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


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Contents:
  Re: HBD - old brewing supplies (Randall Ricchi)
  Old Supplies (Glyn and Mary)
  WLP 300 ("Darrell G. Leavitt")
  RE: Year old grain - Will I catch ergot and fly? ("Josh Knarr")
  Should I drink contaminated beer? (Tom Puskar)


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Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:01:00 -0500
From: Randall Ricchi <rricchi at houghton.k12.mi.us>
Subject: Re: HBD - old brewing supplies

Rich,
ALL of the supplies you mention are still good, including the hops 
(assuming you store them in the freezer, preferably sealed from the air)

I recently brewed an 18th century style porter using 5 year old brown 
and amber malts, plus some year old crystal, victory and biscuit malt. 
The beer is very rich and coffee-like, nothing stale about it. I've used 
hops that were several years old because I used to buy plugs that came 
in 50 oz packages, so they lasted awhile.I've gone 3 to 4 years out with 
no degradation of flavor. Maybe they were slightly less bitter due to 
alpha loss, but I couldn't tell.
 I keep mine vacuum sealed, but if you can't do that, keep them in a 
heavy plastic bag and roll the air out of it before sealing and then 
store them in the freezer.


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Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 05:36:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Glyn and Mary <graininfuser at yahoo.com>
Subject: Old Supplies

Old grain if un-crushed will work, just not as well as fresh. If
crushed toss it. Have the hops been kept frozen? Whole or
pellet? The alpha acids will decrease over time. I think
Pro-mash has a calculation for the decrease. But with hop
prices I would probably still use if they smelled good.

Any one in middle TN want to try a barrel aged ??? I would
be happy to add 10 gallons of whatever for the project.

Glyn
So. Middle TN



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Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 08:53:44 -0500 (EST)
From: "Darrell G. Leavitt" <leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu>
Subject: WLP 300

Any of you folks have experience with wlp 300 Hefe?  I know that in
general it seems to ferment more slowly, or erratically, ie, it sometimes
seems to have stopped then a few days later it will started up again.

In addition, I wonder if fermenting at too high a temperature may be a
problem?  I ask in that the smell from the airlock on the previous batch
was very nice, hefe-like.  Whereas, the smell from the airlock on this 3rd
use of the yeast, is rather different.  Hard to describe, perhaps estery
or phenolic?  Not pleasant, at any rate, and I wonder about the effect on
the final flavor profile?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Darrell



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Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 09:22:26 -0500
From: "Josh Knarr" <josh.knarr at gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Year old grain - Will I catch ergot and fly?

I think the idea here would be "follow your nose".

The grain pre-beer would taste and smell exactly like an infected or
otherwise abused batch of beer if there's a problem. The flavors might not
be as vibrant if the grain is pre-cracked, but so long as you detect no off
flavors or smells, I would still try making a batch of beer with it. I would
humbly suggest trying to make a one gallon batch first of "coffee pot"* beer
and seeing how that goes as a test. It's a lot less effort, and it's all
grain so any weird flavors you get will be directly a result of the grain.

* http://www.allaboutbeer.com/features/235coffee.html

- --

Bill Vaughan  - "The tax collector must love poor people, he's
creating so many of them."


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Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:29:23 -0500
From: Tom Puskar <tpuskar at optonline.net>
Subject: Should I drink contaminated beer?

I've been brewing for about 15 years and have probably brewed between 80-100 
batches--mostly all grain.  I've never had a contaminated batch--until now!

On 4 October I brewed an all grain version of a Marzen/Octoberfest (made it 
as an ale instead of a lager).  The batch went great and had an OG of about 
1.054

I pitched one of those ready to pitch tubes of a Kolsch yeast and started 
planning the label I would create for this brew.  After three days, there 
was no visible sign of fermentation and I got worried.  temp was about 68F. 
There was, however, a spider web looking growth on the surface of the brew. 
I guessed it was a mold.  I probably should have tossed it and started over.

I checked the gravity and it hadn't changed at all.  I figured I had already 
paid for the stuff and invested the time in brewing so I pitched a packet of 
dry ale yeast that I keep around for spontaneous brew sessions.  I had never 
used these tubes before (and probably won't again) and am a devotee of the 
smack packs.  Within 8 hours there was signs of fermentation and in the 
morning there was a vigorous fermentation.  After another 3 days (had to go 
on a business trip) I checked the gravity and it was down to 1.014  I 
thought maybe I had salvaged it.

I racked it to a secondary and it looked a bit cloudy but not bad.  After a 
week or so in the secondary I bottled it (about a week ago).   I checked it 
today and sure as God made little green apples, there was that dreaded ring 
in the neck that I had read about but was fortunate enough not to ever 
experience.

After this long winded story, my question is this.  Should I try it and if 
it tastes reasonable just chill it and drink it?  Or, will some dreaded 
gastrointestinal plague befall me and anyone who drinks it?

I have another horror story with an IPA I brewed the following week and it 
will be the subject of a new post once I do some investigating.

The yeasts I used for both the Marzen and the IPA had expiration dates of 
Nov 2008 and I used them in Oct.  I'm really gun shy about using this brand 
of yeast again and will search out a supplier who still sells the smack 
packs.

Any relevant information or experience with these tubes would be 
appreciated.   Since I don't want to bash any suppliers, I didn't mention 
the names but you know who they are!

Thanks,

Tom in Howell, NJ 





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