February 1999

[Greenblood]

Minutes of the January Meeting

Clean-Up Volunteers: Jeff Jensen and Tim Baroni - Thanks, guys!

Treasurer's Report: $883.79 ($1.81 interest)

Dues: $16 for individual memberships, $22 for family

Old Business
Seminar Committee: No updates.

7:30 February Meeting: Jeff talks up "corny" kegs (Actually, this changed during the seminar subcomittee meeting. Pete will be giving the Feb. seminar on labels. -Ed.)

Brewing Techniques: Group discount offer, call 1-800-427-2993 and tell them you are a member of the Lawrence Brewers Guild. You'll get a subscription for $26 per year. That's $2.75 per issue!

1st-Ever Kwitcherbitchin' Post-Food Coma Brew-Off: (At the Holub homestead on Saturday, November 28th) was a success!! Thanks Doug and Sherry for hosting!
Note: Everyone bring their beers brewed at the Brew-Off to the February meeting. And submit the recipes to the newsletter (hint, hint).


New Business
Kansas City Biermeisters Homebrew Contest: Feb. 19-20. Deadline for entries is Saturday, February 6. Entries must be sent to Bacchus & Barleycorn. Contact Ellen J. if you need your entries delivered.

AHA Homebrew Festival: April 23-24 in KC(?) KC Biermeisters' Steve Ford: sends an invite for a St. Patty's Day (friendly) homebrew competition. Motion passed to contact Ford. Andrew and Doug to contact.

AHA Conference: in KC, June 24-26. Sessions, demos, pub crawl, speakers, award banquet. Cost is around $300. Volunteers wanted/needed.

New Guild Officers for 1999:

* President- Dale Wheeler
* Vice President- Chuck Epp
* Secretary- Ellen Jensen
* Treasurer- Doug Holub
* Brewmeister- Andrew Suddith
* Newsletter editors- Ellen J. and Sherry Holub

Thanks to 1998's officers!


Commercial Tasting: Xmas/Holiday Beers
Pete's Winter Brew-Razzberry amber w/tettnanger hops. (0 votes)
"Malty seltzer water"
"Razzberry spritzer"
"No body, no malt"
"Not overly fruity"

Sam Adams-Dark wheat bock. (7 votes Winner!!)
"Malty wheaty- you can smell the wheat better than Pete's"
"Not malty enough for a bock"
"Smooth um, malty- caramel"

Samuel Smith (England)-Winter Welcome (5 votes)
"smells fruity"
"I taste cardboard, [and] something skunky"
"over-rated"
"nice, smooth mouth-feel"

Rob Johnson
Secretary


Seminar Report
The seminar subcommittee has tentatively come up with a seminar schedule for the year. Additions, suggestions and discussion is welcome at the meeting. We will take a vote then.

February - Labels - Pete
March - Hops-Barry
April - Beer Chemistry 101 - Timothy E. Baroni, Ph.D.
May - Kegging - Jeff
June - no seminar, finalizing BrewFest plans
July - A Legal History of Beer - Sherry
August - Yeast - Doug et. al. (roundtable led by Doug?)
September - Mashing - Jeff
October - We were thinking of possibly holding the meeting at the Free State
Brewery, having a short tour and holding a Q&A or hearing a short seminar from
Steve Bradt. Doug said he would look into this.
November - open for discussion, suggestions
December - Christmas party


Desperate Measures
I came across something in the chemistry textbook used in one of my classes. I thought it might be interesting to put in the newletter. The discussion in the text is abouts standards of measurement It reads:

Long ago, the reference (such as it was) for the inch was "three barleycorns, round and dry, laid end to end." Obviously, which three barleycorns were picked had a bearing on values of length under this system.

From Elements of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry by John R. Holum. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995)

Does anyone know if the measurement referred to 2-row or 6-row barley? Why?

Timothy E. Baroni, Ph.D.

A Matter of Style
I would like to improve my understanding and recognition of beer styles. I know that now most of the time when I drink beer, I don't get much beyond deciding whether it's good or not. I just drink it. I thought it would be fun to get a little more serious with a couple of beer tastings. We could pick a couple of styles and taste the beer from our three local brewpubs. We could get the AHA style information for whatever styles we pick and maybe even some score sheets and see how we would all grade our local brews. Then we could discuss why we graded them the way we did, what we tasted in the beer, what might be wrong with it, or why it is to style. It would be good practice for future beer judges and a great learning experience for us all.

We could do the same thing with regional beers, including the KC area.

I figure we could do this in one of two ways: If the whole club was interested, we could do this during a regular meeeting. Perhaps take a little longer with the tasting. If not everybody wants to do this, we could form a "funcommittee" and meet at someone's house at an agreed date (I believe Jeff and Ellen offered theirs for one of the tastings).

I thought I would include this in the newsletter and then bring the idea up at the meeting with our Brewmeister to find out his thoughts, as well as members' thoughts.

John Falley


"Where Did My Yeast Go???"
I recently tried to propagate lager yeast from a 1-year-old bottle of bock (5% alcohol), but it never got started when I reintroduced the sediments to fresh, sterile wort. I think I did everything right beforehand: The yeast in the bottle was first-generation Wyeast and had good, clean fermentation. The bottles were stored in temperatures never exceeding 70? (most of the time in a cool closet), and there was a nice layer of yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle I pitched from. I know the sterile wort starter I used was fine because I successfully stepped up a new Wyeast pack in another bottle from the same batch. This setback has temporarily dashed my dreams of building up a perpetual supply of a variety of yeasts. I have several different varieties bottled right now, and I want to use and share them.

Is there some limitation on the shelf life of yeast in a bottle? What other factors affect yeast viability? Final gravity, alcohol strength, color of beer or bottle, moon sign?!?!? I would be interested in having a seminar on this topic at an upcoming meeting. I'll be glad to help with it if someone (more knowledgeable than me) would volunteer.

Dale Wheeler


Brewing Tips From the 'Net

Flaming Necks

Tom Williams asked is it necessary (or advised) to flame the mouth of the secondary prior to transferring yeast to storage?

Personally, I think flaming of the surface has little to offer in way of sterilizing or even sanitizing the neck the of the carboy unless you get the surface temperature up there. It is possibly dangerous depending on how you do it. Above all, don't put alcohol into the carboy or on the surface and light it. It will not heat the glass, and you may get an explosion.

I do it this way: Dampen a cloth or paper towel with *acidic* metabisulfite solution. Themetabisulfite should be about 500 ppm. pH should be below 3.5; 3.0 is better, but it is not critical how far below. Use a food acid, say, citric or tartaricacid. Wipe the neck of the carboy with this cloth, removing any crud that may have somehow gotten there, but don't let the solution drip into the yeast. Since yeast can stand 100ppm of metabisulfite, pouring the yeast out over this neck now will not affect them, as the amount of metabisulfite is small and bacteria are killed above about 30ppm with acidic metabisulfite.

I cap it in a 12-oz. beer bottle and put it in the refrigerator. If this worries you, stop worrying. I occasionally wash my yeast in 50ppm metabisulfite, which is acidic, followed by cool boiled water twice and pitch into a starter. I've never done it, but I suppose the yeast will be stable in the water if placed in a refrigerator without pitching. Others have written here about using distilled water to store their yeast, minimizing the potential for bacterial contamination. Although some commercial brewers pitch washed yeast directly, apparently there is evidence that acid-washed yeast can sometimes not behave "normally" for the first fermentation (maybe because it's uncontaminated??). Since I pitch the yeast into a starter before it goes into a batch, I have never seen this problem.

Dave Burley Kinnelon, NJ