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HOMEBREW Digest #0610
This file received at Mthvax.CS.Miami.EDU 91/04/04 03:07:05
HOMEBREW Digest #610 Thu 04 April 1991
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
ecology waste (ddurst)
saving water (Dave Suurballe)
Air on bottling (IOCONNOR)
commercial breweries (Joe Uknalis)
Re: Homebrew Digest #609 (April 03, 1991) (Steven M Cohn)
saving water (kevin vang)
Change of address (Drew Lynch)
How to make mead? (Douglas Renze)
RE: How to make sweet mead (rob derrick)
Carbonation in kegs (Dan Needham)
fizzy, hallucinogenic stout, please (Life is wasted on the living)
stuck barleywine (burghart)
second greater sacramento area hombrew fest (JEEPSRUS)
Dinner With Michael Jackson (Chris Brown)
using maize in recipes (... the seasons change ... )
re: National Homebrew Day (Dick Dunn)
Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmi@hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmi@hplabs.hp.com
[Please do not send me requests for back issues]
Archives are available from netlib@mthvax.cs.miami.edu
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Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1991 14:47:00 -0500
From: ddurst@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Subject: ecology waste
Ecology Waste:
see next message
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 00:35:08 PST
From: Dave Suurballe <suurb@dumbcat.sf.ca.us>
Subject: saving water
In HD 608, CR Saikley asks how other brewers save water.
I'm not the most conservative of brewers, but I manage to squeak under my
daily allotment of 50 gallons, and I brew almost weekly.
I save all water that runs through equipment to rinse it, like through the
wort-chiller before and after brewing, and I save all chlorined water that
either sits in equipment or runs through it to sanitize it. I save the former
in whatever steel vessels are around, and I save the latter in plastic.
I don't re-use this water in the brewery. I lug it upstairs five gallons at
a time and use it to flush the toilet. If I don't have any company over, one
brew's waste water lasts a week. (If I am expecting company, I flush the
toilet in advance, in the normal, wonderfully effective, well-designed way.)
I feel good about how much water I save by almost never flushing the toilet.
However, I'm convinced that if God had intended toilets to not be flushed, she
wouldn't have given them little handles, and I can't wait to get back to normal
water availability here.
Dave Suurballe
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1991 6:45:29 EST
From: IOCONNOR@SUNRISE.ACS.SYR.EDU
Subject: Air on bottling
I have yet to bottle my first batch, but maybe I have a suggestion for
those who are having problems with air in their bottles.
I took a homebrew course, and the instructor said that when you
bottle, bang the bottle on the table then immediately cap. WHen the
beer foams up--it will remove the oxygen and the cap will keep it out.
Anyone have any experience with this?
Kieran O'Connor
IOCONNOR@SUNRISE (bitnet) IOCONNOR@SUNRISE.ACS.SYR.EDU (internet)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 91 08:33:46 EST
From: Joe Uknalis <UKNALIS@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject: commercial breweries
Is anyone out there affiliated with a commercial brewery?
I have some questions about the business, if you could send me your
email address we could talk off the net.
thanks
Also-
a NEW brew pub is opening in Roanoke VA, it's called the Blue Muse
It will serve nuveau food and have 3 kinds of beers.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 08:30:21 PST
From: smc@styx.desktalk.com (Steven M Cohn)
Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #609 (April 03, 1991)
The definitive Guide to Nitrogen Compounds:
N2 - Diatomic Nitrogen: Colorless, odorless, almost inert
NO - Nitric Oxide: A colorless, poisonous intermediate in the production
of nitric acid (HNO3)
N2O - Nitrous Oxide: Laughing Gas
NO2 - Nitrogen Dioxide: Poisonous brown gas found in smog.
Of these, I suspect that N2 is probably the one that Guiness uses, although,
N2O is an interesting idea. . .It does come in the same kind of cannister.
It's been a while since I took Chem, anybody know anything about the
reactivity of N2O with beer? I thought I remembered it being a fairly stable
compund, but that was many homebrews ago. . .
Steve
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 91 10:27:48 CST
From: kevin vang <MN033302@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
Subject: saving water
I too was shocked at the amount of water wasted in using an immersion wort
chiller. What I do is put the coil (20 ft. 3/8" id copper) into a sink of
ice water, set the hot wort on the counter next to the sink, and my primary
on a chair in front of the counter, and siphon the wort through *slowly*.
