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


Contents:
  Another yeast reuse data point (ingr!b11!mspe5!guy)
  Correct IBU Corrections (Bill Szymczak)
  Re: Grolsch gaskets (ingr!b11!mspe5!guy)
  Re: yeast washing (Larry Barello)
  HBD'ers meet in Brewtown (Malt-Fermenter Gelly)
  mthvax archive services (Michael L. Hall)
  Starch Haze vs. Protein Haze (Subhash Chandra Roy)
  MBC yeast (Brian Smithey)
  Re: Chimay...Not:-)  (mcnally)
  Re: fining without cruelty (PHILLIPSA)
  Calcium Chloride (chrisbpj)
  Reusing Yeast / Hot Break / Starch Test (Darren Evans-Young)
  RE: Strange Smell in Lager (lee_menegoni)
  Yeast Recycling Summary (mccamljv)
  Color Definition Chart (jas8t)
  Say it ain't so, Joe!  (Re: MTHVAX ARCHIVES) (Douglas DeMers)
  Looking for a store or two.... (David Christian Homan)
  Homebrew archives transfered. ("Stephen Hansen")
  Caloric Content of HB (Walter H. Gude)
  Re:  Say it ain't so, Joe!  (Re: MTHVAX ARCHIVES) (andrew mossberg / mthvax admin)
  Brown ale recipes needed ("Chris Dukes" )
  A Couple of Answers & A Question (Jeff Frane)
  Best Beer Games You Have Known ("Peter G. Goutmann")
  co2 tank pressure (GC-HSI) <rnapholz at PICA.ARMY.MIL>
  denaturing acid carboys (J. Michael Burgeson)
  Old Peculier - New Peculiar (Jeff Mizener)
  EZ mash tuns (Jay Hersh)
  Best of Beer and Brewing Contents (Edward C. Bronson)


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Archives are available from netlib at mthvax.cs.miami.edu
**Please do not send me requests for back issues!**
**And I don't know anything about the Cat's Meow either!**


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

Date: Tue, 5 May 92 10:01:57 CDT
From: ingr!ingr!b11!mspe5!guy at uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Another yeast reuse data point

    As another point in the yeast reuse topic, I will share my experiences.  I
have had great success reusing yeast slurry retained from the secondary.  After
I siphon into my bottling bucket, I immediately put the stopper and airlock
back on the secondary fermenter.  When I finish bottling, I sanitize a half
gallon glass jug and my funnel.  I then flame the mouth of the carboy, swirl
the yeast back into suspension, and pour it through the funnel into the jug.
I then screw on the sanitized lid of the jug and put it in the refrigerator.
I have stored yeast in this manner for as long as a month and a half and had
no problems with it starting or producing undesirable charcteristics.  I have
also re-used yeast with this method up to three consecutive times with no ill
effects.

    Another method I have success with is to pour the dregs of several bottles
of my homebrew into a single Grolsch bottle and store in the fridge.  I then
pitch this into a starter solution when I'm ready to brew and off it goes.  I
have a copy of Jeff Frane's yeast washing article in my brewing notebook from
the first time he posted it.  I fully intend to start washing my yeast before
reuse someday but I have been successful thus far without it.

    And finally, a story:

    Once there was a beautiful apple.  It was a joy to all who happened upon
it.  The pleasure derived from it seemed endless to all who partook of it.
Then one day, unnoticed at first, a worm crept into the apple.  It immediately
began vomiting forth corruption, causing a rotting of part of the apple.  Its
unceasing toil was to try and corrupt the whole of the beautiful apple, much as
it had been able to do in other apples it frequented.  At times, the apple 
seemed in danger of rotting completely, so quickly the corruption had spread.
Many who once derived great joy from it began to loathe and despise its 
condition.  It would always fight back from the brink of total corruption and
become nearly as whole and wonderful as it once was.  The worm, however, still
frequented it and threatened to turn it into just another apple rotting on the
branch.  The apple must use all of its strength and all of that which is good
within it to combat this tragic possibility.  In the end, the worm cannot rot
the entire apple unless the apple relents to rottenness.  May the apple remain
strong and beautiful and leave the worm to wallow in the corruption it spews
forth.

