HOMEBREW Digest #3064 Wed 23 June 1999

[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]


	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:
  0.1N NaOH (JohanNico)" <JohanNico.Aikema at akzonobel.com>
  My Mash Mixer experience (Jack Schmidling)
  lid on boil pot (Mark Tumarkin)
  0.1 N NaOH recipe (David Whitman)
  0.1N NaOH (AJ)
  Disappointment with results of first time all grain ("Sieben, Richard")
  Yeast Stuff ("Jeffrey M. Kenton")
  Poor Extraction (Dan Listermann)
  Re: degermination (Jeff Renner)
  Oil film (Mysti)
  Foreign Tap water,all grain efficiency, Maillard, 0.1N NaOH, (Dave Burley)
  Eric's Beer Page has moved! (Eric Wooten)
  re:Disappointment with results of first time all grain. (Michael A. Owings)
  Flocculation (Dave Humes)
  re: 1st all-grainer; black stout (Lou.Heavner)
  RE: converting kegs (LaBorde, Ronald)
  Thanks to everyone for their responce (Edward Seymour)
  Re:First time all-grain ("Philip J Wilcox")
  RE: Stirrer Motor, Another possibility (John Wilkinson)
  HD#3063: Subject: converting kegs (Badger Roullett)
  Muotrichstraum Weizen (stencil)
  Warsteiner (Dan Listermann)
  Many thanks! (Harlan Bauer)

* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! * 2000 MCAB Qualifier: Buzz-Off! Competition 6/26/99 * (http://www.voicenet.com/~rpmattie/buzzoff) Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!! To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org. **SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE REQUESTS MUST BE SENT FROM THE E-MAIL ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!** IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, the autoresponder and the SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE commands will fail! Contact brewery at hbd.org for information regarding the "Cat's Meow" Back issues are available via: HTML from... http://hbd.org Anonymous ftp from... ftp://hbd.org/pub/hbd/digests ftp://ftp.stanford.edu/pub/clubs/homebrew/beer AFS users can find it under... /afs/ir.stanford.edu/ftp/pub/clubs/homebrew/beer COPYRIGHT for the Digest as a collection is currently held by hbd.org (Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen). Digests in their entirity CANNOT be reprinted/reproduced without this entire header section unless EXPRESS written permission has been obtained from hbd.org. Digests CANNOT be reprinted or reproduced in any format for redistribution unless said redistribution is at absolutely NO COST to the consumer. COPYRIGHT for individual posts within each Digest is held by the author. Articles cannot be extracted from the Digest and reprinted/reproduced without the EXPRESS written permission of the author. The author and HBD must be attributed as author and source in any such reprint/reproduction. (Note: QUOTING of items originally appearing in the Digest in a subsequent Digest is exempt from the above. Home brew clubs NOT associated with organizations having a commercial interest in beer or brewing may republish articles in their newsletters and/or websites provided that the author and HBD are attributed. ASKING first is still a great courtesy...) JANITORS on duty: Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen (janitor@hbd.org)
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:10:50 +0200 From: "Aikema, J.N. (JohanNico)" <JohanNico.Aikema at akzonobel.com> Subject: 0.1N NaOH Hi Harlan, A 0.1 N NaOH solution contains 0.1*molecular weight of NaOH dissolved to 1 liter. So dissolve 0.1*(23+16+1)=4 grams NaOH (100 %) in a small amount of destilled water (carefully, it gets hot, wear glasses) and dilute it up to 1 liter in your flask. Greetings from Holland, Hans Aikema http://www.cybercomm.nl/~aikema/index.html Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 22:38:48 -0700 From: Jack Schmidling <arf at mc.net> Subject: My Mash Mixer experience RobertJ <pbsys at pbsbeer.com> "Jack, the original poster never mentioned using a false bottom or scorching as a problem. A. I beg to differ with you but it's not worth hunting down the quote. B. So what? That makes it no less a problem. "Without "rational control of heat" during temperature raises (fast temperature raise), a false bottom may cause jumps in overall mash temperature, but not scorching.... That is a mind boggling statement and I suspect I am not the only one who would argue with you. My point is that water under a false bottom can turn to steam and create burps. Pressure can build up faster than it can escape through the FB and scorching is as easy as turning the knob on the burner. This is not