Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
HOMEBREW Digest #0392
This file received at Mthvax.CS.Miami.EDU 90/04/05 03:14:33
HOMEBREW Digest #392 Thu 05 April 1990
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Cheap copies of Noonan's Book (Mark Stevens) <stevens@stsci.edu>
Trip Report on Bluebonnet Conference and Competition (3 pages) (John Mellby)
RE: Pellets compared to Leaf Hops (Barry Cunningham)
Re: Yeast and cultivating
Hop-a-mania II!!! (Enders)
Thanks! (Tim Dennison )
Harmful Bacteria in Honey (willa)
*BIG* Blow-off (David Lim)
Hops and the gallbladder (Paul L. Kelly)
re uses for spent grains (Chip Hitchcock)
Honey Killers! (doug)
Re: uses for spent grains (Chris Shenton)
boiling honey (mage!lou)
Re: hydrogen sulphide odor (Russ Pencin)
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, 4 Apr 90 08:40:56 EDT
From: (Mark Stevens) <stevens@stsci.edu>
Subject: Cheap copies of Noonan's Book
Thinking of buying Greg Noonan's "Brewing Lager Beer" for your library?
I was just about to plunk down my $12.95 + $3 shipping to order it from
AHA when I got a catalog from Storey Communications (publishers of
Dave Miller's book). They have Noonan's book on sale for $9.95! I
promptly ordered a copy.
Flipping a few pages further, I see they also sell Reese's book "Better
Beer & How To Brew It", Byron Burch's "Brewing Quality Beer", and a
homebrewing video.
For more info:
Storey Communications
Schoolhouse Road
Pownal, VT 05261
They also have toll-free order line for customers with Visa or
MasterCard. (800) 441-5700.
Cheers,
- --Mark Stevens
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 07:48:39 CDT
From: jmellby@ngstl1.csc.ti.com (John Mellby)
Subject: Trip Report on Bluebonnet Conference and Competition (3 pages)
Notes from the Bluebonnet Homebrew Conference and Competition
John R. Mellby
April 4, 1990
Well, the Bluebonnet just finished for the year. This is the 3rd
Annual competition, and this year we combined with the Homebrewer's
Alliance to put on a full 3-day conference including Michael Jackson,
Dave Miller, Fred Eckhardt, Paul Farnsworth, and many others.
The following is a set of semi-disorganized comments on the conference.
1. This was the first time the Bluebonnet was more than a competition.
Because of this, there was a lot of confusion over who was organizing
things (or more likely, not organizing them). Anyone doing a conference
for the first time needs to spend a lot of effort deciding who has
responsibility for *everything*! Still, the participants all enjoyed
themselves, so it went off pretty well.
2. Michael Jackson had a comparative beer tasting the first night.
The tasting was *very* good. I knew all the beers, of course, but
Michael Jackson was an extemely interesting speaker. When my
friend, Roy Mengot, and I found no one was in charge of executing the
beer tasting we jumped in and organized the beer, glasses, corkscrews, etc.
And *I* got to hand glasses of beer to Michael Jackson himself. <I'll
never wash this hand again!>
"The Beer Hunter"
Michael Jackson finished filming his TV show, and it started
appearing in the UK about a week or two ago. It will appear in the
USA on August 23rd (Thursday) on the Discovery channel. One episode (1st)
is on Belgium, one on Pilsner Urquell (and Czecholovokia), don't know the
others. He talked about traveling through Czech in a Minibus packed
with his crew. His electrician was a "very militant lesbian". "She
spent the trip trying to convert us to Lesbianism. She wasn't very
successful. There were overwhelming technical difficulties."
He said that the Pilsner Urquell yeast was a symbiosis of 5 strains of yeast.
A proof of how good a speaker MJ is, the hotel couldn't find the Duvel or
Sozoens he asked for, so we threw in a Chimay Grand at the last minute.
Michael Jackson didn't even know about this beforehand but he didn't even
pause - he just talked for 15 minutes about Chimay and trappist beers.