- --
Guy McConnell
"And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one for dessert"


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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 10:32:26 EDT
From: bszymcz%ulysses at relay.nswc.navy.mil (Bill Szymczak)
Subject: Correct IBU Corrections

In HBD 871 there is a clip from a note from srussell which
mentioned that in Jackie Rager's article in the Hops ZYMURGY
special issue that to correct for specific gravity of the wort
you should divide by

          1 + 5(G-1.050)   if G > 1.050
	  1                if G < 1.050

After reading the Rager article myself, I found some obvious
errors. (I'm new to subscribing to HBD and don't know if these
have been already discussed.)  In  the ZYMURGY issue
the correction factor given by Rager is 1 + GA, where

          GB - .050
     GA = --------      
             0.2

if GB (gravity of boil)  > 1.050, and GA=0 otherwise.  If this
formula were correct the value of GA would jump from 0 to 5 as
soon as GB hit a value of 1.050, and you would need about six
times as much hops with a gravity of 1.0501 than a gravity of
1.0499.  Replacing the value of .050 by 1.050 (as srussell
correctly did) gives more reasonable values.  Even worse is the
example Rager computes on page 54 of the ZYMURGY issue, where
the equation

       1.096-.050
  GA = ---------- = .24     ????????? 
	  0.2

appears.  It seems to me that 

   1.096-.050
   ---------- = 5(1.096-.050) = 5(1.046) = 5.23
      0.2

If the value of .050 which was repeated in the example is
replaced by 1.050, then GA = .23, which is getting closer to
Rager's value of .24.  No wonder we're all confused about IBU's.

Besides these obvious errors I have found Rager's article very
useful.  The formula given by Frank Tutzauer/Tom Hettmansperger
in HBD 871 also seems very convienient since it eliminates the
need for a utilization table and accounts for gravity at the
same time.  Does this formula agree with the table listed in
Rager's article and the "corrected" gravity correction formula?
(Or equivalently, do the formulas given in Charlie II agree with
Rager's?)

I apologize for this being a little outdated, but it was originally
sent last week and apparently lost during one of the "down" days.

Bill Szymczak

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 9:01:05 CDT
From: ingr!ingr!b11!mspe5!guy at uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Re: Grolsch gaskets

mark at decwrl.dec.com writes:

> I am planning on bottling a batch this weekend using for the first time
> some Grolsch type bottles (actually Fischer's bottles), that I have
> accumulated over the last couple of months. I seem to recall seeing in
> an article on HBD that one should replace the gaskets on such bottles
> before using them the first time. Is the true? If so what is the reason
> for it?

    I have quite a few Grolsch bottles that I typically use to bottle stouts
and "special" beers in.  These bottles have had around 5 batches in them and
the gaskets have never been replaced.  In my last batch, a stout, I had one
bottle out of 40 that developed almost no carbonation and I suspect that the
gasket on that one either needs replacing or did not get seated properly when
I bottled.  All of the rest of them carbonated perfectly.  The undercarbonated
beer tasted fine, just rather flat.  I therefore offer that the gaskets need
replacing only when they show signs of cracking or other type of wear.  You
certainly should not need to replace them on your bottles since they have been
used only once to bottle commercial beer in.  Of course, if it makes you feel
better, the gaskets are readily available...

- --
Guy McConnell 
"Now I'm going outside to have an ice cold beer in the shade"


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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 07:32:37 PDT
From: polstra!larryba at uunet.UU.NET (Larry Barello)
Subject: Re: yeast washing


I have been using the yeast wash trick described by Jeff Frane for about
nine months now.  I found the instructions a little vague.  Basically
what I do is dump the slurry in a qt jar, cap and shake hard.  There
will be three layers after about 10-20 minutes: a top frothy gelatinous
layer, a middle tan layer and a bunch of crud on the bottom.  I use a 
bloiled spoon to remove the top layer, pour off the middle layer into a 
clean jar and toss the crud.  

