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HOMEBREW Digest #0715
This file received at Mthvax.CS.Miami.EDU 91/09/03 03:05:57
HOMEBREW Digest #715 Tue 03 September 1991
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Sodium metabisulfate (Roger Selby)
Vollrath Brewpots (GARY MASON - I/V/V PCU - 603-884[DTN264]1503 02-Sep-1991 0954)
Heineken Brewery Tours, Amsterdam (OCONNOR)
Re : The great aluminium debate (Conn Copas)
Guniess Stout Recipe Request (Steve Seaney)
I asked for the abuse, didn't I? (FATHER BARLEYWINE)
re: Natural conditions for enzymes (Darryl Richman)
re: Baltic Beer? (Darryl Richman)
Send submissions to homebrew@hpfcmi.fc.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request@hpfcmi.fc.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: Mon, 02 Sep 91 02:11:21 CST
From: Roger Selby <SELBYROG@MAX.CC.UREGINA.CA>
Subject: Sodium metabisulfate
What are the consequences of inhaling sodium metabisulfite?
Do you have any suggestions for avoiding inhaling it?
Roger Selby
Selbyrog at uregina1
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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 91 09:56:38 -0400
From: mason@habs11.ENET.DEC.COM (GARY MASON - I/V/V PCU - 603-884[DTN264]1503 02-Sep-1991 0954)
Subject: Vollrath Brewpots
After all the Rapids, etc., discussion, I thought that I would point out that
the Frozen Wort in MA sells Vollrath 40 quart pots w/lid for $110 all the time.
I have one, and it is great.
Cheers...Gary
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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1991 14:15 EST
From: OCONNOR%SCORVA%SNYBUFVA.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Heineken Brewery Tours, Amsterdam
In Sunday's (9/1/91) New York Times (Travel section) there is an
article about the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam. Apparently the
brewery had been closed three years ago, when Heineken opened a larger
plant. The Amsterdam brewery is now open as a museum, althought the
article does not state whether it also produces beer.
If anyone wants to fund me, I'll be glad to go and make a report upon
my return.
Kieran O'Connor
oconnor@snycorva
ioconnor@sunrise.acs.syr.edu
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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1991 18:43:59 +0000
From: Conn Copas <C.V.Copas@loughborough.ac.uk>
Subject: Re : The great aluminium debate
I can verify Father Barleywine's lack of concern about aluminium. A while
back, I was experimenting with mashing various flours in the presence of
various enzymes. I left one of the mashes overnight in an aluminium boiler.
What had previously been a translucent liquid was now grey, ie, it was full
of aluminium salts. Possessing a somewhat perverse nature (if you hadn't
already guessed), I decided to ferment this mess and see what happened. The
brew settled out crystal clear. This has led me at least to question the
wisdom of draining the dregs from bottled brews in the name of health !
Conn V Copas tel : (0509)263171 ext 4164
Loughborough University of Technology fax : (0509)610815
Computer-Human Interaction Research Centre
Leicestershire LE11 3TU e-mail -
G Britain (Janet):C.V.Copas@uk.ac.lut
(Internet):C.V.Copas%lut.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 91 14:05:44 -0500
From: Steve Seaney <seaney@robios2.me.wisc.edu>
Subject: Guniess Stout Recipe Request
I am looking to a genuine Guiness Stout recipe. I would like the beer`
to taste like it does in Ireland (Not good old USA). Can anyone
lend me a little bit of assistance?
BTW: Although I am not an 'all grain brewer' I have had some experience
with a partial mash.
Thanks a lot!
Steve Seaney
- -- Steven Seaney (seaney@robios.me.wisc.edu)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 1991 18:03:48 EDT
From: FATHER BARLEYWINE <rransom@bchm1.aclcb.purdue.edu>
Subject: I asked for the abuse, didn't I?
Well to those of you who care, my address is:
rransom@aclcb.purdue.edu
My name is Richard Ransom, and I can only think that the nasty VMS system that
I must work through is the cause of this confusion. My address is probably
properly expressed as 'rransom@bchm1.aclcb.purdue.edu', since I must log into
bchm1 to get online, but as far as a mailing address is concerned, don't
include the bchm1.