possible with the EM although scorching is possible, it is more forginging. js - -- Visit our web site: http://user.mc.net/arf ASTROPHOTO OF THE WEEK: http://user.mc.net/arf/weekly.htm Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:33:51 -0400 From: Mark Tumarkin <mark_t at ix.netcom.com> Subject: lid on boil pot Keith Menefy writes: "I use a big (200 litre) container for the boil. It is posible to put a lid on with just an inch pipe outlet for the steam. If I restrict this outlet a bit more would it increase the temperature at all, and by how much. Is the steam coming off the same temp as the water being boiled?" Aside from the question of steam temps it is not a good idea to cover your boil pot with a lid. One of the reasons for boiling is to drive off chemicals that can cause taste problems, such as DMS. If you cover the boil these are not driven off, or they can condense on the lid and drip back into the wort. So covering the boil is not a good idea. He also writes: "I am after the Maillard reaction for colouring/carmelising the sugars. How do Guinness achieve their black colour? I have never got better than a dark brown even with using burnt barley." Try beginning your boil after you have collected a reasonable amount of the first runnings rather than waiting till later. This is commonly done for Scotch Ales. Boiling the smaller volume of wort will give you a darkening of the color and also the carmelisation you are looking for. I have gotten a fair number of responses to my post about meeting at the AHA convention in KC. Several people have told me that they do give out name badges, so write HBD under your name so we can recognize each other more easily. I'll be at the judging on Thursday and then at the Beer Without Borders homebrew event on Thursday evening. looking forward to meeting y'all, Mark Tumarkin Gainesville, FL Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:55:08 -0500 From: David Whitman <dwhitman at rohmhaas.com> Subject: 0.1 N NaOH recipe Harlan Bauer asks: >I need to make a 0.1N solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). What would be >the recipe? I have a scale and volumetric flasks. Weigh out 4.00 g of NaOH, put it in a 1 liter volumetric flask, add about 200 ml of water, swirl until the pellets/flakes dissolve. Add water to bring the level up to the line, then invert the flask about 10 times to mix. The resulting solution will be ABOUT 0.1 N. NaOH readily picks up moisture from the air, so that it's hard to know exactly how much you need to weigh out. The solution will gradually loose strength by reacting with CO2 from the air (= carbonic acid), but you can minimize this by keeping it in a sealed container. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 12:40:31 +0000 From: AJ <ajdel at mindspring.com> Subject: 0.1N NaOH Harlan Bauer asks about making up 0.1 N NaOH solution. The math is pretty simple. The formula weight of NaOH is 40 so 1 equivalent is 40 grams and 0.1 equivalent is 4 grams. Thus to make a 0.1 N solution weigh out 4 grams of NaOH, place in a 1 liter volumetric flask add distilled or otherwise DI water to dissolve, allow to cool (NaOH gives off heat when it dissolves) and add water to the mark. Mix thoroughly. Obviously you can scale down (e.g. 1 gram in 250 mL) or up as needed. Be very careful with NaOH. It's nasty stuff. Especially protect the eyes as NaOH anaesthesizes the corneas as it digests them so that you don't know what's happening. Now there is a catch. NaOH is pretty hygroscopic (in the 20 minutes it's taken me to write this a 104 mg pellet has picked up 7.4 mg of moisture). If you need approximately 0.1 N lye the procedure I gave above will do. If you need 0.100 N lye (for titratable acidity for example) you really should dry the lye for a couple of hours at 103 C then cool in a dessicator before weighing. Another problem with lye is that it is often sold as pellets which weigh about a tenth of a gram. This makes it difficult to measure small quantities precisely. Crushing the pellets releases dangerous dust and increases the rate at which moisture is picked up. Because of this a better approach might be to make up an approximately 0.1 N solution and then standardize it by titration against an acid of known strength. My personal advice, if accurate strength is required, would be to buy prepared 0.100N sodium hydroxide solution from a reputable source (e.g. Hach Company, Cat 191-53). Bear in mind that a sodium hydroxide solution, from whatever source _will_ pick up carbon dioxide from the air (changing its strength) and should, therefore, be kept tightly closed, used fairly quickly, replaced often etc. - -- A. J. deLange Numquam in dubio, saepe in errore. