HOMEBREW Digest #962 Fri 04 September 1992

Digest #961 Digest #963


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


Contents:
  Right beer? (Ed Westemeier)
  What makes Cream Ale Creamy ?? (Joe Freeland)
  flour catcher (Russ Gelinas)
  Brewing Mishaps - my tale... (Michael Tighe)
  Oak chips in IPA? (pmiller)
  Re: Oak Chips (Karen Jdsgeoac Hyrum GEOACOUSTIC)
  Some Fun! (Jerry_Reeves)
  Beer Sampling/Yeast culturing Event! (SLK6P)
  Assorted Comments (Bob_Konigsberg)
  Whirlpools & siphoning (Jeff Benjamin)
  Thanks for the Memories.... (Norm Pyle)
  Two brewing disasters (James S Durham)
  Re- Baderbrau (Radium) (Chris McDermott)
  filters (CHUCKM)
  Malt flames from Micah Millspaw (BOB JONES)
  Maerzen (Mark R. Garti)
  Wood Chips ("Regan Fulton")
  oxidation and porters (Bryan Gros)
  All grain SNPA taste-alike? (pmiller)
  yeast.starters (card)
  corn/distasters/open_fermenters/traquiar_house (Brian Bliss)
  Bev-Con International (man)
  Flame Loops, Not Your Fellow Homebrewers! (Jon Binkley)
  Westmalle is back!!:-) (John Isenhour)

Send articles for __publication__ to homebrew at hpfcmi.fc.hp.com (Articles are published in the order they are received.) Send UNSUBSCRIBE and all other requests, ie, address change, etc., to homebrew-request@ hpfcmi.fc.hp.com Archives are available via anonymous ftp from sierra.stanford.edu. (Those without ftp access may retrieve files via mail from listserv at sierra.stanford.edu. Send HELP as the body of a message to that address to receive listserver instructions.) **Please do not send me requests for back issues!** *********(They will be silenty discarded!)********* **For Cat's Meow information, send mail to lutzen at novell.physics.umr.edu**
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Sep 1992 13:55:09 -0400 (EDT) From: homebrew at tso.uc.EDU (Ed Westemeier) Subject: Right beer? Ted Samsel asks: > Does anyone know of an authoritative published source on what > beers go with what sort of food? Please forgive my rather primitive attitude, but the answer to this question is essentially different for each individual. Unfortunately, this kind of reliance on so-called "experts" is what drives many people away from the enjoyment of good wine, IMHO. The _BEST_ beer to accompany any particular sort of food is what _YOU_ prefer at that moment. Period. End of discussion. Ed Westemeier Cincinnati, OH Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 08:31:33 -0500 From: j_freela at hwking.cca.cr.rockwell.com (Joe Freeland) Subject: What makes Cream Ale Creamy ?? I have been looking for recipes for Cream Ale, and have not been too successful. I have come across a few, and am beginning to wonder exactly what makes a cream ale a cream ale. I don't really notice any abnormal adjuct grains or special additives to make it any different than regular ale. I am somewhat new (~2 years) at recipe matching and still do extract brewing, is there something I just do not recognize as being different about these recipes ? I was in San Diego recently and went to the Columbia Brewery (Karl Straus) and had some of their "Karl's Cream Ale" and it was most excellent, and that is what started this whole desire for a good cream ale recipe. If anyone else has consumed this magnificent brew and can give some details on how they make it please let me know. Joe (j_freela at hwking.cca.cr.rockwell.com) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 9:49:38 -0400 (EDT) From: R_GELINAS at UNHH.UNH.EDU (Russ Gelinas) Subject: flour catcher If you use a Corona grain mill, as I do, you cannot avoid getting some flour along with your cracked grains. Too much flour can lead to a stuck sparge. A good way to get rid of the flour is to put the grains in a big paper bag as you grind them. Pour the grains from the bag into the mash-tun, and much of the flour stays behind in the bag. Russ Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 10:13:54 EDT From: tighe at kc.camb.inmet.com (Michael Tighe) Subject: Brewing Mishaps - my tale... This sorry tale involves an experimental batch of mead I made several years ago... I had made two different batches, one with nutmeg and cinnamon and another with lemon-peel and ginger and as is usually the case when I bottle, there was this "left-over" liquid on the bottom of my primary fermentation vessel. (Luckily in those days I was brewing in one-gallon experimental jugs!) Well, not wanting to waste anything, I mixed up the dregs from both batches and bottled them. My assumption was that it would taste lousy, but I was curious as to what it would be like. In those days, I bottled in 16-oz Coca-Cola bottles - you know the kind - I've used them to hammer nails into a two-by-four when the hammer was too far away from where I was. I believed them to be indestructible. (Foolish man...). I had two bottles of this "dregs-brew", and