<I, on the other hand, probably looked like a complete idiot to him for
giving him a Chimay when he wanted Duvel!> It turns out that the
Abbey beers are copies of the Trappist beers made outside monastarys.
MJ said that he did some tastings in the UK to promote his TV show, and
that time after time, people would say that the Chimay was the best beer
at the tasting! (Note, Chimay Grand used to be the blue-label and its now
the gold.)
He liked Young's Special London Ale a lot. (Apparently his local is a
Young's. He commented that when the publican retired the new chap was
a horrible publican, and many of the regulars changed to the Watney's pub
where the publican was very good. MJ said he couldn't go to Watney's
even under those circumstances.) John Young (the owner) is married to
a Belgian. MJ said he worried about what would happen when the owner (John
Young again?) died, because he only kept brewing in London because he
was crazy. His heirs could get an ASTOUNDING amount of $ for the brewery
property, in the heart of London. "John Young's madness is what keeps that
property going". (He quoted Bert Grant "You need crazy people to make beer")
"His security system is a flock of geese".
Michael lives just a mile from the Young's brewery. If you want to find him
he is somewhere midway between a Young's and Watney's pub.
"British brewers' genius is producing low gravity beers with great taste."
80% of beer in Britain is drunk in a pub.
He asserted that Timmerman's is the best Framboise/lambic that can be found
in the USA. <I've never had the chance to directly compare Lindeman's and
Timmerman's but this surprised me.> Boon and Cantillon are the
best to be found in Belgium. <I assume this is the Boon Mariage Parfait,
and Cantillon Framboise Rose'de Garde, Cantillon Lambic Grand Cru mentioned
in his books. I would give dearly to taste these myself.>
MJ also discussed some breweries in Estonia, where he was just two weeks ago.
I have no useful notes on that.
3. Mary Thompson - The New Prohibition Movement
Mary and Don Thompson are the owners of the Reinheitsgebot Brewery here in
Dallas (Plano). She spoke for an hour (OK, she ran over by 30 minutes) on
the new anti-alcohol movements, especially MADD. I only got down
part of her info. <For your information, here in Texas the TABC, alcohol and
tobacco board, just turned down 15-20 MADD proposals including such things
as forcing bar operators to count how many drinks a customer has consumed,
evaluating how drunk a customer is, and other ideas which would effectively
prohibit drink.> MADD seems to be not too subtly trying to outlaw drink
completely. Misuse of statistics is one way. Apparently when the
police record an accident, if anyone at the scene had any alcohol whatsoever
the accident is listed as alcohol-related. So if I had a been 3 hours ago,
and was rear-ended by a bad driver through no fault of my own, it would
be listed as an alcohol-related accident. These and other distortions
are used to make the drinking problems, and drunk driving problems
appear to be much worse than they really are (IMHO). <I suspect part of this
is the media wanting anything which is provocative -- "Drunk Driver kills
Pope! Film at 11!"> The statistics recording and reporting distortions
make it difficult to see what the real situtation is. <Anyone have any
sources of good data?>
Anheuser Busch has a very good packet of information on responsible drinking,
and alcohol-education materials.
She cited some Johns-Hopkins studies which sounded like drink is not nearly
the problem you would assume, from seeing TV or other media. <"To keep your
drunk spouse from breaking up your marriage, send him to our shock-treatment
clinic!"> Another Johns-Hopkins study cited a "moderate" level of drinking
for me to be 5 beers a day. <OK, I'm a bit overweight, but anyone who
drinks more than this consistently must really be a problem drinker!>
She listed three organizations who provide information/magazines on moderation
in drink (maybe drugs as well?). I don't have the subscription prices.
Citizens for Moderation ($1)
Moderation Reader (address?)
Moderation Journal 4714 NE 50th St., Seattle WA 88105
4. Michael Jackson - The Microbrewery Movement
This was a discussion of micros (with slide show) mainly in Europe, but some
US as well.
Of the German breweries (around 1700?), 800 are in Bavaria, and 250 of those
in NE Bavaria (Franconia).
