HOMEBREW Digest #1146 Fri 21 May 1993
Digest #1145
Digest #1147
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Re: Equipment? (tmr1)
sanitizing Stainless Steel (David Hinz)
Secondary Fermentation (JC 20-May-1993 0943 -0400)
Local beer made in Philadelphia?? (MEHTA01)
RE: Half and Half , NA Beer (greenbay)
A new half-n-half (/O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/)
Lyle's Golden Syrup and Black Treacle (/O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/)
RE: Racking after Pitching (James Dipalma)
secondary fermentations and fruit (Bryan Kornreich)
foreign american brews (Ron Natalie)
Re: 1/2 & 1/2; racking, the Secret Meaning of .. (Jeff Frane)
Brewing Techniques... a great new journal (Dennis J. Templeton)
Bitterness (Glenn Tinseth)
The Sanitation subject again - Recent studies on water nasties ("Steve Kurka - BMC West, Boise, ID")
Images from listserv at sierra.stanford.edu ("Donald G. Scheidt")
Half & Half (Jim Bayer)
sour mash ("Knight,Jonathan G")
Beer Bread (Mark Taratoot)
Spices/Protein rest/Tate&Lyle's (korz)
brewkettles and carboys (Tim LaBerge)
Competition for Kock (Lou Casagrande)
Re: Competition for Kock (Lou Casagrande)
Hops, Fruits (Mark Garetz)
Half and Half Method (Karl Desch)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 09:39 EDT
From: tmr1 at hotlg.att.com
Subject: Re: Equipment?
Rob Wilson asks:
> ................................................................. I need
> a couple of glass carboy's and bottles. I have seen bottles with there own
> tops, look like a little porcelain stopper with a rubber washer on it. I
> don't know what they are called but look like they would work well.
> ................................................. Also what are those
> bottles called and do they work??
The bottles Rob is referring to are Grolsch bottles, a beer made in Holland.
I was lucky enough to obtain about 400 of these once and it was one of the
reasons I began homebrewing. I never liked the beer and I got the
bottles empty, but they are excellent for bottling homebrew. They hold 16
ounces, are dark brown to keep out light, are very thick and sturdy (I
haven't broken one yet) and are a joy to cap. Just a flip of the thumb and
they are capped. No need for a special capper. Most of the original rubber
gaskets are still in good shape and the few that were dried out or covered
with crud and/or beer mold were replaced. Several homebrew supply stores
and mail order catalogs have them both in white and red. I boil the gaskets
for 5 minutes to sterilize them before bottling.
The 16 oz. size is nice since I can pour 2 mugs of beer with a good head from
1 Grolsch bottle and still leave the yeast sediment in the bottle. An
interesting thing I have noticed while soaking off the original labels is
that the older bottles were marked as 16 oz. on the label and as time went
on, the labels changed to 15.8 oz. and 15.2 oz. Probably at the same price,
but at a savings to the brewery. I'm in the process of measuring the volume
of each of the 3 differently marked bottles, but I'll bet that they are all
the same. They just put less beer in them when they were bottled.
A typical 5 gallon batch will yield between 35 and 40 Grolsch bottles. I
place a removable 3/4" round Avery label on the cap and write the batch
number on it using a yellow label for lager and brown for ale. I make my own
front and back labels for each batch on a laser printer and glue them on to
the bottle with Elmer's white glue. I have no idea where to get more of these
bottles. Try a bar that serves Grolsch in these bottles.
Tom Romalewski
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 08:50:05 CDT
From: hinz at memphis.med.ge.com (David Hinz)
Subject: sanitizing Stainless Steel
Al Korzonas writes:
****************
JC writes:
>I'd caution everyone against using bleach to clean stainless steel vessels.
>I'm under the impression that bleach will pit stainless steel.
I agree. Iodine-based sanitizers are recommended for sanitizing stainless
steel.
- ---
OK, here's a silly question. I'm using my stainless keg as a cooker, so it'll
be sterilized by the boil, right? So, as long as I get it CLEAN, and rinse it
good, that should be clean enough, right?
I never bothered sterilizing my wort chiller, because I just put it in the wort
when I'm boiling it, so the kettle shouldn't be any different, should it?
How about the ladle? I just leave it hanging inside the keg, during the boil,
so I can stir the wort without worrying about putting a non-sterile instrument
in it. Is having it sit in/just above the boiling wort enough to keep it
from contracting nasties?
*******************
Hint of the day...I've been pitching my yeast into a quart of starter wort,
and I get much quicker starts this way. I just took 1lb. of dry malt extract
in a gallon of water, boiled for about an hour, and canned it. Now, when I
want to brew on saturday, I pop my wyeast pack on thursday, pitch it into
a gallon cider jug when it's ready, add the quart of starter wort, shake the
heck out of it, and let it go. By saturday or sunday, it's ready to go
(nice 1/4" of froth on the surface), I make my batch, shake up the starter,
and pitch. Starts have been within 12 hours regularly, I was getting 24
hour+ starts by just dumping the wyeast pack into the fermenter.