had brought them with me to my girl-friend's apartment for the weekend along with several bottles of the "good stuff", and placed it on the bureau in the front hall. In the early days, my mead had this annoying habit (notice I said HAD - I don't HAVE this problem any more!:) of going off (i.e., exploding :) at dawn. Most explosions occurred around 6:00 am or there abouts, with annoying regularity. This batch (the "dregs") decided to follow suit, and early on a Saturday Morning there was this "BOOM" from the front hall followed by the fearful sound of glass skittering on wood. Quickly apprising the situation (having been woken from a sound sleep), I refused to let my girlfriend out of the bedroom, and utilizing standard bomb squad techniques, I grabbed a towel and quickly contained the second bottle of "dregs", the one which had NOT yet gone BOOM. I rushed to the kitchen and then stood there over the kitchen sink - now what do I do? This is when the term "glass grenade" really starts to become meaningful and fearful. Utilizing my great wisdom, I popped the top off of the towel-wrapped 16-oz Coke bottle filled with "dregs" and heard "POW" as I tried to aim the bottle's contents down the drain. Problem was that the spray emptied the bottle all over the ceiling, countertops, walls and cabinets of the kitchen before I could turn the bottle mouth-down to the drain. (It is this experience which convinced me to open any suspicious bottle out-of-doors!) The original bottle's explosion had broken the mirror on the antique bureau, sent shards of the Coke bottle across the living room (we found pieces under the piano weeks later), stripped the finish off the bureau top and leaked through the top onto my girlfriend's nicest silk gloves and hankies in the top drawer. She did forgive me, but it took a while! Moral of the story: Don't bottle dregs - its not worth the risk! :-) Michael Tighe, Intermetrics, Inc., 733 Concord Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138 (USA) email: tighe at inmet.camb.inmet.com, phone: 617-661-1840 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 09:15:22 CDT From: pmiller at mmm.com Subject: Oak chips in IPA? Super Dave writes: > I was planning on using some Oak chips I got from a brew supply shop > > for an IPA. I read somewhere where I should toast them... Actually, how you prepare the oak chips may be a mute point. Terry Foster (Pale Ale, The Book) claims that English oak is different than American oak (and French oak, I think) in that English oaken barrels don't impart any flavor to the beer that's stored in them. Apparently, we Americans, used to the characteristics of _our_ oaken casks, just assumed that English IPA which had been sitting in a wooden cask must have some oak flavor. So, Terry's point is that if you're trying to brew an authentic IPA, _don't_ add any oak chips. Of course, that's not to say that you can't add oak chips to beer just for the fun of it. Just don't do it to be 'true to style'. Anybody need a bag of oak chips, never used? I'll let mine go _real_ cheap... ;-) Phil Miller "There is nothing in the world more helpless and pmiller at mmm.com irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge." Hunter S. Thompson Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 10:41:04 EDT From: jdsgeoac at typhoon (Karen Jdsgeoac Hyrum GEOACOUSTIC) Subject: Re: Oak Chips Dave asked about oak chips in an IPA. The William's Brewing catolog which sells oak chips suggests the following: Rinse with water and steam for 20 min. in a vegtable cooker or toast for 20 min at 350 F for a "crisper oak character". Add the chips to the fermenter, and leave in contact with the beer for at least 8 days. Use from 2-5 oz for a 5 gal batch. I used William's chips in one batch. I used about 3 oz. and toasted them for sanitation. The result was a very oaky beer (too much oak). If I used oak again I would not use more than 2 oz. and I would steam them instead of toasting. Hyrum Laney Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 09:12:21 -0600 From: Jerry_Reeves <jreeves at hpbsl118.boi.hp.com> Subject: Some Fun! Return to table of contents
