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


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Contents:
  WTF: Water Analysis (IT)" <stjones@eastman.com>
  RE: Best yeast for saison ("Josh Knarr")
  Water Hardness ("A.J deLange")
  Re: Saison yeasts ("Blake Mikesell")
  Chico strain and diacetyl (Matt)
  Dark wheat (Thomas Rohner)
  Locust Bean Beer! (slaycock)


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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:35:21 -0400
From: "Jones, Steve (IT)" <stjones at eastman.com>
Subject: WTF: Water Analysis

Wow . what a brain cramp. 

I was mixing up chlorine removal and hardness removal (lime treatment).

I guess my brain stayed on vacation an extra day. That's what I get for
not
observing the break-in period after a 2 week vacation ending with a 3
day
homebrew campout!

- ------------------------------------
Steve Jones, Johnson City, TN 
[421.7, 168.5deg] AR






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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:14:04 -0400
From: "Josh Knarr" <josh.knarr at gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Best yeast for saison

Reculture it from a bottle of Saison Dupont if you're looking for
something that's immediately "classic".

I'm told from other mailing list conversations that WLP566 is exactly
this yeast (White Labs Saison II). For a recent batch of Pumpkin Ale
which I thought would do well with the flavor profile, I used a
cultured yeast from a bottle of Saison Dupont along with WLP565 (no
WLP566 available here).

Then I forgot that the conversion from AG to DME is .6, so there's
probably twice as much malt in there as is reasonable for the yeast
and style. This is going to make a very interesting beer.

- --

Fred Allen  - "California is a fine place to live - if you happen to
be an orange."


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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:54:38 -0400
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Water Hardness

I've been asked how I got total hardness of 200 ppm as CaCO3 in my 
response in #5403 to Steve Jones question in #5402. Steve reported his 
water as having 63.8 Ca++, 10.1 Mg++, 5.8 Na+, 6.7 SO4--, 13 Cl- and 230 
HCO3- with no units specified. Given  the usual way of doing things we 
assume all numbers to be mg/L "as the metal" in the case of calcium, 
magnesium and sodium, and "as the ion" in the case of the other species. 
To test this hypothesis I assume a pH of about 7 and see if the water's 
cation/anion balance is good which it is. Thus we look at 63.8 mg/L 
calcium ion with an equivalent weight of 20 which gives 3.19 
milliequivalents/L calcium and 10.1 mg/L magnesium with an equivalent 
weight of 12.15 for 0.83 mEq/L magnesium and thus a total hardness of 
4.02 mEq/L. Because 100 mg/L calcium carbonate dissolved by carbonic 
acid (the usual mechanism in natural waters) results in 2 mEq/L calcium 
hardness and 2 mEq/L alkalinity water chemists commonly multiply mEq/L 
by 50 to get 100  "ppm as CaCO3" harness and 100 ppm as CaCO3 alkalinity 
from 100 mg CaCO3.  These are the usual units for specifying hardness 
and alkalinity. Doing this gives 201 ppm as CaCO3 for Steve's water 
which I rounded to 200. That's it!

A.J.


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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:12:54 -0400
From: "Blake Mikesell" <blake.mikesell at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Saison yeasts

Doug,

This is a newer strain, and not even labelled a Saison yeast strain,
but I'll be using it a lot in the future.

>From Wyeast's site:

Wyeast 3726 PC Farmhouse Ale
This strain produces complex esters balanced with earthy/spicy notes.
Slightly tart and dry with a peppery finish. A perfect strain for
farmhouse ales and saisons.
Attenuation                 74-79%
Alc. Tolerance            12%
Flocculation                variable
Temperature Range     70-95F (21-35C)

I like this one because it gives more of the Fantome style saison
traits, more of the funky qualities that one doesn't always find in
other yeast strains.  I have used it to make a standard saison, and a
fruited wild ale, and both came out with great success.

Unfortunately/fortunately, this is a seasonal strain by Wyeast and if
you wish to keep using it, you'll have to harvest the yeast yourself.
The advantage is that you can save money not buying packets all the
time, and the one extra step isn't all that difficult.

I'm sure there will be others with much more information than I have
on this subject.

Blake


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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:30:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Chico strain and diacetyl

I'd love to hear any experiences or wisdom people have
about what would cause the Chico (WY1056/WLP001/US-05)
ale strain to leave noticable diacetyl.  I've had some
experiences in which the dry version US-05 leaves
residual diacetyl when using two packs (rehydrated in
85F water) for 5 gallons of 13P all-grain beer.  (BTW
I do not crash cool my beer before the 2 week point.)

I know "standard wisdom" is that the Chico strain is 
very clean (which is why I use it, for certain pseudo-
lager-ish beers).  However, "Brew Like a Monk" quotes
Vinnie Cilurzo as stating that it can spit out diacetyl
above 68F (I assume he means enough diacetyl that it may
not get entirely mopped up later on--obviously at least
some diacetyl would be produced at any temperature).

My experience is somewhat consistent with this statement,
in that I generally don't get noticable residual diacetyl
when the initial (pre-slowdown) portion of the ferment
takes place at 66F or lower.  But I'd like to hear about
what other people have experienced with this strain.

Any thoughts?

Matt



      


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Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:36:53 +0200
From: Thomas Rohner <t.rohner at bluewin.ch>
Subject: Dark wheat

Hi Aaron

i'm a fan of simple receipes as well.
The last dark wheat i made was with a 50/50 grist (pils/dark wheat).
It doesn't get very dark, certainly not "porterish". If i want it that way,
i'd go for 50% dark wheat, 35% pils , 15% munich and some
1-2% high-SRM stuff like Carafa or choc. I don't like to use more
than 50% wheat malt(light or dark), because of the sparge problems.
I also don't like to use too much of the high-SRM malts, because
they tend to impart a burnt flavour imho.
While a "helles weizen" rather looses it's typical signature with aging,
a "dunkelweizen" mellows over time and gets better for quite a while.
(Most of the time, that's as long as it lasts...)
Your recipe suggestion makes sense to me, maybe a bit more munich
and bit less choc for my taste. But if you like it really dark, your recipe
looks good. (munich at 8 SRM and choc at 500)

This year, we made 3 batches of "helles weizen", a raspberry wheat
and instead of a regular dark, we made a dark wheat bock Aventinus-clone.

as my post was rejected originally due to the 80 char limit, i have read the
posts already answering your question. I see it the same way they do.


Cheers  Thomas


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Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:09:54 -0500 (CDT)
From: slaycock at discoverynet.com
Subject: Locust Bean Beer!

Here's one for your strange request file..
A friend of a friend has heard of a "Locust Bean Beer" and was asking if I
heard or know how to make such a concoction.

Anybody have any ideas? Or sources I might check out for such.

Thanks for any help!
Steve Laycock
High Water Brewhaus
Pleasant Hill Mo.

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