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HOMEBREW Digest #5386
HOMEBREW Digest #5386 Sun 03 August 2008
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
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Contents:
Beer program ("Dave Draper")
Re: Dornbusch and Vorlauf ("Aaron Hermes")
Re: Renner's Pretzels ("Aaron Hermes")
Matching the beer to the festival ("Chad Stevens")
Re: Hop Questions/Advice ("Keith Anderson") ("Amos Brooks")
Malt Madness Homebrew Competition ("Al Hazan")
Re: Filtering instead of Vorlaufing? (Kai Troester)
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Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:27:15 -0600
From: "Dave Draper" <david at draper.name>
Subject: Beer program
In HBD #5385, Josh Knarr says:
> The host is a waif. I don't care that he's a PhD in Robotics or that
> he's the mastermind of The Gay Agenda. What does that have to do with
> the core interest of the program?
What does anyone's physique or seck-shoo-al preferences (I had to
spell it that way to get through the language filter!) have to do
with their ability to understand, appreciate, or brew beer? Geez.
Does one have to be a hetero bodybuilder to be able to talk about or
brew beer? If a guy or gal can brew a fine pint, I don't give a cr*p
how big their muscles are or who they choose to sleep with.
And:
* "All beers are ales or lagers." Absolutely no mention was made of
"steam beers", etc. I find the spirit of homebrewing is in Doing It
Wrong to find out what works. (I have a pilsner I'm intentionally
fermenting at 80F to try to make it interesting, for instance).
Where's the adventure?
Surely you must recognize that shows like this are intended to
introduce the idea of brewing to people who have no idea at all how
it's done. Introducing "adventure" simply muddies the waters and is
counterproductive to the attempt to make an informative show. I'm
not defending its every choice and detail, but this criticism seems
misplaced. What *you* find to be the "spirit of homebrewing" is not
what *everyone* finds to be so.
Cheers, Dave in ABQ
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
David S. Draper, Institute of Meteoritics, Univ New Mexico
David at Draper dot Name
Beer page: http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer.html
Life's a bitch, but at least there's homebrew ---Norm Pyle
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 12:21:54 -0400
From: "Aaron Hermes" <aaron.hermes at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Dornbusch and Vorlauf
On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 11:30 PM, Steve Alexander wrote:
> Either that or Dornbush is misleading (wouldn't be the first time).
Without wanting to start anything too crazy, is he known for being
inaccurate/misleading? What sort of things does he tend to get wrong?
Is he agenda-driven, or just inaccurate?
I appreciate the references to Kunze. I've been tempted to get that
and read it, but I haven't seen a reasonable place to get my hands on
it...
> OK -so if you want to experiment with filters have at it, but
> you need a vast membrane surface area and some way to introduce
> sparge water and allow runoff. This is not an in-line filter
> sort of solution. My reading is that it makes a lot of sense an
> a large scale where an extra 3 percent of extract recovery
> and making drier lighter grist waste is important.
This sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth at my level of
production... That's what I was looking to know!
aaron
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 12:30:22 -0400
From: "Aaron Hermes" <aaron.hermes at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Renner's Pretzels
On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at Rick Theiner wrote:
> 1) Give the pretzels a decent amount of time in the boil. I can't
> remember the time requirement, but I go by appearance now. I
> look for the dough to be turning brownish yellow under the influence
> of the lye.
I go by color, too. After upping the concentration of the lye (based
on the proportions in this recipe:
http://www.kabish.com/recipes/recipes.php?id=351
the color changes very quickly, like in less than 30 seconds. Is the
color change indicative of the change in texture, too? Or are there
two different (but related) mechanisms at work?
