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HOMEBREW Digest #0727
This file received at Mthvax.CS.Miami.EDU 91/09/19 03:10:47
HOMEBREW Digest #727 Thu 19 September 1991
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Momily (Jack Schmidling)
Soy Boy (TSAMSEL)
hops comments ("Ihor W. Slabicky")
hyrometer (Russ Gelinas)
re: scales (Darryl Richman)
Freezing your hop harvest (Jeff J. Miller)
Re: scales (Chris Shenton)
priming & stirring (Michael Zentner)
Flat beer rescues (Tom Dimock)
Hydrometer question (ingr!b11!mspe5!guy)
Christmas brew recipe (ingr!b11!mspe5!guy)
Re: Homebrew Digest #692 (August 01, 1991) ("Jeffrey T. Strnad")
Help downloading files to a PC (READMORE.INC)
berry beers (mcnally)
Dry Ice Priming, immediate response requested!!! (S94TAYLO)
Seattle (mcnally)
Sierra Nevada yeasties (davidsan)
London pubs (Dances with Workstations)
all-grain efficiency/all-grain to extract recipe conversion (Tony Babinec)
Garbage and Plastic Fermentors (Dave Rose)
Re: (David J. Murphy)
Re Soya Sauce (David J. Murphy)
Brewpub coming for District of Columbia (David J. Murphy)
AA measurement + peristaltic pumps (korz)
Hop growing (Seattle) (Norm Hardy)
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 91 23:45 CDT
From: arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling)
Subject: Momily
To: Homebrew Digest
Fm: Jack Schmidling
Subject: Another Momily?
I was roundly criticized by the first "expert" to review the
preliminary cut of "BREW IT AT HOME" and I am wondering if
the fraternity is suffering from another "momily". (That's
one of those things we believe because mom said so.)
He refused to believe that the beer made in the video could
have been drinkable because I let the syphon outfall drop
into the priming vessel. (Great shot, beautiful billowing
foam, nice splashing sound.)
He was particularly outraged at the foam. When I reminded
him that the foam was CO2 and building a nice anerobic
blanket over the beer, he just shook his head and dared me
to bring him a bottle of the beer but that is another story.
My thoughts on the subject are as follows:
1. The amount of surface area exposed to air in the narrow
column of falling beer is trivial and steadily shrinking.
2. The CO2 blanket keeps rising to cover more and more of
the column making exposure to air, near zero near the end.
3. If the pros inject oxygen while pitching yeast and
homebrewers are supposed to splash it around to oxygenate at
pitching time, what harm can a little oxygen do when we want
to re-invigorate the fermentation at bottling time?
Jack Schmidling
P.S. He also claims that a tsp of vitimin C at bottling
time will cure the ills of oxygenation. Any thoughts?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1991 7:06:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: TSAMSEL@ISDRES.ER.USGS.GOV
Subject: Soy Boy
Try Bill Shurtlieff's (and his wife's) books on soy products:
The Books of TOFU/MISO/TEMPEH (3 of them)
Good info onon oriental fermentations(s)
Ted
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 08:58:33 -0400
From: "Ihor W. Slabicky" <iws@sgfb.ssd.ray.com>
Subject: hops comments
I haven't tried growing hops, but I just finished reading a book
about an old English garden at Barton's End, in Kent, England.
They mention that hops were grown by the Barton's and other
Kentish farmers. The hop fields used to be burned to get rid
of aphid infestations. Hops have male and female plants. You
really should have one or two male plants and many female plants
to have a lot of hops.
Aphid infestations have been mentioned here, but I don't think
that anyone has mentioned anything about the male/female plants.