The middle layer will eventually (30-60 minutes) seperate again into a 
thick layer of yeast and clear liquid.  Depending upon how much crud there
was originally I might shake and separate again.  Anyway usually at this
point I stop as the stuff in the second jar looks pretty clean.

I have stored yeast like this (under clear liquid) for a month and have had
incredible starts by just dumping it into the chilled wort.  Also, beers 
made with the washed yeast have *always* started faster, fermented faster
and been much much better tasting than beers made with a classic Wyeast 
starter.

Oh, I usually get two pint jars of yeast from a 5 gallon carboy primary
each containing about 1/2" of yeast after everything settles down in a 
couple days.
 
 - Larry Barello

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Date: Wed, 6 May 1992 11:15 CDT
From: Malt-Fermenter Gelly <GELLY at VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU>
Subject: HBD'ers meet in Brewtown

Hey folks,

If I may have missed the final decision, sorry to be redundant, but...
Has a final meeting place for HBD'ers at the AHA conference been decided
on? I may have missed one or two issuses in the last month, and I know
there was talk of a "get-together", but I never saw the issue resolved.
I also recall talk of a special "sign" to let us recognize each other
(i.e. a sticker of some sort on the nametags). Is this idea still on?

Again, if all this has already been decided, humor me and send me an
e-mail. ;-)

Relaxing quite comfortably,

Mitch Gelly	gelly at vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu
		gellym at ernie.cis.uwosh.edu

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
"And in the end, you spat me out, you could not chew me up..." - Mick J.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 10:40:28 MDT
From: mlh at cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov (Michael L. Hall)
Subject: mthvax archive services

andrew mossberg / mthvax admin <aem at umigw.miami.edu> writes:

> The archives at mthvax will be ending soon, and the gatewaying of
> the homebrew digest to rec.crafts.brewing will also cease.

Argghhhhhh.....this is horrible! Can anyone pick up this service?
Or can we convince Andrew to continue? I, for one, think that this
is a valuable service that I would hate to see go.

I will especially miss the archive service...

Mike Hall
hall at lanl.gov

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 12:40:57 -0400
From: Subhash Chandra Roy <roy at mcnc.org>
Subject: Starch Haze vs. Protein Haze


I was planning on make a rasberry weiss beer for the summer,
and using 1/2 lbs of flaked barley during the boil to aid
in head retention.  I was warned that it would produce a
starch haze.  How is this different from normal (protein) 
chill haze?  I don't want to mash the grains (don't need
the fermentable sugars).

Subhash
roy at mcnc.org

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 10:40:39 MDT
From: smithey at rmtc.Central.Sun.COM (Brian Smithey)
Subject: MBC yeast

>>>>> In HBD #876, mcnally at wsl.dec.com writes:

Mike> It's been a while since I've tried Eye of the Hawk, but I seriously
Mike> doubt that the yeast is anything at all like the Chimay culture.
Mike> It's hard to tell yeast by appearance.

Agreed, and I'm certainly no expert, but when I had a bottle a
few months ago the yeast was easily disturbed from the bottom
of the bottle (unlike the sticky Red Tail yeast), and it broke
up into a bunch of little yeast "pebbles".  The only other times
I've seen yeast do this is in Chimay, and homebrew that a friend
made from yeast he cultured from a Chimay bottle.

Perhaps MBC is maintaining their own yeast, cultured from Chimay?
The aforementioned friend, no longer on the net, visited MBC a
couple of years back, if I can find anything out from talking
with him I'll report back.

Mike> Mike McNally                                           mcnally at wsl.dec.com

Brian
- --
Brian Smithey / Sun Microsystems / Colorado Springs, CO
smithey at rmtc.Central.Sun.COM

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Date: Wed, 06 May 92 11:26:00 -0700
From: mcnally at wsl.dec.com
Subject: Re: Chimay...Not:-) 


    [ Sayeth Glenn Tinseth <tinsethg at UCS.ORST.EDU> : ]

    Wow, that's news to me.  (Vague memory warning: ON) I always
    thought that Chimay was finally isolated down to one yeast by Fr.
    Theodore(SP?) at the abbey.

