HOMEBREW Digest #300 Fri 10 November 1989

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


Contents:
  cheap grain source, Zymury yeast issue (BROWN)
  Re: Water quality? (Martin D. Weinberg)
  Is homebrew a bargain? (Doug Roberts  at  Los Alamos National Laboratory)
  Anchor Christmas Ale (Doug Roberts  at  Los Alamos National Laboratory)
  re: A question of infections (Chris Shenton)
  How much is enough?? (jamesb)
  Re: Water quality? (iwtio!korz)
  #298, Geordie Bitters Woes (florianb)
  Kegging ("2645 RUTH, GUY R.")
  Re: Is homebrew a bargain? (kipps)
  Brewpubs in Toronto (Martin D. Weinberg)
  Back Issues Wanted ("MR. DAVID HABERMAN")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 08:57 EST From: <BROWN%MSUKBS.BITNET at CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu> Subject: cheap grain source, Zymury yeast issue Another cheap source for grain arrived in the mail yesterday: Green Acres in Esko MN. I don't have the address on me, but I think they advertise in the Classified section of Zymurgy. I'll post the address tomorrow. They sell most grains in #50 bags for $27-33 ($0.54-0.66) plus shipping. Wow -- 2-row Klages for $28/#50! They also sell bulk malt extract fairly cheaply. (I've never use this supplier, but they're from Minnesota, so they MUST be wholesome and honest). So, how do people get away with selling malt for 1.50/lb, as I've occasionally seen? Let's imagine they are getting it for $20/#50. Selling it at $1.50/lb is a 360% markup. Somebody's getting ripped off here. While I understand why homebrew shops (storefronts) need to mark-up more than mail-orders (and I've supported them when they are within 30 miles and don't try to sell me brown, cheesy hops), this kind of pricing inevitably drives all-grain mashers like myself into the arms of mail-order houses and my friendly local brewer for the main ingredients of my beer. With regards to the Zymurgy special yeast issue: > In the mail the other day, I received a special edition of Zymurgy, > which is devoted entirely to yeast! I haven't read it all yet, but > there is some eye-opening information in there, particularly the tables > comparing the qualities of various commercial yeasts. I agree -- lot's of late night reading and learning. The review of the dry yeasts and descriptions of various liquid strains' characters was great. Also interesting was the article by the guy who uses blocks of Fleischmann's for lagering. Has anyone tried this yet (seems hard to believe)? Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 09:54:46 EST From: weinberg at duvel.ias.edu (Martin D. Weinberg) Subject: Re: Water quality? I have been brewing in Princeton, NJ for several years; all brews from local water (otherwise unpurified) had unpleasant defects. I will not use Princeton water under any circumstances. Now, I got a water analysis from the water company (samples taken at the plant) and there was nothing amis (judging from the discus- sion in Noonan's book); maybe its "in the pipes". But anyway, unless you want to reverse osmosis and then carbon filter, I'd buy the bottled (and even then . . .) The water sold by many of the local supermarkets (e.g. SuperFresh) is bottled by Wissahickon in PA. I wrote them for an analysis just to get the mineral contents right, so I knew how to adjust for brewing a Pale. By the way, after seeing what it did to my beer, I won't *drink* the tap water either. P.S. I usually do grain/extract brewing, and boil a large fraction of the wort and then boil the rest of the brewing water for 20 mins. So the bad results from local water were not caused by bacteria in the water supply (I think). Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 08:54:47 MST From: roberts%studguppy at LANL.GOV (Doug Roberts at Los Alamos National Laboratory) Subject: Is homebrew a bargain? The last batch I made, an all-grain Porter supposedly very much like Anchor Steam's Porter, cost me $14.26 for the five gallon batch, or about $1.68 per six-pack. Compare that with about $5.00 per six for the Anchor variety. --Doug ================================================================ Douglas Roberts | Los Alamos National Laboratory |I can resist anything Box 1663, MS F-602 | except temptation. Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 | ... (505)667-4569 |Oscar Wilde dzzr at lanl.gov | ================================================================ Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 09:04:47 MST From: roberts%studguppy at LANL.GOV (Doug Roberts at Los Alamos National Laboratory) Subject: Anchor Christmas Ale > We were told that distributers who released the ale before Thanksgiving > would be cut off from thier supply. Our best efforts to learn the > ingredients or to taste it were quickly thwarted by the staff. The > question now remains: How did Doug Roberts, in New Mexico of all > places, get his hands on a bottle? I suppose that if we had been > really, really sneaky, we could have lifted a bottle or two out of > the factory second boxes that were sitting on the floor in the > bottling room. But then it would have been a question of where to > put the bottles while we tried to make it out of the brewery alive, > since no one in our group was carrying a purse. So Doug, how did > you manage to get a bottle of Anchor's 1989 Christmas Ale? Most interesting! Another note to the mystery: The label on the bottle that I had stated "Christmas Ale, 1986". Now This certainly wasn't three year old ale that I was drinking: it was fresh and delicious! The friend who brought the beer over to my house (three weeks ago) purchased it at a local liquor store here in Los Alamos, a place not widely known for it's diversity of consumer goods. --Doug ================================================================ Douglas Roberts | Los Alamos National Laboratory |I can resist anything Box 1663, MS F-602 | except temptation. Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 | ... (505)667-4569 |Oscar Wilde dzzr at lanl.gov | ================================================================ Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 17:58:00 est From: Chris Shenton <chris at asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov> Subject: re: A question of infections "Lance "Turbo" Smith" writes: > My bottles had a 30 minute soak in H20/Cl solution (about three tablespoons > in 4 gallons) with a hot water rinse and drip dry. The bottle caps > weren't boiled because the inner ceils boiled off the first ones I tried. > (Some sort of damned lotto contest.) I've never bothered to boil my caps, but instead soak them too in the bleach solution. Have had no problems, and it sounds much simpler... Why is this never mentioned in the books? Any suggestions? (or have I just been lucky? :-) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu Nov 9 08:57:31 1989 From: microsoft!jamesb at uunet.uu.net Subject: How much is enough?? On the subject of all grain brewing. How much is enough? If a recipe calls for 6# of extract and I don't want to use extract, how many # of grain do I start with? Tonight is the night !! We are going to start our very first batch. Wish us luck! Thanx Jim Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 10:34:39 mst From: att!iwtio!korz at hplabs.HP.COM Subject: Re: Water quality? >people. BTW, I live in New Jersey, and I'm not too sure about the >quality of the drinking water (I'll call my water company tomorrow >for an analysis). Am I making too much of this? >Thanks. > >toufic No, I don't feel that you are making too much of this. Beer is 95% water and as we all know, "Garbage in, garbage out." The water company analysis will let you know if your water is too soft or hard and if you can doctor it for the particular style of beer you plan to make (ales are traditionally made from hard water - because that's what they had, and lagers form soft water - because that's what they had). On the other hand, however, I used to buy distilled bottled water and then add Burton Water Salts to get the hardness right. However, the tap water here in the Chicago area is (I've been told, very neutral - flavorless and not too soft or hard) so I've switched to boiled, chilled tap water and have had no ill effects. The general rule is: if it tastes good before it's made into beer, chances are it will not give your beer off-flavors. Al. Return to table of contents
Date: 09 Nov 89 08:45:41 PST (Thu) From: florianb at tekred.cna.tek.com Subject: #298, Geordie Bitters Woes In # 298, Lance "Turbo" Smith questions the goodness of his batch of Geordie Scottish Ale. A similar thing happened to me last summer. I had a great looking batch of Geordie in the carboy glubbing away when my wife talked me into ripping up the kitchen for a remodelling job. Two months later, I dusted the sawdust off the carboy, racked it into the big fermenter, mixed in a cup of corn sugar, and bottled it. It required many days for carbonation to start again (probably due to dormant yeast), and after carbonation, the brews tasted sour, dry, and lifeless. I didn't however have a bodacious amount of carbona- tion as did Lance's batch. I had used dry yeast at the time, but can't recall which one. After that experience, I decided that remodelling kitchens is bad for beer brewing and promised never to interrupt brewing for home repair again. [Florian Bell--waiting for the Thanksgiving ales in Central Oregon] Return to table of contents
Date: 9 Nov 89 13:58:00 MDT From: "2645 RUTH, GUY R." <grruth at sandia.gov> Subject: Kegging I have just started kegging my beer using 5 gallon syrup canisters. Does anyone know of an inexpensive source of new and/or used kegs? I recently received a catalog from Braukunst which seems to have pretty decent prices as well as a wide variety of kegging related merchandise, but I was wondering if anyone has had any luck getting kegs from a local soft drink bottler/supplier. Guy Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 09 Nov 89 12:20:19 -0800 From: kipps at etoile.ICS.UCI.EDU Subject: Re: Is homebrew a bargain? What's this talk about bargains??? How much is you're time worth, anyway? If you consider that it takes at least 3 to 4 hours to brew from extract, your best bargain is to get a weekend job and use the extra income to buy good comercial beer. If what you want is to save money on ingredients, then brew all-grain, but that cost you a couple extra hours. If you don't care about quality, then dry yeast is a fraction of liquid and table sugar is less than 40 cents a pound. I don't homebrew to save money. I homebrew for the satisfaction of making great beer. -Jim Kipps Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 19:55:40 EST From: weinberg at duvel.ias.edu (Martin D. Weinberg) Subject: Brewpubs in Toronto Does anyone out there know where to drink beer in Toronto? I am visiting for a week and would like to sample the local wares. --Martin Weinberg weinberg at guinness.ias.edu Return to table of contents
Date: 9 Nov 89 10:32:00 PDT From: "MR. DAVID HABERMAN" <habermand at afal-edwards.af.mil> Subject: Back Issues Wanted I would like someone who has the back issues of the Homebrew Digest saved to please send me #'s 294 and 295. I only received a partial copy of 294. I have contacted a few other folks who have the same problem. Thanks. David Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #300, 11/10/89
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