HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hpeyerl@novatel.cuc.ab.ca (Herb Peyerl)
Subject: Re: Dragging up More Dregs.Culturing
Organization: "NovAtel Communications Ltd."
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 19:22:21 GMT

slk6p@cc.usu.edu wrote:
: I worry less by starting several cultures from my 1st generation
: liquid yeast and having these available for subsequent batches. 
: It is easy enuf to do, and required little investment.  I haven't 
: seen any visible contaminants on my plates or in tubes yet.
: And I figure, and long as I don't reculture too many times from
: the 1st generation I shouldn't have to worry about mutants popping up.

I actually have a few questions regarding reculturing... 

My homebrew supply store (The Vineyard, Calgary, Alberta) was having 
some problems with their Belgian Ale from Wyeast.  It wasn't starting
for anyone (themselves or customers...)... So, I decided to give it
a shot myself.  Sure enough, it didn't expand for me either so I thought
I'd try culturing it... I went to a local culture media supply store 
and bought some Potato Dextrose plates (pre-prepared and sterilized)
for $0.36 each (package of ten.)... They also threw in a handful of
plastic pipettes at 5 cents each... After I explained to them what I
had intended; they gave me a quick rundown on what I should do and 
promptly went forth to do it.  I streaked some juice onto the plate
and let it sit upside down for 2 days... After two days, there was
lots of growth (just like "half and half" milk only thicker...). So
I made a teeny starter (about 3 fl oz.) which started going in about
24 hours.. After that I made a 1 quart starter which was going fairly
aggressively in another 24 hours... At that point, I made a full 5 gallon
batch of "Trappist Monkey" (from Cats Meow II) and had a fairly aggressive
3 day ferment that smelled *extremely* healthy... It's in the secondary 
now and appears to be perfectly normal... 

Now, onto my questions:

This is the first time I've attempted such... All of the plates (4)
appeared extremely healthy so I've stored two of them in the fridge
(and returned one to the store for them to play with)... How long can
I leave them in the fridge (they're stored upside down with the agar
on top to alleviate moisture from dropping on the plate).

Is there any easy way to tell how pure of a strain I got? I mean, if I
got bacteria in with the yeast on the plate, would it look any different?

Is it valid to use Potato Dextrose for culturing?

Should I be super sterile? (ie: I have access to a class 100 clean room
in which they normally do wire-bonding onto dies.) Should I bother with
the clean room and masks/rubber gloves?

Does anyone have any comments on my procedure?  The guys at the store have
read about the procedure but have never done it so had no wisdom to 
offer... These guys are also the best store in town...  

--
"I was early to finish | hpeyerl@novatel.cuc.ab.ca <Reply-To>   | I brew |
I was late to start, I | peyerlh@cuug.ab.ca                     | there- | 
might be an adult, but | #define JANITOR "Network Administrator"| fore I | 
I'm a minor at heart." |    JANITOR, NovAtel Communications Ltd.|   AM.  |
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: rclopton@hoss.unl.edu (richard clopton)
Subject: Re: Exploding carboys ?????
Organization: University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 20:48:20 GMT

In <1992Aug13.201852.28800@awdprime.austin.ibm.com> bj@artie.austin.ibm.com (Bjarne 'BJ' Hansen) writes:

>After brewing two batches in a plastic bin, I have decided to buy
>a glass carboy.
>I just received a porter kit from 'Great Fermentations', and the 
>instructions says NOT to single-stage ferment in a glass carboy,
>and they know of more than 10 exploding glass carboys.
>I've read Papazian, and, there is a picture of a glass carboy with
>a hose for the foam, so what's the deal ????

>Any comments on one-stage vs. two-stage vs. brewcap welcome (please
>remember: Make beer, not war :-) )

>Cheers
>Bjarne 'BJ' Hansen
>Car freak and home brewer
>All opinions are mine. All models over 18. Your mileage may wary.
>Batteries not included. Void were prohibited.

BJ-

I've never had a carboy explode, (though I did make a few beer bottle gernades
when I first started, too much &&%$#^%&$% priming sugar); however,
I've had a few cases of flash fermentation, especially in the summer with
honey brews - and in these cases I've had the cap and blow-off tubes shot 
across the closet, leaving a frothing mess on carpet, walls, and wife's
shoes (Brings on lots of spousal flame, but Puck the wonder dog
and her stupid sidekick Loki dig it).

Add a blow-off and brew on . . .