When you order hop rhizomes, are you give the choice of which
you get? Do you get whatever happens to be there when they pack
your order?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1991 9:30:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: R_GELINAS@UNHH.UNH.EDU (Russ Gelinas)
Subject: hyrometer
Another good use for a hydrometer is to check the results of a mash. For
instance, I mashed a pale ale, and wanted it to be dry (ie. low mash temp to
give a more fermentable wort). Well, with the help of a hydrometer, I
realized that I was too succesful; FG was 1.005, down from 1.038. So next
time I'll mash at a little higher temp. I probably would have realized that it
was too dry by tasting it, but without the help of the hydrometer, I might
not have been able to pinpoint the problem at the mash (it could have been a
dry astringency caused by grain tannins, for example). So scientific "stuff"
has it's uses.
On the other hand, I never weigh hops.
Mike L.: Great Bart, man!
Russ Gelinas
OPAL/ESP at UNH
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 06:39:27 -0700
From: darryl@ism.isc.com (Darryl Richman)
Subject: re: scales
I have two scales. One is a food scale, one of those cheap spring
scales that is intended for weighing out food portions. It has no
claim to accuracy--my experience tells me it's accurate to about 2
ounces, with a range of up to 10 lbs. It has a plastic tray which
holds just over 2 lbs. of malt. The other scale is an old triple beam
gram scale that I use for hops, water salts, and occassionally for very
small amounts of grain. This is accurate to 1/20 gram, so it is useful
for other hobbies like coke dealing on the side. (Honest, officer,
that big jar is full of white powder is gypsum! I just call it "rock"
because it is! ;-) I have a student balance also, good for 1/2 gram
accuracy, which I bought before I got the triple beam from a friend.
If anyone wants to make an offer on it, it's in very good shape and
retails for $50...
--Darryl Richman
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 8:50:35 CDT
From: jmiller@anubis.network.com (Jeff J. Miller)
Subject: Freezing your hop harvest
For all of you people that are interrested in starting to grow your own
hops, maybe you can learn from some of my mistakes. I also have a question
about harvesting.
For the past two years I have grown my hops at the back of my garden and
used lattice work to support there growth. This works ok but the harvesting
ends up taking LOTS of time because the vine weaves between every cross
member. I think the string idea might work better in that I would imagine
that you coule simply cut the string and slide the vine off of it (comments
from anyone?). One good thing about the lattice is that when the vines
reach the top (10') they mushroom all over it. I got a record 6 1/4 pound
harvest (wet weight) this year from the one vine that actually survived and
probably half of this harvest was mounded around the top.
Another problem is that as the root gets larger it pops new growth EVERYWHERE!
I've been thinking of surrounding the hops with something to block their
expansion but a little forethought would probably make control easier.
My question: It took me close to 12 hours to harvest all of the hops and
I really didn't have any idea how I might dry that many. Since I have
successfully used the hops straight off the vine I decided that I could
pack the hops into freezer bags and freeze them fresh. Has anybody else
every tried this method of hop preservation?
- --
Jeff Miller Network Systems Corporation
Internetwork Group 7600 Boone Avenue North
jmiller@anubis.network.com Minneapolis MN 55428 (612)424-4888
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 09:58:34 EDT
From: Chris Shenton <chris@asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: scales
On Tue, 17 Sep 1991 14:54:01 -0400 (EDT), R_GELINAS@UNHH.UNH.EDU (Russ Gelinas) said:
Russ> What do the rest of you all-grain brewers use for a scale?
I use a Sohnle (or something like that). It was about $15-$20 at a kitchen
store in a mall. It seems to be pretty well constructed: your basic German
engineering... Capacity is 4 pounds, so it's a slight bother to do my
double (10 gallon) batches. I seem to recall it's got marks down to 1 or 2
ounce increments.
OK, my turn: what do people use to measure the small stuff, like hops or
chemicals? I use one of those cheesey drug scales (no comments, please)
with the alligator clip and the quarter-circle ruler-guage thing, but doubt
it's accuracy.
Bis spaeter!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 09:04:52 -0500
From: zentner@ecn.purdue.edu (Michael Zentner)
Subject: priming & stirring
Danny Breidenbach writes two digests ago about stirring.
