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HOMEBREW Digest #0217
HOMEBREW Digest #217 Tue 01 August 1989
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Steeping Grains (ROSS)
McMeniman's beer (bryan)
RE: Homebrew Digest #214 (July 29, 1989)
Icy Wort! (Martin A. Lodahl)
Miller's Book and Red Star (Dave Sheehy)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 89 08:33 EDT
From: ROSS@mscf.med.upenn.edu
Subject: Steeping Grains
I use the following technique which has been very successful for me.
1. I put the specialty grains in a small pot with some brewing water (I
use spring water).
2. I then start heating this water.
3. At the same time I start heating the water and malt extract that are in
my main brew pot. As the volume in this pot is much greater than the
volume in the small pot containing the grains, I know it is going to take
considerably longer to get it to boil.
4. Once the water begins to boil in the grain pot I turn off the heat and
pour the contents through a strainer into the main brew pot.
5. To get "all of the flavor", sometimes I press the grains against the stainer
using my sanitized brewing spoon.
6. At this point the wort is getting hot and almost ready to boil.
I like this technique because you don't need any grain bags and 100% of the
grains are removed without having to go fishing for them in your main
brewpot.
--- Andy Ross ---
------------------------------
Date: 31 Jul 89 09:08:14 PDT (Mon)
From: bryan@tekgen.bv.tek.com
Subject: McMeniman's beer
There is a brewing setup in back of the Cornelius Pass ( The Roadhouse )
McMeniman's Pub. I hadn't started brewing when I toured it, but I remember
seeing a huge lauter tun, which would indicate that they do grain brewing
there. Also, one day I was at the local homebrew store when they placed an
order for 500 pounds of grain.
Bryan Olson
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 89 15:14 CDT
From: "Watching a year-old for 2 hrs == field heralding for 8."
Subject: RE: Homebrew Digest #214 (July 29, 1989)
Florian Bell writes:
>Recently, I tried to bring back a 1-liter bottle of scotch from
>England. When I got to Portland, I was really hassled about it. They
>even made me open the bottle and let them smell it! On the other hand,
>when I took a half case of beer back to a friend in Oklahoma, the
>security wanted to know what was in the carry on. I said, "A whole
>bunch of beer." They let me through without hassle.
Well, that tells you where Oklahomans priorities lie. The four most
important things in Oklahoma are
1) Football
2) Oil
3) Beer
4) Football
Disclaimer: I live in Oklahoma. :-)'s implied.
Gary Benson, writes:
>about 1 week at 40 degrees, then bottled. Now, after 1 month in the bottle,
>there is a distinct sour component to the taste. Any ideas why? It was an
I'd say that the beer is sour for the same reason sour dough bread is: wild
yeasts. I don't know how they would have got in, not being knowledgable about
lagering. Were you using open fermentation?
>the 65 - 70 degree period I somehow got an infection? This is not a "cidery"
>taste, just sour.
---
Patrick T. Garvin
in the Society: Padraig Cosfhota o Ulad / Barony of Namron, Ansteorra
ptgarvin@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu / ptgarvin@uokmax.UUCP
Disclaimer: This message has no disclaimer.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 89 14:11:22 PDT
From: Martin A. Lodahl <pbmoss!mal@hplabs.HP.COM>
Subject: Icy Wort!
In my last batch (Kolsch, by the way; I'm dying to see how it turns
out!) I experimented with a new (to me) way to chill the wort, that
I'll share, for what it's worth. I don't yet have a big enough
kettle to boil the whole wort volume, and I haven't yet made an
immersion chiller, so I've experimented with other chilling
methods that were never wholly successful. This time, I made
a quantity of ice cubes out of brewing water, observing the
usual sanitation precautions. After the boil, I put the kettle in a
cold water bath, and brought the volume up to the required 5 gallons
with these ice cubes! It brought the wort temperature down into the
40's in minutes, and gave me the best cold break I've ever had!
When I siphoned the wort into the carboy I use for a primary, it
actually made the glass cold to the touch. This was the first time
I've been able to chill the wort below room temperature, and by far
the fastest chill.
Now, the question: assuming my sanitation precautions are adequate,
are there other dangers/disadvantages to this method? If not, I
intend to use it until I can afford a big kettle ...
