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HOMEBREW Digest #3656
HOMEBREW Digest #3656 Mon 11 June 2001
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
Things Are Grim In Burradoo ("Phil & Jill Yates")
Re:Odd problem with kegged beer ("RJ")
The Biggest Night Of All ("Phil & Jill Yates")
Re: Too much Oak (Jay\) Reeves" <jay666@bellsouth.net>
RE: Meade recipe (David Johnson)
Practical Brewer pdf many chapters (David Harsh)
Brew Books ("Bob Hall")
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Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 19:29:01 +1000
From: "Phil & Jill Yates" <yates@acenet.com.au>
Subject: Things Are Grim In Burradoo
I regret to advise all world travellers and hearty beer drinkers that the
one time "Hot Spot", luxurious, salubrious and all time favourite watering
hole has been brought to a close. I'm speaking of none other than the
Burradoo Hilton.
Within the confines of "The Hilton", such celebrities as Dr Pivo, Ray Kruse
and Jeff Renner, not to mention of course the Baron himself, have been seen
and noted deep in thought and consumption. Even Fred Garvin has been sighted
hanging precariously from a window on the second floor.
Why is it gone? Well the Baron has taken his eye off the ball (away in New
Zealand fighting kiwi pilots) and in his absence some serious decisions have
been taken. Wes Smith (a kiwi himself) has all but taken over the town and
the first thing he planned to knock off was the "Hilton". In its place
stands a very sophisticated Hotel full of pomp and ladies. Mind you, some of
those "ladies" Wes has employed, look remarkably like the girls I remember
in my Billiard room!
This is an outright act of hostility! The Baron is not happy!
Until such time as the "Hilton" can be returned to its past position of
glory, I recommend it be struck from the books as a sight worth visiting for
world homebrewers.
I went to New Zealand to fight the kiwis, only to return and find the
bastards have nearly taken over Burradoo!
Cheers
An Unhappy Baron
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 06:17:15 -0400
From: "RJ" <wortsbrewing@cyberportal.net>
Subject: Re:Odd problem with kegged beer
"Jamie Smith" <jxsmith@vac-acc.gc.ca> wrote:
"Recent Problem: periodically the last few glasses of beer out of the keg
are clear, odourless, tasteless. Basically carbonated water on tap. Fine,
but not the desired product! The rest of the beer from the keg until the
'water' is just fine."
Sounds to me like he may be fining his kegs with brewer's gelatin
and preparing it wrong!
If he is, he should use 1/2 tsp gelatin for every gallon of beer...
Let it soak in cold water for 20 min, then stirring constantly,
gently heat to ~160F... the gelatin will be ready for use,
when it melds with the water (looks like clear liquid)... IF
IT BOILS, THROW IT OUT and start again! While still warm, add it to
the keg, carbonate, and allow 3-5 days for the keg to clear.
"He adds more water to his kits than is called for...."
Adding more water should not produce a problem of this nature... If
he adds at the beginning of the boil, he boil longer and get a
better utilization of his hops; If adds after the boil, he'll get a
reduced OG; If he adds at kegging he'll reduce his ABV percentage
and lighten his flavors, somewhat.
Once, everything is mixed into the keg under pressure, I doubt that
this would be the issue raised.
"His fridge temp is like mine, just at or below freezing..."
This near freezing temperature, is probably forcing the gelatin muck
to the bottom. Try raising the temp to 38-42F serving
temp.s.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 21:02:26 +1000
From: "Phil & Jill Yates" <yates@acenet.com.au>
Subject: The Biggest Night Of All
I simply can't get over the loss of the Burradoo Hilton. Those of you in
America who have never ventured "down under" are never likely to appreciate
what a focal point it was for Aussie beer lovers.
Some most extraordinary nights have been had at the "Hilton". Perhaps the
biggest was the night we coaxed Dave Lamotte from his bunker in Newcastle (a
position he rarely leaves) for a visit to the Highlands. Dave is renowned as
a most conservative brewer and avid reader of Kunze. The last I remember, he
was up on stage with his pants down around his ankles, singing renditions of
"Oh Danny Boy" whilst Dr Pivo collected money from the audience in his
upside down brewing helmet.
Needless to say, Dave has never been seen in the Highlands since. Nor for
that matter has Doc Pivo.
With the closure of the Hilton, perhaps they will never be seen again.
Wes Smith, you had better have something good in mind to replace class acts
such as this!
Cheers
Phil
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 09:03:05 -0500
From: "James \(Jay\) Reeves" <jay666@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: Too much Oak
In #3655, Nathan Matta sez:
(snip)
>which involved boiling with and fermenting on a small quantity of oak
>chips. So, the mild is great, but there's a sharp bite right up front
(snip)
Putting them in the boiling wort? May should have boiled them first for a
bit in water, then put them in the boiling wort. Sounds like you've
extracted the tannins from the wood and no telling what else.
I can only think of trying polyclar since that is supposed to remove tannins
from beer to help reduce chill haze, but I don't know if they're the same
kind of tannins. Wouldn't hurt to try it.
Jay Reeves
Huntsville, AL
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 11:33:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: David Johnson <dmjohnson@pol.net>
Subject: RE: Meade recipe
There are a lot of questions that probably should be answered before
Michael (or anyone else) settles on a mead.
1) How soon is the wedding? A lot of meads (especially those made with
champagne and montrachet yeast IMHO) take a year before they are ready
to drink. This is especially true of higher alcohol neads. If time is
short and your brother and his fiance prefer a dry beverage then a
lower alcohol sparkling fruit mead (melomel) or spice mead (metheglyn)
could be what would work best. If you have plenty of time, then you
have a lot more options.
