Jim

I never heard of the sugar tablest...can you give me more specifics, like who makes them, where available. They sound very easy to use.

The most typical advice for carbonation level is to use one half cup priming sugar boiled with a pint or a bit less of water. That usually results in British level carbonation. That said, Newcastle Brown is quite a bit more carbonated.

Another option for a next batch would be an extract recipe that includes a mini mash of 3 to 5 pounds of grain. The grain soaking it looks like everyone did for the instant brew isn't really a proper, full mash, for we didn't use grain with the enzymes to cnvert starch to sugar but, instead, used grains that had already been saccrified by the malster. The mini mash step is often a bridge to all grain brewing as it lets you try mashing without investing in a lot of equipment. For 5 gallon all grain brews, not all that much equipment is needed if you're willing to improvise and use your kitchen equipment. In my first all grain batch I used an old Tupperware flour bin that I had drilled holes in as the sparging vessel, an old ice chest to keep my sparge water hot and kept the mash at temp in my oven. The only additional equipment I bought was some iodine for the sugar conversion test! It turned out great, too. Home brewing is one of those hobbies that can turn you into a gearhead [not that there's anything wrong with that!], but it's worth knowing that you don't have to get a lot of expensive stuff to start.

Great fermentation pix! I don't have a digital cam, so don't have any to share. Now that the temp has risen from 59F to 68F [i keep a floating thermometer in the ferment], which puts it in British yeast's sweet spot, the fermentation is briskly afoot, with mounds of creamy foam and a few islands of yeast cake floating on the top. This London ESB strain is very flocculent and when it's working right you get lots of these islands. I rouse the beer twice a day to keep the yeast working properly, my own version of the famous Burton Union system! The smells evolving from the barrel [i use a 6 gal plastic with tight fitting, drilled top fitted with a fermentation lock] are hoppy with a CO2 bite. Makes me thirsty! Ah, the eternal question, when will the beers be ready & how to share, sample them. I haven't given much thought to this beyond forming the intention to botte about 12 in 12 oz. or 22 oz. bottles and to serve the rest "on cask". Since I'll be conditioning my beer with saved gyle from the brew, the refermentation should take about a month. Those conditioning with sugar syrup will get a faster conditioning, 2 weeks or so. I'm using gyle becasue I find the beer tastes fresher, though that may be a conceit, for I haven't done anything one would call proper testing. So, I'd say that my beer is likely to be ready to taste in about 5 or 6 weeks.

I've had more problems with temps too low than too high with British type yeasts, so I should think you'd be ok. I'm finding my temp is too low, so I've moved the fermentor to keep it warmer.

I'd be VERY interesed to know what tears were offered

Ive done aviation business all over the world, and agree with Fat Guy that context indeed is a watchword for this issue. To no one's surprise, when doing business in Saudi Arabia, clearly, no alcohol is the rule [indeed, the law]; interestingly, with some of the same Saudis in, for example, London, alcohol could be an acceptable part of a business meal [depends on the individual, so following the client's lead is the way to go]. On the other hand, it's hard to bond in China or Korea without some heavy drinking with your opposite number - usually good, expensive stuff; not that bonding is impossible for non-drinkers, mind you, but clearly drinking is an expectation in many situations in these countries. In the US my experience is that business people typically don't drink during daytime business events unless they're of a plainly social / bonding nature, as at , for example, a sponsored golf tournement and that light drinking at the evening meal often happens unless it's a meal at the negotiating table, where I've never seen drinking. In Europe, light drinking at lunch or dinner , wine typically, isn't as uncommon as in the US.

Here are the specifics of my brew today. It took me about 3 hours. Grain / extract bIll: 6# Alexander's Pale Male Extract 15 oz Belgian Caravienne 10 oz British 50-60L Crystal 3 oz Chocolate Malt 12 oz CaraPils Hops: 2 oz domestic Fuggle leaf [4.2AA] 60 min boil 1 oz domestic Fuggle 15 min 1 oz domestic Fuggle knock out / cool down Process Used: Boiled 6 gal. local [Mercer Island, WA water... a soft water] 15 min Steeped grains, cracked at the store, 30 min at 150F, sparged with 1 gal 150F water from boiled water Added extract, previously soaked in hot water from tap to increase viscosity Boiled for 10 min, skimmed, added hops per above and boiled 60 min more Force chilled in 25 min to 68F Strained hops, agitated to incorporate oxyzen Pitched Wyeast London ESB yeast from last weeks batch of IPA OG: 1054 at 60F Saved 1.5 qts for priming later [frozen] The chilled wort's taste was reasonably balanced between sweet and bitter, though to the hoppy side, with some hop aroma and flavour noted. I'll report progress as there's any to report. Good luck to all other brewers!

