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HOMEBREW Digest #0329
HOMEBREW Digest #329 Fri 22 December 1989
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Oatmeal mash (Donald P Perley)
re: Glass carboy blow up ("2645 RUTH, GUY R.")
Stainless Steel Pots (Rick Ward)
Stainless Steel Kettles (John Polstra)
re: need substitue for nonexistant malt (Dan Hall 21-Dec-1989 1545)
Cider (ROSS)
Yeast Starters (Norm Hardy)
Kettles and store names (re: Digest #327) (Steve Harris)
Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
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Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 08:58:24 EST
From: perley@glacier.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley)
Subject: Oatmeal mash
>I'd really love to do an Oatmeal Stout, a la Sam Smith's. I tried once and
>failed miserably. I'm currently using extract + specialty grains, and tried
>to do a mini-mash on the Oatmeal. Loser!
>
>Anyone have any recipes? Is this possible for an extractor?
You weren't mashing the oatmeal by itself, were you? You need the diastase
enzyme from malt to convert the starch to fermentable sugar. The easiest
way without going full mash would be to mash it with Edme DMS (diastatic
malt extract). Regular malt extract doesn't have what you need.
-don perley
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Date: 21 Dec 89 08:58:00 MDT
From: "2645 RUTH, GUY R." <grruth@sandia.gov>
Subject: re: Glass carboy blow up
Chris Shenton writes:
> With this kind of pressure, I'd worry about glass shrapnel from a carboy
> primary. Any thoughts? Ideas why heavy brews blow up? Thanks.
I used a glass carboy with a blow off tube connected to an airlock ONCE.
Unfortunately, the tube got clogged so the pressure built up enough to blow the
airlock out completely. In the process my wife and I got to scrape gunk off
the ceiling for about an hour.
Unless you clamp the stopper, or whatever you're using, down so tight that it
won't budge, I wouldn't worry about the carboy exploding
>> Guy <<
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Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 13:42:54 EST
From: eplrx7!ward@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Ward)
Subject: Stainless Steel Pots
I got my 5 gallon stainless steel pot at Strawbridge and Clothiers(a snooty
department store) for $25. It is made by Metro and is light stainless steel.
The only problem with it is that the bolts holding on the handles are made
of aluminum which will corrode if left wet. I think the store the gentleman
referred to a couple of digests ago is call Lechters(a kitchen supply chain).
I believe Lechters also sells Metro stainless steel stuff. BTW, thanks for
the tip on getting carboys from water supply companies for the deposit fee.
Because of that savings, I was able to justify a couple more carboys and
now have three batches of beer going. One question: does anyone know where
I could find Grolsch bottles fairly cheaply? I don't like drinking the
stuff and none of the bars in my area serve enough of it to keep me supplied.
Rick
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Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 11:39:27 PST
From: polstra!jdp@hplabs.HP.COM (John Polstra)
Subject: Stainless Steel Kettles
With all the discussion about where to find reasonably-priced stainless
steel kettles, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Rapids yet. The
following is taken from page 134 of their 1989 catalog:
STAINLESS STEEL STOCK POTS
Ideal for all types of cooking and storage. Heavy guage stainless
steel. Flat covers permit stacking.
Quarts Pot Lid
------ --- ---
20 $59.00 $14.75
24 $60.00 $18.00
40 $80.00 $21.25
To contact them:
Rapids, Inc.
1011 2nd Ave. SW
P.O. Box 396
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406
(800) 553-7906 (You can phone and they'll mail you a catalog.)
I've never seen these pots and so I cannot comment on their quality.
One other thing: If you think you'll ever be making all-grain brews,
a 5- or 6-gallon kettle is not really going to be large enough. You
ought to go ahead and spring for one that's plenty big. The incremental
cost isn't that much. My kettle is 40-quart (10 gallon), and it is not
too big in any sense. I.e., I am still fully capable of getting it to
boil over all too often :-(. Remember, for a 5-gallon batch of beer you
are going to be starting the boil with 6.5 to 7 gallons of wort.
- John Polstra jdp@polstra.UUCP
Polstra & Co., Inc. ...{uunet,sun}!practic!polstra!jdp
Seattle, WA (206) 932-6482
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Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 12:46:33 -0800
From: hall@state.enet.dec.com (Dan Hall 21-Dec-1989 1545)
Subject: re: need substitue for nonexistant malt
In HOMEBREW Digest #327, Robert Nielsen asks:
>Date: Mon, 18 Dec 89 14:59 PST
>From: JEEPSRUS <ROBERTN%FM1@sc.intel.com>
>Subject: need substitue for nonexistant malt
>My first problem is that he used Pabst Blue Ribbon malt. It is my
>understanding that that malt has not been available for the last
>ten years or so. Is this true? If Pabst is not available, does
>anyone know of a malt which is similar? I realize it is difficult
According to my brewing supplier (Nancy Callahan at Jasper's Home Brew Supply,
Litchfield, NH), Blue Ribbon Malt is now known as Premier Malt. She says that
it is sold mostly to old men these days. She doesn't seem to care for its
flavor. She gets $6.60/2.2 lb can for it, but I've seen it in large
supermarkets for as low as $4.55. It is usually located among the molasses
and baking supplies.
