---

	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
		Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of 
		Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
				URL: http://www.oeonline.com


Contents:
  Special treatment for stainless steel kettle (ThomasM923)
  Re: yeast culturing (Scott Murman)
  CO (Scott Murman)
  Anderson Valley Hop Ottin IPA ("Colin K.")
  shiny kegs and chromium oxide ("Ratkiewich, Peter")
  converted keg fermentor (Robert Phelan)
  Re:Fruit Fly Bitters (Rod Prather)
  Mead Some Questions Answered ("Mike & Lynn Key")
  re: Haughty Europeans ("Alan McKay")
  MiniKegs ("Stuart Baunoch")
  Midwest Homebrewer of the Year? ("Paul & Debra Kerchefske")
  Bugs (LaBorde, Ronald)
  GFI tripping (Richard Johnson)
  munton's malt (Boeing)" <BayerMA at navair.navy.mil>
  To AHA or not to AHA? (Tim Anderson)
  Re: Stainless Questions (John Palmer)
  Grain Opinions??? ("Kelly C. Heflin")
  Adjustable mills (Jack Schmidling)
  food sealer ("Spies, Jay")
  Lo/Hi Pressure Burners & CO ("Poirier, Bob")
  Re: 0.2-micron filters ("Robert J. Waddell")
  Honey Stoudt ("David R. Burley")
  Another 15 bucks in the trash (Charles Burns)
  Vinegar (kchris1)


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----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 01:40:46 EST
From: ThomasM923 at aol.com
Subject: Special treatment for stainless steel kettle

On Mon, 21 Dec, Mark Bayer inquired:

"on to an equipment question - i have a new stainless kettle this year.
should i be giving it some special treatment other than scrubbing it out and
rinsing it at the end of the day?"

Mark, I think a hug every now and then would go a long way...

Thomas Murray
Maplewood, NJ


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Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 23:14:54 -0800 (PST)
From: Scott Murman <smurman at best.com>
Subject: Re: yeast culturing


As long as things are slow, and yeast culturing has come up, this is
my $0.02 on necessities of the craft.

agar - works much (much) better than gelatin and is actually cheaper.

innoculation loop - at first I used a paper clip because a decent loop
will cost about $15-20, but it is well worth the investment (reach the
bottom of a test tube with a paper clip).

alcohol lamp - burns hotter, cleaner, and more conveniently than other
options.  get the high-octane denatured alcohol as well.

petri dishes (2 minimum) - workhorses of yeast harvesting.  used for
everything.

stir plate and magnetic stir bar - necessary for rapid growth when
stepping-up from a petri dish to pitching quantity.

pressure cooker - sterile is necessary.  I use mine more than any
other piece of brewery equipment.  It's not even close for second
place.

There are other pieces, such as ehrlenmeyers or test tubes, but the
ones above seem to be the most commonly short-changed.  The above
equipment does seem like overkill, but I started with the barest
items, and little hard information, and learned the hard way.  You can
work with a Bic lighter and a paper clip, and pray that your yeast
will grow fast enough to out-race any contaminants, but you'll have
much better results if you invest a few $$ up front.

 -SM- ("I'd like Yeast Trivia for $200 Alex")


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Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 23:22:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Scott Murman <smurman at best.com>
Subject: CO

Silent Bob wrote:
> The level needs to be multiplied by the time of exposure to 
> really get an Idea of the risk.  A low level for a long period of time 
> is just as dangerous as a high level for a short period of time. 
> Hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood, binds irreversibly with 
> CO.  This means that that O2 carrying capacity is permanantly lost until 
> that hemoglobin is replaced.  The life span of a red blood cell is about 
> 120 days.  This means that the CO from one expsosure is not completely 
> eliminated for 120 days, and the effect is cumulative.

Can anyone tell me how this relates to second (or first)-hand smoke?
Does this mean that workers in a smoky pub are constantly impaired in
their hemoglobin capacity?

 -SM-


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Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 23:53:04 -0800
From: "Colin K." <colink at wenet.net>
Subject: Anderson Valley Hop Ottin IPA

Can anyone give me any information on recipe formulation for Anderson
Valley Hop Ottin IPA. I am particularly interested in the hop selection.
I heard from a sometimes reliable source the dry hops are columbus which
this man read in an article. He did not know which magazine. Any leads
would be appreciated. Any guesses?

If you have not tried this beer and you like lots of hops give it a try.

Thank you in advance,

Colin K.



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Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 08:09:22 -0500
From: "Ratkiewich, Peter" <PRATKIEWICH at ci.westport.ct.us>
Subject: shiny kegs and chromium oxide

In HBD #2907 responding to a keg cleaning question, Frank Timmons
writes:

				"I wouldn't worry about the fact that
your keg is not shiny. Stainless steel forms a tightly adhering passive
layer of chromium oxide that is fairly dull. This is a desired thing,
because the passive layer is very corrosion resistant. If you do manage
to get it shiny, it won't stay that way, and it will be leaching chrome,
iron and nickel oxides into your beer. That is a bad thing."

 ...right after I had just touted the benefits of shining up my keg with
an abrasive wheel.   Oops!  Guess I'm not gonna do that too much!  It
does seem useful however to shine the thing up the first time since
there's usually so much gook on it.  So this begs the question... is
there a process by which you can induce the protective layer of chromium
oxide after aggressively cleaning the gook with an abrasive?  Does it
just form naturally over time?  I've got two more kegs to clean up...

Peter Ratkiewich


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Date: 22 Dec 98 05:40:02 PST
From: Robert Phelan <rephelan at netscape.net>
Subject: converted keg fermentor

My converted keg fermenter works just fine, but, trying to be like the 
big
boys, I've decided to weld in a conical bottom just to make things a 
little
easier.  Here, in the nethers of Montana, there just doesn't seem to be a

fab-shop capable of rolling a 316L Stainless Steel 40 degree cone down to
 a
small enough opening, say 1-1 1/2".  Has anyone tried this before?  I 
really
don't want to cobble that many triangles together, just because of the 
time
involved, not to mention trying to achieve a smooth finish on the I.D.  
If
anyone knows of a fabricator with this kind of service, your shared 
knowledge
won't be wasted on me.  

Maybe I just have too much spare time on my hands, NAH, wait till you see
 the
steam fired boiling kettle.
Anyway, TIA.

Bread, Toast, Whatever,
Robert

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Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 09:07:12 -0500
From: Rod Prather <rodpr at iquest.net>
Subject: Re:Fruit Fly Bitters

the fruit fly bitter -  it is conceivable that the fruit fly in the starter
damaged the beer somewhat.  it placed only third at the st louis brews happy

holiday homebrew competition.  i haven't gotten the judges comments back
yet.

I am afraid that if I found a fruit fly in my starter, I would start over or
use a fresh yeast pack and forgo the starter completely.  Fruit flies are a
primary carrier of wild yeast and your starter would have been heartily
contaminated.  You probably have a bit of acetic acid in your beer, too.



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Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 09:54:41 -0500
From: "Mike & Lynn Key" <flakeys at ibm.net>
Subject: Mead Some Questions Answered

I'm attempting my fist mead soon. It's a simple recipe: 15 lbs. honey, acid
blend, yeast energizer, Irish Moss, and Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast (#3184).
Questions: 1. To make a yeast starter the yeast package says to add the
yeast to diluted fruit juice. What kind of juice? How much diluted? Is it OK
to use DME instead? 2. Should I use my Oxygenator to aerate the must once it
is in the carboy? 3. Is mead subject to oxidation due to