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HOMEBREW Digest #0997
This file received at Sierra.Stanford.EDU 92/10/23 00:35:23
HOMEBREW Digest #997 Fri 23 October 1992
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Windbags, again, Tapper (Jack Schmidling)
terms, koji, and #1000 (Michael Galloway)
Chimay ("Mark Rich-mpr8a@acadvm1.uottawa.ca")
Malt Storage (How Long is To Long?) (JCHISM)
Sam "Boston" LawyerPig Adams? (craigman)
re: boil ALL the water ("Steven D. Brown")
Beer Engines ("Jack D. Hill")
used terms (Tom Leith MIR/ERL 362-6965)
Wheat Beer Validity ("Rad Equipment")
Medicine-y taste (palladin)
"Making Beer", by William Mares (pmiller)
Acid wash (James P. Buchman)
re:yeast attenuation (jim busch)
Recipe requests (7226 Lacroix)
Small breweries in Southern Germany (sbsgrad)
Beer Evaluation (Tom Bower)
Re: terms (korz)
HBD Field Report #1: Information Sources (Phillip Seitz)
cloves in pale ale (Michael Lewandowski)
yeast nutrient for mead (Rob Bradley)
Malting your own grain from Micah Millspaw ("Bob Jones")
chlorine/stuck ferment cures (Brian Bliss)
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (SynCAccT)
Beerstone (C.R. Saikley)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 92 23:00 CDT
From: arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling)
Subject: Windbags, again, Tapper
To: Homebrew Digest
Fm: Jack Schmidling
>From: matth@bedford.progress.com
>Subject: Digest 992 and Jack's perfect brews
In today's digest, #992, Jack S. Says:
> How can you possibly suggest that I would make beer that I do not like?
>> I wish I could attain that type of consistent perfection!
You have taken the statement out of context and ignored the whole point of
the discussion. It was suggested that I don't care what my beer tastes like
as long as it is clear and I was responding to that absurd notion.
............
I counted to 10 (waited for two more Digests to see if anyone else would
speak out) before responding to this, so you all can save your heat. I
thought it out clearly and mean exactly what I am about to say.
>From: iepubj!korz@ihlpa.att.com
>Chris Cook asks about how to try a lot of recipes without becoming an
alcoholic:
>>Mashing gets simpler, I guess, but all my stuff assumes at least
>5 pounds of grain. I expect the 44 quart cooler/lauter tun will
>get cumbersome quickly, for example. Jack, you're Easymash may
>be the best bet.
>I disagree. With very little grain in the bottom of the pot, your
grain bed would still be very shallow.
So far so good but he could use a tall/skinny pot.
> This would also accentuate the poor extract efficiency of the Easymash
system -- its biggest design flaw is that the runoff is drawn from a very
limited area of the grain bed.
I find this totally unfounded statement, not only factually wrong but just
about the lowest this group has slithered to bring personal animosities into
the discussion on home brewing.
to maintain any semblence of keeping
commercialism out of the discussions. When a product of mine is publicly
trashed, I reserve the right to publicly defend it.
The range of extract efficiency over about thirty batches made with an EM has
been between 26 and 31. Most of the variation was caused by improper
measurement technique and basic measurement error. The most recent 5 batches
have been 29 exactly, all five of them. There are those who claim to get
higher efficiencies and no doubt do, on occasion.
However, the EASYMASHER
was designed to make it easy for the extract brewer to transition to
all-grain with the minimum additional equipment and a fool-proof process that
is guaranteed to produce a good beer, the first time, with no hangups. I
suspect that most beginners and many old timers would be delighted with an
extract efficiency of 29.
The alleged "design flaw" is only seen as one, by someone who has never used
an EM and hasn't the foggiest idea of what he is talking about, but
interested only in stroking his own ego.
As a result of the extremely efficient screening device, the mash runs clear
after only an ounce or two are run through, instead of the more usual
recycling of quarts or gallons of turbid runoff.
Not only does this get things under way with minimum effort but it allows one
to stir the entire mash, all the way down to the bottom as often as one feels
like it during the sparging process. This keeps re-suspending the grain so
that the sugar is in a solution that is continually being diluted by the
sparge water so that by the time sparging is complete, the remaining liquid,
throughout the entire grain bed, is so dilute as to make the location of the
out-flow totally irrelevant.
The only "flaws" in the system seem to be that it is too simple, it works too
well and it was developed by the "World's Greatest Brewer".
