Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    I checked in my copy of the brewer's handbook for herbal beers and
    found quite a selection.
    
    Cinnamon, ginger, spruce, chocolate, corriander (which is like cumin
    and now I want to try and make the perfect complement to Mexican
    food!!), garlic (yick!!), and chicken.
    
    Yep, chicken.  I will spare the details.  But it almost sounds
    medicinal because the recipe looked as if the outcome would be part
    beer, part fermented chicken soup.
    
    I think for now, with the exception of the temptation to brew cumino
    brew (cumin beer) I will stick to standard hops and malt and yeast and
    pure water.
    
    In the past I've brewed dandelion wine, grape wine, mead, and pear wine
    flavored with goldenrod which was not worth the effort.
    
    For those who wonder, brewing was long a woman's art, and often the art
    of the "witch" and healer.

Very good, Margaret, I don't think you and I had the chance to discuss
brewing during our earlier lessons...I hadn't realized you practiced the
art.  Brewing beer (and, to be exact, one batch of mead-in-progress) has
been a great hobby.  I started less than three years ago, and in fact it
was Charles who took my then-roomate and I shopping for our first beer-
making equipment and supplies.  In that period, I and my partners have
prepared about 45 five-gallon batches, plus or minus a few.

One of the easily accessible sources of beer-making information is right
here at Digital, the notesfile DATABS::HOMEBREW.  For delivery right to
your own account, one could subscribe to the internet Homebrew Digest by
sending a piece of email requesting a subscription to the moderator at 
decwrl::"[email protected]" and waiting a few days; that
brings in one long digest every morning, containing 8-20 different notes
from homebrewers all over the globe.  And there are a few usenet newsgroups 
around, I'm not current on them; I think rec.crafts.brewing is right.  In 
the mundane world, many, many regions have local homebrew clubs, and 
homebrew supply stores are listed in the yellow pages (sometimes under 
winemaking supplies, or beermaking supplies.)

Homebrewing was long an ordinary household practice in the old countries and
in the US; until prohibition made all alcohol production illegal, that is.
Afterwards, somehow it was not re-legalized, until the mid 1970's when some
politicians finally made it legal in very small quantities; one can only make
100 gallons per year per adult in the household.  A few states (NJ) still have
laws prohibiting it.  And homebrew *cannot* be sold; very illegal.  But for 
all practical purposes, as long as you don't live in NJ, you can make your own
beer and there's no requirement to register or license or pay fees or deal in
any significant way with governmental interference.  

It's a great hobby!  I've really enjoyed learning more about many different 
styles and flavors in beer, learning to taste them, and trying to reproduce
(some of) them in my own efforts.  I think I'll stop gushing about it now, but
if anyone has any questions, feel free.

DougO

There is a theory that people started growing barley in Mesopotamia, not
to make bread, but to make beer.  Sumarin beer recipes and pictures of
Sumerians drinking beer (they used straws) have survived.  A commercial
brewer (I think it was the owner of the Anchor Steam* brewery) and a
Sumeroligist worked on a project to try to reproduce Sumerian beer.  
Beermaking has a very long history and according to this theory, it is
the very foundation of our culture.




* One of the first U.S. "botique" breweries.

    G'Day,
    
    	I bought a home brew kit about 10 years ago and never used it. 
    Just never got around to it.  The barrel makes a great water container
    for camping though.  One of these days I'll give it a go.  If only
    cleaning the bottles wasn't such a chore.
    
    	The other beer related thing I can add is that it was good to get
    home to some good beer after my recent trip to the US.  I couldn't find
    a beer over there that quite had what ours do (admittedly I didn't try
    *THAT* many).  I could have bought Fosters over there but at US$3.50 a
    can I just couldn't bring myself to it when I can get it here for about
    US60c a can!
    
    David.
    

    David,
    
    On cleaning bottles, we found that running them through the dishwasher
    and then rinsing them by hand works splendidly.  Did you buy the
    Coopers kit?  I understand it is quite good beer.
    
