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HOMEBREW Digest #0368
This file received at Mthvax.CS.Miami.EDU 90/03/01 03:23:18
HOMEBREW Digest #368 Thu 01 March 1990
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
immersion-type wort chiller (concern) (tony g)
Recipes of a different nature (Mark.Leone)
carbonation (Max Newman x6689)
mild ale malt (Pete Soper)
Homebrew Digest #365 (February 26, 1990) (Wayne Allen)
plastic keg problems (Mike Charlton)
boil over preventer (mage!lou)
RE: soft drink-like carbonation... (Dick Schoeller - ZKO2-3/R56 - DTN 381-2965 28-Feb-1990 1615)
re: Volume vs. weight measurement (Chris Shenton)
Recipe log sheet -- LaTeX format (Chris Shenton)
First Time Mead Brewers (Mike Zentner)
Sierra Nevada yeast culturing (Dave Suurballe)
Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmr@hplabs.hp.com
Archives available from netlib@mthvax.cs.miami.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 8:42:02 EST
From: tony g <giannone@BBN.COM>
Subject: immersion-type wort chiller (concern)
I was thumbing through my Zymurgy "Yeast & Beer" (1989 special issue) last
night when I came upon an interesting statement in Paul Farnsworth's
"Healthy Homebrew Starter Cultures" article. On page 11 Mr. Farnsworth says
"Cooling the wort before transferring it to the fermenter, using ice
immersion or a copper cooling coil placed inside the boiling pot vastly
increases the chance of contamination."
I thought that using an immersion-type wort chiller would vastly 'decrease'
the chance of contamination since it allows the yeast to be added sooner.
Is Mr. Farnsworth assuming that the wort chiller is being place in the
wort 'after the boil' instead of 'during the last 10-15 minutes'?
Is the immersion-type wort chiller 'really' that much better for homebrew?
regards,
tony g (giannone@bbn.com)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 08:55:35 EST
From: Mark.Leone@F.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: Recipes of a different nature
Anyone have any good *food* recipes using beer as an ingredient? I've
had good beer-batter fried chicken, and now my curiosity is piqued!
Cheers!
- --
Mark R. Leone <mleone@cs.cmu.edu> "Don't just do something,
Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University sit there!"
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 06:58:42 PST
From: maxn@intermec.com (Max Newman x6689)
Subject: carbonation
I bottled my first batch of homebrew last week. After one week
my patience wore out, so I tried one bottle. The beer tasted
fine but had little carbonation. All I could see were very tiny
bubbles, and it produced no head.
I used 1/2 cup priming sugar from dave millers bitter recipe.
So the big question, will I get more carbonation after the
suggested one month of waiting, or should I use more priming
sugar in subsequent batches?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 11:20:56 EST
From: Pete Soper <soper@maxzilla.encore.com>
Subject: mild ale malt
I recently got some Munton and Fison mild ale malt but could get
no color information. If any of you know the approximate lovibond
or EBC rating of this grain I'd greatly appreciate it if you could
let me know via email. If you've had experience with this grain and
could even say something like "It is a bit lighter than light Munich",
or "Twice as dark as British pale malt" that would be very helpful.
Thanks.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pete Soper The George Fix book is finally out! +1 919 481 3730
soper@encore.com
Encore Computer Corp, 901 Kildaire Farm Rd, bldg D, Cary, NC 27511 USA
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 10:26:00 CST
From: wa%cadillac.cad.mcc.com@MCC.COM (Wayne Allen)
Subject: Homebrew Digest #365 (February 26, 1990)
In #365 Louis Clark writes:
>I have always used a glass (pyrex?) or stainless "boil over preventer" ...
Louis, what is this you refer to? Where do you get it?
Inquiring minds, etc.
wa
------------------------------
Date: 28 Feb 90 11:41 -0600
From: Mike Charlton <umcharl3@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Subject: plastic keg problems
In digest #367, Jeff Casey talks about problems he's had with things breaking
on his plastic keg and problems with overcarbonation. Luckily, I haven't
had anything break on my keg, but I too have had problems with beer coming
out all foam. I don't know about Jeff's problem, but it turns out that
with me the excessive foaminess was not a product of overcarbonation. It
was a problem of the spigot being too short. Sticking a 2 inch length of
flexible tubing on the end of the spigot solved the problem by introducing
a bit of back pressure. However, I now have a new problem. Even though
I can draw a pint of beer in little under a second (Well, I have to only half
open the spigot so that it doesn't shoot off the bottom of the mug and go
all over me...) The beer is not carbonated enough (at least for my taste).