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:54:13 -0500 From: "Sieben, Richard" <SIER1 at aerial1.com> Subject: Disappointment with results of first time all grain Ed I plugged you recipe into Suds v. 4.0 (no affiliation) and it indicates an efficiency of 55%. You are right, that is poor extraction. I don't know what shape your malt was in (may have been subjected to high humidity before you got it) but I will assume that it was fine. I would venture to guess your problem is that you denatured the alpha and beta amylaze enzymes with your strike water of 180 degrees because you indicated that you needed to cool it to get back down to 155 degrees. Next time, bring your malt up to 155 degrees more slowly, adding a little water at a time and stirring it in thouroughly. Once the enzymes are destroyed by heat, they are gone and there is nothing to convert the starches into sugars. Step infusion mashing is superior to single infusion and I find decoction mashing superior to that because it allows me to control the temperature steps in my picnic cooler mash tun. Single infusion mashing should get you 75% efficiency, but when I was making 5 gallon batches I was able to get 83 to 85% efficiency with decoction mashing. (get Noonan's book on brewing lager beer for complete discussion on how to do decoction mashing). When I went to 10 gallon batches, my efficiency went up to 90 to 93%! I think the lesson I learned here was that the larger mash volume slowed the speed with which I could change the temperatures, so I wasn't killing my enzymes prematurely. As an experiment, I made a beer via a step infusion last weekend and I still got 85% efficiency (ten gallon batch and oh yeah, I did have to cheat a little and do a small decoction of 4 quarts of mash to hit my temperature steps without over diluting the mash). In all, this step mash procedure only saved me 1/2 hour of mash time, so I have pretty much decided that infusion mashing is a waste of time with my setup, may as well do the full decoction mash. I know, it is not always 'true to style' for some beers, but it makes better beer for me and I think that's what it is all about anyway. As usual YMMV. Others will argue that they would just rather infusion mash with more grain to make up for it. That is your call, but you may be limited by your mash tun size. Rich Sieben Hey Jethro, the more I know about beer, the more I know about beer! Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 07:59:10 -0500 From: "Jeffrey M. Kenton" <jkenton at iastate.edu> Subject: Yeast Stuff I'd personally like to think Ian Smith for sharing his method for stepping up yeast. It is frightfully easy with the proper equipment, and boy, does it yield greatly!!!! If you are interested, his methodology appears in the 8 June 1999 HBD. It really works well, and I'd suggest it to anyone with a stirplate or shaker bath. When I'm not trying to step up my self-selected pure cultures (a fascination of mine), I proudly admit to all who will listen that I use dry yeast. In all my beers. I must scratch my head when I see comments from folks who don't get rapid starts when using Lallemand products, however. I simply follow the directions on the pack to the letter. The only "cheat" that I must admit to is using two packs instead of one. Moreover, in the entire year of 1998, and so far this year, I have never had a lag time of more than 8 hours using these yeasts, with the procedure listed on the back of the packets. (Am I concerned that I have just jinxed myself? No. Superstition is for simps.) So, now I will slink back to my dry yeast "purgatory." But, I'll still be making great beer. Swing by sometime and I'll prove it. Jeff Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 09:49:41 -0400 From: Dan Listermann <72723.1707 at compuserve.com> Subject: Poor Extraction Ed Seymore (eseymore at yahoo.com) writes that he had a rather poor extraction from his first all grain batch. 