HOMEBREW Digest #513 Tue 09 October 1990

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


Contents:
  Solder: the final chapter (?) ("Gary F. Mason - Image Systems  08-Oct-1990 0803")
  A bit of Homebrew History? (Jeff Benson)
  % alcohol (Chip Hitchcock)
  Cider and Alt (POST)
  Re: Cider techniques (dw)
  Dark Pale Ale (krweiss)
  Anchor Tours (MIKBRO)
  Mead in London... (WITHALL)
  Re:  "distilling"; shipping (Rick Noah Zucker)
  Boiling beer????  (greg roody)
  legalities (Kevin Karplus)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 05:05:47 PDT From: "Gary F. Mason - Image Systems 08-Oct-1990 0803" <mason at habs11.enet.dec.com> Subject: Solder: the final chapter (?) >to be said. Someone here was talking about building a wort chiller and >using silver solder to make the connections. I looked up the Alas, the silver solder remark was probably made by me. It unfortunately was a "slip of the term". I do know better, and did indeed use non-lead based solder to build the chiller. I was going to enter a note to that effect at the time, but the issue seemed to have been satisfactorily resolved, and I didn't want to contribute to the furtherance of the dialog. Sorry for the loose end. Cheers...Gary Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 8:55:25 CDT From: Jeff Benson <benson at chemsun.chem.umn.edu> Subject: A bit of Homebrew History? Here's a question for you homebrewing old-timers ;-). My girlfriend recently came across a series of craft books called _The Family Creative Workshop_ (Plenary Publications Intl., Inc. 1974). Their content and style are sort of like Time-Life Books meets Foxfire. Anyway, in volume 3 was a chapter titled "Brewing With Roots and Herbs" by Nicholas E. Leddo. On page 293, Mr. Leddo writes: "At the present time, federal law prohibits the home brewing of beers made of fermented hops and malt. You cannot get a license to make your own brew as you can to make your own wine, but no law prohibits making the old-time soft beers ..." From there he launches into descriptions of how to make root, ginger, spring beers and others. My question is this: was homebrewing as we know it now illegal back in 1974 when this book was published? I have been brewing for about 5 years and I have never had an inkling that making beer at home was a federal offense so short a time ago. If I thought of it at all, I guess I assumed the right was granted when prohibition was repealed. So what's the straight dope? I'm sure a lot of other homebrewing "youngsters" would like to hear some history on this subject. Jeff Benson benson at chemsun.chem.umn.edu "Don't want no drugs, don't want no liquor. All I want is the keys to your Ferrari." -Thomas Dolby - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 10:09:16 EDT From: cjh at vallance.eng.ileaf.com (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: % alcohol > From: perley at easygoer.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley) > > Fresh cider is typically 1.045-1.050. If after you add the brown sugar > and honey the SG would be in the 1.090 range. That would be distinctly > on the low side for wine. I don't have conversion factors handy, but > probably around 9-10% alchohol if you ferment out to < 1.000 On my hydrometer, 1% potential alcohol corresponds to ~.075 SG (changes slightly as OG goes up); fermenting from 1.09 to 1.00 should give you 12% alcohol, which is low-average for wine (most of the bottles I've seen marked said 12.5%). Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 08:55 PDT From: POST at VAXT.llnl.gov Subject: Cider and Alt Two questions for the multitudes... 1) My cider (5 gal) is still in the fridge, although fermentation appears complete. It is still quit cloudy, however. I have racked it into another carboy, but it doesn't appear to be close to clearing. Should I consider Polyclar or something? 2) The worst possible thing happened while sparging yesterday. The valve on my Zapap-style lauter tun popped off just as I filled it with mash, resulting in an absolute mess. Luckily, I had my pot close by and managed to catch most of it...This was an altbier, with 7 lbs of lager malt, 4 oz. of black patent, 8 oz. 80L crystal, and 5 oz. chocolate malt. I only ended up with an initial gravity of 29, which suprised the hell out of me, since I had a *very* sticky mess on the floor. The sparge went vey fast, and I never really did get the filter bed set. I had one helluva break though... BTW, I cultured up a starter from a bottle of Red Tail Ale from Mendocino Brewing Co. The ale is one of my favorites, so this should be interesting... john Return to table of contents
Date: 8 Oct 90 09:18:24 EDT (Monday) From: dw <wegeng at risia.xerox.com> Subject: Re: Cider techniques According to one book that I read, the secret to making good hard cider is to choose the right types of apples. According to the author, sweet apples do not make good hard cider because the basic flavors are not suitable. Tart apples, on the other hand, will produce better hard cider. The problem, of course, is that few suppliers sell sweet cider produced from tart apples. There are a couple solutions. One is to obtain a cider press and make your own sweet cider from scratch. Or if you live near an apple growing region, another solution is to find a knowledgable cider supplier who can help you find a suitable sweet cider. /Don Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 08:47:18 -0700 From: krweiss at ucdavis.edu Subject: Dark Pale Ale Damn. I bought materials to brew two batches -- an India Pale Ale, and a dark ale with ginger. Among the miscellaneous ingredients were included 7 lbs. each of light and dark bulk malt extract. I brewed the dark ale