It's not a big problem (and to tell the truth, I've only tried the keg once
so far) but I'm curious how something with such an obvious amount of pressure
could be undercarbonated.
Mike
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 13:46:28 MST
From: hplabs!mage!lou
Subject: boil over preventer
In digest #367 a.e.mossburg writes:
#>I have always used a glass (pyrex?) or stainless "boil over preventer" after I
#>spent two days cleaning my first batch out of the stove. While this is quite
#>effective at preventing boil over, I wonder what effect it might be having
#>on my hot break. I'm not real sure what to expect from a hot break so I can't
#>tell if it's making any difference. Any suggestions out there?
#What is a "boil over preventer"?
You may know of this by some other name such as "pot watcher".
A boil over preventer is a device available in the housewares section of a
supermarket and in some hardware stores for about $2. It has a disc-like shape
and is roughly 3 inches in diameter. My glass one was thick around the rim and
thinner in the middle, somewhat like the shape of a red blood cell. I managed
to crack this one from thermal shock and replaced it with one made from
stainless steel. It resembles the lid of a tin can except the indentations are
more pronounced and the rim is curved down somewhat (although it clearly is not
symmetric I just toss it in without regard to which side is up and it works
fine). Both of them have channels to permit gasses to escape from underneath
them.
To use the device, just put it in a pot to be boiled and forget it. It *will*
eliminate boil over problems.
Louis Clark
mage!lou@ncar.ucar.EDU
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 13:16:36 PST
From: Dick Schoeller - ZKO2-3/R56 - DTN 381-2965 28-Feb-1990 1615 <schoeller@4gl.enet.dec.com>
Subject: RE: soft drink-like carbonation...
>or...) The beer isn't flat, though, as you can see and feel the bubbles
>when you drink, it's just that there's no head. What could be a cure
>for this? Thanks a lot in advance.
Try adding some crystal malt or cara-pils to your recipes. These contribute
dextrins which aid head retention and add to the body of the beer.
Dick Schoeller | schoeller@4gl.enet.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation | 603-881-2965
110 Spit Brook Rd., ZKO2-3/R56 | "Either Judaism has something to say to the
Nashua, NH 03062-2642 | world or it has nothing to say to Jews."
| - Dennis Prager
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 17:16:11 est
From: Chris Shenton <chris@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: re: Volume vs. weight measurement
(Mark Stevens) writes:
> Dick is absolutely right that you can't measure whole hops (or even
> pellets) by the cup.
I got one of those cheesey little drug-scales, the kind they sell at head
shops (er, excuse me: smoking paraphernalia emporiums) for $7.00. It's not
too much of a pain to clip on a baggie (er, zip-loc sandwich bag), fill
with hops, and subtract the weight of aforementioned baggie. I'd hate to
have to guess weights that small. Price seems fair for what it does.
Ultimately, I'd get one of the $40 - $60 Sohnle (or whatever) scales which
read up to about 8 Lb, in 1/2 ounce increments, but it's too expensive now.
For pound increments, I'd be measuring grain, anyway, and volume measures
seem tolerable for that.
Cheers!
PS:
I use the AAU measures for my records, in order to account for
alpha acid content of the particular hops. As soon as I can figure out the
other, more professional system (IBU's?) I'll probably switch over; the
advantage there is that the measure of bitterness is *not* dependant on the
amount of beer you make.
_______________________________________________________________________________
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 301-286-6093
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 17:16:26 est
From: Chris Shenton <chris@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Recipe log sheet -- LaTeX format
I've been hacking a recipe log sheet so I can keep all my info consistent,
organized, and compact. It fits on one page, so there's room on the back
for plenty of comments.
There's plenty of room for all kinds of things, I think. I designed it to
be very quick to fill in, with as many check-the-appropriate-box-isms as I
could.
I haven't done all-grain yet, so the format for that data may be a bit off.
Also, I'm still tweaking it, so send me any feedback you have; I'd like to
hear your comments.
Also, if you don't have LaTeX, I can send you a Postscript formatted
version.