He commented on the German breweries having close ties to the church, which
interested him, as Michael Jackson is an atheist.
In showing a beautiful brewpub in Dortmund he said "Dortmunder brewers
realized their sales were being adversely affected by lack of romance".
Consumption of Bavarian wheat beer went from 1% to 10% in 10 years (in the
late 70's).
The Lord of Traquir House (Traquir House Ale), in the Scottish borders,
near Pebbles, died on St. Valentine's Day. This was one of the earliest
microbreweries, started in the 60's. His daughter plans to continue brewing.
(When I first started coming to this country <USA>) "In states like Texas,
if you didn't actually drink while driving you were regarded as a communist".
5. Other talks on which I have little or no notes
Paul Farnsworth talked on yeast and brewing. Get his article a couple issues
ago in Zymurgy! This is invaluable information on brewing. Best speaker
after MJ!
Dave Miller talked about profiles of pilsners and making up recipes, basing
this on the components of Pilsner Urquell.
Fred Eckhardt talked about beer styles. (His new book seems very good,
although what with working on the convention, I have only skimmed it so far.)
6. The competition went very smoothly. We had 305 entries in 20 categories.
3 bottles of each (1st round, 2nd round, and best of show) means 900 bottles.
Kudos to such hard workers as Paul Seaward, Mike Leonard, Brad Krohn, and
whoever handled the beer stewards.
Although I have been tasting and judging on my own for 3 years, this was
the first regional competition I have been involved in. I was paired with
Dave Miller (!) on Full-bodied Pale Ales. Unlike may homebrewers, Dave asserts
that pale ales do not need to be strongly hopped. He tended to rate lightly
hopped ales higher than I did and I rated the heavily hopped ales higher. It
was interesting and educational to work with him. We rated 10 ales, and
combined our 3 best with the other pair of judges to rate the final 3 best.
Poor Fred Eckhardt had to judge about 15 Brown Ales, and another bunch in the
immediately following 2nd round.
I don't have a complete list of the winners yet, but there were winners
from all over the country. At least one California winner, Andy (?) from
Tennessee won two, St. Louis won a lot! The club competition was won
by the North Texas Home Brewers Association (no help from me - I don't
think my two entries even got to the second round).
Amazingly the Best of Show was not the "Best Extract" or "Best All-Malt"
it was a sack-mead!
7. Fred Eckhardt's Beer and Chocolate Tasting
Sadly I remember little about this <no snickering, please>. I was so
busy running around distributing beer and chocolate <"No, you can't have
a full glass of Timmerman's Peche"> that I couldn't properly enjoy it.
Still Fred did a great job, and everyone else enjoyed it. (Except maybe
the 3 people who didn't get the Peche.) The Hilldale Terminator (5 gallons)
served with chocolate chunk brownies was great while it lasted.
8. Aftermath.
While my wife and the president of the Ft. Worth club sampled the entries
in the mead category (remember this is mainly 1st round rejects), we cleaned
up and tried various ales. The local clubs have the remaining, oh, say 450
bottles, to be used as support in our local meetings. OK, I took some of
the strong ales, and meads home myself.
Now we get to total up money and see if we're broke.
Surviving the American Dream
John R. Mellby Texas Instruments
jmellby%ngstl1.ti.com P.O.Box 660246, MS 3645
Dallas Texas, 75266
(214)517-5370 (214)343-7585
*****************************************************************************
* "I am (not) recommending that you totally ignore your responsibilities as *
* a homeowner and just sit around all day with a beer can in your hand. *
* No indeed, I have long been a believer in purchasing bottled beer, and *
* pouring it into a chilled glass." *
* -- "Homes and Other Black Holes", Dave Barry *
*****************************************************************************
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 08:46:59 EDT
From: abvax!calvin.icd.ab.com!bwc@cwjcc.INS.CWRU.Edu (Barry Cunningham)
Subject: RE: Pellets compared to Leaf Hops
In HB Digest #391 David Ingalls writes:
> I brewed up a batch of pale ale a few weeks back.
