---

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


Contents:
  ballistic root beer (mage!lou)
  Re: Wiezen yeast (Chris Shenton)
  Re: Homebrew Digest #619 (April 19, 1991) (Jay Gerstenschlager)
  doppelbock recipe (Darryl Richman)
  Spokane red (PIERCE)
  homebrew doppelbock (Ted Manahan)
  root beers (Thomas Manteufel 4-6589)
  Water and brewing, a summary. ("DRCV06::GRAHAM")
  Sterilizing, cleaning copper in chillers (BAUGHMANKR)
  Re: Pub Database (bob)
  remove me from the list (Raymond Degennaro)
  Re: Infected Batch (Algis R Korzonas +1 708 979 8583)
  Re: Jackson book. (Algis R Korzonas +1 708 979 8583)
  Re: Homebrew Digest #619 (April 19, 1991) (Charles Anderson)
  Cooking with homebrew (Kenneth R. van Wyk)
  Re: Root Beer question (Paul Bigelow)
  too much body (Jim Anderson)
  chilling wort (mage!lou)
  Water water everywhere (Randy Tidd)
  Dry Hops (Doug Dreger)


Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmi at hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmi at hplabs.hp.com
[Please do not send me requests for back issues]
Archives are available from netlib at mthvax.cs.miami.edu


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 07:58:42 MDT
From: hplabs!mage!lou
Subject: ballistic root beer

There's been some traffic lately regarding root beers and exploding bottles.  I
don't brew the stuff myself, but I wonder if those who do have tried using
lactose or some other non-fermentable sugar to get the sweetness and only
include enough fermentables to get carbonation.

Louis Clark


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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 10:20:49 EDT
From: Chris Shenton <chris at asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: Wiezen yeast

On Wed, 17 Apr 1991 13:35:29 -0400, hplabs!bnr-vpa!bnr-rsc!crick (Bill Crick) said:

Bill> Mev does a pure S.Delbruckii culture, Mev 033. 

Bill> As far as getting the Mev yeast, they do have a US distributer, but I 
Bill> don't know who.

I've gotten MeV from Brewhaus in Knoxville, TN.

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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 7:33:25 MDT
From: Jay Gerstenschlager <jayg at hpsidjg.sid.hp.com>
Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #619 (April 19, 1991)
Full-Name: Jay Gerstenschlager

Hello,   
        Thank you for placing my name on the distribution list.   
        I am enjoying the Home Brew digest.       
       Regards 
       Jay G. 



- --
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jay Gerstenschlager                            /\/\
Scientific Instruments Division               / /\ \_______/\____/\___
1601 California Ave., Palo Alto, Ca. 94304  _/_//\\_______/  \_______
(415) 857-8292                              _/\/  \____/\________ 
jayg at hpsidjg.sid.hp.com                     /  \___/\__________

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 08:00:45 -0700
From: darryl at ism.isc.com (Darryl Richman)
Subject: doppelbock recipe

> >From: mbharrington at UCSD.EDU
> Subject: looking to imitate Celebrator/Salvator
> 
> Two of my favorite beers are Celebrator and Salvator, and I have partly
> taken up homebrewing to save some money, as my local store sells these
> beers for $2 a bottle.  (Plus, homebrewing is great fun!)  Anyhow,
> I'd like to make a doppelbock with a minimum chance of goofing
> it up.  Perhaps someone could recommend a kit?

Well, I can't recommend a kit, but I've had success making a Salvator-like
doppelbock in the past.  I wrote an article for the Maltose Falcons
newsletter a while back, and since I still have it lying about, here it
is (sorry about the length, but...)

Thinking About Beer:
		More About Recipe Formulation
			by Darryl Richman

Brewing the 1st place Bock beer wasn't a slap-dash effort.  It's the
second bock I've attempted, and the first was a disaster.  Let me lead
you through the development of the recipe for this beer, in a
qualitative rather than quantitative way.  You don't need the specific
numbers for this and that if you understand why you need to do
something.

