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HOMEBREW Digest #2299
HOMEBREW Digest #2299 Thu 02 January 1997
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: janitor@brew.oeonline.com
Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of
Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
URL: http://www.oeonline.com
Contents:
Software for Mac and yeast expiration dates
AOB Books??
Yeast Cake in my Starter
Re: Homebrew Digest V2 #17
mead - coffee beer
[No Subject Provided By Sender]
Scented Bleach
RIMS pump speed control
Re: Green Foam
Re: splitting gas lines
Yeast for Belgian Dubbel
Yeast Infection
hop rhizomes
Re: Transition to All-Grain
[No Subject Provided By Sender]
More on Air and Hydrometer readings
Short, intense ferment.......
keeping the hops out of the fermenter
First all-grain (Darrin P.)
Re-using yeast
Monterey, CA
Yeast Bite???
Volume measurment before / after boil.
regularity/maltsose/iodophor
Iodophor/Bleach
Wyeast 3787
Aerating wort
King cookers & gas usage rate?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 23:59:18 -0500
From: kathy <kbooth@scnc.waverly.k12.mi.us>
Subject: software for Mac and yeast expiration dates
Santa delivered software for our Mac..... and I think brewing software
is what my Mac needs. I'd appreciate advices to my choice. Private
email is fine although there are probably others with the same decision.
I have the Performa 6360 with 1.6 extra RAM if that makes a difference.
Additionally, I got a Wyeast American Lager liquid yeast from the local
supplier that was manufactured in Oct of 1995. The 4 months shelf life
on the label is long, long past. Even if this packet swells, should I
use it?
TIA and a Happy Brew Year to all those who make the HBD part of our
lives and especially including those at the AOB. jim booth, lansing, mi
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 1997 18:21:19 -0500
From: NightCrawler@cais.cais.com, shane@cais.com
Subject: AOB Books??
Does anybody know if the AOB has or will be putting out any books??
Thanks!
Shane Saylor, Eccentric Bard
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 1 Jan 97 16:52:00 MST
From: Robert Waddell <V024971@Tape.StorTek.Com>
Subject: Yeast Cake in my Starter
Holiday greetings fellow brewfolk.
It's 4:00 P.M. Jan. 1st and my head is now starting to assume it's normal
configuration again. Much better...
Brewing related:
My method of building a starter is to loop some yeast from a slant and
inoculate 10-15 ml of autoclaved wort. In about 2 days I pour this into
a 500 ml erlanmeyer flask of boiled and cooled wort and ferment this out
for 4-5 days then I pour off the clear "beer" and evenly split the yeast
sediment between two 2 liter erlanmeyers of boiled and cooled wort and
ferment them out for about a week, decant off the clear "beer" and pitch
each into 5 gallons. I use pure O2 to oxygenate each step-up and the
10 gallon batch and have had signs of fermentation in about 6 hours after
pitching. Now the questions: The starter that I now have in my 2 liter
flasks formed a very hard cake in the bottom of the 500 ml flask. When
I went to swirl it up for the transfer to the two 2 liter flasks I had
nothing but "chunks" of yeast cake. It took about a hour of swirling to
get it homogeneous enough to evenly split it. When I go to pitch this
into my two 5 gallon carboys will I have to spend a lot of time swirling
this larger yeast cake before hand or should I just go ahead and pitch
the chunks? This is the first time that I have used this yeast strain
(BrewTek Irish Stout) and it's the first time that I've had this chunk
phenomenon. I'd also like some comments on my step-up method. Am I
getting enough cells this way?
RJW
__
I *L*O*V*E* my [Pico] system. 'Cept for that
gonging noise it makes when my wife throws it
off the bed at night.
Women...
--Pat Babcock
*** It's never too late to have a happy childhood! ***
******************************************************************************
V024971@TAPE.STORTEK.COM / Opinions expressed are usually my own but
Robert J. Waddell / perhaps shared (though not by my employer).