Rich

--
RICH CLOPTON           |"I'll take Manhattan in a garbage bag with latin
Parasitology (Yeehaa!) | written on it that says, 'It's hard to give a 
University of Nebraska | shit these days.'" - Lou Reed
rclopton@hoss.unl.edu  |                      New York
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: mal@genrad.com (Mike A. Long)
Subject: Low O.G. - what's a brewmeister to do?
Keywords: DME dumb
Organization: GenRad, Inc.
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 17:48:12 GMT

OK, I'll admit it.   Whenever I brew, I follow the recipe to the letter.
But when I take my S.G. for the original gravity, I usually get a VERY
low reading.

Papazian tells us to take the reading (after the wort has cooled to
~70 degrees F).   However, he doesn't tell us what to do if it is lower
than we expect.

Does one boil us some spare DME with a tad of water and pour in the
paste?   Or does one grin and brew it?

To give you an indication, my brew's recipe called for an SG of 1.042, and
I am reading 1.020...


Thanx in advance,

Mikey

ps - yeah, I checked my hydrometer - it reads 1.000 in tap water.
==========================================================================
Mike (Mikey) Long				mit-eddie!genrad.com!mal
GenRad						mal@genrad.com
==========================================================================
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling)
Subject: Re: PLASTIC (I know, yuck...)
Organization: ddsw1.MCS.COM Contributor, Chicago, IL
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 03:52:51 GMT
X-Disclaimer:  Material posted in this article is the sole responsibility of
                the poster and does not represent MCSNet or the system owners.

In article <1992Aug13.175036.27563@athena.mit.edu> bfbrown@athena.mit.edu (Brian F. Brown) writes:
>I will accept flames bravely, but I really want to know what is so bad about
>using plastic carboys for fermentation and exactly how bad it is; i.e. if I want
>to brew a keg's worth for a bunch of (mostly) unappreciative fraternity-party-
>going drunkards, will it still be a ton better than the overpriced kegs of
>bud and bud light we usually get, or will whatever the plastic does ruin the batch
>and make it taste worse (I will be brewing a light lager w/high sugar and little
>hops).
>
>Thanks, Mail or Post, I can take it.

I mailed this but like it so much I have to post it....

 ->

-> To make beer as bad as Bud, you would have to brew your five

-> gallon batch and then add ten pounds of sugar and twenty

-> gallons of water and then let it ferment out.  You will come

-> pretty close.

->

-> The plastic fermenter hype is utter rubbish.  I now use SS but

-> that is because I am rich and can afford it.  I used one of those

-> plastic ones for twenty years.  The key is the other myth.

->

-> If you use bleach for sanitizing, use it straight or dilute no more

-> than 50:50.  I stored mine with about a cup in it and only had to slosh

-> it around again and rinse carefully when ready to use.

->

-> js

jjs

>-BB


Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: hersh@expo.lcs.mit.edu (Jay Hersh)
Subject: Re: esters, banana
Organization: X Consortium, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 16:08:23 GMT

zen@hophead (Nick Zentena) writes:

>        Are we talking about ALE yeast or Not? Since when
>        are ale yeast not supposed to contribute esters? My
>        only problem with Wyeast is that it doesn't make
>        ENOUGH esters!

>        No one making REAL Ales would want to produce
>        something without esters! IMHO it is a defining
>        diference between Ales and lagers. Neutral yeasts
>        are boring and belong in factories not fermenters!
>        Nick


Nick, you want more esters?? raise your fermentation temperature.
ester production is strongly a factor of this, so perhaps the strain
you use isn't really the problem, but your ferment temp is if fruit
is what you seek in you're beer (without adding it of course)

	JaH

--
Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalts
From: redfreak@softcopy.ecn.purdue.edu (Thomas Lobonc)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: Salvator- UGH!
Date: 18 Aug 92 15:23:08 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

Boy, it looks like I touched a few nerves here! In my defense, this was
the only beer I drank, I was sitting at home relaxing, the beer was not
too cold or too warm, I drank it out of a glass, I was not eating anything,
I JUST HATED THE TASTE!  I didn't say it was a bad beer, it just tasted
bad to me! I think because of the low hop/high alcohol content. It just
surprised me that I didn't like it, as I have not found a quality beer
that I didn't like in a long time.

The Guinness and Sammy I poured were 4 years ago, in my "sample the world's
beers" phase.  At the time, I liked Canadian and South Seas area lagers,
and couldn't stand a thick heavy beer. Well, I started brewing a year ago,
and now I drink Guinness regularly in bars. Most of my brews have been
heavy pale or brown ales. So don't call me a bud swiller!

