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HOMEBREW Digest #0324
HOMEBREW Digest #324 Fri 15 December 1989
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Fermenting apple cider? (Paul Bigelow)
S.G. and other novice questions (Paul Bigelow)
Re: a caveat for spiced hard cider (dw)
Re: Homebrew Digest #323 (December 14, 1989) (CCL-F) <ggibson@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
Re: Subject: Stainless Steel ? (kipps)
First Batch! (Rick Myers)
Barley (I wanna get into all-grain, et al) (Chris Shenton)
Stainless pots ("2645 RUTH, GUY R.")
HBD 315 ("2645 RUTH, GUY R.")
Winter ale recipe (florianb)
Samuel Adams Brewpub / Wynkoop Brewpub (Rick Ward)
Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 8:55:23 EST
From: Paul Bigelow <bigelow@hppad>
Subject: Fermenting apple cider?
Full-Name: Paul Bigelow
Chris Shenton writes:
> I have good luck just letting it hang out in the fridge for a couple weeks.
...
> The natural beasties in the cider I get do the work -- I get it from a
Back in my school days, after a trip to the farmers market, we would
just leave our jugs in the basement with the caps on loosely.
About 1 in 5 would turn to cider vinegar. I imagine adding some
champagne yeast would be a safer bet. The new plastic bottles sound
better. Keeping the cap on would provide better carbonation,
and you wouldn't have to worry about glass shrapnel.
Guy Ruth writes:
> I tried the hard cider after 6 months and wasn't terribly impressed.
Using the low-tech "hang-out" method I always found the cider tasted
best after one or two weeks. It has just a little kick, some carbonation,
and still a lot of natural sugar. After all the natural sugar is fermented
out, you might as well be drinking a good wine instead.
Paul Bigelow bigelow@hppad.hp.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 9:05:43 EST
From: Paul Bigelow <bigelow@hppad>
Subject: S.G. and other novice questions
Full-Name: Paul Bigelow
Bryan Hilterbrand writes:
> Papazian showed the starting S.G. for this style to be 1.070 to 1.090,
> but the S.G. of my brew came out to about 1.043.
I had exactly this problem last weekend while brewing "Super Stout"
from the Reese book "Better Beer and How to Brew It".
Starting S.G. should have been above 1.050, but it was 1.027, below
the expected finishing point of 1.030.
The problem was fixed quite simply with a spoon and a quick stir.
Turns out the sparge water was sitting on top of the wort in the
carboy and it just needed a little encouragement to mix in.
Paul Bigelow bigelow@hppad.hp.com
------------------------------
Date: 14 Dec 89 09:13:31 EST (Thursday)
From: dw <Wegeng.Henr@Xerox.COM>
Subject: Re: a caveat for spiced hard cider
>I can only
>surmise that something in the spices has inhibited yeast growth
>leaving me with three gallons of sickly sweet spiced cider.
I've never tried to make spiced cider, though as I have reported in past
issues of this digest I have sucessfully made hard cider and cyser (cider
fortified with honey before fermentation). My advice is to insure that the
cider you were using did not contain preservatives. Also make sure that
the pH of the cider/sugar/spice solution is within the range of the yeast
that you are using (champagne yeast likes the pH to be the same as grape
juice - I forget the exact figure). Lack of nutrients, and fermentation
temperature, may also be factors.
If you want to experiment, try waiting until fermentation is well under way
before you add the spices.
/Don
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 9:26:56 EST
From: Gregg Gibson (CCL-F) <ggibson@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #323 (December 14, 1989)
I would like to know if anyone knows of any good supply stores
in the Northern New Jersey/New York area. I have been looking for awhile
and have come up empty. Thanks!
Gregg Gibson
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 07:34:28 -0800
From: kipps@etoile.ICS.UCI.EDU
Subject: Re: Subject: Stainless Steel ?