    My partner in sin and I have gone to strictly grain beers, with the
    exception of 12 gallons of apple cider fermenting for sparkling apple
    brau and apple jack.  We stopped making honey mead as the after effects
    seem to be similar to cheap wine or scotch the next day.  
    
    Meg

    Not making anymore mead?  Oh my.  The mead my friend makes never had 
    that effect on me.  I can't get enough, 'tis the drink of the gods.

    Maybe it is one of the pollens in the honey here that causes the
    problem, or one of the less fermentable sugars.  Yes, not all sugars
    ferment by all yeasts, but I can easily live with out another headache
    from hell, cured only by time, and a chili-cheese omlette or menudo.  
    
    Gaelic namek == methagolin? (phonetic spelling)

    Foster's is good beer, but it does have more kick than US beers, quite
    a bit higher alchol content.
    
    One of the reasons I started making beer years ago was that I didn't
    like beer.  The first homemade beer I had was great stuff!  Blew the
    doors off Budweiser.  That was long ago, before it was legal.  Not
    all the joys of college are in the published curriculum.  I worked in a
    lab and the lab crew made homebrew, illegally importing the necessary
    stuff from Canada.  (Statute of limitations has run out, and I really
    cannot recall names. :^)
    
    I've since discoved the joys of commercially made beers.  Locally,
    Harpoon and Samuel Adams are very nice.  They also do specialty brews
    like bock and wheat beers.  And I did the "beer tour" of Europe three
    times.  Favorites are Austrian Mohenbrau (sp??), Danish Carlsberg,
    Irish Smithwicks.  Can't stand Stella Artois.
    
    We clean bottles with a nifty contraption that fixes onto the kitchen
    faucet.  It power sprays the bottles with hot water.  But it still is
    no substitute for sterilizing the bottles properly.  Bleach solution
    for that.  Back in the lab days, there was something else that was
    used, but I cannot recall exactly what it was, an acid compound of some
    sort.  Probably the same stuff that is in B-Bright.
    
    DougO, thanks for the info about net conferences.  I am already linked
    to mundane local sources.

    following reply will be a recipe for mead.  I made the orange/ginger
    version and it came out wonderfully!
    
    it is a *long* recipe, complete with instructions for the ABSOLUTE
    novice (note, the ABSOLUT novice will have to brew differently ;)
    
    -Jody

                                           MEAD

           1  Notes

           This recipe is a composite of two recipes from the 16th century
    cookbook, "The Closet of Sir Kenelme Digbie, Opened". One recipe
    calls for oranges and orange peel; the other calls for lemons and
    rosemary. My particular variation uses the lemons and rosemary, but
    this is mostly a matter or personal preference. Other variations use
    star anise or raisins instead of citrus fruit.

    You can get the ale yeast at New England Winemaking Supply in Fram-
    ingham MA(on Route 9); they will do mail order if your purchase exceeds
    $25, but the yeast costs less than $1 a packet. As with baking yeast,
    don't try to stockpile the stuff. Keep it in the refrigerator until
    you're ready to use it.

    The winemaking store also carries spare bottle caps and bottle cap-
    pers. The best capper to get is the one that looks like a corkscrew; it
    costs about $9, but is MUCH easier to use than the cheaper kinds.

    Make sure your champagne bottles are AMERICAN bottles; European ones
    don't fit the bottle caps. Nearly every novice brewer finds this out
    that hard way. If you don't have 24 champagne bottles, Grolsch beer
    bottles (the ones with the ceramic tops) work just fine. You don't have
    to cap them, either.

    If you intend to transport your mead, make sure you keep it cold at all
    times. The stuff has a nasty habit of exploding if it gets too warm.