2) Dry or sweet? the easiest way to make a sweet mead is to add more
honey than the yeast can ferment out. This can be done 2 ways. The
first is a little more time consuming. You make a moderate gravity
must (gravity 1.100) and start your fermentation and keep adding honey
untill your yeast poops out. If you are using a beer yeast it is
usually about 9-10% alcohol (though I used a belgian yeast and it went
to 12% using the second method). Most wine yeasts will go 12-14%
alcohol. The champagne yeast will get you to at least 18% by this
method. I get the impression that this can be time consuming and I
don't really use this method.
Method 2 is to be really familiar with a certain yeast and start at a
gravity that will leave residual sugar. I generally use Lalvin D-47.
In my hands, I consistently get a 115 point drop in gravity from this
yeast. I like sweeter meads so I will start with a gravity of about
1.120-1.130 and this will ferment out and leave some residual sugar.
Question 3) Still or sparkling? Unless you want to leave residual
sugar, sulfite, sorbate, and force carbonate your mead, there is no
reliable and safe way to produce a sparkling sweet mead. This topic
gets a lot of attention on the Mead Lovers Digest. Other methods are
proposed, but would probably fall under the topic of "Advanced mead
making". Dry sparkling meads are fairly easy and can be made a a
variety of gravities much in the ways we do with beer. A suggestion I
would make (and this is just MY opinion), I think that carbonating to
beer levels is distracting in a mead and I would carbonate a mead to
lower levels (similar to an english mild).
Question 4) Crown caps or corks? This really refers back to #2. I
would add that I think that mead ages out better when corked. Many
mead makers feel that aging is inhibited by corks or caps.
Question 5) Flavor-What do you like? Melomels tend to be drinkable at
a younger age than a lot of other meads. Strong honeys like buckwheat
tend to take more time to age and mature. Cysers (cider and honey) are
a good first mead, but this is the wrong time of the year.
Question 6) How much work are you willing to put in on this? Some of
the recipes can be rather involved. And working with some fruit can be
a pain (they tend to gelatinize and make siphoning a nightmare).
So, did I scare you off yet? I think in lots of ways mead is easier to
make than beer, but it is different! Before you make mead, I would
strongly suggest reading Dave Polaschek and Tim Mitchell's "Mead made
Easy"!
Here is the link!
http://www.best.com/~davep/mme/contents.html
On a final note, a personal hint. I like to use commercial apple juice
in all my sweet melomels. I substitute it for most of the water and it
has a gravity of about 1.050. It seems to "fill in the corners" of a
fruit mead without having a flavor impact of its own. Most fruit
really has a negligible sugar content.
My method is to heat 1 gal of preservative free apple juice with 1 gal
(12 lbs) of honey to 150 degrees for 30 minutes to sanitize chill and
mix with 3 gals of juice in a carboy aerate the must, hydrate the
yeast, then pitch Lalvin D-47. The gravity of this mixture is about
1.126-1.130. I use pectic enzyme here. After fermentation slows, I
will thaw out my fruit and place it into my plastic fermenter where I
lightly mash (just to crack) the fruit with a sanitized wine bottle.
Then I rack the fermenting must onto the fruit. I add pectic enzyme
again here. I make sure there is plenty of head space here because a
violent ferment could push the fruit out of the fermenter. Or clog the
opening and fermentation lock. After at least a week (sometimes 2) I
rack off the fruit using a sure screen. This can be difficult and
sometime you will lose a fair amount of product here. Then I let it
sit until clear. I will rack again if there is a lot of yeast sediment
after fermentation ceases.
When the mead is cleared, I taste and adust the sweetnessbased on the
opinion of my expert taster (read wife).
hope this helps!
Dave
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2001 12:25:46 -0400
From: David Harsh <dharsh@fuse.net>
Subject: Practical Brewer pdf many chapters
Pat Babcock <pbabcock@hbd.org> wrote that chapter 11 of the Practical
Brewer won't open.
I have a more extensive problem. My files of chapters 3 through 12, 17,
20, and 21 won't open.
I knew it at the time, but because of the ridiculously low transfer
rates I got, I put off trying again until it was too late.
Let me know if you have copies you're willing to share.
Dave Harsh Bloatarian Brewing League
Cincinnati, OH
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 09:54:31 -0400
From: "Bob Hall" <rallenhall@hotmail.com>
Subject: Brew Books
The recent discussion of favored brewing books sent me scurrying to the
basement to find the musty copies that got me started in college: Home
Brewing Without Failures by H.E. Bravery (now there's a name for a time when
the terms "home brewing" and "bottle bombs" were synonymous), c.1965, and
The Art of Making Beer by Stanley Anderson with Raymond Hull c. 1971. Are
there any other copies out there? They're both primitive by today's
standards, but a fun read and about all I could find apart from picking the
brains of all the old German farmers who kept crocks foaming in their summer
kitchens through Prohibition.
I have a dozen or so books on the shelf, so for what it's worth here are my
favorites:
If I Could Only Have One : Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels
Quick Reference: Brewmaster's Bible, Stephen Snyder
Standard Gift to a New Brewer: Homebrewing Vol. 1, Al Korzonas
Most Thumbworn: Clonebrews, Tess/Mark Szamatulski and North American
Clonebrews, Scott Russell
Bob Hall
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #3656, 06/11/01
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