>From: "CBER::MRGATE::\"A1::RIDGELY\""@CBER.CBER.FDA.GOV
>This past weekend I acquired a 2 1/2 gallon mini-keg called a "Reynolds
Tapper." It has a built-in tap (labeled "Falstaff" which I assume is some
cheap Yankee beer :) and is barrel-shaped, meant to lie on its side, cask-
style. It is filled from one end, and the sealing cap has some funky
valves and a gas cylinder in it. It looks like the idea is, you fill this
with beer, stopper it, and charge the cylinder with enough CO2 to dispense
the brew. Neato.
Not quite. The CO2 cylinder is a throwaway and not meant to be refilled by
the user. These things went out of circulation about ten years ago as far as
I know. Fallstaff was a Midwestern beer, I can't recall who made it but
there was one other brewer who used the Tapper also. I have several of them,
all modified in various ways to make them re-usable. They are great for
small batches but I never found a source for that wierd CO2 cylinder and
their cost would probably make them impracticable. I just put a small
aircock on the keg and charged them from the regular tank.
In my rebirth as a hombrewer, I no longer wish to drink beer out of aluminum
so they are collecting dust in a corner. They were originally coated on the
inside but the coating has long since worn off and I probably drank it.
Probably explains why I am such a nice guy.
js
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 08:32:53 -0400
From: mgx@solid.ssd.ornl.gov (Michael Galloway)
Subject: terms, koji, and #1000
In issue #996 Victor Reijs asks:
>Because I am coming from Euroep, I have sometimes some problems with
>your wordinngs;-). Could somebody help me with the following:
>grist
>quart
>2#s dark brown sugar
>DMS
>wyeat 2112
Victor,
Grist is an amount of grain for grinding/crushing or the product obtained from
the grinding/crushing process. For our purposes, grist is crushed malted
barley and other adjuncts (roasted barley, etc).
A quart is a 'quarter' of a gallon. A gallon is 128 ounces (fluid).
2#s refers to pounds. The sharp, #, is the English symbol for the pound. One
pound is 16 ounces.
DMS is dimethylsulfide, well defined in issue #996.
WYeast #2112 is WYeast's 'high' temperature lager yeast. Usefull for making
steam beers. Are WYeast products available to you in the Netherlands?
In the same issue Victor also refers to koji as a type of yeast:
>If possible you can by at Japanes or Indian shops stuff which is called
>'koji' or 'ragie' (these are the words we are using in Holland). This
>is a kind of yeast which is able to fregment the strach of the rice.
Victor, koji is an enzyme, similar to alpha-amalase (sp ?) which is one of
the enzymes which converts the starchs in malted barley to sugars. Koji
converts the starchs in rice to fermentable sugars.
To Danny near Pierre SD: Although East Tennessee is somewhat more densely
populated than SD, I am afraid that I too will be drinking alone next Tuesday
(or Wednesday ?) when issue #1000 comes out.
Hey, have any of you netmongers out there tried to use IRC as a means of
discussing homebrewing issues? Just a thought.
Michael D. Galloway (mgx@solid.ssd.ornl.gov)
v-(615)574-5785 f-(615)574-4143
Living in the WasteLand (of Beer, that is)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 08:44:37 EDT
From: "Mark Rich-mpr8a@acadvm1.uottawa.ca" <MPR8A@acadvm1.uottawa.ca>
Subject: Chimay
Greetings...
I live in Ottawa, Canada. Last weekend I was visiting my local liquor sto
re, when I looked up on a shelf and noticed a 750 ml bottle of "Chimay" trappis
t ale. I hears all kinza great things about this stuff on the hbd so I figure:
Hey, sign me up. So I tenderly craddle the bottle all the way home so as not to
disturb the sediment, and put it on the balcony to chill lightly (it's @#$%*in
g cold up here!!!) and wait with anticipation. The moment of truth finally come
s, I light some candles on the mantle, place the bottle between them and give p
raise... then... POP! I gently pour a glassful into a wide-wine glass; raise it
to the light and observe the rich redness; wow! Then a nosefull, fruity and so
mewhat (newly coined smell term)-citrusy. Finally a sip... BLECH!!! Is this stu
ff suposed to taste like that? Please tell me it aint so... very sour, extremel
y bitter, and an awful aftertaste. I hope this was bad sample.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 08:52 EST
From: JCHISM%HSSCAM.decnet@NETVAX.MIS.SEMI.HARRIS.COM
Subject: Malt Storage (How Long is To Long?)
I was cleaning my garage out last weekend and found several cans of malt
that have been sitting in varying degrees of heat and cold for 2 to 3
years. They are Muton and Fison pale and have been through Texas summers
as well as Northeast PA winters in the garage. My question .... would
this malt still be brewable or should I toss it out? My brewing
equipment has also been in storage and is really dusty. What would be
the best way to clean this stuff? It is food grade plastic. Is there
a lifetime to food grade plastic, when do you know you need new containers?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Jami Chism
The Party Line BBS
(717) 868-5435
- -----
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 08:04:18 -0600
From: craigman@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
Subject: Sam "Boston" LawyerPig Adams?