           2  Equipment Needed

           o  5-gallon enamelware canning kettle with lid (DO *NOT* USE METAL)

           o  measuring cup (preferably Pyrex)

           o  funnel (plastic or glass; NOT METAL)

           o  12" square of loosely woven muslin

           o  3 small plates

           o  24 American champagne bottles

           o  dishwasher detergent

           o  paper towels

           o  potato peeler or sharp knife

 
    
              3  Ingredients

           o  9 pounds of honey (generic is okay)

           o  5 gallons of water (use bottled water if your tap water
    		doesn't taste good)

           o  2 oranges or lemons (or 3)

           o  2 cinnamon sticks

                                                                             1

 






           o  1 T whole allspice

           o  1 T whole cloves

           o  1 T ginger root, peeled and sliced (or 3)

           o  1 T rosemary (optional)

           o  1 packet of top fermenting beer or ale yeast

    
           4  Step One - Brewing

    1. Set the kettle on top of the stove and put four gallons of water in
    it. Turn the stove on high; it will take a while to come to a boil. Put
    in the honey, then add more water until the level is about an inch from
    the rim of the kettle. Let boil.

    2. Once you have the liquid started, peel and slice the ginger. Wash
    the oranges or lemons and remove any blemishes from the skins. Use the
    potato peeler or knife to peel the fruit; get all the coloured part of
    the peel and none of the white part. Save the peel.

    3. Once you have removed all the coloured part of the peel, section the
    fruit and remove the seeds and membranes and save the fruit pulp in a
    bowl.

    4. As the water boils, a light brown foam will rise to the top. This is
    beeswax that was dissolved in the honey. Skim it off periodically.
    When the foam becomes thick and dark brown, skim it one last time and
    add the ginger root. Cook for 15 minutes.

    5. Next, add the allspice, cloves, cinnamon and peel. Cook for 10 more
    minutes.

    6. Turn off the heat. Add the fruit pulp (and rosemary, if you're us-
    ing it), then cover the kettle.

    
    
    5  Step Two - Primary Fermentation

    1. Let the honey-water mixture (called the MUST) cool to about 85 de-
    grees F (usually overnight).

    2. In the morning, open the package of yeast and sprinkle it on top of
    the must. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.

    3. Sterilize the slotted spoon by pouring boiling water over it. Use
    the spoon to stir the yeast into the must.

    4. Put the cover back on the kettle and wait about three days. The must
    will be ready for bottling when it begins to smell like alcohol. This
    usually takes three days at 70-80 degrees F; it might take a little
    longer at lower temperatures (maybe about a week).  (theory has it that
    if you put in raisins when you make the initial mixture, the raisins
    will rise to the surface when it's ready for bottling - is this true?)




           2

 






           6  Step Three - Preparing the Bottles

    The bottles should be as close to sterile as possible when you use
    them; therefore, don't perform this step until you're ready to bottle
    the must. You might want to wear rubber globes for this step; the soap
    solution can be fairly caustic. Try not to splash yourself with it as
    you work.

    1. Fill your bathtub with the hottest water possible. Add 1 cup of
    dishwasher detergent, then add the 24 champagne bottles. Let them
    soak 1-2 hours.

    2. Remove the bottles from the bathtub. Place them all in the dish-
    washer. DO NOT ADD SOAP TO THE WASHER. Run the bottles through a
    complete wash cycle.

    3. If you do not have a dishwasher, rinse each bottle out three times
    with very hot tap water and use as soon as possible.

           4. Inspect each bottle before using to make sure that it is
    absolutely clean. The bottling process will use 16-20 bottles; it's
    always useful to have extras just in case.

    
           7  Step Four - Filling the Bottles

    Give yourself a lot of room and about two hours for your first bot-
    tling operation. It's generally a good idea for you to cover your work
    area with a large Turkish towel or a few layers of paper towels.

           1. Pour boiling water over the following; the slotted spoon, the
    measuring cup, the funnel, the muslin, the plates, the capper, and
    the bottle caps.