It's definately worth the minimal effort it takes, in my opinion. If you aren't
making a yeast starter, I'd say it's not a bad idea to do. The higher cell
count you start with, the quicker it'll get fermenting, and crowd out any
infections that happen to be there.
Any suggestions on refinement of this technique?
Dave Hinz
hinz at memphis.med.ge.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 06:46:53 PDT
From: JC 20-May-1993 0943 -0400 <ferguson at zendia.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Secondary Fermentation
>Date: Wed, 19 May 93 11:23:37 EDT
>From: <geotex at engin.umich.edu>
>Subject: Sencondary Fermentation
writes:
>I am unsure of the purpose of racking to a secondar fermentation
>container.
>
>Could someone please clear this up for me. It seems my books
>don't clearly explain this.
I can think of two reasons for doing this (note: my reasons are more
geared for extract brewers):
1) xfr'ing the brew to the 2ndary helps separate the sludge from the
brew, and hence, if done right, will produce beers that are more clear.
2) buys you time. bottling is time-consuming; once you have the brew
in the 2ndary (carboy), you can let it sit in there for a while (months)
until you find a good time to bottle.
JC
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 09:19:31 -0500 (CDT)
From: MEHTA01 at swmed.edu
Subject: Local beer made in Philadelphia??
Hi.
i have a friend who is in Philadelphia and he volunteered to bring
some NorthEastern beer. When i was up in NJ, i remember drinking a Phil. beer
made by 'Dock St. Brewing Co.' called Anchor beer. i am not sure of the names
so would some one please verify these, before i send my kind friend off on a
widget-hunt.. :-) Thank You.
Shreefal Mehta
Mehta01 at utsw.swmed.utexas.edu
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Date: Thu, 20 May 93 09:22:59 CDT
From: greenbay at vnet.IBM.COM
Subject: RE: Half and Half , NA Beer
It worked! Pouring the Guinness into a spoon resting on the top of the
bottom beer effectively separated the two. Actually, I only got it to work
with Old Milwaukee on the bottom and my stout on top (Old Mil cold, stout
warm.) I tried it with one of my lighter colored beers, but the stout
mixed in. Maybe in that case the stout should have been on the bottom.
I'm also interested in producing an NA beer. One idea I had would be
to just use crystal malt or some other malt for the flavor and body of
the beer but not use anything that would contribute fermentable sugars.
Then you could boil in the hops cool it down, add yeast and priming sugar
and bottle it. This would be restrictive on flavor, style, and whatnot,
but would it work?
Thanks for all of the help,
Bob
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 07:27 PDT
From: /O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/ at NASAmail.nasa.gov
Subject: A new half-n-half
***************************** PROFS Note *****************************
From: DBLEWIS --VMSPFHOU Date and time 05/20/93 09:28:17
To: POSTMAN --NASAMAIL
FROM: Dennis B. Lewis <dblewis at jscprofs.nasa.gov>
SUBJECT: A new half-n-half
Since we have fresh, tasty Celis White available locally on tap, we make a
concoction called "Cream of Wheat." It is a bottom layer of Celis White and a
top layer of draught Guinness. Whenever you take a drink the whole boundary
layer sloshes from one side to the other, but there is surprisingly little
mixing. Very fun to watch and equally fun to drink. The Celis White adds an
interesting spicy-fruitiness to the drink, while the Guinness is
roasty-creamy. I highly recommend it to those who are brave enough to try.
A note about pouring: I believe that the bartender pours the Guinness on a
large spoon held just above the Celis or the rising layer of Guinness.
Dennis B. Lewis * (713) 483-9145 * NASA/JSC/DH6 Payload Ops
Homebrew, The Final Frontier.
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 07:50 PDT
From: /O=vmspfhou/S=dblewis/DD.SITE=JSCPROFS/ at NASAmail.nasa.gov
Subject: Lyle's Golden Syrup and Black Treacle
***************************** PROFS Note *****************************
From: DBLEWIS --VMSPFHOU Date and time 05/20/93 09:51:10
To: POSTMAN --NASAMAIL
FROM: Dennis B. Lewis <dblewis at jscprofs.nasa.gov>
SUBJECT: Lyle's Golden Syrup and Black Treacle
I have access to both Lyle's Golden Syrup and Black Treacle. A one pound can
runs about $2.50 for the Golden and $2.25 for the Treacle. As far as I can
tell, the Golden Syrup adds a small amount of flavor (slight caramel taste)
and not much in the way of fermentables (maybe 25-30 ppg). The Black Treacle,
used in sparing amounts of 2-5% provides an "Old Peculiar" taste to your brew
according the All-Grain Zymurgy special issue. I haven't used it yet, but I
tasted it and Theakton's Old Peculiar is right on the money. It is similar to
molasses, but the taste is noticable different.
Is it really true that Lyle's Golden Syrup and Black Treacle are no longer
imported? If so, then I'll run out and clean out the store of their stock.
Dennis B. Lewis * (713) 483-9145 * NASA/JSC/DH6 Payload Ops
Homebrew, The Final Frontier.