I heard some rumor recently about the Boston Brewing Co. trying to
put under any microbreweries that include the name "Boston" in/on their
beer. Any evidence out there? Am I going to get sued for saying Boston on
the net, Jim? Guess what? Boston! Boston! Boston! Boston! Boston!
Boston!
// LizardArm \\
craigman@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Craig Anderson
------------------------------
Date: 22 Oct 92 09:38:27 EDT
From: "Steven D. Brown" <73030.3307@compuserve.com>
Subject: re: boil ALL the water
Before I boiled all my water that I use in brewing I also suffered
from the dreaded metal-medicine after taste in my beer. I now boil
all water I will be putting in my beer the night before and as a result
I have been acused of not using extract in my all extract brewing <GRIN>.
I did not originate this idea or think it up on my own but recieved this
wisdom from on high (read local home brew shop). At least for me all my
ales taste like ale now. Just another data point.
~~~~~~~~
Steve Brown 73030.3307@compuserve.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 9:47:04 EDT
From: "Jack D. Hill" <jdhill@BBN.COM>
Subject: Beer Engines
A question on hand pumps or beer engines:
Can anyone explain how beer engines work? What is used to displace the
volume taken up by the expelled beer? Can you get a beer engine for home use? I
understand that in England, beer is "conditioned" and contains still active
yeasts and is allowed to attain the perfect level of carbonation before
serving. Once tapped however, the beer must be served quickly. Is this due to
the fact that the beer engine causes the beer to age or go stale more quickly?
I've been seeing beer engines in use more lately. The Commonwealth Brewery in
Boston has quite a few of them and the new John Harvard Brewpub in Cambridge
has one. I've also seen a few on the west coast, the Lyon's Brewery in Dublin
CA to name one.
Jack Hill
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 09:18:25 -0500
From: trl@photos.wustl.edu (Tom Leith MIR/ERL 362-6965)
Subject: used terms
Hi Victor --
You asked for a few definitions:
Grist: Your "grist" is the mixture of various malts or other grains that
will be ground for brewing. The mixture after grinding is also
called "grist".
Quart: A unit of volume, very slightly smaller than a liter (litre?) It is
quart because it is 1/4 (one quarter) of a gallon.
# The sharp or hash-mark (#) is a symbol used to stand for "pound".
Pound: A measure of weight, about 1/2 kilogram.
Brown Cane sugar, less refined than the normal, white granulated stuff
Sugar: people use for baking, and in tea. It has molasses flavor. As
most flavors, you need to try it to really know. The less refining,
the darker in color it will be.
2# Dark Brown Sugar is, therefore 1 kilo of less-refined cane sugar.
DMS Dimethylsulfide. Smells like cooked cabbage. There's a good
explanation in today's (22-Oct) homebrew digest from Al Korz(?)
iepubj!korz@ihlpa.att.com
wyeast A brand and strain designation of brewer's yeast. The yeast
2112 will have to explain further...
t
------------------------------
Date: 22 Oct 92 07:21:16 U
From: "Rad Equipment" <rad_equipment@rad-mac1.ucsf.EDU>
Subject: Wheat Beer Validity
Reply to: Wheat Beer Validity
(Apologies if this shows up twice. I never got a confirmation from the Digest
when it went out the first time so I'm sending again. Gave me a chance to add
comments regarding Steve's in today's Digest. RW...)
Jon Binkley comments:
>Hey, if Anchor and Red Hook charged $3.50 a six pack for their
>wheat beers I'd have no complaint, and would even buy some for
>lawn mowing purposes.
You seem to infer that these beers are produced with a lower standard. That
they are made with cheaper materials. I cannot speak for Redhook, however I do
know my way around Anchor and can speak to their methods. There is no less
effort or expense in the production of Anchor Wheat. Actually there is more
labor involved due to the slow sparge that occurs from the use of the wheat. As
far as I know there was never any intent to compete with the budmilcoors of the
world, rather to offer a product which is lighter in taste and body (without
resorting to the use of rice or corn) which might appeal to those who are not
into the rest of Anchor's line. The use of the term "lawnmower beer" here
refers to the refreshing quality of the lighter brew, not to it's price.
There are many folks around who really like wheat beers, Anchor's included. If
you are not one of them Jon, don't buy it! Save your pennies for that bottle of
Oatmeal Stout. And don't attach any socio-political significance to it either.
It's just another style of beer, and some people like it.
And I believe Fritz is credited with creating the style, not brewing the first
Wheat in the US in modern times.