You can adjust the rate of flow by moving the exit tube up or down. It takes
a lot of ice. I freeze milk cartons and plastic ice cream buckets full (or if
I forget, I run to the MiniMart and buy some during the boil) and it always
melts amazingly quickly. It takes about 20-30 minutes to chill a 5 gallon
batch down to 60-70 degrees. When you are done, you have a sink full of warm
water to clean up with.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 09:27:39 PST
From: Drew Lynch <kpc!atl@uunet.UU.NET>
Subject: Change of address
Rob,
atl@ardent.com is now reachable as atl@kpc.com. Also, keep up the
good work. We all appreciate it!
Drew
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 12:23:53 -0600
From: Douglas Renze <drenze@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Subject: How to make mead?
I think the subject speaks for itself. Anybody have a recipie they'd like to
share with me?
Peace and Long Life,
Doug
internet: drenze@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu
delphi: drenze
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 11:49:04 MST
From: rxxd@doc.lanl.gov (rob derrick)
Subject: RE: How to make sweet mead
Fowarded by Rob Derrick:
>
> H. E. Bravery's book; Home Brewing Without Failures has an excellent section on
> mead making and controlling the sweetness of your mead. Essentially the
> difference between a dry, medium sweet, and sweet mead is the S.G. you start
> with. A S.G. of 1.100 or less will yield a dry mead. Anything over a S.G. of
> 1.100 will yield medium and then sweet meads. At 1.100 the maximum amount of
> sugar that the yeast can use is present giving you an alcohol content of 14.5%.
> Since an alcohol content greater than 14% will kill the yeast any sugars left
> over will give you the sweetness you are seeking.
>
> Medium sweet meads have a S.G. of 1.120 to 1.130. Sweet meads range from 1.130
> to 1.140.
>
> If you have started with an S.G. of 1.070 to 1.100 and the resulting mead is
> sweet the fermentation has stuck or stopped prematurely.
>
> H.G. Bravery's recipe for sweet mead is as follows. Measurements are in
> imperial gallons.
>
> 4.5-5 lb. Honey
> 0.25 oz. citric acid
> .25 pint strong freshly made tea
> yeast
> nutrient
>
> "Mix honey with about half a gallon of hot water, bring slowly to a boil and
> boil for two minutes. Turn into polyethene pail, add citric acid and tea and
> make up to one gallon with boiling water. Allow to cool to approximately 65
> degrees f, then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed for beers," (Bravery
> recommends tying a lid on, but then this book was written a while back and all
> the fancy home brewing equipment may not have been available)," and ferment in a
> warm place for ten to fourteen days." Rack into clean gallon container. "Fit
> with fermentation lock and leave in warm place until all fermentation has
> ceased. It may be several months until this happens, but when fermentation has
> ceased and the mead is clear, it should be siphoned off into another jar and
> bunged down and kept for one year or it may be bottled right away and a few
> bottles kept to mature. Don't judge young mead for it is not at its best; at a
> year old it will have mellowed and developed its full flavour and bouquet."
>
> What I did:
>
> 48 oz. Water
> 5 lbs. Honey (Smith's brand)
> 1 tsp. Citric Acid
> 1 pt. Strong Tea (oops)
> 1 pkg. Champagne Yeast
> Nutrient
>
> I modified the procedures we use to make beer from concentrate, treating the
> honey mixture like a malt extract. The biggest problem was not figuring the
> amounts correctly so I had too much honey mixture to add to the cold water in
> the 1 gallon jug. Also, in my excitement I failed to read the paragraph
> explaining that all measurements were in imperial gallons, the result an
> extremely high S.G. of 1.150.
>
> The water, honey, and citric acid were boiled together for seven minutes then
> the tea was added and boiled for five more minutes. The mixture was then added
> to 48 FL. oz. of cold water in the one gallon jug. As noted before this was too
> much so some of the honey mixture was not used. The wort was then cooled
> overnight to 70 degrees f.
>
> The corrected S.G. was 1.153
>
> the yeast and nutrient were then tossed.
>
> After three days the overflow tube was replaced with a fermentation lock.
> Active fermentation continued for four months.
>
> The result was a very sweet mead because of the extra honey.
>
> If you can, find a copy of Bravery's book, there is a lot of good information in
> a lot more detail than I have presented here.
>
> C. J. Lindberg
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 11:14:13 pst
From: Dan Needham <dann@hpsadlb.hp.com>
Subject: Carbonation in kegs
Full-Name: Dan Needham
I recently kegged up a batch of wheat beer in my new draft system.
