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HOMEBREW Digest #0053
HOMEBREW Digest #53 Wed 18 January 1989
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Homebrew shops in the Princeton area (Martin Weinberg)
Steinbart's Catalog (rogerl)
Sake and other things ("VAX865::HABERMAND")
Psychoactive brew? (florianb)
Where are the English pint bottles? (csun!fedeva!wrd3156)
Fermentors (harvard!ima!wang7!klm)
Psychoactive beer? (harvard!ima!wang7!klm)
Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
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Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 10:13:14 EST
From: weinberg@duvel.ias.edu (Martin Weinberg)
Subject: Homebrew shops in the Princeton area
Frederic W. Brehm writes:
> Can anyone recommend a good brew shop somewhere in the
> Philadelphia/New York area? There must be one around here
> somewhere!
I also live (and brew) in Princeton. Although I order most of my
supplies by mail from Hennessy Homebrew in Troy, NY, there is a shop
in Hillsborough called Wine Hobby U.S.A. They do not have a wide
variety of supplies but they have everything you need to start.
Their address is:
Plaza 401 Route 206 South
South Somerville, NJ
201-874-4141
It is about a 20 min. drive from Princeton. Maybe some folks out
there know of another shop?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 10:18:37 EST
From: rogerl@Think.COM
Subject: Steinbart's Catalog
florianb%tekred.cna.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET write:
Steinbart's of Portland, OR sells excellent bulk extract (light,
amber, dark) in 7# jars for about $7. ... I can post an address if
there is sufficient interest.
Please DO!
Roger Locniskar
------------------------------
Date: 18 Jan 89 13:22:00 PST
From: "VAX865::HABERMAND" <habermand%vax865.decnet@afrpl-vax.ARPA>
Subject: Sake and other things
I'd like to thank everyone for answers to my question about a Sake recipe. I
already had the one forwarded by Cher from David Herron since I belong to the
same Medieval Society. (That's where I got my start in brewing.) I thought
it was interesting but since it did not get the fermentable sugars from the
rice, it was not my idea of Sake. I visited the Sake brewery in Berkeley and
got some information on the process. I walked up the street (I couldn't drive
after the Sake tasting) and went to the local brew shop and purchased some
koji. That's as far as I got. Re the coments about saliva turning starch
into sugar, the ancient Japanese made "virgin" sake which came from rice
chewed by virgins and spit into a vat for fermentation. I think that I will
take Rob's suggestion and send away for the book he mentioned.
I have only used brown sugar and corn sugar in my brews so far and haven't
noticed any cidery taste. When I used the corn sugar for priming, I just
added it to the fermentation vessel before bottling. I think that I might
heat it up with some beer next time after reading the discussions in this
digest. The brown sugar was added with the malt in the boil.
I made one batch by mashing my own and was pleasantly surprised. I was able
to get 1.065 starting S.G. without having to add any malt or sugar. I used a
single step mash, keeping the temperature at about 152 deg. F. I put the
stuff in a large plastic ice chest to sparge it. The ice chest has a spout on
the bottom for drainage so It was perfect. The ending S.G. was 1.014
resulting in a slightly alcoholic tasting beer. After 6 months it still
tasted a bit on the alcoholic side. Now, 3 years later, it has lost the
alcoholy flavor and now tastes like I overdid the hops which I think I did.
I like Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada a lot, so I have mostly been using their
bottles for my brew. I also have quite a few Grolsch bottles (from rich
friends) and some English bottles. I have even tried the larger Japanese
bottles. I havn't had any problems capping any of the bottles.
Since I havn't made a brew in a while, I decided to go with DME with dark
crystal grain as an adjuct when I went by the brew shop this weekend. I got
all jazzed about brewing again after joining this group. I think I might even
join the Maltose Falcons.
And now for another question:
Up until now, I have always used the cheap dried yeast for my beer. When I
bought the stuff for my latest brew, I decided to get the more expensive
liquid ale yeast. How do I save this yeast so that I can use it again? How
long will it last, and how many times can I use it?
Thanks,
David
------
------------------------------
Date: 18 Jan 89 13:15:32 PST (Wed)
From: florianb%tekred.cna.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET
Subject: Psychoactive brew?
In yesterday's posting, Mike Meyer asks:
BTW, has anybody ever experienced a bacterial infection that made their beer
slightly psychoactive? I had this one batch that was a lobotomy-in-a-bottle
??????
What? I've heard of ergot infections, but this is weird! Are you sure you
finished this batch with hops? Were you the only one near the fermenter at
all times? Anybody else have comments?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 14:25:49 PST
From: hplabs!csun!fedeva!wrd3156
Subject: Where are the English pint bottles?
A couple of digests back, someone mentioned bottling in English pint bottles.
