HOMEBREW Digest #679 Mon 15 July 1991
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Please take me off of the list (Hacker in the Bitstream)
Re: strange fruit (Mike Sharp)
Change of address (Steve Lamont)
Boulder Watering holes (Greg Kushmerek)
Re: Impressed by Anchor Steam Beer (Alex_M._Stein.osbu_south)
Re: Aphids & Herbs (& Ladybugs) (Mark Sandrock)
Blackberry Mead (Ted Manahan)
Anchor over the years (krweiss)
Corona mills (Brian Smithey)
MeV yeast: :-( (Chris Shenton)
More industrial beer bashing. (GERMANI)
40 Ounce bottles for HomeBrew (Rory K. McManus)
how many homebrewers? (Bob Devine 12-Jul-1991 1832)
Re: Hops, Aphids, Etc. (Brian Capouch)
Brewing in/near CT (STRM)
Question from a virgin home brewer (Rory K. McManus)
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
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 02:22:06 EST
From: Hacker in the Bitstream <MIRROSEN at ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Please take me off of the list
That account that I usually recieve from is
mirrosen at silver.ucs.indiana.edu
Thanks,
Mike
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 7:12:25 EDT
From: msharp at hawk.ulowell.edu (Mike Sharp)
Subject: Re: strange fruit
On Wed, 10 Jul 91 17:32:59 PDT, lg562 at koshland.pnl.gov said:
Michael> I have an apricot tree and was wondering if anyone had any
Michael> experience with apricot beer.
I'd make a mead. If the yield was really high (if its a big tree)
I might even consider apricot wine.
Last summer I made 6 cases (pints!) of apricot mead, took it to a
really big bash (500-600), and it disappeared *really* quick.
Everyone really enjoyed it. FWIW, this was a quick mead -- very
sweet, highly carbonated, definately dangerous if allowed to warm.
and then on Thrusday, 11 Jul 91, chris at endgame.gsfc.nasa.gov said:
Chris> No, sorry, but I imagine it would make a wonderful mead. Or a great
Chris> addition to a pale ale. Ummm, yum!
Chris>
Chris> Or better [hi Mike!] a really fine lambic!
Yum! I'd do it! You need to plan ahead for these though. Maybe
next year when I have a number of year old 'bases' to choose from.
- --Mike
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 06:21:21 PDT
From: Steve Lamont <1882P%NAVPGS.BITNET at CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Change of address
Hi Rob:
Please change my address from 1882p at cc.nps.navy.mil or 1882p at navpgs.bitnet
(I'm not exactly sure which address to which this is delivered) to
slamont at network.ucsd.edu.
Thanx.
spl
Steve Lamont, SciViGuy -- (408) 646-2752 -- 1882P at CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL
NPS Confuser Center / Code 51 / Naval Postgraduate School / Monterey, CA 93943
I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration which this .signature is too
small to contain...
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1991 09:34 EDT
From: Greg Kushmerek <GKUSHMER at RUBY.TUFTS.EDU>
Subject: Boulder Watering holes
Having spent some time in Boulder, I thought I'd throw in my two cents on
what and where.
Concerning the Walnut Brewery: they had just opened it as I was graduating.
My impression is that it is an inferior brewery when compared to the Wyncoop
Brewery at Union and Wyncoop in Denver. The guys who made the Wyncoop helped
construct the Walnut brewery, but they seemed to have kept the better batches
down in Denver.
Old Chicago's is fun - I say go there on a Friday starting at 4:00 when
Happy hour opens. You get a discount on beer and dollar mini-pizas. Once
you're down that way, you'll find that a crawl on the Pearl Street Mall is
a must. There are a number of bars there. Some, such as Pearl's, have
some OK beers on tap.
Names are not my specialty, but if you want directions to the Pearl Street
Mall bars that have Guinness, Sam Adams, Boulder Beer, and other decent
beers on tap, e-mail me at GKUSHMER at RUBY.TUFTS.EDU. I'll fumble through
directions and landmarks.
In summary, the whole outdoor mall is fun and all the spots are very
close. Hit it on Thursday and Saturday for the really active crowds.
- --gk
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1991 07:27:28 PDT
From: Alex_M._Stein.osbu_south at xerox.com
Subject: Re: Impressed by Anchor Steam Beer
David Taylor (DAVID at phillip.edu.au) writes in #678 that he's impressed with
Anchor Steam and Anchor Brewery in general. Me too.
