HOMEBREW Digest #3154 Wed 27 October 1999

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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
		Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of 
		Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
				URL: http://www.oeonline.com


Contents:
  Seeking E-Mail Addresses ("John or Barb Sullivan")
  Bottles for competitions ("Houseman, David L")
  Overwintering Hops ("Luke Van Santen")
  wintering them thar hops (pbabcock)
  AHA/AoB ("Ken Schramm")
  Cider recipies (Jonathan Peakall)
  on the road again... (Lou.Heavner)
  Mystery Mash Temps (Matt Smiley)
  Don't Dry Hop with Pellets!! ("John Palmer")
  Cleaning new 3 tier brewery ("Kenneth Smith")
  removing sulphur from H2O (Scott Murman)
  Hunter Airstat Question ("Bruce Ray")
  Starter containers (RiedelD)
  Re: Stove top beer (Jeff Renner)
  Hop substitution question (Mac the Cardinal)
  Dry yeast storage (Jeff Renner)
  Drink Wheel (LaBorde, Ronald)
  Book: Principles of Brewing Science 2 (hal)
  Dry Malt and Liquid Extract differences. (Kevin Mc Lean)
  Re: The Flavor (Spencer W Thomas)
  starter bottles (Jim Liddil)
  Caramel flavor AND bottle styles for competition (larry land)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 05:56:39 -0500 From: "John or Barb Sullivan" <sullvan at anet-stl.com> Subject: Seeking E-Mail Addresses I am the coordinator for the technical program for MCAB II to be held in St. Louis on March 24 - 25, 2000. I am looking for the following e-mail addresses for some individuals who we would like to have assist us in an open forum segment. The e-mails I need are: Alan Moen Rande Reed Al Andrews I may need additional help as time progresses and individuals accept or decline but any help on linking me up with these individuals would be helpful. IF YOU HAVE THESE ADDRESSES, PLEASE SEND TO ME IN PRIVATE EMAIL TO SULLVAN at ANET-STL.COM. Thanks! John Sullivan St. Louis Brews Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:31:58 -0400 From: "Houseman, David L" <David.Houseman at unisys.com> Subject: Bottles for competitions Why are competitions so strict about the type of bottles entered and do not want flip top (or other sizes)? Well if you ever organize a competition of any size you would realize immediately the problem. With a 200 entry competition (medium size) and 3 bottles per entry, that's 600 bottles, or 25 cases. If you get nice case boxes to put bottles into, what you find immediately is that all the odd sized bottles don't fit so you try to put them all in an odd case lot but then the entries aren't necessarily in the right order so it's hard for the stewards to find the desired entries. And the cases don't stack well if there are any tall bottles. This is usually a problem with limited cold room space. Additionally, if there only a few of the odd bottle shapes, sizes, etc. then they don't necessarily remain anomymous when the bottles are brought to the table for judging. This is a key tenet to judging fairness. So, do everyone a favor and bottle at least some of your beer in 12oz, brown bottles for entry into competitions or keg and counter pressure bottle some. Good luck. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:39:01 -0500 From: "Luke Van Santen" <Luke.VanSanten at dot.state.mn.us> Subject: Overwintering Hops All - Took the hops down the other day and had a question - when they say to take the hops down to the crown when overwintering, do they mean ground surface, below ground surface, etc. Or can you just put a lot of mulch over them and not worry? Thanks! Luke Van Santen IR Manager - Metro WRE MN Dept. of Transportation (612)797-3902 Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 08:55:45 -0400 (EWT) From: pbabcock <pbabcock at mail.oeonline.com> Subject: wintering them thar hops Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager... On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 Luke Van Santen wrote: > Took the hops down the other day and had a question - when they say to > take the hops down to the crown when overwintering, do they mean ground > surface, below ground surface, etc. Or can you just put a lot of mulch > over them and not worry? I mulch over the base all summer long, and then put my leaves over them in the fall. Once the bine have sufficiently dried out (usually between November and January here in Michigan, I break the bines from the crown (level with the ground) and remove them from the fence. They then become rather aromatic starters for the fireplace (unless you're a lot better at harvesting all the hops than I am...). The key is to get the old bines off and out of the way before the spring sprouting - which takes place under ground a lot earlier than you might expect. It's not so much WHEN it gets done as much as it is THAT it gets done. Not removing the bines and allowing the next generation to grow over them makes for a rather unmanageable mess come harvest time. - See ya! Pat Babcock in SE Michigan pbabcock at oeonline.com Home Brew Digest Janitor janitor@hbd.org HBD Web Site http://hbd.org The Home Brew Page http://oeonline.com/~pbabcock/brew.html "Just a cyber-shadow of his former brewing self..." Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:30:54 -0400 From: "Ken Schramm" <schramk at resa.net> Subject: AHA/AoB Jim, et al; I have passed your post along to the AHA Board of Advisors. I agree that this is not a good way to do business, and that it reflects poorly on the organization and its treatment of its members/customers. I recently went through the Apple G4 realignment fiasco (I ordered a G4, but Apple "unable to meet orders" announced they had " realigned the processor speeds," cancelled my order and offered me the opportunity to buy the machine I had ordered for nearly a grand more). I was livid, but Apple, given a day, thought the better of their stupidity and reversed their decision and plan of action on their back orders. I hope BP has the Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:02:21 -0700 From: Jonathan Peakall <jpeakall at mcn.org> Subject: Cider recipies Someone asked about cider recipes: I am by no means an expert (this is my first batch) but this is how I made mine this year. This method is essentially my Granddad's, just a little cleaner. First we picked apples, using about 60% Golden Delicious and 40% Jonathan. This mixture of sweet and tart apples was recommended by a little pamphlet I found. I wish I could tell you the name, but I have misplaced it. I can say that the GD apples were sweet and bland, and the Jonathan's had an amazing tart flavor, hands down everyone's favorite to swill (which we did a lot of during the press). We let them "sweat" (sit) for a week to soften them, pressed (I am lucky to have a friend with an awesome press), and poured into sanitized 35 gallon food grade garbage pails. We pitched a gallon of raging starter made with unpasturized apple juice and champagne yeast. In total, we made 36 gallons of cider!! It seemed as if a garbage pail full of apples made about 5-7 gallons of juice, depending on variety. We had no idea we were going to end up with so much juice, and had to scramble for secondary fermenters. When we racked from primary to secondary after about a week, it was so good that we set aside a couple of gallons and drank it. Incredible! So tasty even little children and the elderly would chug it! In fact, one carboy is getting a little low from repeated attacks. We did no campden tablets, or anything like that, and so far the cider tastes completely clean. It may not be stable for long periods, but that's OK, as it ain't gonna last that long. The juice had an OG a little over 1060, and we didn't want to add anything to boost the sugar level, as this project was a "good enough fer Granddad, good enough fer me" kind of a thing. One of my brew partners works at a noted champagne vintners, and we are going to take some and do it "method champagnois", which should be fun, although I must say I prefer going "au natural". In total right now, I have 30 odd gallons of cider and 45 gallons of beer on hand! Are we set for the holidays or what?!! My brew partners and I have taken to calling ourselves "The Barons of Beverage". Yeah!! Jonathan Peakall ******************************************** "I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves." -- John Wayne ******************************************** Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:21:47 -0500 From: Lou.Heavner at frco.com Subject: on the road again... Looks like I will be in Sud America for the next month. I am pretty familiar with the beers of Brasil and my host in Sao Paulo will want me to drink his homemade cachaca anyway. But any suggestions for Argentine or Venezuelan beers or places to visit in Porto Alegre, Buenos Aires or Maracaibo would be appreciated. Ching Ching! Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:48:19 -0500 From: msmiley at cardiology.utmb.edu (Matt Smiley) Subject: Mystery Mash Temps I've been experimenting with partial grain mashes (~ 5 lbs. of grain) in my last couple batches and have noticed a strange phenomenon. When the mash reaches an optimal temperature between 150-160 degrees F, it will hold this temp (absolutely rock steady +/- < 1 degree) with no added heat for over an hour with the pot sitting on a cold countertop. When I added small amounts of cold water to thin the mixture a little, the temp dropped briefly and returned to its original level. This does not make thermodynamic sense unless the enzymatic reactions are generating their own heat. For you all with the biochemistry background, are these reactions exothermic? Matt M. Smiley Port Bolivar, Texas, on