HOMEBREW Digest #2969 Thu 04 March 1999

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	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:
  Infusion Mashing (Dave Burley)
  Joke (Dave Burley)
  Summary - where to find teflon washers (Bill Graham)
  RE:Teflon Washers ("Timmons, Frank")
  Alcohol Estimation - Easiest way (AJ)
  The Jethro Gump Report ("Rob Moline")
  fermentors (jim williams)
  recipe imitation (JohanNico)" <JohanNico.Aikema at akzonobel.com>
  Why an aspirator. ("S. Wesley")
  Acid Wit (AJ)
  Oatmeal stout recipes ("Ratkiewich, Peter")
  Mash Paddle ("Jeff Beinhaur")
  1999 AHA National Homebrew Competition (Paul Gatza)
  Alcohol calculations (Ed Iaciofano)
  re:Yeast microphotographs (contaminated?) (Michael A. Owings)
  RE:Teflon washers ("Phillips, Jack")
  re: alcohol & pregnancy (Lou.Heavner)
  re:Yeast microphotographs (contaminated?), Duvel yeast...Mblue (Joe Rolfe)
  Sam Adams Spring Ale (Tidmarsh Major)
  MCAB recipes (Alan Folsom)
  Comments on Comments (AJ)
  kegging (Jason.Gorman)
  Probable Typo, Acidic Wit, (Dave Burley)
  Barley wine (John Wilkinson)
  A cool new toy - Burton Union (Alan Monaghan)
  Re. Alcohol Measurement (Jeffry D Luck)
  Home Brew Clubs (Mark Tumarkin)
  the real deal (Clark)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 17:55:56 -0500 From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley at compuserve.com> Subject: Infusion Mashing Brewsters: Although I didn't want to discuss this any further, since I was intending to give a rough outline for a first brew, I will spend a little of my currently precious time ( getting ready to move) to expand it a little. Jim Busch comments on my suggestion to use 180F water to infuse to 155F. I know that C. Papazian and Jim Busch suggest the use of 165-168F liquor as the strike heat in a single infusion. I could never get to the desired temperature by starting at this low strike heat. A few years ago I published a formula here which I had derived from M&BS(1971) table p259 on the specific heat of malt. From this I determined that 1 # of grain was equivalent to 0.22 US quarts of water in terms of heat capacity. (See the HBD Archives) Based on that I derived the dimensionless equation V(H2O added) = {(0.22W(grist) + V (water present in mash)) X delT of mash}/(delT water added) . This is useful for step infusions, since it will let you calculate the amount of water to add at whatever temperatures you have. Thus at the beginning when there has been no water added, the grist is at 65F and the desired beginning Mash temperature is 155F and strike liquors of 180F, 165F and 170F are compared on a pound of malt, the equation is simpler and produces: V(H2O) ={ 0.22 * (155-65)}/(180 -155) = 0.8 quarts/lb V(H2O) = {0.22 * (155-65)/(165 - 155) = 1.98 quarts/lb V(H2O) = {0.22 * (155-65)/ ( 170 - 155) = 1.32 quart/lbs The heat sink of many mash tuns have a heat capacity equivalent to a pound or more of grain. Thus for a mash of 9 pounds of malt plus a one pound equivalent tun this will look like 0.22*10(155-65)/ (165 - 155) = 19.8 or 2.2 quarts per pound. Thus: Mash Tun equiv to 1 pound of malt (0.22 quarts) Strike heat Quarts per pound 165 2.2 170 1.47 180 0.88 Mash Tun equivalent to 2 pounds of malt (0.44 quarts) 165 2.42 170 1.63 175 1.21 180 0.986 Mash Tun Equivalent to 3 pounds of malt ( 0.66 quarts) 165 2.64 170 1.76 175 1.32 180 1.056 To determine the heat capacity of your mash tun, add a volume of water equivalent to a mash volume ( and don't forget that heat absorbong spoon or paddle) at a known temperature, stir for 5 minutes and check the temperature. The loss in temperature times the volume in quarts will tell you will tell you how much heat the tun absorbs. SO if your water temperature goes down 5 degrees when you put it into the tun and you used 15 quarts of water, then you can back calculate. 15 = Z (175-65)/(5) or Z = 75/90 = 0.83qt ( approx 4 lbs of malt) equivalent for the tun and paddle So the final Step Mash equation to calculate water to be added is: V ( infused water) = {(Lbs grist ) * 0.22 + Tun Vol Equivalent + V H2O in mash} delT Mash / delT infused water The point of all this is: 165F water to infuse to 155F is too cool to get you 1.3 quarts per pound as Jim suggests. somewhere around 175F is more like it. I suggested 180F, since on the first run there is a lot of fiddly farting around and I did not know what kind of mash tun was being used and using this 180F temperature will give the beginner a good margin. Enough said on this subject. Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 18:08:01 -0500 From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley at compuserve.com> Subject: Joke Brewsters: I thought I'd pass this one along: A mother was reading a book about animals to her 3 year old daughter: Mother: "What does the cow say?" Child: "Moooo!" Mother: "Great! What does the cat say?" Child: "Meow." Mother: "Oh, you're so smart! What does the frog say?" The wide-eyed little three-year-old looked up at her mother and replied, "Bud." Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 18:55:51 -0500 (EST) From: Bill Graham <weg at micro-net.net> Subject: Summary - where to find teflon washers All - I asked( in desperation ) for a source of teflon washers. I was (gratefully) overwhelmed with responses, and thought a summary would be in order to perhaps help the next poor hapless soul who is teflon-less. B. Kruse recommended any plumbing supply or commercial boiler suppliers you may find in the phonebook. T. Murray recommends a company on the web http://www.smallpartsinc.com/. While they do not have an online catalog, I kept the bookmark for future projects. John Schnupp N3CNL XLH1200 recommends several things - The blue plastic thingy (my words) inside the bottle cap of 3L PET soda bottles can be extracted and cut to size, if your hole is small enough. He also suggests "food grade cut-your-own gasket material" (his words). I guess just call around and ask for it. Sounds reasonable. Mr. XLH1200 also has a nice trick for cutting washers out of gasket material - drop him or me a line for further explication. Gregg Howard recommends gasket or seal supply houses, who can cut custom gaskets while you wait. More specifically, Great Western Seal here in the Denver area is a recommendation. Luke Van Santen (how could you possibly move from Golden to Minnesota??) says that Challenge Equipment in Wheatridge CO could have the goods, along with Dairy Engineering in the Denver area. (I promise I won't mention your name to them, Luke). And, yes, despite my pitiful wailings, McMaster-Carr had exactly what I wanted. No less than 4 people gave me the exact part number (or page number) from the catalog, which I had diligently searced for hours. Remember to search by keyword if the search by index gives you no results. Thank you Messrs. Hodge, Phillips, Jahnke, and Kerr; I am humbled by your superior searching skills. Teflon-fulfilled, Bill "...the only way to deal with bureaucrats is with stealth and sudden violence." - Butros Butros-Ghali Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 16:04:00 -0700 From: "Timmons, Frank" <Frank.Timmons at alliedsignal.com> Subject: RE:Teflon Washers Bill Graham asked yesterday about Teflon washers. I have some I would be willing to part with. I tried to E-mail privately, but it bounced. So, Bill, E-mail me and we'll talk. You don't even have to kiss me. Frank Timmons Richmond, Va. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 00:59:44 +0000 From: AJ <ajdel at mindspring.com> Subject: Alcohol Estimation - Easiest way I had private e-mail from a reader who was puzzled about my formulas for ABV and ABW because he thought they were related to differences in specific gravity before and after fermentation. Indeed they are and this reminded me that I had left out the home brewer's most common and easiest method of estimating alcohol content in my summary of methods. There are lots of places to get the basic data necessary to do this. Probably the easiest is the scale on many hydrometers which include "potential alcohol" calibrations. One reads the potential alcohol in the wort and subtracts the potential alcohol reading in the finished beer. For those who don't have a hydrometer with potential alcohol scales the following procedure, based on tables attributed to Balling, as given in DeClerk (Vol II p 428) can be used. To illustrate the procedure consider as an example a 1.050 OG beer that finishes at 1.012 (75% attenuation). Calculated values for this example appear in brackets [..] after each step. 1. Convert the specific gravity of the unfermented wort to degrees Plato using P = 0.01589 + 0.25687*y - 0.00019224*y^2 where y = 1000(specific gravity - 1). y^2 means y squared i.e y*y [12.34] 2. Convert the specific gravity of the fermented beer to degrees plato using the same formula. [3.07] 3. Subtract the two Plato values [ 9.27] 4. Calculate a conversion factor from f = .39661 + 0.0017091*Po + (1.0788E-5)*Po^2 where Po is the Plato value for the wort [0.4193] 5. Multiply the difference in Plato values by the factor from Step 4. This is the percent alcohol by weight (ABW) [3.88%] 6. Multiply by 1.25 to obtain percent alcohol by volume [4.85%] - -- A. J. deLange Numquam in dubio, saepe in errore. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 20:42:10 -0600 From: "Rob Moline" <brewer at isunet.net> Subject: The Jethro Gump Report The Jethro Gump Report Rice Hulls I add them into the mash, as the grain is doughing in....and feel that they are worth their weight in gold...... Cheers! Jethro Gump Rob Moline brewer at isunet.net Lallemand Web Site jethro at isunet.net "The More I Know About Beer, The More I Realize I Need To Know More About Beer!" Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 22:31:45 -0800 From: jim williams <jim&amy at macol.net> Subject: fermentors Hi, I'm interested in heaing what others use for fermentors. Sorry, I'm not interested in hearing "carboy". I'm trying to find another vessel. Currently, I'm using a sspot. Open fermenting. Very happy with the results. I kinda need something a little more permanent. I'm having to really do a lot of riggin' and swappin' to do this. Thinking of going with an enamel coated pot as my fermentor. Does anyone use the plastic conical fermentors available? They sound interesting... Thanks, Jim Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 07:58:41 +0100 From: "Aikema, J.N. (JohanNico)" <JohanNico.Aikema at akzonobel.com> Subject: recipe imitation Brewers, George De Piro published his winning recipe of a Weizen. I also give my recipes to anyone who wants them. But I know some brewers are very mysterious about their recipes. A few don't even participate in contests if the recipe must be included. Others hand over a not correct recipe. My question: are there any ideas about this? Would it be possible to clone a recipe and win a