While on vacation this summer my wife and I passed through Williamsburg,
Virginia. We were surprised to find that besides being full of colonial
whatnot, Williamsburg is home to some zillion or so factory outlits, one
of which sells Revere Ware. This shop had stainless steel 5 Gallon
copper-bottom pots (with lids) for about $58. Even if UPS charges $15
for shipping that's still the best price I know; perhaps you can even find
a Revere outlit closer to home.
-Jim Kipps
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 8:38:30 MST
From: Rick Myers <hpctdpe!rcm>
Subject: First Batch!
Full-Name: Rick Myers
Hello all - here's my first submission!
Last week I brewed my first batch, an amber lager using hopped malt
extract (John Bull). I wanted to keep everything simple the first
run so I could get familiar with the entire process. Last night
(Wednesday) I bottled. I bought a 'starter kit' from the local homebrew
shop here in Colorado Springs (Stoppel and Associates). Their recipe
used 1 1/4 cups of priming sugar. I have a book by Byron Burch of
Great Fermentations in Santa Rosa, CA and it states to never use more
than 3/4 cup of priming sugar - comments? Also, I live east of town
(out on the prairie) and I have very hard, alkaline, well water. The
water in Colorado Springs is quite soft, so my starter kit came with
'water salts' which is mostly gypsum according to the label. Is anyone
in a similar situation? Should I not use the gypsum if I use my well
water? I used well water this first batch, I think I will use city
water for my planned second batch (a light pilsner).
- --
======================================>*<====================================
Rick Myers
Hewlett-Packard
Colorado Telecommunications Division
5070 Centennial Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80919
(719) 531-4416
rcm@hpctdpe.HP.COM
======================================>*<====================================
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 11:10:20 est
From: Chris Shenton <chris@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Barley (I wanna get into all-grain, et al)
My local homebrew supply store closed down recently, and I'm looking for a
good mailorder place. Sent out 50 requests for catalogs, and have gotten
about 30 replies. A couple of good-looking places, and one odd one --
Stew's Brew. Anyone know about it? All he sells is malted barley, only one
kind, and doesn't say what it is, except that it's grown in the American
``Beer Belt''. The price, however, is a whopping $0.55/lb. I'm tempted to
try it for my first go at all-grain, as his flier had boat-loads of helpful
time- and money-saving tips (he seems to know what he's doing).
Odd question -- flames and jeers appreciated: a co-worker says his family
produces malting (`ing', not `ed') barley, and it sells for $3 a bushel
(about 48 Lbs). At that price, I'd be interested to know how much of a pain
malting my own would be... Any thoughts?
I'm also looking for free advice -- do's and don't's -- appropriate for a
first-time all-grainer. Are the electric mash tun's all their cracked up to
be? will someone explain why they justify spending $100 plus expenses to
install a 240V circuit? (I assume a 120V would have too few BTUs). How do I
avoid the expense of a grain mill? any plans on building one?
Andy Wilcox <andy@mosquito.cis.ufl.edu> writes about Stainless Steel:
> 5 Gallon pots (if this is what I need) are quite expensive ...
Yeah, and I hear that you need at least an 8 gallon pot for
all-graining. Any suggestions? Are the enameled canning pots tolerable?
or highly inferior?
P.S.: Anyone ever grown their own hops? How?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Internet: chris@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.10.155) NASA/GSFC: Code 735
UUCP: ...!uunet!asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov!chris Greenbelt, MD 20771
SPAN: PITCH::CHRIS (DECNET) 301-286-6093
------------------------------
Date: 14 Dec 89 10:58:00 MDT
From: "2645 RUTH, GUY R." <grruth@sandia.gov>
Subject: Stainless pots
Andy Wilcox was wondering about stainless steel boiling vessel:
If you can settle for ceramic on steel, I found a place in Indiana that sells a
33 qt pot for $29. The address is
General Housewares Corp
PO Box 4066
Terre Haute, IN 47804 ph: (812) 232-1000
part #: 6209
------------------------------
Date: 14 Dec 89 14:48:00 MDT
From: "2645 RUTH, GUY R." <grruth@sandia.gov>
Subject: HBD 315
Considering the number of requests I'm getting from people who didn't receive
HBD 315 would you consider retransmitting it again?