- -------------------- Cut here --------------------
%%% brew-sheet.tex
%%%
%%% 1990 Jan 24 Wed 16:19 Chris Shenton (chris@asylum.GSFC.NASA.GOV)
%%% Moved amount columns to beginning of tables.
%%% Created batch name header.
%%% Added `dry' box to extracts.
%%%
%%% 1990 Jan 25 Thu 16:15 Chris Shenton (chris@asylum.GSFC.NASA.GOV)
%%% Deleted grain names from Malts, Grains, and Adjuncts -- too much space.
%%% Added Acid rest to Procedure.
%%%
%%% 1990 Feb 28 Wed 15:23 Chris Shenton (chris@asylum.GSFC.NASA.GOV)
%%% Tweaked number of lines in some of the entry sections.
%%% Instead of including `macros', define the commands here; this way,
%%% remote users can use the file.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\documentstyle[twocolumn,twoside]{article}
\pagestyle{myheadings}
%%%
%%% Commands
%%%
\newcommand{\degree}{$^{\circ}$}
\newcommand{\degrees}[2]{#1\degree #2}
\newcommand{\setnewlength}[2]{\newlength{#1}\setlength{#1}{#2}}
%%%
%%% Page size and style
%%%
\setlength{\footheight}{0in}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-0.25in} % ?? also evensidemargin ??
\setlength{\textwidth}{7.5in}
\setlength{\textheight}{10.0in}
\setlength{\topmargin}{-0.5in}
\setlength{\parindent}{0in}
\markright{Batch name:}
\raggedbottom
\renewcommand{\thepage}{} % Prevent page numbers
%%%
%%% Various widths for lines, blanks, and so on
%%%
\setnewlength{\underblank}{-0.02in}
\setnewlength{\blankwidth}{0.25in}
\setnewlength{\thinline}{0.005in}
\setnewlength{\onecolumnwidth}{0.5\textwidth}
\addtolength{\onecolumnwidth}{-\columnsep}
%%%
%%% Command macros for the various sections and section entries.
%%%
\newcommand{\mysec}[1]{\section*{#1}}
\newcommand{\ledgerline}{\rule{\onecolumnwidth}{\thinline}\\}
\newcommand{\extract}[4]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4 \\}
\newcommand{\extractentry}{\extract{}{}{$\Box$}{$\Box$} \hline}
\newcommand{\malt}[5]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4 & #5 \\}
\newcommand{\maltentry}{\malt{}{}{}{}{} \hline} % color (#3) not used
\newcommand{\hop}[6]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4 & #5 & #6 \\}
\newcommand{\hopentry}{\hop{}{}{}{$\Box$\rule[\underblank]{\blankwidth}{\thinline}}{$\Box$}{$\Box$} \hline}
\newcommand{\yeast}[6]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4 & #5 & #6 \\}
\newcommand{\yeastentry}{\yeast{}{}{$\Box$}{$\Box$}{$\Box$}{$\Box$} \hline}
\newcommand{\adjunct}[4]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4 \\}
\newcommand{\adjunctentry}{\adjunct{}{}{}{} \hline}
\newcommand{\procedure}[5]{#1 & #2 & #3 & #4 & #5 \\}
\newcommand{\procedureentry}[5]{\procedure{#1}{#2}{#3}{#4}{#5} \hline}
\newcommand{\record}[3]{#1 & #2 & #3 \\}
\newcommand{\recordentry}{\record{}{}{} \hline}
\newcommand{\blankentry}[1]{#1 \rule[\underblank]{\blankwidth}{\thinline}}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{document}
\mysec{Extracts and Kits}
\begin{tabular}{|l||l|c|c|}
\hline
\extract{Lb}{\makebox[2.0in][l]{Brand and Name}}{Hopped}{Dry}
\hline
\hline
\extractentry % 1
\extractentry % 2
\extractentry % 3
\extractentry % 4
\end{tabular}
\mysec{Malts, Grains and Adjuncts}
\begin{tabular}{|l||l|c|l|l|}
\hline
\malt{Lb [oz]}{\makebox[1.25in][l]{Variety}}{\degrees{}{L}}{Brand}{Country}
\hline
\hline
\maltentry % 1
\maltentry % 2
\maltentry % 3
\maltentry % 4
\maltentry % 5
\maltentry % 6
\maltentry % 7
\maltentry % 8
\maltentry % 9
\end{tabular}
\mysec{Hops}
\begin{tabular}{|l||l|l|ccc|}
\hline
\hop{AAU}{\makebox[1in][l]{Variety}}{Form}{Boil}{Steep}{Dry}
\hop{ }{ }{ }{(min)}{ }{ }
\hline
\hline
\hopentry % 1
\hopentry % 2
\hopentry % 3
\hopentry % 4
\hopentry % 5
\hopentry % 6
\hopentry % 7
\hopentry % 8
\hopentry % 9
\end{tabular}
\mysec{Yeast}
\begin{tabular}{|l||l|cc|cc|}
\hline
\yeast{Amount}{Brand and style}{Ale}{Lager}{Dry}{Liquid}
\hline
\hline
\yeastentry
\yeastentry
\yeastentry
\end{tabular}
\mysec{Additives and Other Ingredients}
\begin{tabular}{|l||l|c|l|}
\hline