I say, stir till your heart's content! Stirring is NOT going to cause
any problems. By stirring, I mean establishing circulating currents,
and not breaking the liquid surface while doing this (stirring gently).
If you don't cause any "choppiness" on the surface, the O2 introduced
is minimal. If it'll make you feel better about your mixing, go right
ahead and stir (again, gently).
I've used three methods for bottling: Plain bottling bucket, bottling
carboy, and spigoted bucket with bottle filler. By far, my favourite
method is using a second carboy. It's more reliably sanitized than
plastic buckets, and the siphon tube does not come flopping out of the
wort if you pull on it the wrong way. As for the bottle filler, it
saves me no time and is an additional sanitation hassle. Before a
level of brew is established on the bottom of the bottle, a significant
amount of O2 is introduced as well. Simply letting my siphon hose
slowly trickle down the side of the bottle has not so far caused
any aerobic/oxidation problems. Just my opinions, but use whatever
makes you happy...that's the most important thing.
Mike Zentner zentner@ecn.purdue.edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 09:55:44 EDT
From: Tom Dimock <RGG@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Flat beer rescues
Several homebrewers have recently reported brews that did not carbonate
well, if at all. My experience closely matches that of Dave Klein in
HBD 726. I finally swallowed hard, unbottled all of the beer (a very
hoppy ale which had been fermented with MeV English Ale yeast) back
into my priming bucket, repitched it with a starter of Whitbread dry
ale yeast and re-primed it with 3/4 cup of corn sugar. Then back
into fresh bottles. A week later it produces a head (YAYY!) and is
quite drinkable. So don't throw it away yet, Dave......
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 9:40:14 CDT
From: ingr!ingr!b11!mspe5!guy@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Hydrometer question
Greg Wageman writes:
> You do a disservice to homebrewers of the scientific bent to suggest
> that hydrometers are only useful for determining alcohol content. When
> attempting to replicate someone else's recipe it is useful to know if
> you've achieved the same O.G. as they, and the hydrometer allows one to
> adjust it if necessary.
All valid points on hydrometer use. I have never used one thus far in my
brewing but I think I'll buy one and start. Now, let's say that I've just
brewed up a batch of whatever using someone else's recipe. I take a hydrometer
reading and, lo and behold, my specific gravity is off the mark by several
points. So what? At this point there is absolutely nothing I can do. I'm
certainly not going to toss the batch because I didn't hit it on the head. It
will give me an idea of how close I came but my point is that the hydrometer
has bought me nothing in the way of being able to fix *this* batch. I am an
extract/adjunct brewer and I think I can see where a hydrometer would be of a
great deal more service for all-grain brewers. As I said though, I am going
to buy a hydrometer and start using it. I am adding several pieces of brewing
equipment to my inventory and that is one thing that I had intended to add
all along. Just playing devil's advocate.
- --
==============================================================================
Guy D. McConnell, Systems Engineer | |"All that is gold does not
Intergraph Corp. Mail Stop CR1105 | My | glitter, not all those who
Huntsville, AL. 35894-0001 | opinions | wander are lost, the old
Computer and Storage Technology | are just | that is strong does not
Evaluation Group | exactly | wither, and deep roots are
uunet!ingr.com!b11!mspe5!guy | that. | not touched by the frost."
(205)730-6289 FAX (205)730-6011 | | J.R.R.T.
==============================================================================
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 9:51:24 CDT
From: ingr!ingr!b11!mspe5!guy@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Christmas brew recipe
Mike Barker writes:
> Over the last few weeks there have been a number of
> mentions of Christmas beers. I thought that this year I
> would try one of these beers, however, there seems to be a
> lack of recipes. The one in the Cat's Meow doesn't appear
> to be that different. I am sure that I am not alone with
> this problem. What I would like to suggest is that the
> next few issues of the Digest carry some favourite
> Christmas recipes and favourite Christmas brews.