Owner & Brewmaster: Barchenspeider Brew-Haus
*******************************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 1997 19:40:35 -0500
From: "Reed" <rreed@netusa1.net>
Subject: Re: Homebrew Digest V2 #17
From: John Penn <john_penn@spacemail.jhuapl.edu> writes:
> I hate it when I ask what dark beers do you have and the response is we
have
> brand X, which is not a dark beer! Spent this past weekend in Boston.
In
> Mama Marie's restaurant, when I asked for a dark beer they said Sam Adams
so I
> said OK and got a Sam Adams Boston Ale (not Lager). SAs Boston Lagers
are
> respectable and some of SAs specialty beers are very good but this was
not
> dark and not too good!
I believe many people still think anything over 2 lovibond is dark beer.
How about when you ask the waitress what beers they serve and she responds:
"we
have 'em all - Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light, Bud Ice, Bud Dry... and
we have
the following imports: Sam Adams, George Killian's." Honey, have you ever
heard of Colorado or Massachusetts? I wonder, do we still teach US
Geography in
our public schools, or have self-esteem courses completely displaced all
things
academic?
Cheers,
Rob Reed
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 01 Jan 1997 19:02:00 -0800
From: "Kevin R. Kane" <deviator@aracnet.com>
Subject: mead - coffee beer
John
I don't know the technical reasons that your must is cloudy. I can tell
you that this happens to me every time (I always use campden). So far
all of my meads have come out just dandy, and clear.
Thanks for the Dark Honey tip.
- -----------------------------------------------------
Daniel writes
> I am considering brewing a coffee stout and I am wondering "How do I add
> the coffee?" Do I add brewed coffee to the wort or dry-hop it with coffee
> beans? I have no idea. What is the best method for adding coffee to my
> stout?
I recently asked this same question. I haven't tried it yet, but the
two most prevelant ideas were.
-Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup coffee grounds to the wort just after
the
boil and steep for 15-20 min.
-Add 1-2 cups strongly brewed coffee at bottling time.
- ----------------------------------------------
Here's an intreresting question that just popped into my head. Has
anyone ever made a COFFEE MEAD ????
(I almost hope that the answer will be no [shudder])
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 97 23:24 CST
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Subject: Homebrew Digest V2 #18
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Homebrew Digest Wednesday, January 1 1997 Volume 02 : Number 018
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1 [No Subject Provided By Sender]
2 many topics (Steve Alexander)
3 Want to grow hops.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2 Jan 97 8:29:03 EDT
From: Bob Bessette/PicTel <Bob_Bessette@smtpnotes.pictel.com>
Subject: Scented Bleach
Fellow HBDers,
I inadvertently soaked my bottles in scented bleach and have recently read
that I should use unscented bleach. No explanation was given as to why the
bleach should be unscented but I assume that it could leave an odor. I have
rinsed thoroughly each bottle with hot water and have not noticed any scent
coming from the bottles. Am I running any risk in bottlling with these bottles.
I plan to iodophor them prior to bottling. Please tell me I can use them
without a problem...Please send private email to bbessett@pictel.com...
Cheers,
Bob Bessette
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 08:13:23 -0600
From: Marty Tippin <mtippin@swbell.net>
Subject: RIMS pump speed control
Keith Royster asks whether he can use a ceiling fan controller to adjust
the motor speed of his RIMS pump.
When I was researching pumps for my system, I asked the guys at March Pump
Co. about whether there was a way to control the speed of their motor, and
they recommended against it. Unfortunately, I can't recall all the details
but it had something to do with the motor being "single phase" - whatever
that is. Seems like they even said it just plain wouldn't work; in any
case, I decided not to tempt fate.
Their recommendation was to simply use a ball valve on the output side (as
Keith is currently doing) to control the flow. If you've got a March pump,
I'd certainly call and talk to their technical guys about this before
getting too carried away - I found them to be knowledgable, friendly and
helpful when I talked to them, so you might have some good luck. If you
don't have the phone number, I can find it for you - let me know...
- -Marty
mtippin@swbell.net
http://alpha.rollanet.org/users/mtippin
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 09:21:51 -0500
From: bveq97@nestle.boeing.com (Mark Witherspoon)
Subject: Re: Green Foam
Sending this both to you and the the digest:
The "green" foam you have getting is the hop pellets riding up
with the foam of normal fermentation. No contamination has happened.
