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HOMEBREW Digest #5153
HOMEBREW Digest #5153 Fri 02 March 2007
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
Ageing IPAs (Signalbox Brewery)
Little Rock, Arkansas (Michael Forshaw)
Water Questions ("A.J deLange")
When you brew, (leavitdg)
Water Report (Racette) (Calvin Perilloux)
Caution when shipping competition entries via FedEx (stihlerunits)
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Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:40:42 +0000
From: Signalbox Brewery <signalbox.brewery at ntlworld.com>
Subject: Ageing IPAs
AUS Mark advises UK Mark to drink his IPA fresh.
That's one perspective, perhaps based on recipes,
ingredients and techniques used in the deserts
of Walla Walla. In the marshes of Essex things
may be different and if Mark can find a copy of Protz and
La Pensee's India Pale Ales that may be a good source of
native perspective.
Re:
>The bitterness will remain, but the hop flavor will
>fade.
A good example of the effects of such differences. When
we (the Edge family brewers) keep IPAs for a year or two
it is the fading of the bitterness that reveals the complex
fruity hop flavours. Beers brewed this way by James McCrorie
have found approval from Michael Jackson, Roger Protz
and others; something similar from my son won second prize at
the (UK) CBA National competition in 2005.
Re:
>IPA's are not meant to age, they're meant to be drunk
>fresh.
That is why, in the eighteenth century, they were flown to
India by Concorde and kept in refrigerated containers.
It may sound as if I'm poking fun at Mark; well perhaps
just a bit, but the point I'm really making is that interpretation
of his advice depends on whether UK Mark wants to win
US or AUS homebrew competitions or whether he wants to
brew a beer that might have sailed to India. With access to
East India malt again and fresh Goldings in the UK, recipes
transcibed from original UK brewery legers by Clive and the
Durden Park Beer Circle, UK Mark may be aiming for
something completely different.
Anyway, to end with some practical advice. Bottle the stuff
and decide for yourself by evaluating its favour development.
Also, brew again in six months to give yourself a reference
when doing the longitudinal test.
David Edge, Derby
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Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 04:37:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Michael Forshaw <forshawm at yahoo.com>
Subject: Little Rock, Arkansas
Hello Beerlings.
I will be in Little Rock, Arkansas next week for Business.
Can anyone recommend a good brewpub or two for Tuesday or Wednesday night?
Thanks!
Mike Forshaw
forshawm at yahoo.com
Toledo, Ohio
42.9, 168deg Rennerian (never realized how close I was!)
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Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:21:42 +0000
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Water Questions
For Mike R:
Very nice water indeed. The alkalinity is low enough that any beer with
a modicum of other than pale malts should settle in at a decent mash pH.
The addition of calcium in the form of the sulfate or chloride,
depending on the type of beer being brewed (sulfate for ales, chloride
for lagers) should fix any problems in that department. While on the
subject of additions: no, addition of calcium to the sparge water will
have no effect. The pH reducing reactions with calcium are long over by
the time you get to sparging. Also there is no optimum level for
calcium. It's primary job is to react with malt phosphate to set mash pH
but it is important that some carry through to the boil and the finsihed
beer to complex with and precipitate oxalate. Note that several
continental lagers are brewed with very soft water so you should not
need to worry about calcium supplementation for other purposes.
Changes for styles: I'd supplement with gypsum for British ales where I
wanted characteristic hop qualities. For Bohemian Pilsners I would
probably dilute 1:1 with RO or distilled water mostly to cut the sulfate
down. For something like a Dortmunder I might build up the entire
mineral profile if I thought the beer lacked that characterisitic
minerally quality. For most beers other than these I'd do nothing and
see how they came out.
A.J
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:37:42 -0500
From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu
Subject: When you brew,
do you wear your HbD T-shirt?
Making a Belgian Porter today, yum.
Happy Brewing.
Darrell
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Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 08:32:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Calvin Perilloux <calvinperilloux at yahoo.com>
Subject: Water Report (Racette)
Mike Racette asks about his brewing water:
pH - 8.07
Total dissolved solids - 68
Total Alkalinity (as CaCO3) - 42
Hardness as CaCO3 - 53
Chloride - 4.1
Chlorine residual - 0.75
Nitrate as Nitrogen - 0.13
Silica - 4.7
Sulfate - 13.2
Calcium - 11.2
Magnesium - 2.2
Sodium - 9.8
Nice water, Mike! Comments:
Carbonate is reasonably low, not as low as Pilsen, but good
for most any style since you can add more if needed. For a
real Pilsen/Czech lager, you still might consider distilled
water dilutions.
Chloride, Sulfate - both quite low, lending to easy additions
for styles where you want more (e.g. sulfate for Burton Ales).
Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium are also fairly low. I can see
where you'd want to add some calcium for mashing pale malts.
Nitrates at 13 ppm are fairly high for US drinking water.
I thought the public standard was 10 ppm, though private wells
can run higher. Interestingly, the residual chlorine seems
to indicate a public water supply. Anyway, 13 ppm is still
well within standards for many other countries than here,
where we've perhaps gone overboard. (Don't worry about that
in your brewing.)
Adding gypsum to every batch might not be what you want to do.
It can accentuate the hop dryness in styles where it's not
really appropriate, like Munich Helles. In a case like that,
consider adding chalk (if you can dissolve it in -- it's
a real pain!) and maybe small amounts of calcium chloride.
> Is it necessary to adjust sparge water pH as well as mash pH or not?
If you're looking at a pH of 8 or higher, I'd consider it.
In fact, I tend to treat *all* the water that I'll use in
a particular brew session. If I'm intending to duplicate
Burton-on-Trent, why would I think that their sparge water
would be any different than their mash water?
A final note: Make sure to get that residual chlorine out
of your water before you use it!
Calvin Perilloux
Middletown, Maryland, USA
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:24:45 -0700
From: stihlerunits at mosquitobytes.com
Subject: Caution when shipping competition entries via FedEx
A friend of mine who works at FedEx passed along some informatin
regarding their new policy for dealing with undeclared alcohol
shipments. I've included the information below.
It sounds like it is probably best to not ship beers to competitions via
FedEx.
FedEx suggests a package should be able to withstand a drop of four feet
on to cement so your entries need to be packed very well indeed.
Of course, the new policy is only a problem if one or more of your
entries break AND the package leaks. This is assuming, of course, that
FedEx employees do not take some sort of preemptive approach to
packages suspected of containing "dangerous goods".
Precautions can be taken to prevent breakage and leaks so this may not
be all that big a deal but....
At any rate, please use extreme caution should you choose to ship
homebrew entries via FedEx.
Cheers,
Scott Stihler
Fairbanks, Alaska
[2874, 324.9] Apparent Rennerian
- -----------------------------------------------------------
As of the first of the year all declared and undeclared alcohol
shipments that break will be treated as a Dangerous goods spill.
The FedEx policy for alcohol shipping must be from a known shipper not
someone off the street such as the ones that occur for homebrew
competitions.
If anything BREAKS the Dangerous Goods person at FedEx by policy will
have to contact their Legal department and get them involved unlike the
past where they just had to stop the package.
This goes for all Alcohol shipments that break coming through FedEx.
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5153, 03/02/07
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