the scenic Redneck Riviera ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Beer - the cause of (and the solution to) most of life's problems." - -- H.J. Simpson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 08:09:31 -0700 From: "John Palmer" <jjpalmer at gte.net> Subject: Don't Dry Hop with Pellets!! It was a good question from the theoretical side, but honestly, don't dry hop with pellets, even in a hop bag. The hop powder goes thru the bag and never drops out of suspension. I tried it once and had to fine with Isinglass to get it to drop clear enough to drink. John Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:18:55 -0500 From: "Kenneth Smith" <Kenneth_Smith at enron.com> Subject: Cleaning new 3 tier brewery I recently completed a 3 tier system based on Sanke kegs. The question is this... How do I clean this system before I use it? Is recirculating with a hot solution of B Brite enough? I have heard of also boiling with vinegar. Piping is hard copper and valves are brass. Kegs are of course kind of nasty looking stainless. Ideas would be appreciated. Ken Smith Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:01:52 -0700 (PDT) From: Scott Murman <smurman at best.com> Subject: removing sulphur from H2O This is really a backpacking question, but there are so many aquatic chemists here, I'm sure I'll get better advice. We're going to be camping out at Pt. Reyes for a few days, and they mentioned that the water has a lot of sulphur that a typical portable water filter will not remove. Is there a simple way to remove the sulphur pre or post filtering? Sulphur pasta anyone? -SM- Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:33:45 -0500 From: "Bruce Ray" <bruce at deepc.com> Subject: Hunter Airstat Question I have found the Airstat modification from the 1994 HBD archives. Now, I'd like to modify mine to hold a temp of something in the range of 100F to 110F (not for homebrewing, unfortunately!) The Airstat setpoint only goes up to 90F and the article in the archives doesn't have quite enough info about the thermistor for me figure it out. If anyone has the specs on the Airstat thermistor, I'd appreciate a copy. Or just the value of the resistor needed, but it would be nice to see the math! Thanks, in advance, Bruce Ray Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:53:18 -0700 From: RiedelD at pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca Subject: Starter containers >Dave, you are correct. A magnetic stirrer won't work if you are using a >cider jug with a concave bottom. I use 2L Erlenmeyer flasks. Besides >compatibility with a stirrer, another advantage to lab flasks, at least >Pyrex ones, is that you can boil the starter wort and pitch the yeast in the >same vessel, which virtually assures you are pitching into sterile wort. I have managed to use my magnetic stirrer in the bottom of a 'cider' jug, but it is an exercise in frustration... last time I took a shot at it, I gave up. Regarding boiling in Erlenmeyers... how do you guys manage to control the boil? The one time I tried it, I got periodic explosions of bubbles/foam instead of a steady boil. This caused boil-over problems that I could not prevent. I'm assuming that the reason for this was the very smooth bottom of the flask not providing enough nucleation sites for bubbles. How do you add boiling stones without disrupting the stir bar, though? Any comments are appreciated, Dave Riedel Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:12:33 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu> Subject: Re: Stove top beer I brewed in a thin enameled steel 33 qt. kettle on a #&*# at ! electric stove and had no trouble with scorching, even with very pale beers such as CAP, EXCEPT when I first started 25 years ago a didn't turn off the burner after the water came to a boil and I added liquid malt extract. In those first two or three brews the syrup settled down on the bottom of the kettle and scorched. I had a burnt flavor and little bleack flakes in the beer. If you are extract brewing you should always turn off the heat before adding malt extract and not turn it on again until you've stirred it thoroughly and it is all in solution. The stainless steel top of two stoves never recovered from the big kettle reflecting heat, however, and I'm still in the doghouse on that. Covering the stove top with aluminum foil helps but not entirely. I now use a propane fired three vessel (10 gallon aluminum stock pots) RIMS in the garage, which makes for two happier people in the household. Jeff -=-=-=-=- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, c/o nerenner at umich.edu "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:32:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Mac the Cardinal <macthecardinal at yahoo.com> Subject: Hop substitution question I'm due to make a