It strikes me that the Fair Trade Coffee movement is likely to be doing some good for the folks it aims to benefit by providing some coffee farmers with an opportunity to sell their produce at higher prices than they would get were they wholly beholden to the mega-buyers. The criticism that the Fair Trade program doesn't encourage top-notch coffees is wide of the mark, for that isn't the point of the program. It looks like the Fair Trade program guarantees higher-than-normal prices and, in that sense, raises the floor. I don't see how such a mechanism discourages the growing of even better coffees that could , presemably, command higher prices. I am, of course, willing to be wrong on this latter matter, for I don't have a deep understanding of the coffee market's intracacies. Lastly, I would have thought that the Fair Trade movement helps educate coffee consumers, although not necessarily those to whom the mega-buyers cater, and in that sense helps make consumers less of "the problem". I feel that consumers have the right to seek low prices and to consider whether the arrangements that allow the low prices they wish are, all things considered, ok with them. For my part, I'd rather pay a bit [only a bit, mind you] more for coffee I enjoy if I were convinced that the farmers also got a better than ususal deal.

I can be moved into the confirmed column. I still need to procure ingredients, but there are plenty of local home brew shops so that's no problem. I just made 10 gallons of all grain India Pale Ale, so I'll be using some of the yeast in that ferment, the London ESB strain, in my batch; it usually gives a great malt profile, so it's an appropriate yeast.

While these suggestions are a long way short of foodie nirvana, both offer good value and enjoyable meals [particularly lunches]: Thai Smile in Palm Springs has excellent, inexpensive lunch specials. El Gallito in Cathedral City is an arcitypal mom & pop californial mexican restaurant with large portions, good prices and excellent food of this kind.

Good idea to locate the brewers! I am in the Seattle area [Mercer Island] and am able to range north or south quite easily as I have a home in Rancho Mirage CA [Palm Springs area] and just finished working in San Francisco.

I'm happy to try the selected style, nut brown ale. I just checked the beer judging certification program style index: http://www.mv.com/ipusers/slack/bjcp/style-index.html and found, as I thought, there are various sub-categories of nut brown ale. It would be interesting to know which, if any, of these the recipe is trying to capture. I would guess it's a version of the Northern English Brown Ale, commercial examples being the Nut Brown Ales of Adnam's [i've never seen this in the US or, in fact, in Adnam's pubs] or Samuel Smith [which is widely available in the US] as well as the well-known Geordie Champagne, Newcastle Brown Ale. There's no reason any given recipe must seek to replicate any particular beer style, of course, but in honing ones brewing technique it's a good idea to develop an understanding what ingredients and processing options lead to what outcomes.

Put me on the list of brewers to participate! Particularly after 1 Jan., for I should have means of brewing sorted by then. Any recipe is ok with me; my first brewed beer was an international recipe of "Dogbolter" a fine beer [in it's pub form] from the [perhaps] now-defunct X-and-Firkin pubs in London. It sufficiently whetted my appetite for brewing more, so, that said, let's get ready to brew, taste & learn.

I've been on "vacation" moving back to Seattle and ripping up my kitchen for upgrade, but now that I'm here I'd love to participate in the "one brew type, many brew tokens" project that's being discussed. I do need to refind my brew equipment and the like as well, so waiting a bit would be good. On water chemistry, I'd suggest that we shouldn't worry yet about making it all the same, since that's a bit difficult because each local water would require [potentially] different adjustments and they aren't all that easy to calculate and implement; the accuracy of the adjustments would, IMO, generate as much variation [of the unknown unknown variety] as it would be striving to eliminate. Each brewer having info on their local water chemistry, however, would be one of the key variables to track for the project. For your local water chemistry, your water provider should give you one of it's analytical reports; note, that there is some seasonality effect for many waters. For wells, it's a sample to a lab for the analysis. So unless eveyone started with distilled water and used the same recipe for adjustment to the water type being sought, the water chemistry adjustment could be a later exploration subject. I'd think that the differences contributed by the different waters to everyones' beers would be an interesting output of this undertaking.