First, let me tell you what I want to make:  Paulaner Salvator.  See, I
have a goal in mind.  I like that beer because, although it is big and
malty as a doppelbock should be, it isn't overbearingly so, like EKU 28,
which I find to be cloyingly sweet and unbalanced.  Salvator actually
has a reasonably dry finish, and a hint of hops in the aftertaste to
keep you from getting tired of it.  The beer is dark brown, but not
opaque.  There is no hop aroma, and very little flavor from the hops in
the mouth.

My first approach was to look at the beer and say to myself "it's dark...
add some black malt.  A little bit of Munich malt as an adjunct.  And
throw in lots of that klages malt to get the body that we need."  But
all of that malt needs a lot of sparge water to get the full extract
from the grain.  Lots more volume than I can fit into my boiling pot.
Barleywines are made from only the first runnings, and what's left is
used to make low gravity Mild. Finally, I thought, "only use boiling
hops-we don't want any aromatics."

So I made a big, black lager beer.  It wasn't opaque, as I had wanted,
but it wasn't the right color, either.  It was malty, but it didn't have
the right malt character to it.  It had that black malt bite that
wouldn't smooth out with aging.  In short, it was very little like
Salvator.

What was wrong?  I turned out a fine beer.  It was clean and malty.  But
I had shot far wide of the style.  Clearly, I needed to understand the
style better before I could make my beer.

What malt is used to make a bock?  The style comes from Bavaria; the
Paulaner brewery is one of the big six in Munich.  I had used a bit of
Munich malt--about 10%--as an adjunct.  But Munich malt is a natural,
local malt for a brewer to use there.  It is also darker than the very
pale 2 row klages, although not by a lot.  Munich malt is noted for its
toasty character, and that toasty aroma was precisely what my beer
needed.  Clearly I was onto something here:  try to make the beer with
more of the indigenous ingredients.

I was not displeased with the hopping in my first attempt. It was the
only thing about the beer that seemed to be right.  I had used
exclusively Hallertau hops, and that seemed to be right.  It's best not
to mess with things that work.

Fred Eckardt, in his "The Essentials of Beer Style," said that I needed an
original gravity in the mid 70s.  I had done that by using enough malt
to make a 90s gravity beer, if all the extract could have been pulled
into the required volume.  Of course, barleywines are special beers,
made only occasionally.  Bocks and doppelbocks are much more frequently
made, and I reasoned that the thrifty brewer wouldn't waste valuable
extract on a regular basis.

Well, if I couldn't get the needed extract into less water, I would have
to remove some of the water afterwards, by boiling.  Hmmm, a long boil
would definitely caramelize some of the sugars and darken the beer.
Bingo!  By reducing the beer in the boil, I could get the extract and
darken the beer to the right color, while controlling the volume.  The
pieces of the puzzle fit into place.

So that is what I set out to do. Here is my recipe for 15 gallons of
all-grain Bock Aasswards:

	24 lbs.	Munich malt
	 6	Vienna malt
	 6	2 row Klages malt
	 1.5	80L Crystal malt

I treated my medium hard water with 18 grams of Calcium Bicarbonate.  I
mashed in with 10.5 gallons of water, which is about 1 1/8 quarts per
pound--pretty thick mashing!  This was dictated by the size of my mash
tun, which I filled right to the brim.  I followed a mash program of
0:50 at 50C, 0:20 at 58, 0:40 at 65, 1:30 at 70, and a mash off for
0:15 at 77.

I sparged for almost an hour and a half, collecting 19 gallons at the
end.  I determined the end point when I could no longer perceive any
sweetness in the runoff (at about 1.010 gravity).

At this point, I had to boil in two pots.  I boiled for a total of 3:20,
until the volume was down to about 13 gallons.  As the volume decreased
in my regular kettle, I added back the wort from my other pot.  Getting
down to 13 gallons was also dictated by my setup, as I cannot get a good
whirlpool at the end of the boil without 2 gallons of headspace.  I
added my hops (200 grams of Hallertau pellets) about 2:00 into the boil,
not being quite certain how long the boil would have to continue.  The
result of this was a beautiful brown wort with lots of red highlights.

I pitched this with a 2 liter starter I had retrieved from a batch of
lager I had just made with an AB yeast strain.  This wasn't my intent,
but the starter of Bavarian yeast I had made didn't smell right.  The AB
yeast likes relatively warm conditions (50-55F), but I held it down at
48 for the primary.  The original gravity, adjusted to 15 gallons, was
1.075.  After three weeks I racked it and topped it up to 15 gallons,
and brought it down to 36F.