You may be right; I was re-stating a rumor.  I will retract that.

	This led to a great improvement in their consistentency.
	Jackson sez that Orval, on the other hand, does use 5 different
    yeasts at different stages in the brewing process. 

I have never been successful at reculturing Orval.  I've just found a
source for 750ml bottles of Grimbergen, and those seem to have a healthy
amount of yeast in them.  Chimay is, however, unbelievable.
	
    The new Belgian Ale strain from Wyeast is a monoculture and is 
	according to Dave (the owner) from Chimay. 

My local homebrew shop hasn't bought any because they're unsure of the
volume they'd sell.  Urrrgh; how will they know if they don't get some?

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Mike McNally                                           mcnally at wsl.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation
Western Software Lab

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 8:57 GMT
From: PHILLIPSA at LARS.AFRC.AC.UK
Subject: Re: fining without cruelty

Thanks to all those who responded so promptly to my posting about
fining beer without using animal products. The consensus was that
Irish Moss in the boil, and/or fining with Bentonite, agar or
Polyclar is the best solution. I already use Irish Moss, and I'll
probably try adding Polyclar to the secondary fermenter a few
days before racking into barrel. This has the advantage that for
a trial run I can "borrow" a few grams of Polyclar from the lab -
we use it for adsorbing polyphenols from homogenized plant
tissue to reduce inhibition of enzyme activity. One concern I have 
is that Polyclar may remove some of the arome, taste, feel, colour, etc 
in addition to removing haze. We shall see. Incidentally, Polyclar 
is a trade name for poly(vinylpyrrolidone) - not quite
Reinheitsgebot, but if you're worried about putting synthetic
chemicals in your beer, just remember that there are probably far
nastier things in hop resins.

[P.S. In answer to Chris Campanelli's question (I tried to
respond directly but my mailing bounced back with a "no such
user" message): as far as I know, there is no British equivalent
of HBD - at least on JANET, the academic network. There may be
an interest group on a commercial network such as
Telecom Gold, but I don't have access.]

Andy Phillips
AFRC-IACR Long Ashton Research Station
Bristol, UK
PHILLIPSA at LARS.AFRC.AC.UK

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 15:54:17 -0400
From: chrisbpj at ldpfi.dnet.dupont.com
Subject: Calcium Chloride


> From: Crawford.Wbst129 at xerox.com

> A while back I believe there was a discussion on where to get Calcium
> Chloride. What was the final outcome?  Does anybody know where to buy
> Calcium Choride?

Greg-

Seems to me that crystaline stuff you buy at the hardware store to
sprinkle on you iced-up driveway in the winter is calcium chloride. 
Another name for it is rock salt.  I doubt they add anything to it -
probably just crush it up.  Be sure you check the ingredients if you
plan to use this in beer (?!).  You obviously don't want to use any
of those weird chemicals they also sell for melting ice.

Another possible source is at a water softener *type* store
(Culligan?).  I think they use calcium chloride to soften hard water,
and I imagine this is "Food grade."  When I need wierd chemicals (not
too often!) I usually try the chem supply dept at Lehigh University. 
The last time I got something there, I was after dry ice!  Maybe
there's a college in your area that could supply it.  Who knows, maybe
even a good pharmacy carries it!

Good luck!

 -Pete

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Date:         Wed, 06 May 92 15:07:47 CDT
From: Darren Evans-Young <DARREN at ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Reusing Yeast / Hot Break / Starch Test

Reusing Yeast:

I've been reusing my yeast now for 5 batches. I always taste the beer
when transferring to the secondary to see if I notice any off flavors.
So far, everything is going good.  When I dump the new batch of beer
on top of the yeast cake, I have a kraeusen (sp?) covering the surface
within 2 hours!  The more I reuse the yeast, the faster the beer seems
to ferment. The beer taste good though.  You MUST be up on your
sanitation procedures if you plan on doing this.  BTW, I'm using William's
Burton Ale yeast.  I'm not sure what Wyeast strain this translates to.
Anybody know?