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 11:03:44 EDT
From: dipalma at banshee.sw.stratus.com (James Dipalma)
Subject: RE: Racking after Pitching
Hi All,
In HBD#1145, STOREY at fender.msfc.nasa.gov posted a funny story about
beer culture shock in London.
Reading it reminded me of the last time I was at O'Hare in Chicago.
I had a couple of hours to kill waiting for my flight, when I spotted
an airport bar that served Guinness Extra Stout. The bar was lined with
people drinking the Budmilloors swill, appropriately served ice-cold in
order to numb the palate. When I ordered a Guinness, a few people looked
up. The bartender apologized, explaining that he couldn't serve me one
as he didn't have any cold. *Everyone* looked up when I told him that
was OK, I liked it warm. I spent the next two hours blissfully sipping
room temperature Guinness, to the utter revulsion of the Budmilloors crowd
seated around me. I could not have been more pleased :-).
************************************************************************
Brian Bliss posted a recipe for sour mash Guinness:
>* Cascades will give that funky american hop taste, if you desire, but
>taste unlike guinness. Any German hop is right out. Fuggles don't give
>that sharp bitterness. Maybe N. Brewer...
>Ignore the comment about N. Brewer in my previous note - It is
>a relative to Hallertau, which does not work in stouts (I've tried
>it).
I`ve used Bullion in my stouts with good results. Give them a try.
************************************************************************
Phil Brushaber writes:
>I find this interesting. The advantage Miller suggests is
>that after the proper hot and cold break that you don't have
>to syphon off the clear wort from the boiler, just strain it
>into the fermenter. But my concern lies in the area of
>racking (and aerating) the beer again after it has been
>sitting for several hours, but before fermentation begins.
One of my brewing buddies, who is a firm believer in the gospel
according to Miller, racks his wort from the boiler, then allows it
to chill to 45F overnight. Next morning, he racks off the settled cold
break into a second carboy and pitches. His lagers come out great.
However, I'm not sure he re-aerates during the second racking, I think
he treats it like a racking to secondary, i.e., minimal splashing.
Lee, care to comment?
I also chill my wort to about 48F before pitching, but I don't bother
racking off the cold break. My understanding is that the yeast won't
bother with the trub while they have other food available, so off flavors
from fusel alcohol production is not a problem during primary fermentation.
My lagers come out well, too. Comments??
>Also there is the inference that the yeast starter should be
>at the same cold (50 degree F) temperature as the chilled
>wort. Is anyone else doing this for lagers? I have been
>pitching my room temp starter into about 70 degree wort, then
>putting the fermenter into the refrigerator and bringing the
>temp down to 50 degrees.
>Any thoughts?
It is important that the starter and the wort be about the same
temperature at pitching time. I read somewhere (Miller? Noonan?) that
sudden, severe temperature shock will kill a large percentage of the yeast.
In your case Phil, I'd say temperature shock shouldn't be a problem, as
your starter and wort are about the same temperature. However, pitching
lager yeast at 70F will cause elevated levels of diacetyl in the finished
product. Pitching when the wort is 45F-50F will sufficiently reduce the
amount of diacetyl produced during primary fermentation, so that a 1-2
day diacetyl rest after primary will reduce the diacetyl below threshold
level.
Of course, a side effect of pitching into chilled wort is increased lag
time. I've had some success compensating for this effect by growing large
yeast populations in a 1/2 gallon jug. I start 7-10 days in advance of
brew day, let the starter ferment out, pour off most of the liquid leaving
just the yeast sediment, and re-feed with fresh sterile wort. After two
feedings, I typically have about a 1 inch thick layer of yeast sediment.
When the wort is properly chilled, I again pour off most of the liquid, and
pitch the slurry. Using this method, fermentation starts in 12-18 hours,
even at the reduced temperatures.
Cheers,
Jim
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Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 11:02:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Bryan Kornreich <bkornrei at pennsy.med.jhu.edu>
Subject: secondary fermentations and fruit
Hey there,
geotex at engin.umich.edu wrote that he was unsure about the purpose of
racking to a secondary fermentation container. If anyone knows, please
tell us all. I've been wondering about it for years and have never, ever
gotten a straight answer. I've heard all sorts of reasons ranging from:
-It helps clear the beer
-It makes the yeast happier to work in a cleaner environment, so they
take the fermentation further
and -"What do you mean 'why'? You have to do it! Everyone does it"
Me personally, I've done it and I see no real benefit--maybe a bit of
clearing, that's all; but then, I don't particularly care too much about
the color of my beer--taste and aroma mean everything to me.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
I have some questions for all you fruit beer brewers out there:
1. How on Earth do you press your fruity wort (to get the juice out
of the pulp) with any hint of sterility. I've always wanted to do a fruit
brew, but I am most afraid of this messy procedure.
2. In yesterday's Wheat Berry beer recipie, would it be a good idea
to puree the rasperries and blackberries before adding them in order to
avoid the pressing step? And would skipping the pressing be OK, or would
too much juice be left in the cellulose matrix of the fruit?