I bottled 5 gallons 6 weeks later with 130 grams of dextrose with a
final gravity of 1.022.  That yields a beer of about 6.5-7% v/v, which
is perfect.  Then I put the bottled beer back into my thermostat-rigged
chest freezer and held it up to the present at 36F.  The other ten
gallons went into two kegs, which I carbonated by overpressuring.

I'm not going to claim that this is the way to make an authentic bock.
In fact, I'm not going to claim that this is at all authentic, because I
don't know.  What I do know is that I was able to reason my way to
making what I think is an authentic-tasting bock beer, and the 2nd round
judges at the AHA National Competition seem to agree.

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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 08:31 PST
From: PIERCE%GONZAGA.BITNET at CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu
Subject: Spokane red

In addition to Fort Spokane Brewery and Jim's Homebrew (now of
course run by Bob) Spokane also has a wonderful tavern with over
20 beers on tap, most of them from microbreweries in the Northwest.
It is the Viking and is only about six blocks from downtown.  The only
thing we can't find beerwise is a good homebrew club.  We moved down
from Anchorage last year and the Great Northern Brewers, the club in
Anchorage, is sorely missed.  In addition to the places mentioned
above Hale's Brewery will be moving from Colville, Washington to
Spokane sometime this year so another beer attraction will be avialable.

Linda Pierce

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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 09:04:28 pdt
From: Ted Manahan <tedm at hpcvcbp.cv.hp.com>
Subject: homebrew doppelbock

mbharrington at UCSD.EDU writes:
> I'd like to make a doppelbock with a minimum chance of goofing
> it up.  Perhaps someone could recommend a kit?

Well, maybe not the simplest recipe, but I made 'potlatch doppelbock'
from _The_Complete_Joy_Of_Homebrewing_. This is a partial extract
recipe. 

I had a lot of trouble with temperature control with that batch. The
temp was all over the map, back and forth, too hot and then too cool.
None the less, the beer was one of my best batches ever! Well ballanced,
smooth, and rich.  Try it!

Ted Manahan
tedm at hp-pcd.cv.hp.com

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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 12:05:55 CDT
From: tomm at pet.med.ge.com (Thomas Manteufel 4-6589)
Subject: root beers

while we're on the subject, does anyone care to share a recipe for a GOOD
root beer (or other soda).  i want something better than "add the extract
and X pounds [kg] generic cheapo sugar and a bunch of yeast."

thank you,
thomas manteufel



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Date: 19 Apr 91 14:24:00 EDT
From: "DRCV06::GRAHAM" <graham%drcv06.decnet at drcvax.af.mil>
Subject: Water and brewing, a summary.

Firstly, many thanks to the many who emailed me directly about water 
treatment and purification.  I've also read, (had read to me ... I'm nearly 
blind ... ), some relevant literature on water.  I also had a long 
conversation with a water chemist at The Water Test Corp., in Manchester, 
NH.

What I've learned is that the water purification scene is confusing and 
there are contradictary claims aplenty.  These seem to be the main kinds of 
purification and filtering methods:  Boiling, charcoal filtering, carbon 
block filtering, UV sterilization, reverse osmosis, distillation and 
deionization.

A lot of the people who wrote to me said they boiled their water before 
using it to brew.  This can be useful if it is boiled for an hour and 
allowed to sit until cool so there can be a "cold break" and an opportunito 
to get rid of the sediments on the bottom of the boiling vessal.  Boiling 
also gets rid of most of the chlorine and a good portion of the volitile 
organics like benzine and phenol.  The problem with the organics is that 
once out of the water, they are in the air, thusly, in your lungs.

The simple charcoal filters like the Teledyne, and others that attach to 
the faucet are only so-so.  They do remove chlorine and some organic stuff, 
but wear out very quickly and once worn out, tend to release all that stuff 
they caught at first.