competition? I myself am skeptical about this, because: -different mineral content of water -different supplier of malt or a different batch -different supplier of hops or a different batch or different storage of the hops -different age (storage) of yeast -and (IMO) most inportant: differences in equipment and operating procedure (accuracy in weighing, temperature, time). Any ideas? my recipe collection: http://www.cybercomm.nl/~aikema/index.html Greetings from Holland, Hans Aikema Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 06:57:14 -0500 From: "S. Wesley" <WESLEY at MAINE.MAINE.EDU> Subject: Why an aspirator. Jeremy Bergsman asks why I am trying to use an aspirator in conjunction with a water pump to generate the vacuum in my N.A. beer project. The answer is that it appears to me to be the least expensive way to generate the necessary vacuum. The nominal ultimate vacuum of the aspirator is -28.5" Hg or about 36 mm of absolute pressure. I have found that it takes about 90 min to evaporate 100 ml at 32C by boiling with the aspirator running on a municipal water supply. Since most of this is water vapor pressure I'd say I'm getting down to about 37 or 38 mm Hg absolute. If you don't boil evaporation is much much slower than this. I tried out a recirculation pump and I was only able to boil at 38C, and the evaporation rate looks lower. This would indicate an ultimate pressure of roughly 51 mm Hg absolute. I have looked around for other types of vacuum pumps which will do the trick, but even looking at used reconditioned pumps I haven't found any thing that will work for less than about $450. Since I do research work in surface phyiscs I have access to a lot of pumps that can do this job just fine for me, but it doesn't help anyone else If I come up with a technique that requires the use of a $1200 vacuum pump! If anyone has any suggestions for an inexpensive way to generate vaccuum in the range of 20-40 mm Hg please let me know. Also If anyone has any suggestions for an inexpensive recirculating pump that can deliver 2gpm at 40psig, again please let me know. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 12:14:16 +0000 From: AJ <ajdel at mindspring.com> Subject: Acid Wit Fooled ya with the title, didn't I? Nathan Kanous wants to know how much acid is in wit beer. In this case as the organoleptic response of the drinker depends on the pH that parameter is (IMO) the most important one. I recommend experimental incremental addition of lactic acid (where that is the approach to acidification) with tasting and pH measurement. Note the pH level which gives the desired result (and the amount of acid required to get it) and dose the bulk of the beer to that pH. The catch here is that the lactic is supposed to take weeks to months to meld with the beer. Be your own judge of this and tweak the results as necessary. Measurement of the actual acid level will require a titration. This can be done in several ways. To make the math simple, put 100 mL of beer (degassed or you will be measuring the carbonic acid as well as the organic acids) in a beaker, put a pH electrode or a few drops of phenolpthalein indicator in there and add 0.1 N sodium hydroxide from a buret or syringe or whatever you have. The acidity, in milliequivalents per liter, is the number of mL of sodium hydroxide required to bring the pH to 8.3 or cause the phenolpthalein to turn pink. The mEq/L can be converted to "as acetic" or "as lactic" if you want. If anyone wants the conversion factors drop me a line. Test kits for doing this titration are available (for wine) at homebrew shops. I believe they supply some sodium hydroxide solution, indicator and a eyedropper or some such. I think the result is "as acetate" as that's the way the wine industry does it. - -- A. J. deLange Numquam in dubio, saepe in errore. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 07:32:43 -0500 From: "Ratkiewich, Peter" <PRATKIEWICH at ci.westport.ct.us> Subject: Oatmeal stout recipes We're planning on brewing an all-grain Oatmeal Stout in about two weeks. I have one recipe and have seen one or two in past digests. I humbly request a few more from the collective. We're shooting for two fifteen gallon batches, hopefully having an OG of somewhere around 1058 -> 1064. We'd like to use the 1056 yeast that we have cultured, but realize that the available recipes may not agree with that concept. Any ideas?? Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 09:20:36 -0500 From: "Jeff Beinhaur" <beinhaur at email.msn.com> Subject: Mash Paddle Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response to my question about mash paddles. To quickly summarize for those who care the suggestions ranged from fairly simple slabs of unfinished wood, to wooden spoons from restaurant supply stores, to stainless steel paddles and spoons. One response was to use a pizza paddle (don't know what the actually name is but it's that thing that pizza joints use to slide pies in and out of the oven) with some holes cut through it. There were some suggestions about canoe paddles. Also, Lynne from St. Pats sent me some info. on the products they carry including what seems to be a relatively inexpensive stainless steel paddle (it's not on the web site but she says it's in the catalog). Thanks again to all respondees. Today's question: Any suggestions for replacing the washers on the faucets for the Gott coolers. My coolers are fairly new and they always seem to