Friday, September 3, 2010

Homebrew Digest #5728 (September 03, 2010)

HOMEBREW Digest #5728 Fri 03 September 2010


FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
Culturing Yeast (Jim Stansell)
15th Annual Music City Brew-Off ("Steve Johnson")
Morland's yeast (Fred L Johnson)


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Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:53:40 -0400
From: Jim Stansell <jim.stansell at comcast.net>
Subject: Culturing Yeast

I've cultured Bell's yeast successfully in the past, but I've got
some strangeness going on this time that I'm not sure how to evaluate.

I started to culture some a week or so ago by using the dregs from a
six-pack of Oberon into about 500ml of starter wort at roughly 1.040.
I put the flask on a stir plate and let it whir away for two or three
days, at which point I couldn't really tell if it had taken off or
not. The gravity had dropped some, but I wasn't getting any sense of
active fermentation.

Undaunted, I dumped this into 1.5 liters of starter wort (1.040) and
put it back on the stir plate. After another three or four days I
wasn't getting any signs of fermentation (no change in the gravity),
so I just turned it off to see what would settle out.

When I looked at it the next day there was some activity taking
place, and it looked as if there were some "mold-like" colonies on
the surface. Simply out of curiosity, I started up the stir plate
again, and by last night the gravity had dropped significantly, and
the starter had taken on that milky color I'm used to seeing.

I tasted the starter expecting to get a sour flavor, but it tasted
relatively normal. To my knowledge I've never had a wild yeast
contamination in any of my beers before, so I'm not sure what I
should be looking for. I boiled the starter wort in the flasks, so
they should have been pretty sanitary, and the flasks were sealed
with sanitized aluminum foil.

How can I tell if it simply took awhile for the actual yeast to take
hold as compared to something wild contaminating it? I hate to
sacrifice a five gallon batch if there's something wrong with it.

Thanks!

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Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 20:08:25 -0500
From: "Steve Johnson" <sjohnson3 at comcast.net>
Subject: 15th Annual Music City Brew-Off

Announcing the 15th Annual Music City Brew Off
October 8th and 9th, 2010 - Nashville, TN
To all homebrewers, judges, stewards, and beer enthusiasts, I personally
invite you to the 15th Annual Music City Brew Off.
We are continuing our efforts to make our competition the finest in the
South East.
Our competition this year will be held at the Courtyard Marriott in
Goodlettsville, TN (865 Conference Drive, 37072).
Room rates for Attendees are $79 (2 Queen room or King) or $99 for a Suite.
Please use the link on our website: www.musiccitybrewers.com or call the
hotel: 615-851-3000.

This year's special guest will be Dave Miller, author of 'Dave Miller's
Homebrewing Guide', and AHA style series: Continental Pilsner'
This year we will be kicking off our festivities with a dinner and
presentation by Dave Miller (topic to be announced).
The dinner will be buffet style and there will be several homebrewed beers
to pair with the dinner items.
You will find the menu on our website along with other updates regarding our
event. After dinner we want to invite you to our 2nd Club Crawl.
This is much like the NHC's club night but on a smaller scale. We will have
as many tables set up as we can with regional clubs boasting their finest
brews.

Saturday morning our BJCP/AHA Sanctioned Competition will commence.
We will have a Judge and Steward orientation beginning at 8:30. Judging
will start at 9:00.
We will hold (2) sessions of judging; a morning session and an afternoon
session; with lunch in between.
Lunch will be provided for all judges and stewards courtesy of the Music
City Brewers.
Judges will be receiving a special gift from the MCB in appreciation of
their participation

Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place beers, ciders, and meads will be provided
by our corporate sponsor Rebel Brewer (www.rebelbrewer.com).

Also 'The Ed Tate Club Award' will be given to one of the participating
clubs with a minimum of 10 entries.
The Ed Tate Award represents a quality award based on 10 categories of
involvement.
The winning club will receive an engraved plaque and will also be engraved
on a permanent plaque held by the Music City Brewers.

Following the judging we will have an in house "pub crawl". In years past we
have always gone to the various brew pubs and beer spots in Nashville.
This year we are keeping it at the hotel and will have several local and
regionally brewed beers available along with the homebrews leftover from the
Club Crawl.

Proceeds to benefit the 'Childrens Miracle Network'.
Interested in Judging/Stewarding please contact Jonathan Adams at
bigjohn3957 at gmail.com
Hotel Reservations can be made by going to our website and following the
link for reservations.
Dinner Reservations must be made ahead of time and can be made on our
website.
The first 20 Pre-Registered BJCP Judges will get their dinners for $20 ($45
for non-judges).
You must be an experienced judge in order to qualify for the discounted
dinner.
The deadline for registering for the dinner is October 1st.

Entry and Judge/Steward Registration is up and running now.
Rules, Regulations and all timelines can be found at
www.musiccitybrewers.com
Entry registration will close on September 17th. We are accepting entries
starting on September 10th. Entry deadline is September 24th.
Please ship all entries to: MCBO
C/O: Rebel Brewer Homebrew Supply
105 Space Park North
Goodlettsville, TN 37072
615-859-2188
Store Hours for drop off: Tuesday - Friday 12:00PM - 6:00PM; Saturday
9:00AM - 1:00PM
?
Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have regarding the 15th
Annual Music City Brew Off.
Jonathan Adams, Competition Director
Phone: 615-504-7673 Email: bigjohn3957 at gmail.com

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Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 21:47:54 -0400
From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Morland's yeast

Does anyone happen to have the yeast that Morland used to use for making Old
Speckled Hen or the yeast used by Green King who now brews it? I understand that
Morland used to use two strains for Old Speckled Hen. (I love this beer when you
can get it fresh!)

Fred L Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA


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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5728, 09/03/10
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