HOMEBREW Digest #997 Fri 23 October 1992

Digest #996 Digest #998


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


Contents:
  Windbags, again, Tapper (Jack Schmidling)
  terms, koji, and #1000 (Michael Galloway)
  Chimay ("Mark Rich-mpr8a at acadvm1.uottawa.ca")
  Malt Storage (How Long is To Long?) (JCHISM)
  Sam "Boston" LawyerPig Adams? (craigman)
  re: boil ALL the water ("Steven D. Brown")
  Beer Engines ("Jack D. Hill")
  used terms (Tom Leith MIR/ERL 362-6965)
  Wheat Beer Validity ("Rad Equipment")
  Medicine-y taste (palladin)
  "Making Beer", by William Mares (pmiller)
  Acid wash (James P. Buchman)
  re:yeast attenuation (jim busch)
  Recipe requests (7226 Lacroix)
  Small breweries in Southern Germany (sbsgrad)
  Beer Evaluation (Tom Bower)
  Re: terms (korz)
  HBD Field Report #1: Information Sources (Phillip Seitz)
  cloves in pale ale (Michael Lewandowski)
  yeast nutrient for mead (Rob Bradley)
  Malting your own grain from Micah Millspaw ("Bob Jones")
  chlorine/stuck ferment cures (Brian Bliss)
  Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (SynCAccT)
  Beerstone (C.R. Saikley)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Oct 92 23:00 CDT From: arf at ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling) Subject: Windbags, again, Tapper To: Homebrew Digest Fm: Jack Schmidling >From: matth at bedford.progress.com >Subject: Digest 992 and Jack's perfect brews In today's digest, #992, Jack S. Says: > How can you possibly suggest that I would make beer that I do not like? >> I wish I could attain that type of consistent perfection! You have taken the statement out of context and ignored the whole point of the discussion. It was suggested that I don't care what my beer tastes like as long as it is clear and I was responding to that absurd notion. ............ I counted to 10 (waited for two more Digests to see if anyone else would speak out) before responding to this, so you all can save your heat. I thought it out clearly and mean exactly what I am about to say. >From: iepubj!korz at ihlpa.att.com >Chris Cook asks about how to try a lot of recipes without becoming an alcoholic: >>Mashing gets simpler, I guess, but all my stuff assumes at least >5 pounds of grain. I expect the 44 quart cooler/lauter tun will >get cumbersome quickly, for example. Jack, you're Easymash may >be the best bet. >I disagree. With very little grain in the bottom of the pot, your grain bed would still be very shallow. So far so good but he could use a tall/skinny pot. > This would also accentuate the poor extract efficiency of the Easymash system -- its biggest design flaw is that the runoff is drawn from a very limited area of the grain bed. I find this totally unfounded statement, not only factually wrong but just about the lowest this group has slithered to bring personal animosities into the discussion on home brewing. to maintain any semblence of keeping commercialism out of the discussions. When a product of mine is publicly trashed, I reserve the right to publicly defend it. The range of extract efficiency over about thirty batches made with an EM has been between 26 and 31. Most of the variation was caused by improper measurement technique and basic measurement error. The most recent 5 batches have been 29 exactly, all five of them. There are those who claim to get higher efficiencies and no doubt do, on occasion. However, the EASYMASHER was designed to make it easy for the extract brewer to transition to all-grain with the minimum additional equipment and a fool-proof process that is guaranteed to produce a good beer, the first time, with no hangups. I suspect that most beginners and many old timers would be delighted with an extract efficiency of 29. The alleged "design flaw" is only seen as one, by someone who has never used an EM and hasn't the foggiest idea of what he is talking about, but interested only in stroking his own ego. As a result of the extremely efficient screening device, the mash runs clear after only an ounce or two are run through, instead of the more usual recycling of quarts or gallons of turbid runoff. Not only does this get things under way with minimum effort but it allows one to stir the entire mash, all the way down to the bottom as often as one feels like it during the sparging process. This keeps re-suspending the grain so that the sugar is in a solution that is continually being diluted by the sparge water so that by the time sparging is complete, the remaining liquid, throughout the entire grain bed, is so dilute as to make the location of the out-flow totally irrelevant. The only "flaws" in the system seem to be that it is too simple, it works too well and it was developed by the "World's Greatest Brewer". >From: "CBER::MRGATE::\"A1::RIDGELY\"" at CBER.CBER.FDA.GOV >This past weekend I acquired a 2 1/2 gallon mini-keg called a "Reynolds Tapper." It has a built-in tap (labeled "Falstaff" which I assume is some cheap Yankee beer :) and is