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- Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu rec.crafts.brewing:8318 news.answers:4435
- Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!eru.mt.luth.se!lunic!sunic!news.lth.se!kurt
- From: kurt@dna.lth.se (Kurt Swanson)
- Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing,news.answers
- Subject: rec.crafts.brewing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Summary: This posting contains a list of frequently asked questions
- posted to rec.crafts.brewing, involving home beer making.
- Message-ID: <1992Dec5.121617.16789@lth.se>
- Date: 5 Dec 92 12:16:17 GMT
- Expires: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 GMT
- Sender: news@lth.se
- Followup-To: poster
- Organization: Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden
- Lines: 419
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
-
- Archive-name: brewing-faq
- Last-modified: 1992/10/21
- Version: 2.1
- Frequency: monthly
-
- [V2M1: send comments/corrections to Kurt.Swanson@dna.lth.se]
-
- Frequently Asked Questions in Rec.Crafts.Brewing:
-
- 1. How is beer made?
- 2. How do I start? What equipment do I need?
- 3. What is the HomeBrewDigest (HBD)?
- 4. Where can I access the archives?
- 5. Where can I get a copy of "The Cat's Meow" (recipe book)?
- 6. What is a good text on brewing?
- 7. Where can I get mail order supplies?
- 8. What are the "lambic-list", "beerjudge-list", and "cider-list"?
- 9. What is the A.H.A./Zymurgy?
- 10. I'm going to (city), what brewpubs are there?
- 11. My terminal gravity seems high, should I worry?
- 12. Why hasn't my yeast done anything yet?
- 13. Are there any homebrew clubs in (city)?
- 14. What's the word on Bottle Fillers?
- 15. What is CAMRA?
- 16. What is a hydrometer? How is it used? What is "specific gravity"?
- 17. What is a wort chiller? How/why is it used?
- 18. What is hot break? What is cold break?
- 19. How are all-grain recipes converted to extract?
- 20. Regarding hops, what are alpha acids? What is HBU? What is IBU?
- 21. What is "dry hopping"? How should I dry hop?
- 22. What are 20L, 40L, etc. crystal malts? What is Lovibond?
- 23. What is "Wyeast" (liquid yeast)? How is "Wyeast" pronounced?
- 24. How do I make a yeast starter?
- 25. How do I convert from PPM to mg/l and vice-versa?
-
- [Special thanks to Steve Russell and Tony Babinec]
- [Extra-special thanks to Brian Smithey]
- -------------------
-
- 1. How is beer made?
-
- Beer is made from extracting sugar from the starch in malted grain. This is
- boiled with sufficient water & hops to make a "wort." When this has cooled,
- brewer's yeast is added to ferment the wort to create this finished product,
- which is suitable for bottling or kegging, and maturation. Some people mash
- their own grain, while others buy canned malt extract. Either method is
- suitable for creating an award-winning brew, though mashing does allow
- greater control over the finished product, and "mash'ers" claim better beer
- is made. For more complete information get the compressed file beginners.Z
- from the Stanford server (see #4).
-
- 2. How do I start? What equipment do I need?
-
- There are specialty shops all over the country that sell ingredients
- and equipment for making beer and wine at home. Check your yellow
- pages under "Beer" or "Wine" for homebrewing or home winemaking
- shops. If you can't find a shop locally, many shops do mail order
- (more on mail order later). Basic equipment includes a kettle for
- boiling the wort, a fermentation vessel of some kind -- glass
- carboys (5 gallon bottled water bottles) and food-grade plastic
- buckets are popular -- siphon hose for bottling, bottles, and a bottle
- capper and caps. Most shops sell "starter kits", which include
- essential equipment (and sometimes some not-so-essential equipment),
- ingredients for your first batch, and a book. Prices vary, $60-70
- U.S. is common.
-
- 3. What is the HomeBrewDigest (HBD)?
-
- The Digest is an alternate forum for discussing homebrewing. It is not
- associated in any manner with this newsgroup, or Usenet in general, except
- that a high percentage of people contribute to both forums. The digest is a
- list-group which is sent out daily, containing all postings from the
- previous 24-hours. The HBD generally handles a more advanced discussion of
- brewing issues. Flames are not permitted. Currently the HBD is being
- posted to this newsgroup as a courtesy. Beware that some newsreaders will
- split the digest into its component articles, and that follow-up posts will
- not be seen by the original poster, nor other HBD subscribers. Direct
- replies should work - but make sure the address is correct. To subscribe to
- the digest, send a message containing "subscribe" to
- homebrew-request@hpfcmi.fc.hp.com.
