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"WindRiver Brewing" <windrvr(a)bitstream.net>
05/22/2005 11:13 PM
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WindRiver Brewing Internet Newsletter
WindRiver Brewing Internet Newsletter
WESTSIDE HOMEBREW CLUB MEETING THURSDAY 5/26/05
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!!!
For everyone living in the Minneapolis/St Paul Metro area.
All meetings begin at 7:00 pm at WindRiver Brewing.
Bring a glass or mug and some homebrew
(or unusual commercial beer if you're in a bind). Hope to see you there. A
map to WindRiver is available at
www.windriverbrew.com/map.html.
Too Hot To Brew Beer in Your House? Try Some Mead For a Tasty Summer
Treat!
If you are not lucky enough to have a cool basement to brew in (and even
if
you do), you
can still make some good mead. For those of you who do not know, mead is a
beverage
made with honey and water and sometimes other flavorings like spices,
herbs
and fruit.
Mead is one of the most ancient alcoholic beverages as references to it
can
be found in
Roman mythology and Norse legends.
Mead has a flavor similar to champagne (if served carbonated or
"sparkling")
or white
wine (if served flat or "still"). Although mead is traditionally served
like
a wine in
European countries, I enjoy it both ways. Sometimes the carbonation helps
bring out fruit
and spice flavors.
If you prefer a mead with a sweeter flavor, we suggest that use what is
called "Sweet
Mead" yeast. This is only available as a liquid yeast, and will leave much
more residual
sweetness and fruit flavor than mead made with champagne yeast.
The good news is that mead can be safely brewed between 70 and 80 degrees
F.
I have had
great success making meads in my basement in the middle of summer (my
basement gets up
to 75 - 78 F). And if you get into the habit of making mead each summer
you
can get a few
different vintages going, and will have the opportunity to compare meads
at
various ages.
To help get you started, we are offering discounts on all of our mead
kits.
Below you will find a brief
description of the mead
kits we offer.
Orange Ginger Mead: This mead has a zesty citric flavor as well as a nice
spicy ginger flavor. The kit contains 12 lbs of honey, 1/2 oz Ginger and
1/2
oz Orange
Peel, Yeast nutrient, acid blend and a dry champagne yeast.
with dry yeast, WAS $42.95 NOW $38.95
with liquid yeast (XL Pack), WAS $46.95 Now $41.95
Raspberry Mead: This is a fruit mead or melomel. It is also lighter in
body
so it is ready to drink sooner than our other meads. This is great summer
beverage, perfect for sipping on a warm summer evening while you are
sitting on the porch, or at the cabin. The kit contains 9 lbs of honey, 2
oz
of Raspberry Extract, yeast nutrient, acid blend, and dry champagne yeast.
with dry yeast, WAS $36.95 NOW $32.95
with liquid yeast (XL), WAS $41.95 Now $36.95
Cranberry Mead: This mead combines a full flavor with a crisp citric
character from the Cranberry extract. This one will take a little longer
to
finish than the Raspberry mead but it is well worth the wait. The kit
contains 12 lbs of honey, 4 oz Cranberry extract, yeast nutrient, acid
blend, and dry champagne yeast.
with dry yeast, WAS $36.95 NOW $32.95
with liquid yeast (XL), WAS $41.95 Now $36.95
THIS OFFER IS GOOD UNTIL THE NEXT NEWSLETTER.
Ask Dr. Zoot, Your Brewing Questions Answered
Dr. Zoot,
Q. I do not own and extra refrigerator or one of those fancy shmancy
fridge
control units,
how can I keep brewing good beer throughout the summer?
A. You have asked a very good question. First off, you can probably rule
out
brewing
pilsners and other lager styles. The first thing you will want to do is
pick
a good recipe to
go with your fermentation temperature. Lighter, less flavorful brews are
much more
difficult to make in the summer. You want to pick a fairly robust recipe,
possibly with
some roasted grains and a fair amount of hops (hops not only will strongly
flavor the beer
but also act as an anti-bacterial agent to prevent your beer from becoming
infected).
Second, you can take some basic measure to counteract the warmth of your
brewing area.
The most basic technique is to simply wrap a wet towel around your
fermenter, and make
sure to keep the towel wet. The process of evaporation will cool down your
beer
substantially (5 - 6 degrees). If you basement is in the mid to upper 70's
you will have a
good fermentation temperature. You can also set a fermenter into a shallow
container
partially filled with water, and then use those frozen gel packs you can
buy
for keeping
coolers cold to also keep the water bath cold. You will need to rotate
fresh
gel caps about
twice a day to keep the water cool. Finally, if you run your air
conditioning a lot during the
summer, your basement might be an acceptable temperature already (cold air
has a
tendency to sink). And there is always the option of spending $50 - $100
for a used
refrigerator. Your wife/spouse/significant other will thank you when you
have a fridge devoted to beer.
Q. How should I store my WindRiver Brewing ingredient kits?
A. Our ingredient kits should be brewed as quickly as possible. For
prolonged storage the
malt extract should be refrigerated or frozen. The yeast pack should be
refrigerated but not
frozen, and the hops should be refrigerated or frozen. Grains should be
stored at a
moderate temperature in a dry environment.
Q. I sometimes see recipes calling for imported specialty grains. My
question is how to
convert these recipes to ones using domestic malts?
A. As the homebrewing hobby has expanded, some of these exotic imported
malts are
becoming a little more common, so you will start to see more and more
recipes calling for
their use. Here are some rule of thumb conversions. Imported crystal malts
can be
substituted one for one to domestic crystal malt. In general British
Crystal
Malt is about 60
Lovibond, Dark Crystal Malt is about 80 - 90 Lovibond and Light Crystal
Malt
is about 30
Lovibond. Belgian Special "B" is roughly equivalent to domestic Crystal
120
Lovibond
(although we do also carry Belgian Special "B" malt). Domestic Victory
malt
is a good
substitute for British Brown Malt, Domestic Black Barley is a substitute
for
Stout Malt or
imported Roasted Barley (domestic Roasted Barley is a little too light for
a
good stout).
You can use Special Roast as a substitute for Biscuit Malt (we currently
have some
imported Biscuit malt if you want to use the real thing).
Cheers and Good Brewing!!
WindRiver Brewing
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