So now you can relax and wait for the fermentation to die down before
transfering to a secondary for a few days. Irish moss will not cause
the problem either (Irish moss is dirived from a brown seeweed).
What I have found is that if I ferment with the hops still
in the wort at pitch time, that the beer is more harsh than if I can
decant them off.
Silly no, so don't worry about it. It will soon finish out
a great bock!!.
Mark Witherspoon
Reply to: witherspoonm@pgate.he.boeing.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 08:33:30 -0600
From: Gary Eckhardt <gary_eckhardt@realworld.com>
Subject: Re: splitting gas lines
>I'm going to have a two tap tower (say that 3 times
>fast) on a chest freezer so I obviously need something to split the CO2
>output to the two kegs. I also plan on bottling sometimes using a
>counter pressure filler so I'll need a CO2 line for that also.
Do you really need to split the lines for CO2? I've got the same setup
at home (chest freezer, but no taps drilled yet..) and I just pressurize
the kegs to serving pressure and refill when needed. I installed a
simple nylon T fitting coming from my regulator, and one way goes to
my gas out line for kegs, and the other side goes to a flare fitting
that I rigged up to allow for fast disconnects from my counterpressure filler
which I can cap off with a flare cap when not in use. Works great, and it
was cheap.
- ---------------------------+----------------------------------------------
Gary Eckhardt | "in this day & age...music performed by
Database Consultants, Inc. | humans...hum!?" --wilde silas tomkyn
dcigary@txdirect.net | R,DW,HAHB!
gary_eckhardt@realworld.com| R^3 = "Real World. Real Smart. Real Quick."
(210)344-6566 | http://www.realworld.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 10:16:15 -0500
From: Clifford Rones <ronescli@law.dol.lps.state.nj.us>
Subject: Yeast for Belgian Dubbel
I am planning on brewing a Belgian dubbel using extract an Specialty
grains. I typically use Wyeast liquid yeast and ferment my beer in a 6.5
gallon glass carboy in a room in which the temperature is 65 degrees
(the temperature may on occasion reach 70). I have concocted a recipe
which I feel comfortable with which should yield an O.G. of about 1.070
but I am stumped as to what yeast to use. Wyeast has three which I
believe are good candidates: 1762 (Belgian Abbey II), 1388 (Belgian
Strong Ale) and 3787 (Trappist high gravity). I have eliminated 1214
(Belgian Abbey) based upon its reputation for producing "banana beer"
but the others all sound good on paper. Does anyone have experience
with these yeasts so as to be able to give me a recommendation?
Thanks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 10:43:25 -0500
From: KennyEddy@aol.com
Subject: Yeast Infection
Mark Tomusiak writes:
"Greetings all...I was wondering if anyone has run into wild yeasts at some
point during their brewing experience."
My wife's first brew was a Scotch ale that got a yeast infection even
Monostat would shy away from. Although feremnted at 65F it tasted like it
was fermented at 90F -- solventy and undrinkable. It was also quite cloudy
and even now hasn't really cleared. It's mellowed only a bit in the 18
months since but it does make a great broth for boiling bratwurst before
grilling.
Her sanitation procedures were sound and I can find no sure source for the
infection other than perhaps an infected Wyeast pouch.
Check Randy Mosher's "Homebrewer's Companion" (is that the right title?).
There's a section on yeasts & bacteria with a pretty good litany of ills
caused by same.
*****
Ken Schwartz
El Paso, TX
KennyEddy@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/kennyeddy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 07:48:27 -0800
From: Orval <ocj@juno.com>
Subject: hop rhizomes
Hi Keith,
Happy New Year! I hope everything is well with all of you.
I'm ready to try growing some hops in my side pasture. Where can I get
the rhizomes? Do you have the name and number for West Coast suppliers?
