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HOMEBREW Digest #4523
HOMEBREW Digest #4523 Mon 19 April 2004
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
Hop segregation ("Pat Casey")
Low alcohol brewing... (Chris.Pittock)
Lager Fermentation Photo (Rob Zamites)
Mash thickness ("Dave Burley")
Convoluted CF Chillers (Lonzo McLaughlin)
Mash Thickness (gornicwm)
DCL yeast (Scott Birdwell)
The Return Of Mr Sanders ("Phil Yates")
Recipe Translation (Bob Hall)
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:25:36 +1000
From: "Pat Casey" <pat at bmbrews.com.au>
Subject: Hop segregation
Approximately when did it become the norm to cultivate only female hop
plants and propogate them from cuttings? The anonymous author of The London
and Country Brewer (1736), a retired professional brewer, talks about seeds
in hops. So, in the British Isles segregation and propogation from cuttings
was not probably not standard practice until after 1736.
This would of course have an important bearing on using old recipes to
recreate historical beers.
Pat
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 15:05:00 +1000
From: Chris.Pittock at dpi.vic.gov.au
Subject: Low alcohol brewing...
Hi All,
No, I haven't gone 'soft'! BUT I am trying to help out a guy who has
beaten cancer. His quality of life would be higher if he could enjoy beer
without high alcohol content. The drugs he's on give his liver/kidneys a
good workout, but he enjoys his beer. Problem is alcohol could tip the
balance on the health of his organs...
SO! I was wondering about minimal pale malt, mashed with darker malts
(light crystal or lighter...). I have seen maltodextrin powder available
for non-fermentable 'body' addition to kit brews, so some of this may
relieve some of the mouthfeel issues with very light beers. Is dextrin
malt the unprocessed version?
Residual femrentables aren't much good, whether balanced with hops or
not... [killing the guy with a glass grenade would be a savage irony] So,
I guess I'm looking to produce a bitter with some colour (but not very
dark), some mouthfeel and less than 2% v/v ethanol. Or close to it...
All ideas gratefully accepted, and summary willingly posted to the forum.
(PS. Will be away from the office for a few days, so fast responses from
me won't be likely!)
Thanks in advance, Chris.
(Err... approx 12,000 miles Universal Rennarian... OK so I made that up!
It's Australia)
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 00:07:37 -0500
From: Rob Zamites <popeye at zamites.net>
Subject: Lager Fermentation Photo
PMR stated:
Here's a
link to a picture I took minutes ago - what is that crud in my beer?
Is a lager fermentation supposed to throw a funky head like that?
Calm me down, please!
PMR
http://webpages.charter.net/rede/First%20Lager
Well, I got a bunch of gobbledygook from that link, so I can't tell you
a thing. Sorry.
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Rob Zamites
Converse, Texas USA
[1194.7, 227.1] Apparent Rennerian
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 08:59:29 -0400
From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net>
Subject: Mash thickness
Brewsters:
SteveA picks on Bill's use of the word viscosity to describe mash thickness.
While I don't want to be picky, it is OK to talk about a thick mash being
viscous, esp in an agitation sense. It's just not the term commonly used in
the brewing industry and can lead to the mistake that the visosity is
referring to the viscosity of the wort. Mash thickness deals with the grist to
liquor ratio.
Mash thickness does affect the rate of enzyme reactions as Steve points out.
The thinner the mash the faster are the enzyme reactions, largely due to a
reduction of the inhibition of the reaction by the products, esp in the case
of the saccharification.
BUT the disappearance of the enzymes through a uni-molecular degradation is
also faster in the thinner mash and higher temperatures, so it becomes a
balacing act for the saccharification, as Steve chooses to focus his attention
on these reactions, as well as other enzymes.
Of course, there are many other enzymes in the mash which affect beer quality
and to just focus on the saccharifiaction enzymes does not give a complete
picture.
In the case of the proteolytic enzymes, the thicker mashes increase the
lifetimes of these enzymes. It is a fact that more concentrated ( thicker)
mashes produce more nitrogen in the wort and if it survives the boil ( i.e.
does not denature) a better mouthfeel results from thicker mashes. ( Which
was I think the point of Bill's comments) Mashes with lower temperature holds
also yield more soluble nitrogen with the same result.
It is a balancing act of mash thickness and temperature. As M&BS points out on
P 220 1st ed. "
However, worts from mashes made at 150F ( 65.5C) sometimes have greater
fermentability than more concentrated mashes probably because of the extended
survival times of the heat-sensitive Beta-amylase."
