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HOMEBREW Digest #0152
HOMEBREW Digest #152 Wed 17 May 1989
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Fantastic! (Pete Soper)
Sam Adams Double Bock (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: Tue, 16 May 89 10:49:19 edt
From: Pete Soper <soper@maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: Fantastic!
Erik Henchal suggests my well water has carbon dioxide dissolved in
it. A chemist I asked over the weekend said the same thing - that
it is common to have a bunch of CO2 in well water in this area. So
by driving off the CO2 I remove the carbonic acid, which further
unmasks the alkalinity. This seems to explain my observations.
I have to believe the remaining hardness is dissolved carbonates and
that boiling just isn't too effective for removing them. Since I
can't afford analysis and haven't gotten meaningful information
from the folks that maintain the well, I'll have to go empirical and
try an experiment with calcium oxide. I'll report back (briefly!).
As for not boiling the water, it seems that mashing or wort boiling
would drive off the CO2 anyway, so I couldn't avoid this if I wanted to.
Yes, at various times I've used various amounts of gypsum, magnesium
sulphate, non iodized salt, tartaric acid, ascorbic acid (seemed to
knock the slats out of my yeast's respiration phase!), and am
investigating sources and uses for other items too. It isn't that I
can't control the pH. It is just that every way I've found so far has
got drawbacks. Actually, my chemist friend suggested one final
solution that would really do the trick. That is separate cation and
anion exchange filters. Fisher Scientific has got some real nice ones
for just a few hundred bucks each :-) Oh, I do use a cheap little
carbon filter to knock out chlorine, but this is probably a waste
with all the boiling going on.
OK, we've beaten this subject to death. Many, many thanks to Erik,
Florianb, and Len for your suggestions here and via email.
-- Pete Soper
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Date: Tue, 16 May 89 15:10:38 EDT
From: hplabs!harvard!ima!wang7!klm
Subject: Sam Adams Double Bock
Greetings all! I've been off the net for a few weeks due to equipment
problems, so I've got lots of reading to catch up on. But, I'm back
and you'll probably be hearing from me again soon.
This doesn't exactly fit the subject of homebrew but as we are all beer
afficionados here, I would like to find out if any of you have an
opinion of the Samuel Adams Double Bock. An friend of mine tried it
and his opinion was somewhat neutral. I tried it and my opinion was
far from neutral. I disliked it intensely.
I have had both domestic and German (while I was in Germany) Bocks and
DoppelBocks, and I have brewed my own Bock according to Papazian's
guidelines. Nothing I have had before was anywhere near this new
Sam Adams brew. My major complaints are 1) It's too light, and 2)
it's far too sweet (almost sickly sweet.)
Now I understand that DoppelBocks should be a bit full-bodied (sweet)
but I think that this beer goes too far. I'm almost tempted to write
the brewery and ask them what they were thinking about when they ccame up
with this recipe.
Am I way off base? Do any of you agree with me? I really like their
regular beer (Boston Lager), it's one of my favorites. The Bock just
turned me off.
Kevin McBride
(What's left of) Wang Laboratories, Inc.
Unix Desktop Imaging Systems
..!ima!wang7!klm (work)
..!ima!wang7!gozer!klm (home, preferred)
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #152, 05/17/89
