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

Contents:
  Liquid Yeast (Bryan Hilterbrand)
  competition (Jeff Miller)
  bittering hops (Pete Soper)
  Filtering my Brew (John F Stoffel)

Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr at hplabs.hp.com


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Date: 30 Jan 89 17:29:39 PST (Mon)
From: Bryan Hilterbrand <bryanh%dadla.la.tek.com at RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Liquid Yeast

Well, I finally attempted my first batch of homebrew last weekend, and
everything seems to be okay so far (in spite of my mistakes ;-).  I
pretty much followed Papazian's beginner method, but I modified it
slightly because I used an unhopped malt and had to do the hopping myself.
(I also got a couple bottles of Bridgport Winter Brew from the brewery,
since I didn't have my own homebrew to pay tribute too. 8-)

I have a question about yeast...  The homebrew store I went to
(Steinbart's in Portland, Ore.) recommended that I use liquid yeast to
cut down the chances of bad cultures.  They sold me a package of British
style yeast which had instructions to break a nutrient packet sealed
inside the yeast package and this would start the yeast culture.  At the
top of the instructions, they said that the packet would require one to
five days before the culture would be ready to pitch, and they went on
to say that it would take one day plus one day per month since the date
shown on the package (it showed Jan. 3, 1989).  Later in the instruc-
tions, they said to wait until the package had expanded to at least one
inch thick, sanitize the outside of the package, then pitch the yeast.

What happened is this:  at about 1:00pm I broke the nutrient packet, and
I started boiling the wort, etc. at about the same time figuring that I
would let the stuff in the carboy cool down overnight before I pitched
the yeast (the package said at least one day to culture the yeast...).
About 11:00pm that night, I went into the kitchen, and the yeast package
was ballooned to about two inches thick.  I was afraid if I let it sit
there overnight that it would blow up, so I pitched the yeast right
then.  The carboy was cool to my touch (cool enough to pitch the yeast),
so I figured the worst that could happen is that it would take a little
longer for the fermentation to start.

Did I do the right thing?  Should I have let the yeast sit overnight, or
would it have made a mess all over my counter?  Any other do's and
don'ts about using liquid yeast?

				Thanks,
				Bryan

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Date: Tue, 31 Jan 89 8:26:15 CDT
From: Jeff Miller <jmiller at unix.eta.com>
Subject: competition

Rob, you were talking about the AHA competition and I was wondering how
one goes about getting entered in it.  Do you have to actually go there?
I know that the US Mail and UPS people don't like shipping alcohol so I
assume you can't really mail it there.  Anyway, I would sure like to have
my beer judged on a national scale rather then just the local county fair
so I would appreciate any information anyone might have about getting
entered.

Thanks, Jeff Miller (jmiller at eta.com)

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Date: Tue, 31 Jan 89 14:37:18 est
From: Pete Soper <soper at maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: bittering hops

Is it true that flavor and aroma come only from hops added in the last
few minutes of a boil and steeping andr dry hopping? Is it true that
one hop type added for a LONG boil is going to add just the same
thing as another hop - namely isomerized alpha acid? Yes, there are
all those evil hop oils that we want to blow away or rack away from,
but having blown or racked they've been left behind and so are not
part of what I'm asking about, right?

What I'm getting at is whether it makes any sense to use one hop over
another for the START of a LONG minute boil. Why don't I just buy
the most bitter hop I can find for this and be done with it?

Just to be absolutely clear, I'm asking about hops that are going
to be boiled for 90 minutes or more.

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Date: Tue, 31 Jan 89 12:49:16 est
From: John F Stoffel <john%wpi.wpi.edu at RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Filtering my Brew

After drinking our first experimentaion in Home Brew (which came out
Damm good in our estimentation), my frineds and I have come to the
conclusion that filtering the beer just before we bottle it would do
wonders.  We came to this conclusion after drinking beer that had been
shaken up in transit to a party and beer that had settled out and been
pured carefully.  What a difference drinking the yeast made!  Without
the yeast, the brew was nice and crisp and dry and great!  But with
the yeast in suspension it tasted ok, but it got steadily worse as you
drank it.  About on the same level as Busch or Budweisser.  So it
seems filtering is the way to go, but after further thought, I have a
few questions about doing this.
	
	One, will filtering reduce the amount of fermetation that
takes place in the bottle?  Does filtering have a signifigant impact
on the beer itself?  Or is having all the yeast settled on the bottom
part of the joys of homebrew?  How many of you out there filter YOUR
beer?  

	Also, what is the address of this National brew competition?
And what are the requirements to enter?

	Thanks for all your help on this, and I hope you'll all bear
with me as I ask even MORE questions.  Good luck to all those
submitting beer this year to the national competition!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
	Boy... what we have here is a failure to communicate!
					- Warden of "Cool Hand Luke"
John Stoffel
BITNET   John at wpi.bitnet
INTERNET john at wpi.wpi.edu
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