barrel-shaped, meant to lie on its side, cask- style. It is filled from one end, and the sealing cap has some funky valves and a gas cylinder in it. It looks like the idea is, you fill this with beer, stopper it, and charge the cylinder with enough CO2 to dispense the brew. Neato. Not quite. The CO2 cylinder is a throwaway and not meant to be refilled by the user. These things went out of circulation about ten years ago as far as I know. Fallstaff was a Midwestern beer, I can't recall who made it but there was one other brewer who used the Tapper also. I have several of them, all modified in various ways to make them re-usable. They are great for small batches but I never found a source for that wierd CO2 cylinder and their cost would probably make them impracticable. I just put a small aircock on the keg and charged them from the regular tank. In my rebirth as a hombrewer, I no longer wish to drink beer out of aluminum so they are collecting dust in a corner. They were originally coated on the inside but the coating has long since worn off and I probably drank it. Probably explains why I am such a nice guy. js Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 08:32:53 -0400 From: mgx at solid.ssd.ornl.gov (Michael Galloway) Subject: terms, koji, and #1000 In issue #996 Victor Reijs asks: >Because I am coming from Euroep, I have sometimes some problems with >your wordinngs;-). Could somebody help me with the following: >grist >quart >2#s dark brown sugar >DMS >wyeat 2112 Victor, Grist is an amount of grain for grinding/crushing or the product obtained from the grinding/crushing process. For our purposes, grist is crushed malted barley and other adjuncts (roasted barley, etc). A quart is a 'quarter' of a gallon. A gallon is 128 ounces (fluid). 2#s refers to pounds. The sharp, #, is the English symbol for the pound. One pound is 16 ounces. DMS is dimethylsulfide, well defined in issue #996. WYeast #2112 is WYeast's 'high' temperature lager yeast. Usefull for making steam beers. Are WYeast products available to you in the Netherlands? In the same issue Victor also refers to koji as a type of yeast: >If possible you can by at Japanes or Indian shops stuff which is called >'koji' or 'ragie' (these are the words we are using in Holland). This >is a kind of yeast which is able to fregment the strach of the rice. Victor, koji is an enzyme, similar to alpha-amalase (sp ?) which is one of the enzymes which converts the starchs in malted barley to sugars. Koji converts the starchs in rice to fermentable sugars. To Danny near Pierre SD: Although East Tennessee is somewhat more densely populated than SD, I am afraid that I too will be drinking alone next Tuesday (or Wednesday ?) when issue #1000 comes out. Hey, have any of you netmongers out there tried to use IRC as a means of discussing homebrewing issues? Just a thought. Michael D. Galloway (mgx at solid.ssd.ornl.gov) v-(615)574-5785 f-(615)574-4143 Living in the WasteLand (of Beer, that is) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 08:44:37 EDT From: "Mark Rich-mpr8a at acadvm1.uottawa.ca" <MPR8A at acadvm1.uottawa.ca> Subject: Chimay Greetings... I live in Ottawa, Canada. Last weekend I was visiting my local liquor sto re, when I looked up on a shelf and noticed a 750 ml bottle of "Chimay" trappis t ale. I hears all kinza great things about this stuff on the hbd so I figure: Hey, sign me up. So I tenderly craddle the bottle all the way home so as not to disturb the sediment, and put it on the balcony to chill lightly (it's at #$%*in g cold up here!!!) and wait with anticipation. The moment of truth finally come s, I light some candles on the mantle, place the bottle between them and give p raise... then... POP! I gently pour a glassful into a wide-wine glass; raise it to the light and observe the rich redness; wow! Then a nosefull, fruity and so mewhat (newly coined smell term)-citrusy. Finally a sip... BLECH!!! Is this stu ff suposed to taste like that? Please tell me it aint so... very sour, extremel y bitter, and an awful aftertaste. I hope this was bad sample. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 08:52 EST From: JCHISM%HSSCAM.decnet at NETVAX.MIS.SEMI.HARRIS.COM Subject: Malt Storage (How Long is To Long?) I was cleaning my garage out last weekend and found several cans of malt that have been sitting in varying degrees of heat and cold for 2 to 3 years. They are Muton and Fison pale and have been through Texas summers as well as Northeast PA winters in the garage. My question .... would this malt still be brewable or should I toss it out? My brewing equipment has also been in storage and is really dusty. What would be the best way to clean this stuff? It is food grade plastic. Is there a lifetime to food grade plastic, when do you know you need new containers? Thanks in advance for any help. Jami Chism The Party Line BBS (717) 868-5435 - ----- Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 08:04:18 -0600 From: craigman at casbah.acns.nwu.edu Subject: Sam "Boston" LawyerPig Adams? I heard some rumor recently about the Boston Brewing Co. trying to put under any microbreweries that include the name "Boston" in/on their beer. Any evidence out there? Am I going to get sued for saying Boston on the net, Jim? Guess what? Boston! Boston! Boston! Boston! Boston! Boston! // LizardArm \\ craigman at casbah.acns.nwu.edu Craig Anderson Return to table of contents