I am pleased to report that the "largest of the micros" (or is it the "smallest
of the majors" or just a damn good craft brewery) is still operating in the
same way as when Jackson profiled it (hey, that was only a year ago). In
addition to their Steam Beer, they make Liberty Ale (a hoppy Pale Ale), Anchor
Porter (which is really a stout), Anchor Wheat (a fine example of American
Wheat beer, which I had heard would be available sometime this year in bottles,
but I think is still only available to their draft accounts), Old Foghorn (a
sturdy barleywine), and their annual Christmas Beer (which everyone I know
calls "Anchor Christmas" even though the labels say "Our Special Ale"). In
addition, they have done several small runs of specialty beers (the Sumarian
beer that was discussed here in HBD and another beer that they told us about
when I took the tour but can't remember much about except that it was available
only in the neighborhood for a couple of weeks and that the proceeds went to
some children's charity).
By the way, Anchor has been around for decades. Legend has it that Fritz (who
is, of course, an heir to the Maytag appliance fortune) used to quaff a few
Steam Beers at a neighborhood tavern in the 1960s. One day his beertender told
him to have an extra one, the bar was down to its last keg and the brewery was
closing its doors forever at the end of the week. Fritz stepped in and bought
the brewery, keeping it open. At the time, Anchor had quality control
problems and a shaky reputation due to the hit-or-miss nature of the beer they
sold. Over the course of the next dozen or so years, Fritz instituted more
standardization, instilled a sense of pride in the workforce, and drastically
raised the quality of the beer Anchor produced. At some point, the brewery
even stopped losing money! The reputation of Anchor soared.
Oops, I'm gushing. Others will, no doubt, chime in with a lot more details
than I can muster this early in the morning. Suffice to say, Anchor is alive
and well.
Alex Stein
astein.osbu_south at xerox.com
PS: I'm wearing a Liberty Ale T-shirt while I type this.
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 10:04:37 CDT
From: Mark Sandrock <sandrock at aries.scs.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Aphids & Herbs (& Ladybugs)
> From: larryba at microsoft.com
>
> Now that we are in the heat of summer (as much as that is in Seattle) the
> aphids seem to have mostly dissapeared. I think early spot nuking (April, in
> Seattle) with chemicals keeps the total population down. You don't want to
> continue nuking for two reasons: diazinon is not an approved beer additive
> and b: other bugs (ladybugs, etc) come in later and start cleaning up.
Would it be possible to introduce the ladybugs earlier? I have heard that
one can purchase ladybugs mail-order for this purpose. Anyone tried it?
"Nuking" is sometimes called for, no doubt, but a few weeks ago my small
bush bean patch was suddenly swarming with bean beetles, chewing holes in
all the leaves; I spent 20 minutes or so picking them off by hand and des-
troying them, and voila, no more beetles ever since! Surprised the heck out
of me, didn't think they could be "defeated" so simply.
Mark Sandrock
- --
UIUC Chemical Sciences Computer Center "There are thoughts always abroad in
505 S. Matthews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 the air which it takes more wit to avoid
Internet: sandrock at aries.scs.uiuc.edu than to hit upon." -O W Holmes
Voice: 217-244-0561/Fax: 217-244-????
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 08:55:12 pdt
From: Ted Manahan <tedm at hpcvcbp.cv.hp.com>
Subject: Blackberry Mead
Full-Name: Ted Manahan
Dan (c/o Shannon) asks about blackberry mead. I too have been planning
to try a blackberry mead, as well as a blackberry ale, this summer.
I just moved to Oregon last fall; there are an amazing number of
wild blackberry plants here!
For the mead I plan to use 10 lbs. clover honey, 7 lbs. blackberries,
and maybe a little tea to give it some astringency. I'll probably use 7
lbs. of blackberries for the ale too. I plan to pasteurize the berries
at about 170 degrees, but not to boil them for fear of causing pectin
haze.
Any comments on the above plan?
Ted Manahan
tedm at hp-pcd.cv.hp.com
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 08:45:52 -0700
From: krweiss at ucdavis.edu
Subject: Anchor over the years
David Taylor asks:
>I've tried Anchor Steam Beer and liked it very much. I'm wondering if
Fritz
>is still in control of the Brewery and if conditions have changed since
the
>show was made (1990)? Has Anchor Steam Beer altered over the years? Have
the
>bean counters moved in? :-(
>
>It all looked too good to last. Cheers everyone... David
Well, lemme tell ya about the Anchor brewery tour I got back in 1977 or
78... A couple of friends and I decided to drive up to San Francisco for
the weekend. We arrived in the early afternoon, I think on December 30 or
31. Being a brewery kind of guy, I suggested we hunt down the Anchor
brewery and take the tour. All brewerys have tours every hour on the hour,
right?
