From: homebrew@lupulus.ssc.gov
Subject: HOMEBREW Digest #1045
Organization: The Internet
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 08:55:38 GMT


HOMEBREW Digest #1045                        Thu 31 December 1992


        FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
                Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  Ginger! (BOKENKAM)
  advice wanted re kit (Chip Hitchcock)
  Re: Mailing List (Kaushik Mehta)
  Barleywine ("JSDAWS1@PROFSSR")
  Suppliers in the Cleveland area (Dennis J. Templeton)
  WARNING: Supplier knows ALL! (Glenn Raudins)
  When does CBS meet next? (Rob Bradley)
  Lambik HSA (Martin A. Lodahl)
  Pasta and Winter Chill (Jack Schmidling)
  How to use flaked barley? ("Daniel Miller")
  brewpubs and micro breweries in southern california (carlos)
  .Z files (parsons1)
  whoops.Z (parsons1)


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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 05:50:58 EST
From: BOKENKAM@ucs.indiana.edu
Subject: Ginger!

In HBD 1044, Jed (parsons1@husc.harvard.edu) the homebrewing,
harpsichording, classicist (now _he_ would be fun to drink with!)
asks:

>I have brewed a batch of mead to which I added two oz. ginger
>(steep 15 min), and the taste is imperceptible.  I have more
>recently brewed a winter warmer with three oz. ginger (steep 1
>min), and the taste is overpowering.  Who can tell me how much
>grated ginger to add to a batch so that it tastes good?

At last, at last!  Something I know something about.  I do a lot
of Chinese cooking and do know my way around the rhizome of the
Zingiber officinale:  As you discovered, no measurement will be
truly helpful.  I suspect that you used stale ginger in the first
instance and fresh in the second.  You want to purchase ginger
that is hard and heavy (full of moisture).  The stale stuff will
be wrinkled and light.  Those rhizomes that seem the most fibrous
where they have been cut are the hottest.  If you do not plan to
use it right away, wrap the ginger securely in plastic and freeze
it.  This stratagem is not good for some Chinese dishes, but you
want the juices anyway so not to worry.  When you add it to your
boiling wort, thinly-cut slices should leach out in a minute or
so.  For five gallons of mead, I would try 2 oz. of the fresh,
hot stuff for starters (but I like hot stuff) and adjust
subsequent batches according to your taste.

It may be that similar considerations--i.e. the differing
freshness/availability/extraction variants for each spice and
herb--which lead "...his own Brewer" to resort to such imprecise
measurements.  Why not try a few and post your findings?   Good
luck.

BTW (grin), someone, I forget who, asked recently about brewpubs
in Indianapolis (second in "wasteland-hood" only to ORNL).  I
would appreciate a cc: if anyone here has knowledge of such.
Thanks.

- --Steve Bokenkamp

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 08:41:13 EST
From: cjh@diaspar.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: advice wanted re kit

   A non-brewing friend has presented me with a "Superbrew Gold:
Barleywine" kit by Edme. The proportions appear plausible for barleywine
(1.8 kg and no added sugar to make 12 pints), although I note they actually
admit using sugar and caramel in the "extract"; the instructions are the
usual ridiculous (hot water to thin, then cold).
 * Has anyone tried this kit?
 * Does anyone have any suggestions for making plausible barleywine from
it? I'm not even sure whether barleywine should have finishing hops, and
any flavor/aroma this kit might have had is going away in a one-hour boil.
 * has anyone tried using just Edme yeast for barleywine? I can always
rouse the yeast if that will help, and I'm certainly going to aerate the
hell out of the cooled wort, but I don't know whether I'll need champagne
yeast to finish.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 11:04:54 EST
From: Kaushik Mehta <kpm@hpuerca.atl.hp.com>
Subject: Re: Mailing List

Please include me in your "HOMEBREW Digest" Mailing list.

NAME:    Kaushik Mehta
TEL #:   telnet 850-2086
email:   kpm@hpuerca.atl.hp.com
ADDR:    2000 South Park Place
         Atlanta, GA 30339

         Mail Stop: S03


------------------------------

Date: 30 Dec 92 09:23:26 PST
From: "JSDAWS1@PROFSSR" <JSDAWS1@PB1.PacBell.COM>
Subject: Barleywine


*** Resending note of 11/24/92 09:03


I've recently read comments soliciting more recepies.  This barleywine, which
I've recently named "blind squirrel barleywine"  took a first place at the
California State comps at Stern grove, SF this fall, and just recently won
the AHA's first-ever barleywine comp.  I call it blind suqirrel because,
it's the first brew I've ever done which has won anything.... which proves
only that even a blind squirrel sometimes finds the achorn  :)