In reply to the bounced messages, I don't use a part of the yeast from
the fermenter, but the whole stinking mess, trub and all. I feel that
transferring the yeast is pushing my 'brewing without sanity' practices beyond
their rational limits. The reasons: first, the yeast stays under the last
batch of beer (yes, lagering until I get up the gumption to make another
batch) in safety, and then when the beer is sucked off, it stays under a
cushion of CO2, and in fact farts out some more, so there is a continual drift
of CO2 coming out the top of the fermenter and gently wafting away the airborne
spores. This lasts at least 20 minutes, so with this as a safety limit, I have
experienced no problems with hammering on a new batch of wort. Transferring
the yeast adds some problems: you expose the yeast to the air, you assume
that the container it goes into is clean, and you assume that the transfer
implements are also clean. Too many assumptions for me.
There are several reasons why this works for me (and I hope it's not
'absolutely wrong').
1. I use Whitbread Ale yeast, dry from the package. Whitbread has
several nice things about it that keep me buying it. It comes
in 14 g packages, twice the normal dry yeast size. It makes
a mean ale (speak to my friends). It ferments quickly but
controllably (i.e. no huge head shooting out the top of the
fermenter) through the primary and ferments out the fermentable
sugars in the 'secondary' (I don't transfer to one, I just
call the late stages of fermentation a secondary)...I've
made a barley wine (my namesake!) with a starting gravity of
1.140 and it ended up at 1.030....needless to say a favorite.
Finally, the yeast/trub cake is a nice, solid mass; no fluffy
stuff, and in general so compact that I can recover all the
beer I put on it (I even thought of _pouring_ off my beer).
2. I reuse the cakes, so the yeast concentration is sooooo high that
any other organisms just never have a chance. These puppies
are fermenting within hours, and I've never had a bad batch
from contamination while using this method. I _have_ had
bad batches resulting from: poor ingredients, poopy yeast
(not Whitbread), and especially high temperature fermentations.
Let me stress the last reason. Keep Cool!
3. I ferment everything as cold as possible. I made a lager once
using the ale yeast and a frankly ale recipe (it was even
dark dark brown) by slapping the fermenter immediatly after
filling it (onto an old cake) into 40 degree farenheit temps
and leaving it there for 4 months. It did ferment, and I hope
I have access to that particular refrigerator again. Every
(and I mean every) beer I've made that was of the Nectar of
the Gods category was made either in the refrigerator all the
way through or in a poorly insulated basement in the winter.
Frankly, summer (and especially Indiana summer) sucks for
brewing.
4. I don't sanitize _anything_. Yes guys, nothing. I won't beat it
into the ground again (see HBD #600 (I think) and recent
diatribes).
5. I think nice thoughts about my beer.
Sorry, just reading that last letter got me stirred up. I wish I could send
you all a bottle of my last Scrofolous Red Ale, but we drank it savagely and
my last batches got left while I PhD'd all summer in the sweltering heat (and
they taste like it). Don't think that I never went through the 'bleach bleach
sulfite bleach bleach' phase...I used to do sterile tissue culture, and being
anally retentive is a byword in that sort of work. I personally think that
temperature is the bane of most of those attacked by foreign organisms...yeasts
don't mind near-refrigerator temperatures nearly as much as the typical mold
or bacterium, and every degree closer to 98 degrees increases the chance of
some nasty little thang adding that stamp of undrinkablity to your beers.
So do as you feel you must, but try the insane sometime and raise a
glass of the resulting beer to me (but don't send any to me if it goes off).
Love and kisses...
Father B [rransom@aclcb.purdue.edu]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 91 21:46:14 -0700
From: darryl@ism.isc.com (Darryl Richman)
Subject: re: Natural conditions for enzymes
> From: flowers@csrd.uiuc.edu
> >In fact, we should be grateful that some deviation is necessary. For if the
> >conditions required for making beer were too "natural", then all the grains
> >would be turning themselves into beer in the fields, and then where would we
> >be??? :-)
> Heaven?
Nonsense. Everyone knows that in Heaven there is no beer, that's why
we drink it here.
--Darryl Richman
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 91 21:50:44 -0700
From: darryl@ism.isc.com (Darryl Richman)
Subject: re: Baltic Beer?
> > P.S. I'd like to propose that the Homebrew Digest recognize the Baltic
> > states as independent republics.
> Now hold on just a minute here. Freedom, independence, security and dignity
> are fine, but what about the things that really matter? Before we go jumping on
> any political bandwagons, we need answers to a few questions.
Michael Jackson wrote a three part essay on his sojourn into Latvia searching
for the lost Porter. Alas, the brewery still exists, but those damn commies
have long ago cut out the porter. Maybe with the proper encouragement, we
will once again be blessed with the black drink from the Baltic...
--Darryl Richman
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #715, 09/03/91
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