- --
Orv
Relax....have a homebrew and a premium cigar.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 15:45:46 GMT
From: stencil@bcn.net
Subject: Re: Transition to All-Grain
>
On Sun, 29 Dec 1996 13:07:09 -0500 RitchRon wrote:
>I live in a fairly small apartment with an electric stove. ..=20
Strongly urge you invest in a propane bottle and high-BTU burner; I
do believe it would be=20
> ... safe to set it up next
>to the fireplace,=20
but not necessarily
>trusting the flue to provide adequate ventilation?).=20
... I have a roughly similar problem and have rigged a 15-watt 6"
muffin fan on a 10-foot length of 4" collapsible vent ducting (sold
for dryer installations), fan at downstream end of duct, which serves
quite well to draw off most fumes. I would run it up a flue if there
were one.
>have a small deck I could use for=20
...storing the propane bottle.
>neighbors would accept the smells....)
...the aroma of boiling hopped wort, like the sound of Highland
piping, is a joy and a glory when you're among it and a sore trial
when it's next door. And it goes on for an hour. Use the flue.
> Above all, perhaps: what's
>likely to be the SIMPLEST way to make this transition?
I think going to propane with its attendant rapid response and
fineness of control was the breakthrough for me; you must depend on
others to testify regarding electric solutions. gds, stencil
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 97 11:20:20 -0600
From: George J Fix <gjfix@utamat.uta.edu>
Subject: [No Subject Provided By Sender]
Subject: No Sparge Procedures
In a recent HBD post it was asserted that the no sparge procedure
is no longer used in commercial brewing. This is not true. There
are a number of high gravity beers produced with this procedure.
Anchor's Old Foghorn is an example that comes immediately to mind.
A number of Dopplebocks are also produced this way, one of my
favorites being the one brewed by the small brewery in Ottoburen
just outside of Munich.
>From a strictly technical point of view, possibility the most interesting
example is the one brewed by Kirin in Japan. It is called Ichiban,
and has "made from first wort" on the label. It is the "no sparge"
version of their standard lager. Both are relatively bland beers,
but in this case this is an advantage since they can be compared
without many confounding effects from other flavor tones. It is
also important to seek out fresh samples to do the comparison. To
my palate the difference between the two beers is astounding
considering they are mild, moderate gravity brews.
Cheers!
George Fix
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 12:49:01 -0500
From: "Peter J. Calinski" <calinski@worf.calspan.com>
Subject: More on Air and Hydrometer readings
I have expanded/answered some of the items in the post from:
>From: "David R. Burley"
>103164.3202@CompuServe.COM>
>Subject: Re: Light water
>Brewsters:
>Peter Calinski observed that his water which was saturated with air gave him a
>lower (0.992) SG than normal reading. He wonders if the Erie County Water
>Authority had just switched over from taking water from the top to the
bottom as
>they do annually. He also puzzles about CO2 from the fermentation causing
>reading errors from this phenomenon.
I wasn't that concerned with what caused the tap water to be "light", As I
said, I had never seen it before and it was back to 1.000 the next day. If
it becomes a recuring problem, I'll come up with a solution. I was more
concerned about the effect on the reading after aeration and prior to
pitching. This the OG value and could be very dependent on the degree of
aeration.
Ditto during fermentation when the degree of CO2 concentration may have no
coorolation to the amount of desolved air when the OG reading was taken.
>I remember being told by an old-timer water authority guy about the lake
>"turning over" in the Fall. Water has its highest density at 4 deg C and when
>surface water reaches this temperature it sinks. This carries oxygen down to
>the fishies and keeps the lake from freezing all the way to the bottom if it is
>deep enough, since the water colder than 4C stays on top and freezes. I
>remember cloudy air filled water from the tap in the winter.
>Your reading of 0.992 is equivalent to 5.5% alcohol in the water @15.5 deg
C and
>would require a considerable ( and very unlikely) amount of air to be
dissolved
>in the water. Supersaturation is a possible explanation, but the fact that the
>cloudy water cleared seems to suggest that it wasn't supersaturated. A reading
>of 0.992 would require water of about 100F to give such a reading, so this
is an
>unlikely explanation.
All readings were within a degree or two of 60F.
>Typically with gases dissolved in water the problem is the exact opposite.