Cheers.     Jack     jsdaws1@pb1.pacbell.com


*** Reply to note of 11/23/92 15:41
OK - as far as I can recall from the extensive records I've kept     :)
Batch size:  5 gal.
Extract:     6 lbs.  Williams light austrailian syrup
             5 lbs.  Williams light austrailian dry
Grain:       1 lb.   10-L crystalsteeped
             1 lb.   40-L crystal steeped
Hops:        3  oz   Chinook pellets aa%13 (60 min)
             1/2 oz  CFJ-90  pellets aa%9  (5 min)
             1/2 oz  CFJ-90    "      "    (dry-hopped in 2ndary)
Water        1 tsp   gypsum at start of boil
             1 tsp   irish moss  (30 min)
Yeast:       14 g.   Whitbread dry
Primary fermentation -  glass for 5 days at 65'
2ndary  fermentation -  glass for 16 days at 65'
Bottled:    June 15, 1991
Note:  Wort was boiled in 4 gal. pot (3 1/2 volume) with 2 gal. water added
to primary fermenter.

|             There's a light at the end of the tunnel..            |
|            If it gets any brighter, get off the tracks.           |
|____________   JSDAWS1  -  JACK DAWSON  -  545-0299   _____________|


------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 12:32:06 -0500
From: djt2@po.CWRU.Edu (Dennis J. Templeton)
Subject: Suppliers in the Cleveland area



In the last HBD was this:
From: raudins@galt.b11.ingr.com (Glenn Raudins)
Subject: WARNING: Supplier knows ALL!


I would like to share an experience I had with a brewing supply shop over
the holidays:

        I visited a supply shop in Bedford, Ohio (across from Tim Lally
Chevy).  Dropping by, I noticed that the proprietor didn't take notice of
me entering his store.  (Not normal for brewing stores in my book.)  I asked
if he carried his grain uncrushed.  Low and behold, he became God-Emperor...

and additional details.


Glenn; you'r lucky to have escaped so easily! this guy is bad news, and if
you won't advise against visiting this fellow I will.  Both times I left
his store so angry that I almost quit the sport  "If this is what
homebrewers are like..."

I know of two good suppliers in the area, one is Wines Inc, in north Akron.
They have a huge selection with lots of grains and equipment.  I'm sure
they have an 800 number but I don't have it here.

The other guy is on the East side of Cleveland (suburban) on Mayfield road;
he sells HB supplies out of his liquor store (the name is Warehouse
Liquors, it's in the yellow pages), and he is the most agreeable fellow
ever.  Thus far he has a rather basic selection, but he will special order
anything you want; I got a bag of grain for $1 more than if I'd driven to
Akron.

The other *major* favor this guy does for homebrewers is that he handles
empty bar bottles and sells them for the deposits.  I left there last time
with 5 cases of 16 oz refillables for $6. I really recommend assisting this
fellow's business, since he seems to be the only source for HB supplies
except for the god-king-emperor in Bedford.

 ... and no, I don't get a cut back

dennis

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 12:56:27 -0500
From: bradley@adx.adelphi.edu (Rob Bradley)
Subject: When does CBS meet next?

I'm pleased to be back in Chicago, if only for a while.  Can
someone tell me (by e-mail) if the CBS is meeting next week?

Happy New Year,

Rob (bradley@adx.adelphi.edu, logging in remotely form NU)

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 10:12:39 PST
From: Martin A. Lodahl <pbmoss!malodah@PacBell.COM>
Subject: Lambik HSA

In HOMEBREW Digest #1044, Steve Anastasi mused:

> During Micheal's visit to a lambic brewery in Belgium, they showed
> the hot wort coming out into cooling boxes.  These boxes had
> screens on the bottom that allowed the wort to fall through and
> splash about cooling the wort.  The first thing that I thought of
> was "Wow, that's a lot of hot-side aeration".  The technique runs
> counter to the article on aeration in the latest Zymurgy.  Then again,
> the same brewery used wild yeasts and other loosely controlled
> processes.

Well, yes, spontaneous fermentation is an irreducible attribute of
lambik brewing.  But the cooling tun ("bac refroidissoire") you
mention isn't intended to cool by splashing, per se.  The idea is to
maximize the surface:volume ratio as the microbiota-rich breezes
play across the wort.  The process really isn't as "loosely
controlled" as it appears;  the celebrated spider webs are there
specifically to mediate the development of acetic acid character by
keeping down the population of fruit flies, known acetobacter
vectors.  It's just a different approach.  Ideally such a tun would
be filled as quietly as practicable, but none of them I've seen are
like that;  they all just slosh it right in there.  It strikes me as
odd too, especially in a beer that will have years in the barrel for
the effects of oxidation to come into full flower.  But that's how
they do it.

> In general after watching the Beer Hunter, I was struck by two main
> observations.  Europeans (at least the ones in the show) appreciate
> their beer and beer is of an artform higher than the belching
> retired sports stars swilling cheap chemical slurries that are
> portrayed in America (or all of the beer=sex implications).

Much as I'd like to feel that's true, Steve, I can't help recalling
that something like 76% of Belgium's total production is swill the
average Bud drinker wouldn't find unfamiliar ...