-
- 4. Where can I access the archives?
-
- Currently no one that I know of archives rec.crafts.brewing, but the
- archives to the HBD are available. They can be obtained via anonymous ftp
- from sierra.stanford.edu in the pub/homebrew directory. Get the file called
- index for a complete description of what is available. Many other "goodies"
- reside in this directory. Please limit access to non-business hours.
- If you do not have ftp access, you can send a mail message containing the
- word "help" in it, to listserv@sierra.stanford.edu, and you will receive
- instructions.
-
- Another server does exist for those who do not have ftp access, send a mail
- message containing only the word "HELP" to archive-server@wang.com for more
- information.
-
- 5. Where can I get a copy of "The Cat's Meow" (recipe book)?
-
- This is available on the archives, in the recipe-book subdirectory. See #4
- for information on accessing the archives.
-
- 6. What is a good text on brewing?
-
- It is generally agreed that "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing," by Charlie
- Papazian is an excellent beginners text. Other find David Miller's "The
- Complete Handbook of Homebrewing" just as good for the beginner, as well as
- containing more information suited for intermediate/advanced brewers. I use
- both. Other texts include "The Big Book of Brewing," by Dave Line, which is
- a British text (with British & metric measurements), and "Brewing Lager
- Beer" by Greg Noonan. Mr. Line has also written a recipe book which does
- contain basic instructions, called "Brewing Beer Like Those You Buy." Also
- you might try "Brewing Quality Beers," by Byron Burch, which has been
- described as "short enough to read for the extremely impatient, yet has lots
- of good information." Lastly, CAMRA (see below), publishes "Home
- Brewing: The CAMRA Guide," by Graham Wheeler, 1990. Write to CAMRA
- directly, at the address given below.
-
- 7. Where can I get mail order supplies?
-
- The wang archive server contains the file "suppliers" which is a good place
- to start, or try the classifieds in any copy of Zymurgy. Also, try the
- yellow pages under "Beer making supplies" and "Wine Making."
- Lastly, the original copy of "the Cat's Meow" (see #5), contains a list
- of mail order shops.
-
- 8. What are the "lambic-list", "beerjudge-list", and "cider-list"?
-
- These are three special topic mailing lists, unassociated with Usenet.
- Subscribers send mail to the list and then copies are immediately mailed out
- to every other subscriber. The lambic-list covers information on brewing a
- special type of Belgian brew called lambic (ask for it at your liquor
- store). The beerjudge-list covers topics related to judging beer in
- competitions, as well as administration of the judge test. The
- cider-list involves the brewing of cider. To subscribe, send mail
- to lambic-request@cs.ulowell.edu, judge-request@synchro.com,
- and cider-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu . Include your name, email
- address, and in the case of the judge-list, your judging rank
- ("apprentice" for non-judges).
-
- 9. What is the A.H.A./Zymurgy?
-
- Zymurgy is a quarterly publication, plus one special topics issue, put out
- by the American Homebrewers Association (AHA). Zymurgy contains many
- article on brewing as well as information & ads regarding clubs and
- supplies. Contact the AHA by phone or US mail to:
-
- American Homebrewers Association, Inc.
- P.O. Box 1679
- Boulder, CO 80306-1679
- (303) 447-0816
-
- 10. I'm going to (city), what brewpubs are there?
-
- The Wang archive server contains a file listing brewpubs. The file is call
- brewpub-list. See question #4 on how to access the server.
-
- 11. My terminal gravity seems high, should I worry?
-
- Worry? No. There are several possibilities. First, depending on your
- recipe, an acceptable terminal gravity may be high. For example, a Barley
- Wine with an initial gravity of 1.120, might completely ferment out at
- 1.040. On the other hand, a lite lager, with an initial gravity of 1.025
- might ferment all the way down to 1.002. Thus you should check with your
- recipe, or a similar recipe of that style, to determine what might be
- proper. If you still believe it is high, and this is a frequent occurrence,
- you may have a "stuck fermentation." This occurs for a variety of reasons.