>Bubbles clinging to the hydrometer raise the bulb and give a higher than
>expected reading. Which is why using a hydrometer to spot the end of a
>fermentation is extremely unreliable.
I use an old trick of spinning the hydrometer to "shake loose" bubbles
collecting on the hydrometer.
>I'm puzzled. Can you repeat this by making daily observations?
As I said, the next day, the tap water gave a reading of 1.000. If I get
some time, I may try dissolving various amounts of air in 1.000 water but I
don't have any good way of controlling the quantity of dissolved air.
>BTW isn't Erie County home to Occidental Petroleum and Love Canal? Hmmmm.
Actually, Niagara County is the "home" you are thinking about. It is
downstream from the Erie County water intakes (maybe 10 miles, with a
current exceeding 5 knots in some places).
- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 02 Jan 97 12:57:34 EST
From: "Aesoph, Michael" <aesoph@ncemt1.ctc.com>
Subject: Short, intense ferment.......
Dear Collective:
I just brewed up a Cream Ale Brewer's Best kit on New Year's Eve. The
only change I made was substituting a Cooper's yeast for the Munton's
yeast included with the kit. The fermentation was extreme - a fierce,
continuous expulsion of gas from the fermenter - but it didn't even last
one day and now appears to be done. I know this is not normal, but is it
acceptable??? I've never seen a fermenation this short before. Is it
stuck perhaps?????? Sorry, I don't know the exact type of yeast, wife
threw the packet away.
==================================================
Michael D. Aesoph Associate Engineer
==================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 11:56:27 -0600
From: Algis R Korzonas <korzonas@lucent.com>
Subject: keeping the hops out of the fermenter
Lenny writes:
>I recently switched from whole to pellet hops. In my last batch, I
>whirlpooled the wort after cooling and before transfer to fermentor.
>However, it was impossible to not have the hops go along without losing half
>of the wort, so I transferred the whole lot and racked to secondary after a
>couple days, leaving behind the settled hops.
>
>How does one leave the pellet hops behind without losing lots of wort?
I used to use pellet hops in the boil and put them in hop bags. Actually,
I used fine-mesh, white nylon bags used for some winemaking purpose and
simply tied a knot in the bag to keep the hops in. Yes, I believe that
hop utilization was reduced, which is why I added 10% more hops than
the Rager formulae from the Hops Special Issue of Zymurgy recommended.
The resulting IBU levels were very close (based upon tests done at
Siebel). After the boil, I could pull out 95% of the hop pellets (or
99.9% of whole hops) by simply pulling out the bag. I did lose maybe
8 fl.oz. (perhaps 250ml) of wort to the hops.
I've since put ball valves on both my kettles and put something very
much like an EasyMasher(tm) screen inside. This setup clogs with
pellets almost immediately, so I have switched to whole hops and now
I lose a bit more wort because I immersion chill and don't want to
risk squeezing the spent hops to get out the last quart (about a liter)
of wort. My main reason for switching to this system was so that I
could drain the kettle without splashing (I was concerned about
infection from airborne nasties), but the incredibly clear wort
seems to be an added benefit (the whole hop bed retains virtually
all the hot and cold break.
Al.
Al Korzonas, Palos Hills, IL
korzonas@lucent.com
korz@pubs.ih.lucent.com
korz@xnet.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 13:23:57 -0500
From: Darrin Pertschi <darrinp@cowles.com>
Subject: First all-grain (Darrin P.)
Thanks for all the responses on prepping my newly fabricated copper
immersion wort chiller for action. Consensus was to clean it with a
scrub pad in soapy water followed by a vinegar and water solution.
So, my first (7 hour) all-grain experience New Years day gave me a fine
list of things to improve upon with future batches. Can you say "stuck
sparge"? I can, I did, and about a dozen other phrases guaranteed to
offend anyone. I may have been a little over anxious and adventurous
trying a stout with a grain bill of 11 lbs., one lb. of which was flaked
rye. It must have been the rye.
