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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  Belgium Beer Tours (Tom Nolan)
  Holiday Brew Recipes? (Chris Quint)
  Soda Pop and taxes (Mike Charlton)
  Thomas Kemper - a minor correction (Rick Noah Zucker)
  Re: Belgium (Todd Koumrian)


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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 10:45:42 EDT
From: nolan at lheavx.DNET.NASA.GOV (Tom Nolan)
Subject: Belgium Beer Tours

The folks that are contemplating a tour of Belgium for the beers
should really try to see the 1st episode of "The Beer Hunter"
which aired several weeks ago on The Discovery Channel. This
first-of-the-series contained a lot of interesting information
(some of which has been repeated here in the Digest) and was
for me at least a real eye-opener on Belgian brewing. Maybe
you can find someone in a local homebrew club who recorded
the thing on videotape. The Discovery Channel has been airing
ads for the whole series on tape for $35 or so. (I keep thinking
of this Steve Allen story when, upon learning that a friend was
from Belgium, he replied "Oh, I didn't know you were Belch!").

Tom

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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 10:03:34 PDT
From: Chris Quint <quint at hpindqj.cup.hp.com>
Subject: Holiday Brew Recipes?

Allow me to start off this year's thread on Holiday Brews.  I'd like to 
brew up a batch of something like Anchor's Christmas Ale for the Holidays
this year.  Hopefully there is still time for it to age to an acceptable 
level before the end of December.  Does anyone have a recipe that they
have tried and would like to share?   Thanks,  Chris


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Date: 13 Sep 90 22:08:24 EDT
From: brew at ncrmud.Columbia.NCR.COM

Someone a few digests back mentioned using a freezer for a keg cooler.
This sounds like a workable solution for kegs.  I am also looking
for a way to not only store kegs, but to have a place to lager beer
while still in the glass carboy.  My concern with using a chest freezer
is lifting an already unwieldy carboy full of beer into such a freezer.
How do others handle this?  Lager in the keg?
- ----
Would those who have beer refrigerators discuss how your choice for your
refrigerator was made.  Did you choose a no-frost model?  How do you
store kegs that when full weigh about 45 pounds each when fridge shelves
seem so fragile?  Has anyone used an old soft drink cooler, the kind in
which you stack drinks on the bottom and has a sliding door on top?

 -Jim Griggers
 West Columbia, SC.



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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 12:25:37 CDT
From: Mike Charlton <umcharl3 at ccu.UManitoba.CA>
Subject: Soda Pop and taxes

Hi all.  Becuase I've exploded many a bottle (including beer bottles)
making soda pop, I have come up with a virtually fool proof method for
making naturally carbonated soda pop without the risk of shrapnel.
(I don't have a soda keg system yet, so I can't artificially carbonate it).
Here's a recipe for ginger beer with my method for bottling:
         1 Imperial gallon of water
         1 pound sugar
         1-5 oz. peel and crushed fresh ginger (to taste really...)
         1 lemon
         1/4 oz. cream of tartar
         yeast (I use dried baking yeast) 
Bring the water to a boil.  Add ginger, sugar, cream of tartar and grated lemon
peel (using only the yellow part of the peel).  Boil for about 5 mins. and then
let cool.  When it is cool, add the juice from the lemon and the yeast.
Let this sit for a few hours (usually 3 or 4) to let the yeast get started.
Strain through a towel and bottle in 2 litre plastic pop bottles.  It is
important that these bottles be new, because the plastic in the bottles
will soak up whatever was in them previously.  I have found that as long
as they have only had pop in them, they are all right.  MAKE NO ATTEMPT TO
STERILIZE OR DISINFECT THESE BOTTLES.  Just make sure they are clean.
Screw the caps on the bottles and let them sit in a warm place until the
bottles are hard (this means that they are well carbonated).  I find that
it takes less than 8 hours (and sometimes as little as 2 or 3 hours) for
this to happen.  Put the bottles in the freezer (standing straight up).
Leave them there for several hours (but don't let them freeze).  After
taking them out of the freezer, decant the liquid off the yeast sediment
and rebottle (I usually bottle them in pint sized plastic pop bottles).
Put the new bottles in the fridge.  This procedure gives you far more control
of the carbonation than any other I have found.  It also enables you to have
relatively yeast free pop (which my brother demands).  Note that the pop
still tends to carbonate while in the fridge, but at a much slower rate
than other bottling methods I've used.

Regarding taxes:  5 cents is nothing!  Here in Manitoba Canada taxes
eat up 56 cents out of every dollar on beer!  Count yourselves lucky.
Of course we do have the third highest tax rate in the world...

                     Mike

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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 90 10:28:39 -0700
From: noah at cs.washington.edu (Rick Noah Zucker)
Subject: Thomas Kemper - a minor correction

>Date: 13 Sep 90 16:25:28 EDT
>From: Jay Hersh <75140.350 at compuserve.com>
>Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #493 (September 11, 1990)
>
>Glad to hear the oatmeal stout is going well for patrick. He mentioned
>blueberry beers. I tried a commercial golden colored beer by Thomas Kemper
>of Oregon I believe that had a distinct blueberry flavor imparted by a strain
>of yeast that >created the right ester. Anyone else ever tried this and have
>they seen this yeast strain out and about??

	Just a minor correction - Thomas Kemper is from Poulsbo, Washington,
across the water from Seattle.  They used to be on Bainbridge Island, also
on the other side of Puget Sound from Seattle.  They actually brew a pilsner,
a tough style to brew that most micros do not seem to want to attempt.  But
then again, Thomas Kemper specializes in lagers and most micros (at least
around here) brew ales.

							Rick Zucker

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Date: Sat, 15 Sep 1990 14:26:59 PDT
From: todd at NISC.SRI.COM (Todd Koumrian)
Subject: Re: Belgium

Thanks to the many people who responded to my inquiries prior to setting
up a trip to Belgium.  Chuck Cox, I've been behind in reading my mail
and just saw your posting.  Thanks for the tips on what the real language
situation is like, and it sounds like I'll be ok.  I'd be interested
in some notes taken, to help augment what I have in books like M Jackson's.

Todd Koumrian


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End of HOMEBREW Digest #497, 09/17/90
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