Date: 03 Sep 1992 09:48:12 -0600 (MDT) From: SLK6P at CC.USU.EDU Subject: Beer Sampling/Yeast culturing Event! Brewfest/Yeast culturing. An evening of fun and fungus. The other night some fellow brewers and beer unthusiasts joined me for an evening of sampling several "exotic" brews (in Utah terms that is) for the sake of comparison (quaffage) and to attempt culturing all of the culturable yeasts. We had stuffed squash from the garden, and watched Michael Jackson Beer Hunter Videos (well, we saw a bit of Jack's video too for kicks). It sure was inspiring to see the Lambic brewing system. Talk about "Not Worrying" to an extreme! The image of spider webs all around the casks haunts my mind. When I saw fruit flies hovering around my DunkelWeiss as I racked to the secondary the other night, I decided to savor the spider who has placed his home next to my brewing space in the basement. Here's what we "sampled": ** Guinness ** Bass ** Anchor Steam * Black Hook Porter ** Celebrator * St Pauli Girl (dark) ** Red Tail * John Bull ** Portland Ale * Caribe ** Chimay The next night- with refreshed palates, Toot and I dipped into some even MORE exotic brews: ** Samichlaus * Wicked Ale ** Corsendonk ** Thomas Hardys Ale I had a collection of malt agar plates. We poured the sediments onto them after carefully dispensing the beer into our little sampling glasses. Boy- even a small glass (when you have many of them!) can sure put you under the table. Good thing I just had to fall into bed, not go anywhere! Beer sure makes my girlfriend frisky! Whew... So- with a fair bit of followup culturing (restreaking for single colonies, then transfering to agar slants) I should have quite a stock of viable yeasts. I wonder how much overlap there might actually be in terms of which strains are really which? Might any of them actually be the same as any Wyeast cultures? This is probably going to drive me to freezing some cultures. I'm also wondering which brews actually had culturable yeasts, and which just had sediments, and which plates now just have a layer of yummy beer on their surface. Any input? The ones with two ** are ones I'm pretty sure -> quite sure are culturable (*** means they are already growing!). Just thought I'd share this enjoyable expoerience with you folks. "Beer is a part of our phfood, an important part of our daily phfood intake" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Wyllie**THE COSMIC COYOTE**SLK6P at cc.usu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Can anyone help me use FTP? I get the prompt but then don't know what to do. I'd like to be able to download some of the files. HELP???????? Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 08:53 PDT From: Bob_Konigsberg at 3mail.3com.com Subject: Assorted Comments Jack Schmidling asked (or was he reprinting another's question) about hooking up a cajun cooker to natural gas. It can be done, but the BTU's of propane are much higher, and he's not going to get as much heat out of it. Jack, I also use mine outside, having had one boil over in the garage (my wife was not appreciative). One safety note for all, I noticed that the tripod legs could tip over the cooker in a direction between the legs, and since I've got little ones (curious too), I bought a 3/4" X 2' diameter plywood circle, varnished it thoroughly (3 coats), flattened and bent over (in a vise) the last 1.5" of the tripod legs for the cooker and drilled holes and then screwed the legs to the plywood disk. The cooker is *much* more stable now, and I'm not as worried. Concerning flaming, according to a friend (who ought to know), flaming consists of just passing the loop through a flame, not heating it red hot. I don't have any brewing disasters of my own (just a boil over or two), but I do have a question. My latest batch (a brown ale) is not bad, but has a noticeably metallic taste. Here's the particulars for this 10 gallon batch. 12 lbs. Alexander's Light LME 6 lbs. Alexander's Dark LME 8 oz. Chocolate Malt (steeped, NOT boiled) 1 lb. Crystal Malt 40L 4 oz. cascade at 5.3% AA (boiling) 2 oz cascade (finishing in last 5 minutes) Wyeast Irish Ale Yeast built into a 1 qt. starter 3 days before. S.G. 1.054 F.G. 1.024 (calulations say about 4% alcohol) Wort was chilled in a counterflow chiller and fermented with a blowout tube. Lag time was less than 8 hours (I was asleep and not watching). It tastes pretty good except for the mettallic flavor. By this I mean, I'd like to get rid of the metallic part, but I'll drink it anyway. Has anyone else had a similar problem, and if so, to what did you attribute the problem? BobK Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 9:54:01 MDT From: Jeff Benjamin <benji at hpfcbug.fc.hp.com> Subject: Whirlpools & siphoning Jeff Frane (gummitch at techbook.com) recounts as part of a disaster story: > At the end of the boil, I hooked up the siphon hose to the wort chiller, > clamped off the far end and stirred up a great whirlpool. > I had _some_ reason for doing a little research upstairs, digging in a > brewing text, during the 20 minute rest. I've tried the "make a whirpool and siphon off the side of the pot" technique for racking after the boil, but I found it difficult to stir vigorously and start the siphon at the same time, and my siphon (copper tubing with slots in the bottom) still clogged with (fresh) hops. Jeff's comment suggests that whirlpooling (to coin a word) and siphoning don't have to be done simultaneously: you can stir up the whirpool to concentrate the solids in the center, let them