5.5 gallons of 40 gravity wort from 11.75 lbs. of grain is an extraction rate of only 18.7 points per pound per gal. ( 5.5 * 40 / 11.75 = 18.7 ). A good extraction is around 30 points. I am willing to bet that he followed the old dictum of "just crack the grains" that was meant to be applied to corona mills ( which would probably max out at 25 points before producing flour ). He should adjust his mill tighter. If the ends of the corns are not cracked open, the water will only have access to the "base" of the "cone" that is the end of the corns. There is a lot of starch locked in these "cones." Dan Listermann dan at listermann.com 72723.1707 at compusurve Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 10:10:14 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu> Subject: Re: degermination "Keith Menefy" <kmenefy at ihug.co.nz> wrote: >The maize I used is stock feed quality maize, very dusty. You should be able to wash the maize and get rid of the dust, etc. I wash such dirty grain in a bucket with a hose and let the dust and debris float out over top. You don't have to dry it if you're going to mill it and mash right away. This won't help your other problems, though. >I never noticed any off flavours at all, just bland. Corn is a pretty neutral flavored brain - subtle, shall we say. >Would it be possible to boil the maize prior to brew day and skim the oil >off when it has cooled down a bit? I don't think so - I think in bourbon it is the fermentation that separates the oil and floats it to th top. >I use a decoction system for brewing, the maize goes in when the first >decoction is just coming to the boil, and is boiled for about 30 mins. I had >expected heading problems, and was curious if there would be any other >effects from the oil content. Try a separate cereal mash with 30% as much malt as maize - mash at mid 60'sC, then boil for 30-45 minutes, then return this to the main mash which you have had resting at a chosen temperature and time. Choose this based on the needs of your malt. If it can use a protein rest, then do that before adding the cereal mash. You could do this with your decoction. I am suspicious that the oil may not be the problem with heading (although I think you wrote that you haven't checked out the final beer), but rather proteins. This is a murky subject, and especially with malt that I know nothing about. Remember that maize was originally used to ameliorate the high protein (12%+) of N. American 6-row barley malt. It can be done with lower protein malt, but you may need to modify mash procedures. Good luck. Jeff (PS - I'm going to be doing field research the next two weeks on the indigeneous fermented and/or distilled beverages of Ireland and the facilities in which they are consumed. See you all later.) -=-=-=-=- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, c/o nerenner at umich.edu "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 10:59:15 -0400 From: Mysti <mystiSPAMFREE at starmail.com> Subject: Oil film I'm very new at this and have a carboy of Ginger Beer that's still fermenting. There is a slight oily film on the surface. Is this normal due to the ginger? Or did I do something terribly wrong. I don't know if I should continue and bottle this brew or dump it down the drain. :-( Please give advice, I sorely need it. Thanks, Mysti Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 10:55:00 -0400 From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley at compuserve.com> Subject: Foreign Tap water,all grain efficiency, Maillard, 0.1N NaOH, Brewsters: Joe Gibbens wants to know about using bottled water to make beer. Generally, bottled water is just someone else's tap water. Unless you have serious problems, like iron, in your water, I would use your own water. It is a falsehood that bottled water is somehow purer, safer and whatever else than your own water. As far as I know, there are no government standards on bottled water. Some of the European waters have excessive mineralization ( I mean they do call it "aqua minerale" for a good reason) and may not be suitable for some styles of beer. I presume the same could be true for some US waters. Bottled waters often do not have chlorine in them which is a plus. Most US water bottlers use ozonation which is fine for a bottled water, but highly dangerous for a municipality, despite a recent trend in that direction, IMHO. Re-infection of non-chlorine containing water during pipe transmission to your home is a real possibility. Also, be careful to not infect the bottle supply as it will not have any residual anti-bacterial activity. Use of a carbon filter which has some silver treatment to prevent bacterial growth is a good idea for home brewing use , since it removes chlorine to a large extent and potentially bad tasting organics. Your water supplier will provide you with a typical analysis of the mineral content. I have a well and I use a water softener to remove iron and other minerals and a reverse osmosis (RO) filter to remove the remaining sodium for my drinking