Tom
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: glippert@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Gary Lippert)
Subject: Re: blueberries in my blowoff
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 17:13:44 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: SE Minn Homebrew and Poker Club
Keywords: fruit blueberries

I used a strainer (sterilyzed of course) to rack a raspberry beer.  Keep the rim
of the strainer above the surface of the beer and the tip of the racking tube
below the surface.  An extra pair of hands would have been a big help ( it's
hard to hold a strainer, racking tube and homebrew all at the same time).  The
beer was made with 7 lbs. of wild black raspberries and has a nice dark red color
to it.  It should be ready for bottling in a couple weeks.

gary

-- 
\begindata{text,537360512}
\textdsversion{12}
\template{plaintext}



\bold{Gary Lippert} \italic{(glippert@rchland)}

department 443

IBM   Rochester, Minnesota

         (507)253-1812

t/l      553-1812\
\enddata{text,537360512}
From: ciaran@county.lmt.mn.org (Ciaran Benson)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: Re: The use of Grolsch bottles?
Date: 12 Aug 92 22:43:15 GMT
Reply-To: ciaran@county.lmt.mn.org (Ciaran Benson)
Organization: LaserMaster Technologies, Minneapolis, MN

John S. Watson, Civil Servent from Hell (ARPA: 
watson@ames.arc.nasa.gov) writes;

>"And here in California, they're [Grolsch bottles] using plastic
>tops now,  instead of porcelain, which it kind of yucky, at
>least to me."

  I bought some 17 oz bottles with the plastic cap instead of
the ceramic cap, and have had variable results.

  It seems that the plastic version of the bottle has a slightly
smaller cap then the ceramic version, allowing the plastic version
to have a much thicker gasket.

  The plastic cap bottles seal well enough, especially if the
gasket is boiled just before bottling, but they tend to "burp"
if the beer builds up more than the usual amount of pressure.
Something that I've never seen with ceramic bottles -- even when
I use each type for the same batch.

  On one hand, I'd rather have burps and slightly flat beer than
glass grenades, but boxes of bottles under my steps going; "blurp,
bloorp, blurple" all night is kinda disconcerting.

  I'll keep using them, however, 'cause there's quite a thrill
when you tell folks; "Yup, brewed this one last spring" and
pop the top with a thunderous "PHOOM", with that heavy fog
rolling up and over the lip of the bottle.

  Way more cool than metal caps.

  Must be time for a homebrew ... Ciaran.
From: cush@uh.msc.edu (R. Cushing Hamlen)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: RE: Yeast Culturing - No Dregs Here!
Date: 17 Aug 92 14:35:27 GMT
Reply-To: cush@msc.edu
Organization: Minnesota Supercomputer Center

In article <1992Aug15.011150.58174@cc.usu.edu>, slk6p@cc.usu.edu writes:
....Some of this discussion of yeast culturing bothers me.
....
....If you think about it in terms or a race to maintain the most of the 
....microbes that you want    . . . . to keep in your beer:
....
....	It makes much more sense to me to culture from a pure culture 
....(namely store bought liquid yeast) and get several batches out of one
....envelope-  than to try reculturing yeast that has already been through 
....your carboy.
....	The thing to ask yourself is:  Are you sterile techniques applied
....during the course of your brewing as good as those of a company like Wyeast?
....
....	By the end of a fermentation there has been ample possibility for even
....a few contaminating bacteria of fungi cells to get a foothold.  By reculturing
....this you open up the opportunity for these contaminants to represent a larger
....chunk of the population of a new beer.
....
....	When preparing storage cultures for starters from the primary yeast
....source there is much less chance (if you are careful) to establish significant
....contamination.  
....
....	It is a matter of choice.  Personally I do have the equipment and
....experience to do it properly,  but even without, I'd rather rig up a way to do
....it from the original culture than some 'ol yeasty dregs with who knows what
....lurking about.



Agreed...that is why I have pretty much decided to culture in that manner rather
than try to push the critters to as many generations as possible.  (though that does
not mean I may TRY just the the sake of it  :-)

On harvesting from the fermenter:  there was some discussion recently of harvesting...and
some indication that the resulting cultures were quite pure.  As I understand it, yeast
REALLY does not like to share a medium with other critters, and creats an environment
which is quite hostile to many bacteria.  I think it quite possible that a successful
fermentation will essentially kill off competing bacteria, so the harvested yeast
is likely not very contaminated.  I believe the problems are in mutations and
wild yeast (which is not killed off by the 'good' yeast).  I know that
Summit Brewery here in St. Paul will re-use yeast for upwards of a month or two...