The carbon block filters are pretty good if the water path through the 
carbon is long enough, say fifteen to twenty inches.  These will not remove 
the light metallic ions like sodium and potassium.  They do remove lead and 
other heavys, all organic matter and virtually all nasty chemicals.  They 
produce a very good tasting water.  Since they do not remove all minerals, 
they may leave the water just right for brewing, or some additional 
minerals may need to be added.  The good carbon blocks filter down to .75 
micron.  Most mineral ions are in the 5 nm to 80 nm range so they can't be 
removed by any type of filtering.

The ultraviolet light idea is used in high grade lab purifiers to sterilize 
the water.  Sears and Electrolux market carbon block filters with 
Ultraviolet lights.  The water passes by the UV light both before and after 
being filtered.

The reverse osmosis devices do produce very pure water.  The water is 
nearly of distilled quality in terms of total dissolved solids and mineral 
content.  Since distilled water isn't much good for brewing, these units 
probably produce water that is too pure and would need additional minerals 
in almost all brewing cases.  While this is fine as far as I am concerned, 
they are very pricy.  Unless you want to pay in excess of $1,000, you can 
only get three to siz gallons a day, which is not always adequate.  The 
carbon block filters are high volume, a gallon per minute is normal.  The 
RO units also tend not to be very portable, while a countertop carbon block 
unit is easily moved for brewing at a friend's house.  

Distillers are good if you want mineral and substance free water ... except 
for volatile organics which most non laboratory grade stills transfer from 
the source water to the distilled side intact.  Good distillation units are 
in the $1,000 to $1,500 range, so out of my range.

The deionizers are the ultimate in mineral removal.  They must be coupeled 
with some other method, however, to get rid of the organics and bacteria or 
viruses.  They tend to be expensive, but one day, I'll probably 
spring for one to piggyback on my UV carbon filter ... the best of all 
worlds.

As was obvious, I have decided on the carbon block unit with the 
ultraviolet light sterilizer.  I wonder what would happen if I modified the 
unit to use just the UV light and passed the wort by it on its way to the 
fermenter ... hmmm ...

Well, that's a thumbnail sketch of what I found out.  You can spend as much 
or as little as you wish to get pure water.  One thing I did find out was 
that most bottled water isn't worth a tinkers damn.  There are virtually no 
regulations on the water.  You could bottle some water from your pipes and 
call it "jerry's super duper spring water" in most places and there are no 
laws to stop you.

So, I'll be getting my unit on Monday, assuming it passes my wife's palate, 
she has a very sensitive water taster.  (She still thinks of the carbon 
filters as fish tank filters, even though there aren't any fish.)

I hope some of this is useful to people.  Water is a very important factor 
in beer and I want to eliminate all the potentials for disaster that I can 
do without spending the earth.

Dan Graham, WA6CNN
Beer made with the Derry air and the filtered Derry water.




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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1991 15:17 EST
From: BAUGHMANKR at CONRAD.APPSTATE.EDU
Subject: Sterilizing, cleaning copper in chillers

Darren Evans-Young hypothesized that the sterilization method he was
using for his counter-current wort chiller was the source of the
recent infection of his beer.  This is a subject dear to my heart
because I've been using (and selling) counter-current chillers for
about 8 years.  I had always stored my chillers with a mild solution
of clorox and water (1 teaspoon clorox per 1 gallon of water) in the
chiller between brewing sessions.  Since this worked for me-never an
infection in 8 years-I recommended the same to my BrewChiller
customers.

Then a friend in the plumbing business pointed out that they use
copper to sterilize swimming pools when they become real funky.  It
seems that copper has anti-bacterial properties.  Added to that
were the comments that the clorox caused little blue flakes to
form inside the copper tubing.  I've never worried about the blue
flakes because even though blue, they were sterile, and didn't seem to
affect the taste of my beer in any way.

Still blue flakes were a recurring comment and I began to consider
doing what Darren did, use boiling water to sterilize my chiller
instead of storing it with the clorox solution in the tubing.  And so
far so good, but I still do a quick 30 minute clorox soak prior to
brewing.  I'm a paranoid at heart. :-)

To insure that boiling water sterilizes the copper tubing, one must
siphon it through the tubing when the chiller is dry, that is, no water
in the "cooling chamber".  This must be done both after a brewing
session and before the next one.  So my question to Darren is: Is that
they way you handled your sterilization procedure?  If so, given what
my plumber friend said, I'd be surprised that the chiller is the
source of the infection.  Still I'm not a chemist and I'd be
interested in what the net has to say about all of this.