- The wort might not have been sufficiently aerated to start with, you might
- slosh it around in the fermenter. Or, fermentation temperature might have
- dropped to the point where the yeast may go dormant. Also, the yeast might
- not have enough nutrients in the wort to work with. This often occurs in
- extract brewing. In these latter two cases, you might try adding a yeast
- nutrient, according to the instruction that come with it. Lastly, give it
- time, as fermentation may slow, then suddenly accelerate at a later date.
-
- 12. Why hasn't my yeast done anything yet?
-
- Some yeasts take longer to start than others. Make sure your fermentation
- temperature is in the right range (lower temps slow yeast activity). Also,
- high temperatures are bad for yeast. Besides problems of mutation, yeast
- may be killed if pitched before the wort has sufficiently cooled. You might
- try aerating the wort by sloshing it around in the fermenter. Lastly, the
- pitching rate affects startup time. If you pitch too little yeast, not only
- will the lag time be greater, but you also risk infection. Many people
- either use 2 packets of dry yeast (Whitbread excepted), or make a starter
- culture from one packet, or from liquid yeast.
-
- 13. Are there any homebrew clubs in (city)?
-
- Steve Russell has compiled an on-line list of homebrew clubs. You can
- contact him by sending mail to: srussell@msc.cornell.edu or
- srussell@crnlmsc2.bitnet.
-
- 14. What's the word on Bottle Fillers?
-
- The following was graciously submitted by Paul Chisholm regarding a recent
- discussion on bottle fillers in this newsgroup... Thanks, Paul...
-
- Some people Worry (for shame!-) that a bottle filler causes more
- oxidation (because of spraying through the smaller opening, rather than
- through the whole opening at the end of the siphon tube, I guess). The
- solution is to tilt the bottle at the beginning, and stick the end of
- the bottling wand into the bottom "corner" of the bottle. The wand's
- end is soon covered with beer, and no amount of spraying will cause any
- extra air to be mixed in with the beer. Also, if the end of the wand
- (or siphon tube, or whatever) isn't much lower than the end of the
- siphon tube in the priming carboy (or whatever), the beer will be
- siphoned slowly, at low pressure, reducing spraying. (This works for
- any bottle filling procedure.)
-
- Another problem is the bottle filler has beer in it. When you lift the
- filler from the bottle, that beer doesn't go into the bottle, and the
- headspace is greatly increased. Even if you fill the bottle almost
- full, the resulting headspace is larger than some people consider
- optimal. You can fill the bottle, move the filler to the top of the
- bottle, and press the tip of the filler to drizzle enough beer down the
- side of the bottle to reduce the head space.
-
- There are two kinds of fillers. One kind has a spring. The other has
- a stopper that's held down by the weight of the beer. The latter is
- slower. Does that mean oxidation is less of a problem? I expect it's
- easier to finish filling (using the side-of-the-bottle trick) with a
- springless filler.
-
- (There's also something called Phil's Philler, which has a hole at the
- top as well as at the bottom. You can remove the filler without
- removing the beer in it, thus eliminating the headspace problem.)
-
- My take on all this is that there are ways to use a bottle filler to
- reduce problems (and reduce Worry). I didn't find enough evidence of
- problems to bottle my beer without a bottle filler.
-
- 15. What is CAMRA?
-
- CAMRA stands for "the CAMpaign for Real Ale," a British consumers'
- group that is concerned with changes, primarily in the quality of
- British beers. For membership details write:
- Campaign for Real Ale, Ltd
- 34 Alma Road
- St. Albans
- Herts AL1 3BR
- United Kingdom
-
- 16. What is a hydrometer? How is it used? What is "specific gravity"?
-
- A hydrometer measures the weight of a liquid relative to the same
- volume of water (i.e., relative densities). In brewing, much of
- this excess weight is expected to be from fermentable and unfermentable
- malt sugars. Most hydrometers measure Specific Gravity (SG), which
- tells how many times heavier than water the liquid of interest is;
- for example, a 1.050 SG wort is 1.05 times heavier than an equal volume
- of water at 60 F. SG measurements are temperature dependent, and SG
- should be measured at 60 F., as water is SG 1.0 at 60 F.