3. Does anyone out there have a good recipe for a banana beer? And
do you have to sterilize a banana before use? (I'm guessing no!)
4. What sorts of yeast leaves a nice banana taste in a beer (a
regular beer, not a fruit beer)? Sort of like the Austrian EidelWeiss (is
that the right beer I'm thinking of?)
thanks,
Bryan
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Date: Thu, 20 May 93 11:13:30 -0400
From: Ron Natalie <ron at topaz.bds.com>
Subject: foreign american brews
Yes, I came across the same thing when I first went to Japan. First, the
Japanese were amazed that I even knew of a handful of the Japanese megabrands
(Asahi, Kirin, Suntory, ...) but also the restaurant meus would almost always
list "Budweiser" as the first thing in the list of Imported beers.
-Ron
I still find the name "POCARI SWEAT" amusing.
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 09:19:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: gummitch at techbook.com (Jeff Frane)
Subject: Re: 1/2 & 1/2; racking, the Secret Meaning of ..
Phil Brushaber asks:
>
>
> I have read many Homebrew texts but only recently got Dave
> Miller's Complete Handbook of Home Brewing. Some of what
> Miller suggests is contrary to my current practices of all-
> grain brewing. One area is racking the wort off the trub
> after the cold break.
>
> After the wort chill Miller suggests... "At this point you
> have two choices,depending on how cold your wort is. If it is
> down to fermentation temperature (48 to 55 F for lagers) you
> should pitch your yeast immediately.... Close the fermenter
> and move it to your fermentation area. The wort should be
> racked off into a secondary fermenter about 8 to 12 hours
> later, to separate it from most of the hot and cold break
> material which will settle to the bottom of the vessel. Also
> remember that, before pitching, the wort must be aerated."
>
Far be it from lowly me to say that Dave Miller is wrong... but the
research I did last year for a presentation at the AHA national
conference proved to my satisfaction (and my own experience has backed
it up), that racking wort off the cold break was entirely a waste of
time. Somewhere back a few months I posted some direct quotations from
DeClerq and from George Fix, but in essence the point is that once the
cold break has been created properly (by adequate chilling) it will
_NOT_ be reabsorbed into the wort unless the temperature of the wort is
raised considerably above any conceivable in a brewery fermentation
area.
It _is_ important to get the wort off the hot break material, but this
is a relatively simple thing to achieve when drawing the wort out of the
kettle.
When I made the presentation (3 times! best believe the AHA gets their
money's worth out of you), I said that I had never seen a brewery that
worried about racking wort off the cold break -- one fellow from (I
think) Chicago said that I was wrong! (ooooooooooh!) and that such and
such brewery there did so. Well, that's one. And I suspect Dave
Miller's brewpub is another.
> I find this interesting. The advantage Miller suggests is
> that after the proper hot and cold break that you don't have
> to syphon off the clear wort from the boiler, just strain it
> into the fermenter. But my concern lies in the area of
> racking (and aerating) the beer again after it has been
> sitting for several hours, but before fermentation begins.
> Also there is the inference that the yeast starter should be
> at the same cold (50 degree F) temperature as the chilled
> wort. Is anyone else doing this for lagers? I have been
> pitching my room temp starter into about 70 degree wort, then
> putting the fermenter into the refrigerator and bringing the
> temp down to 50 degrees.
>
I ain't no lager expert, by a long shot, but the procedure you're
following is the same recommended to me by Dave Logsdon of WYeast Labs
and _he_ does make great lagers. So...
=========================
On 1/2 and 1/2 (or, more properly "arf 'n arf")
I was taught to make these while tending bar at the Horse Brass,
Portland's "authentic" British pub. I think it's pretty tricky from the
bottle, and haven't a clue how to start. But with the proper taps, it's
pretty easy. If you'll notice, Guiness is dispensed from a unique
faucet that comes down to a small tip, and has a little knob on the side
to control the flow. If you put the ale (not Harp, yuck!) in the bottom
of the glass and then sloooooooooowly run the Guiness in on top (you
have to open the knob up just at the very end to allow a rush of
nitrogen/carbondioxide in for the head) you will end up with the heavy
Guiness on top of the thinner ale. Naturally, this is an unstable
condition and the two beers will quickly mix -- but it does make a nice
presentation.
In general, I refused to do any other mixed beers, being a hard-core
traditionalist. Arf n arfs I could live with, but some of the
waitresses spent a lot of time coming up with cute names for mixes of
various microbrewed ales -- they had to find another bartender to do
them (whoops! "find another bartender to mix them").
Incidentally, the most beautifully presented drink I ever saw was a
Tequila Sunrise at Henry Africa's in San Francisco. The bartender would
put the grenandine on the bottom, then the assorted other goodies on
top, and finally put a swizzle stick all the way to the bottom and
quickly pull it up: the Grenadine would follow up the center of the
glass. It was the only time the drink's name ever made sense to me.
================
> From: <geotex at engin.umich.edu>
> Subject: Sencondary Fermentation
>
>
> I am unsure of the purpose of racking to a secondar fermentation
> container.