I'll bite. I brewed a Christmas beer based unashamedly on Phil Flemming's
recipe that was posted in this forum. I made some adjustments to move it a
few degrees towards a darker beer and I toned down the spices a bit since this
was my first attempt at a spiced beer. I mistakenly put in a cup of Black
Patent malt instead of 1/2 cup because I ordered it that way and I forgot until
after I had added it. I will be bottling it this coming weekend and I'll have
a taste at that time. Here it is:
Christmas in Ireland
5 Gallons
4 pounds Mountmellick Irish Stout Extract
3 pounds Munton & Fison Amber DME
1/2 pound ( 2 cups ) Crystal Malt ( 60 Lovibond )
1/4 pound ( 1 cup ) Black Patent Malt
1 ounce Bullions hops ( bittering - 55 minutes )
1/2 ounce Hallertau hops ( finishing - 5 minutes )
1 pound Clover Honey
12 inches Cinnamon sticks ( or 6 tsp ground cinnamon )
4 ounces Ginger Root, freshly peeled and grated
2 tsp. Allspice
1 tsp. Cloves
4 each Grated rinds from medium size oranges
1 package WYeast #1084 Irish Stout Yeast
Simmer honey and spices in covered pot for 45 minutes.
Add cracked grains to 2 gallons cold water and bring to a boil. As
soon as boiling starts, remove grains with a strainer. Add malt
extracts and bittering hops and boil for 55 minutes. Add finishing
hops and boil for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in honey
and spice mixture and cool. Strain into fermenter containing 3
gallons cold (previously boiled) water and pitch yeast. After
vigorous primary fermentation subsides, rack into secondary. Bottle
with 7oz. corn sugar or 1.25 cups DME when fermentation completes.
* * * * * * * * * * *
* * * MERRY CHRISTMAS * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
As I said, I haven't tried it yet but it smells great. I hope it will
become a favorite. Enjoy.
- --
==============================================================================
Guy D. McConnell, Systems Engineer | |"All that is gold does not
Intergraph Corp. Mail Stop CR1105 | My | glitter, not all those who
Huntsville, AL. 35894-0001 | opinions | wander are lost, the old
Computer and Storage Technology | are just | that is strong does not
Evaluation Group | exactly | wither, and deep roots are
uunet!ingr.com!b11!mspe5!guy | that. | not touched by the frost."
(205)730-6289 FAX (205)730-6011 | | J.R.R.T.
==============================================================================
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1991 11:11:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Jeffrey T. Strnad" <js1j+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest #692 (August 01, 1991)
hi....
can you please explain how to access the archives for this list? i
guess that contains the back issues of the digest, right?
thanks
------------------------------
Date: Wed 18 Sep 1991 11:41:27
From: READMORE@REMO1.READMORE (READMORE.INC)
Subject: Help downloading files to a PC
I've been having a problem downloading files from the archives. I'm on a PC usn(oops) using software from FTP called PC/TCP.
The problem is I pulled down the INDEX without a problem. When I tried to
pull down some of the other files they came out as jiberish (didn't download
as ASCII or didn't convert correctly to ASCII, possibilities??).
In which format are the files stored??
Are they in a compressed form??
How do I get to those files??
I MUST SEARCH OUT AND EXPLORE STRANGE NEW BEERS,
TO BOLDY GO WHERE NO TASTEBUDS HAVE GONE BEFORE.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Meade Eggleston
meggleston@readmore.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 08:49:04 -0700
From: mcnally@Pa.dec.com
Subject: berry beers
If we're going to brag about our bizarre berry beers, then I'll gladly
join in. The batch I made started with a mild all-grain wort, involving
2-row and some unmalted wheat flakes. It was mildly hopped with
Hallertauer hops. I fermented it for about a week with Chimay yeast,
then racked it over ten (!) pounds of boysenberries and added 2 pounds
of honey. The second fermentation lasted about another week. I then
racked into another carboy and added some dry Goldings hops and a couple
handfuls of French oak chips, and let it relax for about three weeks.
