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

Contents:
  Re: fading taste (florianb)
  re: Old Ale Query (Darryl Richman)
  Xingu beer (Ihor W. Slabicky)

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Date: 28 Apr 89 08:28:40 PDT (Fri)
From: florianb%tekred.cna.tek.com at RELAY.CS.NET
Subject: Re: fading taste

Martin Weinberg writes, regarding my former comments:

>Florianb mentioned that body was improved by hardening the water.
>I was led to believe that gypsum (and so-called water crystals)
>served to improve hops utilization.  Are these minerals important
>in other ways?

Possibly the most important function of having the minerals balanced
is in the mashing process, as mentioned in Miller's book.  (The
Complete Handbook of Home Brewing.)  In the present case, the contri-
butor (David Benjamin) was concerned with "fading" taste in a batch
of Geordie Bitters, which contained two cans of extract (you'd think
certainly enough to provide body).

I too, have experienced this effect in my earlier batches of all-  
extract brews.  At the suggestion of a friend who has been brewing
for about 10 years, I began adding gypsum at the rate of 3 tsp per
5 gal batch.  This has completely eliminated the problem.  

I don't necessarily believe what I read in books, even professional
ones.  I don't necessarily believe what I hear from professionals.
I do believe the empirical knowledge I get from controlled experi-
mentation, although I may not understand the mechanisms involved.

Hey!  If it works, do it!		
Cheers!

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Date: Fri, 28 Apr 89 07:41:06 PST
From: Darryl Richman <darryl at ism780c.isc.com>
Subject: re: Old Ale Query

From: Andy Newman <NEWMAN at Venus.YCC.Yale.Edu>
"My questions is...What exactly IS Old Ale, 
"and roughly what is it supposed to taste like (opinions are welcome
"on this last question)?

Old Ale is a style of beer that is supposed to reflect the brewing habits
in England before the arrival of hops... it ought to be very strong, and
is often very sweet.  The color should be dark, but not black.  A commercial
Old Ale is Theakston's Old Peculier [sic].  This is an everyday beer from
the times when the folk were drunk everyday.  BTW, a "mixed" drink is the
"Mother-in-Law", which is equal portions of Old and Bitter.

		--Darryl Richman

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Date: Fri, 28 Apr 89 13:57:48 EDT
From: hplabs!uiucdcs!rayssdb.RAY.COM!iws (Ihor W. Slabicky)
Subject: Xingu beer

I read about this brew in All About Beer, December, 1988 issue
and posted a short synopsis to rec.food.drink - so, sorry if
this is a double repeat.  I have tried it.  It is BLACK, or as
black as you can get it.  It pours like a stout - sort of creamy -
but tastes like a flavorful lager.  It does not have much of
a smokey taste, nothing like Rauchfels (spelling?) Steinbier
(the one that is heated by plunging red hot stones into the
mash).

Xingu - pronounced 'SHIN goo' comes from the Caccador Brewery,
State of Santa Catarina, Brazil (~600 miles southwest of Rio). 
It is an Indian recipe converted to a brew of barley, water,
hops, and yeast.  The grain is roasted by open fire malting. 
It is a black, dense, opaque, LAGER beer.  It is brewed on site,
using Brazilian hops and barley.  The brew was developed by
Alan D. Eames.  Brazil used to brew quite a few great 'black' or
'escura' lagers.  Unfortunately, these have been discontinued in
favor of lager production by the majors (Brahma, Kaiser, and
Antartica).  The Indian tribes along the Xingu river and it's
tributaries (Amazon area) still brew these beers. Their
process is basically malted grains, lupine herbs, and airborne
yeasts - with the women chewing the grain and spitting the mash
into pots, the resulting 'mash' being cooked over open fires
and giving the beer it's 'blackness' from the smoke - and lagered
in underground clay pots.
Eames took their recipe and converted it to a commercial process. 
The resulting brew pours and looks like a stout but tastes like
a lager.  It is BLACK.  It has ~4 % alcohol by volume.

It is distributed by Caparra Sales Co., Randolph, MA
(617) 986-2337.  Maine artist Eric Green painted the Xingu
label, based on antique maps of the Xingu river region and
included a Txukahamei warrior with a lip disk.

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