RW...
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 10:35:27 EDT
From: palladin@muscle.trincoll.edu
Subject: Medicine-y taste
James Smith describes an underlying medicine-y taste in his beers that
he suspects may be from chlorine in the tap water. I have also had a
similar taste in my extract+adjunct beers and was wondering the following:
1) What is a "phenolic" taste? Plastic-y? I know this is like asking
" what does pineapple taste like?", i.e. difficult to describe without tasting it.
2) I noticed that this unpleasant taste is more pronounced if I ferment
at higher temps (ales). This led me to believe that it is the dreaded
"phenol" and that I could probably fix it by switching to liquid yeast
and fermenting at lower temps. Is this idea all wet?
3) Do digest readers think it *is* due to chlorine in the water? My
water dept says that they add almost no chlorine to the water.
Note that this funny taste is medicine-y, not plastic-y.
I agree with Tom that my beers are much better than bud-miller but they
still have this "homebrew" taste.
One more data point - the one time I brewed a lager it had very little
of this problem. It was fermented at about 50 deg F and also used dry yeast.
One final clue - no matter how much malt I seem to use, this taste
masks any malty residual sweetness, i.e. even with 7lbs of extract and
1 lb of crystal there is no appreciable maltiness. The taste that
lingers on the tongue is bitter and alcoholic.
Any Suggestions?
Joe Palladino
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 09:35:41 CDT
From: pmiller@mmm.com
Subject: "Making Beer", by William Mares
Frank Dobnar writes about William Mares's book, "Making Beer" in the HBD 996.
I've read this book too and although it's amusing, I wouldn't
recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about making
howebrew if they already own TNCJOHB. The information in Mares
is basically a subset of what Charlie writes. Buy Dave Miller's
book for more (technical) information if that's what you want.
Mares's book _is_ chock full of amusing anecdotes though as Frank
mentions. His first exposure to good homebrew comes as a result of
getting his bagpipes tuned. (Honest!) The last 1/3 or so of the
book tells about Mares's decision to start a microbrewery and this
is what I found interesting. Mares was amazingly level-headed and
got lots of good advice before taking the plunge. In fact, he was
so level-headed, he decided _not_ to open a microbrewery. (I
know that I wouldn't have the strength to say no.)
So, as Frank says, "Making Beer" is easy reading and amusing, but
don't buy it to learn to be a better brewer.
Phil Miller
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 11:01:19 EDT
From: James P. Buchman <buchman@marva1.ENET.dec.com>
Subject: Acid wash
Hi,
I have a strain of German Ale yeast which I cultured from a
single cell colony and which has produced two great batches of Extra Special
Bitter. The second batch was pitched with yeast cultured from the dregs of
the last bottle of the first batch. Since I have heard that three repitchings
is about the limit before petite mutants start to affect the performance
of the yeast, I would like to try to give the yeast from this batch an
acid wash before storing it.
My questions:
1) What are the benefits of an acid wash?
2) Would a white vinegar/water solution be satisfactory? If so,
what PH should I shoot for, and how much vinegar would lower a
liter of water to that PH?
3) How long should the yeast stay in the acid solution before
washing with plain water?
I guess what I could use is an acid wash procedure. I have seen yeast
washing procedures posted for plain water, but not for an acid wash.
Thanks,
Jim Buchman
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 11:28:58 EDT
From: jim busch <busch@daacdev1.stx.com>
Subject: re:yeast attenuation
In the last digest:
Bill Szymczak bszymcz@ulysses.nswc.navy.mil wrote:
>recipe for stout deleted:
>Edme ale yeast and obtained
>OG = 1.057
>FG = 1.028
>This batch was very full bodied, relatively well balanced, and had
>a pleasant licorice flavor. For my new batch I used the same recipe
>but used yeast A1 from Dr. Schiller's Yeast Culture Kit, which
>I believe is the same as WYEAST 1056. For this batch the starting
>and final gravities were
>OG = 1.053
>FG = 1.014 !!!
>Considering the amount of unfermentables in the recipe this final
>gravity must be near some theoretical limit.
>The difference in starting gravities is due to the fact that this time
>I was fermenting a little more than 5 gallons (about 5 1/4 gal.)
>While bottling, I tasted some of the new batch, which needless to
>say was quite a bit dryer (similar in dryness to Guiness)
I cant pass up an opprotunity to comment on Dr. Schiller's yeast!