>
> Could someone please clear this up for me. It seems my books
> don't clearly explain this.
>
There are a number of good reasons for it. One of the simplest is that
it leaves the cold break (trub, etc.) on the bottom of the first carboy.
This means that (a) you can harvest pure yeast from the 2ndary and (b)
that you will end up with _much_ less garp(TM) in your bottles.
>
> From: CHUCKM at PBN73.Prime.COM
> Subject: image files on sierra.stamford
>
> I was browsing on sierra.stamford the other day under /pub/homebrew/images
> and noticed a bunch of what I guess are image files, mostly with a .jpg
> and .gif file name suffix. Does anyone know what format these files are
> and what software I need to display these? Will any MS Windows applications
> work?
>
There are decoders around that will allow you to read .gif or .jpg
files. I'm using Aldus PhotoStyler, which is supposed to be able to
read .gif files, but frankly it doesn't work worth a ... Anyway, I've
recently received some updates (which won't fit on the damn drive ...)
that supposedly will deal with .gif and .jpg (a compression format) --
but I haven't much faith.
I also have some shareware called Graphic Workshop which reads these
files (and many others) and converts back and forth. It isn't a Windows
program but does run under Windows.
- --Jeff Frane
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 12:28:28 -0400
From: djt2 at po.CWRU.Edu (Dennis J. Templeton)
Subject: Brewing Techniques... a great new journal
I just received the inaugural copy of "Brewing Techniques" in the mail.
It is a beautiful, intelligent, and sure to be successful magazine.
I'm writing to offer my congratulations to the editors and writers, many of
whom appear here on the Digest. Keep up the good work.
I got my inaugural subscription by sending $24 (for 6 issues, one year) to:
Brewing Techniques
P. O. Box 3076
Eugene, OR 97403
And, no, this is not a paid solicitation. Sheesh!
dennis
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Date: Thu, 20 May 93 9:31:40 PDT
From: tinsethg at ucs.orst.edu (Glenn Tinseth)
Subject: Bitterness
In this Wednesday's HBD drose at husc.harvard.edu asked about
bittering hops, specifically whether there was any reason to be picky
about what variety we use for >60 min. boils. I mean bitterness is
bitterness, right?
>From the back of the room comes a resounding *NO*
While it is true that boiling hops for greater than an hour or so gets rid
of the volatile essential oils (for the most part), these oils are not the
only compounds that give a hop its unique character. The quantity and
proportions of the various alpha and beta acids are different for each
hop variety. High alpha varieties typically have an alpha/beta
ratio of 2-4 while noble hops' alpha/beta commonly is below 1. In
addition the cohumulone/humulone ratio also varies widely, hops
with high cohumulone levels are thought to contribute a harsher
bitterness to beer and negatively impact head retention.
The big brewers, under the assumption that bitterness was bitterness,
funded most of the development of high alpha varieties in the last 20
years. They found that their taste panels were able to distinguish
between beers bittered with noble varieties and high alphas and
preferred the former in most cases. Today a lot of their research money
is being spent developing higher yielding noble-type aroma hops (like
Mt. Hood and Liberty and soon to arrive Tettnanger and Saaz triploid
varieties).
The best way to demonstrate this is via test brews. Add the same
amount of alpha acids to each beer but make one Chinook (~12% alpha)
and make the other Saaz (~3-4% alpha) for example. Make sure you
boil the hops for >60 min. and don't add flavor/aroma hops. Then
ferment, finish, and taste the difference.
Email me with your snail mail address for my catalog which discusses
hop varieties, hop chemistry, bitterness calculations , and of
course, where to get fresh, whole hops. (Sorry for the commercial, but
Jack said it was OK:-)
Glenn
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Date: Thu, 20 May 93 09:10:59 MDT
From: "Steve Kurka - BMC West, Boise, ID" <kurka at bmcw.com>
Subject: The Sanitation subject again - Recent studies on water nasties
Sanitation and the homebrewer:
Recently, I have noticed more comments on sanitation due to summer's return.
As a backcountry camper and a homebrewer, I have many concerns about what
is "growing" in the water. Some of the water treatment practices of camping
be applied to the disinfecting process of brewing:
For those that read the REC.BACKCOUNTRY postings, you will know what affect
Chlorine and Idodine have on microflora, bacteria and the like. If you are
interested and do not read RB, I can forward a summary on water treatment.
It contains reviews on water filters and chemical effectiveness from recent
scientific studies and research. (Or look under REC.BACKCOUNTRY for a
1400 line posting on Sunday May 9.)
Now for a few qoutes:
1.
>Without getting too technical, one can gain some appreciation of the
>problem by understanding a few of the variables that influence the
>efficacy of chlorine as a disinfectant.
>
>1) Water pH: at pH values above 7.5, the disinfectant capability of
> chlorine is greatly reduced.
>2) Water temperature: the warmer the water, the higher the efficacy.
> Thus, chlorine does not work well in ice-cold water from mountain
> streams.