...
> 1 oz. Northern Brewer hops for first 30 minutes of boil
> 1 oz. Cascade hops for second 30 minutes of boil
> 1 oz. Cascade hops for final 30 minutes of boil
...
> It's now been in the bottle for a week and I've tasted it. The resulting
> beer is very bitter. It isn't so bitter that it's undrinkable but you
> probably wouldn't want it to be any more bitter.
Depending of course on the alpha acid contents of the hops you used, I would
expect this beer to be quite bitter when it is young. The 1 1/2 hour boil
will get more bitterness out of the hops. Cutting back the boil to one hour
or just using a little bit less hops will reduce the bitterness.
Your brewing technique, which you did not specify, may also significantly
affect bitterness. In particular, forced cooling to get a good cold break
and racking the wort off the trub (particularly if you have a lot of goop
from pelletized hops) before fermentation gets going should reduce the
bitterness from the trub considerably. However, you should pay careful
attention to the temperature when doing this to avoid infections (see Dave
Miller's book The Complete Book of Homebrewing).
The good news is that it should mellow considerably with age. I think you
will find it much improved after 3 months in the bottle, if you can hold out
that long. At least try to set a six pack aside.
-- Barry Cunningham
------------------------------
Date: 4 Apr 90 08:27:23 EST (Wed)
From: dialogic!durk@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Re: Yeast and cultivating
In digest #391, Charlie Woloszynski wrote:
> The AHA published an excellent special Zymurgy on Yeast (Special '89).
>I believe they are still selling it as a special order. I heartily
>recommend getting it (and Zymurgy in general). Sorry, I don't have
>the AHA's address at work. If no else supplies it, I'll bring it
>later in the week.
I just happened to have the phone number for AHA (Boulder, Col.) handy.
Here it is: (303) 447-0816
Cheers,
Durk
durk@dialogic.com
uunet!dialogic!durk
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 10:08:54 -0500
From: Enders <enders@plains.NoDak.edu>
Subject: Hop-a-mania II!!!
Re: hop utilization;
According to at least one authority (Miller, TCHOHB), hop pellets
are better utilized than whole hops (probably has to do with surface area).
But just how much better the utilization is, is a bit difficult to pin down,
since many factors effect the utilization (such as pH, boiling time, wort
gravity, etc.). I would be inclined to cut my hop additions back by about
10-15% when switching from whole hops to pellets. When examining a recipe,
it's always best to take the recomended hopping rate with a grain of salt
(now if you're *sure* you want 3.5 oz of bullion's in there...:-) as the
notion of how much is enough varies from individual to individual. Let
_your_ taste be your guide!!!
Re: hopping rates, recipies, and bitter batches;
Recipies that only specify hop additions in oz/batch are a bit
difficult to duplicate consistantly, since hops are an agricultural product,
and are therefore not consistant from year to year (good hops are like good
wine). For instance, a batch of Oregon grown Fuggles might have an alpha
acid content of 3.5%, whereas, an otherwise identical batch of Fuggles
(grown in the same year even!) grown in England might have an alpha acid
content of 6.5%. Now, if you were to use the hopping rate of a recipe
that had been developed with the 3.5% alpha acid hops, and instead plunked
an identical quantity of the 6.5% alpha acid hops into your boiler, you now
have a wort with aprox. twice the bitterness level.
The more easily repeated recipes usually specify the hopping rate in
alpha acid units (AAU's), or at least specify the alpha acid content of the
hops used. You will have to scale accordingly if the difference is more than
say 0.5% alpha acid. Also see above if the recipe doesn't specify the form of
hops used.
Hope this helps anyone with questions on hopping rates and hop utiliz-
ation.
Todd Enders ARPA: enders@plains.nodak.edu
Computer Center UUCP: ...!uunet!plains!enders
Minot State University Bitnet: enders@plains
Minot, ND 58701
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 11:27:03 EST
From: timd@sct60a.sunyct.edu (Tim Dennison )
Subject: Thanks!