First, strain A1 is from the same (or so we think) original strain
as Wyeast 1056, ie: Narragansett, but from a different source than
1056. I use this strain in most of my ales, and it has excellent
attenuation characteristics. My American Pale ales use 10%
caramel 40 and the ferments go from 1.053 (13P) down to 1.008 (
2P) in 4 days! I also brewed a strong ale with this yeast and it
went from 1.060 to 1.008 in 5 days. For another data point, I
brewed a barley wine and pitched cultured Thomas Hardies yeast
into a 26P (1.104) OG. It got "stuck" at 1.050 (typical for
hardies yeast). At this point I pitched a ton of A1 slurry
without oxygenating the batch, and it took off, finishing at
1.024-6, for a whopping 10% by volume! So, the strain is quite
alcohol tolerant and very attenuative. It makes sense, since the
SNPA pallet is quite dry and not very sweet. In Bills, case,
the EDME performed very badly, finishing at 1.028, way high even
for most barley wines, much less a stout. The second batch,
ending at 1.014 is typical when the specialty malt content goes
up. In fact, 1.012-1.015 is a great range for FG with a stout.
>Other factors which may have influenced these results were:
> 1. The yeast for the new batch was pitched from a 1 liter starter,
>while the dry yeast used in last year's batch was simply
>sprinkled on top.
>2. The new batch was fermented in glass carboys with
>primary fermentation lasting 3 days, and secondary another 8 days.
>The previous batch used single stage fermentation for 13 days
>in plastic.
Factor 1: yes! very important to pitch an active 1L starter.
Factor 2: irrelevent, except that the secondary helps clarity &
yeast removal from the bottling stage.
Bill, if you brew this again, it would be interesting to compare
the results of using strain A6 (similar to Wyeast Irish) or
strain A15 (aka Ringwood ale yeast). Both should result in
a higher ester quality to the stout which might be quite
desirable.
If anyone would like to email me with data points from using
any of the Dr. Schiller strains, I would be most interested
in comments & experiances. Also, any improvements or suggestions
are welcome since it is WE the collective brewing community that
this effort is for, and if the process can be improved I am
sure an effort will be made to do so.
Jim Busch
busch@daacdev1.stx.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 09:16:43 MDT
From: stevel@chs.com (7226 Lacroix)
Subject: Recipe requests
Anybody out there got a good Dubbel or Trippel recipe???? I'm
psyched up to try either, but I don't have a recipe. Please E-mail
any responses. And by the way OOOOOOOOOh CANADA! how about a recipe
for a Big Rock Extra Ale clone???? It's an "Irish" type ale from
Calgary and I hope they have it on draft in the next life time!!!
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 15:59:44 GMT
From: sbsgrad%sdph.span@Sdsc.Edu
Subject: Small breweries in Southern Germany
From: Steve Slade <sslade@ucsd.edu>
Date sent: 22-OCT-1992 08:51:37 PT
My wife and I will be honeymooning in Southern Germany and Austria during
November. Anyone out there have suggestions for small breweries/brewpubs/
pubs which should not be missed? As a general rule we will be avoiding big
cities, so all the wonderful info about Munich from this forum and Jackson'
s guide will not do us much good.
As usual, thanks in advance for all replies.
Steve Slade
reply to:
sbsgrad%sdph.span@sdsc.edu
or
sslade@ucsd.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 9:16:13 PDT
From: Tom Bower <bower@fubar.rose.hp.com>
Subject: Beer Evaluation
I recently made the jump to all-grain for the first time, and produced what
I think is a really tasty stout. I'm anxious to have someone with plenty of
beer tasting & judging experience give me some feedback.
What is the best way for me to get expert feedback on my beer?
1.) Join a brew club.
2.) Send some to a homebrew contest/judging somewhere.
3.) Study for and become a beer expert judge wizard guru myself.
4.) Find a kindly, thirsty beer judge who is willing to taste & report back
if I send beer.
Assume for the moment that #'s 1-3 are not available right now...any takers
for #4? Now, before I'm deluged with e-mail from people who just want a
couple bottles of my stout: this is an experiment, and for the time being
let's treat it as a purely hypothetical question. If there's anyone who
lives reasonably close to Roseville or Auburn, CA, and might be willing to
volunteer to try my homebrew, drop me an e-mail message!
In the larger sense, I'd be interested in the net's opinions on how a home-
brewer would best go about getting knowledgeable feedback on his/her beer.
Tom Bower.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 11:27 CDT
From: iepubj!korz@ihlpa.att.com
Subject: Re: terms
Victor asks about the meanings of:
>grist
The grist is the crushed grains.
>quart
A quart is a US measure of liquid volume. It is equivalent to 0.946 liters.
>2#s dark brown sugar
The "#" symbol is often used in the US to mean pounds (which is equivalent
to 0.4536 kilograms). Therefore "2#s" or "2#" means 2 pounds == 0.9072 kg.