Date: 22 Oct 92 09:38:27 EDT From: "Steven D. Brown" <73030.3307 at compuserve.com> Subject: re: boil ALL the water Before I boiled all my water that I use in brewing I also suffered from the dreaded metal-medicine after taste in my beer. I now boil all water I will be putting in my beer the night before and as a result I have been acused of not using extract in my all extract brewing <GRIN>. I did not originate this idea or think it up on my own but recieved this wisdom from on high (read local home brew shop). At least for me all my ales taste like ale now. Just another data point. ~~~~~~~~ Steve Brown 73030.3307 at compuserve.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 9:47:04 EDT From: "Jack D. Hill" <jdhill at BBN.COM> Subject: Beer Engines A question on hand pumps or beer engines: Can anyone explain how beer engines work? What is used to displace the volume taken up by the expelled beer? Can you get a beer engine for home use? I understand that in England, beer is "conditioned" and contains still active yeasts and is allowed to attain the perfect level of carbonation before serving. Once tapped however, the beer must be served quickly. Is this due to the fact that the beer engine causes the beer to age or go stale more quickly? I've been seeing beer engines in use more lately. The Commonwealth Brewery in Boston has quite a few of them and the new John Harvard Brewpub in Cambridge has one. I've also seen a few on the west coast, the Lyon's Brewery in Dublin CA to name one. Jack Hill Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 09:18:25 -0500 From: trl at photos.wustl.edu (Tom Leith MIR/ERL 362-6965) Subject: used terms Hi Victor -- You asked for a few definitions: Grist: Your "grist" is the mixture of various malts or other grains that will be ground for brewing. The mixture after grinding is also called "grist". Quart: A unit of volume, very slightly smaller than a liter (litre?) It is quart because it is 1/4 (one quarter) of a gallon. # The sharp or hash-mark (#) is a symbol used to stand for "pound". Pound: A measure of weight, about 1/2 kilogram. Brown Cane sugar, less refined than the normal, white granulated stuff Sugar: people use for baking, and in tea. It has molasses flavor. As most flavors, you need to try it to really know. The less refining, the darker in color it will be. 2# Dark Brown Sugar is, therefore 1 kilo of less-refined cane sugar. DMS Dimethylsulfide. Smells like cooked cabbage. There's a good explanation in today's (22-Oct) homebrew digest from Al Korz(?) iepubj!korz at ihlpa.att.com wyeast A brand and strain designation of brewer's yeast. The yeast 2112 will have to explain further... t Return to table of contents
Date: 22 Oct 92 07:21:16 U From: "Rad Equipment" <rad_equipment at rad-mac1.ucsf.EDU> Subject: Wheat Beer Validity Reply to: Wheat Beer Validity (Apologies if this shows up twice. I never got a confirmation from the Digest when it went out the first time so I'm sending again. Gave me a chance to add comments regarding Steve's in today's Digest. RW...) Jon Binkley comments: >Hey, if Anchor and Red Hook charged $3.50 a six pack for their >wheat beers I'd have no complaint, and would even buy some for >lawn mowing purposes. You seem to infer that these beers are produced with a lower standard. That they are made with cheaper materials. I cannot speak for Redhook, however I do know my way around Anchor and can speak to their methods. There is no less effort or expense in the production of Anchor Wheat. Actually there is more labor involved due to the slow sparge that occurs from the use of the wheat. As far as I know there was never any intent to compete with the budmilcoors of the world, rather to offer a product which is lighter in taste and body (without resorting to the use of rice or corn) which might appeal to those who are not into the rest of Anchor's line. The use of the term "lawnmower beer" here refers to the refreshing quality of the lighter brew, not to it's price. There are many folks around who really like wheat beers, Anchor's included. If you are not one of them Jon, don't buy it! Save your pennies for that bottle of Oatmeal Stout. And don't attach any socio-political significance to it either. It's just another style of beer, and some people like it. And I believe Fritz is credited with creating the style, not brewing the first Wheat in the US in modern times. RW... Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 10:35:27 EDT From: palladin at muscle.trincoll.edu Subject: Medicine-y taste James Smith describes an underlying medicine-y taste in his beers that he suspects may be from chlorine in the tap water. I have also had a similar taste in my extract+adjunct beers and was wondering the following: 1) What is a "phenolic" taste? Plastic-y? I know this is like asking " what does pineapple taste like?", i.e. difficult to describe without tasting it. 2) I noticed that this unpleasant taste is more pronounced if I ferment at higher temps (ales). This led me to believe that it is the dreaded "phenol" and that I could probably fix it by switching to liquid yeast and fermenting at lower temps. Is this idea all wet? 3) Do digest readers think it *is* due to chlorine in the water? My water dept says that they add almost no chlorine to the water. Note that this funny taste is medicine-y, not plastic-y. I agree with Tom that my beers are much better than bud-miller but they still have this "homebrew" taste. One more data point - the one time I brewed a lager it had very little of this problem. It was fermented at about 50 deg F and also used dry yeast. One final clue - no matter how much malt I seem to use, this taste masks any malty residual sweetness, i.e. even with 7lbs of extract and 1 lb of crystal there is no appreciable maltiness. The taste that lingers on the tongue is bitter and alcoholic. Any Suggestions? Joe Palladino Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 09:35:41 CDT From: pmiller at mmm.com Subject: "Making Beer", by William Mares Frank Dobnar writes about William Mares's book, "Making Beer" in the HBD 996. I've read this book too and although it's amusing, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about making howebrew if they already own TNCJOHB. The information in Mares is basically a subset of what Charlie writes. Buy Dave Miller's book for more (technical) information if that's what you want. Mares's book _is_ chock full of amusing anecdotes though as Frank mentions. His first exposure to good homebrew comes as a result of getting his bagpipes tuned. (Honest!) The last 1/3 or so of the book tells about Mares's decision to start a microbrewery and this is what I found interesting. Mares was amazingly level-headed and got lots of good advice before taking the plunge. In fact, he was so level-headed, he decided _not_ to open a microbrewery. (I know that I wouldn't have the strength to say no.) So, as Frank says, "Making Beer" is easy reading and amusing, but don't buy it to learn to be a better brewer. Phil Miller Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 11:01:19 EDT From: James P. Buchman <buchman at marva1.ENET.dec.com> Subject: Acid wash Hi, I have a strain of German Ale yeast which I cultured from a single cell colony and which has produced two great batches of Extra Special Bitter. The second batch was pitched with yeast cultured from the dregs of the last bottle of the first batch. Since I have heard that three repitchings is about the limit before petite mutants start to affect the performance of the yeast, I would like to try to give the yeast from this batch an acid wash before storing it. My questions: 1) What are the benefits of an acid wash? 2) Would a white vinegar/water solution be satisfactory? If so, what PH should I shoot for, and how much vinegar would lower a liter of water to that PH? 3) How long should the yeast stay in the acid solution before washing with plain water? I guess what I could use is an acid wash procedure. I have seen yeast washing procedures posted for plain water, but not for an acid wash. Thanks, Jim Buchman Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 11:28:58 EDT From: jim busch <busch at daacdev1.stx.com> Subject: re:yeast attenuation In the last digest: Bill Szymczak bszymcz at ulysses.nswc.navy.mil wrote: >recipe for stout deleted: >Edme ale yeast and obtained >OG = 1.057 >FG = 1.028 >This batch was very full bodied, relatively well balanced, and had >a pleasant licorice flavor. For my new batch I used the same recipe >but used yeast A1 from Dr. Schiller's Yeast Culture Kit, which >I believe is the same as WYEAST 1056. For this batch the starting >and final gravities were >OG = 1.053 >FG = 1.014 !!! >Considering the amount of unfermentables in the recipe this final >gravity must be near some theoretical limit. >The difference in starting gravities is due to the fact that this time >I was fermenting a little more than 5 gallons (about 5 1/4 gal.) >While bottling, I tasted some of the new batch, which needless to >say was quite a bit dryer (similar in dryness to Guiness) I cant pass up an opprotunity to comment on Dr. Schiller's yeast! First, strain A1 is from the same (or so we think) original strain as Wyeast 1056, ie: Narragansett, but from a different source than 1056. I use this strain in most of my ales, and it has excellent attenuation characteristics. My American Pale ales use 10% caramel 40 and the ferments go from 1.053 (13P) down to 1.008 ( 2P) in 4 days! I also brewed a strong ale with this yeast