>3) Organic content of the water: mud, decayed vegetation, or other
> suspended organic debris in water chemically combines with chlorine
> making it unavailable as a disinfectant.
>4) Chlorine contact time: the longer Giardia cysts are exposed to
> chlorine, the more likely it is that the chemical will kill them.
>5) Chlorine concentration: the higher the chlorine concentration, the
> more likely chlorine will kill Giardia cysts. Most water treatment
> facilities try to add enough chlorine to give a free (unbound)
> chlorine residual at the customer tap of 0.5 mg per liter of water.
...
2.
>Boiling
>
>Boiling water is one of the simplest and most effective ways to purify
>water. Boiling for 1 minute is adequate to kill Giardia as well as most
>other bacterial or viral pathogens likely to be acquired from drinking
>polluted water.
>
>Chemical Disinfection
>
>Disinfection of water with chlorine or iodine is considered less reliable
>than boiling for killing Giardia. However, it is recognized that boiling
>drinking water is not practical under many circumstances. Therefore, when
>one cannot boil drinking water, chemical disinfectants such as iodine or
>chlorine should be used. This will provide some protection against Giardia
>and will destroy most bacteria and viruses that cause illness. Iodine or
>chlorine concentrations of 8 mg/liter (8ppm) with a minimum contact time
>of 30 minutes are recommended. If the water is cold (less than 10 deg C or
>5O deg F) we suggest a minimum contact time of 60 minutes. If you have a
>choice of disinfectants, use iodine. Iodine's disinfectant activity is less
>likely to be reduced by unfavorable water conditions, such as dissolved
>organic material in water or by water with a high pH, than chlorine.
...
The post on water treatment is very extensive. Recomended reading for
anyone who is Parranoid about infections, and the like. Boiling (Heat)
still looks like the Safest way to disinfect things.
We as brewers do have the advantage of Alchohol production to kill nasties.
Isn't this why most countries brew, and say "Don't drink the Water"?
The brewing process normally will render the water drinkable with
and excelent flavor ;-) Steve
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Women love cats. Men say they love cats, -
- but when women aren't looking, men kick cats. KURKA at BMCW.COM Boise, ID-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 10:47:28 PDT
From: "Donald G. Scheidt" <dgs1300 at aw101.iasl.ca.boeing.com>
Subject: Images from listserv at sierra.stanford.edu
Not having ftp access, I must resort to using e-mail to get files from the
listserv system. I'm having difficulty getting the "images" subdirectory;
I can't even get a simple listing of the .gif files. Would some kind HBDer
lend assistance, or e-mail me a list of uuencoded .gifs?
ObHB: First Belgian-style witbier smells wonderful, coriander and orange
notes in the air, can't wait to keg it up and enjoy!
- --
__ | | __
/\ \ | Don Scheidt | /\ \
/ \ \ | Boeing IASL, 777 Cab Development | / \ \
/ /\ \ \ | dgs1300 at aw101.iasl.ca.boeing.com | / /\ \ \
/ / /\ \ \ | | / / /\ \ \
/ / /__\_\ \ | | / / /__\_\ \
/ / /________\ | | / / /________\
\/___________/ | | \/___________/
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 13:01:14 -0500 (CDT)
From: brewmstr at genesis.mcs.com (Jim Bayer)
Subject: Half & Half
Bob at greenbay at vnet.IBM.COM asks how to pour a half and half:
First you pour a half glass of Harps and then you pour the
Guiness slowly over a tablespoon on top of the Harps. You
may get a little mix but it will stay seperated for a long
time.
Jim
| Remember: Brewing is not a matter of life and death. |
| It is much more important than that! |
| ============================================================== |
| Jim Bayer -> Chicago, my kind of town! The windy city |
| brewmstr at genesis.mcs.com 72416.1044 at compuserve.com |
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 13:37:19 cdt
From: "Knight,Jonathan G" <KNIGHTJ at AC.GRIN.EDU>
Subject: sour mash
Thanks to Brian Bliss for his interesting response to my question about
making sour mash for Guinness clones.
Pardon my ignorance: what is meant by "P-Guinness"?
Also, Brian, how do you introduce the lactic infection into the bottled
beers?
Jonathan
Return to table of contents
Date: 20 May 1993 12:40:46 -0600 (MDT)
From: Mark Taratoot <SLNDW at CC.USU.EDU>
Subject: Beer Bread
Greetings.
Mark S. Hart mailed me and requested my beer and pretzel method. I
tried to email him directly (several times) but it kept bouncing.
So, I will give a brief summary here. The original post can be
found in the HBD archives by anonymous FTP from SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU.
Bread making can be time consuming, as can beer making. But
if you make bread on a day that you will be around the house for
several hours doing other things, it really is not much of a time
drain, nor is it difficult. And the result is oh so yummy.
Here is how:
NOTE: Do not use the yeast cake from primary fermentation unless
you rack before fermentation gets underway (ie if you get
the wort off the trub). Use the cake from a secondary
fermenter.
Do NOT use the yeast cake from a beer that has been dry hopped.
The beer will not spoil, but it will not taste good.
