HOMEBREW Digest #883 Mon 18 May 1992

Digest #882 Digest #884


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


Contents:
  [Rob Gardner: Re: Gatewaying of HBD to r.c.b] (rdg)
  Calcium Chloride (Bill Fuhrmann)
  All Grain (fjdobner)
  Beechwood Aging (Michael Biondo)
  Re: Homebrew Digest #881 (May 14, 1992)  (Rob Gardner)
  Re: Homebrew Digest #881 (May 14, 1992)  (Rob Gardner)
  "Klages" probably ain't (donald oconnor)
  Boston Beer Blah.... (Jay Hersh)
  Re: Fruit (korz)
  Re: Pre-boiling/full boil/Beer Hunter (korz)
  Los Angeles (PETTEWAY)
  Lancaster Festival (GC-HSI) <rnapholz at PICA.ARMY.MIL>
  Oregon Brew Festival (Dennis Benjamin)
  Marga Mulino Grain Mill (Darren Evans-Young)
  pre-boiling water (Darren Evans-Young)
  All-Grain questions (Darren Evans-Young)
  ph meters (Brian Davis)
  deletion from mail list (for now) (JBCARDIN)
  Re: Homebrew Digest #879 (May 12, 1992) (Matthew Y Rupp)
  CLASSIC FERMENTATION LOCK (Jack Schmidling)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 15 May 92 10:39:39 MDT From: rdg at hpfcmi.fc.hp.com Subject: [Rob Gardner: Re: Gatewaying of HBD to r.c.b] FYI, I recently posted this to rec.crafts.brewing. > Just so everyone knows my feelings about the r.c.b/HBD crossposting: > > I think it's a great idea. As a result, the digest mailing list > has shrunk a bit, but there's still plenty of critical mass to > keep it going. Please don't worry about the digest going away and > being replaced by r.c.b. - the digest will only stop being delivered > when there are no articles submitted to it. It will only cease > to exist when all subscribers have sent me unsubscribe requests! > It would take an act of God (or management ;-) to kill the digest. > Since there are currently over 1600 subscribers to the digest, it > appears pretty safe. Don't worry. > > > Rob (digest guy) Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 12 May 92 06:16:16 CDT From: fiero at pnet51.orb.mn.org (Bill Fuhrmann) Subject: Calcium Chloride |--- Pete replied to 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, I suspect that you will get more than one reply like this: Calcium Chloride is used for melting ice on sidewalks, however, it is not the same as Rock salt or Water Softener salt. Those two are common forms of Table salt or Sodium Chloride. Calcium Chloride tastes terrible. You might be able to find Calcium Chloride in a drug store, it's supprising how many chemicals you can get there.* Bill Fuhrmann, aka fiero at pnet51.orb.mn.org "You don't know what you've got till it's gone." - Joni Mitchell Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 08:08 CDT From: fjdobner at ihlpb.att.com Subject: All Grain I have a rather large ten gallon brewpot that was a gift from my father in which I brew everything including extract and all grain. When I am doing all grain brews however, I must lug this thing with about 5-7 gallons of boiling hot liquid through my kitchen, living room, down a flight of stairs, across my basement to my workshop which is where I have an area cool enough (unfinished part of the basement) to ferment anytype of ale or lager. I am awaiting disaster while doing this everytime and am also searching for solutions to overcome this such as: 1. Investigate using less mass water as posted yesterday by Kenneth Haney. 2. Get a dedicated range/cooker for my workshop. Perhaps the beer/fish cookers that Dave Ballard posted also yesterday would be of use. Would you need to have ventilation for these things. I would imagine so but maybe someone is more aware of this than I. Also would these cookers put out enough energy so that I would not need to wait a millenium for my 5-7 gallons to boil? Your comments are welcome. Frank Dobner Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 09:46:02 CDT From: michael at wupsych.wustl.edu (Michael Biondo) Subject: Beechwood Aging While thumbing through Michael Jackson's 'The New World Guide to Beer' something intresting caught my eye. At the bottom of page 31 there is a picture of a lagering tank with chunks of wood sitting outside of it. The caption reads: 'Beechwood "aging" at another brewery, in Bohemian forest country. The beechwood chips are used to fine the beer in the lagering tank.' I know AB makes a big deal of their "Beechwood Aged" process and in fact have actually seen the large collander-like trollies full of chips that are inserted into the lagering tanks, and also the special washing machines the chips are washed in prior to reuse. (I think the chips are reused 5 times) But until reading the above caption from Jackson (Woo! nice rhyme...), I never realized that the beechwood was actually used as a fining agent. Does anyone have any additional info on using beechwood as a fining - I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned in any of the texts. How effective is it as compared to the more standard finings? Has anyone actually tried using beechwood on a home brewing scale? Mike Biondo michael at wupsych.wustl.