and it went from 1.060 to 1.008 in 5 days. For another data point, I brewed a barley wine and pitched cultured Thomas Hardies yeast into a 26P (1.104) OG. It got "stuck" at 1.050 (typical for hardies yeast). At this point I pitched a ton of A1 slurry without oxygenating the batch, and it took off, finishing at 1.024-6, for a whopping 10% by volume! So, the strain is quite alcohol tolerant and very attenuative. It makes sense, since the SNPA pallet is quite dry and not very sweet. In Bills, case, the EDME performed very badly, finishing at 1.028, way high even for most barley wines, much less a stout. The second batch, ending at 1.014 is typical when the specialty malt content goes up. In fact, 1.012-1.015 is a great range for FG with a stout. >Other factors which may have influenced these results were: > 1. The yeast for the new batch was pitched from a 1 liter starter, >while the dry yeast used in last year's batch was simply >sprinkled on top. >2. The new batch was fermented in glass carboys with >primary fermentation lasting 3 days, and secondary another 8 days. >The previous batch used single stage fermentation for 13 days >in plastic. Factor 1: yes! very important to pitch an active 1L starter. Factor 2: irrelevent, except that the secondary helps clarity & yeast removal from the bottling stage. Bill, if you brew this again, it would be interesting to compare the results of using strain A6 (similar to Wyeast Irish) or strain A15 (aka Ringwood ale yeast). Both should result in a higher ester quality to the stout which might be quite desirable. If anyone would like to email me with data points from using any of the Dr. Schiller strains, I would be most interested in comments & experiances. Also, any improvements or suggestions are welcome since it is WE the collective brewing community that this effort is for, and if the process can be improved I am sure an effort will be made to do so. Jim Busch busch at daacdev1.stx.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 09:16:43 MDT From: stevel at chs.com (7226 Lacroix) Subject: Recipe requests Anybody out there got a good Dubbel or Trippel recipe???? I'm psyched up to try either, but I don't have a recipe. Please E-mail any responses. And by the way OOOOOOOOOh CANADA! how about a recipe for a Big Rock Extra Ale clone???? It's an "Irish" type ale from Calgary and I hope they have it on draft in the next life time!!! Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 15:59:44 GMT From: sbsgrad%sdph.span at Sdsc.Edu Subject: Small breweries in Southern Germany From: Steve Slade <sslade at ucsd.edu> Date sent: 22-OCT-1992 08:51:37 PT My wife and I will be honeymooning in Southern Germany and Austria during November. Anyone out there have suggestions for small breweries/brewpubs/ pubs which should not be missed? As a general rule we will be avoiding big cities, so all the wonderful info about Munich from this forum and Jackson' s guide will not do us much good. As usual, thanks in advance for all replies. Steve Slade reply to: sbsgrad%sdph.span at sdsc.edu or sslade at ucsd.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 9:16:13 PDT From: Tom Bower <bower at fubar.rose.hp.com> Subject: Beer Evaluation I recently made the jump to all-grain for the first time, and produced what I think is a really tasty stout. I'm anxious to have someone with plenty of beer tasting & judging experience give me some feedback. What is the best way for me to get expert feedback on my beer? 1.) Join a brew club. 2.) Send some to a homebrew contest/judging somewhere. 3.) Study for and become a beer expert judge wizard guru myself. 4.) Find a kindly, thirsty beer judge who is willing to taste & report back if I send beer. Assume for the moment that #'s 1-3 are not available right now...any takers for #4? Now, before I'm deluged with e-mail from people who just want a couple bottles of my stout: this is an experiment, and for the time being let's treat it as a purely hypothetical question. If there's anyone who lives reasonably close to Roseville or Auburn, CA, and might be willing to volunteer to try my homebrew, drop me an e-mail message! In the larger sense, I'd be interested in the net's opinions on how a home- brewer would best go about getting knowledgeable feedback on his/her beer. Tom Bower. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 11:27 CDT From: iepubj!korz at ihlpa.att.com Subject: Re: terms Victor asks about the meanings of: >grist The grist is the crushed grains. >quart A quart is a US measure of liquid volume. It is equivalent to 0.946 liters. >2#s dark brown sugar The "#" symbol is often used in the US to mean pounds (which is equivalent to 0.4536 kilograms). Therefore "2#s" or "2#" means 2 pounds == 0.9072 kg. >DMS Dimethylsulfide. See my post in yesterday's HBD. >wyeat 2112 Just a typographical error. What was meant was: "Wyeast #2112 California Lager Yeast." It is also called Brewer's Choice Yeast and is made by Wyeast Laboratories. Al. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 20:52 GMT From: Phillip Seitz <0004531571 at mcimail.com> Subject: HBD Field Report #1: Information Sources Came home yesterday from 21 days in England and Belgium with a horrible cold and three suitcases filled with goodies. The take: 7 kilos of candi sugar, 8.85 of Belgian chocolate, 5 beer glasses and just over 12 liters of British and Belgian beers in 33 bottles. Brian D. still holds the overall beer smuggling record, but but I brought back more overall calories! I passed customs at Baltimore/Washington International Airport, and all the beer was carefully packed in my suitcases except for a rather conspicuous magnum of Villers St. Ghislain (Brasserie de Silly) that wouldn't fit. There was no customs red line (i.e. for those who wish to declare), so I went through the green. When the guy asked if I had any alchohol I indicated the magnum, but by then he'd already rattled off the next six questions and sent me on my way. (Note: these days I am lamentably clean cut and respectible-looking, and I did notice that the guy ahead of me--with long hair, a small bag, and a history of traveling to bohemian haunts such as Amsterdam and Prague--was instantly snagged for more detailed examination.) My travels included visits to three English and two Belgian breweries, as well as several brewpubs, homebrew stores, and related haunts. I'm planning to sift through my notes and collected materials as my brain slowly recovers from the jet-lag, cold, and excesses of the past three weeks, and hope to post several messages based on these as time (and space) allows. Since I spent a good deal of time looking for published information I thought this might be a good place to start. INFORMATION ON BEER IN THE UK I did not purchase a copy of the current GOOD BEER GUIDE published annually by CAMRA, as I had last year's model. The guide was readily available in any decent bookstore, and can be ordered from CAMRA at 34 Alma Road, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, AL1 38W. I regret that I don't have the price of the current edition at hand; my suggestion to interested parties is that you write to request the ISBN number, and use this to order through your local full-service bookstore. CAMRA also sponsors several other publications. These include: Graham Wheeler, HOMEBREWING: THE CAMRA GUIDE (Alma Books: St. Albans, Hertsfordshire, 1990), 181 pp., illustrated (ISBN 1-85249-107-8). Cost: 4.99 pounds sterlind. This is an excellent and handy guide, though probably less accessible for beginners than Papazian's JOY. All-grain beers are the focus, and there's lots of good information on water treatment and other special topics, as well as a chapter on recipe formulation. Also welcome was info for brewing in metric measures, for those (like me) who are getting tired of mixing cups, pounds, gallons and grams. Note: the Alma press is owned by CAMRA. Roger Protz, THE REAL ALE DRINKER'S ALMANAC (Moffat, Scotland: Lochar Publishing, 1991), 288 pp., illustrated (ISBN: 0-948403-89-6). Cost: 7.99 pounds sterling. A fantastic guide to beers from all over the UK, and an excellent companion the above. This book provides tasting notes for the vast majority of real ales available, as well as recipe guidelines (i.e. IBUs, malts and hops used, special techniques). While having this information is still a far cry from being able to duplicate your favorite beer, it's definitely a leg up. Impressive in its scope. Another book, THE EUROPEAN BEER ALMANAC, by the same author and publisher (same price, ISBN 0-948403-28-4) covers continental brews, but was far less comprehensive and tries to cover too much ground, IMHO. Tony Morris, ed., SUFFOLK REAL ALE GUIDE (CAMRA: no place, 1992), 192 pp. with maps (ISBN: 1-85249-066- 7). Cost: 3.00 pounds sterling, and worth three times that. Most of our travels were in East Anglia--the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, and (depending on your philosophy) Cambridgeshire and Essex. This guide is similar to the GOOD BEER GUIDE except that it lists ALL of the pubs in the county of Suffolk. It's an astonishing piece of work for a county organization, and, once we found it, replaced all our other guidebooks. Includes historical profiles of each town, with maps showing the locations of pubs as well as information on all the beers available in the area. If CAMRA can produce this kind of effort in every county travelers will be very well off indeed! (I gather this is a very new publication: the only place we saw it was in the Ipswich tourist information office.) INFORMATION ON BEER IN BELGIUM My search for beer guides in Belgium was quite energetic, and almost equally fruitless. With a wealth of beers and brewing history at least as rich as England's it's astonishing how little information is available. However, you can still look for: Tim Webb, GOOD BEER GUIDE TO BELGIUM AND HOLLAND (St. Alblans, Hertfordshire: Alma Books, 1992). ISBN 