>DMS
Dimethylsulfide. See my post in yesterday's HBD.
>wyeat 2112
Just a typographical error. What was meant was: "Wyeast #2112 California
Lager Yeast." It is also called Brewer's Choice Yeast and is made by Wyeast
Laboratories.
Al.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 20:52 GMT
From: Phillip Seitz <0004531571@mcimail.com>
Subject: HBD Field Report #1: Information Sources
Came home yesterday from 21 days in England and Belgium
with a horrible cold and three suitcases filled with
goodies. The take: 7 kilos of candi sugar, 8.85 of
Belgian chocolate, 5 beer glasses and just over 12
liters of British and Belgian beers in 33 bottles.
Brian D. still holds the overall beer smuggling record,
but but I brought back more overall calories!
I passed customs at Baltimore/Washington International
Airport, and all the beer was carefully packed in my
suitcases except for a rather conspicuous magnum of
Villers St. Ghislain (Brasserie de Silly) that wouldn't
fit. There was no customs red line (i.e. for those who
wish to declare), so I went through the green. When
the guy asked if I had any alchohol I indicated the
magnum, but by then he'd already rattled off the next
six questions and sent me on my way. (Note: these days
I am lamentably clean cut and respectible-looking, and
I did notice that the guy ahead of me--with long hair,
a small bag, and a history of traveling to bohemian
haunts such as Amsterdam and Prague--was instantly
snagged for more detailed examination.)
My travels included visits to three English and two
Belgian breweries, as well as several brewpubs,
homebrew stores, and related haunts. I'm planning to
sift through my notes and collected materials as my
brain slowly recovers from the jet-lag, cold, and
excesses of the past three weeks, and hope to post
several messages based on these as time (and space)
allows. Since I spent a good deal of time looking for
published information I thought this might be a good
place to start.
INFORMATION ON BEER IN THE UK
I did not purchase a copy of the current GOOD BEER
GUIDE published annually by CAMRA, as I had last year's
model. The guide was readily available in any decent
bookstore, and can be ordered from CAMRA at 34 Alma
Road, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, AL1 38W. I
regret that I don't have the price of the current
edition at hand; my suggestion to interested parties is
that you write to request the ISBN number, and use this
to order through your local full-service bookstore.
CAMRA also sponsors several other publications. These
include:
Graham Wheeler, HOMEBREWING: THE CAMRA GUIDE (Alma
Books: St. Albans, Hertsfordshire, 1990), 181 pp.,
illustrated (ISBN 1-85249-107-8). Cost: 4.99 pounds
sterlind. This is an excellent and handy guide, though
probably less accessible for beginners than Papazian's
JOY. All-grain beers are the focus, and there's lots
of good information on water treatment and other
special topics, as well as a chapter on recipe
formulation. Also welcome was info for brewing in
metric measures, for those (like me) who are getting
tired of mixing cups, pounds, gallons and grams. Note:
the Alma press is owned by CAMRA.
Roger Protz, THE REAL ALE DRINKER'S ALMANAC
(Moffat, Scotland: Lochar Publishing, 1991), 288 pp.,
illustrated (ISBN: 0-948403-89-6). Cost: 7.99 pounds
sterling. A fantastic guide to beers from all over the
UK, and an excellent companion the above. This book
provides tasting notes for the vast majority of real
ales available, as well as recipe guidelines (i.e.
IBUs, malts and hops used, special techniques). While
having this information is still a far cry from being
able to duplicate your favorite beer, it's definitely a
leg up. Impressive in its scope. Another book, THE
EUROPEAN BEER ALMANAC, by the same author and publisher
(same price, ISBN 0-948403-28-4) covers continental
brews, but was far less comprehensive and tries to
cover too much ground, IMHO.
Tony Morris, ed., SUFFOLK REAL ALE GUIDE (CAMRA:
no place, 1992), 192 pp. with maps (ISBN: 1-85249-066-
7). Cost: 3.00 pounds sterling, and worth three times
that. Most of our travels were in East Anglia--the
counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, and (depending on your
philosophy) Cambridgeshire and Essex. This guide is
similar to the GOOD BEER GUIDE except that it lists ALL
of the pubs in the county of Suffolk. It's an
astonishing piece of work for a county organization,
and, once we found it, replaced all our other
guidebooks. Includes historical profiles of each town,
with maps showing the locations of pubs as well as
information on all the beers available in the area. If
CAMRA can produce this kind of effort in every county
travelers will be very well off indeed! (I gather this
is a very new publication: the only place we saw it was
in the Ipswich tourist information office.)
