FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
***************************************************************
OCTOBER'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Ypsilanti Brewing Company
Visit them at http://www.ypsilantibrewing.com/
Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********
DONATE to the Home Brew Digest. Home Brew Digest, Inc. is a
501(c)3 not-for-profit organization under IRS rules (see the
FAQ at http://hbd.org for details of this status). Donations
can be made by check to Home Brew Digest mailed to:
HBD Server Fund
PO Box 871309
Canton Township, MI 48187-6309
or by paypal to address serverfund@hbd.org. DONATIONS of $250
or more will be provided with receipts. SPONSORSHIPS of any
amount are considered paid advertisement, and may be deductible
under IRS rules as a business expense. Please consult with your
tax professional, then see http://hbd.org for available
sponsorship opportunities.
***************************************************************
Contents:
Re: Should I drink contaminated beer? (Jesse Stricker)
Old Supplies [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] ("Williams, Rowan")
Yeast ("A.J deLange")
Brewing Hop Tea (Rick) Theiner" <rickdude@tds.net>
RE: Pumps ("Kevin Weaver")
re: Should I drink contaminated beer? ("jeff_ri")
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* The HBD Logo Store is now open! *
* http://www.hbd.org/store.html *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org
If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!!
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word
"subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL
ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!**
IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to
the digest as we cannot reach you. We will not correct your address
for the automation - that's your job.
HAVING TROUBLE posting, subscribing or unsusubscribing? See the HBD FAQ at
http://hbd.org.
LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL USED EQUIPMENT? Please do not post about it here. Go
instead to http://homebrewfleamarket.com and post a free ad there.
The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright
HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK
before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content
cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit.
More information is available by sending the word "info" to
req@hbd.org or read the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org.
JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
and Spencer Thomas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:05:03 -0800
From: Jesse Stricker <jessestricker at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Should I drink contaminated beer?
Tom Puskar writes:
> After this long winded story, my question is this. Should I try it
and if
> it tastes reasonable just chill it and drink it? Or, will some dreaded
> gastrointestinal plague befall me and anyone who drinks it?
Take a shot of it. If it's infected, you'll know pretty quickly (like,
when you get it near your mouth). If it smells and tastes OK, it
probably won't make you sick. There aren't a whole lot of bugs that can
grow in 5% alcohol and then grow in you -- hence the popularity of beer
in places and times with bad sanitation. If it smells and tastes bad,
you might make yourself sick drinking it, but you wouldn't drink a bunch
of it if it was bad.
If it tastes OK (and it might), then have a glass and see how you feel
in the morning. A bad hangover is possible, but probably the worst that
could happen. If it is OK, I wouldn't age it for long -- chill it and
drink it, it might get worse.
If it's rank and nasty, well, then you've got to do what you've got to
do. It happens. But in general, it's hard to grow dangerous organisms
in beer-strength alcohol solutions.
Jesse Stricker
San Diego, CA
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 16:28:27 +1100
From: "Williams, Rowan" <Rowan.Williams at ag.gov.au>
Subject: Old Supplies [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
I've never bought and brewed the entire bag of malt in the same year - my 25kg sacks of crystal, amber and munich malts are more than 3 years old and thanks to a cool dry cellar and sealed buckets, the grain is in good shape and makes fine beer.
I wouldn't toss any of the grains out unless they smell bad or have visible defects. Agree with other comments re hops and lets face it, if you're bittering with them, who cares if they're low on aroma properties?
Cheers,
Rowan Williams
Canberra Brewers Club, Australia
[9588.6, 261.5] AR (statute miles)
- ----------------------------------------------------
If you have received this transmission in error please
notify us immediately by return e-mail and delete all
copies. If this e-mail or any attachments have been sent
to you in error, that error does not constitute waiver
of any confidentiality, privilege or copyright in respect
of information in the e-mail or attachments.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:30:00 -0500
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Yeast
Two posts yesterday described essentially the same problem which was
unwanted behavior in beers pitched from yeast supplied in tubes. I too
have had some strange experiences with yeast in that form - a beer that
wouldn't start requiring a second pitching and the other a Kolsch that
never dropped clear (not that Kolschs really like to do that very much
anyway) and just didn't taste very good. Both batches went down the
drain as they both had a horrid phenolic taste. I assumed that it was my
error in both cases (i.e. infection though I could find no bugs under
the microscope) but in talking to people in my homebrew club, one
professional brewer and my new local hombrew supplier I found that it is
not that uncommon with this brand. The latter gentleman will not stock
the product in question because he got so many complaints from customers.
The other side of the coin is that I have made some nice beers with
those yeasts, including WLP 300. Thus, while I do not plan to avoid that
brand forever, I will not use it again until I stop seeing posts like
those of yesterday.
A.J.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 8:29:44 -0600
From: "Eric (Rick) Theiner" <rickdude at tds.net>
Subject: Brewing Hop Tea
I was wondering if anyone has experience brewing hop tea
for simple consumption. I've been having problems with
middle of the night sleeplessness, but have been able to
counteract it with the administration of IPA's. I prefer not
to drink during the week for the time being-- at least until
the end of the semester. So the next step is just the hop
part.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Rick Theiner
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 11:25:00 -0500
From: "Kevin Weaver" <kweaver at brewmation.com>
Subject: RE: Pumps
Just some additional thoughts on pumps. Peristaltic pumps work great
for sparging. We have been using them on our systems all along. We use
two of them which enables us to maintain the mash liquid level
throughout the sparge. AJ is quite right that they are expensive even
at sparging rates for home brewers running in the range from 5 GPH to 13
GPH. We have searched high and low for a lower cost pump to offer but
have come up empty. There are the types that have two heads with one
motor, but surprisingly this arrangement was more expensive then the two
pumps we use. We even tried to develop one, but scrapped that idea
since we could not get the repeatability that is required using "lower
cost parts".
If anyone does know of a decent low cost supplier of these peristaltic
pumps, let us know. We'll run it through the tests!
Regards,
Kevin
Kevin Weaver
Brewmation Incorporated
www.brewmation.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 21:53:43 -0500
From: "jeff_ri" <jeff_ri at cox.net>
Subject: re: Should I drink contaminated beer?
Hi All,
In HBD #5445 Tom Puskar asked about drinking a batch of beer that didn't
start fermenting for 3 days and is probably infected.
I really don't think that there would be any ill effects (pun intended)
caused by drinking this batch even if it's severely infected. At worst, it
may be somewhat sour and funky tasting. Then again, it may not be too bad
at all. Give it a try and if it's drinkable don't wait for it to get worse
(which it may very well do).
If the batch is severely infected, whatever equipment you used on it
(fermenters, hoses, racking cane, bottling bucket, etc) got exposed to
whatever unwanted bugs are in there. Toss the hoses and do an extra careful
job of cleaning and sanitizing every thing else.
Even when using those unnamed tubes, you should still make a starter.
You'll be pitching a larger number of healthier yeast, and you will always
know it the yeast from the tube is dead or not before pitching into your
main batch.
Jeff McNally
Tiverton, RI
(652.2 miles, 90.0 deg) A.R.
www.southshorebrewclub.org
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #5446, 11/07/08
*************************************
-------