leak around the faucet. I've tried to tighten them but this seems to only make it worse. I guess I could try to just replace with like washers but I wonder if anyone has a better idea. Thanks in advance. Jeff Beinhaur, Camp Hill, PA Home of the Yellow Breeches Brewery Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 08:16:37 -0700 From: Paul Gatza <paulg at aob.org> Subject: 1999 AHA National Homebrew Competition Hi there brewfolk. Here's a link to the webpage for the 1999 National Homebrew Competition. The main rules and regs packet was sent to AHA members in December, with the Site Locator Guide sent in February. All the info can be downloaded from here, or I can send you a hard copy if you request one from me. I'd like to encourage brewers who enter the NHC to also consider entering one of the many local club competitions that are held in the spring. A brewer does not need to be an AHA member to enter, although the entry fee is reduced for AHA members. If you would like to join the AHA, please call (888) UCANBREW. For volunteer, steward or judging information, please contact Brian Rezac at brian at aob.org. Last year's NHC had 3480 entries. The entry deadline is April 9th. http://beertown.org/AHA/nhc99frameset.htm - -- Paul Gatza Director American Homebrewers Association (303) 447-0816 x 122 736 Pearl Street (303) 447-2825 -- FAX PO Box 1679 paulg at aob.org -- E-MAIL Boulder, CO 80306-1679 info at aob.org -- AOB INFO U.S.A. http://www.beertown.org -- WEB Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 07:21:32 -0800 From: Ed Iaciofano <Ed.Iaciofano at quantum.com> Subject: Alcohol calculations Hello, Here are alcohol calculation equations that I saved from the Mead Lovers Digest #429 (7 Sept. 1995), as posted by Michael Hall. I've used these equations and they've worked quite well for me. Regards, /Ed_I - --Beginning of MLD post-- Subject: Alcohol percentages From: hall at galt.c3.lanl.gov (Michael L. Hall) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 95 10:06:59 MDT I did some research on the determination of various parameters of fermented beverages a little while back for a Zymurgy article (see the summer 95 issue for a more complete version of this). Succinctly, the *most accurate* way to determine alcohol content in any fermented beverage is by the following set of equations (nomenclature at end): OE = -668.962 + 1262.45*OG - 776.43*OG**2 + 182.94*OG**3 AE = -668.962 + 1262.45*FG - 776.43*FG**2 + 182.94*FG**3 q = 0.22 + 0.001*OE RE = ( q*OE + AE ) / ( 1 + q ) A%w = (OE - RE) / (2.0665 - 0.010665*OE) A%v = A%w (FG / 0.794) The first two equations are very accurate fits (by me) to empirical data (from Plato), the next three equations are empirical equations developed by Balling, and the last equation is an analytical equation. If that is too much trouble, then a good estimate (better than many in the common homebrew books) based on these equations is: 76.08 (OG - FG) A%w = -------------- 1.775 - OG A%v = A%w (FG / 0.794) This estimate is based on the equation "E = 1000 (SG - 1) / 4", which is only really valid for low SG. For high OGs (like the meads in question), you really need to use the full-blown equations at the beginning of this post. Again, I direct you to the Zymurgy article for a full explanation. Nomenclature: A%w - Alcohol percent by weight. A%v - Alcohol percent by volume. AE - Apparent extract (degrees Plato), the apparent weight percent of dissolved solids in the beer, before correcting for the lower density of the alcohol. E - Extract (degrees Plato), the weight percent of dissolved materials in the wort. FG - Final specific gravity. OE - Original extract (degrees Plato). OG - Original specific gravity. RE - Real extract (degrees Plato), the real weight percent of dissolved solids in the beer, after correcting for the lower density of the alcohol. SG - Specific gravity (density relative to water). Specific gravity in points is equal to 1000*(SG - 1). - ---End of MLD post------ Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 15:37:54 GMT From: mikey at swampgas.com (Michael A. Owings) Subject: re:Yeast microphotographs (contaminated?) Charley Burns Writes: > I took a look and saw some thing that are NOT round. Was this sample > contaminated? I have some yeast that IS contaminated. Can I send you some to > take a photograph of? Its contaminated (I'm nearly 100% certain) with > Pediococcus Damnosus. Most of the wierd stuff you see are artifacts of the camera (not there when you look at the picture with the naked eye). Also, the flask I used to dilute the sample was not terribly clean. However, the starter sample was fermented cleanly (normal taste and smell considering it was fermented on a stir plate). Also the yeast cell count in the original sample was very high, coming in at 1.24x10E8 cells/ml -- I doubt much else could get a foothold in the sample. Sorry -- I can't generally do photos on demand (time doesn't permit). I would be happy, though, to offer the camera and scope for future or current collective experiments in yeast management. More photos soon -- at 1000X if my illuminator turns out to be up to the job. *********************** Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can. *** And the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off *** Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 07:40:55 -0800 From: "Phillips, Jack" <jack_phillips at uscs.com> Subject: RE:Teflon washers I sent private email to Bill