Here's what I did, comments are definitely welcome:
I used a 5 gal. Gott with an EasyMasher. 11 quarts (1 quart per lb.
grain) of 168-170 water go into the pre-warmed cooler. Add the grains
slowly, stirring well. Very thick mash. let sit for 10 min., stir well
and temp was about 149. I added 2 quarts of near boiling water, stir
well, up to 153. I'm content. Let it sit for an hour. Checked temp, down
a little, add two more quarts of boiling water, back to about 153.
Another half hour goes by and I'm gonna start draining. So I open the
spigot and collect about a quart and return this to the mash. Looks
pretty clean to me. so i put a piece of tubing on the spigot, direct it
to the bottom of my brew pot and let-er rip. this goes ok for a few
minutes (although my tubing once warmed by the wort is pretty loose on
the spigot and is letting air in and causing little bubbles to form in
there (what should I do about that, is that oxidating, HSA?). So in
short order, it's stuck, no flow. I stick my big spoon into the mash and
it's like cement down there. I get it to the mesh tube of the EM and
start rubbing it back and forth to get some really dirty and slow flow.
That aint gonna help. So I use a measuring cup to carefully scoop out
the whole mash into another container and clear the EM assembly. I then
took a tin pie pan which i had poked a bunch of holes in to evenly
distribute my sparge water with and jammed it into the bottom of the
cooler over top the EM, carefully put the mash back in, recirculated
about quart and a half, added about a half gallon of boiling water to
the top carefully, and drained. Hell with any sparging, I collected my
wort and went on to boil, hop, chill, transfer to fermenter, top up to 5
gal., pitch, shake, airlock. Go to couch and toast myself on a job well
done. OG was 1.041, recipe said 1.060. I love a good challenge. My goal
for the next one is 5 hours, and a nice flow.
I'll report back on the final product in a few weeks. Cheers!!
- --
Darrin in Central PA
Proprietor--Simpleton's Cosmic Brewery
- ---------------------------------------------
You never know just how you look through other peoples eyes. <B.H.S.>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 13:06:05 -0600
From: Algis R Korzonas <korzonas@lucent.com>
Subject: Re-using yeast
Heiner writes:
>Let's assume that you have a
>bottle of beer that you brewed using a particular yeast that you want to use
>in an upcoming brew session (I'm guessing that this happens a lot for most
>of you). A few days before you need the yeast, you prepare 1 cup of hop
>wort (perhaps just corn sugar and water). After it's cooled to 80F you open
No... use malt extract -- starters made on corn sugar will have difficulty
fermenting malt sugars like maltsose. You'll have a longer lag time at
the least and possibly even stuck fermentation.
>the beer bottle and decant off the beer (and drink it) leaving about a
>quarter of the beer in the bottle. Then sanitize the top of the bottle with
>alcohol. Swirl the sediment in the bottle and pour the cooled sugar water
Use a disposable lighter to flame the top of the bottle and you can drink
95% of the beer and leave only 5% in the bottle -- that will be enough.
>into the bottle and attach an airlock. In a few days this should be ready
>for pitching (probably pretty quickly if the beer was bottled in the past
>two weeks).
>
>My questions are:
>1. Does anyone do this?
Yes.
>2. Does the yeast in unfiltered beer in the bottle actually die or is it
>simply dormant?
Some dies, most is dormant.
>...If dormant, how long does it take to "wake up".
In my experience, it depends on how long the beers has been sitting around.
I've done this successfully with three-year-old commercial, bottle-conditioned
beers.
>...If it dies, how quickly does this happen and how long does it take for
>95% to die.
Oh... tough questions... it depends on the temperature, the health of the
yeast (note that many Belgian commerical brewers add yeast at bottling time,
so their yeast will be less "beat up" than our yeast which had to do a lot
more "work." Frankly, you don't even need 5% to be alive. If there is one
live yeast cell in there, that (technically) would be enough to make a
starter. You can probably make a starter from bottle dregs many years old
especially if you stored it cool or cold. Also note that it has been posted
in the HBD in the past that you would prefer to not reuse yeast from very
high-alcohol beers. Someone (a long time ago) posted that Sierra Nevada
reuses the yeast from all but the Celebration Ale and Bigfoot because of
the alcohol levels in those beers. "Mutation" was mentioned back then, but
someone has since posted that actual mutations are pretty rare in beer yeast,
although I believe that I read in M&BS or DeClerck last week that something
like 0.1% of the yeast spontaneously mutate, so perhaps mutation should be
a concern...
