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


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Contents:
  stir bars, etc. ("Ben Dooley")
  US-56 (Bob Tower)
  Re: Gruit herbs, kegging equip. (Dylan Tack)
  Re: Hops in a Bottle (Scott Alfter)
  RE:  Eisbock, sporadic HBD ("JONES,AARON K")
  Missing Competition Organizers ("David Houseman")
  Re: RE:  Eisbock, sporadic HBD ("Pat Babcock")


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 00:00:35 -0400
From: "Ben Dooley" <bendooley at gmail.com>
Subject: stir bars, etc.

Thanks to those who replied to my post about using a stirplate with a
5 gl carboy.

For those who are interested, some internet searching turned up this site:

http://www.stirbars.com/

No affiliation, of course, but they sell stir bars for vessels with
concave bottoms.

That said, would it be worth using the stirrer with a full batch, or
would standard oxygenation procedures be preferable?

Any help?

Best,
Ben Dooley


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Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:08:24 -0700
From: Bob Tower <bob at constructotower.com>
Subject: US-56

In regards to the "To Hydrate or Not to Hydrate" question with the  
Fermentis US-56 dry yeast, I too have tried it with and without  
hydration. I have noticed no difference in the flavor or terminal  
gravity. The only difference I found by properly hydrating in 75-86  
F. water (boiled and cooled) at a 10:1 water to yeast (by weight)  
ratio, letting it sit for 15-30 minutes and then stirring for 30  
minutes (with a stir plate) before pitching into the fermenter is  
that I got much faster start times. When I went through all this  
trouble I got a big frothy head in my fermenter in about 6-8 hours.  
When I simply sprinkled the yeast on top it took about 24-36 hours to  
get to the same point. I must point out though that with my  
ferementer I cannot mix the yeast 30 minutes after adding the yeast  
as is recommended. I have a feeling that not mixing the yeast causes  
a big delay since others have reported start times of around 12-24  
hours when adding the dry yeast directly to the wort. But I have  
solved my mixing problem now by simply taking some stainless steel  
tubing attached to the gas line on my CO2 regulator and tank and  
placing it in the wort at the appropriate time and blasting CO2 gas  
into the wort. That really stirs things up in there! I also use this  
technique to mix in my finings.

In fact, as I write this, I am drinking a Ballantine IPA clone that I  
brewed a couple of months ago using US-56 without rehydration and it  
tastes wonderful! Apart from the slow start time everything went as  
planned, a quick ferment (4-5 days to terminal gravity), yeast  
dropped bright nicely and a great clean flavor. Super stuff!

Bob Tower / Los Angeles, CA


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Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 09:42:10 -0500
From: Dylan Tack <dylan-tack at uiowa.edu>
Subject: Re: Gruit herbs, kegging equip.

> Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:47:36 -0500
> From: Steve Piatz <piatz at cray.com>
>
> Hi, I'm posting again to ask if anyone has suggestions
> on finding Bog Myrtle (Myrica gale) and Wild or Marsh
> Rosemary (Ledum palustre) for gruit ale.

I can second the reccomendation for wildweeds.com.  I ordered from them 
a few years ago, at the time they appeared to be the only catalog 
source for Ledum palustre.  That herb is very uncommon, I tried several 
new-agey brick-and-mortar herb shops and nobody had even heard of it.

Be careful with sanitation - my first and only attempt at making a 
gruit ale turned sour and undrinkable  very quickly.  Unhopped beer is 
no joke!


> Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 10:27:42 -0400
> From: "Kevin Gray" <kevin.gray at gmail.com>
>
> 1) Am looking to upgrade to a kegging system. Have seen several at
> various online stores for around $200, which includes the keg, the CO2
> tank, the regulator, and the various hoses and fittings.

I would compare prices at beveragefactory.com.  That's where I bought 
most of my gas hardware.

 -Dylan




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Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 10:22:23 -0700
From: Scott Alfter <scott at alfter.us>
Subject: Re: Hops in a Bottle

Ronald La Borde wrote:
> Fred L Johnson wrote:
>> I read with some interest Bob's idea of storing pellet hops in a wine 
>> bottle, but I'm pretty skeptical that he's actually getting much of the 
>> air out. (Do these device's really have much of an effect on wine?) I'm 
>> sure the low storage temperatures are a help, but I doubt that the partial
>> evacuation he's getting with the device is sufficient to have a 
>> significant effect.
> 
> I am not so sure, Fred. I have used the wine vacuum system that Bob refers 
> to and I must say the vacuum seems quite good. I had no way of measuring it,
>  but I can tell you it really does preserve the wine...
> 
> Now, sometime back on HBD, (can't remember who) someone mentioned a system 
> that would work with glass jars, mason jars, etc. you can take a look at it
>  at:
> 
> http://www.pump-n-seal.com/
> 
> No, no, I do not get any money from these people, I can just tell you it 
> works quite well. I save used peanut butter jars, and place the hops inside,
>  then evacuate using the system. I like it because it works quite well, and
> a peanut butter jar, or any jar with a screw lid works and it is very easy
> to get the hope in as the jar is much wider than a wine bottle.

