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


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Contents:
  Under hopped beers ("Peter A. Ensminger")
  Kansas City Bier Meisters 24th Annual Competition (3rbecks)
  RE: Under hopped beers ("Doug Moyer")
  Re: Under hopped beers ("Dave and Joan King")
  Underhopped beer ("William Frazier")
  Honey for bulk Priming (Andrew Calder)
  RE: To HERMS or not to HERMS... (Nate & Brenda Wahl)


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2007 01:16:42 -0500
From: "Peter A. Ensminger" <ensmingr at twcny.rr.com>
Subject: Under hopped beers

Hoptech (www.hoptech.com) sells an "iso-alpha extract" that can be used 
to remedy an under-hopped beer. I've never used it, but according to 
Hoptech:

This extract contains pure iso-alpha acids, which can be added to beer 
at any stage (post fermentation is best) to add up to 50% of its 
bitterness. (Not recommended for bittering your beer entirely since 
there are secondary benefits from wort boiling with hops.) However, our 
Iso-Alpha extract is useful for correcting an under-bittered beer and 
also for training yourself to judge bitterness levels. The Iso-Alpha 
extract can be added at any stage of brewing, but best utilization will 
occur if added just prior to bottling or to the serving keg. Simply add 
1/8th of a teaspoon to 5 gallons of beer for each single IBU you want. 
Supplied in a 2 oz bottle, enough to add 16 IBUs to 30 gallons of beer.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!
Peter A. Ensminger
Syracuse, NY
Apparent Rennerian: [394, 79.9]





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Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 02:51:55 -0600
From: <3rbecks at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Kansas City Bier Meisters 24th Annual Competition

The 24th Annual KCBM competition is Feb 16 and 17th at Flying Monkey
Brewery in Olathe, KS. Saturday evening's keynote speaker is John
Palmer author of "How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know To Brew
Beer."

This is an MCAB X qualifying event..

The entry fee is $6 per entry.  If you submit 5 or more entries under
the same brewer name, the fee is reduced to $5 per entry.
Three bottles need to be submitted for each entry.

Events Registration

Breakfast - Free

Beer Tasting - $10 at Lukas Liquor Store

Dinner - It's Just Beer $20 - by our own master Chef Jim Nelson.

Package deal (beer tasting and dinner) - $25

Please keep watching our website www.kcbiermeisters.org  for updated 
information and entry
labels and you may contact Neava Ford at missneava at kc.rr.com for more
information."







Listening to someone who brews his own beer is like listening to a religious 
fanatic talk about the day he saw the light.
 - Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette, 1991 




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Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 10:09:24 -0500
From: "Doug Moyer" <shyzaboy at yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: Under hopped beers

> From: "Keith Christian" <kchristian at surfside.net>
> Subject: Under hopped beers
>
> Hi,
>
> I have some under hopped beers.  Some is in a keg.  It is a hopped with
> Saaz.  The other beer is in the fermentor and is hopped with Crystal and
> Saaz.


I assume you mean you don't have sufficient bitterness. If so, you need hop 
extract, not hop oils (to add flavor/aroma).

Several homebrew suppliers sell hop extract:

http://www.hoptech.com/cart/cart.php?target=category&category_id=302

If, in fact, you do need hop aroma or flavor, you can dry hop the keg.

Brew on!
Doug Moyer
Troutville, VA

Star City Brewers Guild: http://www.starcitybrewers.org

Beer, brewing, travel & kids: http://shyzaboy.blogsome.com




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Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 17:13:55 -0500
From: "Dave and Joan King" <dking3 at stny.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Under hopped beers

Keith wants to add some hop character to his beer, after fermentation.  I've 
done this with kegged IPA's that didn't have adequate bitterness.  I use 
Rager method to calculate IBU, and just did the calculation based on the 5 
gallons, and the AA%, ounces of hops, and boil time, with S.G. = 1.000, 
since I boiled the hops in plain water, about a pint.  I then dumped the 
pint in the keg.  It seemed to work fine.  I think it was in the ball park 
of 1 oz of an 8% AA pelletized hop, and I boiled for 25 or 35 minutes.  I 
like my IPA's real bitter, and there's a saturation affect above 70 or 80 
IBU, so there's not much need to be super precise here.  If you're doing a 
delicate balancing act at a lower IBU level, that's trickier.

If you want flavor added, try an 11 minute boil, but you'll be adding some 
bitterness, again, I'd use Rager to see how many IBU that would be.

Obviously, for aroma, don't boil, just "dry hop" the pellets, or better yet, 
whole or plug hops, in a hop bag and pitch them in.  I add a weight if it's 
a secondary fermenter, and a hollow float if it's a keg.

Try it and let us know how it works.

By the way, did anyone see Randy Mosher on "The Beer Nuts" in Chicago?  It 
was a good show, since Randy really knows beer, too bad the Beer Nuts don't. 
If they keep doing the show, eventually they should pick something up.

  Hoppily Yours,

      Dave King, BIER
      http://www.thebierclub.com/
      [396.1, 89.1] Apparent Rennerian
 




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Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 21:49:43 -0600
From: "William Frazier" <billfrazier at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Underhopped beer

Check out Hoptech.com.  They have hop oil for bittering.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas USA



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Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 21:02:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Andrew Calder <arcalder2000 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Honey for bulk Priming

Howdy All,

I've been away from brewing for about 1-1/2 years and
I just brewed a honey porter and it has been the
secondary fermenter for a week.  I'm getting ready to
bottle and I was thinking about using honey as my
priming sugar at a suggestion of a fellow brewer. 
Charlie Papazian suggest 1/2 cup of honey for priming
in The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing and 1 cup of
honey for priming in The Home Brewer's Companion.  Has
anyone out there used honey for bulk priming?  If so,
in what amount for a 5 gallon batch?

Thanks,
Andrew Calder
New Lenox, IL

Hope this helps,
Andrew Calder
New Lenox, IL



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Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2007 06:46:03 -0500
From: Nate & Brenda Wahl <cruiser570 at verizon.net>
Subject: RE: To HERMS or not to HERMS...

In HBD 5120, Dirk Bridgedale brought up what I think is a very important 
point; insulation of the brewing vessels.  Its amazing how many folks' 
brew sculptures there are out there that are so well designed, but no 
insulation is used.  Altho I disagree with some of the HERMS comments 
about ramp times and other disadvantages, I've also found good 
performance gains by well insulating both my HLT and Mash Tun.

This is one area where the converted cooler folks have a clear 
advantage, it only makes sense not to be throwing all that heat away!  
Plus it would minimize the need for things like having to put a stirrer 
on the HLT if it was well designed.

As for ramp times, I'd argue that yes, there is a longish delay from the 
time you start raising the temperature until the tun outlet actually 
gets there, but it only looks like the entire grainbed takes that long 
to ramp up.  But the whole mass doesn't act uniformly like that in 
reality. 

Think of it as almost being in distinct layers.  As you recirc, the top 
'layer' raises quickly and stabilizes, then the next layer, and so on, 
as the hotter wort seeps and trickles down through the mash.  Especially 
in an insulated vessel!  Each individual layer doesn't spend long coming 
up to temperature, but they heat sequentially, that's why it looks like 
it takes as long as it does.  I did a lot of measuring with a long probe 
thermometer when I first started using my system, and you can actually 
see it work this way. When the insulation was added things went a bit 
quicker, but not surprisingly there was much less variation across the 
grainbed. FWIW.

Cheers,
Nate Wahl
Oak Harbor, GO BUCKS
64.3, 145.8




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