regarding these, but after reading the digest today I thought I should post it to the forum. McMaster-Carr (insert the usual denial of any association) does in fact stock Teflon washers. They just don't identify them separately in the catalog. They can be found in the washer section of both the 103rd and the 104th editions of the catalog pg. 2146 in the 103rd and near the same location in the 104th. These are bolt sized rather that pipe washers i.e.: 1 / 2 inch nominal ID .780 rather that .840 but either buying the next size up or enlarging the ID will work. These washer have OD's in the range 1.50 -1.75, cost is around $3.40 - $3.80 per copy. As you usually don't need many, this is cheaper than buying a sheet of Teflon and making your own Prost Jack Phillips Timberline Brewing, Placerville Ca. A few miles uphill and East of Charley (congrats on a fine beer) and approximately 2K miles west of Jeff Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 09:32:24 -0600 From: Lou.Heavner at frco.com Subject: re: alcohol & pregnancy Jim Wagner of Pasadena, Maryland concludes with: WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may actually CAUSE pregnancy! One thing experimenters usually learn and politicians never learn is to not confuse correlation with causality. In my experience, alcohol may LEAD to pregnancy rather than CAUSE pregnancy. There is even some contrary evidence that alcohol in excessive quantities can inhibit pregnancy. Lou - Austin, TX enjoying the wide lattitude allowed in the HBD Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 11:02:32 -0500 From: Joe Rolfe <rolfe at sky.sky.com> Subject: re:Yeast microphotographs (contaminated?), Duvel yeast...Mblue Charley Burns asked about un-round 'targets' in the online photo.. It is tough to tell what those were. Typically under a normal brewers wort your going to see all kinds of things that to an untrained eyeball are going to look like unwanted visitors. Your going to see small pieces of junk (hops, break material, beer stones, skins, airborne micrococci and if you use irish moss little 'sunglasses'). Some of these targets may look just like the book says (pedios look bunches of grapes - if memory serves me) but in most cases it is not. There are a few stains available (spelling is going to be way off here and a ***good QDA*** (spelling??) Eosin Y and Alcian Blue would give a good indicator as to what it is. If anyone wants the real spelling email me and I will break out the book. If you could isolate the target and then grow it up so as to determine catalyse/gram polarity then you get a little closer. Differential medias also can help determine what they might be, but this can be time consuming and expensive. One thing for sure if the unwanteds are easily visable in any particular frame of the slide - you should be able to taste the off flavors in the beer without a great amount of difficulty. Some of the targets look like paper/cloth strands maybe used to clean off the slide. The one thing I would like to look at is the 'amoebae' in the lower left of the 430x pic. This caught my eye. A few of the standalone targets look like beer stones but that is a long shot. There are a couple of other specs (l shape in the upper left would be the next in line) in there that would get a closer look, but all in all not too bad a shot. Not to bash the photographer - but it was too out of focus for a good determination. Siebels has a pretty good little book on beer deposits available (just a satisfied customer) but this is mostly from packaged beer samples. The book is great for those just starting with a scope and little or no formal training. Leo Barendse asked about Devel bottle yeast... In most cases the bottles we get here are older and the yeast is not viable. In some cases you can get lucky and find a fresh bottle (if you do get me some too). The best thing to do is to proof them in a few small fermentation before going to a large one. I never had much luck pulling a bottle off the warm shelf of a package store and getting a viable cell out of the bunch. Maybe I am doing something wrong also...THe best case - go to Belgium and get a fresh one. One question would be - Did the starter ferment out and taste reasonably good?? ALAN KEITH MEEKER had questions about Mblue ***QDA*** As you found in the text you mentioned - Mblue works great (most of the time) with a good fresh slurry. This has been sort of common knowledge in the commercial brewing world. I will see if I can find some refs for you but this may take a few days. Like you mention the recipe for the Mblue 'appears' to be important - one recipe I had called for a small addition of acid, I'll see if I can did the recipe up but it may be in the ASBC (which I dont have anymore). One this the blue does do if you are looking at them under the scope - - gives some contrast of the 'yeast guts'. Two indicators (under the scope) I usually looked for was size of the vaculole (large was not good) and the condition of the cell wall (thick was not good). It is tough to explain (large and thick but experience is the best teacher) as I generally took a quick look and could just tell what was going on with them to some extent. The color, odor and taste of the yeast were also used. Again very tough to explain. These were enough to determine pitch it or get another. There is a Rhodimine B Red stain the has been reported to give better results, never tried it tho. One true way to