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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

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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
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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%).

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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

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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

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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


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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)

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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


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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

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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/
 

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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

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #513, 10/09/90
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