I followed a chart of CO2 PSI vs. Temp for different volumes of
CO2 for different styles of beer. At 42 degrees F. I used 17.5
PSI to (hopefully) yield about 2.9 Volumes of CO2 in the beer. I
rocked the keg around for a few minutes while the CO2 was being
applied through the down-tube via a beverage fitting. Four days
later when I tapped the keg it was nearly flat! I don't think the
keg leaks -- I bought it new, and tested it for pressure retention
before I put beer in it. There was extremely little head space in
the full keg. It was stored at about 40 degrees F. on its side
during the four days.
Would any keg veterans like to comment on this? Suggestions as to
what might have happened or proven processes that you use would
be appreciated.
The beer was quite good even with the low carbonation ;-)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1991 07:08:00 -0500
From: Life is wasted on the living <JMULLER@SSCvax.CIS.McMaster.CA>
Subject: fizzy, hallucinogenic stout, please
David Arnold sez...
*>>Has anyone ever considered using something other than CO2 in their keg
*>>systems?
*
*>Have you considered using N2O? That's what the Guiness folks use...
*
* Aaaahhhhh! So _that's_ why I get that weird head rush and start laughing
*uproariously whenever I down a Guiness draught! ;)
* Or is that NO?
well, last i saw at a dead concert, yeah, they were selling both
stout and NO2 whiffs (not sure if they were combined, though...).
oddly enough, it was dragon stout, courtesy of jamaica. has
anybody sampled this? for production stock, this struck me as
being a rather delectable nectar...has anyone tried copying it
yet? if so, i would love to get the receipt.
take care,
jmuller@sscvax.cis.mcmaster.ca
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 91 15:20:13 -0700
From: burghart@stout.atd.ucar.EDU
Subject: stuck barleywine
My partners and I brewed a barleywine recently (O.G. ~1.075), starting it with
a packet of Whitbread ale yeast. We allowed the ale yeast to go as far as it
would willingly go, and racked to a secondary (@ ~1.035). The beer tasted
great at this point, though still quite sweet. We pitched a packet of Red
Star champagne yeast to ferment it further, and nothing happened. We have
aerated, added yeast nutrient, pitched another packet of champagne yeast
(started this time), aerated some more, but none of these has made the beer go
any further. The recipe is based on Wayne Allen's recently posted Marigold
Ale, with 10 lbs. M&F light extract and 2 lbs. honey, and our carboy is
in a 65-70 deg. F room. Any ideas out there on how to get our fermentation to
continue?
Thanks in advance,
Chris "Better Barleywine, Bitte" Burghart
burghart@ncar.ucar.edu
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 15:36:17 PST
From: robertn@folsm3.intel.com (JEEPSRUS)
Subject: second greater sacramento area hombrew fest
WHAT: Second Greater Sacramento Area Bi-Annual Home Brew Fest
WHEN: Saturday, April 13th
TIME: 8 p.m.
WHERE: Robert Nielsen's place
8005 Dana Butte Way
Citrus Heights
(near Sunrise Mall)
We had so much fun last October, that we're going to do it all
over again! There were six brewers, with a couple different
beer types each. It was interesting to taste a variety of beers
made by a variety of brewers!
So, if you live anywhere near Sacramento California, come on
over, and bring a beer of your choice. I want to hold it to
two beers, cause last time we had many more choices to sample
than we could handle. We tried though :-)
Be careful if you want to bring a brown ale though. Last time
I think everybody brought a Brown Ale! Especially the R+R Brown
Ale kit :-)
I'll be providing munchies that go together good with beer.
Please RSVP so I can make sure to get directions distributed.
Robert
robertn@folsm3.intel.com
916-725-7311 h
916-351-2250 w
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 91 19:25:38 EST
From: Chris Brown <CBO@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Dinner With Michael Jackson
As a neophyte home brewer and relative newcomer to this discussion
group, I was fortunate enough to meet another net.homebrewer in the
Ithaca area. He quickly invited me to join the Ithaca Homebrew Club
and I enthusiastically accepted. Well if timing is everything, I would
seem to have a lot going for me. Micheal Jackson was coincidentally
invited to speak at Cornell and host the first club meeting I was to
attned.
The club took Mr. Jackson out to dinner before the meeting. The
restaurant that was selected was the Coyote Loco. Naive me, I never
made the connection that it was a Mexican restaurant. Immagine meeting
a British brew expert, drinking American homebrew, and eating Mexican
food.
I arrived a bit early. I had yet to meet any of the club members (even
the one who introduced me to the club, since we had only spoken over the
computer). I stood near the bar patiently with my hands in my pockets.
I didn't know exactly what to expect when Mr. Jackson would be brought in.
