HOMEBREW Digest #5446 Fri 07 November 2008


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Re: Should I drink contaminated beer? (Jesse Stricker)
  Old Supplies [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] ("Williams, Rowan")
  Yeast ("A.J deLange")
  Brewing Hop Tea (Rick) Theiner" <rickdude@tds.net>
  RE: Pumps ("Kevin Weaver")
  re: Should I drink contaminated beer? ("jeff_ri")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:05:03 -0800 From: Jesse Stricker <jessestricker at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Should I drink contaminated beer? Tom Puskar writes: > After this long winded story, my question is this. Should I try it and if > it tastes reasonable just chill it and drink it? Or, will some dreaded > gastrointestinal plague befall me and anyone who drinks it? Take a shot of it. If it's infected, you'll know pretty quickly (like, when you get it near your mouth). If it smells and tastes OK, it probably won't make you sick. There aren't a whole lot of bugs that can grow in 5% alcohol and then grow in you -- hence the popularity of beer in places and times with bad sanitation. If it smells and tastes bad, you might make yourself sick drinking it, but you wouldn't drink a bunch of it if it was bad. If it tastes OK (and it might), then have a glass and see how you feel in the morning. A bad hangover is possible, but probably the worst that could happen. If it is OK, I wouldn't age it for long -- chill it and drink it, it might get worse. If it's rank and nasty, well, then you've got to do what you've got to do. It happens. But in general, it's hard to grow dangerous organisms in beer-strength alcohol solutions. Jesse Stricker San Diego, CA Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 16:28:27 +1100 From: "Williams, Rowan" <Rowan.Williams at ag.gov.au> Subject: Old Supplies [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] I've never bought and brewed the entire bag of malt in the same year - my 25kg sacks of crystal, amber and munich malts are more than 3 years old and thanks to a cool dry cellar and sealed buckets, the grain is in good shape and makes fine beer. I wouldn't toss any of the grains out unless they smell bad or have visible defects. Agree with other comments re hops and lets face it, if you're bittering with them, who cares if they're low on aroma properties? Cheers, Rowan Williams Canberra Brewers Club, Australia [9588.6, 261.5] AR (statute miles) - ---------------------------------------------------- If you have received this transmission in error please notify us immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies. If this e-mail or any attachments have been sent to you in error, that error does not constitute waiver of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect of information in the e-mail or attachments. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:30:00 -0500 From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net> Subject: Yeast Two posts yesterday described essentially the same problem which was unwanted behavior in beers pitched from yeast supplied in tubes. I too have had some strange experiences with yeast in that form - a beer that wouldn't start requiring a second pitching and the other a Kolsch that never dropped clear (not that Kolschs really like to do that very much anyway) and just didn't taste very good. Both batches went down the drain as they both had a horrid phenolic taste. I assumed that it was my error in both cases (i.e. infection though I could find no bugs under the microscope) but in talking to people in my homebrew club, one professional brewer and my new local hombrew supplier I found that it is not that uncommon with this brand. The latter gentleman will not stock the product in question because he got so many complaints from customers. The other side of the coin is that I have made some nice beers with those yeasts, including WLP 300. Thus, while I do not plan to avoid that brand forever, I will not use it again until I stop seeing posts like those of yesterday. A.J. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 8:29:44 -0600 From: "Eric (Rick) Theiner" <rickdude at tds.net> Subject: Brewing Hop Tea I was wondering if anyone has experience brewing hop tea for simple consumption. I've been having problems with middle of the night sleeplessness, but have been able to counteract it with the administration of IPA's. I prefer not to drink during the week for the time being-- at least until the end of the semester. So the next step is just the hop part. Anyone have any thoughts? Rick Theiner Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 11:25:00 -0500 From: "Kevin Weaver" <kweaver at brewmation.com> Subject: RE: Pumps Just some additional thoughts on pumps. Peristaltic pumps work great for sparging. We have been using them on our systems all along. We use two of them which enables us to maintain the mash liquid level throughout the sparge. AJ is quite right that they are expensive even at sparging rates for home brewers running in the range from 5 GPH to 13 GPH. We have searched high and low for a lower cost pump to offer but have come up empty. There are the types that have two heads with one motor, but surprisingly this arrangement was more expensive then the two pumps we use. We even tried to develop one, but scrapped that idea since we could not get the repeatability that is required using "lower cost parts". If anyone does know of a decent low cost supplier of these peristaltic pumps, let us know. We'll run it through the tests! Regards, Kevin Kevin Weaver Brewmation Incorporated www.brewmation.com Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 21:53:43 -0500 From: "jeff_ri" <jeff_ri at cox.net> Subject: re: Should I drink contaminated beer? Hi All, In HBD #5445 Tom Puskar asked about drinking a batch of beer that didn't start fermenting for 3 days and is probably infected. I really don't think that there would be any ill effects (pun intended) caused by drinking this batch even if it's severely infected. At worst, it may be somewhat sour and funky tasting. Then again, it may not be too bad at all. Give it a try and if it's drinkable don't wait for it to get worse (which it may very well do). If the batch is severely infected, whatever equipment you used on it (fermenters, hoses, racking cane, bottling bucket, etc) got exposed to whatever unwanted bugs are in there. Toss the hoses and do an extra careful job of cleaning and sanitizing every thing else. Even when using those unnamed tubes, you should still make a starter. You'll be pitching a larger number of healthier yeast, and you will always know it the yeast from the tube is dead or not before pitching into your main batch. Jeff McNally Tiverton, RI (652.2 miles, 90.0 deg) A.R. www.southshorebrewclub.org Return to table of contents
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