and beer making. Since this water is virtually mineraless, I take dolomite pills and Caltrate to replace the necessary calcium and magnesium in my diet. Also, Joe, you should adjust your mash to around 5.4 or so at room temperature as the pH will fall upon heating. The first time, I would just go with your tap water, treated to remove any chlorine and organics by passing it over a carbon filter, skip any pH adjustment and see what happens to the pH. Chances are good it will be just fine without a lot of excessive adjustment. You may wish to pre-boil your mash water to remove any dissolved carbon dioxide which may affect the mash pH. More importantly, especially if you have temporary hard water, is to adjust your sparge pH, keeping it in the lower end of the 6s at a maximum ( 5.6 is better), near the end of the sparge to prevent extraction of tannins and silicates and other substances which can affect the taste and clarity of the beer. - --------------------------- Ed Seymour describes his first all grain Father's Day brew and ponders the poor efficiency of the extract. Most often, Ed, the best way to get better efficiency is to improve your milling. "Serf" the HBD archives on this much discussed topic and check out my suggested double pass method. Another thing to consider is the possibility of channelling in your sparger. Substantial work and even computer modelling has gone into this subject. Check the HBD archives. Experimentally, you can taste the grain at various parts of this vessel or check it with a Cl**t*** at various places to evaluate the possibility of remaining sugar there. Excessive variations will indicate channelling and are indicative that you need a sparger design change or a change in the sparging rate is in order. BTW take at least 45 minutes to an hour to sparge. This will improve your extraction in most instances. The thing that amazes me most about your discussion is that your spousal unit knew *exactly* what to buy you. {8^) - --------------------------- Keith Menefy asks about the Maillard reaction and how to get it. Check out the HBD archives about using a pressure cooker to get the Maillard reaction. Do not restrict your boiler exit and note the method used to prevent the clogging of the pressure cooker by the grain. As I suggested, I would use a known de-germed source for maize and not animal feed, at least at first. - ------------------------- Harlan Bauer asks how to make 0.1N sodium hydroxide. The gram MW for sodium hydroxide is (Na = 23, O = 16, H= 1 total = 40g/mole). Not having access to laboratory supply, I use lye from the food store and weigh out 4 grams (0.1 moles) into a 1 liter plastic soda [pop] (soft drink) bottle using cool, boiled ( to remove CO2) demineralized water. Distilled water is readily available for use in irons and for people on low sodium diets. Be sure to boil it as the carbon dioxide can make end point determination with phenolphthalein difficult. I then standardize this solution using an acid. In the case of wine, I weigh out tartaric acid and standardize the above solution. Amazingly, it is incredibly close to the correct value of 0.1N. I suggest you use extreme care when using dry lye or sodium hydroxide as it is extremely destructive to human tissue, especially the eye. Always wear safety glasses and wash your hands. I wear rubber gloves when I am dealing with strong acids and bases. Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 10:08:04 -0500 From: Eric Wooten <wooten at uthscsa.edu> Subject: Eric's Beer Page has moved! Eric's Beer Page, one of the oldest beer pages on the net, has moved to this strangely appropriate URL: http://ericsbeerpage.com/ The new location still sports micro, brewpub, and fine bar listings and reviews from all 50 states, Canada, and various other countries. Also on the site is a homebrew label gallery, and homebrew recipes, plus a smattering of commercial beer reviews and a calendar of upcoming brew-events. Please update any links you maintain (and don't forget to update your browser's bookmarks!) Thanks, Eric. - ------------------------------------------------ Eric Wooten wooten at uthscsa.edu http://ericsbeerpage.com - ------------------------------------------------ Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 15:09:50 GMT From: mikey at swampgas.com (Michael A. Owings) Subject: re:Disappointment with results of first time all grain. > After several trips to Home Depot (no affiliation), I > built my three tiered all grain brewery. This consists of a 5 gal. > plastic HLT with two 1500 watt elements