While we're on the subject:

A few digests back, someone pointed out that new copper has oils which
must be removed before first use of a chiller.  That's absolutely
correct.  I think they use silicone oils when extruding the copper
tubing.  I've always recommended doing a couple of clorox soaks
(1 Tablespoon clorox to 1 gallon of water, for 30 minutes) before using
copper chillers for the first time.  Following up or interspersing it
with a couple boiling hot water rinses is a good idea as well.

Cheers,

Kinney                                | Beer is my business and
baughmankr at conrad.appstate.edu        | I'm late for work.

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Date: Fri Apr 19 16:26:29 1991
From: semantic!bob at uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Re: Pub Database


KRB> John Melby's idea of putting together a database of pubs, breweries, 
KRB> and homebrew shops is a great idea.  I'd suggest sticking it in the 
KRB> archives. Beer travelers of the world could search there first before 
KRB> departure.  We could get the information we want directly and 
KRB> immediately and save our fellow brew-buddies the task of writing the 
KRB> rather lengthy exposes of such and such a place, many times repeating 
KRB> a discussion from a few months past.

Yes, Yes, Yes!  A few months ago I tried to motivate the same thing. 
(Even discussions on removing repetitiveness are repetitive)

   Remember the HBD FYI?

As for local brewpubs and good bars: I suggested an individual in each area
of the country write up a few page article on what's happening in their
area.  Upon completion this would be posted to the digest for review by the
masses. In it's final draft it would then be put on-line with the archives.
Then as it grew out of date the author would revise it and repost to digest
and finally back to the archives.

This could also work for basic homebrew subjects.  For example, An article
on 'Dry Hopping for the Homebrewer'.  This would work for many repetitive
topics on the digest.  All that's needed are motivated individuals who feel
that they know a lot about a particular area of brewing to write up a
comprehensive article on their area of interest.  Of course the author
would have to be willing to take into account other people view and
techniques.  However, as long as the topics are on basic brewing practices
there shouldn't be much controversy.

The last time I brought this up the general opinions I received where good
but nothing much happened.  A brewpub/bar guide may be a good place to
start to get people motivated.

Personally I feel Boston is a good place to start, seeing as how this is
the largest metropolitan area near to this years AHA National Conference. 
I would be willing to put together a list of what's happening in
Massachusetts.  Anybody with an opinion or list could send it to me and I
will incorporate it.

Anybody for Vermont, Maine, Florida, ... ?

- -- Robert A. Gorman (Bob)        bob at rsi.com           Watertown MA US --
- -- Relational Semantics, Inc.    uunet!semantic!bob    +1 617 926 0979 --


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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 14:08:07 PDT
From: degennar%bmsr3.usc.edu at usc.edu (Raymond Degennaro)
Subject: remove me from the list

i think th subject line says it all.

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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 15:29:20 mdt
From: hplabs!hp-lsd.cos.hp.com!ihlpl!korz (Algis R Korzonas +1 708 979 8583)
Subject: Re: Infected Batch

>I've got a batch of bitter in my secondary that has what looks like
>white strings on the surface.  You have to look closely or with a light
>to see it.  I suspect the lactobacillus bug has got me.

I had a batch that had a greenish "pond scum" sort-of on top.  I say
sort of, because it wasn't floating -- it was just below the surface.
I tried to photograph the scum in the carboy before racking to the
keg, but was unsuccessful.  When I racked, I tried to leave it behind,
but I think that was unsuccessful also.  The flavor was just a tad on
the sour side, but not overpowering.  I primed the keg and let it sit
at 68F for 3 weeks.  After the three weeks, it tasted normal.  Actually,
this was part of an experiment.  I brewed two batches of extract brew
(1 can M&F Old Ale Kit + 1 oz Hallertauer boil + 1 oz Hallertauer finish)
under the same conditions (except 1 week apart).  In one I used Wyeast
(I don't recall which but I have it in my notes) and in the other, I used
the Muntona yeast provided with the kit.  The Montona batch had the pond
scum.  After the three weeks, the only obvious difference was in a slight
phenolic taste, but I wasn't doing a formal evaluation, so I don't recall
which had the phenolic taste.  I will do a formal evaluation (blind taste
test with crackers & water between, etc.) eventually.