I looked up Anchor's address in the phone book, and we drove over. They
were located in a small warehouse near the docks. The front door was
locked, so we rang the bell. A guy answered the door and asked what we
wanted. I explained that I liked Anchor Steam, and wanted to tour the
brewery. He said, "Well, we're just starting our year end meeting, and my
secretary isn't here today... But what the hell, come on in. I'm Fritz
Maytag, the owner."
Fritz proceeded to introduce us to every employee of the Anchor Brewing
Company (all 4 of them, except the absent secretary, of course), sat us
down in a room full of beer memorabilia and pointed at the taps projecting
from the large tanks whose ends formed one wall of the room. "That one's
Steam, and the other one's Porter," he said. "We have to get our meeting
started now, but you can stay and sample some beer if you want." He then
shook hands all around, and went off to attend to business.
The brewery has moved to larger quarters, but I suspect the attitude hasn't
changed in the 12 or 13 years since I was there, and won't as long as Fritz
Maytag remains in charge. He loves what he does, makes money at it, and
doesn't need to make money anyway. I can't really picture him selling out
to Megabrew, Inc.
Ken
Ken Weiss krweiss at ucdavis.edu
Manager of Instruction
Computing Services 916/752-5554
U.C. Davis
Davis, CA 95616
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 10:16:52 PDT
From: smithey at esosun.css.gov (Brian Smithey)
Subject: Corona mills
On Thu, 11 Jul 1991 10:04:43 -0500,
caa at com2serv.c2s.mn.org (Charles Anderson) said:
> P.S. I had a posting a while ago that talked about prices for grain mills,
> I picked up a corona at a local mexican market for $29.99...it's your
> standard corona, the only difference is that the instructions are in
> spanish.
> /-Charles-Anderson-\ | caa at c2s.mn.org || caa at midgard.mn.org
Corona makes more than one grain mill. I remember a flyer that
came from William's Brewing a while back, they had a deal on
some Corona mills that they accidentally got that were the
"wrong" ones. They said that it would be ok for grinding
flour, but probably not strong enough for cracking malt. I
think the heavy-duty one common for brew duty is the Corn Mill.
Brian
- --
Brian Smithey / SAIC, Geophysics Division / San Diego CA
smithey at esosun.css.gov - uunet!seismo!esosun!smithey
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 13:35:30 EDT
From: Chris Shenton <chris at endgame.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: MeV yeast: :-(
In response to my request for info on where to buy MeV yeast, I got the
following responses:
On Thu, 11 Jul 91, srussell at snoopy.msc.cornell.edu (Stephen Russell) said:
Stephen> The U.S. distributor is Mayer's Cider Mill, 800-543-0043, or
Stephen> 716-671-1955. Or you can call the company yourself....MeV
Stephen> Research, Waterloo, ONT, 519-579-0628.
On Thu, 11 Jul 91 10:10:06 PDT, grumpy!cr at uunet.UU.NET (C.R. Saikley) said:
CRS> Sorry to hear that Brewhaus has stopped carrying MeV's S. Delbruckii
CRS> strain. They were my source also. I'd suggest contacting MeV directly.
CRS> Here's their address : MeV: Po Box 123; Waterloo, Ontario; N2J 3Z9;
CRS> 519-742-7227
On Thu, 11 Jul 91 06:09:18 -0700, darryl at ism.isc.com (Darryl Richman) said:
Darryl> There are persistent rumors circulating on CompuServe that MeV has gone
Darryl> under. Apparently they had a bad batch of cultures that went out a few
Darryl> months ago, and the repercussions have finished them. So says CI$.
So I called up the US distributor. Not good news. She said:
1. We have no MeV yeast in stock
2. MeV is reorganizing [didn't say why, but her tone was downbeat]
3. Mayer doesn't ship/sell it in the summer due to problems with heat
4. They'll sell it in the fall, *if* MeV is still around
Yow! so stock up now on their strains -- especially their exceptional
weissbier yeast -- and put 'em on slants for posterity.
Or perhaps MeV fan mail might help?
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1991 15:55 EST
From: GERMANI%NSLVAX at Venus.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: More industrial beer bashing.
Greetings,
As long as we've been bashing industrial beers, I thought I'd
mention something I noticed on tv the other day. Has anyone
seen the Coors Extra Gold commercials where they gloat about how Bud
drinkers prefer it to Bud (some accomplishment, eh?)? At the end they
mention that the "beer" is SLOW brewed. Do you think that they just sit
around and casually take their time, or is it brewed by mentally deficient
(i.e. slow) people?