settle, and then siphon. If so, do you still need some kind of filter to keep solids out of your wort? - -- Jeff Benjamin benji at hpfcla.fc.hp.com Hewlett Packard Co. Fort Collins, Colorado "Midnight shakes the memory as a madman shakes a dead geranium." - T.S. Eliot Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 09:33:05 MDT From: pyle at intellistor.com (Norm Pyle) Subject: Thanks for the Memories.... Thank you, oh thank you for your tales of disaster! I've sure enjoyed reading them, although I hate to hear about all the homebrew that's gone down the drain, into the carpet, down the stairs, etc. I think I'll go rent "Misery" or "The Addams Family" or something and have a homebrew... Norm P.S. My father-in-law has built me a roller mill from my specifications. I don't have it yet (I'll be getting it in a couple of weeks). Within a couple of weeks after that I'll report on it and give construction details if folks are interested. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 09:37 PDT From: James S Durham <js_durham at pnlg.pnl.gov> Subject: Two brewing disasters Back in the good old days, when I had only about three batches of beer under my belt (literally), I had a brewing experience that convinced me to use a coleman stove in the garage. I had just bought a new home, and I was all set to watch the world series and brew my favorite stout (recipe posted sometime last week) as my first batch of beer in the new house. Well, the first disaster to occur that day did not affect me personally, but they cancelled the baseball game for the San Francisco earthquake. I did not have the full complement of brewing equipment that I now have. I brewed a 1.5 gallon extract recipe in a three gallon pot, just as I always had. I was tired of fighting with the swelling that occurs just as the wort starts to boil, so I thought "I'll just let it boil over and use a stainless steel mixing bowl to catch the overflow." What a good idea! As the wort was heating to boil, I decided to warm the mixing bowl on another burner so that the overflow would stay hot. Since just about every house in town has electric stoves (electricity is VERY cheap here), my stove was no exception. I placed the mixing bowl on one burner and anxiously awaited the boil. Soon, however, I noticed that the mixing bowl was glowing red, so I quickly turned down the heat to low and inspected the bowl. Sure enough, I changed the properties of the steel in the bottom of the bowl. Oh great, my wife (who doesn't like my beer) will kill me. So I set the mixing bowl down on a cold burner. Meanwhile, the wort approached boiling and the foam was rising in the brewpot. Just as the foam was approaching the top of the brewpot, I lifted the pot up to move it over the mixing bowl. I failed to notice that this stove had a ventilation hood over it where the stove in the old house didn't. I hit the hood with the brewpot, and a small amount (about two cups of wort landed on the red-hot burner that had just been vacated by the brewpot. This started a small fire on the burner. I quickly set the brewpot (now cooled slightly so it was no longer in jeopardy of overflowing) onto the only available burner on the stove (the mixing bowl covered two cold burners. Unfortunately, the only available burner was heating on low. As I was dousing the flames on the cooking burner, I glanced up just in time to see Mt. Wort erupt like Vesuvius. The wort flowed into the burner, down the little air vent that leads to the oven, into that inaccessible area that houses the wiring for the burners below the burners, across the counter and onto the lily-white sculptured-pile rug that some madman had installed in the kitchen. Needless to say, I didn't have to worry about my wife becoming upset about the mixing bowl. I (as brewer) was banished to the garage forever, which greatly facilitated my brewing anyway. It's a good thing I brew and allow primary fermentation to occur in the garage now, because it minimized the effect of having a cherry from a cherry stout recipe clog the airlock during primary fermentation this summer. The airlock exploded (thank goodness not the carboy) and cherries went everywhere! BTW, the volcano beer that I described above turned out to be one of my best brews, but I don't think I want to repeat the recipe exactly. Return to table of contents