Bottom line: yes, reuse the yeast. Also, regarding the other poster's
question on simply pouring new wort on top of the dregs from a previous
(fermented out) batch... yes, do that too. That's exactly how I make
all my stronger beers (Barleywines, Doppelbocks, etc.).
Al.
Al Korzonas, Palos Hills, IL
korzonas@lucent.com
korz@pubs.ih.lucent.com
korz@xnet.com
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Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 13:05:43 -0600
From: DD <dunn@tilc.com>
Subject: Monterey, CA
- --MimeMultipartBoundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Will be in the Monterey & Carmel, CA, area tomorrow through next Friday
and was wondering if anything homebrew oriented is going on? AHA club
activities? Where is the closest homebrew supply store? DD
- --MimeMultipartBoundary--
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Date: Thu, 2 Jan 97 14:04:17 EST
From: Tim.Watkins@analog.com
Subject: Yeast Bite???
Hello all,
I'm inquiring about a problem I'm having with brewing pale ales. I'm
an extract brewer, and the last three pale ales (2 IPA attempts, and one
SNPA attempt) have come out tasting pretty much exactly the same. They all
taste very yeasty. These three batches were all made over the past year,
and were all made using the same equipment, same process, and same
sanitation procedure....
In between these batches, I have also successfully brewed a stout, and
a wheat beer, and a brown ale. It seems that the only style to suffer is
my pale ales.
Does anyone know what can cause the yeasty taste? My fermentation
schedule is pretty much the same for all batches (4-5 days plastic primary,
then 7-10 days glass secondary, then bottle). I remember the first yeasty
batch I made I didn't drink at first, but then after about 5 monthes, it
was drinkable. Mind you, that it didn't taste like an IPA like it should
of, but it was drinkable. I also used different yeast each time, so I
don't think it was the yeast (1st batch used RTP British Ale, 2nd batch =
WYeast 1056, third batch = WYeast 1028) all with similar results.
I am completely baffled with my seeming inability to brew a pale ale.
Is this yeasty taste the sign of a possible infection?
Please help, beer gods, because I am at wits end (and the end of my
financial rope If I don't make a beer that the girlfriend will drink..
haha)
thanks in advance,
Tim
- -----------------------
Tim Watkins
Applications Engineer
Analog Devices, Inc.
(617) 937-1428
Tim.Watkins@analog.com
t.watkins@ieee.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 11:56:49 -0800
From: Matt Gadow <mgadow@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Volume measurment before / after boil.
Am I missing something - I did some research in HBD, and other places,
but I found no reference to the following problem:
When I measure (in a carboy, marked container, etc.) 5 gallons of cold
water, and put it in my kettle - it measures 5 gallons on the home-made
volume maesurement device (a copper / plastic tube run up the side of
the kettle). However, when I finish a batch w/ >5 gallons (as marked w/
the measuring device) showing in the kettle, then c-flow chill to a
carboy (~65 degrees), I only get slightly more than 4 gallons, including
the 2.2 quarts of trub on below the drain. This is the third time I
have missed my batch size by stubbornly relying on the volume
measurement device.
This must be some scientific law of volume expansion in sugar-laden
liquids that I missed while reviewing all of my homebrewing resources.
Anyone know of any formulas, etc. to compensate (other than the obvious
leaving ~6gallons in the fermenter)???
Comments / Answers private or public appreciated
Mgadow@ix.netcom.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 14:44:06 -0600
From: Algis R Korzonas <korzonas@lucent.com>
Subject: regularity/maltsose/iodophor
Mark writes:
>Yup! I made a chocolate oatmeal stout that seems to keep me regular!
>I can't figure out why it has this affect!