Chef I think the idea of an home brewing forum is a great idea! I particularly like the notion one recipe brewed across the eGullet reach. For in that way some of the contributions made by such variables as local water chemistry, grain and hop variety, equipment systems and the like could be, so to speak, witnessed. It’s also possible to experience the difference between an extract vs. full-mash-analogue recipe. Home brew is far easier to share across the reach than most foodstuffs; in fact, for many home brew competitions, entries are mailed in, Additionally, there are, for competition purposes, style guidelines for an amazing variety of beer styles. These guides allow reasonably objective comparison and discussion. All this is a long way to say…let’s go for it.! As to brewing books, I have a slight dissent from the recommended Papazian books. Charlie is a cult figure in home brewing circles; he probably did more than anyone alive to spark the home brewing and micro brewing upswing that occurred in the late 80s and early 90s. He is the most inviting writer in the field. His forte is not, however, precise technical explanation of brewing matters [i have no doubt he has technical expertise]. I've found the Dave Miller and Greg Noonan books more useful. That said, like cook books, home brewing books are one of those things one can't have too many of. I, too, began with extract recipes but quickly traded up to all grain, or full mash, brewing...there's simply no other way to get great results, at least to my taste and in my experience making and tasting, including many extract brewpubs with great equipment. So, my advice is to get into full mash brewing ASAP. It's not significantly more difficult than extract brewing, although as you begin to seek more and more control over the variables, you really have to become a wee bit of a brewing geek. Ales, as has been well said already, lend themselves much more easily to home brewing owing to the need for lower temperatures during an extended storing [lagering] period. In practice, ambient temperature in a winter basement allows you to make very acceptable lagers; after all, lagers didn't wait upon refrigeration for their invention! Because I advocate and practice full mash brewing, I also advocate special purpose equipment for brewing. Here's a site - one of many - to view various full mash set ups : http://www.brewtree.com/page/page/268924.htm I'm planning to get one of these after I complete my move to Seattle from San Francisco in December. I now have a far less fancy version of this stuff that I've given my son, so I HAVE t get a new brewing set up. I have not found that huge differences in final produce from using properly cleaned, sanitized food-grade plastic vs glass or stainless steel. The difference is more in the difficulty in cleaning plastic after prolonged use...the scratches and scruffs become great places for nefarious beasties that you can't always expunge. Liquid yeast is the way to go. As a chef you should be easily able to trade some tucker for eyast at a local brewpub. Usually the brewers are very anxious to help home brewers, so I'd advise a trip to some local brew pubs and chatting up the brewer! Jim Randell

The Budvar sold here as Czechvar isn't - unfortunately - nearly so wonderful as that sold in Europe and not close to Budvar on tap in Czech Republic. It's quite a delicate beer that doesn't travel well or take to pasteurization. Someone earlier in the thread couldn't believe the only difference between Budvar and Budweiser was the water & it isn't...the malt used in Czech Republic is quite different and is undermodified compared to what Budweiser uses; in addition, Budvar is all malt and Budweiser uses rice and perhaps other adjuncts. The hops are also different and so is the brewing process, with Budvar doing a decoction mash owing to the undermodified malt.

Although I've had many beers that are simply not good, I'm happy to report that I've only had three that I would pronounce definitely foul. Interestingly, all were sampled outside the US. Willie's Olde Groyne, a barley wine on offer at the Great British Beef Festival tasted as if somone's dirty sneakers had become entangled with the beer. I know some will be so unkind as to suggest that the name alone shold have warned me off. To that I must reply that many a fine ale I've tasted had similarly un enticing names. Tekel beer, made by the Turkish government. It cost about $0.25 / liter and wasn't worth it. The taste of burnt caramel daintily suffused with the smell of rotten eggs were the best parts of this surprising libation. It could not be served cold enough to suppress the noxious taste! Then there's the China-brewed Guinnes Stout sampled by the side of the Pearl river in Guanzhou {sp?]. It tasted like pure river water with blended tires for mouthfeel. Absolutely impossible to swallow.

Forme, 3 Monts is as good as a Frence Biere de Garde gets. Or as oggd as comaprable Belge bieres get, like Affligem Tripple, for ex. # Monts is at once lively, malty and hoppy. How do they do it? I live in Mill Valley Ca right now and am deprived, but I miss it greatly. In Paris the only good beers IMHO are the Belge and the few French Biere de Gardes, the Fischer et. al., are Budweiser/Millers with another name.

Hey, all. A new member to this august forum adding my few cents [or less, your call] I lived in Seattle from 1978 m-1986, moved all around the USA and world and expect to return in Dec '03. Been visiting my House there/here[?] ever since. My addition to this, welcome /requested or not, is to Beer info. for visitors. If you like hoppy India Pale Ales in the modern American idiom you can't do much better than the small Mukelteo Brew Pub's Diamond Knot Industrial IPA, although hop neonophytes may want to start with the entry level hop-head version, plain old IPA, leaving the Industrial version to the hop nutters loose on the West Coast, most of whom, BTW, are in CA, not WA - IMHO having lived in Tiburon/Mill Valley the past 3.5 years. But we [or is it me who commits the sin of wandering] digress from the thread. The past several years, including a scant 4 weeks ago, I've enjoyed the Shanghai Gardens in Issaquah for their great noodle soups and other concoctions of authentic shaved noodles. Anyone else a fan?