Hot Break:

To remove your beer from the hot break after boiling, rapidly (without
aerating) stir your wort in one direction to get a nice low pressure
area in the center, then cover your wort and let sit for 15-30 mins.
This whirlpooling will cause most, if not all, the hot break material
to settle into a nice cone in the center of your boiler.  After 30 minutes,
I can usually see all the way to the bottom of the boiler toward the
outside with a flashlight.  Simply siphon from this area. I use a
counterflow chiller.  Since I've started doing this, I've let my cooled
wort sit in a sanitized container for 2 hours to let any break material
settle, and the has been NONE!  I now skip this step.

Starch Test:

To get an idea of what your iodine starch test will tell you, take the
test immediately after doughing in your grain. You can use this reaction
as a reference.  My last batch I started using a thicker mash and the
starch test was misleading. I'm still investigating the cause of this.
Could have been husk material or I could have screwed up my mash somehow.

Darren

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Date: Wed,  6 May 92 15:35:43 EDT
From: lee_menegoni at ptltd.com
Subject: RE: Strange Smell in Lager

Thanks to all that mailed me.  The problem with the strange smell after 
carbonation seems to be attributed to Di-Methyl Sulfide, DMS, and is caused by
carbonation at too high temperature.  The cure seems to be carbonation in the 
refridgerator.  

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 17:17:33 -0400
From: mccamljv at ldpfi.dnet.dupont.com
Subject: Yeast Recycling Summary

Fellow Brewers,

	Wow, I guess I finally asked the right question. I have
	received (at last count) 10 responses to the yeast recycling
	question I posted a couple of digests ago. Some of the responses
	have appeared here in the last couple of digests so I don't think
	a summary is needed.  BUT.......

	For those of you who would like a compilation of the
	non-microbiological yeast storage and recycling responses,
	E-mail me with your request and I will gladly E-mail the file to
	you. Many many thanks to all those who responded.

	Yours in brewing,

 -Joel McCamley	"Constantly Relaxing, Not Worrying and
			Having a Homebrew!"

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Date:     Wed, 06 May 92 17:04:16 EDT
From: jas8t at prime.acc.Virginia.EDU
Subject:  Color Definition Chart

Does anyone know where I could get my hands on a beer color
definition chart?  I don't care if it's SRM, Lovibond, or
EBC degree. I have Fred Eckhardt's chart but I would like to see
the colors instead of reading written descriptions.

Thanks,
John Shepherd

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Date: Wed, 6 May 92 14:24 PDT
From: dougd at uts.amdahl.com (Douglas DeMers)
Subject: Say it ain't so, Joe!  (Re: MTHVAX ARCHIVES)

In HOMEBREW Digest #877 Wed 06 May 1992:

>The archives at mthvax will be ending soon, and the gatewaying of
>the homebrew digest to rec.crafts.brewing will also cease.

>sorry,
>aem

This is indeed sad news for the net.homebrewing community.  Andrew,
you've provided a very valuable service to homebrewers, and I thank you
for your efforts through the years.  The archives at mthvax have been
an important resource for beginning and experienced brewers alike.

Of vital consideration to the HBD/rec.crafts.brewing community is:

1)  Do we want the HBD automatically gatewayed to rec.crafts.brewing as
    it has been for these many months?
2)  Are there any other internet sites with anonymous ftp access
    willing to pick up and carry forward the homebrewing archives?
3)  While we're at it, the issue of the continuance of HBD itself has
    arisen recently.  Rob Gardner, the HBDigest Coordinator (thanks
    Rob!) has mentioned that HP has been making unfriendly noises about
    the volume of mail passing through HP having to do with the HBD.

It may make sense to have the HBD automatically gatewayed from
hpfcmi.fc.hp.com into rec.crafts.brewing and e-mailed only to those
people who do not have a news-feed which carries r.c.b.