    2. Wash your hands in the hottest water you can stand.

    3. Place the muslin square in the funnel, and place the funnel in the
    measuring cup. These go on one of the plates. Place the plate near you
    on the work surface.

    4. Place the bottle capper and the strainer with the bottle caps on
    another plate.

    5. Use the slotted spoon to skim all the fruit pulp and spices off the
    top of the must.

    6. Take your first bottle and inspect it for dirt. Place it next to the
    kettle in the bottling area.

    7. Poke the muslin with your finger so the cloth forms a hollow in-
    side the funnel. Place the funnel inside the bottle.

    8. Use the measuring cup to dip into the must, then pour the must into
    the funnel. Let the liquid filter through. Keep adding must to the
    funnel until the liquid level in the bottle is about an inch from the
    top.

    9. Remove the funnel and place it back onto the plate inside the mea-
    suring cup. Wipe the mouth of the bottle with a clean paper towel.

                                                                             3

 






    10.Handle the bottle caps by their edges only. Place one on top of the
    bottle, then clamp it down with the bottle capper. Turn the bottle
    about 90 degrees and clamp again.

    11.Move the bottle to a clean, dry place out of the line of traffic.

    12.Repeat this procedure until all of the bottles are filled.

    
    
           8  Step Five - Secondary Fermentation

    1. Allow the bottles to ferment another three days. When the yeast cap
    inside each bottle starts to break up and sink, the fermentation is
    complete.

    2. Put the bottles into the refrigerator and age at least a week
    (preferably two).

    3. Open the bottles VERY SLOWLY.






































           4

    I've tasted mead twice...last time was Monday night when a friend
    brought some over (he ordered a case of the stuff.)  Can't say I was
    real impressed.  It tasted like honey gone bad.  [I hadn't realized the
    honey would be as pronounced as it was, or I wouldn't have had any - I
    think there is a high sugar content in mead.]  I think I'll just stick
    to regular grape wines.  [and the occasional strawberry wine - but talk
    about high sugar content.  *cough*  Sweet enough to make you pucker.]
    
    I've also had homebrew once and it was wonderful!  I never considered
    myself a bear drinking because I *hate* standard American beers (like
    Bud or Coors or Schlitz) and even most standard import beers (like
    Heineken or Amstel.)  However I have developed a taste for expensive
    imported beer, either dark-German or pale-ale (ala Bass Ale), and for
    the better American beers such as Sam Adams, Harpoon, etc.  So if
    anyone wants to try out their homebrew on a relatively uneducated but
    extremely picky palatte... :-)
    
    D!

    when you make the mead with the recipe I posted and use the beer yeast,
    it comes out tasting sweet and VERY fizzy (and the longer it sits in
    the bottles, the fizzier it gets!)....
    
    I can't drink a lot of it at once, but it was lovely in small
    quantities....
    
    Of course, explaining to the checkout clerk at the grocery store why I
    was buying 9 pounds of honey was kind of amusing.  I just winked and
    smiled.  Silence speaks volumes when people are painting their own
    picture already ;)
    
    -Jody
    

	Homebrewing ? Gentle ? Hah !

	Don't you guys swear when the wort boils over into
	the burner pan ?

	Just kidding...

	I've brewed a few batches, with uneven results.  Batch
	1 was a sour mess, batch 2 perfection, batch 3 sour, batch
	4 sour, batch 5 OK.

	I started brewing because I fell in love with English bitter
	beers while over there travelling.  Buying it in the states
	runs about $10 / sixpack....

	Maybe I'll get my technique perfected, and come up
	with some Fullers ESB one day....

	Steve H

    What is bock beer?  I had some Guinesse (sp?) Bock beer, it was
    very cheap beer, but it was good.  It was dark in color, but it was not
    as heavy as some of the dark beers I have had. The lime-green can with a 
    goat and daisies on it was a bit unusual. :^)
    
    Mary

    Nah, we don't swear at wort boil overs any more.  It makes the beer
    sour. ;-).  Our stove top is now conmpletely brown/black and will
    remain that way till the end of its miserable existance in the next two
    years I hope.  
    
