried this?  Do you think
it added anything to the depth?

    Finally, my guess at a fermentation schedule
is about a year in a carboy, followed by a year
on some sort of fruit (or maybe splitting the
result after a year into half Framboise, half
gueuze).  At that point, I'll probably bottle
condition it by adding some fresh yeast
(saccharomyces) and a little priming sugar.

    I understand that lambic-style beers are
pretty unpredictable, so there's no guarantee
that I'll get an interesting (or even drinkable)
end result.  However, I'm open to any suggestions
that increase my odds of it working out.  If
anything I've listed here sounds questionable,
or if you have any alternatives that seem to
make a good outcome more reliable, please sing
out.

    Thanks in advance for any help.

                        Paul Shick
                        Cleveland Hts, Ohio







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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 08:41:42 -0700
From: Mark Beck <beckmk at whitman.edu>
Subject: Music to brew by

Might be a Beck thing--I agree with Rob.  The Dead are what I listen to.

 >Grateful Dead, without a doubt.
 >Rob Beck
 >Kansas City

Mark Beck
Walla Walla, WA



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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 18:04:22 +0000
From: jjm1 at comcast.net
Subject: Pressure Cooker Decoction

Has anyone out there ever used a pressure cooker for doing a decoction?
I have a 21 qt pressure cooker that should be big enough to pull a 40%
decoction for a 10 gal weissbier recipe (25 lb grain; 60% wheat). 

My questions:
 
Do you use the lid while bringing the decoction up to saccharification (160F)?
Do you still hold for a 15 min rest? 
Or if using the lid is that amount of time reduced?
Same questions for bringing up to boil before reincorporating 
the decoction into the rest mash: 
Lid? 
Time (20 min) at boiling?
 
Finally, with the lid on, I imagine scorching (I'm planning on a thick
decoction) could be a problem since you can't get in there to stir.

Suggestions?
 
TIA
 
John McGowan
Ridgefield, CT



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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 14:30:02 -0400
From: "Spencer W. Thomas" <hbd at spencerwthomas.com>
Subject: P-cooker decoction

John asks some questons about decocting in a pressure cooker.  I have 
done this, although not recently.  I wrote an article about it that was 
published in Brewing Techniques, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan/Feb, 1998).  
Unfortunately, this article is not in the online archive.

The main thing I did to prevent scorching was to place the decocted 
grains into a metal bowl that fit inside the pressure cooker. I do have 
a large "canning" pressure cooker -- you couldn't do as much grain in a 
regular p-cooker.  Thus, heat was never applied directly to the grains 
in the pressure cooker; instead the hot steam heated the grains.  And 
since the steam is never hotter than 240F (at 10lbs pressure, anyway), 
the grain is not subject to temperatures that would scorch it.

As I was using the decoction only for its flavor contribution, and not 
for temperature steps, I could take the grain from the mash tun after it 
had saccharified sufficiently.  I put it directly into the bowl in the 
pressure cooker, put on the lid, heated to 10lbs pressure, and kept it 
there for (as I recall) 15-20 minutes.

Blind tasting of the p-cooked beer (Oktoberfest) against a batch that 
was traditionally decocted, and one that was not decocted at all 
produced the "expected" results.  That is, the p-cooked beer was closer 
in flavor and aroma to the decocted beer than it was to the undecocted 
beer.  But the two were not identical, and one experienced brewer 
immediately picked out the tradionally decocted sample.  It had a 
"drier" maltiness than did the p-cooked beer.  I suspect that the 
p-cooker technique left more DMS in the wort, but that's just a guess.

My conclusion was that using a pressure cooker could significantly 
short-cut decoction with only a slight loss of flavor.

=Spencer in Ann Arbor, MI



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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 17:13:26 -0500
From: "Gary Giachino" <Gary.Giachino at bakeru.edu>
Subject: RE: Music to Brew By

	How come I haven't seen the obvious answer to the question
concerning the best music to brew by? Clearly it's hip hop.
		Cheers,
		Gary Giachino




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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 18:25:04 -0500
From: <neil at scottishbrewing.com>
Subject: RE: Music To Brew By

I have to say my favorite brewing music has recently been Stereophonics.
Great band, great tunes to brew by. I cycle through their latest three CDs
on my MP3 player.

I also think Peatbog Faeries (from the Isle of Skye in Scotland) are
excellent to brew by (there's your touch of the bagpipes). However, when I'm
in a bluesy mood I find Gary Moore and Robben Ford blues CDs great and of
course, being here in Texas, Stevie Ray Vaughan too.

'Nuff said.

Cheers!
Neil Spake
Austin, Texas
www.ScottishBrewing.com




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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 22:19:40 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From: Brian Millan <ernurse at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Brewing Music

For brewing and/or drinking I like to listen to:

The Gits

Favorite cuts:

The Drinking Song
Drunks
Another Shot Of Whiskey






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