I've snarfed all the current archives from mthvax and have locally
added the incoming issues not stored at mthvax (incoming stops at issue
872 : 92/04/27 03:09:52 : 378), but alas, the internet machine I use
does not have anonymous access, nor is it likely it ever will.  Any
volunteer sites?  I hope there will be a transition time before "the
plug is pulled" on the homebrewing archives at mthvax...
__
Douglas DeMers,      | (408-746-8546) | dougd at uts.amdahl.com
Amdahl Corporation   |                | {sun,uunet}!amdahl!dougd
  [It should be obvious that the opinions above are mine, not Amdahl's.]
  [               Amdahl makes computers, not beer.                    ]

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Date: Thu,  7 May 1992 00:23:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: David Christian Homan <dh10+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Looking for a store or two....


I'm moving to Chicago in three weeks and I'd like to hear from anyone in
the area who knows of a good homebrew store.  


Thanks in advance.


= David.

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Date: Thu, 07 May 92 00:08:00 -0700
From: "Stephen Hansen" <hansen at gloworm.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Homebrew archives transfered.

In HBD 877 Andrew Mossberg wrote that the archives at mthvax.cs.miami.edu
would be ending soon.  In fact it appears that HBD 872 was the last one
deposited in the incoming directory.  This has prompted me to finish what
I started almost a year ago which was to copy the entire homebrew archive
from mthvax to Sierra.Stanford.EDU (36.2.0.98).  The transfer is complete
and I have brought it up to date.  Sierra is not yet running a netlib
server so ftp is the only way to access the archive at present.  I will
let you all know once I have netlib service available.

Many thanks to Andrew for the fine job of maintaining the archive for so
long.  While I've been a systems admin for more years than I care to think
about, this is the first time I've tried to maintain an archive like this,
so please bear with me.

Stephen Hansen

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Stephen E. Hansen - hansen at sierra.Stanford.EDU  | "The church is near,
 Electrical Engineering Computer Facility        |  but the road is icy.
 Applied Electronics Laboratory, Room 218        |  The bar is far away,
 Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4055    |  but I will walk carefully."
 Phone: +1-415-723-1058   Fax: +1-415-725-7298   |      -- Russian Proverb
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: Thu, 7 May 92 08:56:26 CDT
From: whg at tellabf.tellabs.com (Walter H. Gude)
Subject: Caloric Content of HB


The other day after an exhusting hour of raquetball, I sat slumped against the
wall nursing a Gatorade.  Glancing at the "Contents" I noticed "Water, High
Fuctose Corn Syrup, Dextrose......" and not much else.  So this great
sports drink is basically sugar water.  Furthur, this 16 oz bottle contained
100 calories.  This got me thinking about the "beer belly".  Would drinking
a "Milwieser" Light with about 100 calories cause any more belly than the
Gatorade I was currently drinking? 

Now, given the 100 cal in a light and then approx. 150 cal. in normal american
swill, how many calories can I expect my normal 1.045 O.G. => 1.010 F.G. 
homebrew to have?  How does one determine the caloric content of anything?  Is
this possible to do at home?


"Homebrew, gives your body what it's thirty for."


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Date: Thu, 7 May 1992 10:52:26 -0400
From: andrew mossberg / mthvax admin <aem at umigw.miami.edu>
Subject: Re:  Say it ain't so, Joe!  (Re: MTHVAX ARCHIVES)

the gatewaying should have ceased already.  A few people have mentioned
trying to set up alternative archive sites, we'll see.

I have left the dept, and have no control over the site any longer, or
access to it. I expect that once they notice the archives, they will be
removed

aem

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Date:     7 May 92 14:58:27 EDT
From: "Chris Dukes" <imagesys!file_server_1!CRD at uu.psi.com>
Subject:  Brown ale recipes needed

Help!

I have recently jumped head first into the world of home brewing and
would like to get some recipes for a nice brown ale.  I haven't much
brewing experience, so please keep it very, very simple.  I apologize
to those more experienced brewers, but I need to start someplace and
I figured this would be the place to ask.

I do have access to the necessary materials/ingredients for brewing
as there is a great homebrew shop just up the road from my office,
but I don't have much direction and find myself lost upon walking in
the door.

Any help with recipes and advice would be very much appreciated.
I've been checking out the digest for a couple of weeks and it seems
like a great place to start.