Date: 3 Sep 1992 13:15:33 -0500 From: Chris McDermott <mcdermott at draper.com> Subject: Re- Baderbrau (Radium) Re: Baderbrau (Radium) Since I am not a nuclear physicist, I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.... I think that what the Elmhurst water was comtaminated with was probably Randon gas and not Radium. As I understand it, Randon is a decay product of Radium which is in turn a decay product of Uranium. Radon contamination of ground water is VERY common in areas that have a bedrock structure that is composed mainly of granite. This is beacause trace amounts of Uranium in granite rock decay eventually into Radon and sice Radon is a gas it can disolve in the ground water. And because it is soluable it can reach fairly high concentration levels. Fortunatly, Radon has a very short half-life and quickly decays into non-radioactive products. The way the "Radium problem" was most likely solved was to let the water stand in some sort of holding pond for a few days before distributing it. The Baderbrau could also of been "made safe" simply by letting it sit in the bottles for a while. A similar method is used in a very popular spring water from Maine. The auquifer that feeds this "spring" is the same one that my parents' artesian well taps into a few miles away. Since we found out about the problem about 15 years ago, we would let the water sit in the refridgerator for at least a day before drinking it. _ Christopher K. McDermott Internet: mcdermott at draper.com C.S. Draper Laboratory, Inc. Voice: (617) 258-2362 555 Technology Square FAX: (617) 258-1131 Cambridge, MA 02149 (USA) Return to table of contents
Date: 03 Sep 92 13:21:41 EDT From: CHUCKM at csg3.Prime.COM Subject: filters Hello everyone. Does anyone have any experience/advice with filters for beer...eg. I think I would like to filter it before kegging, but I'm not sure how to proceed. I've seen a variety of water filters on/for sale at HQ on the 20 - 30$ range and wonder if these might do the trick. Thanks in advance chuckm at csg3.prime.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 11:01 PDT From: BOB JONES <BJONES at NOVAX.llnl.gov> Subject: Malt flames from Micah Millspaw I thought that I'd let you all know about a horrible brewing experience that I had recently. I made bad beer! and not just a little bit of it either, a total of 45 gallons of bad beer. This disaster took place in 15 gallon increments, and at the first incident I blamed the yeast (even though I had proofed it myself). So I changed yeasts and brewed again, same problem ( the defect was massive amounts of DMS) I've been useing the same wort chiller for several years with no trouble. So slow cooling wasn't the problem. And so to rule out some horrible bacterial infection as a source, I re-etched my SS fermenters with acid. So I went really anal about sanitation, got some known good yeast from a local brewery and tried again. Still more DMS. Then began the search for a common element and I found it, it was the pale malt. For years now I have been using pale malt from Great Western malting, but my source for it recently went away and so I bought some Breiss malt. I should have thought of blaming the malt sooner but it seemed to unlikely. I stopped trying to brew and located a new source for Great Western malt. Then I did some tests. With the same yeast that was used in the high DMS beer (last made) I made some test batches, I mashed a pound of breiss, boiled for an hour,cooled it and pitched the yeast, then did the same with the Great Western malt. Within 2 days the DMS smell from the Breiss was overwelming, the Great Western was okay. This satified me that the malt was the problem and I'll never use Breiss again. I've got some good beer fermenting now, made from Great Western malt. Since this problem occured I talked to many other brewers both home and commercial and they all said, don't use this malt (Breiss). I thought that I'd pass this on to you HBDers because it sucks to make bad beer and its even worse not to know why. Micah Millspaw 9/2/92 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 14:29:43 EDT From: garti at mrg.xyplex.com (Mark R. Garti) Subject: Maerzen does anyone have an extract or partial mash recipe for Maerzen? grain recipe for same? Mark mrgarti at xyplex.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 14:52:04 CDT From: "Regan Fulton" <fulton at molbio.cbs.umn.edu> Subject: Wood Chips I used wood chips recently and found they gave a very nice aged character to the brew. I followed Charlie's India Pale Ale recipe very closely, as I remember--though I don't have my notes with me. I also toasted my grains for that one, so I can't say whether the wood alone contributed to the very pleasing character, but I do think of it as my best so far. This was a full-bodied ale with high alcohol content and real hint of wood. I steamed the chips in a collander for about five minutes prior to adding to the brew pot--I'm a sanitation freak in addition to being a hop head. Finally, I found the wood chips at Cellarcraft (Minneapolis). Cheers. _______________________________________________________ | | | Regan Fulton Email: fulton at molbio.cbs.umn.edu | | 5-110 Moos Tower Phone: (612) 624-9663 | | University of Fax: (612) 626-7031 | | Minnesota | | 515 Delaware St. S.E. | | Minneapolis, MN 55455 | |________________________________________________________| Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 13:01:54 PDT From: bgros at sensitivity.berkeley.edu (Bryan Gros) Subject: oxidation and porters I got only one response to my question about SG and temp. relations. And I don't have a postscript printer, so that didn't help much. Maybe I can get something out of a chem. book. With the talk about oxidation, it is said that shaking COOL wort is good--leads to aeration which yeast like. Then it is said that shaking beer (before bottling) is bad--leads to oxidation which taste buds don't like. So what is the difference in the two settings? Why is unfermented cooled wort not as susceptible to oxidation? And sorry if it was discussed recently, but what is the reviews of Terry Foster's book on Porters? - Bryan Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 15:15:32 CDT From: pmiller at mmm.com Subject: All grain SNPA taste-alike? Does anybody have a sure-fire recipe for a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale taste-alike? I'm going to try my first attempt at all grain in a couple of weeks and I want to make the most of the extra effort. (BTW, I already checked in the Cat's Meow.) I plan on doing a single step mash this time around to make things simpler. Any suggestions (recipe or technique) would be _greatly_ appreciated. Phil Miller "My problem with most athletic challenges is training. pmiller at mmm.co I'm lazy and find that workouts cut into my drinking time." from _A Wolverine is Eating My Leg_ Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 16:49:23 EDT From: card at apollo.hp.com Subject: yeast.starters I decided to finally write this down rather than stumbling through my brew books every 4 months or so, when it's time to make starters. BTW, since the bottles and are now sealed and the wort "sterilized", I presume you can just store them "in a cool dark place" rather than refrigerating. Also, if anyone has had bad experiences with just adding the yeast to the starter bottles and re-sealing without an air-lock, until time to pitch, I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks and happy brewing, /Mal Card YEAST STARTER PROCEDURE ----------------------- Read Miller's "Brewing the World's Great Beers", page 33-35 Material: * Eight 1 quart canning jars ## * Eight NEW covers (rings and lids) * 3/4ths lb dry malt (~1.5 cups) * 1/4 oz hops (I used Hallertau pellets) * stainless 1.5 gallon boiler * ceramic, or stainless boiler (16 quart) Procedure: 1. clean the jars and covers (i don't think boiling is necessary). Ideally you could boil the jars and lids as described on the canning bottle box. The jars should probably be left in hot water until ready to use for thermal shock reasons. 2. Boil ~ 1 gallon water uncovered for 15 minutes 3. Turn off burner and add dry malt and hops 4. Bring to a boil 5. boil wort for 15 minutes 6. turn off boiler and let the wort settle for 15 minutes or so. 7. while this is cooling, fill the ceramic boiler about 1/3 full. bring to boil 8. Stir wort to evenly distribute the hops and transfer hot wort into bottles (half full) and then loosely cover 9. place the 8 jars into the ceramic pot with water ~ 1" from the top of jars. 10. bring to a low boil and simmer for 30 minutes 11. with tongs carefully remove the jars and finger tighten the lids 12. let cool overnight on wooden surface (keep out of draft) ## note: Miller "specifies" pint bottles but I've found if you use 1 quart bottles, you can add the yeast directly into the bottle since there is now adequate head room. This has worked successfully for me for about 6 batches but I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had problems with this. IE. exploding bottles. IN ANY CASE, ONCE THE YEAST HAS BEEN ADDED, CARE SHOULD BE TAKEN, AND IF THE LID SWELLS, SIMPLY RELEASE THE PRESSURE WITH A QUARTER TURN OF THE COVER AND RETIGHTEN. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 18:24:09 CDT From: bliss at csrd.uiuc.edu (Brian Bliss) Subject: corn/distasters/open_fermenters/traquiar_house > can corn be converted by boiling, or do i need a warm > temp rest like barley. corn is just like barley in that it can be malted, which produces amylase enzymes (don't know how corn differs from barley in the amounts of different types of amylase produced, though), it must be boiled or processed before being used as an adjunct, and conversion must take place in the presence of amylase at ~150F, etc. I'd like to taste an american pilsner made with malted corn (but let somebody else do all the work :-) - ------------------------------ On brewing disasters: How about 15 lbs honey & 7 lbs blueberries, put into a 6 gallon fermenter? I decided that my friend's basement would make a cooler environment in which to ferment this beast, so I carried the entire thing down 2 flights of