aaron
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 10:33:10 -0700
From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net>
Subject: Matching the beer to the festival
All:
A bit of to-do is being made over the American breweries being featured at a
British festival. I feel the need to toot my own horn a little. We had the
2nd annual "Craft Brewer's Competition & Festival" at the San Diego County
Fair in June. I define "Craft Beer" a little loosely. If someone is making
a quality product and is proud of the sweat and toil they put into it, I'm
happy to show their product at our festival. Why does that person have to
make beer in America for it to be "craft" beer. "All politics is local,"
and all beers are local to someone. And by the same token, just because the
brewer has computers and a big budget does not mean they don't share the
same zeal for beer the little guy does. I've met the guys brewing small
pilot batches for Michelob and others. They have the same fire in their
eyes I see in small craft brewers. Long story short, what follows are the
breweries that were represented at the San Diego County Fair Craft Brewer's
Festival. We had 287 beers from 115 breweries. I was pretty proud of the
line-up. When the public sees Ballast Point presented next to Belhaven
presented next to Bierbrouwerij St. Christofel, they soon realize it's all
beer, and it's all good. I was happy to have every one of them. And
hopefully, the next time that consumer steps into the market, they don't
treat the "craft beer" section as a phase in brewing history that will pass
or something to be ignored.
And as long as I'm pontificating, the unsung heroes in all of this are the
importers and distributors. Were it not for guys like Dan Shelton who go
out and find these wonderful beers, we here at home (wherever that may be)
would be stuck with the same ol' beer day after day. These are the guys who
have made the Belgian craze in the U.S. and the American hop craze in Europe
possible. All of these festivals would be pretty boring were it not for
distributors working their tales off behind the scenes.
Chad Stevens
QUAFF
San Diego County Fair - Beer Events Organizer
Brewery
Abita Brewing Co
Affligem
Alaskan Brewing Company
Ale Smith Brewing Co
Alpine Beer Co
Anderson Valley Brewing Inc
Angel City Brewing
Anhauser Busch Inc
Avery Brewing Co
Baird Brewing Co.
Ballast Point
Belhaven Brewery
Bierbrouwerij St. Christoffel
Big Sky Brewing Co
Bjs Restaurant And Brewery-Oxnard
Bosteels Brewing Co
Boston Beer Company
Brasserie Cantillon
Brasserie De La Senne
Brasserie Duyck
Brasserie Lefebvre
Brauwerij De Koninck
Brauwerij De Ranke
Brewery De Landtsheer
Brewery Ommegang
Brothers Brewing Co
Cervejaria Sudbrack
Chimay Brewing Co
Coronado Brewing Co
De Proef
Deschutes Brewery
Dixie
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Drie Fonteinen
Erdinger
Firestone Walker Brewing Co
Fox Barrel Cider Company
Full Sail Brewing Co
Fullers
Green Flash Brewing Co.
Green Mountain Cidery
Grotten Brewing Co
Hacker Pschorr
Hoegaarden
Inveralmond Brewery
Isle Of Skye
Jolly Pumpkin Artisanal Ales
Karl Strauss Brewing Co
Kona Brewing Co
Konig Brauerei
Koningshoeven Brewing Co
Kulmbacher Brauerei
Lagunitas Brewing Co
Leffe Brewing Co
Left Coast Brewing Co
Lightning Brewery
Mad River Brewing Co
Maui Brewing Co
Meantime Brewing Co
Mendocino Brewing Co
Michelob
Mikkeller Brewery
Mission Brewery
Moretti
Mountain Meadows Mead
Moylans Brewing Co
New Belgium Brewing
New English Brewing Co
Nimbus Brewing Co
Nogne-O Brewery
Norrebro Bryghus
North Coast Brewing Co
Oggis Pizza And Brewing Co
Oskar Blues
Palm
Paulaner
Pizza Port-Carlsbad
Pizza Port-San Clemente
Pizza Port-Solana Beach
Port Brewing Co
Pyramid Breweries
Redhook Ale Brewing
Redstone Meadery
Ridgeway Brewing Co
Rock Bottom Brewery
Rogue Ales
San Diego Brewing Co
Santa Cruz Mtn. Brewing
Schneider Brewing Co
Sea Dog Brewing Co
Shipyard Brewing Co
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co
Skyscraper Brewing Co
St Feuillien Brewing Co
Stella Artois
Stone Brewing Co
The Brew House At Eastlake
The Bruery
Urthel Brewing Co
Victory Brewing Co
Wells And Youngs Brewery
Widmer Brothers Brewing Co
Wyders Cider
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 14:35:39 -0400
From: "Amos Brooks" <amosbrooks at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Hop Questions/Advice ("Keith Anderson")
Keith,
I think what is happening with the freezing non-dried hops becoming
mush is ice crystal formation. If you don't want that to happen you
need to flash freeze the hops so that the freezing happens so fast the
crystals don't have a chance to form. I'm not sure the ice crystals
are really a bad thing though. They will rupture the cell walls of the
plant and make it easier to get the contents out. This is good for
berries as it breaks up pectins that form and releases the sugars more
realily. I'm not sure about the hops though.
