HOMEBREW Digest #5153 Fri 02 March 2007


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Ageing IPAs (Signalbox Brewery)
  Little Rock, Arkansas (Michael Forshaw)
  Water Questions ("A.J deLange")
  When you brew, (leavitdg)
  Water Report (Racette) (Calvin Perilloux)
  Caution when shipping competition entries via FedEx (stihlerunits)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:40:42 +0000 From: Signalbox Brewery <signalbox.brewery at ntlworld.com> Subject: Ageing IPAs AUS Mark advises UK Mark to drink his IPA fresh. That's one perspective, perhaps based on recipes, ingredients and techniques used in the deserts of Walla Walla. In the marshes of Essex things may be different and if Mark can find a copy of Protz and La Pensee's India Pale Ales that may be a good source of native perspective. Re: >The bitterness will remain, but the hop flavor will >fade. A good example of the effects of such differences. When we (the Edge family brewers) keep IPAs for a year or two it is the fading of the bitterness that reveals the complex fruity hop flavours. Beers brewed this way by James McCrorie have found approval from Michael Jackson, Roger Protz and others; something similar from my son won second prize at the (UK) CBA National competition in 2005. Re: >IPA's are not meant to age, they're meant to be drunk >fresh. That is why, in the eighteenth century, they were flown to India by Concorde and kept in refrigerated containers. It may sound as if I'm poking fun at Mark; well perhaps just a bit, but the point I'm really making is that interpretation of his advice depends on whether UK Mark wants to win US or AUS homebrew competitions or whether he wants to brew a beer that might have sailed to India. With access to East India malt again and fresh Goldings in the UK, recipes transcibed from original UK brewery legers by Clive and the Durden Park Beer Circle, UK Mark may be aiming for something completely different. Anyway, to end with some practical advice. Bottle the stuff and decide for yourself by evaluating its favour development. Also, brew again in six months to give yourself a reference when doing the longitudinal test. David Edge, Derby Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 04:37:14 -0800 (PST) From: Michael Forshaw <forshawm at yahoo.com> Subject: Little Rock, Arkansas Hello Beerlings. I will be in Little Rock, Arkansas next week for Business. Can anyone recommend a good brewpub or two for Tuesday or Wednesday night? Thanks! Mike Forshaw forshawm at yahoo.com Toledo, Ohio 42.9, 168deg Rennerian (never realized how close I was!) Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:21:42 +0000 From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net> Subject: Water Questions For Mike R: Very nice water indeed. The alkalinity is low enough that any beer with a modicum of other than pale malts should settle in at a decent mash pH. The addition of calcium in the form of the sulfate or chloride, depending on the type of beer being brewed (sulfate for ales, chloride for lagers) should fix any problems in that department. While on the subject of additions: no, addition of calcium to the sparge water will have no effect. The pH reducing reactions with calcium are long over by the time you get to sparging. Also there is no optimum level for calcium. It's primary job is to react with malt phosphate to set mash pH but it is important that some carry through to the boil and the finsihed beer to complex with and precipitate oxalate. Note that several continental lagers are brewed with very soft water so you should not need to worry about calcium supplementation for other purposes. Changes for styles: I'd supplement with gypsum for British ales where I wanted characteristic hop qualities. For Bohemian Pilsners I would probably dilute 1:1 with RO or distilled water mostly to cut the sulfate down. For something like a Dortmunder I might build up the entire mineral profile if I thought the beer lacked that characterisitic minerally quality. For most beers other than these I'd do nothing and see how they came out. A.J Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:37:42 -0500 From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu Subject: When you brew, do you wear your HbD T-shirt? Making a Belgian Porter today, yum. Happy Brewing. Darrell Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 08:32:20 -0800 (PST) From: Calvin Perilloux <calvinperilloux at yahoo.com> Subject: Water Report (Racette) Mike Racette asks about his brewing water: pH - 8.07 Total dissolved solids - 68 Total Alkalinity (as CaCO3) - 42 Hardness as CaCO3 - 53 Chloride - 4.1 Chlorine residual - 0.75 Nitrate as Nitrogen - 0.13 Silica - 4.7 Sulfate - 13.2 Calcium - 11.2 Magnesium - 2.2 Sodium - 9.8 Nice water, Mike! Comments: Carbonate is reasonably low, not as low as Pilsen, but good for most any style since you can add more if needed. For a real Pilsen/Czech lager, you still might consider distilled water dilutions. Chloride, Sulfate - both quite low, lending to easy additions for styles where you want more (e.g. sulfate for Burton Ales). Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium are also fairly low. I can see where you'd want to add some calcium for mashing pale malts. Nitrates at 13 ppm are fairly high for US drinking water. I thought the public standard was 10 ppm, though private wells can run higher. Interestingly, the residual chlorine seems to indicate a public water supply. Anyway, 13 ppm is still well within standards for many other countries than here, where we've perhaps gone overboard. (Don't worry about that in your brewing.) Adding gypsum to every batch might not be what you want to do. It can accentuate the hop dryness in styles where it's not really appropriate, like Munich Helles. In a case like that, consider adding chalk (if you can dissolve it in -- it's a real pain!) and maybe small amounts of calcium chloride. > Is it necessary to adjust sparge water pH as well as mash pH or not? If you're looking at a pH of 8 or higher, I'd consider it. In fact, I tend to treat *all* the water that I'll use in a particular brew session. If I'm intending to duplicate Burton-on-Trent, why would I think that their sparge water would be any different than their mash water? A final note: Make sure to get that residual chlorine out of your water before you use it! Calvin Perilloux Middletown, Maryland, USA Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:24:45 -0700 From: stihlerunits at mosquitobytes.com Subject: Caution when shipping competition entries via FedEx A friend of mine who works at FedEx passed along some informatin regarding their new policy for dealing with undeclared alcohol shipments. I've included the information below. It sounds like it is probably best to not ship beers to competitions via FedEx. FedEx suggests a package should be able to withstand a drop of four feet on to cement so your entries need to be packed very well indeed. Of course, the new policy is only a problem if one or more of your entries break AND the package leaks. This is assuming, of course, that FedEx employees do not take some sort of preemptive approach to packages suspected of containing "dangerous goods". Precautions can be taken to prevent breakage and leaks so this may not be all that big a deal but.... At any rate, please use extreme caution should you choose to ship homebrew entries via FedEx. Cheers, Scott Stihler Fairbanks, Alaska [2874, 324.9] Apparent Rennerian - ----------------------------------------------------------- As of the first of the year all declared and undeclared alcohol shipments that break will be treated as a Dangerous goods spill. The FedEx policy for alcohol shipping must be from a known shipper not someone off the street such as the ones that occur for homebrew competitions. If anything BREAKS the Dangerous Goods person at FedEx by policy will have to contact their Legal department and get them involved unlike the past where they just had to stop the package. This goes for all Alcohol shipments that break coming through FedEx. Return to table of contents
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