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


Contents:
  RE: Homebrew Digest #902 (June 15, 1992) (tim)
  $Agar? (Nick Zentena)
  sediment in wine (envkas)
  subscription (lindel holden)
  Conference + Re: Technique/HighKrauesen/Dryhopping/MOREBEER (korz)
  Bitter Commercial Brews (doug)
  re: bitter beer (Dick Dunn)
  Box 'o beer (James Hensley)
  Yeast Growth, AHA Conference (Jack Schmidling)
  Gravity of Starter Cultures (Jon Binkley)


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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1992 10:11:38 EDT
From: tim at mtnet2.wvnet.edu
Subject: RE: Homebrew Digest #902 (June 15, 1992)

I am going to be spending a couple of weeks in Alaska around the end of June, 
and am looking for any information on brew pubs in the land of the midnight
sun. 

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Date: 	Mon, 15 Jun 1992 10:59:40 -0400
From: Nick Zentena <zen%hophead at canrem.com>
Subject: $Agar?

Hi,
        Does anybody know of anyplace that sells agar at
        reasonable prices? A local place wants almost $100
        for one[1!] pound of Malt extract Agar. They also
        want $50 for a pound of DME.[This isn't a homebrew
        place put a chemical supply house]

        If this doesn't pan out has anybody in Canada
        ordered from the Brewers Resource? How long did it
        take to clear customs?
        Thanks
        Nick

I drink Beer I don't collect cute bottles!
zen%hophead at canrem.com

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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 11:33:16 EDT
From: envkas at sn634.utica.ge.com
Subject: sediment in wine

To any of you wine makers out there:

After learing how easy and fun it is to make beer, my wife said "now if you
could only make wine too...". This past summer I fermented 10 g of grape juice
following directions from friends, books, and tips from a "quick" wine kit.
Everything went smoothly.  I bottled the white wine in December so that I could
use my caraboys again for some beer.  The wine seemed clear, so I did not use
any finnings before botteling. Now I have sediment on the corks (bottles stored 
upside down) so when the wine is poured into glasses, the otherwise clear wine
is degraded (at least visually, maybe in taste).  The wine tastes great 
straight out of the bottle, but we want to serve it to friends and would like
to have it clear.

My question is what should I do with about 40 bottles of wine that all have
some sediment on the corks?  I tried filtering some thru coffee filters
which removed the particles, but the wine seemed to oxidize badly. Any ideas???

Thanks in advance!

Karl Sweitzer

envkas at sn370.ge.utica.com

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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 11:56:03 EDT
From: lindel holden <lholden at s850.mwc.edu>
Subject: subscription

SUB Homebrew Lindel E. Holden


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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 12:13 CDT
From: korz at iepubj.att.com
Subject: Conference + Re: Technique/HighKrauesen/Dryhopping/MOREBEER

Having just returned from the AHA National Conference, I'd like to comment
on a number of posts received while I was away.  By the way, I strongly
urge everyone to try to attend the next Conference which will be held in
Portland, OR, next summer.  Not only are there *barrels* of information
to be gained from the sessions (my favorites were the session on Yeast
by George Fix and the session on Brewing Lambics by Martin Lodahl and
Mike Sharp), but you also get to taste *hundreds* of homebrewed beers
while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with such brewing luminaries as Charlie
Papazian, George Fix, Dave Miller, Byron Burch, and Fred Eckhardt.

>From the matching faces with logins file:  everyone is much younger in
person than they seem on the net.  Given the amount of knowledge that
HBD members have, you would expect them to look like old, grey-haired
brewmasters.  Not so.  In addition, homebrewers are the friendliest
people in the world.  Period.  If you steped up to a homebrewer at the
conference who was pouring a vintage 1967 Thomas Hardy's Ale, and they
noticed your glass was empty, they would pour you some... nevermind that
they haven't even had a chance to read your nametag.