After you bottle/keg/spill-all-over-the-floor your beer, swish the
carboy around to get the yeast cake into a slurry. Pour this slurry
into a jar (or bowl if you want to get started right away). Pour
some more liquid into the carboy and swish again (you can use dregs
from the bottoms of recently emptied bottles, bottles that did not
get completely filled, water, vegetable stock, whatever). You can
close the jar LOOSELY and keep it in the refrigerator for a week or
so. When you get ready to go, you can either decant off most of the
liquid or pour it in (I pour it in).
To the slurry, add 2 cups flour (whole wheat preferably) and just a
bit of sugar or honey. This is the sponge. Let it sit for 30-60
minutes. If the yeast slurry has been in the refrigerator, it will
take longer to rise, so keep this in mind. If you prefer, you can
stick the sponge in the fridge and use it as a "sourdough starter."
When the sponge has risen, add:
1/4 cup oil or melted butter (I like butter)
1/4 cup honey or sugar (mmmmm. Honey.)
1 tsp salt
1 beaten egg (optional. Will help rise and increase protien).
"STUFF" (some, all, or none of the following)
Bulgar wheat (1 part bulgar and 1 part boiling water pre mixed)
sunflower seeds, crushed nuts, wheat berries, rasins, dates,
oats, millet, rye, spent grains from brewing, etc...
AND... more flour, 1/2 cup at a time until the dough has reached the
proper consistency. NOTE: if you use a lot of "STUFF" then
you may need to add some high gluten flour.
Knead for 15 minutes. Put in oiled bowl and allow to rise until
doubled in bulk.
Knead for 15 minutes. Make loaves (I like braids and round loaves,
but loaf pans will work too). For ronds and braids, put on
trays that have been sprinkled with corn meal or sesame seeds.
Allow to rise until doubled in bulk. Brush top of crust (or all
of crust for round loaves and braids) with one of the following
for desired results:
Butter (yum) for a soft crust (if you use butter, put some more on
right after the bread comes out of the oven)
Beaten egg for a shiny crust (nice for braids)
Milk for a nice brown crispy crust
Nothing (simplicity)
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when thumped. If
you are using pyrex loaf pans, bake at 325.
Let the bread cool 20-30 minutes, slice, and enjoy with a nice glass
of your favorite homebrew!
*********************PRETZELS***************************
Pretzels are easy too.
Take the yeast slurry or sponge, 1 tsp salt, a tiny bit of
oil, egg if you like, and enough flour to get the dough a nice
consistancy. Knead for 15 minutes. Put in oiled bowl and allow
to rise until doubled in bulk. Knead again. Roll into snakes
and shape the snakes into pretzels.
__At this point, I have been told you can increase the final
"chewyness" of the pretzels by dropping them one by one into
boiling soda water (1/4 to 1/3 cup baking soda in a pot of water).
Supposedly they will sink, then rise back to the top when they should
be removed__
Put the pretzels on greased trays. Brush with beaten egg (or not, it
makes a mess of the trays) and sprinkle with salt (optional) if you
need to increase your blood pressure. Bake for ??15 minutes?? at
400?? degrees (take them out as soon as they start to get brown, each
oven cooks differently, and when I have made pretzels in different
ovens, the times and temp can vary.
As soon as they come out of the oven, spread fine mustard on one and
devour it with a glass of fresh homebrew. Pretzels don't save very
well, so make them when you have friends over.
Actually, it is easy as pie. (Hmmm. Beer pie... Nah.)
Have fun with these. If anyone has comments or suggestions about
these, please contact me SLNDW at cc.usu.edu.
I always love to get new cooking tips.
-toot
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 13:50 CDT
From: korz at iepubj.att.com
Subject: Spices/Protein rest/Tate&Lyle's
Spencer writes:
>According to Randy Mosher, who has a lot of experience making
>strangely spiced brews, the best way to add cinnamon is to make a
>"potion". Soak some cinnamon in vodka for a week or two, then add the
>potion gradually to the finished (but not yet bottled) beer until it
>tastes right.
I concur. I believe, also, that Randy recommends filtering the potion
through a coffee filter. I did this on a few beers and it worked quite
well (however, the judges liked my Curry Beer much more than I did!).
For those of you that haven't had the opportunity to try Randy Mosher's
odd beers, they are some of the most creative and interesting liquids
I've had the pleasure to taste. My favorite is probably still the
Chantrelle (sp?) Mushroom beer. Wow!
*********************
Brian writes:
>P-Guinness
>
>8 lbs PILSNER malt
>1 lb roasted barley
>1 lb barley flakes
>4 oz. black patent
>1.75 oz GOLDINGS ~5% AA hop plugs
>1-6 bottles of soured beer
>
>The whole idea is to keep the protein in the beer, so you start with
>Pilsner malt & don't do a protein rest.
Yes, but there are big proteins and small proteins. The protein rest
will break the big proteins into smaller proteins and amino acids. I'm
pretty sure that any really big proteins that are left by the time you
are boiling will turn into hot break and do your beer no good anyway,
so I don't think that skipping the protein rest will actually significantly
increase your protein levels in the final beer. Comments?