-
- Hydrometers often come with a temperature conversion chart, but
- hydrometers often are not accurately calibrated, so that water at
- 60F will not read 1.0. An easy way to take SG readings with a
- hydrometer is to measure at room temperature, and then measure water
- at room temperature and take the difference.
-
- Some abbreviations commonly used in homebrewing relating to specific
- gravity: OG, Original (wort specific) Gravity; FG or TG, Final or
- Terminal Gravity (when the beer is finished fermenting).
-
- 17. What is a wort chiller? How/why is it used?
-
- A wort chiller is a device used to quickly cool boiling wort to
- yeast pitching temperatures. Two common constructions are the
- immersion chiller and the counterflow chiller. The immersion
- chiller consists of a coil of copper tubing that is immersed in
- the wort, and cold water is run through the tubing. Counterflow
- designs usually consist of copper tubing inside of a larger diameter
- plastic tubing; cold water runs through the plastic tubing in one
- direction, cooling wort runs through the copper tubing in the other
- direction.
-
- Using a chiller to quickly cool wort has several advantages over
- slow air cooling. You get your yeast pitched quickly, reducing
- the risk of infection; the time the wort spends at DMS* producing
- temperatures is reduced; and a quick chill promotes good cold break.
-
- * DMS is Dimethyl Sulfide, a malt by-product with an aroma
- described as similar to cooked corn.
-
- 18. What is hot break? What is cold break?
-
- Hot and cold break are terms used by homebrewers to describe the
- flocculation of proteins and other materials during the boil (the
- hot break) and cooling (the cold break). This material tends to
- settle to the bottom of your kettle or fermenter, where it becomes
- part of the "trub". Sometimes the terms "hot break" and "cold break"
- will be used to refer to the activity ("I had a great cold break
- when I pumped ice water through my wort chiller"), while at other
- times the brewer may be referring to the actual matter ("The cold
- break settled to the bottom of my carboy"); if you're worried that
- you may not be understood, you can always specify whether you're
- talking about the occurrence or the stuff. Usually it is understood
- from context.
-
- 19. How are all-grain recipes converted to extract?
-
- All fermentables (malt extract syrup, dry malt extract, grain malt,
- sugar, honey, etc.) cause an increase in the specific gravity of the
- solution when added to water. A common way to measure how much the
- specific gravity increases is the number of SG points of increase
- when a pound of the ingredient is added to one gallon of water.
- Most fermentables used for beer are in the range of 25-45 points
- per pound per gallon. Values for many of these ingredients may be
- found in the references mentioned in the Bibliography section. When
- substituting one fermentable for another, use the ratio of the
- specific gravity contributions of each ingredient to scale the one
- you will use to the amount that will provide the desired SG contribution.
-
- Example: You have an all-grain recipe that calls for 8# of Malted
- Barley, and you want to replace it with extract syrup. One of my
- references lists the SG contributions of these ingredients as
- approximately 30 points for the grain and 36 points for the syrup
- per pound of ingredient per gallon of water. You multiply the
- 8# of grain in the recipe by 30/36 to get 6 2/3 pounds of malt
- extract syrup.
-
- 20. Regarding hops, what are alpha acids? What is HBU? What is IBU?
-
- Alpha acids are bittering compounds found in hops that are extracted
- when hops are boiled with wort. The alpha acid "rating" on hops
- describes how much of the weight of the hop is made up of alpha acids.
- Hops with a higher alpha acid content will contribute more bitterness
- than a low alpha hop when using the same amount of hop.
-
- HBU stands for "Homebrew Bitterness Unit", which is a recipe unit
- for hops. It takes into account the alpha acid content of the hop,
- so that a recipe will call for a certain amount of HBU's rather than
- an amount specified in ounces. HBU is computed by multiplying the
- weight of hops in oz. by the alpha acid percentage of the hops; sum
- for all hop additions. For example, 1 oz of 7% alpha hops will have
- a HBU of 7. Note that volume is ignored in the HBU, therefore it
- is important to include the volume of the recipe, or express the
- hop additions in HBU per gallon (or HBU per 5 gallons) rather than
- just strictly HBU.
-