> The second was that most of these brewers aren't nearly as anal about
> sanitation around the fermenting wort as I am.  Maybe its due to the
> extremely high amount of yeast that must be growing in 5000 liters
> of beer.  Guys were sticking there heads in lagering tanks, walking
> above open fermentation vessels, etc.

As I recall, the lagering vessel footage was in the section on
Steinbier -- good footage!  In order for a biological contaminant to
gain much ground during lagering, it must be hop-tolerant,
alcohol-tolerant, able to operate anaerobically at temperatures just
above freezing, and must have a taste for the complex sugars the
yeast has left behind.  I don't think they're running much of a
risk, especially if they plan to pasteurize or sterile-filter the
bottled beer.  With the open fermentors (presumably in the British
section) I assume the key is that they'll serve the beer pretty
quickly, before the damage is noticeable.

M. Jackson has done a great thing for us with those tapes.

= Martin A. Lodahl                      Pacific*Bell Systems Analyst =
= malodah@pbmoss.Pacbell.COM       Sacramento, CA       916.972.4821 =
= If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, =
= Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me!  8-)   =


------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 11:00 CST
From: arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling)
Subject: Pasta and Winter Chill


 >From: mgx@solid.ssd.ornl.gov

  >2.  Has anyone given any thought to modifing an Atlas (Marcato)
 Pasta machine to grinding grain?

 I believe Jay Hirsh will be happy to fill you in on a better alternative.  If
 you have the pasta version, you can save your time and machine by not trying
 it.  I have one and destroyed it before I decided to make my own.  The
 problem with (at least the pasta version) is that the crank is press-fit into
 the roller and if overstressed, will slip and try as I may, I have never been
 able to fix it.

 >From: BOKENKAM@ucs.indiana.edu
 >Subject: Holiday cheer for Winters

 >You can't always get what you want here, but sometimes you get what you
 need.  (Hmmm. That's catchy, I should write a Christmas song.)

 Perhaps Mr Winters should subscribe to Compuserve where he doesn't have to be
 bored with all the longwinded esoterica that he finds so unhelpful.
 Compuserve has a built-in fix to guarantee a low s-n ratio.   Posted articles
 are truncated after 2000 characters.  That may sound like a lot but it works
 out to about 40 lines.

 Frankly, I prefer to skip articles I am not interested in, as opposed to
 limiting discussions to 2000 characters.  It's "free" here anyway so what is
 there to bitch about?   It's sort of like complaining about the food at a
 free lunch.

 Hmmmm... I have seven lines left.  Let's talk about imersion vs flow-through
 wort chillers.  Or how about bread yeast in beer?  We could take a survey on
 who really is the World's Greatest Brewer or just an essay contest on why you
 love/hate Jack Schmidling.

 js

 p.s.  That's all folks....  Here comes the TRUNCATOR!

 jjs



------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 13:22:50 -0500
From: "Daniel Miller" <dmiller@mailbox.syr.edu>
Subject: How to use flaked barley?

Happy New Year, almost!

I am gearing up to brew the Guinness Draught clone published here a few
issues ago, and am wondering how to use the flaked barley.  From the
recipe it seems that the flaked barley is steeped with the specialty
grains, but when I was at the store getting the barley, I flipped through
Terry Foster's Porter book, and he says that flaked barley needs to be mashed
along with some pale malt.  Is this absolutely neccessary? ie will it be
a waste of barley to simply steep it?  The specialty grains I will use are
roasted barley and black patent.  It is an extract recipe with John Bull
light syrup.

Thanks for any and all insight.
Dan.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 16:15:21 PST
From: carlos@trantor.prc.hq.nasa.gov
Subject: brewpubs and micro breweries in southern california

hi, i will be out to the LA area in a few weeks and wanted to know
if there were any micro breweries or brewpubs in the area.
please send your responses to cojeda@nhqvax.hq.nasa.gov, thanks
in advance and have a happy new year....


------------------------------

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 20:35:10 -0500
From: parsons1@husc.harvard.edu
Subject: .Z files


I downloaded the cat's meow ed2 file from sierra.stanford.edu, but I don't
have enough disk space on my account to uncompress it.  Is there some way
I can uncompress it when I transfer it with kermit, or x- y-  or zmodem?

Please help.  What a huge file! 260K compressed and all recipes!

Thanks in advance,

Jed

(parsons1@husc.harvard.edu)


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 00:30:45 -0500
From: parsons1@husc.harvard.edu
Subject: whoops.Z


whoops.  Sorry.  I now realize that I can use scratch space for this.  Sorry
to have posted that already.  Still, if anyone knows of any way to decompress
while downloading, or better yet, of a program which will decompress the
 .Z format on the IBM, please tell me.

Thanks again...

Jed

------------------------------


End of HOMEBREW Digest #1045, 12/31/92
*************************************
-------