check viability is an agar slide and a well diluted slurry added. You want to get a good distribution of cells isolated by several dozen cell diameters. Count them under a scope (100x should be fine), incubate for a period (upto two days or more if you love adventure). Then recount the cells that have started to grow. A camera might be helpful here as a side thought. There is no second guessing with this method, the cell either grew or it did not. Do the math and your viability is know. Problems with this - the dilutions must be very accurate, the slurry must be homogenous when sampled and it is tedious. You could probably adapt it to a plate method also but may not be as accurate. Never did this with a plate. Well I have used up my bandwidth Good Luck And Great Brewing Joe Rolfe Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 10:28:23 -0600 From: Tidmarsh Major <ctmajor at samford.edu> Subject: Sam Adams Spring Ale Last December, Jim Booth asked for opinions about Sam Adams Apring Ale as an example of Koelsch. I recently found some on a trip through Atlanta and offer the following observations for comment: I wouldn't consider myself an arbiter of the style, having tasted "echt Koelsch" only once, but I think the Sam Adams may be a bit off the mark. It lacks the gentle maltines and slight fruitiness that I recall, and may be slightly over-bittered. Aspen Brewing's "Tire-Biter" ale is another American Koelsch-style ale that I think hits much closer to the mark. What do others think (of Sam Adams Spring Ale or other American Koelsch-style beers)? Regards, Tidmarsh Major Birmingham, Alabama Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 11:35:14 -0600 (CST) From: folsom at ix.netcom.com (Alan Folsom) Subject: MCAB recipes Since others are posting MCAB recipes, here is mine for the 1st place Tripel. Tripel recipes are not that difficult to come up with, the trick (as far as I know) is to keep fermentation temps down, and use a great yeast. I am very found of the yeasts from Brewer's Resource, and this used their excellent CL-320 belgian strain. Grain: 12.5 lbs DeWolf-Cosyns Pils Malt 1 lb DeWolf-Cosyns Wheat Malt 1 lb Light Candi Sugar 1 lb Corn Sugar (I was too cheap to buy more candi) Hops: .5 oz Hallertauer Plug (3.3%a) 90 min .5 oz EK Goldings Plug (6.4%a) 60 min .5 oz Hallertauer Plug (3.3%a) 30 min .5 oz Hallertauer Plug (3.3%a) 15 min Yeast: Slurry from a 2 liter starter of BrewTek CL-320 (Heartily recommended) Process: Since my water is very carbonate, I used bottled so called "spring" water. Protein rest at 131F for 35 min Conversion at 152F for 105 min OG: 1.076 FG 1.010 1 tsp Irish Moss Flakes for last 15 min of boil. Aerated 1 minute with pure O2 through a stainless steel stone. Primary ferment 14 days at basement ambient, about 58F. Secondary ferment 14 days also at basement ambient. The beer was bottled 28 Mar 1998. I think it peaked late last fall, and is slowly going down hill now (though still quite good.) Al Folsom Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 13:27:39 -0500 From: AJ <ajdel at mindspring.com> Subject: Comments on Comments Louis Bonham had several comments on my alcohol determination summary. I left out lots of details on all the methods and encourage anyone considering using any of them to go to the referenced sources (in earlier posts) or the MOA's themselves for details. Naturally, I'll answer any questions anyone has. What I'm really about in this post is Louis's comment that the beer be degassed before the distillation/gravimetry procedure I cited. The ASBC procedure does call for this to be done but as alcohol is very volatile and the ASBC degassing procedure (sloshing in a flask) results in sparging with CO2 some EtOH is going to be swept out of solution. I had always regarded this as unappreciable until I read the insert that comes with the Boehringer-Manheim (Enzymatic oxidation) kit which goes on at length about the necessity to pipette samples beneath the surface of the diluting water, cover cuvets with Parafilm and so on. "Ethanol is sehr flu:chtig". So the question is "Why degass?". Anyone who has tried to measure beer without degassing it knows part of the answer. The bubbles and foam make this hard to do. Serological pipets are good because you just keep sucking it in as fast as the escaping gas pushes it out and you can still see the meniscus. It's lots tougher in a volumetric flask but it can be done by "vacuuming" up the foam with a pipet as it forms. There is another problem with bubbles that form on the inward sloping part of the flask near the neck. You can sort of jar them loose so they go up into the neck and form foam which you vacuum away. So the question is whether degassing is to simplify volume measurement (and thus give more accurate results) or whether there is some other reason (e.g. drive off other volatiles which might effect the gravity reading). Any thoughts? Louis also posted: >(take the gravity of exactly 100mls of >degassed beer, boil it until it was reduced by half, make up to 100mls with >water, take the gravity of the dealcoholized beer, and calculate the percentage >alcohol), and he simply told me "that doesn't work. You have to measure the >distillate." I don't understand why these methods wouldn't work DeClerk gives a very similar procedure except that the first measurement is that of the wort, not the beer. Before this post appears, you will have seen another of mine which reviews our (homebrewers') favorite method of estimating alcohol content i.e. using the apparent attenuation. That post took Balling's numbers (as reported by DeClerk) for apparent attenuation and showed how to use them to estimate alcohol. Balling also obtained data for doing this with real attenuation. The procedure is the same as what I posted except that true extract is determined by boiling away enough of the beer to drive off all the alcohol, then making back up to the original volume and measuring the s.g. of the dealcoholized, reconstituted beer. The two gravities are differenced and multiplied by a factor which, like the apparent gravity factor, depends on the original gravity, but has a different numerical value from the apparent attenuation multiplier. This, and the apparent method) are based on the assumption that 2 g of extract produce fixed amounts of ethanol (about a gram), CO2(about a gram) and yeast (about 0.11 gram - this is the only one I rember). As this is not always the case (lager strains produce less than yeast strains) the method is not super accurate. Other volatiles throw it off as well. On to the legal. Louis touched on one of those things I've always wanted to know about brewing but was afraid to ask. I reasoned (what's that have to do with the law, you're asking) that in this procedure the alcohol is not concentrated - the intent is, after all, to prepare a water solution in which the alcohol concentration is exactly the same as that in the beer. My admittedly very sketchy knowledge of the rules led me to believe that it was processes, of whatever nature, that concentrate alcohol which are regulated. Nevertheless, I'd like that name and address (plus an idea as to what to tell them). Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 13:11:00 -0500 From: Jason.Gorman at steelcase.com Subject: kegging I force carbonated my keg and let it sit a few days to carbonate the beer. I then released the excess pressure and run a couple of psi through the keg to dispense. Do I need to re-pressurize the keg to keep the beer carbonated while in cold storage? Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 13:46:53 -0500 From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley at compuserve.com> Subject: Probable Typo, Acidic Wit, Brewsters, To all those Brewers in CGS ( or is it MKS?) land, please note a probable typo In George de Piro's sharing of his winning Weizen recipe. He equates 14 US gallons with 25.2 liters. It's actually 3.785 X 14 = 52.99 liters. I suppose there's nothing wrong with a Weizen Wine but it won't match George's recipe. Hmmm, could this be the next envelope that gets pushed? Weizen Wein - Vy not? - ----------------------------------------------------------- Nathan Kanour asks for quantitative information on the Lactic Acid content of Wit biers. Nathan, if you do not have access to a method of doing a direct titration ( with a burette, for example) why not find out yourself by using an acid testing kit, normally used by winemakers, available from your homebrew store?. This will also allow you quality control of your own wits after you brew them. - ------------------------------------------------------------ Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 13:58:57 -0600 From: John.Wilkinson at aud.alcatel.com (John Wilkinson) Subject: Barley wine I am thinking about making my first barley wine. I have only had Big Foot and Old Foghorn and much prefer the Big Foot. I have seen various barley wine recipes but am not sure what they may be like, since there seems to be a wide range of difference in them, at least judging from the two kinds I have tried. I prefer the relative dryness of the Big Foot rather than the sweetness of the Foghorn. I wonder what OG is necessary to get the maltiness of Big Foot and what IBU rate to offset the sweetness? I have looked in the HBD archives and have found no recipes purporting to be similar to Big Foot. I have thought of using Rob M.'s recipe for 10/20 as its low FG would seem to promise not too much sweetness. I tried Phil Wilcox's version of that at the MCAB and found it quite good. Maybe I have answered my own question but I wonder if anyone has an opinion on what it would take to come up with something similar to Big Foot? Also, I have a sizeable yeast cake of 1056 under a fermenting beer and thought of using that but I notice that Rob called for an English ale yeast and used Nottingham. Would the 1056 be good for the type barley wine I am looking for or should I go ahead and use Nottingham? John Wilkinson - Grapevine, Texas Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 15:41:27 -0500 From: Alan Monaghan <AlanM at gardnerweb.com> Subject: A cool new toy - Burton Union My brewing buddy and I just received an evaluation unit of Dan Listermann's newest piece of equipment. A Burton Union for carboys. You can see it here at: http://bullwinkle.gardnerweb.com/Beer/burtonunion.html <http://bullwinkle.gardnerweb.com/Beer/burtonunion.html> . A very nice tool that should be included in a home brewers equipment list. Note: I do know Dan as he is my local supplier for Home Brewing but I am posting this link here as an idea to others who have had blow overs and wondered how to fix it. This is a wonderful unit and we are looking to procure another one in the future. All other disclaimers do apply. "There's only two things that excite a man, expensive toys and real expensive toys." - Red Green Alan G. Monaghan Gardner Publications, Inc. AlanM at Gardnerweb.com <mailto:AlanM at Gardnerweb.com> Return to table of contents