Back to your question.  I suggest you ignore it.  If it really is
lactobacillus, I suggest you call it a pseudo-lambic and enjoy that.

On a semi-related note, this is my second request on this point, if
I don't hear from anyone on this topic, I will assume I imagined it:
About a month ago, CNN had some story on a link between bread mold
and cancer.  Does anyone have any more info on this?  This probably
doesn't affect us brewers because the alcohol, hop oils and lack of
oxygen probably make beer an uninviting environment for bread mold.
Right?

Al.


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Date: Fri, 19 Apr 91 15:29:35 mdt
From: hplabs!hp-lsd.cos.hp.com!ihlpl!korz (Algis R Korzonas +1 708 979 8583)
Subject: Re: Jackson book.

>What I have is: "The Simon&Schuster Pocket Guide to BEER", by Michael
>Jackson. I got it when I bought his "Beer Hunter" videos. It claims to be

I too got the videos and the book came with them, however, two weeks ago
I received the new 1990 edition and it has a lot of new beers in it.
The pictures and text up front have been cut out.  He now starts directly
with the first region (England, Belgium, etc.).  At the same time I bought
the other book by Jackson (the name escapes me).  This one is hard cover
and has lots of photos, labels, etc.  Each has its place.  The only problem
I had with the pocket guide was that while my friends just picked beers
by curiosity (from the extensive list at Winekeller in Skokie, IL - near
Chicago) I was still matching the book to the list.  The price of obscure
taste is high: $8.00 for 12 oz of Mort Subite Kriek (Sudden Death Cherry
Lambic)!  I think the Lindemann's was $8.00 also.
Al.


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Date: 	Fri, 19 Apr 1991 13:44:16 -0500
From: caa at com2serv.c2s.mn.org (Charles Anderson)
Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #619 (April 19, 1991)


- -- 
/-Charles-Anderson-\    |         caa at c2s.mn.org || caa at midgard.mn.org 
\------------------/    |   Com Squared Systems,        voice (612) 452-9522
The rose goes in front  |   2520 Pilot Knob Road         fax  (612) 452-3607
big guy -Crash Davis    |   Mendota Heights,  MN 55120  (I speak for myself)

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Date: Sat, 20 Apr 91 10:37:23 EST
From: ken at oldale.PGH.PA.US (Kenneth R. van Wyk)
Subject: Cooking with homebrew


I suppose that this isn't 100% in tune with what this list is for - my
apologies.  But, has anyone else done any cooking with homebrew?  My
wife and I recently made a loaf of beer bread (using a simple
supermarket beer bread mix).  The recipe called for 12 oz. of "premium
American beer".  Since I rarely buy commercial beer anymore, all we
had was various batches of homebrew, so I used a bottle of ale.
(Well, to be honest, she had some Coors Light, but I couldn't imagine
how that would be any better than using water...)  The ale was rather
hoppy, and I was curious how that would affect the bread.  As it
turned out, the bread had a subtle hop taste that was great, IOHO. 

If anyone has any good recipes for that call for beer/homebrew, I'd
love to see them.  Please email and I will write a short summary for
the digest.

Cheers,

Ken

ken at oldale.pgh.pa.us  (home)
krvw at cert.sei.cmu.edu (work)

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Date: Sat, 20 Apr 91 10:56:12 EDT
From: Paul Bigelow <bigelow at waterloo.hp.com>
Subject: Re: Root Beer question

> Is the only purpose of yeast and fermentation to carbonate the root beer?

Yes. It's just a question of economics. A pinch of yeast and a
cup of sugar amounts to pennies. A carbonation system requires a
major capital investment.

> Since I have a keg system, couldn't I just mix up the apropriate amounts
> of sugar/syrup/water/?? and carbonate it artificially?

Yes. Most keggers use systems originally designed for making soda pop.

I have only a soda syphon, which requires one CO2 cartridge per
bottle of root beer. I can buy commercially made root beer for the
cost of the cartridge. That's why I use yeast to carbonate.