The result is, as you might guess, thoroughly bizarre. It's really,
really red; about the color of Big Red cream soda, in fact. It has
a very crisp carbonation and a tart, complex flavor. The bouquet is
really amazing.
I'd do this again, for sure. I've just recently bottled a Weizen
that was re-fermented with 6 pounds of picked-from-a-friend's-tree
peaches. To this one I added 8 oz of lactose to balance the acid
tang of the fruit, and I think it's going to turn out well.
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike McNally mcnally@wsl.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation
Western Software Lab
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 11:16 EST
From: <S94TAYLO%USUHSB.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Dry Ice Priming, immediate response requested!!!
Has anyone tried to prime with Dry ice? If so, how much, in grams is needed
to carbonate already saturated room temperature fully fermented apple cider.
Also, please comment on reported off flavors contributed by the dry ice.
Thanks for any information!
Al Taylor
Uniformed Services University
School of Medicine
Bethesda, Maryland
s94taylor@usuhsb.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 09:49:49 -0700
From: mcnally@Pa.dec.com
Subject: Seattle
Thanks to everybody that sent me information about beer in Seattle.
I've returned from my two-day business trip there. I was pretty busy,
so I was only able to visit four brewpubs (well, some are pubs serving
beer made nextdoor): Trolleyman, Big Time, Kirkland Roaster, and the
Pacific something-or-other downtown. I was impressed that so many
places served cask-conditioned ales (even Trolleyman, where I
experienced cask RedHook ESB).
I also found Libery Malt Supply, which was a fabulous experience. They
don't have a catalog yet, but they're building a mailing list. They
carry an amazing variety of English, Belgian, and German malts (including
Rachmalz, for those who want to make BBQ beer). I also noticed little
1lb bags of roasted rye. Wow.
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike McNally mcnally@wsl.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation
Western Software Lab
------------------------------
Date: Wed Sep 18 10:41:01 PDT 1991
From: davidsan@microsoft.com
Subject: Sierra Nevada yeasties
People have been conversing much on the topic of culturing yeasties from
SNPA bottles. What I'm curious about is the possibility that SN uses
a different yeast for its bottle-conditioning, so you're getting a
different yeast out of the bottle than they actually use for their
fermentation. Does this sound like a possiblity?
=============================
Dave Sanderman -- davidsan@microsoft.com
"My brain's a hand grenade--Catch!" -- Ice-T
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 13:33:58 -0400
From: buchman@marva1.dco.DEC.COM (Dances with Workstations)
Subject: London pubs
Sorry to put out yet another request for info that was probably covered
in the past, but....
A friend of mine is going to London and Genoa and would like to know about
good pubs in either place (especially London). He's not a brewer but he does
appreciate good beer. He would also like to know when and where to
catch Oktoberfest. I've heard that is that it is in Munich in the first
and second weekends of October. Is this right, and is Munich the only place,
and are those the only weekends? Anything else you can tell us about
Oktoberfest in Germany?
My friend flies out on Friday, so if you could reply directly to me I'd
appreciate it.
Come to think of it, I'd also like to find out whether there are any good
Oktoberfest celebrations in the Maryland/Va/Pa area. The Pennsylvania
Dutch *must* celebrate it in some small way.
Pumpkin beer is in the carboy.... it smells like pumpkin pie.
Thanks,
Jim Buchman
buchman@marva1.enet.dec.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 14:24:04 CDT
From: tony@spss.com (Tony Babinec)
Subject: all-grain efficiency/all-grain to extract recipe conversion
Recent HBD entries have talked about extract efficiency. Also, someone
posed the question about substituting extract for grain, or vice
versa.
My experience with all-grain brewing efficiency matches others. If
the theoretical extract yield is 35 points SG per pound per gallon, or
7 points SG per pound in a 5-gallon batch, I have routinely attained
about 30 points SG per pound per gallon, or 6 points SG per pound in a
5 gallon batch. These numbers refer to basic pale malts, such as
6-row American, Klages malt, German pilsner malt, or pale ale malt.