Although he's not exactly a household name (well...), I still expected him
to be surrounded by people asking questions and competing for attention.
Rather, he was led in and stood near the bar directly next to me. The two
of us were essentially equally alone. I quickly introduced myself, and
then proceded to stand there unable to think of anything to say. I hadn't
really prepared anything because I assumed I wouldn't have much of a chance
in Hell to talk to him at all.
Gradually the club members turned and introduced themselves and began to
chat. Until then I didn't know which were brewers and which were just
customers. I soon realized that I was the only one besides Mr. Jackson
who was wearing a tie. Jeans and T-shirts seemed to be the standard dress.
I was immediately struck by the casual attitude of the whole affair. One
of the brewers asked Mr. Jackson about the popularity of cider in England.
He responded that since it is taxed differently from beer and hence much
less expensive that it was primarily popular among the younger crowd who
"just want to get shit-faced". I knew right then and there that all
formalities and decorum were right out the window.
There were around 15 people in attendance. The restaurant had two tables
set up to seat us all. When it came time to sit I nabbed a corner seat as
I'm left handed and didn't want to compete for elbow space. Much to my
surprise, Mr. Jackson got seated right next to me. I was still having
trouble thinking of things to say. As a two-batch homebrewer I couldn't
come up with any questions that wouldn't have been analogous to asking
Bobby Fisher how a rook moves. To be honest I was quite content to just
sit there and listen to the conversation.
Before the waiter came around, some of the other brewers at the table
opened bottles of their brew for him to try. He tried each in turn, but
made the honest observation that sipping beer between bites of nachos and
salsa wasn't the most professional way to adjudicate the flavors.
One of the brewers at the table asked him how he got his start in this
rather unique field. He said that he was first a newspaper journalist,
and that he kept trying to work beer into his pieces simply because he
really liked beer. One thing led to another and here he is. They asked
him for some previews on his piece on the Baltic Breweries, but he simply
said that his memory wouldn't be able to do justice to his writing and
that we should just be patient and wait for the rest of the article to
come out.
Mr. Jackson remained at our table through the salad course, but when the
main dish arrived he moved to the other table so that others could share
his company. If first impressions say anything, his would say that he's
an unpretentious, unassuming kind man who simply enjoys good beer and the
company of good people. You would think him more a rather quiet, portly
pub-goer than the world renown expert that he is. All in all, though this
wound up being a rather unspectacular event, it is a memory that I will
cherish the rest of my life.
Chris B
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 22:07:02 EST
From: ... the seasons change ... <strahs@murex.bioc.aecom.yu.edu>
Subject: using maize in recipes
I've been drinking my first batch of beer. It's a bit thin and
the head doesn't last long, though it is well carbonated. I think
I can solve this problem by adding flaked maize to the original
recipe. Is this correct?
Given the correctness of the first assumption, I'd like to get
some guidelines on the use of flaked maize, if possible.
My first brew used a can of M+F unhopped light and a can of
M+F unhopped dark, 2 oz. Cascade Loose and Red Star Ale Yeast
in a 5 gal. batch. The beer was was primed with 1.2 oz corn sugar
per gallon and bottled in Grolsch bottles. How much flaked maize
would I add to this recipe and would I add it to the boiling wort
and when would I add it to the wort, etc.?
Many thanks. This brewer's network has been invaluable for
yet another beginning homebrewer.
"...well, I'm done in the lab for another night... Think I'll
go home, relax and have a homebrew 8~) 8~)..."
Dan Strahs
ADA: Dyslexics Against Drugs - Just Say On!!
------------------------------
Date: 2 Apr 91 09:18:06 MST (Tue)
From: ico.isc.com!rcd@raven.eklektix.com (Dick Dunn)
Subject: re: National Homebrew Day
Mark Castleman asks:
> Does anybody know whether is is a coincidence that National Homebrew
> Day is the same day (May 4) as the feast of St. Florian (one of the many patronsof brewers)?
I guess coincidence, but let's try to find out / figure out. National
Homebrew Day should be the first Saturday in May. Does the feast of St.
Florian have a fixed day-in-month, or is it also a first-Saturday? I dug
back into the old Zymurgy--the first mention I see of National Homebrew Day
is in the second issue, where it's the day of the first National Homebrew
competition, May 5, 1979. So my naive guess is that Charlie picked a
weekend spring day that was likely to be nice for a festival, and
christened it.
(Why didn't we learn important stuff like this in history class?:-)
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd@raven.eklektix.com -or- raven!rcd
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #610, 04/04/91
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