-Dan
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
| Dan Hall | Email: hall@state.enet.dec.com |
| Digital Equipment Corp. | -or- hall%state.dec@decwrl.dec.com |
| Merrimack, NH | -or- ...!decwrl!state.dec.com!hall |
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
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Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 16:20 EST
From: ROSS@mscf.med.upenn.edu
Subject: Cider
Date sent: 21-DEC-1989 16:07:56
I have some experience making cider and one of these actually won 1st place
in last years Mid Atlantic Regional Homebrew Competition.
Things to think about. Just like brewing good beer, it helps to have a
good reference book to start with. You should have something like "The
Complete Joy of Homebrewing" equivalent in the cider world. So after
ordering a good book on making cider, I made my first batch.
The book made a big deal about selecting the right apples and pressing them,
but as an extract homebrewer, this didn't appeal to me. So for my first
batch I ordered a can of apple concentrate from a winemaking store. The
final result was excellent. If I remember correctly, there are a number
of things that differ from beer making due to the chemical differences
between a beer wort and apple cider.
-Whatever cider you start with, it should be free of preservatives, otherwise
nothing will ferment.
-It is HIGHLY recommended to use add some good yeast rather than depending
on nature to supply it.
-Before adding the yeast, sulfite the juice to kill off unwanted bacteria.
-I've tasted plenty of cider that has "naturally fermented" and it tastes
awful, usually like vinegar. Actually there is a path of fermentation used
to make apple vinegar. This is not desirable if your goal is to make a
hard cider.
-Cider doesn't have the greatest nutrients to support yeast. Therefore I
think it is recommended to add some yeast nutrients. Also, a number of
other additives are called for, usually some acids to adjust the pH to
something that the yeast prefer.
-Also, cider does not have as much sugar as you would imagine. Large
amounts of honey were added to start at a decent gravity.
Final result: Excellent, and quite strong, gets better with age.
Excellent cold and also a knockout (literally) when served as a warm
mulled cider with the addition of spices and rum.
-Read a good book and it should have all of this info and more.
As a second batch I used some Red Cheek apple juice instead of the
winemakers concentrate. Not nearly as good. It almost tasted like
Berliner Weisse and I wound up drinking it with raspberry syrup.
Note: in the second batch, I didn't add any honey.
Good luck!
--- Andy Ross ---
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Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 19:35:16 PST
From: polstra!norm@hplabs.HP.COM (Norm Hardy)
Subject: Yeast Starters
Concerning the making of a yeast starter, I was forced to learn how last year
when one of my ales, an IPA, went quite bad due to a VERY slow starting yeast.
I didn't realize how bad it was until the fellow brewers bestowed a -2 score
(out of 0-35 pts) in the club IPA judging. I was shamed into improving....
So, here is what I do. After getting the Wyeast package to be all puffy and
seemingly ready to explode, I boil 1.5 cups of extract powder with maybe .1 oz
of hop cones for 30 minutes. Oh, I start with 64 oz of water, which eventually
boils to 25-32 oz. After 30 minutes the hops are strained out, and the wort is
boiled for 10 more minutes. Then the wort is cooled (Lid on) in the sink with
a water bath until the temperature gets to somewhere under 80f. The wort is
carefully poured into a large sterile bottle and the yeast package contents
are poured in. An airlock completes the task.
After 1-3 days (at 65-70f) the starter is ready to pitch. It seems best to
pitch when the starter is at it's peak fermenting rage. But actually, I have
refrigerated the starters after they have just about fermented out and later
used them on beers I made 2-3 weeks later. Seems okay.
Now, once you have the starter going and working in your carboy, why don't you
plan to collect the yeast off the bottom when racking? It sure makes a good
starter for the next batch.
Norm in Seattle
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Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 11:03:31 EST
From: etnibsd!vsh@uunet.UU.NET (Steve Harris)
Subject: Kettles and store names (re: Digest #327)
olson@antares.cs.Virginia.EDU writes:
>Lance "He Doesn't Exist" Smith writes:
>
>>have been looking to move up to stainless. A store in the local mall (one
>>of the dales for you Prairie Home Companion fans) has 5-gal stainless
>>kettles on sale for about $35. It's fairly lightweight stainless, but
>>it follows the standard cylinder with flat top design. I think the
>>store is called "Letchers" or some such thing in case they're a chain.
>>So is that a good deal?
>
>That's LechMERE, boy, LechMERE. You wanna get yersef sued? :-)
>
Sorry, Letchers (sp?), probably is correct. Here in the Boston area,
there are two chains:
Lechmere (pronounced LEECH-meer), normally a mall "anchor",
carries major appliances, TVs, stereos, kitchen stuff, etc.; I
doubt you could find a 5-gallon stainless kettle for $35 at
Lechmere.
Letchers(sp?), a small, kitchen gadgets store often found in
2nd tier malls (with Sears, e.g., as anchor), with lots of
Fairgrove (i.e., cheap) gadgets.
If you shop carefully, you can get decent stuff at Letchers, but much
of it is trash (IMHO). Lechmere is a high-quality operation, but with
competitive prices.
I bought a Revere-ware 3.5 gallon stockpot for ~$50 (as I recall), on
sale at Lechmere 6 months ago. You probably can do as well with all
the Xmas sales (and post-Xmas sales). As for the "lightweight"
5-gallon stainless at Letchers, well, "you pays your money, you takes
your chances!"
Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew digest!
Steve Harris - Eaton Corp. - Beverly, MA - uunet!etnibsd!vsh
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #329, 12/22/89
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