= Martin A. Lodahl Pac*Bell Minicomputer Operations Support Staff =
= {att,bellcore,sun,ames}!pacbell!pbmoss!mal 916/972-4821 =
= If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, =
= Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me! 8-) =
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 89 17:29:15 PDT
From: Dave Sheehy <dbs@hprnd>
Subject: Miller's Book and Red Star
Full-Name: Dave Sheehy
I got Miller's book a couple of weeks ago and am about 1/2 way through it.
It does fill in a lot of the detail that Papazian leaves out but in Charlie's
defense I don't think any of it is crucial to the beginning brewer to whom
the book is targetted (the operative word here is crucial). I'm still glad I
started out with Charlie though. I am thoroughly enjoying Miller's book, it
does take off where Papazian left off. My thanks to the net for the excellent
recomendation! Miller mentions that he uses 6-row malt alot in his recipes
and maintains that it is more readily available than 2-row. My local brewshop
says that it is very difficult to find 6-row anymore so they usually only
have 2-row in stock. Is this true in everyone else's experience out in
netland? I've substituted 2-row in recipes that called for 6-row and haven't
had a problem converting the extra starch adjuncts yet. Coincidentally,
Miller has a brief section on sweetness in his troubleshooting chapter
(Finding Fault). There he says that lack of sweetness can be caused by an
incomplete fermentation by an attenuative yeast. The lack of sweetness in
this case is due to the lower alcohol content, his premise being that the
sweetness in this case is attributed to the alcohol. This all seems kinda
weird to me. One would think that with more malt sugars being left over the
overall result would be more sweet not less. I'm going to have to think about
that for awhile. He also mentioned sweetness being a funtion of the chloride
ion concentration which jives with a comment from a poster answering an
earlier question of mine regarding beer sweetness.
Florian, I'm beginning to have some ideas about your success using Red Star
Ale yeast. Miller's book has a summary of some of the yeasts he has tried
and under Red Star Ale he notes that it produces alot of banana ester and
in some cases produces a fusel alcohol with a clove like flavor. In my case
when I brew with Red Star the beer always has a bite to it which I don't
like. Being in Sacramento and not having a form of temperature control my
fermenation temperature tends to range in the high 70's. I would suspect that
your fermentation temperature would be somewhat lower than mine since you're
up in Oregon. Yeasts will tend to produce more byproducts at higher
temperatures so I further suspect that you are probably not getting the
clove flavored fusel alcohol in your beers (if you did you'd know it and I'd
wager that you wouldn't like it!). You must be getting the banana ester
though since you mentioned you specifically like the fruity flavor Red Star
imparts to your beer. To add some evidence to my theory I brewed a batch of
generic barley wine, 10 lbs of bulk Scottish Light liquid extract, 4 oz of
Fuggles for the boil, and good ole Red Star Ale yeast. It fermented during a
particularly hot spell in the weather (I keep the air conditioning turned
down in the summer, I don't like getting energy bills in the multi-hundred
dollar range!). It sat for 4 weeks in the secondary bubbling away until it
finally stopped and I bottled. Boy, talk about fruity(!), and there's that
good ole Red Star bite stronger than ever. Methinks I might have a correlation
here. Perhaps if one is careful to use Red Star at the lower temperature
range you won't get the objectionable flavors that others like myself really
dislike. Miller states in his book that one of the desirable attributes of
some ale yeasts is in the fruity esters they produce particularly in porters
and stouts. I'll buy into this because other than the bite it imparts I
really like the way my Tumultuous Porter (Papazian) turned out using Red Star.
For my purposes though I think I'll try and find an ale yeast that doesn't
tend to be ... shall we say ... obnoxious.
Which leads me into my next topic. I have my latest brew in the secondary
as we speak. I'm trying Papazian's Amaezing Ale all grain recipe and am
using Wyeast British Ale liquid yeast. I used T. Andrews method of starting
the yeast (by using a pint of wort from the beginning of the boil) and that
seemed to work pretty well (thanks again) although I could have done better.
It seems I didn't read the directions on the yeast package that tell you to
break the inner seal and let the yeast get its initial start in the package
but it all worked out, the yeast got going well enough after 24 hours to
pitch it. I don't have a wort chiller but I tried setting the primary in the
bathtub filled with cold water (68 F). I know I shouldn't change so many
variables at once but my adventurousness got the better of me :-). I put
some towels over the fermenter but I couldn't find my fan to blow air over
it so I'll try that next time. We'll see how it turns out.
Dave Sheehy
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #217, 08/01/89