Chris writes:
>     First, this is what I now do:  the day or more before
>brewing I start Wyeast and eventually make a 750 ml starter with
>light dry malt extract (or sometimes I repitch from the secondary
>and avoid the starter) and I also boil 1.5 to 2.0 gallons of cold
>tap water (it's quite soft in Philadelphia) and then freeze in a
>block;  on the brewing day I bring about 4.5 gallons of water to
>around 170x F., turn off the heat, add 6.6 lbs. NW malt extract
>syrup, stir to dissolve, start heating again and bring to a boil,
>add hops at one or more times, and boil for 60 to 90 minutes or
>until volume falls to about 3.5 gallons, cool from 212x F. to
>about 170x F. by putting the pot in a sink of cold water and then
>cool to yeast pitching temperature by adding the 1.5 to 2.0
>gallon block of ice, pitch yeast into the pot and let stand one
>to two hours, rack wort off of the settled trub into a carboy or
>plastic fermenter while waving the siphon hose to aerate the
>wort, fit a fermentation lock, ferment two to three days until
>kreusen falls and then rack to a carboy for a one to three week
>secondary fermentation, rack to a plastic fermenter with priming
>sugar (preboiled corn sugar), and then bottle.  Sometimes I bring
>crystal malt or other specialty grains to 170x F. in the brewing
>pot and then skim it out before adding the malt extract syrup.
>Sometimes I treat my brewing water after the boil with Burton
>water salts (for pale ales) and sometimes I add .5 tsp. of Irish
>Moss at the end of the boil.
>

So far, you have excellent technique.

>     Among the things I have considered doing to improve this
>technique are:  (i) use an immersion wort chiller so that I could
>do a full boil instead of using the block of ice (this will help
>when I get ready for all grain, too),

Yes.  I think this should be your first improvement.  Note that
when you increase your boil volume to the full 5 to 6 gallons,
you will get better hop utilization due to the lower boil gravity,
so be careful.  See the article by Jackie Rager (who I got to meet
and with whom I shared a Blueberry Porter provided by one of the New
York area homebrew clubs) in the Hops Special Issue of Zymurgy to
see what kind of change you can expect from your full boil.

>(ii) use a bottle of oxygen to aerate the wort before pitching,

I would call this overkill.  Good aeration is enough.  (Ironically,)
Alberta Rager will have an article in the Conference Transcripts
on aeration -- she suggests using a bubbler stone, an aquarium pump
and a 2micron inline filter for aeration, but I would leave this
improvement for later.

>(iii) use a 7 gallon carboy
>instead of a plastic fermenter for primary fermentation (where
>can one get a 7 gallon carboy?),

Even a 5 gallon carboy will help you keep things more sanitary than
plastic, but as noted by Darryl Richman recently, he's been using
an HDPE fermenter for years and has brewed prize-winning beers with it.

>(iv) use kegs of some sort
>rather than bottles (this would make life easier, I think, but
>shouldn't improve the beer) and


>(v) use a larger volume of starter, say one liter.

The difference between 750ml and 1 liter is minor.  Personally,
I think that 750ml is enough if you pitch when the starter is most
active.

Additional improvements:

	- try adding specialy grains, like Crystal, Chocolate, Black Patent
	  (I simply crush them, put them in a grain bag, and suspend the
	  bag in the water as I bring it to 170F, then remove the grains.)
	  The grains will give your beer a more malty flavor and aroma
	  than just simply using extract.

	- try some different malt extracts.  I've found that Northwestern
	  Extract seems to give a high terminal gravity.  Other extracts
	  give slightly different flavors too.

	- Dryhop.  Try 1 oz of Willamette or Goldings or Fuggles in the
	  secondary (the last 10 days before bottling).  Try Liberty Ale
	  of Young's Special London Ale to see what dryhopping can do for
	  beer bouquet.