********************
Brian also writes that he found some Black Treacle a few months ago.
Yes, but I spoke with (as far as I know) sole wholesaler of the stuff
and he said that their current stocks had run out and that was it for
a while.
Al.
Return to table of contents
Date: 20 May 1993 14:48:25 -0500 (CDT)
From: Tim LaBerge <LABERGE at kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: brewkettles and carboys
Hi all,
I've been on an equipment binge lately, but I've run into some good
prices that I'd like to pass along. I found 5 gallon glass carboys for
$9.00 at a factory outlet store that sells cookware, etc. I also found
a 9.5-10 gallon stainless steel brewkettle(used) at a restaurant supply
store for $40.00. Moral of the story: shop around and you can find some
bargains. (The brewkettle was dented and _covered_ with baked on grease,
but it all came off with elbowgrease.)
Tim LaBerge
Department of Mathematics
University of Kansas
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 15:58:15 EDT
From: casagran at gdstech.grumman.com (Lou Casagrande)
Subject: Competition for Kock
Fellow Brewers,
Just thought you'd all like to hear about an ad I heard on the radio
today. New Amsterdam is advertising its amber using something akin to
"It's not just 'great,' it's _exceptional_!" We all know which beer is
merely "great" now, don't we ;^).
Yours in brewing,
Lou Casagrande
casagran at gdstech.grumman.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 93 16:25:03 EDT
From: casagran at gdstech.grumman.com (Lou Casagrande)
Subject: Re: Competition for Kock
Oops! Make that "Koch"!
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 11:38:08
From: garetz at brahms.amd.com (Mark Garetz)
Subject: Hops, Fruits
Brett Charbeneau asks about Raspberry and extract brewing:
HopTech sells a line of 100% natural fruit extracts that make brewing fruit
beers easy. No pectins, sugars or preservatives to compensate for, and no
problems obtaining fruit out of season or sterilizing it. Flavors available
are raspberry, blueberry, peach, pear and cherry. They are added just prior
to bottling or kegging so all the fruit flavors stay in the beer. For a
light fruit ale, we recommend 30% wheat. Since the extracts contain no
sugar or much "sweetness" associated with the fruit, we also recommend using
malt extract high in dextrins or adjusting your mash accordingly to get a
sweeter brew. For more info, leave a message at 1-800-DRY-HOPS (379-4677)
or fax 1-510-736-7950. Catalogs mail 1st week of June.
Steve Boxer asks about leaf hops clogging the keg lines:
You want to put the hops in a "hop bag" and add some weight (Leaf hops tend
to float). We also sell hop bags and weights, but these kind of bags are
readily available from most homebrew shops. For weights, ours is made of
teflon so it won't scratch and is inert to beer, but you can also use clean
copper pennies, marbles etc. Hint: "Wet" the bag and hops before adding.
It helps make sure the beer gets to the hops (learned this trick from
Anchor). By the way, our bags are 100% cotton and even work with pellets!
"Joe" asks if you can tell the difference between hop varieties by flower,
scent or growth habits:
Yes to all. However, it ain't easy. The oil components and their ratios
can be used to identify a species, but it takes an HPLC to do it! The
combination of the cone shape and the leaf style can be used (with
practice). But I don't know why it matters. The easiest way to tell is to
read the label on the package :-).
"drose" asks why it matters what hop variety is used for long boils, since
the aromatics will be lost:
True. The aromatics are lost. But is is wrong to assume that there is only
*one* bittering source. There are many alpha acids, beta acids and
oxidation products that make up the overall bitter "character" of a certain
hop variety. Each hop variety has all of these in varying proportions,
hence the differing bitter characters. The number on the hop package is a
*total* alpha acids number - the ratios of the various alpha acids is
variety specific. (Did I mention I'm writing a book about hops?)
Anthony Johnston asks about a "soapy taste" in his beer:
I wonder if that beer was dry hopped? Sometimes this can cause a "soapy"
flavor. Some palates are more sensitive to it than others. It is caused
(my theory) by the fatty acids in the hops. It is also my theory that this
is a "stage" of the oil on it's way to another compound because the flavor
will go away in another week or two. (Same beer given to neighbor in week 1
-"YUCHH! Undrinkable. Tastes like soap!" in week 3 - "Hey this is great!
Got any more?" Recently had another brewer friend ask me about an
astringent taste after dry hopping with some Tettnang. Same deal (not a
fatty acid, but some other hop compound on it's way to something else). I
told him to wait a few weeks. Now the beer is "Fantastic" according to him.
Mark Garetz
HopTech
Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 15:48:54 -0500 (EST)
From: Karl Desch <kcdesch at stupid.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Half and Half Method
Hey,
As I recall the way to make one of those silly half and half things is
quite simple. To avoid creating a current in your glass, invert a
spoon (round side up) over your harp and slowly pour the guiness over
it. This spreads the flow over the surface of da beer, maintaining the
layers.
Have fun. -Karlos
Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #1146, 05/21/93