Anyone else out there taken a good look at this?
From: BRAMAGE@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: Re: rom bread
Date: 14 Aug 92 15:24:22 GMT
Organization: C.C.S.O.

Re: beer made from bread
     I'm new to the network and didn't see the earlier round of discussion
on beer made from bread. I did read the article
Brewing An Ancient Beer by Solomon Katz and Fritz Maytag in Archaeology
44 (4) 24-33 (1991).
The authors are a bioanthropologist and the President of the Anchor Brewing
Co., respectively. The article is about efforts to make a Sumerian beer
following a recipe contained in "The Hymn to Niskasi" which was inscribed
on a clay tablet 3800 years ago.
 
     Interesting points from the article were,
the bread used for brewing was made specifically for brewing and was only
eaten during food shortages. It was made of barley flour, honey and dates.
 
dates or date juice provided flavoring in the bread and in the wort.
 
the beer was unhopped.
 
the wort was pitched with yeast from grapes or raisins.
 
     After reading the article I wanted to try preparing an "ancient" beer
but was unable to get any date syrup which is almost exclusively the
product of Iraq and the desert storm prevented import.
From: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us (Joseph Nathan Hall)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: Re: Sweet Wine
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 92 20:20:18 EDT
Organization: 5 Sigma Software
Reply-To: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us
X-Mailer: uAccess - Macintosh Release: 1.5v5


In article <1992Aug22.055541.21822@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> (rec.crafts.brewing), cd651@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Wally L. Blume) writes:
) 
)   I've always let my wine ferment to completion (thats how I was taught)
) as this produces a dry wine. I recently heard that interrupting the
) fermintation part way through will produce a sweet wine (like a dessert
) wine). Question: How can I halt the little yeasties in mid ferment? 

There are two popular methods.

1) Add sugar (as boiled syrup) after active fermentation dies down.  
Fermentation will restart, but eventually (this may take several
iterations) you will exceed the yeast's alcohol tolerance.  The
yeast will croak and you can now add as much sugar as you like.
The "drawback" is that if you are using a yeast with a very high alcohol
tolerance (like Champagne), your sweet wine may have 15-18% alcohol
by volume (!).  This method is probably more frequently used by
meadmakers than winemakers.

2) Wait until your wine/mead has stopped fermenting visibly.  This
might be weeks or it might be months.  Add potassium sorbate or
some other source of sorbic acid (called "wine stabilizer") to
inhibit renewed fermentation.  Sweeten to taste immediately, and
bottle.

A variation on the final method can be used to sweeten sparkling
wines or meads.  (I haven't tried this--yet--but it seems reasonable.)
Bottle finished wine/mead with priming sugar sufficient to produce
the desired carbonation.  Wait about a month.  Chill bottled
wine and some new Champagne bottles prefilled with sugar syrup and 
stabilizer in a freezer.  The wine should be about 26F.  One at a time,
open bottles and siphon into the prechilled Champagne bottles and
close.  The low temperature prevents the loss of much carbonation.
This certainly sounds easier than standing bottles upside down in
freezing brine (!).  It's detailed on pp 158-159 of The Art of
Making Wine.

uunet!joebloe!joseph   (609) 273-8200 day   joseph%joebloe@uunet.uu.net
v   v  sssss | Certified Guru: all-grain brewing,| 2102 Ryan's Run East
 v v  s   s  | C, synthesizer comp & arranging,  | Rt 38 & 41
  v    sss   | photography. Also not a bad cook. | Maple Shade NJ 08052
-----My employer isn't paying for this, and my opinions are my own-----
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: jim@thor.albany.edu (SCHLEMMER JAMES A)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing,alt.beer
Subject: Re: New BrewPub list
Date: 14 Aug 92 18:50:15 GMT
Article-I.D.: sarah.1992Aug14.185015.6367
Organization: State University of New York at Albany