G'Day,
Joe
Bitnet: GERMANI at YALEVMS
Decnet: 44421::GERMANI
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
What care I how time advances:
I am drinking ale today. Poe
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 18:18:39 MDT
From: Rory K. McManus <rory at triton.unm.edu>
Subject: 40 Ounce bottles for HomeBrew
Howdy!
I've been reading this digest for about six months now and finally I'm
sending something to it myself, and more importantly getting ready to brew
my first batch.
My question is this. I have collected a lot of those 40 ounce
Malt Liquor bottles (King Kobra, Mickeys, etc) and was thinking about using
them for bottling homebrew in. Yes, I can see all your shocked faces now...
"He actually drinks that stuff???". Well, as a poor college student I can
rarely afford to buy Watney's or Double Diamond or any of those other
expensive beers I like (That's one of the reasons I want to brew my own :)
Anyhow, has anyone out there used these kinds of bottles for homebrew? The
fellow at our local homebrew supply store in Albuquerque (The Grape Arbor)
sells screw on caps for them that look pretty sturdy. He recommended that
I use Grolsh bottles, but I really don't want to run around to all
the bars and try to collect a mess of 'em if I can use the bottles I already
have. I think these bottles would be Ideal, since you don't have to fill
as many, and they can be resealed. Let me know what you think. Thanks!
Rory
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
[] Rory K. McManus [] University of New Mexico [] Gravity: Not just an idea, []
[] Asian Studies [] rory at triton.cirt.unm.edu [] IT'S THE LAW! []
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 17:32:01 PDT
From: Bob Devine 12-Jul-1991 1832 <devine at cookie.enet.dec.com>
Subject: how many homebrewers?
I just heard that there have been > 100,000 copies of Charlie Papazian's
"The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" sold to date.
Assuming every homebrewer has bought one copy, that means there are
at least 100 K folks who now or in the past have homebrewed.
Perhaps that explains the AHA membership of > 10,000 !
Bob "I am not a number!" Devine
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 19:33:25 -0500 (CDT)
From: Brian Capouch <brianc at zeta.saintjoe.EDU>
Subject: Re: Hops, Aphids, Etc.
Excerpts from homebrew: 11-Jul-91 Homebrew Digest #677 (July .. Are to
s. it HERE? at hpfcm (15782)
> All of this talk about hops has raised a question in my mind. When will
> Freshops have their 91 crop harvested and ready for sale? Every time I
> call them, all I get is a phone answering machine asking me for my order.
> Is there a "good" time to call? Does anyone have any information about
> the hops harvest in oregon? When is it? Will this year's be a good one?
From what I understand, the hop harvest occurs more-or-less
simultaneously throughout the Northwest--it begins about the middle of
August and lasts some 6-8 weeks after that. New crop hops will
therefore be available around Sept. 1, although it would be naive of us
to think that all purveyors of hops are going to immediately dump their
remaining stock of 1990 hops out into the yards to rot.
The Freshops folks (I forget their names) do this as a part-time thing,
I believe; that's why the answering machine. I think if you put a
"please call me" message on the machine, with an idea of when they can
best reach you, you'll hear back from them.
From an earlier HBD, a poster complained of having aphids eating his
hops until only 5% of the leaf mass remained. Sorry, but that damage
ain't aphids--they don't have mouths. Aphids have little sucking
probosci like hypodermic syringes, and they live on plant juices that
they tap like subdermal rivers. So if you're leaves are being eaten,
there's another culprit.
B.
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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 18:13 MST
From: STRM at ccit.arizona.edu
Subject: Brewing in/near CT
I will be moving to Storrs CT next month and would like any information
on brew clubs, brew supplies, microbreweries and local brews in the
area. Thanks. Stormwalker.
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Date: Sun, 14 Jul 91 2:55:50 MDT
From: Rory K. McManus <rory at triton.unm.edu>
Subject: Question from a virgin home brewer
Howdy!
Well, I finally went to the local beer and winemaking supply store
and started picking up equipment. I realized that I had a question. This
could probably be answered in either Miller's or Papazian's books, but
they're still on order. The question: If I'm going to be doing a one
step fermentation, do I need to have a carboy that is a gallon or three
bigger than the amount of beer I'm brewing to account for the foam, or
is this where I would be able to get away with a five gallon carboy for
a five gallon batch using a blowoff tube? Thanks!
Rory
- --
// Rory K. McManus \\ -Beginning Home Brewer- // This
\\ Asian Studies // "Look out, that bottle is about \\ space
// University of New Mexico \\ to blow! I told you not to use // for
\\ In the Land of Enchantment // so much priming sugar!" \\ rent
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #679, 07/15/91
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