stairs, drove across town, keeping it from tipping over with my right hand, hoping that the police wouldn't decide to stop me an inspect/infect the content of the fermenter, got to my friends house, opened the basement door, carried the carboy down another flight of stairs, and ever so gently sent the fermenter down on the concrete ledge. All I heard was a slight "clink", and didn't notice that the carboy was becoming lighter by the second. I could have saved a gallon or two and put it in jugs, but I was so disgusted I just threw the whole damn thing (about 2 gallons was left in the fermenter by the time I tipped it over to stop the flow) out in the dumpster and proceeded with the cleaning up process. Fortunately, there was no carpet on the floor, and a drain nearby. Unfortunately, the drain was 90% clogged. Fortunately, It wasn't my house. The ants loved it. - ------------------------------ >>Some brewers use open fermenters (Anchor, Pilsner Urquell, etc). Why >>don't they have sanitary problems. I would never think of fermenting >>in the open, but Pilsner Urquell does it in caves with no apparent >>problems.... Any comments? > >It's a numbers game. The brewers add a huge number of active yeast >cells which get off to a quick start. There's no question that >molds, bacteria, wild yeast, etc. fall into open fermentation >tanks; but they are simply overwhelmed by the 10^6 to 10^9 fold >excess of the desired yeast cells. After the beer is fermented >out the alcohol suppresses most microbial growth. A Zymurgy article last year stated that when PU brews, they split the batch in 3 parts. They monitor these closely, and if one batch starts to develop a mild infection [as long as it's not too early in the fermentation cycle, I would assume] they quickly bottle it, mixing it with the other 2 batches, which brings the off-flavors below the taste threshold level. - ------------------------------ > McAndrews (a somewhat paler version), and what I believe is still > the most expensive beer available in the U.S., Traquair House, > which retails for about $9 per 10 oz bottle (Cases can be had for > a bit over $100 if your dealer is in a good mood). I finally found Traquair House at the Weinkeller liquor store in Berwyn, IL, for a little less than $5 a bottle. What is the proper way to pronounce "Traquair House"? (I had to spell it before they figured out what I was asking for :-) bb Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 13:04 EDT From: man at kato.att.com Subject: Bev-Con International I received too many requests for their number, so I decided to post: Bev-Con International 6400 Highway 51 South Post Office Box 396 Brighton, Tennessee 38011 (901) 476-8000 (901) 476-4811 (fax) (800) 284-9410 Mark Nevar Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 21:08:48 -0600 From: Jon Binkley <binkley at beagle.Colorado.EDU> Subject: Flame Loops, Not Your Fellow Homebrewers! Jack S. Writes: >I have often wondered about the "proper" method of flaming. It would seem >that just passing through a flame would kill anything on the tool but on the >other hand, the tool is a heat sink and the critter might not even get hot. >So to make sure, I heat the loop cherry red and the glass rod till I know it >is hot. The problem is, if you then poke it into the yeast to transfer it, >the yeast gets fried unless you let it cool. While cooling, it is in the >unsterile air and one never really knows when it is cool. >So, the question, at last... is just passing through the flame sufficient? When streaking bacteria I always get the loop red-hot. If I'm coming from an agar plate I just jam the hot loop into an unoccupied portion of the agar; this cools it off quickly and keeps the loop sterile. If I'm coming from a liquid culture I stick the hot loop right in the culture; sure some of the bugs get fried, but since you're dealing with billions of them (or hundreds of millions in the case of yeast) you get more than enough live ones in your loopful. Jon Binkley Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 92 0:50:18 CDT From: hopduvel!john at linac.fnal.gov (John Isenhour) Subject: Westmalle is back!!:-) I just got back from my monthly trek to the Chicago Beer Society meeting. I always stop in at Sams Wine Warehouse and check for Westmalle. Well it was there tonight, and I am just back and savoring my first in a really long time. My favorite is the trippel and they claimed to have several cases which they could not locate so I had to settle for the dubbel :-) don'tcha feel sorry for me? Anyway it is in distribution again (and yes there is that darn gov'ment warning about non belgian women drinking while pregnant) but at least its here! Yaa Hooo... - -- John, The happy Hop Devil renaissance scientist and AHA/HWBTA certified Beer Judge Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #962, 09/04/92