batch of David Brockington's Sister Star of the Sun IPA, and I'd like some opinions on hop substitution. Here's the recipe: 13# Hugh Baird English Pale malted barley 1/4# Hugh Baird 135L crystal malt 1/4# Great Western malted wheat 3 oz Chinook hops (60 minutes) 2 oz East Kent Golding hops (15 minutes) 2 oz imported Fuggle hops (while chilling) 1 tsp. Irish Moss ( at 30 minute mark) Wyeast 1028 (London Ale), pint starter. (http://hbd.org/brewery/cm3/recs/01_114.html) In previous batches, I've cut down the Chinook in this recipe to 2 oz. I don't mind purchasing the hops called for, but I'd like to use some of what I have on hand: 5 1/2 oz of Cascade, 1/2 oz Nugget. My thoughts: For the 2 oz Chinook, buying 1 1/2 Chinook and adding my 1/2 Nugget For the EK Goldings, 2 oz Cacade Buy the Fuggles Any suggestions? TIA! Joe joee at gasullivan.com ===== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:31:30 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu> Subject: Dry yeast storage "John S Thompson" <jthomp6 at lsu.edu> asks: >Can (should) dry yeast be stored in the freezer? I accidentally put mine in >there for a day before realizing that this may crystallize and damage the >cells. But would this occur if the cells are dry? The moisture is so low that there is effectively no freezing. As a matter of fact, storing in the freezer is the recommended method for storing dry yeast. Jeff -=-=-=-=- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, c/o nerenner at umich.edu "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 14:55:31 -0500 From: rlabor at lsumc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald) Subject: Drink Wheel Owweeee A fun place to visit! What is it - the Drink Wheel, an alchol breath test simulator! http://www.intox.com/Drink_Wheel_F.html Ron Ronald La Borde - Metairie, Louisiana - rlabor at lsumc.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 16:56:29 -0600 From: hal <hwarrick at springnet1.com> Subject: Book: Principles of Brewing Science 2 I understand your problem and the only thing I can say is I work in the pre-press business in central IL. and we just put the film for that book in the works to go to the printer 4 days ago. Some times clients that spend a few thousand $$$ to have something printed, at a few thousand copies like to keep changing their minds as to how it should look. I'm not with the author/publisher/ or printer but I did see this go through the works. Hal Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 07:59:11 +1000 (EST) From: k.g.mclean at cqu.edu.au (Kevin Mc Lean) Subject: Dry Malt and Liquid Extract differences. Hi, I'm a beginning brewer and mainly working in extract at the moment. A lot of the recipes I've struck ask for both liquid and dry malt extract to be added. Can anyone enlighten me as to what the difference (aside from water content) would be between these two? Offlist is fine, as I presume most people on this list will probably know. Regards, Kevin Mc Lean. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 20:40:57 -0400 From: Spencer W Thomas <spencer at engin.umich.edu> Subject: Re: The Flavor I can't help but wonder if an appropriate level of diacetyl contributes to the perceived "caramel" flavor. You don't mention diacetyl flavor (butterscotch to butter, depending on the concentration) at all, but I would be very surprised if there was none in a classic English ale. What do you all think? Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 20:54:26 -0400 From: Jim Liddil <jliddil at vms.arizona.edu> Subject: starter bottles > From: "Mercer, David" <dmercer at path.org> > Subject: RE: Starter Container > > Dave, you are correct. A magnetic stirrer won't work if you are using a > cider jug with a concave bottom. I use 2L Erlenmeyer flasks. Besides > compatibility with a stirrer, another advantage to lab flasks, at least Oh, but it will. Once you center the magnet on the high spot, it will work provided you don't get the rpms too high. I have used a 1 gallon hplc solvent bottle for years. Jim Liddil Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 21:12:06 -0500 From: larry land <lland at startext.net> Subject: Caramel flavor AND bottle styles for competition I, too, crave the caramel flavor for some of my recipies, but have not perfected it as of late. My question concerns a product I found on the shelf of the local homebrew shop, named Caramalt... [ I think this is the name, and believe it is made by Morgans ] It looks like it would considerably raise the color srm thing, so it may slant some styles the wrong way. Will it work for the flavor? - -- Also, a question for all the judgie-wudgies out there; Would your score be influenced by an entry in a McEwen's brown 12-oz bottle for a Scotch Ale sub-type? Prosit! Return to table of contents
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