John writes:
>Whenever I use Wyeast, I prepare a 12oz starter.  Timing when to pitch a 
>starter has always been a mystery to me.  The general recommendation is
>to pitch at high krauesen.  The trouble is determining when high krauesen
>occurs.  With my starters, I am lucky to get 1/8 inch of foam on top, and
>that is a best case!  What sort of krauesen do you get, and at what point
>do you pitch the starter?

I think it may have to do with the low gravity of starters (I use 1018),
but high-krauesen is really, at best, 1/8 inch, sometimes none at all.
I know I wrote "high krauesen" in a hurry and I really hadn't thought-out
my post properly or explained myself thoroughly.  Usually, I just time
the bubbles and scale down from a 5 gallon batch -- 1 bubble per 80 seconds
in a 16 ounce starter is (for practical purposes) 1 bubble per 2 seconds
in a 5 gallon batch.  I consider anything aproaching 1 bubble per 2 minutes
to be "high krauesen" in a 16-32 ounce starter.

Sean writes:
>I'm bitting the dry-hop bullet. Sign me up, i want that awesome dry-hopped
>aroma. I ordered the ingredients for my latest batch and ordered a package
>of Hersbrucker compressed hop plugs. I brewed up my batch last night as
>follows:
>
>	6lb	Laaglander extra-pale DME
>	1lb	corn sugar
>	.5oz	fuggles pellets a=4.0 (begging of boil)
>	.5oz	Willemette leaf a=4.2 (  at  20 minutes)
>	.5oz	    "       "     "   (  at  40 minutes)
>		#1056 - American Ale
>
>	OG = 1.060
>
>The boil was a full 6 gallons (in my shiny new 10gal ss brewkettle! ;-), 
>yeilding 5 gallons after the boil. It's merrily fermenting away in the 
>primary now.

I feel that you have underhopped.  1/2 oz of 4.0% Fuggles is quite low
for a 5 gallon batch of 1060 Ale.  I would have used 1.5 ounces.

>So how much of the Hersbrucker (a = 2.6) do i throw in the secondary? Is 
>there some rule-of-thumb for amount of malt (SG?), amount of bittering hops,
>and amount and/or alpha of the dryhop being used? Or is it as simple as
>just throw in 1oz at transfer to secondary?

I suggest 1 ounce for the last 10 days in the secondary.  At first, the
dry hop bouquet may be overpowering (if that's possible, but I'm a hophead)
at first but will mellow out in a week or two.  Note: I heard at the
conference, that Smartcaps(tm) will make your hop bouquet last much longer.
If this is true, then you may want to try Smartcaps and use 1/2 ounce of
Hersbrucker.

>          1992 AHA NATIONAL AWARDS AND CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

      <stuff deleted>
> Now they are chanting, MORE BEER! MORE BEER! MORE BEER!
      <stuff deleted>

Sounded like "FREE BEER! FREE BEER! FREE BEER!" to me.

Al.

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Date: 15 Jun 92  14:12 EST
From: doug at metabolism.bitstream.com
Subject: Bitter Commercial Brews


Nils/John:

   Last year at the WBUR "Brewers Offering" my brew partner and I
   compared side by side the two beers we considered the hoppiest in
   the neighborhood.  My palate my have been a little impaired but we
   found Geary's Pale to be the second in bitterness to Post Road.  I
   would imagine that you can get it in Maine... it's brewed for
   the Marlborough Brewing Company by our friends in White River
   Junction.


 \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
                                             
   Doug Connolly                Bitstream, Inc.      (617) 497-6222
   uunet!huxley!doug            215 First St.            X618
   doug at bitstream.com           Cambridge, MA  02142
 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/


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Date: 15 Jun 92 18:54:19 MDT (Mon)
From: rcd at raven.eklektix.com (Dick Dunn)
Subject: re: bitter beer

jeb at hemlock.cray.com (John Bergquist) suggests:

> I haven't had the pleasure of trying Geary's, but the hoppiest domestic 
> beers I've tasted are from Grant's in Yakima, WA.  I think I read a claim 
> that their Imperial Stout is the hoppiest beer in America...