>Here are my ingredients:
>6Lb Northern Brewer Amber Liquid malt
>3Lb Muntons Dark dry malt
>1/2 Lb chocolate malt
>1/2 Lb Black Patent
>1/2 Lb Flaked barley
>1/2 Lb Quaker Oats
>2 cups Hershey's baking cocoa
I can't explain the benefits of this recipe to your regularity, but I
would like to comment that you really shouldn't use flaked barley or
Quaker oats without some enzymatic malts (like Pale Ale malt or Pilsner
malt) to convert the starches to sugars/dextrins. All that trub you
reported in the fermenter was unconverted starch and had the beer been
a pale style, it would have been wickedly cloudy forever and ever.
You really need to mash flaked grains and rolled oats... you can't just
steep them like crystal, chocolate or black patent malts.
***
In a previous post, I said "maltsose" or something like that. It
really should have been "maltose." Guess my fingers forgot how to
type over the holidays.
***
In private email Bob Bessette asked me if Iodophor will do any cleaning.
Private email keeps bouncing, so I'll answer here:
Bob--
Iodophor is only a sanitizer. Some have phosphoric acid in them,
which may help clean a bit, but not BTF or BEST. Do you have a
carboy brush? I delayed getting one and then kicked myself for not
getting one sooner. I suggest a soak in some bleach solution. I
have soaked carboys in bleach solution for months with no problems
(one tablespoon of household bleach per gallon of cold water).
Al.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 15:54:25 -0500 (EST)
From: "Gerald J. Ginty" <ginty@salve5.salve.edu>
Subject: Iodophor/Bleach
I have seen quit a few references to the use of iodophor. I have been
using bleach to clean for all of my brewing and bottling equipment.
In an effort to the clean up my act , so to speak, I was wondering
if there were any benefits to using iodophor over bleach or a combination
of both. In a recent positing, it was explained that this iodophor stuff
was a sanitizer.
Basically, would bleach perform to same task, or is peferable to use both
Thanks....
*******************************************************************
* Gerry Ginty ginty@salve5.salve.edu *
* (401)847-6650 ext 2177 (W) *
* (401)847-7912 (H) **** *
* St. Columba's CC Homepage: * GB * *
* http://www.salve.edu/~ginty/cricket/sccc.html **** *
*******************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2 Jan 1997 14:13:06 -0800
From: Mark Tomusiak <Mark.Tomusiak@amgen.com>
Subject: Wyeast 3787
Subject: Time: 2:06 PM
OFFICE MEMO Wyeast 3787 Date: 1/2/97
Greetings all...I was curious whether anyone has had any experience with one of the newer Wyeast strains, 3787 'Trappist High Gravity'. The description Wyeast provides indicates that it would be excellent for Biere de Gardes, which are neither trappist nor particularly high gravity (well, maybe high-ish...) so the description puzzles me. I would like to make a Biere de Garde and I am searching for an appropriate yeast strain. Any input would be appreciated, Mark Tomusiak.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 16:37:55 -0500
From: Kevin Sinn <skinner@MNSi.Net>
Subject: Aerating wort
I'm a novice homebrewer who has just made the move to liquid yeast. I'm
aware that aerating the cooled wort is more important when using liquid
yeasts as compared to dry yeast. To that effect, I am using an aquarium
pump with an inline filter and airstone to aerate. My question is: what
is generally considered the minimum amount of time to aerate using this
method?
Also, I recently brewed what was supposed to be a red ale, using 2 cans of
Coopers light unhopped extract. When I opened the cans, I was very
surprised to see that the extract was a dark, reddish colour. It smelled
and tasted fine. I was able to read a packaging date from the top of one
of the cans, and it was July, 1995. Could the extract darken in the can
over this period of time?
Thanks for your help.
Kevin R. Sinn
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 1997 15:53:26 -0700
From: Vince <VJMitchell@asu.edu>
Subject: King cookers & gas usage rate?
Happy New Year to one and all!
I recently purchsced a 200,000 btu King cooker. I am curious about how
long one 25lb propane tank will last using this contraption. If anyone
has any idea please let me know! Thanks!!
VInce Mitchell
VJMitchell@asu.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #2299, 01/02/97
*************************************
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