    To brew decent beer requires extreme attention to cleanliness, process,
    and a good sense of humor.  Grateful Dead music helps to make good beer
    become excellent.  (Or good old depression era jazz if you prefer) 
    Also, if you are colorado springs, boil all of your water, don't shock
    the wort with cold water out fo the tap.  The chlorine in the water
    here will add an off taste, similar to cloroform to the finshed
    product.  Other rule for us is that beer should taste good in every
    stage, if there is an off flavor it won't age out, but will more likely
    intensify.
    
    The last time I swore at beer was before we started cold cracking
    before it went into the carboy.  The room was just cold enough and the
    wort just hot enough the bottom and top of the carboy separated.  Can
    your say 6 1/2 gallons of hot sticky fluid all over the floor?  Gack! 
    Oh well a good excuse to sit back, relax, and have a home brew.
    
    Meg  

    MY wort doesn't boil over.  We have a 20 Qt stainless steel pot (at
    enormous but worth it expense) and we watch the dang thing closely.
    
    I save the swearing for carrying the full carboy.
    
    Gosh, I had no idea there were so many beer-weenies in this file!  We
    could have a homebrew competition at the next =wn= party!  Or at the
    very least, a beer tasting.
    
        Margaret 

    G'Day,
    
    >On cleaning bottles, we found that running them through the dishwasher
    >and then rinsing them by hand works splendidly.  Did you buy the
    >Coopers kit?  I understand it is quite good beer.
    
    I wouldn't have thought that the dishwasher would get enough water
    through such a small openning but if you say it works then I'll give it
    a go as it is really only the cleaning that has out me off this
    project.
    
    The kit I bought was some generic brand.  We can buy Cooper's in the
    bottle shop and it is just like home brew with the sediment still in
    the bottle too.   With the weather starting to warm up I might just dig
    it out and read the instructions again.  Probably have to buy a few
    replacement ingredients though.  I'd say the yeast will be pretty dead
    after ten years!
    
    David.
    

re cleaning bottles, it helps a lot if you keep them clean as you use them;
takes awhile to develop the habit but a quick rinse and drip makes the bottles
much easier to sterilize later...none of that dried up yeast (or worse) to
scrub out.

Jody posted a mead recipe with techniques...some of our techniques are a lot
different.  Would people be interested in seeing beer recipes, annotated in
a similar manner?

DougO

    Has anyone in the US (or the UK for that matter) tried the following?
    What did you think of them?  I like them, but need to be in a self
    destructive mood to drink any :-)
                          
                              Alcohol %
    Tennents Super              9.0
    Carlsberg Special Brew      9.0 approx.
    Kestrel Super Strength      9.5
    
    
    Jerome.

    
    Jeromme, on behalf of my husband I'll say yes to all three and beware,
    this is *brain-damage* stuff if more than two cans in one night are
    taken.  There is also Skol 1080 it's definitely in the running for
    major hangover stuff.
    
    Have you ever seen a grown man Nearly cry with a hangover quote "god I
    think my head's been nailed to the pillow - please help the pain". 
    It's evil to laugh but I couldn't help it ;-)
    
    How many men do you know who would say no to an offer they normally
    would not refuse ;-))
    
    Tracy W.
    
    p.s. Get the picture?
    
    

    Jerome,
    Yes to Tennents and Carlsberg.
    If you're into the heavy stuff, try to get some EKU.
    13% alcohol and the strongest beer in the world.
    
    Charles

    re .16:
    
    We have two 33 qt boilers, and a couple of 22 qt's, but when you do a
    carboy from malted barley through several decoctions you wind up with a
    lot of liquid to boil down to the right specific gravity.  We do slop. 
    Oh well the stove from hell can just take it a little longer.  
    