Paul Bigelow	bigelow at waterloo.hp.com

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Date: Sat, 20 Apr 91 14:57:34 MDT
From: Jim Anderson <andersj at jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Subject: too much body

When attmepting our second batch of homebrew, my friend Aaron came up with
the idea of adding crystal malt to the wort.  Since Aaron's ignorance of
homebrewing is only slightly less abysmal than mine, I didn't object when he
decided to put two pounds of the stuff into our 5 gallon batch.  Later Aaron
finds out the purpose of crystal malt is to add body.  Let me tell you, we
DEFINITELY have body.

Can anyone give me a suggestion as to how to remove some of the sediment
before we bottle it?  Direct email is fine, unless you think this would be
a question of general interest.

Thanks in advance.

Jim Anderson (andersj at jacobs.cs.orst.edu)

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Date: Sun, 21 Apr 91 09:16:24 MDT
From: hplabs!mage!lou
Subject: chilling wort

I finally broke down and made an imersion wort chiller (I lucked into another
homebrewer who wanted one and we got a box of 50' of copper tubing for 40% less
than the regular per foot price).

I used to chill my wort by putting my brewpot in cold water in the sink (constantly being replaced with running water) and stirring the wort to speed cooling.
This time I put cold water in the sink, put my brewpot with the chiller in the
water, and used the output of the chiller to refresh the water in the sink
(after it started coming out cool).  After about 10 minutes, the pot was still
too hot to touch.  I swirled the chiller around to stir the wort and the pot
immediately cooled and I poured the wort into the fermenter a minute later.

The point of all this is, I never heard or read of anyone using their chiller
to stir the wort but it certainly made a big difference when I tried it.  In
fact, using my usual method of pre-chilled fill water my initial temperature
was 50F and I don't know if my yeast will survive the shock.

Louis Clark
lou%mage.uucp at ncar.ucar.edu
anti-disclaimer: I am my employer
################################################################################
       at  at 
     | | at 						Relax
     | | 	        | at  at  at  at  at  at | _
    /   \ 	        |  :   |/ \		     Don't Worry
    |H B| 	        |  .   |   |
    |   |		|  .   |   |		   Have a Homebrew
    |   |		|      |\_/
    -----		--------


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Date: Sun, 21 Apr 91 18:37:42 EDT
From: rtidd at ccels2.mitre.org (Randy Tidd)
Subject: Water water everywhere


I've been thinking more and more about the water I use to make my beer.
I've made about 6 or 7 batches that I thought were pretty good -- but 
when I helped a friend make his first two batches, I noticed quite a
difference in the way the beer tasted.  The stuff made at his house
was "cleaner", with a crisper taste and no excessive bitterness nor
off-tastes that I sometimes find in my beers.  Since we both used the
same kit for our first batches, i've decided it's the water.

In my supermarket I see both distilled and "spring" water for sale for
somewhere between $0.69 and $0.99 a gallon -- not too bad.  I assume
the spring water would have some stuff in it (i.e. minerals) but that
the distilled water would have virtually none.  What minerals, if
any, would I have to add to this water?  I've seen a lot of recipes
that call for Burton water salts or gypsum.  What results can I expect
if I use only pure water, malt, yeast and hops?

I do mostly extract brewing, with no more than 1-1/2 lbs of specialty
grains per batch (usually) so I don't think I have to worry about 
water pH or anything that you mashers need to worry about. Is this
true?

Thanks!  Please send e-mail unless you think this should be a new
thread.

Randy Tidd
rtidd at mwunix.mitre.org

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Date: Sun, 21 Apr 91 17:19:08 PDT
From: Doug Dreger <dreger at seismo.gps.caltech.edu>
Subject: Dry Hops


I've added about 3/4 oz of hops to the secondary when I racked, and now
I have hops just about everywhere with the most at the surface.  My
question is, do the hops at the surface and those that seem suspended
within the beer drop out?  I suppose it doesn't matter whether they're
at the surface or the bottom as long as they're at one end and not
suspended.

I added them about 2 days ago now, and plan on leaving the beer in the
secondary for 2 weeks.  But I am interested in hearing of others' experiences.
Please Email responses.

Thanks 
Doug

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #620, 04/22/91
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