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 10:16:45 MDT From: Rob Gardner <rdg at hpfcmi.fc.hp.com> Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #881 (May 14, 1992) > 1 campden tablet > 1 pkg Red Star champagne yeast If you are going to make a small quantity of this brew, I sugget that you follow this recipe fairly closely. I, on the other hand, make mead 5 gallons at a time and so my recipe for a large batch varies a bit. If you want to make a lot, try it this way: > in a 6 gallon p> r> imary, place: Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 10:21:18 MDT From: Rob Gardner <rdg at hpfcmi.fc.hp.com> Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #881 (May 14, 1992) > 1 campden tablet > 1 pkg Red Star champagne yeast > If you are going to make a small quantity of this brew, I sugget that you > follow this recipe fairly closely. I, on the other hand, make mead 5 gallons > at a time and so my recipe for a large batch varies a bit. If you want to > make a lot, try it this way: > in a 6 gallon p> r> imary, place: Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 11:23:41 -0500 From: oconnor at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (donald oconnor) Subject: "Klages" probably ain't A week or so ago there was a good discussion about mashing and various malts, american and european. One inaccuracy that ran thru the discussion of american malt was calling it "Klages". There are 2 principle suppliers of american malt to homebrewers, brewpubs, and some microbrewers in the U.S. Great Western Malting as noted by someone (Jeff Frane?) sells a mix of pale malt varieties one of which is Klages. Briess Malting is the other and (i think) the largest homebrew supplier. It is there pale malt which is continually, and wrongly called "Klages". There pale malt is also a mix of 2-row varieties including Klages and perhaps 4 or 6 others. Briess calls this mix "brewers malt" not Klages so it is not clear why so many brewpubs and homebrew suppliers (wholesale and retail) refer to this as Klages. For the most part it is not. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 12:43:34 EDT From: Jay Hersh <hersh at expo.lcs.mit.edu> Subject: Boston Beer Blah.... I just got off the phone with someone at the BBC. Yes they are definitely suing the BBW, and said this fact was reported in the Herald a few weeks ago. They said they have to do this in order to protect their trademark, and their product integrity (i.e. if the BBW brews bad beer they don't want it getting confused with the BBC) I pointed out to them that if they wree worried about protecting the trademark (which if they don't they can legally lose it, or so they say) then they should make a legal agreement with the BBW to license it for some trivial fee. This obviates the question of who really owns it and stops wasting time/money. I further indicated that BUD/MILLER/COORS is to BBC as BBC is to BBW, i.e. they were picking a fight with the wrong people, and thus were wasting their energy as well as pissing off the homebrewing community. I let them know that lots of people were aware of this nationwide and mroe and more of them were getting pissed off about it, and talk of a consumer boycott was being bandied about. The person I spoke with took my # and said they were unaware of people's feelings on this, that this would be passed along to Jim Koch (who is rapidly becoming persona non-grata among more than just Marelene :-) and he would perhaps call me back.... This whole thiing irritates me cause I think it's real petty and that it's just another example of lawyers and corporate geeks run amok.... Jay Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 11:45 CDT From: korz at iepubj.att.com Subject: Re: Fruit Frank writes: > However, should >a darker beer be sought (cherry stout for instance), I do not believe there >should be a problem in adding the fruit to the boil, if appearance is all >that is at stake. Well, yes, I see a problem. The CO2 that is violently produced during the first few days of fermentation will scrub much of the fruit aromatics from the beer. I suggest adding the fruit later in the ferment to avoid this phenomenon. I suggest the same for dryhops too, for the same reason. Al. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 12:02 CDT From: korz at iepubj.att.com Subject: Re: Pre-boiling/full boil/Beer Hunter I've lost the original posters of these questions, so forgive me, but: Re: Pre-boiling mash/sparge water If you have a lot of temporary hardness (see your water analysis), which is caused by Bicarbonate, you can lower the hardness by boiling and cooling the water -- it will precipitate out the bicarbonate. Re: why do a full boil for all-grain A full boil is sort of necessary -- you see, you can get away with a small mash (say 2 or 3 gallons) but then when you sparge, you will collect about 6 to 8 gallons of wort. This you need to boil down to 5 gallons. You *can* do this in two batches, adding half the hops to each batch, but you can't boil a small amount and then add to pre-boiled/cooled water in the fermenter as mentioned by the poster. Re: Beer Hunter You can order it (or at least you used to be able to) from the Discovery Channel at 1-800-TDC-8343. They used to throw in a free copy of Jackson's pocket guide. Re: toothpaste Serves the person right... accept nature and stop sticking toothpaste tubes in your underware! ;^). TGIF Al. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 1992 10:24 PST From: PETTEWAY%UCLACH.BITNET at CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu Subject: Los Angeles I have recently moved to Los Angeles from Seattle and I am going through serious withdrawal. NO GOOD BEER !!! Anyway, I have decided to brew my own. Can anyone out there recomend or point me to any good homebrew supply stores or maybe even homebrew clubs in the "City of Angels". I need to secure a steady source of beer since it was the first thing to go from the stores during the riot induced shopping mania. Thanks prematurely Jason Petteway PETTEWAY at UCLAC1.CHEM.UCLA.EDU Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 13:39:55 EDT From: "Robert J. Napholz" (GC-HSI) <rnapholz at PICA.ARMY.MIL> Subject: Lancaster Festival Hello all: Last week some one ask about a beer festival in Lancaster PA. well here it is sorry for the delay. Microbrewery Festival place: Adamstown PA Stroudt brewery hall date : June 13 Saturday cost : $15 per person(12.50 group of 15 for more) Incudes "Best of the Wursts Buffet" with potatoes and horseradish Music by Hans the Happy Wander. Microbreweries to attend(more to come) as of 1/92 Boston Beer Co Brasal Brasserle Allemande Buffalo Brewing co Wild Goose Brewery New Englang Brewing Co Old Dominion Brewing Co Oldenberg Brewing Co Otter Creek Brewing Co Pennsylvania Brewing Co Samuel Adams Brew House Stroudt Brewing Co Vermont Pub and Brewery Call or write The Great Eastern Invitational Microbrewry Festival RT 272 P.O. box 880 Adamstown PA 19501 1(215) 484-4387 directions: The hall is located between Reading and Lancaster just off the PA turnpike exit 21. See ya there Rob Napholz PS the standard line goes here bla bla bla..... Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 11:03:35 PDT From: benjamin at picasso.mmwb.ucsf.EDU (Dennis Benjamin) Subject: Oregon Brew Festival I seem to recall hearing about a Brewwer's Festival in Oregon sometime this summer. Does anyone know if/when/where this will be held? (oops - Brewer's Festival, that is) :^) Dennis Benjamin benjamin at munch.mmwb.ucsf.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 16:54:39 CDT From: Darren Evans-Young <DARREN at ua1vm.ua.edu> Subject: Marga Mulino Grain Mill I got mine from Zabar's in New York. I dont have the phone number here at work, perhaps someone else can furnish that. I paid $60 for it. Beware, the price can be as high as $100 (Sur La Table, Seattle). I would not pay more than $60 for it. Mine works great. I use a 4.5 amp 1/2 hp variable speed drill with a screwdriver bit. You'll have to play with the adjustments some. It depends on the grains you use. I had to use a different setting when I got my grains from a new source. The settings past #2 work best for me. Setting it to #2 powdered my grains. 