Properly cracked malt is an important success factor for brewing.
Homebrewers I have known have obtained pre-cracked malt that turned
out to be poorly cracked, with consequent loss of efficiency. Also,
sparging is important. I've had conversations at our homebrew
gatherings in which someone tells me that it took 25 minutes to
sparge, and I have to think that's not enough time. You should be
recirculating the wort to clarify it, and then topping it off with
sparge water at the correct temperature and volume. Sparging ought
to take around an hour or more.
To convert between extract recipes and all-grain recipes, an
approximate guide is that 4 parts pale grain equals 3 parts of dry
malt extract. Using these numbers, it is easy for the extract brewer
to make the transitional step to partial mashing. Specialty grains,
such as crystal malt, chocolate malt, or black malt, can be added to
the boil water prior to boil, and then strained from the boil water
before addition of extract (and before boil), OR mashed with the pale
grain. In the absence of a real lauter tun, at least pour the
sweet wort through the mash grain a few times. Colanders and/or
spaghetti strainers work well here. Specialty grain amounts in a recipe
can be the same, regardless of whether it is an extract, partial mash,
or all-grain mash.
The above are rules of thumb. I highly endorse the use of a
hydrometer along with Dr. Bob Technical's Amazing Wheel of Wort (the
latter available through AHA or found in brewing supply stores) to
determine your own process capability relative to these norms. I
believe that you should "relax and don't worry," but it's nice to brew
to a target style and approximately attain it in a way that is
approximately replicable. Plus, you'll be well on your way to
formulating your own recipes, even if you use a published one as a
starting point.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1991 15:31 EDT
From: Dave Rose <CHOLM@HUBIO2.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: Garbage and Plastic Fermentors
Hello. First, an apology and a plea for help. Apparently many or
all of my postings (maybe this one too) have been marred by garbage
characters which come up whenever I hit 'backspace.' I don't see them
either when entering the message or when reading it later. Apparently
I've got some terminal emulation problem that is causing this. I'm using
an IBM running Procomm Plus (home) and a Mac running Versaterm Pro (work) to
log into a VAX running VMS. Any suggestions are welcome, and I'm sorry for
using space to ask what is essentially a non-beer-related question.
But, on to beer. Has anyone out there used *plastic* carboys as
fermentors? I am talking about clear blue (looks like polycarbonate) water
containers. I usually use glass but a stepped-up brewing schedule and
some slower-than-usual fermentations have tied them all up. Also the plastic
ones would be a cheap alternative, since I get them for a $5 deposit from
my water company. I've used them to hold beer temporarily (like between
the secondary and the bottle, when mixing in the priming sugar) but have
been too chicken to try a full fermentation. Any braver souls out there?
Sorry if this posting is filled with /010's. Unfortunately I rely very
heavily on the backspace key....
Dave Ros
(that's Rose)
CHOLM@HUBIO2.HARVARD.EDU
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 17:02:44 EDT
From: David J. Murphy <djmurphy@wam.umd.edu>
Subject: Re:
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 17:07:09 EDT
From: David J. Murphy <djmurphy@wam.umd.edu>
Subject: Re Soya Sauce
John Buchanan in HBD #726 asked about making soya sauce.
Here is a description of making soy sace in the Japanese village of
Shinohata, circa 1975. The author notes that only four or five families
still made their own and that the rest of them relied on the commercial
sauces.
