Diplomacy Fanzine
August 29, 1996

The Official Re-voice of the U.S. Orphan service Issue 49 1/2.

By Paul D. Kenny; 75-A Maple Avenue; Collingswood, NJ 08108-1008

e-mail at: pdkenny@net-gate.com This is ABSOLUTE! Online, a new frontier for Paul to misspell words on. This is a web page deadicated to the Play by snail mail newsletter.

What game do we play? Why Avalon Hill's Diplomacy, of course. And we also play some variants based on Diplomacy. Paul's loving wife, Sandy Kenny, has promised to come by and clean up Paul's spelling. Oh, when will Paul ever learn to use his spell checker? What can we expect for ABSOLUTE! issue 50? (besides more of Paul's misspelled words?)

Ken Walker's Historical Spotlight is back! Ken has writen about the Polish Air force during World War II.

Sandy has promised some baby talk about little Daniel Morgan.
Paul's artical on how to make beer.
Finally Dwight McMahon's endgame statement in America's Most Wanted.
Lane Hess has done a game review. Also, Lane has a personal Web page. send Lane a message. Tell him you were here. lchess@cris.com.
Jamie McQuinn explains the web and Dipdom. jmcquinn@delphi.com.
Steve Cameron has promised another fine STEVE'S SPOT.

Don't forget: Brad Wilson's Vertigo HouseCon. Games. Aug 30 thru Sept 2. Paoli, PA. Bring your sleeping bag. e-mail me for details.

PREVIEW: How to make Beer. By Paul Kenny

Brewing your own batch of beer is not really that hard. The popularity of doing it is growing, which means there will always be ingredients suppliers. And it doesn't take much room, so you can do it in an apartment if you are willing to make room for it.

There are two types of beers, ales and lagers. Ales are by far the easiest, and the best to start with. The brewers kits average about $40-$55, and ingredients kits around $22. Brewing is not much different than cooking. For example, someone may want to bake a cake. And you can make that cake several different ways. Or, you can choose between several different cakes to make. Well, the same is true for beer. The method to make beer is pretty much the same. Here's a simple example on how it can be done.

Total things one will need to brew beer.:
3 gallon soup pot
Wooden Spoon
Ladle or small pan
7 gallon fermenting bucket with lid. The lid should have the hole, (with the rubber grommet), for the air lock. The standard air lock is a small three piece clear plastic assembly that uses water as the lock. The bucket, lid, and air lock are part of any standard beer making kit.
Strainer, (of any kind. I use a grain bag).
* 5 gallon Bottling bucket with spout at the bottom,
* siphoning hose with two attachments one for siphoning, the other for bottling.
* Capping tool and bottle caps
*you won't need these on beer brewing day

Standard ingredients for 5 gallons of beer:
2 cans (3-4 lbs. each) of beer malt extracts
3 oz. hops
beer yeast, (this comes in a packet, so just use one packet.)
water, the cleaner the better.
*3/4 cup of corn sugar, used for bottling.

BEER BREWING DAY
Start out by boiling two gallons of water in your soup pot. When the water reaches a boil, stir in the contents of the two cans of Malt syrup. (One trick to make the malt easier to pour is to warm them up in hot water first.) Let this boil for about 45 minutes, stirring the pot (the contents now known as "wort") to keep it from boiling over. Throw in about half the hops, and let it boil for another half an hour. Two minutes before you're done letting it boil, throw in the other half of the hops. Let the wort cool, and sanitize your fermenting bucket, and everything else that will touch the wort. Fill the bucket with 3 gallons of water. Strain the wort into the fermenting bucket, and let it cool to room temperature. I usually put the bucket lid back on during this time, and the baby gate up to keep Sam, (my dalmation), from sampling the wort! After the wort cools, you can throw the yeast in the fermenting bucket. Now you put the lid on the bucket, seal it, and put the air lock in the hole. Find a nice dark corner of you house, apartment, dorm, jail block, or street ally where no one will mess with it, (like kids, guards, or animals). Under the steps or basements work fine.

Fermenting Temperatures:

Ales like to ferment between 60 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so your basement during the summer or winter should work. Lagers need a colder environment, so to do a lager you really need an extra fridge. I have this old thing in the basement, which works great. You want to ferment a lager at 40 to 55 degrees F.

Fermenting Times:
Ales will ferment in a week. After a couple days you could do a second fermentation where you drain the beer into a second fermenting container, usually a glass carboy. A carboy looks like the big bottle that water comes in for those water machines you see at work and in accountant offices. Glass is not as porous as the plastic bucket, so your beer will be better protected from contamination. So why not start out with glass? You could, it's just a factor of cost. If you are only going to be fermenting for a week or two, then there is no real risk that air will penetrate the plastic. But after two weeks, you could be exposing your beer to risk of airborne particles getting in and killing the yeast. Your yeast has a job to do. Lagers take longer. A lager should go it's full term of two weeks in what's called primary fermentation in the plastic bucket, then transferred to a glass carboy for secondary fermentation. Second fermentation should take 4 to 5 weeks. When the beer is done fermentation, then you are ready to bottle.

BOTTLING the Beer
Transfer the beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. Leave the last inch of sludge on the bottom, its not worth having, (throw it outside and help the grass grow.) Clean your bottles. Put the 3/4 cup of corn sugar in a sauce pan with about 1 to 2 cups of water, and desolve the sugar. Don't boil the water, just warm it enough to desolve the sugar. When the sugar is totally dissolved, pour it into the bottling bucket. The rest is easy, you bottle the beer. Using your siphoning hose, you pour beer into the bottle, filling it from the bottom to avoid the beer foaming up. Then cap the bottle and store. This should give you from 2 1/2 to 3 cases of 12 oz. beers.

WHAT? MORE WAITING?!

Uh, you could drink that beer now, but it might be a little flat. That's what the corn sugar was for. The remaining yeast will now work on the corn sugar and carbonate the beer, giving it a healthy head when you finally open it. It will take another week for it to carbonate. I would give a lager two weeks.

CHILL:
After you are sure your beer has had its week of carbonation, then put it in the fridge and let it get good and cold overnight. If you are making a lager, it's already cold and you can proceed to the next (and best) step. HOT DAMN!!!! IT'S READY!!!

There is an art to pouring your beer into a glass. The reason is with home brews, especially ales, you get some settlement on the bottom of your glass. Its not bad for you, but its not what one is use to drinking. So to avoid drinking the settlement, gently pour your beer into a glass. Use a real glass, not plastic, because your beer is worth it. The most important step of all: Drink The Beer!

->Well Andy W., you made it to Wales. Now what?

e-mail Paul Kenny
Comments, suggestions and questions should be directed to Prof. Kenny at pdkenny@net-gate.com.