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HOMEBREW Digest #4600
HOMEBREW Digest #4600 Tue 07 September 2004
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
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Contents:
Two Thirsty Brutes In Townsville ("Phil Yates")
That British Caramel Taste (Braam Greyling)
'Swamp-Cooled' Ale Brewing (cboyer)
British "Caramel" Taste... ("Cave, Jim")
ATC Refractometer from Northern Brewer ("Rob Dewhirst")
Tuff-Tank from EC Krause ("Rob Dewhirst")
Re Jeff Renner's priming method (Bill Velek)
WLP 802 -- The Movie (Michael Owings)
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Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 14:59:09 +1000
From: "Phil Yates" <phil.yates at bigpond.com>
Subject: Two Thirsty Brutes In Townsville
Graham Sanders says:
>And does he come back quietly, oh no!!!!!, he comes back with what >could
be only described as a craftbrewers perfect fantasy. We all know >how
morally relaxed those Swedes are, and yes a nice blond around the >house
would certainly make life bearable, but Phil promised the ultimate
>pleasure.
Graham, please be advised:
The two Swedes on their way to drink your brew are male and built like polar
bears. They have an enormous appetite for home brewed beer!
Their two gorgeous slinky blonde girlfriends will be staying with me to
assist in the demolition of my Super Dooper Ice Boch. Jill is on holidays.
Now why is it these blonde Swedes love wandering about the house naked? I
hope their boyfriends keep their clothes on for you Graham. They could cause
SWMBO to lose it all together!!!
Phil
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Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 08:19:53 +0200
From: Braam Greyling <braam.greyling at azoteq.com>
Subject: That British Caramel Taste
Fred,
Regarding your caramel taste.
You might want a bit more diacetyl in your beer. Use a yeast
strain that provide a bit more diacetyl.
Also add some more caramel malt like to your grain bill.
Regards
Braam
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Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 09:07:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: cboyer at ausoleil.org
Subject: 'Swamp-Cooled' Ale Brewing
Hello fellow HBDer's:
I brewed an ale this weekend that I've tentatively called "Ale-Be-Bock"
(with apologies to the Arnold Schwarzenegger) where the intent was to make
a bock-like ale with minimal esters. To accomplish this, I brewed with a
bock-style grain and hop bill, but instead of using a lager yeast, instead
I used Wyeast 1007 German Ale, which has very little flavor contribution
and good flocculation, etc., for clarity.
Also, to further prevent the production of esters, I am swamp cooling this
new brew: I covered the carboy in an old t-shirt and sat it in a tub of
water so that the water would wick up, and have a fan blowing air over the
whole rig. As expected, it has dropped the temperature of the carboy four
or five degrees Farenheit and is now running at about 63 dF.
Questions: 1) when one uses a method such as this, should fermentation be
allowed to start at room temperature? This would seem to kick things off
faster (I used a 1 quart starter) as the cooled brew had a longer lag
time, eight versus the normal four or five before fermentation was
visible. 2) Even though the beer will only be somewhat below ambient,
should I employ a diacetyl rest, a la lagering, prior to bottling the
beer?
Thanks to all for your sage advice. As always, good brewing!
Cheers,
Charles Boyer
http://www.homebrewhelp.com
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Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 07:18:57 -0700
From: "Cave, Jim" <Cave at psc.org>
Subject: British "Caramel" Taste...
Fred Johnstone is trying to replicate a caramel flavour in
British beers. For years I tried to get that "European" lager taste in
my lagers. It turns out the flavour I was trying to replicate was
"skunkiness" due to mercaptans produced when a green bottled beer is
changed because of flourescent light. If your familiarity of English
beers is from imported bottled products, and you are trying to replicate
a flavour, that flavour might be due to aged bottled product. I find
some of these to have a caramel flavour that I don't detect in the
fresher bitters on cask in the UK. Also, some of these brewers add
caramel, instead of using crystal malt.
That said, you may want to look at your malt bill: You should
be trying to use best quality English pale malt. I would suggest Maris
Otter. This adds a really distinctive roundness and toastiness.
Standard water treatment for pale ales is also important.
Jim Cave
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Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 09:34:02 -0500
From: "Rob Dewhirst" <rob at hairydogbrewery.com>
Subject: ATC Refractometer from Northern Brewer
I have the relatively inexpensive refractometer sold by Northern Brewer. I
am getting consistently LOW brix readings with both wort and grape juice.
Samples reading 22-24 brix with friends refractometers read 17-18 with mine.
I calibrate the device before each "session" with distilled water. I let
the sample and refractometer sit for at least a minute so they are the same
temperature. I look at the sample in good outdoor sunlight. I have no
bubbles on the sample glass. I still get low readings.
Has anyone else experienced this with this model? I made a quick look and
could not identify a manufacturer.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 10:38:02 -0500
From: "Rob Dewhirst" <rob at hairydogbrewery.com>
Subject: Tuff-Tank from EC Krause
Over the weekend a friend showed me his 22 gallon Tuff-Tank from EC
Krause. I was very impressed with how light and durable it was, and the
price seems quite reasonable.
I am concerned about oxygen permeability of the plastic, and the amount
of light they seem to let through. Has anyone used one of these long
enough to age beer in them or dry hop in them (for which they would be
ideal with the large opening)?
<http://www.eckraus.com/prodinfo.asp?number=TT220&variation=&aitem=3&mitem=7>
<http://snipurl.com/8wpx>
(PS, if you research this product you will find a thread on
rec.crafts.brewing about this and a claim that these can be purchased
through US Plastics. The product sold through US Plastics is not the
same. It has a rubber seal. The Tuff-Tank does not have any separate
seal or gasket.)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 10:45:12 -0500
From: Bill Velek <billvelek at alltel.net>
Subject: Re Jeff Renner's priming method
In HBD No. 4599, in reply to a comment by Glynn Crossno that he
dissolves 3.77 ounces of priming sugar in a quart of water, Jeff Renner
then commented that:
"... that's way more water than I use, and often I use
beer because I don't like to dilute the beer."
Jeff, do you boil your priming sugar in the beer, or just add it at room
temp and stir until it dissolves before putting it in the bottling bucket?
Also, what proportion of beer to sugar do you use for what size batch?
Thanks.
Bill Velek
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 13:06:55 -0500
From: Michael Owings <mikey at swampgas.com>
Subject: WLP 802 -- The Movie
(Posted already to the rec.crafts.brewing newsgroup)
I've got a new microscope video camera AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!
I've posted a couple of MPEGS of WLP 802 yeast taken under oil immersion
w/ a 100x objective. The effective magnification is actually quite high,
(well over 1000x) since the camera (which replaces the eyepiece) has a
fairly narrow FOV.
There are both hi-res (640x480) and low-res (320x240) clips. Each is
around 8 meg. Because the depth of field is quite shallow at this
magnification, I play with the focus quite a bit so you can get a more
complete view of the cells. Also, bear in mind these cells aren't in a
single plane; they're in suspension in a bit of wort, so some are on top
of others, and will come in and out of focus as the focus changes depth.
The yeast have just completed fermenting out a 1.074 maibock wort.
(Click the camera icons to view)
http://www.swampgas.com/microscopy/yeast/index.html
- --
Teleoperate a roving mobile robot from the web:
http://www.swampgas.com/robotics/rover.html
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #4600, 09/07/04
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