1-85249-110-8. Cost: 8.99 pounds sterling. This obvious started as a CAMRA guide, and is published by their press, but does not bear their seal. It is a Lowlands equivalent of the UK GOOD BEER GUIDE, and does a very creditable job. The descriptions of the beers are less detailed, but I would say that this is probably probably essential reading for anyone going to Belgium who doesn't already know where they're going to do their drinking, and is very desirable even if you do. MENU FROM LE VAUDREE, Liege. Le Vaudree has two restaurant/cafes in the province of Liege, and offers 42 beers on tap and 980 in the bottle. Their menu is 48 pages long and is a veritable dictionary of Belgian brewing. Beers are arranged by category, including one for "Bieres Disparues", or beers from breweries that no longer exist (try a 15-year old gueuze?). While this is hardly in the same category as the publications listed above it is still a very valuable reference source, and procuring is is likely to be more fun than a visit to your local bookstore. These two cafes are open 24 hours (probably the only thing in Belgium that's open at 3:00 am aside from the bordellos, which probably only serve Stella Artois), and are located at: Rue val Benoit, 109 Rue Saint-Gilles, 149 4031 Angleur 4000 Liege Tel: 041/67-10-61 Tel: 041/23-18-80 As soon as my brain is working better I will post information gathered from the brewery visits as well as some other general observations. In the meantime, could someone send me the address of the MEAD LOVERS interest group? A Belgian friend asked for this, and I must admit I didn't save it. Thanks and a bientot! Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 18:24:34 -0400 From: Michael Lewandowski <mikelew at brahms.udel.edu> Subject: cloves in pale ale I would like to make a batch of spiced pale ale. As the title of this article states, I'd like to use cloves. Does anyone have any advice to offer? I'd appreciate information on dosages, when to add the cloves, what kind of cloves to add (ie whole, ground, something else), and anything I may have missed. Thank you very much. Mike Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 18:31:58 -0400 From: bradley at adx.adelphi.edu (Rob Bradley) Subject: yeast nutrient for mead Jim Larsen (jal at techbook.com) informed me via e-mail that bee pollen is a (the?) traditional yeast nutrient for mead. Thanks again, Jim. Does anybody have any idea how much to use per gallon? Acton and Duncan recommend a combination of ammonium phosphate and vitamin B1 for nutrient. I don't feel a whole lot better about ammonium phosphate than I do about urea (although at least my mead won't _literally_ be p*ss-water :-). I mentioned in an earlier HBD that I was wondering about using health- food-store brewer's yeast as a nutrient for cider. What about for mead? It's not live yeast. It has B1, as well as other B vitamins. I suppose it also has other nitrogenous goodies which the wine yeasts can scavenge from the corpses of the dead brewer's yeast. Does this speculation seem to make any sense? Does anybody have any ideas how much I might use per gallon? Is there a mead digest? Cheers, Rob (bradley at adx.adelphi.edu) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 15:39:26 PST From: "Bob Jones" <bjones at novax.llnl.gov> Subject: Malting your own grain from Micah Millspaw At the October SAAZ club meeting one of the members brought in many five pound bags of barley. This was dry, unmalted barley. He said, evrybody take some. After that a lot of the meeting was about what to do with the barley, most opted to try malting the stuff. Over the past week that is what I did, made malt. This is a fasinating process and very easy to do (quality aside) whither the malt is top notch or otherwise, malting and kilning your own grain and then brewing with it should be a must for any grain brewer (one time). I found this to be an enlightening project as did other members of SAAZ who tried this as well. I'm looking forward to the next few meetings when we'll sample the really homemade beers. As I hickory smoked my malt after kilning, I'll be brewing RAUCH STOUT this weekend. I thought that the might be interesting to the HBD. Micah Millspaw 10/21/92 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 20:18:53 CDT From: bliss at csrd.uiuc.edu (Brian Bliss) Subject: chlorine/stuck ferment cures >The purpose here is to get rid of the chlorine. In his previous book, "The >Complete Handbook of Homebrewing," he recommends pre-boiling all water for >15 to 30 minutes to drive off the chlorine. IMHO, it is a function of your >water supply. When I lived in Lexington, MA, the water was quite good >and I could add it directly to the fermenter and the beers were fine for >my untrained palatte. When I moved to North Andover, MA, I could smell the >chlorine in the water & the water dept. said the chlorine level was 0.7 ppm - >swimming pools range from 1 - 2 ppm. I started boiling the water then; I >did