"You started with equal volumes of soya [soy] beans boiled enough to
be soft, and wheat roughly ground into a very course flour--in the
average houshold about 15 kilogrammes of each. This you entrusted to
a specialist in the next hamlet who kept it in a sealed room at the right
temperature, injected the right sort of yeast and so 'put flowers on
it [nice phrase].' Then, having got it back home, you added equal
quantities of salt and water, and miscellaneous other things according
to taste--left over rice, some monosodium glutimate, etc.--stirred
vigorously and left it in a shed for a year to let nature take its
course, aided by a vigorous stir from any passer-by who happened to
think of it; the more frequent and energetic the stirring, the more
impressively the mixture would rumble and erupt. When it was thought
to be finally ripe you ladled the concoction into especially strong
muslin bags and rigged up a screw-jack (locally known as a 'giraffe'
[ the word for 'giraffe' is the same as the one for 'dragon'])
above it to squeeze all the liquid out. Finally, to make it go
further, you boiled that up with extra water, using a thing like a
thermometer which measured salt content, to tell you when you were
letting your lust for quantity--your fear that your soya sauce would not
last the year and you would be forced to *buy* some--go to far at the
expense of quality. Several of the hamlet's neighbourhood groups kept a
set of this equipment in common, though that caused occasional problems
when someone in the neighbourhood, over-desperately keen to get the last
drop from the mixture, would screw the jack to tight and split an
expensive bag."
(Ronald P. Dore, _Shinohata: A Potrait of a Japanese Village_, New York:
Pantheon, 1978, pp.80-81.)
- --dave murphy <djmurphy@wam.umd.edu>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 17:13:08 EDT
From: David J. Murphy <djmurphy@wam.umd.edu>
Subject: Brewpub coming for District of Columbia
>From the Washington (D.C.) POST of Friday last:
"The District's liquor laws have been revised to allow the
opening of a brewpub within in the city, and the first is expected to
appear in April 1992. Capitol [sic] City Brewing Company plans to
open at 1100 New York Avenue Northwest, which [some] might
remember as the (now 'historic') Greyhound Station. [It is a deco
style building that had been saved from the wrecker and turned
into the "lobby" of a new office building. It is right by the
Convention Center & close to the old downtown.]
"Owners of this brewpub-to-be are David Storch [he has owned a
few nightclubs in the D.C. area], and Jack Keniley, who ran
Philadelphia's Dock Street Brewing Company and is bringing along a
brewmaster from that pub."
...by the way, has anyone heard anything new about the brewwpub
that was trying to get going in Alexandria, Virgina?
- --dave murphy internet: djmurphy@wam.umd.edu
university of maryland at college park
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 15:38 CDT
From: ihlpl!korz@att.att.com
Subject: AA measurement + peristaltic pumps
Here are two questions I've tried asking in the past, but they
either got lost (HBD718) or noone had any data at the time (I guess):
1. Is there a way to measure the Alpha Acid % of hops in the privacy
of our homes?
2. Does anyone know of a supplier of peristaltic pumps ("hose pumps")
that has small (1 gal/min is ok), reasonably priced (under $100)
pumps? A pump like this would end my racking hose sanitation woes
forever!!!
Al.
korz@ihlpl.att.com
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Date: Wed, 18 Sep 91 16:33:03 PDT
From: polstra!norm@uunet.UU.NET (Norm Hardy)
Subject: Hop growing (Seattle)
I concur with the articles about hop growing in your own backyard.
This year, the 5th year of growing hops, found 3 varieties being harvested:
(1) Hallertau (1 plant) - 10 oz dried
(2) Cascade (1 plant) - 9 oz dried
(3) Herzbrucher (4 plants) - 12 oz dried
The cones were just starting to turn brown (actually just a few) and the
harvest was done in three successive days. Drying was novel this year:
I put each variety on a window screen and placed in inside my car, sitting
in the sun for the day (inside temp 115f). Only a few hops were in direct
sunlight. The windows were obviously closed. Seemed to work quite well
and the bagging into the freezer bags (with Seal-a-meal) went well also.
The Cascade hop is in its 3rd year. Last year it produced 53 cones (.25 oz).
The Hallertau had 3 others like it, but the dog ate one and winter got the
other 2. The Hallertau is 5 years active here.
The Herzbruchers are the best lager hops of the bunch with an Alpha of
(estimated after several batches) of 4-5 AAU. They are 5 years old here.
I used rabbit droppings for occasional fertilizer and lots of water.
Finally, the car smelled great for a week.
Norm Hardy
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #727, 09/19/91
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