I would like to send a quick thank you to everyone who responded to my
request for information on how to enter the homebrewing arena.
ALL of the responses were extremely helpful. I looked for a local
homebrew shop, but alas the one we did have closed about 6 months ago.:(
Oh well that only means a one hour road trip to Syracuse. If anyone can
suggest a shop in that area, I would be interested. (assuming there is
more than one).
Again thank you for your responses. It is exciting to see that people are
willing to take the time to help out a newcomer.
Tim Dennison
SUNY Institute of Technology
tim@sct60a.sunyct.edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 90 09:25:36 PDT
From: willa@hpvclwa.hp.com
Subject: Harmful Bacteria in Honey
Full-Name: ----- Will Allen -----
florianb@tekred.cna.tek.com writes:
>It is my understanding that honey can contain a bacteria which has been known
>to be fatal to children under the age of two years.
I think the bacteria is botulinum. As I understand it (remember, I'm a
programmer, not a biologist), in small children, botulinum is pathogenic. The
other nasty thing this beasty does is secrete botulin, which is toxic to folks
of all ages. This is the good ole botulism which one can get from poorly
canned food. According to my pediatrician, it's ok to give honey to children
over 1 year of age (but check with YOUR doctor, don't take my word).
. . .Will
Will Allen
HP Vancouver Division
willa@hpvcfs1.hp.com or ...!hplabs!hpvcfs1!willa or Will Allen/HP5400/PE
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 11:12:50 MDT
From: David Lim <limd@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Subject: *BIG* Blow-off
My most recent batch of beer is now in its second day of fermentation.
I wasn't around last night to watch this happen, but almost a *GALLON*
of beer was expelled through the blow-off tube atop my 5-gallon carboy.
The initial fermentation (up to high-krausen) was extremely vigorous.
I'm not bummed out about losing that much brew, but now there's a large
air (right now it's only C02) space in the top of my carboy. Is this a
problem? Has anyone experimented with carefully topping off the fermenter
with some boiled wort or water (boiled so that oxygen and nasties are
driven off?) How about topping it off when I rack it to a 2nd carboy?
I've thought about dropping a bunch of glass marbles in to take up the
extra volume... Any advice is welcome.
Since this was my 1st time using a carboy/blow-off tube combination as a
primary fermentation vessel, is this amount of loss normal? This was also
my first time with a Wyeast liquid yeast (German Ale, starter solution).
My guess it was a combination of a very healthy yeast culture combined
with a fairly "rich" wort (porter-ish) that caused all this excitement. If I
can expect to lose this amount in general, I'd like to hear from you folks
with experience in this system. What do you folks do?
Yours brewly,
Dave
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 12:19:19 EST
From: pkel@psych.purdue.edu (Paul L. Kelly)
Subject: Hops and the gallbladder
I recently heard that one danger that may be involved in drinking homebrew
involves the greater hop content that brewers use to enhance flavor and
promote longer shelf life. The alleged danger is gallbladder damage. Does
anyone have any comments, information, or refutations to offer this assertion?
I'm wondering if this danger is real, and if it is, at what point does hop
content become dangerous? Is it the alpha acid content of the hop, or is it
the flavoring or aromatic properties that pose a threat? I'm hoping that this
is all just nonsense, but my source was a university professor who teaches
a graduate level class in fermentation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
pkel@brazil.psych.purdue.edu | "Humpty Dumpty was pushed."
Paul L. Kelly |
Department of Psychological Sciences | "Life's a bunch o' sh*t, when you look
Purdue University | at it." --Eric Idle, _Life of Brian_
West Lafayette, IN 47907 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 10:59:52 EDT
From: ileaf!io!peoria!cjh@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: re uses for spent grains
> So, I just thought I would second Don Perley's remarks by saying that Dried
> Distillers Grains (or DDG, as its commonly known) has come to be looked on as
> a basic cattle feed ingredient.