not try a batch without boiling the water. It's not just the chlorine taste that you want to drive off; the chlorine will act as a buffer and keep your mash ph from getting below 5.8 or so (that figure is from experience), no matter how much gypsum you add (within reasonable limits). A high ph will adversely affect your extract efficiency (but you can still get a fine beer with a mash ph of 5.8, albeit a lighter one unless you compensate with more malt. - -------------- For curing a stuck fermentation, try oak chips. I use the kind that look like, and are, sawdust. usually I don't want them to impart to much flavor to the beer (and if I do get an oakey flavor, I want it to be a charred oak flavor), so I toast the hcek out of them at 450F for 10-15 min, then boil them, and then strain the water to remove much of the flavor which has been extracted in the water, maybe boil & strain again, and then add the goop to the fermenter. It works like a charm, but don't ask me why. I don't buy the excuse they give on the A-B tours: "the oak chips effectively increase the surface areas of the fermenter, giving live yeast more area to settle out, and not be suffocated by a yeast cake". The sawdust-type chips could not have this advantage, as they settle out fairly quickly, and form a cake on the bottom, but still work. It must be a chemical phenomenon. other methods I've tried are: 1) rousing the yeast. It doesn't seem to make too much of a difference. For it to make a difference, you have to continually rouse the yeast. If you don't have a method of doing this automatically in the fermenter, you are just exposing the beer, to unwarranted risk of infection and aereation, and acheiving marginal results. 2) yeast energizer. I've tried two kinds: diammonium phosphate, white crystals, and ammonium phosphate (from wines, inc) which was yellow and smelled like piss. I've have good luck with the former (and not the latter), but there were too many batch-to-batch variances to blame any taste defects or absence of defects on the yeast nutrient itself, especially when I don't know what off-flavor it's supposed to impart. (I've only used them with meads, and like it was mentioned yesterday in the hbd, maybe I'm accustomed to the flavor) 3) adding more yeast. If you do this, make sure you krausen with liberal amounts of actively fermenting yeast, i.e. a starter at high krausen. whatever caused the original yeast to "stick" will probably cause the extra yeast to stick, also - try a more attenuative fermenter. 4) add cane sugar to the recipe. What I mean is: all those batches I've added cane sugar to seem to go on forever, whereas all-malt batches can be done in under a week. I don't mean replace part of your malt with sugar - just add a little in addition to all the malt. This keeps the yeast in suspension and happy fermenting the cane sugar, and at the same time they get the last little bit of fermentables from the malt. At least this works pretty well for heavier beers, unless the extra cane sugar gets the alcohol so high it kills off the yeast. I've never added any to a batch that's already stuck, though. 5) you can always try changing the temperature. bb Return to table of contents
Date: 23 Oct 92 03:36:19 GMT From: SynCAccT at slims.attmail.com Subject: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Being Canadian and on business to the States a few months ago I was was fortunate enough to be able to purchase and bring home some bottles of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Fine stuff, it is, and I would like to make it my next project. My question: is the yeast slurry on the bottom viable and is it the same yeast that SN uses for their primary. I've heard some bottle conditioned beers are actually kraeusened with wort innoculated with a strain specifically generated for priming. These bottle loading strains don't make good ales, just fizz to lock the cap on. If anyone has the "goods" on the stuff in the SNPA bottle please let me know. I'm plating it out in a petri dish tonight, we'll see what grows. While we're on topic, can someone email me their best SNPA emulator? Thanks in advance.....Glenn Anderson EMAIL ==> gande at slims.attmail.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 10:16:36 PDT From: grumpy!cr at uunet.UU.NET (C.R. Saikley) Subject: Beerstone From: "John Cotterill" <johnc at hprpcd.rose.hp.com> >Thanks to all who responded to my questions about removing the white >precipitate on the bottom of my boiler. The consensus is that the stuff >is calcium carbonate. The following suggestions were given as a means of >removal: [stuff deleted] There is a mineral deposit typically found in brewkettles which matches your description. This mineral is not calcium carbonate, but calcium oxylate, which is commonly referred to as "beerstone". I suspect that's what you've got. At any rate, vinegar will work just fine. Cheers, CR Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #997, 10/23/92