to heat the water. A 5 gal. > round cooler with a home-made stop-sign manifold that I slotted 1/2 way > thru the 1/2 inch copper pipe in 1/2 inch intervals with a Dremal tool > (no affiliation) plumbed into the bottom (slots facing down). A 12 > gal. boiler with two 1500 watt elements and a braided stainless steel > manifold. All electricity runs thru GFI protected circuits. WOW! My hat's off to you for really jumping in with both feet. My first all grain was just with an 8.5 gal canning pot, EasyMasher, and a borrowed propane burner. > I strucked (turned valve) 4 gal. > of water and mixed (temp. 180deg.). I stirred like mad, and added soda > pop plastic containers filled with ice until the temp. went down to 155 > deg. A strike temp of 180F is _really_ high. I often mash in a 10 Gal GOTT cooler these days. With the cooler pre-heated with a quart of boiling water and 10 LBS grain at room temp, I usually mash in with 4 gals strike water at about about 167F to hit 154F. There are a number of popular equations available for figuring strike temp -- check the web. I use the calculator include with the ProMash software package (no affiliation, just a satisfied customer, yadayada). > I then sparged with 5 gal. of 170deg water until boiler > had 7.75 gal. collected (was this too much water?) Since it boiled down to your target of 5.5 gallons, it was probably exactly the right amount of water. I wouldn't worry about leaving "too much" sugar behind in the grains. Use more grain next time -- it's cheap. Lot's of folks around here don't even sparge, or "batch sparge", assuming that this actually provides a better malt flavor. I myself usually conduct a very brief sparge, and just use more grain to make up for the extract loss. > The specific gravity reading at this point was 1.040 at 70 deg., total wort > collected into fermenter was 5 1/2 gal. This reading seems way low (about 57% efficiency). I don't know why you got such a low figure, maybe the initial overheating of the mash? Also, consider verifying your hydrometer for accuracy. I use an EasyMasher type arrangement as a manifold in my 10 Gal Gott. With a regular sparge I can get 85% efficiency. Of course, I usually do only a very short or batch sparge -- I rank mash efficiency pretty low on my list of brewing priorities. Others might be able to better comment on the extract issue than myself. In any case, I wouldn't be shy about adding a couple of pounds of DME to boost the extract, if required. 1.5 pounds DME would take you up to 1.053 or so, and I frankly doubt this amount would have a discernable effect on the beer. Sound's like you have a good setup. The only thing I might do differently would be to go with a larger capacity mash-tun -- 10 gals instead of 5. Gives you a little more room when doing higher-gravity brews or larger batches. Best of luck on your next all-grain -- mikey *********************************** Go ahead ... try the sauce. The sauce is good. The sauce will make you YOUNG again... Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 11:14:44 -0400 From: Dave Humes <humesdg1 at earthlink.net> Subject: Flocculation Greetings, Here's a few questions for the microbiologists. I've been wondering what happens when yeast flocculate. Why do they start sticking together when the food supply is running out? I have a starter going now for an ESB strain that is very flocculent. The flocs are quite large. Virorous stirring/shaking breaks them up to some extent, but I'm sure at the microscopic level, there's still lots of cells stuck together. What happens when the flocced yeast are exposed to a fresh food and O2 supply? Do they "defloc"? Do some cells remain bound to each other? If so, does this affect their subsequent ability to support fermentation? Do highly flocculent strains require higher pitching rates? - --Dave Dave Humes >>humesdg1 at earthlink.net<< Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 09:43:54 -0500 From: Lou.Heavner at frco.com Subject: re: 1st all-grainer; black stout Greetings, Ed Seymour was disappointed with the low OG on his first all-grainer. Being lazy, I won't do the calculations to answer the many specific questins. You didn't say how long you took to lauter the mash. If you collect the wort too quickly, the rinsing effect will be diminished and you will leave more sugars behind. You are also more likely to develop channelling. The geometry of your lauter system and the quality of your crush are the most influential factors, but are often the most difficult to modify. If your drain ring is too large in diameter (too close to the walls of the cooler) then you will be more likely to get channelling down the side walls of the cooler. In any case, slowing the drain flow should help some. If you took more than an hour to lauter, then I'd be more suspicious of the crush. Keith Menefy asks about getting a "blacker" stout. *QDA* I think many brewers tend to overlook the affect of haze contributors in darker beers. After all, you can't see the haze in a stout, right? However, I notice that the clearer a dark beer is, whether porter, stout, brown ale, etc, the more pleasing the color. The clearest beers can really look the blackest or show some of the finest shades of garnet. Any haze whether yeast or starch or anything else tends too wash out the color giving it "muddier" chocolate brown character. It doesn't take much. You could try fining or filtering or "lagering" to try and clarify your black beers and see if it helps. *end QDA* Cheers! Lou Heavner - Austin, TX Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 13:13:12 -0500 From: rlabor at lsumc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald) Subject: RE: converting kegs From: jgibbens at umr.edu >..... I've done some >cutting with a dremel tool and also with an 8" abrasive cut-off blade for >a circular saw. A plasma torch was also used for a few of the cuts. The >best results were with the 8" abrasive wheel. It was over 10X faster >than using a dremel tool and the cut was much smoother than the plasma >torch cut........ The Dremel tool works for me, takes about half an hour to cut out the top. Although I must say I have never used the 8" abrasive wheel, I would be willing to guess that the Dremel is also 10 times safer, 10 times quieter, and 10 times easier. >Does anyone have any advice on the best (cheepest is also good) way to >install a dial thermometer into a mash tun? I installed one by using a brass (de-leaded ala John Palmer) 1/2 inch female NPT to 3/8 compression fitting. Just drill a hole to pass the threads on the smaller 3/8 compression end, which is inserted through the keg wall. You then screw the 3/8 compression nut minus the ferrule (not needed). On the flat end of the 1/2 female threaded part, there is a nice shoulder which takes an "O" ring. This faces the outside keg wall, and is compressed when you tighten the 3/8 nut. The thermometers come as 1/2 inch NPT male and just screw into the female fitting that you have created in the keg's side. The stem just goes through the 3/8 end with room to spare. If you want to protect the probe stem, you could solder a piece of copper tube to the 3/8 compression nut and drill several holes in it for circulation, and you now have a probe protector. ('cheepest'). Have fun Ron Ronald La Borde - Metairie, Louisiana - rlabor at lsumc.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 11:28:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Edward Seymour <eseymour at yahoo.com> Subject: Thanks to everyone for their responce To all at the HBD Some of the things that I omitted in my post (HBD#3063 June 22, Disappointment with . . . ), and answers to Questions emailed to me: 1) The basic recipe came from the May issue of Brew your own (pg17) "American Amber 1" (they should know what the're doing) with some substitutions necessitated by the local home brew store stocking policy (they like to keep only a small stock, as they want to make sure that the customer receives the freshest ingredients). 2) The grains are stored in 5 gallon buckets with sealed tops. Grains were crushed in the store by yours truly using the stores Valley Mill (no affiliation) that was adjusted by the sales person to produce the "perfect" crush. This was done on Saturday, the day before brew day. 3) Mash temp was 180 deg. the water that I used (poured on top of the grain) was 212 deg. I figured this one all by myself. Grain at basement temp 65 deg. target temp 150 deg 65 deg + 150 deg = 215 deg water boils at 212 deg - - - close enough. BIG surprise when the mash temp was 180 deg. Ice and stirring for about 20 - 25 minutes to bring grain bed to 155 4) Did not perform a mash out (what ever that is). 5) Sparge time 15 - 20 minutes. It looked so nice just "flowing" into the boiling pot. With everyone cautioning about stuck mashes I thought that inflow matched outflow, and everything flowed so nice together that I should leave it alone. I did make sure that the tube going into the Boiler curved around the bottom, not splashing, to cause the dreaded hot side aeration (AAAAH I said the word) 6) PH level test. No, I did not take a ph test or make any adjustments to the water. Maybe I should do this after all, I do it to the swimming pool. Maybe I could use the same kit? (just a thought) 7) Iodine test. No, I did not do this either. The recipe stated that 60 minutes would be all that was needed for starch conversion. I used 90 minutes ( the Redsoxs were playing, and Nomar was at the plate). 