Chase Farms, the local natural cider mill (I haven't tried hardening their
cider, but since there are no preservatives it makes a great condensed (~8:1)
jelly) said when I visited that the pommace (solids left after pressing out
the juice) is trucked off to a local pig farm. They also said that those
are the happiest pigs in New England....
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 13:39:06 EDT
From: hisata!doug@gatech.edu
Subject: Honey Killers!
Florian the healthy is absolutely right about bacteria in honey that did
in some kids. It seems like that was recently--the last 5 or 10 years--
and so postdates the text I was using. Science moves on!
I don't recall any of the particulars of the contaminated honey--the
source or any previous processing. Commercial honey is frequently
heated (gently) to prevent fermentation and drive off excess moisture
that would encourage it to granulize. This would diminish or destroy its
antibacterial properties. I don't know if honey as it comes
from the comb might not still be antibacterial. Still, don't take
any chances with babies.
BTW, some of my honey extracting equipment does double duty in
my brewing. One nice gadget is a strainer I use for filtering my honey.
It's about 8 1/2" in diameter at the top. There is a removable, flat-
bottomed coarse strainer in the top, then the bottom is hemispherical
and VERY fine. It has expandable wire arms that fit nicely over my
honey bucket--but are worthless with a carboy. It's great to use in
filtering grains and hops. When the top strainer gets full, I can dump
it, and the bottom strainer catches all the fine particles and even some
trub. Very heavy duty, and expensive (about $25). Available from Brushy
Mountain Bee Farm in Monrovia, NC. Send me mail if anyone wants the
address.
Doug the contaminated
gatech!hisata!doug
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 13:46:32 edt
From: Chris Shenton <chris@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: uses for spent grains
CRF@PINE.CIRCA.UFL.EDU writes:
> Dried Distillers Grains (or DDG, as its commonly known) has come to be
> looked on as a basic cattle feed ingredient.
I don't have any cows, but I am trying to start a small garden in my small,
urban yard. Can/should I use the spent grains as a mulch? If so, do I first
have to let them compost?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 90 12:00:39 MDT
From: hplabs!mage!lou
Subject: boiling honey
In digest #391 Florian writes:
>"Doug," in #389 quoted from a reference text on honey and beehives, and
>indicated information as to the antibacterial properties of honey. It is
>my understanding that honey can contain a bacteria which has been known
>to be fatal to children under the age of two years. Being a father, I
>was aware of this and forbid my child from having honey for the first two
>years. The presence of this bacteria (pointed out in the baby books)
>suggests that anti-bacterial properties of honey are only partial. In any
>case, I don't think there is anything to lose by boiling honey during the
>mead- or beer-making process.
Florian,
The reading I've done on making mead indicates that is, indeed, something to
lose by boiling honey. There are some light, aromatic compounds that are
easily driven off by boiling. What these sources recommend is pasteurization,
not sterilization. That is, keep the temperature >165F for about 20 minutes.
For mead, I bring the honey-water mixture to a boil, turn off the heat and cover
with a sanitized lid, and let it sit. For honey-beers, I go through a normal
boil for the beer, then add the honey and bring to a boil again before turning
off the heat. The heat capacity of 2.5-3. gallons of liquid is enough to keep
the temperature high enough for a long enough time.
Louis Clark
reply to: mage!lou@ncar.ucar.com
------------------------------
Date: 4 April 1990 9:53:52 am
From: parcplace!pencin@uunet.UU.NET (Russ Pencin)
Subject: Re: hydrogen sulphide odor
I brew a Steam knock-off regularly using Wyeast 2007 American lager - St.
Louis, and get
the sulpher odor that you discribe during the first 2 days of fermentation. At
first, I worried
( silly boy ), now I just crack the window enough to vent it out of the
bathroom. My GUESS is that
the yeast is "scrubbing" some nasty out of the wort. The other regular brew is
an english bitter
using #1098, and I get no off odors at all. Bottom-line is RELAX, atleast wait
until you rack it to
the secondary, the steal alittle, and taste it... this is the surest way to
catch a bad batch early.
Russ
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #392, 04/05/90
*************************************
-------