Keep on Brewin'
Dave Burley
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 10:07:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lonzo McLaughlin <lonkelm at yahoo.com>
Subject: Convoluted CF Chillers
Hello,
For those who have purchased the newer convoluted
chillers like from St. Pats or Morebeer, how have you
connected them to a pump system?
They appear to come with 1/2" OD copper tubing for the
wort in/out. The 1/2" id tubing I have is too big to
make a tight fit. Have people attempted soldering?
What a bout compression fittings?
Lonzo
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:09:33 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From: gornicwm at earthlink.net
Subject: Mash Thickness
First, Don't shoot the messenger!!! The Horst Dornbusch book
on Helles explains everything. That's where I got the
beef for my "baloney". :-)
While reading, I found it interesting that certain enzymes react
differently to changes in mash thickness. Dornbusch suggests
having a thicker mash creates a better environment for protein
degradation and a thinner mash is better for sacchrafication.
As a homebrewer, I tested this theory...well, to the best that a
homebrewer can test a theory...I brewed.
If I didn't experience this "Baloney" personally with a beer
that I brewed, then I would not have tried to help others with
what I found.
When I obtained an expedited conversion with no perceptable changes to
the desired body or flavor of the beer that I was brewing, while using
Dornbusch's technique, I figured it was worth bringing to my
club's attention.
My experience was loosley based on Dornbusch's explanation. My
final product was a clear, medium bodied beer that finished conversion
noticably faster than If I would have left the mash thick throughout
the entire mash session. If you're still in doubt...TRY IT!!!
The result I obtained is as good as gold even if I cannot scientifically
explain everything that enzymatically happened.
Bill Gornicki
CRAFT Homebrew Club
Michigan
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:27:37 -0500
From: Scott Birdwell <defalcos at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: DCL yeast
Regarding the DCL yeast strains:
Actually the old Edme strain is sold as Safbrew S-33. The old
Whitbread strain is sold as Safale S-04. DCL American Ale #56 is,
theoretically, a dried version of Wyeast #1056 (American Ale
Yeast)/White Labs WLP#001 (California Ale Yeast). My vendor claims the
yeast will be available in 10 - 11 gram packages sometime around
September (it was apparently promised sooner rather than that). This
will be very interesting to see how it compares. The yeast is
currently available in bulk form only. Thought you'd like to know. . .
Scott Birdwell
DeFalco's Home Wine & Beer Supplies
Houston TX
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Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 08:59:12 +1000
From: "Phil Yates" <phil.yates at bigpond.com>
Subject: The Return Of Mr Sanders
Graham
I'm truly pleased to hear you are on the mend. Sounds like you've been
through a dreadful ordeal. Just the night before your post, I sat up with
Phoebe watching a vampire movie and people were getting stakes driven
through them left right and centre. Youch!!, it certainly looked like no fun
at all!
I hope you will honour your commitment to post to HBD at least once a week.
I thought you'd be back sooner or later.
Now about this bus driver. I'd be checking his licence out and making sure
he wasn't an ex Southern Stater. We have a bounty on QLD heads down here,
but the practice is banned in Queensland.
Further about this "Bloody Bastard Bus Vienna", what about a little
competition to find a better name?
I'm thinking "Tropical Vampire Wit-Sunday"
This reflects your shocking ordeal in the hospital, whilst maintaining a
local flavour. Shame you couldn't keep that SS rod as a souvenir.
When you feel better Graham, start firing the shots. It's QLD versus NSW
again. Nothing like a warm up before the "State Of Origin" footy starts.
Cheers
Phil
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 20:24:46 -0400
From: Bob Hall <rallenhall at henry-net.com>
Subject: Recipe Translation
I'm interested in doing a semi-authentic brew for a historical observance
later this year, and would like to try something along the order of George
Washington's recipe, which I have seen in a number of sources:
To Make a Small Beer
by George Washington
"Take a large Sifter full of Bran Hops to your taste Boil these 3 hours
then strain out 30 gallons. Into a Cooler put 3 gallons Molasses while the
Beer is scaling hot or rather drain the molasses into the Cooler. Strain
the Beer on it while boiling hot let this stand til it is little more than
Blood warm. Then put in a quart of Yeast if the weather is very cold cover
it with a Blanket - & Let it work in the Cooler 24 hrs. then put it into
the Cask leave the Bung open until it is almost done working Bottle it
that day Week it was brewed."
Now, my Colonial English probably isn't what it should be, and I must have
been absent the day that the class converted sifters to other forms of
standardized measurements. Thought it might be interesting to see how some
of you would convert George's recipe into a typical 5 gallon homebrew batch.
Bob Hall
Napoleon, OH
[51.2, 197.8] Apparent Rennarian
"I am Robert A. Hall, and I have approved this message."
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #4523, 04/19/04
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