Guy
------------------------------
Date: 14 Dec 89 05:16:23 PST (Thu)
From: florianb@tekred.cna.tek.com
Subject: Winter ale recipe
I received several requests for my holiday ale recipe, so it is
posted below. It is a brown ale, not too bitter, very aromatic,
not too strong.
Ing's: 5# light domestic dry extract
3# 2-row
1/2# 40 L crystal
2 oz roast barley
4 oz wheat malt
2 oz dextrine malt
2 oz cascade 5.2
1/2 oz tettnanger 4.9
1/2 oz perle 7.2
1/2 oz kent goldings 5.2
1 tsp Irish moss
wyeast Irish liquid yeast
I used Papazain's method of partial mashing, except used 2 gal of sparge
water. I obtained 18 pints of sparge and added two pints of water to
the boil, along with the dry extract (incidentally, I mashed all the
grains together.) I boiled for 60 minutes. The hop schedule was
1 oz cascade, 1/4 oz perle, and 1/4 oz tettnanger at 40 minutes.
1/2 oz cascade, 1/4 oz perle and 1/4 oz tettnanger at 30 minutes.
1/2 oz cascade, 1/2 oz kent goldings in a hop bag at 3 minutes, and
transferred the hop bag to the primary which remained during the
primary fermentation.
OG=1.060, FG=1.012. 3 days in primary, 9 days in secondary.
Twelve days in the bottle was sufficient. I much prefer it over the
Widmer Festbier, after which it was patterned. It's also a lot cheaper.
I call this one "Boonesburger Winterale."
Florian Bell, Boonesborough, Oregon.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 16:47:03 EST
From: eplrx7!slug!ward@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Ward)
Subject: Samuel Adams Brewpub / Wynkoop Brewpub
Two weekends ago, I embarked on a beer weekend. Friday night I went into
Philadelphia and found the newly opened Samuel Adams Brewpub. To be honest,
I was less than impressed. The location is too small, and the beer is
nondistinct. They serve a gold, amber and porter, all of which taste
remarkably similar. The gold was amber and tasted a lot like Samuel Adams
Lager. The amber was a darker shade of amber and tasted much like the
gold with a bit more body. The porter was black(of course) and tasted like
the amber with some toasted barley added. There really wasn't much
variation. Another factor that contributed to my distress was that the
place was literally overflowing with lawyers and other yuppie scum.
The next morning I flew to Denver for the express purpose of trying some
of the beers that I have been reading about on the net. My first stop was
the Coors brewery where I took their tour and sampled their various
offerings. The tour was pretty neat although I kept wondering why the
brewery couldn't turn out a better product considering all the great
equipment they had. The best part of the tour(for me) was the section
where they malted barley. Coors claims that they are the only major
brewery in the US to malt their own barley. One item of note was that
Coors just dropped their Herman Josef "premium beer" line because they
claim that the bottom has fallen out of the premium beer market! If this
is true, a lot of microbreweries could be in trouble.
My next stop was at a liquor store where I bought six packs of Pete's
Wicked Ale, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Telluride and both Aass products.
Thanks for the reccomendations! I especially like Pete's and SNPA.
That night I went to the Wynkoop brewery which has been open for a little
over a year. What a difference one night made! The brewpub is built in
a huge warehouse and offered seven completely distinct brews. The "Brew
Czar" is Russell Schehrer, the winner of the Homebrewer of the Year award
in 1985. My favorite brews were the E.S.B., the Barleywine and the
Chili Beer! The chili beer tasted like a lager with an aftertaste that
was distinctly jalapeno(although not overpowering). The E.S.B. was a
delicious ale and the Barleywine was heaven. BTW, I'm accepting all
recipes for Barleywines :).
On Sunday I went to Old Chicago and sampled the holiday brews from
Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada and the Boulder brewery. All three were great
and nicely spiced. My favorite was the Boulder Christmas Stout.
Sorry about the length, folks. Cheers!
Rick
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #324, 12/15/89
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