HOMEBREW Digest #407 Fri 27 April 1990

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


Contents:
  misc. answers (Alan Duester)
  sugar in good beer (Chip Hitchcock)
  Idle Fermentation (Chris Yerga)
  Colors in light-extract brews (Tom Nolan)
  AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. (mark_koski)
  AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. (mark_koski)
  AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. (mark_koski)
  Fermentation Temperature (Andrius Tamulis)
  How long is o.k. in Secondary? (JEEPSRUS)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 10:00:13 EDT From: capnal at aqua.whoi.edu (Alan Duester) Subject: misc. answers >From: ileaf!io!peoria!cjh at EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Chip Hitchcock) > > I have been getting OG's substantially (.008-.018) above the figures >given in the recipes. (This figures were temperature-corrected according to > Have you tried measuring plain water? Maybe your hydrometer got dropped on its head, and the paper inside slipped? =========== ALSO ============== > >From: smithey at hulder.css.gov (Brian Smithey) > >I'm brewing the Fuller's ESB from Dave Line's "Brewing Beers Like >Those You Buy." For those unfamiliar with this book, most of the >recipes call for the addition of saccharin tablets to increase > >I'd try lactose instead. Would anybody out there like to suggest how >much lactose would approximate the sweetness of 5 saccharin tablets I like all of my brew sweet in the background, and add 1/2 to 1 lb. of crushed Cara-Pils (sometimes called Dextrine Malt) to all my 5 gallon batches. I don't know equivalent amounts to give you the replacement amounts for saccharin. Anybody else? ========== ALSO ================= >From: Steve Anthony <steveo at Think.COM> >Subject: Commonwealth Brewery > >In #405, RussG write about the Commonwealth Brewery in Boston. I was there >a few weeks back while they were preparing a mash. I was rather shocked to >see about 30-40 lbs of good ole' granulated refined cane sugar being added Commonwealth has a brew available now in bottles (at least down here on the Cape). They might have been adding priming sugar to the batch prior to bottling. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 15:09:09 EDT From: ileaf!io!peoria!cjh at EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: sugar in good beer > From: Steve Anthony <steveo at Think.COM> > > In #405, RussG write about the Commonwealth Brewery in Boston. I was there > a few weeks back while they were preparing a mash. I was rather shocked to > see about 30-40 lbs of good ole' granulated refined cane sugar being added > to the kettle. No wonder the beers taste a little thin! Didn't get a chance > to find out what particular beer they were brewing though. There are some homebrew recipes which call for various sugars (Papazian's Goat Scrotum Ale calls for molasses, brown sugar, AND corn sugar even though he says elsewhere that replacing corn sugar with malt extract gives better results). More relevant is that Commonwealth isn't the only brewer that adds a little sugar to get good beer. The local (Boston) newsletters recently described a visit to Fuller's, which said the recipe for ESB included some invert sugar -"so you could drink >=4 pints in a session"-. Fuller's ESB has been getting good reviews in various publications in this country; I thought it was quite good, much better than their London Porter (or Royal Oak? notes from beer-tasting at BU last summer are obscure whose this was). Also, they could have been brewing Golden Ale. The image of -"Gold Ale"- seems to be something like a better grade of Pilsener than the commercial runoff made in this country; I doubt you could get something that light with no sugar. > From: "Gary F. Mason > Subject: Boston's Commonwealth Brewery...me too > > I tried only the Burton's Best Boston Bitter, the golden ale, and the amber > ale. I found the bitter to be too much so - unlike what I experienced in > England. > > Q: Does anyone know how consistent they are between batches? I would like to > try the bitter from another batch, hoping for less bittering hops. When I was change-ringing nearby I went to Commonwealth fairly often(*); I didn't notice any variation in the bitter (or in the stout, which has seduced some English friends). Note that traditional English beers vary substantially; regions have not just specialties in style (stout/bitter/mild) but also particular preferences in each style, so the bitter you had may have been a median but certainly wasn't the only style variety. Commonwealth's Burton Bitter is related to Bass Ale and other brews (Double Diamond?) from Burton-on-Trent (Northeast coast), which are supposed to be very hoppy. It would be interesting if Commonwealth filled out the English line with a brown/mild ale, since mild-and-bitter is a common mix. (*) Ringing followed by beer is a noble English tradition that I was treated to in both England and Australia---though some of our guests disdained the Commonwealth bitter and one even asked for white wine! Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 17:22:21 PDT From: yerga at cory.Berkeley.EDU (Chris Yerga) Subject: Idle Fermentation I brewed up my second batch of homebrew 4 days ago. It's a porter that had 6 or 7 lbs of extract and 1lb of black patent, with a touch of crystal. OG was around 1.065 after the boil was finished, but I was only able to get the wort down to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit after 30 minutes. Since it was 2:30 AM, I crashed and pitched at around 8:30 AM. I used an 11.5g packet of Edme dry yeast, which I chose over Red Star at the local homebrew hut. The yeast had covered the surface of the wort by midnight and was bubbling away at the rate of 3 or 4 bbles per second by the next morning. Fermentation continued in this manner until the second morning (48 hours after pitching), when the head on the wort had fallen. I haven't seen a single bubble since, which seems strange because I tossed about 10oz of the wort into a bottle fitted with an airlock at the same time that I pitched in the primary. The bottle is bubbling every several seconds. Although I am relaxed and am not worrying, I am quickly running out of homebrew and would like to know if this is abnormal fermentation. I'm running a closed fermentation in a 5 gallon carboy and havent disturbed it since pitching (that was the point of having the separate bottle fermentingg - so I could monitor it and not touch the primary). Any help or comforting words would be greatly appreciated! Chris Yerga The Naked House of Wacky People Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 10:28:38 EDT From: nolan at heavax.DNET.NASA.GOV (Tom Nolan) Subject: Colors in light-extract brews Regarding the amount of darkening grains to add to a light-extract-only wort, I have a couple of points on the graph: Starting with 5 lbs light extract and water to make 4.5 gallons I have then added (1) 2 cups crystal + 1 cup chocolate malt to get a beautiful copper-colored amber ale (2) 2 cups crystal + 2 cups roasted barley to get a very dark-colored but light-bodied stout I crush the grains by rolling them with a beer bottle, not so much grinding that they turn to powder. I steep the grains for 1/2 hour at 150-160 F in 1 gallon, then strain and rinse. During the steep, you can draw off a half-cup or so, then dilute it to the full wort strength by adding a cup or so of water, to get an idea of the color of the finished product, and tweak as necessary. - Tom Return to table of contents
Date: 24 Apr 90 17:52 -0700 From: mark_koski%02 at hp4200 Subject: AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. I will be out of the office from Tuesday, 4/23, to Monday, 4/30, on business. If you require immediate attention to an issue, please contact Eric Lewis at 720-3650. Mark Koski Return to table of contents
Date: 24 Apr 90 07:00 -0700 From: mark_koski%02 at hp4200 Subject: AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. I will be out of the office from Tuesday, 4/23, to Monday, 4/30, on business. If you require immediate attention to an issue, please contact Eric Lewis at 720-3650. Mark Koski Return to table of contents
Date: 24 Apr 90 07:35 -0700 From: mark_koski%02 at hp4200 Subject: AUTO ANSWER MESSAGE. I will be out of the office from Tuesday, 4/23, to Monday, 4/30, on business. If you require immediate attention to an issue, please contact Eric Lewis at 720-3650. Mark Koski Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 21:57:20 CDT From: Andrius Tamulis <tamulis at dehn.math.nwu.edu> Subject: Fermentation Temperature The summer months will soon be upon us, with the correspondingly high temperatures. My current residence does not have any A/C, and is therefore subject to the outside temperature, which means that it can reach 90 degrees in here, maybe even higher. The question is, can I brew beer? 90 is well out of the suggested fermenting range, but just what will happen? Is it hopeless? And if it is, are there refridgerator-type things that can keep my carboy at a nice 65-75? Thanks in advance, Andrius Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 11:47 PDT From: JEEPSRUS <ROBERTN%FM1 at sc.intel.com> Subject: How long is o.k. in Secondary? G'day to all! I am doing my first two stage fermentation. But, I'm not to sure about what to do. I am making a Maple Syrup Stout. I racked it into the carboy after the krauzen(sp?) fell. It's been in the secondary for a week and a half now, as of 4/26. How long can it sit in the secondary? There is still some activity in there. There is also a fair amount of sediment buildup. I don't have a meter, so I don't know what the SG is. It looks as though it is doing just fine. I'm just curious as to how long to let it go. I have heard across the net of people letting thier secondary go for a month or two. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanx in advance, RobertN. robertn%fm1 at sc.intel.com Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #407, 04/27/90 ************************************* -------
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