In article <1992Aug13.184825.4115@menudo.uh.edu> mece1xg@Rosie.UH.EDU writes:
>In article <14973@umd5.umd.edu>, brew@monster.umd.edu writes:
>>
>>Fellow Microbrew fans:
>>
>>As there is and continues to be tremendous interest and requests for 
>>information about micro breweries across the US and abroad, fellow brewer 
>>Dale Cooper (cooper@seismo.css.gov) and your's truly, Garry Knox,
>>(knox@monster.umd.edu) are planning to compile a master list of micro 
>>breweries to be made accessible to all.  Exact details are to be determined 
>>such as how the data is to be housed (database, flat file, postscript file 
>>ala CMII) and how it is to be made accessible to all (anonymous FTP).  We
>>will entertain reasonable suggestions so here's your chance to be part of
>>something entirely cool and useful to brewers and beer afficionados from
>>Dead Horse, Alaska to Sydney, Australia.
>>
>> [...rest deleted...]
>
>howdy!
>
>i think this is a GREAT idea!  my suggestion is to put the info into
>a TeX (or a variant, like LaTeX, etc.) format.  that way, it can be
>distributed (via ftp, for example) and be used on pretty much any
>machine.  it would also take up less space than, say, a postscript
>file.  also, using TeX alleviates the problem of postscript, d-base,
>prodigy, microsoft word, etc. formats.
>

The problem with TeX is that not everybody has it and it is a pretty
damn big system so that not everybody *can* have it.  I think that 
PS is nice but it is big.  Perhaps we can split this thing into regional
files.  I know the The New England Beer Club Digest has already compiled
such a list - there's one region down.  Perhaps straight compressed
ASCII text is the way to go.  Then if you want to import it into a word
processor  etc., you could work that out on your own.  

Then again maybe this thing isn't going to be *that* big - anyone 
have a feel for how many brewpubs we're going to end up with?
Maybe we can have several formats available.

Jim
From: chris@sparc.com (Chris Larsen)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
Subject: (none)
Date: 18 Aug 1992 20:39:20 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

subscribe

Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: betel@camelot.bradley.edu (Robert Crawford)
Subject: Re: Questions about mead/wining
Organization: Bradley University
Distribution: na
Date: 17 Aug 92 21:16:32 GMT

abirenbo@rigel.cel.scg.hac.com (Aaron Birenboim) writes:

I said:
>>	The rubber stopper should have a hole in it (to insert the
>>airlock), and a number 8 or 8 1/2 will fit nicely into the jug.
>  The "apple juice" type gallon jugs seem to come in two sizes.
>The "wide mouth" is about 8 or 8.5, the narrower mouth ones
>are around 6 or 6.5.  Compare your jug to others around to
>determine if you have "wide mouth" or "narrow mouth".

	I spoke too soon -- and there are possibly three sizes. I have
one that an 8 was too big for, but a 7.5 is just right... Up until now
I had just used it to store sulphite solution, so I hadn't noticed...

--
"No, no.  My life alone would be meaningless."
        --- Viking woman
"More meaningless."
        --- Crow

Robert Crawford				betel@camelot.bradley.edu
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: jcarr@dbs.com (John Carroll)
Subject: Re: Question on legality of brewing
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 20:00:04 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: D&B Software, Inc.

jeff@squid.ucsb.edu (Jeff Steele) writes:
: Hi
: 
: I'm 25, so its just a matter of curiosity, but the brewing laws state that
: if you are over 18, you may make homebrew.  This appears to be in contradiction
: to the 21-year-old drinking age nationwide.  So, can a minor brew and drink
: their own beer?  Can a minor drink someone elses homebrew?
: 
: Also, I heard it is illegal to make homebrew in some states.  Is this true, 
: and if so, in which states is it illegal?
: 
It is illegal to brew beer in Georgia, but perfectly fine to brew wine.  Go
figure . . .

John
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing
From: betel@camelot.bradley.edu (Robert Crawford)
Subject: Re: Plum Wine
Organization: Bradley University
Date: 18 Aug 92 15:31:36 GMT

In digest <MtascP8M4@ssc.gov> homebrew@lupulus.ssc.gov writes:

>Hi, a friend of mine loves the Japanese Plum wine.  Being a homebrewer I
>thought I would try to make some Plum wine.  Has anyone out there in homebrew-
>land tried to make this or has a recipe for plum wine?  Thanks in advance.

	The one I have calls for 5 lbs of plums, 2.5 lbs of sugar, and
water to bring up to a gallon. You pit and smash the plums, then add
in the water and sugar. Add nutrient, acid, and Campden, then lit it
sit for a day. Cast the yeast, wait about a week, and then rack into a
secondary.

	I've got a batch going now...

--
     Come, let me play with you; Come, Black Satin Dancer.
     In all your giving, given is the answer.
     Your fast river flowing - your Northern fire fed.
     Come, Black Satin Dancer, come softly to bed.
		- "Black Satin Dancer", Jethro Tull

Robert Crawford				betel@camelot.bradley.edu