\adjunct{Amount}{Ingredient}{Boil}{Procedure Description}
\adjunct{ }{ }{(min)}{ }
\hline
\adjunct{}{}{---}{Priming}
\hline
\adjunctentry
\adjunctentry
\adjunctentry
\adjunctentry
\adjunctentry
\end{tabular}
\mysec{Procedure}
\begin{tabular}{lll}
Mash water & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{Amount} \\
Mash-in & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{pH} \\
Protein Rest & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{Time} \\
Acid Rest & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{Time} \\
Starch Conversion & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{Time} \\
Mash-out & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{Time} \\
Sparge Water & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{Amount} \\
Boil & \blankentry{Time} \\
Yeast Pitch & \blankentry{Temperature} & \blankentry{pH} \\
\end{tabular}
\mysec{Notes}
\ledgerline % underfull \hbox (badness 10000)
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\ledgerline
\mysec{Record}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|}
\hline
\record{Date}{SG}{\makebox[2.7in][l]{Action or Observation}}
\hline
\hline
\record{ }{ }{Original gravity}
\hline
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\recordentry
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 90 23:12:59 -0500
From: zentner@ee.ecn.purdue.edu (Mike Zentner)
Subject: First Time Mead Brewers
A question for the more experienced brewers...We are following the simple
recipe in one of the appendices of Papazian for ginger honey mead. After
a week in the primary, we racked to the secondary, which merrily bubbled
away for about two weeks. It now appears that most activity has stopped,
even after a thorough rousing. The book says to let it age for 1-1.5
months in the secondary. Does this mean that there should be visible signs
of fermentation until sometime after a month? If the fermentation has
stopped, should we still let it rest in the secondary, or will this allow
the yeast to starve to the point where they will not be able to
carbonate after bottling? Any help is appreciated.
Another question. What is the best way to sparge? After reading
horror stories about shattered glass carboys due to heat shock, we've
been sparging into a plastic bucket first and cooling the wort
before transfering to the glass primary. Well, we bought one of those
nylon hoops an elastic band to strain out solids and tried
it in the latest batch "Hair of the Dog Wheat Beer" (so named
because a few stray dog hairs crept into the boil) with little
success. The bag quickly filled up and clogged (probably due to
the use of hop pellets), then broke loose and fell into the wort.
Any suggestions?
One last thing. Does anybody else start their siphons like this?
We use a piece of tubing which has an OD that matches the ID of
the siphon hose. Standing on a chair, you can use your mouth
to suck the wort up a point just before the hose clamp in the
siphon, close it off, quickly pull off the mouthpiece hose, lower
the outlet of the siphon, and let it fly. Contamination can only
be by the breath. Usually the harder, white plastic hose available
in hardware stores slips in and out easier.
Mike & Lynn Zentner zentner@cn.ecn.purdue.edu
zentnerl@ma.ecn.purdue.edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 09:10:06 PST
From: hsfmsh!hsfdjs!suurb@sfsun.West.Sun.COM (Dave Suurballe)
Subject: Sierra Nevada yeast culturing
Steve Harrison at Sierra Nevada tells me that they use one strain of
yeast for both fermenting and bottling. They filter before bottling
to remove protein and dead yeast and then repitch for bottle conditioning.
My own opinion is that Bigfoot Ale is the worst choice of the Sierra
Nevada product line to get yeast from, that their weaker beers are
better choices. Nevertheless, it's all the same yeast.
Suurb
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #368, 03/01/90
*************************************
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