Thanks, chris    crd at imagesys.com

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Date: Thu, 7 May 92 9:33:37 PDT
From: gummitch at techbook.com (Jeff Frane)
Subject: A Couple of Answers & A Question

> From: Now we will gnaw on their skulls <SELBYR at MEENA.CC.UREGINA.CA>
> Subject: bad beer?
> 
Roger asks if he's beer from last September was bad.  Taste it, Roger.
Unless there's something visibly growing on it, you ought to just taste
it and see if it's worth bottling.  (The only thing likely growing on it
is mold.)  You may need to pitch some fresh yeast along with the priming
sugar; whatever was in the beer has undoubtedly flocculated out by now.

The odds of anything BAD growing in the beer (pathogenic) are slim to
zip.  If the beer smells really foul (or even just unpleasant), toss it
out; it's not worth the bother of bottling.


> From: sfw at trionix.com (Scott Weintraub)
> 
> Does anyone know where one might obtain treacle in the US?
> 
> I want to make a close approximation of Old Peculier, and apparently
> need treacle.
> 
Treacle is apparently the British name for molasses.  I have been
assured this by Brits.  On the other hand, if you _insist_ on using
treacle, I know F. H. Steinbart, here in Portland, carries tins of
treacle.
> 
> 


> From: R_GELINAS at UNHH.UNH.EDU (Russ Gelinas)
> Subject: yeast, NA
> 
>   Couple of questions:  First, for Jeff F., in your yeast cleaning
> directions, step 4 says to agitate the water/yeast/trub mixture "until
> obvious separation is noticeable" and then to pour off the yeast in
> suspension.  Is this a quick process, or should the jar sit for a while
> to separate?


As I recall, this process takes about five or ten minutes.


ON ANOTHER NOTE ENTIRELY:

I will be arriving in Milwaukee sometime on the ninth of June (probably
in the evening) and will not be staying at the hotel until the following
night (esp. at $70 a pop!).  Is there a homebrewer in the Milwaukee area
who could put me up for the night?  (I figure the people at Sprecher
would probably throw me out at closing time, so that idea's out.)

Any help would be appreciated.  This is a budget cruncher.

- --Jeff




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Date: Thu,  7 May 1992 20:19:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Peter G. Goutmann" <pg1o+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Best Beer Games You Have Known


I'm interested in finding out what beer games people have enjoyed playing. 
Please e-mail yours and I'll post a compilation.


 -Peter Goutmann


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Date:     Fri, 8 May 92 13:05:42 EDT
From: "Robert J. Napholz" (GC-HSI) <rnapholz at PICA.ARMY.MIL>
Subject:  co2 tank pressure


Hello all

Is there a minimal pressure for a co2 tank. The regulator that came with 
my tank ranges for 0 to 2000 pounds it came with 1000# of co2.  From 0 to
500 the guage reads refill(read zone) i now have about 800#. So the
question is can i run the tank down to 12psi with out effecting the quality
of the beer.

Thanks  Rob Napholz

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Date: Fri, 8 May 1992 12:05:39 -0700
From: Michael.Burgeson at Eng.Sun.COM (J. Michael Burgeson)
Subject: denaturing acid carboys

I have recently come across a 7-gal acid carboy, but I am not
sure of its history.  It is still in its styrofoam container
with a nitric acid label on it.  It is empty and capped.  I
looks clean.  Since I don't know its history, I thought the
best thing to do was denature it before I use it, regardless
of what it smells like when I open it.  

Has anyone out there ever prepared acid carboys for use in
homebrewing?  Is denaturing something I can do myself, or
should I take it to a chemical lab?

Thanks,
Mike B.
   
   ____/   __  _  /  _   _  /
  /       /  _/  /  /  _/  /
______/ _/     _/ _/     _/








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Date: Fri, 8 May 92 17:18:29 EDT
From: avalon!jm at siemens.siemens.com (Jeff Mizener)
Subject: Old Peculier - New Peculiar

In response to Scott's (sfw at trionix.com) question about obtaining treacle
to imitate Old Peculier (a traditional Yorkshire Ale), I thought the following to be of general interest:

You can find treacle at fancy grocery stores, or from
American Brewmaster in Raleigh (mailorder).  The treacle I used was
made by Lyons, the same people that make Golden Syrup.  If you can't
find treacle, try unsulphured molasses (find treacle...).