first, using straight extract with 4 oz. of ginger added. It seemed a little pale when I racked from primary to secondary, but what the heck. Upon cooking up the IPA, however, it became clear that my friendly local brewshop had mis-labeled the pails of bulk extract, switching light for dark. So, what do you call a beer with 7 lb. of dark extract, 2 lb. of crystal malt, 2 oz. of Northern Brewer, and 1 oz. of Kent Goldings for finishing? It sure won't be IPA! Oh well, it's just a good thing I'll drink anything! HBD 512 (half a K of HBD's!) included two different notes from people who either had problems with getting liquid cultures started, or just thought they were more trouble than they are worth. As a former die-hard dry yeast user I have to say that switching to liquid yeast made a large improvement in the quality and consistency of my beer. I haven't had problems with getting the starter to kick in, but the note mentioned "a handful of leaf hops." Everything I've read says to use _a single hop cone_, which is *way* less than a handful. Personally, I don't even use that. I just boil 3/4 c. of syrup extract in about a pint of water for 10 minutes, chill, put it in a wine bottle and pitch the yeast. I've always had this problem with carrying relaxation to the point of abject laziness. I'd be interested in some comments on the relative quality of leaf vs. pelletized hops. Anyone out there (c'mon, Pete!) done a good A/B comparison of the two? Ken Weiss krweiss at ucdavis.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 1990 9:59:40 MDT From: MIKBRO at zen.radiology.arizona.edu Subject: Anchor Tours Hi, I will be visiting San Francisco and will have a free day on Friday, October 12th. I am interested in visiting the Anchor Brewery and am wondering if anyone has any information about tours ie. where the brewery is, what hours they give tours, if they have any tours besides those open to the general public for those more interested in brewing than the average drinker, etc. Thanks, Mike Browne (mikbro at zen.radiology.arizona.edu) Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 90 11:52 EDT From: <WITHALL%CTSTATEU.BITNET at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Mead in London... Greetings all, I am going this winter break to London for two weeks, and was wondering where I would be able to purchase mead there. Anyone have any suggestions on places to look? Also I have had VERY little luck in finding mead in the Connecticut area..I was told upstate New York might be a good place to find mead as well as Boston.. Has anyone else found mead in these areas? Also I want to thank everyone for their replies to my cider question. Is there anyone out there who has tried adding fruit to mead? Like a cherry mead with ginger? (I am trying to work out a recipe..) Oh and has anyone made plain hot spiced cider? I have the spices but am not what wines or brandies would go well in mulled cider. - Lisa Withall Brynn Silenus (SCA) WITHALL at CTSTATEU Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 11:12:09 -0700 From: noah at cs.washington.edu (Rick Noah Zucker) Subject: Re: "distilling"; shipping >From: cjh at vallance.eng.ileaf.com (Chip Hitchcock) > >Gary Heston: >> I think the prohibition is against the process of distillation, not a limit >> on naturally fermented content. If anyone develops a strain of yeast that'll >> keep going, let me know..... > > Does anyone know just what the wording of the prohibition is? People in cold >climates used to produce "winter wine" of 20-25%(?) alcohol by putting the >wine out on cold nights and throwing away the (mostly water) ice each morning; >I don't know that this would be worthwhile with beer (unless you wanted to try >a strange way of making something as strong as ]barley wine[), but it could >be interesting with mead, fruit mead, or even high-proof hard cider. Actually this is done in Germany. It is done with a style called Eisbock (ice bock). I'd have to look it up to get more information. Rick Zucker Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 12:26:23 PDT From: greg roody <roody at whzguy.enet.dec.com> Subject: Boiling beer???? In HBR #511, Russ Gelinas mentioned that he had boiled a nearly fermented wort to cure an infection. Well, the boiling point of alcohol is 78.4 C, and by the time the wort was boiling, there was probably no measurable alcohol left in solution. If there were also no fermentable sugars left, then pitching more yeast would probably have no effect. What he did was probably pretty close to creating a non-alcoholic beer. (too bad he didn't put the 78 degree blowoff through a distilation column, it'd probably have a heck of a kick..........8^) /greg roody the opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of anyone at all/ Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 90 13:09:54 PDT From: Kevin Karplus <karplus at ararat.ucsc.edu> Subject: legalities I don't have the details, but the federal rule is (or used to be) that the head of a household can make up to 200 gallons of wine or beer for household consumption only, without paying taxes. Any form of distillation, including freeze-distilling, is illegal without a license. (Incidentally, I've heard that applejack is a particularly nasty source of fusel oils.) Many states prohibit the brewing of beer at home---the large breweries got those nasty laws passed to protect their monopolies. Some of the laws have since been repealed, but don't offer the local cops a home-brew until you're sure of your local and state laws! Kevin Karplus Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #513, 10/09/90 ************************************* -------
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