I've been using a FoodSaver for some time to package hops.  The bags don't let
oxygen through (they'd be useless if they did), and whole hops get crunched
down to a much smaller size that takes less freezer space.

There's also an adapter available that lets you draw a vacuum on any mason jar.
I don't use that for homebrew-related purposes (bags are more appropriate for
hops and malt), but it gets used for storage of other stuff in the kitchen.
Stored under vacuum in a mason jar, brown sugar doesn't turn into a rock-hard
lump.

The Pump-n-Seal page makes a big deal of allegedly not needing special bags,
but I would be surprised if a Ziploc-type bag could hold a vacuum for very
long.  Just drawing a vacuum on a regular bag can be difficult; the two sheets
of plastic stick together, leaving no channels through which the air can be
sucked out.

When the local homebrew shop started vacuum-packing hops, they found that they
got better results with plain barrier bags by sticking a strip of
FoodSaver-type bag material (a half-inch wide or so) down into the hops.  It
makes a FoodSaver a bit more economical.

  _/_  Scott Alfter
 / v \ Visit the SNAFU website today!
(IIGS( http://snafu.alfter.us/      Top-posting!
 \_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden            >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?




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Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 16:27:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: "JONES,AARON K" <kjones1 at ufl.edu>
Subject: RE:  Eisbock, sporadic HBD

Interesting idea going with the old-fashioned ice cream churn 
approach.  Although it seems like the agitation of the beer during 
the turning might inhibit your desired effect, the formation (and 
coalescence) of ice crystals (as it seems was the case).  Glad 
your carboy didn't crack when the beer froze solid in the 
fridge--although you might have been able to save it while it was 
a solid block.  I just did some wading through the digest and 
didn't find any good ideas about the process--though they could be 
hiding from me.

Does anyone else sporadically miss issues of the HBD in their 
email?  Am I alone, or is this commonplace and I need to check in 
on hbd.org more frequently?

Kyle



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Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:47:11 -0400
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman at verizon.net>
Subject: Missing Competition Organizers

I'm attempting to get missing and delinquent competition organizer reports
filed.  I've sent emails to all the competition organizers of record for the
delinquent organizer reports
(http://www.bjcp.org/apps/reports/delinquent.php).  A number of these
organizers have already contacted me or filed their reports.   But 5 of
these emails bounced.   If you are one of these organizers, or know them,
please get in touch with me or send me their correct email address so we can
get these cleared up.   Judges, stewards and staff for sanctioned
competitions will not receive your credit for efforts expended.   If you
judged in any of the competitions with a delinquent organizer report you are
not receiving your points.


      05/13/2006 200074 Green Mountain Homebrew Competition Burlington, VT
Dave Blumenthal (802) 229-9810 competition at studiozoic.com


      08/29/2004 101603 Brewing in the Hills Waverly, NY Tom Koons (607)
425-1543 TKoons at shepardhills.com


      07/10/2004 101563 Mother Lode Fair Homebrew Competition Columbia, CA
Phil Reiss (209) 536-9446 philreis at sonnet.com


      11/16/2003 101463 AZ Mead Cup Buckeye, AZ Gregory Naff (623) 386-0656
gregory.naff at starband.net


      02/11/2006 101910 Beerfest Mirboo North, VIC AU Haig Jason +61 423
827-972 haig at melbpc.org.au


Thanks,

David Houseman
BJCP Competition Director




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Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 21:50:17 -0400
From: "Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: Re: RE:  Eisbock, sporadic HBD

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

On 1/Aug/2006 16:27:45 "JONES,AARON K" <kjones1 at ufl.edu>wrote ..
> Does anyone else sporadically miss issues of the HBD in their 
> email?  Am I alone, or is this commonplace and I need to check in 
> on hbd.org more frequently?

More than likely, and enterprise-wide spam filter is nuking those 
issues in which we slackers, er, I mean we Janitors miss a piece 
of spam or two. That's my guess.

- --
See ya!
Pat Babcock
Chief Slacker, er, I mean Janitor
HBD.ORG


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