1 3 2 o o o o | | | | | | Either of these two settings should work. Note the setting on the far right doesnt have a notch, so the adjustment knob wont be seated. But it doesnt seem to move when operating the mill. Let me know if you need more information. Darren Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 17:05:56 CDT From: Darren Evans-Young <DARREN at ua1vm.ua.edu> Subject: pre-boiling water I would say definitely pre-boil all water used in brewing to drive off Chlorine. My mash pH goes all the way down to 4.6-4.8. I attribute this to the absence of Chlorine. Darren Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 17:09:24 CDT From: Darren Evans-Young <DARREN at ua1vm.ua.edu> Subject: All-Grain questions Sparge water level: I got no responses to my inquiry about sparge water level in the grain bed. Perhaps you all-grain brewers will send me mail indicating whether your sparge water level is above or below the top of the grain bed..also, if you have any reasons why you choose that method. I'll post a summary of the responses I receive. Sparge water amount: I'm planning a brew using 15lbs of pale malt. Using 1 qt/lb of grain, I'll be using 4 gallons of water in the mash. Do I still sparge with 5 gallons? Less? More? Darren Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 15 May 92 15:52:29 pdt From: Brian Davis <brian%mbf.uucp at ics.uci.edu> Subject: ph meters Many moons ago one of you posted a message offering plans for a digital ph meter. I've forgotten your name, but thanks for the plans. In the stuff you sent me was a list of the pros and cons of different ph probes. What type do you use for brewing? Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 16 May 1992 16:15 -0500 From: JBCARDIN at ecs.umass.edu Subject: deletion from mail list (for now) Dear Homebrew, I am switching nodes soon so will you please delete me from your mail list until I obtain another node? I have really enjoyed this newsgroup. Thanks a lot. Jim Cardinal Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 16 May 92 18:42:09 EDT From: Matthew Y Rupp <mrupp at magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #879 (May 12, 1992) Please remove me from mailing request. Thank you Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 16 May 92 22:13 CDT From: arf at ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling) Subject: CLASSIC FERMENTATION LOCK To: Homebrew Digest Fm: Jack Schmidling >I am looking for a autoclavable air lock of the type which can do reverse flow (for when it cools). Anyone know where I can get such a beast, or have an idea for how to make one? One sure sign of an old salt at home brewing is the classic glass fermentation lock. When I first started wine/beer making, there was nothing else available, now they are scarce as hens teeth. As a far out aside, one home brew shop returned my video because of all the "odd looking equipment" I demonstrate in it. Not sure where you can find them but I treasure my remaining three and treat them like crown jewels. One of the nifty things you can do with them is to fill an Erienmeyer flask with your starter and bring it to a boil. When you are sure it won't boil over, attach the empty glass fermentation lock and turn off the heat. The steam will sterilize the stopper and lock and enough water will condense out to fill the lock to the proper level. If it sucks some back in on cooling, it's no problem because it's sterile water. For what it's worth, I use a 500 ml flask about 3/4 full as a starter for 7 gal batches and get vigorous fermentation within 24 hrs. I have never tried starting from a petri dish without going through the slant step but I have a hard time believing that it would not work as well without all the extra stages. I can't believe the yeast cares whether it is in a gallon of wort or an ounce. Back to your original question, they exist and if you look hard enough, you can probably find one. I will sell one of mine for a grand or two :) Making one would be a simple task for a glassblower. It is basically an "S" shape with a bubble in each leg. There are some good shots of it in my video if you have access to it or someone wants to send you a "preview" copy. js Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #883, 05/18/92