INFORMATION ON BEER IN BELGIUM
My search for beer guides in Belgium was quite
energetic, and almost equally fruitless. With a wealth
of beers and brewing history at least as rich as
England's it's astonishing how little information is
available. However, you can still look for:
Tim Webb, GOOD BEER GUIDE TO BELGIUM AND HOLLAND
(St. Alblans, Hertfordshire: Alma Books, 1992). ISBN
1-85249-110-8. Cost: 8.99 pounds sterling. This
obvious started as a CAMRA guide, and is published by
their press, but does not bear their seal. It is a
Lowlands equivalent of the UK GOOD BEER GUIDE, and does
a very creditable job. The descriptions of the beers
are less detailed, but I would say that this is
probably probably essential reading for anyone going to
Belgium who doesn't already know where they're going to
do their drinking, and is very desirable even if you
do.
MENU FROM LE VAUDREE, Liege. Le Vaudree has two
restaurant/cafes in the province of Liege, and offers
42 beers on tap and 980 in the bottle. Their menu is
48 pages long and is a veritable dictionary of Belgian
brewing. Beers are arranged by category, including one
for "Bieres Disparues", or beers from breweries that no
longer exist (try a 15-year old gueuze?). While this
is hardly in the same category as the publications
listed above it is still a very valuable reference
source, and procuring is is likely to be more fun than
a visit to your local bookstore. These two cafes are
open 24 hours (probably the only thing in Belgium
that's open at 3:00 am aside from the bordellos, which
probably only serve Stella Artois), and are located at:
Rue val Benoit, 109 Rue Saint-Gilles, 149
4031 Angleur 4000 Liege
Tel: 041/67-10-61 Tel: 041/23-18-80
As soon as my brain is working better I will post
information gathered from the brewery visits as well as
some other general observations. In the meantime,
could someone send me the address of the MEAD LOVERS
interest group? A Belgian friend asked for this, and I
must admit I didn't save it. Thanks and a bientot!
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 18:24:34 -0400
From: Michael Lewandowski <mikelew@brahms.udel.edu>
Subject: cloves in pale ale
I would like to make a batch of spiced pale ale. As the title
of this article states, I'd like to use cloves. Does anyone have any
advice to offer? I'd appreciate information on dosages, when to
add the cloves, what kind of cloves to add (ie whole, ground, something else),
and anything I may have missed. Thank you very much.
Mike
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 18:31:58 -0400
From: bradley@adx.adelphi.edu (Rob Bradley)
Subject: yeast nutrient for mead
Jim Larsen (jal@techbook.com) informed me via e-mail that bee pollen
is a (the?) traditional yeast nutrient for mead. Thanks again,
Jim. Does anybody have any idea how much to use per gallon?
Acton and Duncan recommend a combination of ammonium phosphate
and vitamin B1 for nutrient. I don't feel a whole lot better
about ammonium phosphate than I do about urea (although at
least my mead won't _literally_ be p*ss-water :-).
I mentioned in an earlier HBD that I was wondering about using health-
food-store brewer's yeast as a nutrient for cider. What about for mead?
It's not live yeast. It has B1, as well as other B vitamins. I suppose
it also has other nitrogenous goodies which the wine yeasts can scavenge
from the corpses of the dead brewer's yeast. Does this speculation seem
to make any sense? Does anybody have any ideas how much I might use per
gallon?
Is there a mead digest?
Cheers,
Rob (bradley@adx.adelphi.edu)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 15:39:26 PST
From: "Bob Jones" <bjones@novax.llnl.gov>
Subject: Malting your own grain from Micah Millspaw
At the October SAAZ club meeting one of the members brought
in many five pound bags of barley. This was dry, unmalted barley. He
said, evrybody take some. After that a lot of the meeting was about what
to do with the barley, most opted to try malting the stuff. Over the
past week that is what I did, made malt. This is a fasinating process
and very easy to do (quality aside) whither the malt is top notch or
otherwise, malting and kilning your own grain and then brewing with
it should be a must for any grain brewer (one time). I found this to be an
enlightening project as did other members of SAAZ who tried this as well.
I'm looking forward to the next few meetings when we'll sample the
really homemade beers.
As I hickory smoked my malt after kilning, I'll be brewing RAUCH STOUT
this weekend.
I thought that the might be interesting to the HBD.
Micah Millspaw
10/21/92
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 20:18:53 CDT
From: bliss@csrd.uiuc.edu (Brian Bliss)
Subject: chlorine/stuck ferment cures
>The purpose here is to get rid of the chlorine. In his previous book, "The
>Complete Handbook of Homebrewing," he recommends pre-boiling all water for
>15 to 30 minutes to drive off the chlorine. IMHO, it is a function of your
>water supply. When I lived in Lexington, MA, the water was quite good
>and I could add it directly to the fermenter and the beers were fine for
>my untrained palatte. When I moved to North Andover, MA, I could smell the
>chlorine in the water & the water dept. said the chlorine level was 0.7 ppm -
>swimming pools range from 1 - 2 ppm. I started boiling the water then; I
>did not try a batch without boiling the water.