    Lesson learned: 
    
    Never buy a house from someone who remodeled the kitchen and doesn't
    really cook.  the stove from hell is 24" wide and has 4 burners.  You
    can just barely cram two 33 qt wort boilers onto it, if you carefully
    offset them.  Oh well, maybe in another two years we will have a
    kitchen designed for those who live to eat and other things.
    
    Meg

In celebration of a new topic I would like to add the following
recipe which should turn off most(?) people.

                      Cock Ale. (From a brewing book (UK))

In a 100 year old book on brewing we came across the following recipe
for a fearsome brew, "Cock Ale":-

  "Take 10 gallons of Ale and a large cock, the older the better: parboil
the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are
broken (you must draw him and gut him when you flay him), then put the cock
into two pounds of sack (Port, the fortified wine-cw), and put to it five
pounds of raisins of the sun, stoned; some blades of mace, and a few cloves;
put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has
been working, put the bag and ale together into a vessel.  In a week or
nine days bottle it up; fill the bottle but just above the neck, and give
it the same time to ripen as other ale."

The people in receipt of the above carried out the recipe and found it, "an
excellent ale, nourishing and strong-flavoured, of the "Barley wine" type;
certainly well worth trying."(!)
 
Now Doug, take that to the beer exhibition!


Calvin

Now, Calvin, whilst we have much for which to thank our fellow brewers
from the Isles, that recipe does not sound like one of them ;-).

DougO

    Like so much else in life perhaps we should say, "Don't knock
    it until you've tried it!".  No, I have'nt yet, the thought of
    mixing Port wine with fermenting beer leads to a thought of
    what the hangover might be like.  Something like an evening of
    Beer, red wine and brandy?
    
    Calvin

    re .25
    
    >                -< Hangover of nuclear proportions? >-
    
    >                                 Something like an evening of
    >Beer, red wine and brandy?
    
    Tell me about it !!!
    
    
    Jerome who had all three on Saturday night. :-( 

    RE: .23
    
    The Cock Ale recipe kinda makes me appreciate Budweiser.
    
          :^)  Margaret 

    I think I'd rather have some Cock Ale than Bud !!!
    
    
    Jerome.

 I had a bottle of MacAndrews Scotch Ale a short time ago (it's abominably
expensive). Quite good, but not really any better than Sam Adams...

Mark, Mark.  Is an apple better than an orange?  Depends upon for what
you're in the mood, doesn't it?  There are times when Sam Adams is the
desired effect, and times when a good Scotch Ale is the ticket.  "Better"
isn't the standard I choose to use when evaluating beers of different styles.

DougO

 These days, Doug, Bud days are alot more prevalent. The comment had to do with 
the fact that MacAndrews is more than double the cost of Sam Adams. I didn't 
find enough value added to justify the price. That's all. :-)

    Let the back and the sides go bare, me boys,
    Let the hands and the feet go cold
    Give to the belly, boys beer enough
    Whether it be new or old.
    
    So, aside from the sexist slant, does anyone recall the words?
    
    Tonight we bottle the new batch.  A lovely amber beer, a bit dry but
    not bitter,  another step in our quest to replicate Smithwicks in our
    house.  It even tasted good when we drew the hydrometer sample.
    And another night when we bless the dishwasher on wheels.
    
    The dishwasher heats the water, heat drys the clean bottles (we clean
    them before hand and disinfect with bleach), but then hot rinse and
    store them to dry and await filling in the dishwasher.  Put the
    bottling bucket on top of the washer, fill and cap bottles on the open
    door.  Beats the old days with a huge tub of water and bottles on the
    floor.
    
        Margaret

    I possess a copy of 'Making Beers like you buy' by Dave Lines.
    Contains recipes for Stella, Bud, Schlitz,Fosters and a huge
    number of others.  If you would like a copy of your favourite
    send an Email and I'll FAX it to you (faster than my typing
    into this file)
    
    Calvin