Where does one {find,buy} such a bottle? They sound an ideal size; but then
I will have to get bigger mugs. Oh well...
bill daniels
federal express, memphis, tn
{hplabs!csun,gatech!emcard,mit-eddie!premise}!fedeva!wrd3156
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 89 16:43:46 PST
From: pixar!wilker@Sun.COM (Tom Wilker-'your obedient slave!')
Greetings from the Homebrewers at Pixar!
I've been scanning through the discussion of minimizing sedimentation in the
bottle and would like to share my opinion on the subject.
Sediments consist of various unfermentables and dormant yeast cells. If you
are brewing all-grain batches, the amount of unfermentables which settle out
of solution will always be higher than typical extract brews. Usually these
settle in the primary and secondary, but on an early batch of mine, I even had
some show up in the bottle. The solution I've used very successfully since has
been 1/2 tsp of Irish Moss during the last half hour of the boil. The effect of
the Moss is home-chemistry at its best; within 5 minutes, precipitates form
and will drop to the bottom of the primary. So much for the unfermentables!
My solution to the yeast cell sediment problem is simply mechanical. I find
that if you take particular care in the racking process, and allow plenty of
time for the yeast to settle while in the secondary, you will have no real
problem with sediments. I feel it is worth while to top up the batch with a
bit of pre-boiled water rather than risk sucking up any of the sediment trying
to get that last little bit! I also leave the brew under lock for at least
4 weeks to allow maximum time for sedimentation. Aging in the bottle for at
least 3 weeks helps to develop a stable thin sediment which allows a nice clean
pour.
I agree with the idea of cooling the secondary to maximize sedimentation, my
back steps stay a nice consistent 40 F all through the winter and I've noted
that my brews seem to settle out much faster. I'm surprised that 12-24 hours
chilled would produce much of an effect at all, but I'll definitely give it
a try when spring arrives!
Now, on to something different!
I've noticed that with all-grain brews I've had very little luck in duplicating
the body or alcohol content of a typical extract brew. I've tried Infusion
mashes and Upward Infusion mashes and have found that the Upward Infusion
yields a more alcoholic brew with no perceptable effect to the body. But even
using this technique, I've been unable to match extract brews.
I think there is a lot to be said for the control of wort concentration you
get from brewing with extracts. I find that the more whole grain I use, the
more sparge water I need to extract the wort. My last all-grain was 10 lbs of
Klages and a lb of Crystal and it took 6 gallons of water to sparge (6 gals is
the limit for my brewpot, I'm sure I could have gotten more). The brew, while
definitely very drinkable, didn't have the thickness I wished to get out of the
batch. I'd love to know how much grain goes into a can of extract...I'm sure
its quite a lot!
The most recent edition of the digest, particularly the snippets from Darryl,
Newman, and Dsbaer, have me psyched to continue the effort! I've decided that
the volume of my Lauter Tun (3 gals) is way too wimpy for the amounts of grain
I now mash, so I'm going to break down and build a bigger one. The water cooler
version seems to be the best idea to me...any problems with this configuration?
Finally, thanks to you contributors for the great information! Keep it coming!
--
Tom Wilker...!{ucbvax,sun}!pixar!wilker
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 89 00:14:00 EST
From: hplabs!harvard!ima!wang7!klm
Subject: Fermentors
To add my $.02 worth to the discussion...
I picked up a 7 gallon carboy from my supplier. I use this as my primary
fermentor, and make sure to never fill it past 6 gallons. It usually ends
up at around 5.5 gallons.
After primary is done, I rack the beer into a 5 gallon carboy and fill it
all the way up into the neck. Because there was some extra in the primary
I didn't have to worry about sucking up sludge while getting the secondary
completely filled.
The 7 gallon carboy works out quite well. I don't trust Papazian's method
of using a blow-off tube ever since reading Byron Burch's book and hearing
of somebody I work with having a carboy explode on him. I just put a
fermentation lock on and I relax and don't worry because I've left plenty
of 'breathing room.'
Don't forget... not worrying is very important. Your beer knows.
If you worry it will very likely turn on you.
Kevin McBride
McBeer Brewery
..!ima!wang7!gozer!klm
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 89 00:14:12 EST
From: hplabs!harvard!ima!wang7!klm
Subject: Psychoactive beer?
Hey Mike! Where can I get some of this stuff? 1/2 :-)
Seriously though, it's more likely that a mold is causing that effect
rather than a bacterium. After all, I seem to recall that LSD is
refined from ergot mold, which grows naturally on certain grains.
ergot mold in pure form, though, is more likely to make you ill before
it gets you off. Kinda like near beer.
Good luck and let me know if fdkjhfdhdfiuydr98734r987erkjhfkjhv34ryug
Oops, sorry, started hallucinating there.... :-)
Kevin McBride
McBeer Brewery
..!ima!wang7!gozer!klm
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End of HOMEBREW Digest