Perhaps surprisingly, Grant actually reduced the hops in his beers just a
bit from the early days.  Bert Grant worked in the hops trade (I don't
recall just what he did) before he started brewing commercially.  The man
*really* likes hops.  I still remember the first time he brought his beer
to the Great American Beer Festival--the India Pale Ale (which is supposed
to be a hoppy style anyway) was overwhelming.  It *was* good, though.

I wonder if Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale was counted in that "hoppiest
beer in America" comparison.  (Maybe not, because it's seasonal.)  It's
certainly been one of the hoppiest beers I've had over the years.

> ...Samuel Adams Boston Lager, which is as hoppy as  
> anything you're likely to find in general distribution.

It's hard to draw the line for "general distribution" though.  The growth
in the numbers of people who like substantial beer has been enough that
Anchor and Sierra Nevada are almost common...and they're quite a step up
from SA in hops content.
  ---
Dick Dunn    rcd at raven.eklektix.com   -or-   raven!rcd    Boulder, Colorado
  ...The way to meet an impossible circumstance is with voluntary craziness.

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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 18:18:08 PDT
From: James Hensley <jpaul at barge.sd.locus.com>
Subject: Box 'o beer



My friend went to the PB brewhouse here in San Diego, and saw several
boxes haning from the ceiling.  He asked what they were, and was
told they are take-home gallons of beer!  He brought me one (nice guy --
cost $16.00 !!  Anyway, I had never heard of this before and was wondering
if anyone else has seen this sort of thing.  It was quite good.  
Cardboard box with 1-gallon plastic container inside, came along with a
plastic tap that you replace the lid with.  

Cool packaging!  

James
- -- 
jpaul at locus.com  | ..ucsd!lccsd!jpaul   :  all views expressed are mine.

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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 23:09 CDT
From: arf at ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling)
Subject: Yeast Growth, AHA Conference

 
 To: Homebrew Digest
 Fm: Jack Schmidling
 
 >From: "John Cotterill" <johnc at hprpcd.rose.hp.com>
 Subject: Yeast Growth, Krauesen
 
 > Does anyone out there get a good head in a 12oz starter.  Not worrying, 
 just curious (and feeling a bit insecure).
 
 Not sure what you are starting in what but.....
 
 After 24 hours, I get a ring of bubbles around a half inch of wort in a slant 
 tube.
 
 This gets poured into 50 ml wort and 24 hours later will foam when agitated.
 
 This gets poured into 200 ml wort which will foam up just like fermenting 
 beer within 24 hours.
 
 If I have the time and motivation, this I pitch into 500 ml wort and it
 foams away in 24 hours.
 
 I guess the bottom line is, it takes four days to do it right.
 ..............
 
 
 I would like to express my good will and warm feelings to all the great 
 people I met at the AHA conference in Milwaukee last week.  I even extend 
 that to the HBD celebrity who refused to shake my hand or taste the "World's 
 Greatest Beer".  After composing my flaming expose' of the twit I decided to 
 give it one more try and flatter myself in thinking that I must still be the 
 world's greatest salesman.   Finally, with great condecension, he tasted the 
 "World's Greatest Beer" and couldn't find anything wrong with it.
 
 js
 

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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 23:29:33 -0600
From: Jon Binkley <binkley at beagle.Colorado.EDU>
Subject: Gravity of Starter Cultures


Why is a relatively low gravity (1.020) recommended for
yeast starter cultures?

The last few batches my friend and I made were from higher
gravities (~1.040-50), first by accident and then on purpose.
The cultures seemed very happy, and the lag time after pitching
seemed shorter (very subjective observations).

Is there any problem with this, other than using more malt extract
than is absolutely necessary?

Jon Binkley



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End of HOMEBREW Digest #903, 06/16/92