Date: 03 Mar 1999 15:41:29 -0700 From: Jeffry D Luck <Jeffry.D.Luck at aexp.com> Subject: Re. Alcohol Measurement To the question of trying to find the alcohol content in beer, I have a little dingus from my winemaking supplies called a vinometer.... It's a glass funnel looking thing, the reservoir portion would hold the volume of maybe a teaspoon. The down side of the funnel is a graduated tube about the size of a mechanical pencil lead on the inside. (Imagine a basic medical thermometer with a marble-sized reservoir on top and you get the proportions.) Anyway, you put 6 or 8 drops of wine in the thing, turn it over and watch where the liquid pours out to. It works by capillary action -- the force which draws water _up_ into a sponge. Water and alcohol are drawn up into the tiny tube at different heights, and the percentage of a mixture is calibrated on the outside of the tube. I've haven't used it on beer yet. Would it work? You would have to measure the beer before it's primed/carbonated, of course. Could you clean the thing well? I'm sure any slight deposit on the inside of the tube would mess up the reading. Any comments? Jeff Luck Salt Lake City, UT - USA Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 19:00:23 -0500 From: Mark Tumarkin <mark_t at ix.netcom.com> Subject: Home Brew Clubs This is not directly brewing specific, but it is related and hopefully will be thought provoking for others and helpful to me. I was recently elected president of my local brew club (although since Billy has recently brought such infamy to the presidency I would prefer to use another honorific - Primary Fermenter). At any rate, our club, the Hogtown Brewers, has been in existence a long time and has gone through many changes. For the last several years there have been no regular meetings, only frequent parties and informal gatherings for dinner and beer almost every Sat evening at our local brew pub. I was elected on the platform of free beer, regular monthly meetings and moving the club towards more educational, brewing improvement type activities. I also threw out the idea of invading Belgium, attacking a few monastaries and breweries, and then surrendering and demanding reparations. Since the club's treasury isn't up to even buying the necessary tickets I'll have to put that idea on hold for a while. And since I can only make good on the free beer promise once in a while, I felt I better deliver on the other promises to improve the club. So, I was wondering what kinds of activities make your club special or worthwhile. Do you hold monthly style comps? with a homebrewer of the year - and if so how do you structure the points, etc? What sort of events do you put on? In short, any suggestions you have to offer that I can use to improve our club (and maybe the responses will help other clubs as well). TIA, Mark Tumarkin Hogtown Brewers Gainesville, FL Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 19:57:08 -0500 From: Clark <clark at capital.net> Subject: the real deal Brewguys, I have been a hbd reader for a short time and I have my second batch of brew going now. Like many, I got started 20 years ago with a can of malt (I don't know if it even had a label on it) some water, sugar and bread yeast. My kids were small at the time and they had a ball spraying each other with that beer. It was awful. I had not done any other brewing until this year after my brother gave me a kit for Christmas. It was for a continental pilsner. It has been in the bottles four weeks now and it is starting to get pretty darn good. My second effort is for a pale ale from John J. Palmers directions on brewing your first beer. It has been in a carboy for a week and is looking good. Now I have a few questions for anyone interested. I have been on the web reviewing sites and collecting recipes. At this point I am all extract brewing until I get enough equipment collected and have a little more confidence in what I am doing. 1) After boiling a wort, should it always be cooled before adding to your primary fermenter or can hot wort be poured into cold water to cool it? I have seen instructions for both methods. 2) For all-grain brewing, can the malt be put through a food grinder to "crush" it? It sounds like some folks have "rolled" the crap out of their malt from some of the discussions regarding particle size. 3) The water from my well is measured at 23 grains of hardness. There is a lot of calcium (limestone bedrock) in it. It tastes fine but it is very hard. What should I do about the hardness or is it not a big concern with most beers? 4) I am bottling in brown bottles and storing my beer in the basement. The temperature runs at 70 degrees plus or minus a few and there is no direct sunlight through the windows. Is this a good bet for long term storage ( I am so optimistic about having beer to store) or should it be darker or cooler? 5) Has anyone ever used sunflower seed or soybeans in any of their brewing or are they too oily? This is a fascinating hobby and I am having a great time researching . My plans are to do a brew a month if time allows and keep a notebook to keep track of what works and what doesn't. Any answers or discussion of the above would be appreciated. Thank you for your time. Dave Clark Eagle Bridge, NY Return to table of contents
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