Amos Brooks
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think the only potential problem is moisture which could encourage
rotting/mold/mildew in the long run. If you freeze hops right off the
vine and thaw them (as with herbs) they can get slimy and appear to be
decomposing. But sounds like you don't have this problem so I
wouldn't worry. I found my fresh hops added a flavor a bit too
vegetal for my taste and preferred the flavor of dried hops (although
the Sierra Nevada fresh hop ale is superb). Overall, my homegrown
cascades lacked the oomph of "professionally" grown cascades and
suspected I wasn't getting a very high %AA due to some missing
nutrient from my soil but that was just a guess.
Keith
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 13:40:44 -0400
From: "Al Hazan" <hazan at ptd.net>
Subject: Malt Madness Homebrew Competition
This is the third and last call for judges for the Lehigh Valley
Homebrewers' (LVHB) homebrew competition, Malt Madness, which will be held
on Saturday, September 6th at the Allentown Brew Works in Allentown, Pa.
All BJCP recognized styles (2008 guidelines) including meads and ciders are
eligible for entry. For complete details and forms, please visit the LVHB
web site at http://www.lehighvalleyhomebrewers.org
Entries will be accepted from August 11th through August 22nd. For drop off
and mail in locations please refer to the LVHB web site.
Please, do not mail entries to the Allentown Brew Works.
BJCP Judges are very much needed and most appreciated. If you are interested
in volunteering, please contact me at the below address. All judges must be
BJCP certified (any ranking) or have relevant experience.
Good luck to all,
Al Hazan
Competition Organizer
hazan at ptd.net
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:39:20 -0400
From: Kai Troester <kai at braukaiser.com>
Subject: Re: Filtering instead of Vorlaufing?
> In the Altbier Classic Styles Series book, Dornbusch states that most
> German breweries centrifuge or filter the wort after lautering, rather
> than vorlaufing as most homebrewers do. I don't have the means to
> centrifuge wort at this point, but I'm wondering if anyone here has
> ever opted for filtering their wort through an inline filtration
> system of some sort. What size filter would be appropriate? It seems
> there would be disadvantages to filtering the wort through too fine a
> filter at that point, but I'm really just guessing there. I'm more
> upset at learning that vorlaufing isn't part of the typical process
> these days... It seems like I've been misled!
I concur with Steve, that Herr Dornbusch might be misleading, again.
Especially after his Pilsner article in BYO I became rather skeptical
about his advice.
Narziss, another German brewing author doesn't mention post lautering
filtration or separation with a centrifuge either. He only lists
lautertun and mash filter as the ways to separate spent grain and
wort. From what I have seen so far and read, lautering with a lauter
tun is still state of the art in German brewing. And during this
process the turbid wort is recirculated to clear it up, though studies
have been made that show that the importance if clear wort run-off is
overstated.
The ~4hr lauter time given by Kunze seems a little high though. I read
that it is more in the 120 - 150 min range and currently the longest
stage in most brew houses thus limiting the number of batches that can
be brewed.
So, don't bother with post lauter filtration. just recirculate until
the wort runs somewhat clear and than run it into the kettle.
Kai
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5386, 08/03/08
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