It's not just the chlorine taste that you want to drive off;
the chlorine will act as a buffer and keep your mash ph from
getting below 5.8 or so (that figure is from experience), no
matter how much gypsum you add (within reasonable limits).
A high ph will adversely affect your extract efficiency
(but you can still get a fine beer with a mash ph of 5.8,
albeit a lighter one unless you compensate with more malt.
- --------------
For curing a stuck fermentation, try oak chips. I use the kind
that look like, and are, sawdust. usually I don't want them to
impart to much flavor to the beer (and if I do get an oakey
flavor, I want it to be a charred oak flavor), so I toast the
hcek out of them at 450F for 10-15 min, then boil them, and
then strain the water to remove much of the flavor which has
been extracted in the water, maybe boil & strain again, and
then add the goop to the fermenter.
It works like a charm, but don't ask me why.
I don't buy the excuse they give on the A-B tours: "the oak
chips effectively increase the surface areas of the fermenter,
giving live yeast more area to settle out, and not be suffocated
by a yeast cake". The sawdust-type chips could not have this
advantage, as they settle out fairly quickly, and form a
cake on the bottom, but still work. It must be a chemical
phenomenon.
other methods I've tried are:
1) rousing the yeast. It doesn't seem to make too much of a
difference. For it to make a difference, you have to
continually rouse the yeast. If you don't have a method
of doing this automatically in the fermenter, you are
just exposing the beer, to unwarranted risk of infection
and aereation, and acheiving marginal results.
2) yeast energizer. I've tried two kinds: diammonium phosphate,
white crystals, and ammonium phosphate (from wines, inc)
which was yellow and smelled like piss. I've have good
luck with the former (and not the latter), but there were
too many batch-to-batch variances to blame any taste defects
or absence of defects on the yeast nutrient itself, especially
when I don't know what off-flavor it's supposed to impart.
(I've only used them with meads, and like it was mentioned
yesterday in the hbd, maybe I'm accustomed to the flavor)
3) adding more yeast. If you do this, make sure you krausen
with liberal amounts of actively fermenting yeast, i.e.
a starter at high krausen. whatever caused the original
yeast to "stick" will probably cause the extra yeast to
stick, also - try a more attenuative fermenter.
4) add cane sugar to the recipe. What I mean is: all those
batches I've added cane sugar to seem to go on forever,
whereas all-malt batches can be done in under a week.
I don't mean replace part of your malt with sugar - just
add a little in addition to all the malt. This keeps
the yeast in suspension and happy fermenting the cane
sugar, and at the same time they get the last little bit
of fermentables from the malt. At least this works
pretty well for heavier beers, unless the extra cane
sugar gets the alcohol so high it kills off the yeast.
I've never added any to a batch that's already stuck,
though.
5) you can always try changing the temperature.
bb
------------------------------
Date: 23 Oct 92 03:36:19 GMT
From: SynCAccT@slims.attmail.com
Subject: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Being Canadian and on business to the States a few months ago I was
was fortunate enough to be able to purchase and bring home some
bottles of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Fine stuff, it is, and I would
like to make it my next project. My question: is the yeast slurry
on the bottom viable and is it the same yeast that SN uses for their
primary. I've heard some bottle conditioned beers are actually
kraeusened with wort innoculated with a strain specifically
generated for priming. These bottle loading strains don't make good
ales, just fizz to lock the cap on. If anyone has the "goods" on the
stuff in the SNPA bottle please let me know. I'm plating it out in a
petri dish tonight, we'll see what grows.
While we're on topic, can someone email me their best SNPA emulator?
Thanks in advance.....Glenn Anderson
EMAIL ==> gande@slims.attmail.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 10:16:36 PDT
From: grumpy!cr@uunet.UU.NET (C.R. Saikley)
Subject: Beerstone
From: "John Cotterill" <johnc@hprpcd.rose.hp.com>
>Thanks to all who responded to my questions about removing the white
>precipitate on the bottom of my boiler. The consensus is that the stuff
>is calcium carbonate. The following suggestions were given as a means of
>removal:
[stuff deleted]
There is a mineral deposit typically found in brewkettles which matches your
description. This mineral is not calcium carbonate, but calcium oxylate,
which is commonly referred to as "beerstone". I suspect that's what you've
got. At any rate, vinegar will work just fine.
Cheers,
CR
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #997, 10/23/92
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