I have made a stab at O.P. based on the Elbro Nertke Brown Ale
recipe from Papazian:

New Peculiar

6.6# dark extract
1/2# crystal malt
1/4# black patent malt
1.5oz fuggles 45min boil (pellets)
0.5oz fuggles 10 min boil (pellets)
2 tsp 'water crystals'
1 tsp irish moss
Whitbread Ale Yeast
1/2C black treacle

Put malts into a boiling bag and place into 2.5g cold water.
Bring to boil and remove, sloshing about and draining well 
(as one would with a [giant] tea bag).
Add extract, 1.5oz fuggles and boil 45 minutes.  During
the last 10 minutes add the remaining hops.  Cool (I take
my pot outside and put it in a baby bathtub full of circulating
cold water from the garden hose).  Rack into a carboy and add
yeast (I started the yeast with cooled-boiled water but recently
I have taken to putting the yeast directly into the warm wort).
I let it go for 4 days then racked into a second carboy where
it sat for another week before bottling.  Bottle as usual.
SG: 1.055, FG: 1.016

Result:  very nice, matured well.  Dark but not black, could
use some more body, but definitely not thin, lightly burnt
taste (my wife's words) that I attribute to the black patent
malt.  Tasty.  Not lawnmower beer. And it was only my 4th batch... 

I now have a treacle amber ale fermenting (New Peculier Lite?)
in the secondary.  Bottling is scheduled for this weekend.

Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalt's.

Jeff
========================================================
Jeff Mizener / Siemens Energy & Automation / Raleigh NC
jm at sead.siemens.com / Intelligent SwitchGear Systems
========================================================  
(reply to this address, not the one in the header!!)



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Date: Fri, 08 May 92 17:43:25 EDT
From: Jay Hersh <hersh at expo.lcs.mit.edu>
Subject: EZ mash tuns


I went with the 5 gallon Gott cooler approach.
$25 for the cooler. to replace the spigot get a 3/8 inch to 3/8 inch 
right angle compression fitting and 6 ft of 3/8 copper coil.You'll
also need a 3/8 female threaded spigot (the type you find underneath
sinks and toilets). It is best to get the kind with a right angle 
(like the simple diagram below) so the knob is easily accessed.


 	flow in -> -------| <- knob
 	                |
 	                | <- flow out


Simply screw out the spigot. Tighten the coil on the 3/8 copper coil tubing.
get a hacksaw and cut slots in the bottom of the tubing every 1/4 - 1/2 inch.
mount the outer end of the coil in the compression end of the compression
fitting. Pop this into the cooler, and put the compression fitting through the
grommet where the spigot used to be. On the other side srew on the new 3/8 in
threaded spigot you bought. This sytem works best with a 6.7 gallon size
nylon sparge bag.

I spent less than $40 on the whole setup. It loses less than 2 degrees
temperature over an hour and is perfect for doing 3-6 gallon batches
(depends on the OG you seek) as you can sparge up to 5 gallons and 12-15 lbs of
grain in it. It sets a nice grain bed, and with a collander and bottling bucket
(kind with a spigot) you can set up a nice sparge. Also re-circulation of
the wort is pretty easy as well.

Happy mashing

		JaH

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalts

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Date: Fri, 8 May 92 18:12:42 -0500
From: bronson at ecn.purdue.edu (Edward C. Bronson)
Subject: Best of Beer and Brewing Contents

    I am looking for a table of contents to the AHA publication 
    "Best of Beer and Brewing," Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications,
    1987.  This book is a compilation of selected talks presented
    at the AHA conferences from 1982-1985.  I have the transcripts
    from those conferences and I am interested to know which talks
    were chosen as the "very best."  Thanks,
					      Dred Bronson
					      bronson at ecn.purdue.edu

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #878, 05/11/92