8) Yeast starter. Yes, I popped the packet at the store (dated may, 1999) at 10:00am, and around midnight it was bulging out (remember store policy only the freshest). I made a 2 qt starter to pitched the yeast into, and shuck the liven daylight out of it(can I do that at midnight?). Put the airlock on and went to bed. Next morning tiny bubbles in the airlock. Next batch, I will make sure that I do the following: 1) Use the same recipe, that way I will have something to base my progress on. 2) Use a spreadsheet that calculates the correct striking water temperature. 3) Add the water to the cooler first, then slowly add and mix the grain into the water to avoid clumping in the mash. 4) Perform a mash out (what ever that is) 5) Purchase or make a manifold for sparging. 6) Take MUCH longer to sparge. (at least 1 hour) 7) Purchase an iodine and ph testing kits, and learn how to use them. 8) Add more grain to bill if I get to worried about SG. 9) Start earlier in the morning to have more time with the spousal unit ( someone suggested to put the HLT on a timer, that way the water will be warm enough when I wake up much like a coffee pot). 10) Have fun. Many, many thanks to all of the people at HBD who have sent me email with suggestions and support of my all-grain efforts. I couldn't believe all of the responses that I received. It appears that a lot of people had problems in their first all-grain endeavor, but persevered to make exceptional quality brew. Don't worry, I won't give up, even if I get evicted from this place (my daughter yesterday: "Mom, why do the clothes that came out of the dryer have that funny smell?") : 0 Regards, Ed Seymour Brewer, bottle washer. Hamden, CT. (only a click away from anywhere in the world) _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free at yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 14:48:33 -0400 From: "Philip J Wilcox" <pjwilcox at cmsenergy.com> Subject: Re:First time all-grain Ed the Downtrodden, Very nice write-up of your brew session. You did excellent for your first all-grain. Outstanding when you factor in its the 3rd brew overall! Chemist, Schemist--If you can figure out all of this in 3 brews you'll be manking great beers in no time. Things to look out for: Bad crush--how or where did you crush your malt? This will greatly effect your extract. Which was a dismal 50% (I usually get 87-9%) BTW. My system is a 2-tier keg based manual RIMS, so don't get too caught up in compareing the numbers. Doughing in--I have never been comfortable with adding water to the grain. To much opportunity for making doughballs, which will wreck your efficiency. Try adding the water to the cooler first then stir in the malt. A pair of Wok paddles with 3/8" holes in them are the best mash paddles i've seen off the rack. I made my own... Sparge Speed--Slow it down. You didn't mention how fast you sparged. my guess is under a 1/2 hr. To achieve 85% you'll need to sparge for an hour. But if your SO is time concious, just buy more malt and live with the 50%. You just need to compensate for it in the malt bill. Malt is cheap, time is precious. Measuring the runnings--Measuring the first runnings isn't worth that much. Meauring the final runnings is somewhat usefull, though I never bother. Now, measuring the SG of all the sparged wort, now that is usefull. Be sure to stir very well before taking the sample. In your most recent brew this would have measured 1.030. Converted to points = 30, * 6.5 gal divided by 5.2 final gallons yields 40 or 1.040 final gravity . You can then decide before boiling wether or not you want to add extrat malt to the kettle to adjust the gravity. Dry Male Extract is worth 1.0088 point in the final 5 gallons per pound. So a little under 3 lbs would have gotten you back to the 1.064 you were looking for. Timing--Remember you can flip the burner on the kettle before you are done sparging. You just need to keep an eye on it. Once you learn to trust your HLT you can put it on a timer and have it come on 45 min or what ever before you wake up on sat/sun to brew. Chilling--move that chiller around. My experience says that 18 minutes chiledl the wort directly around the chiller but not the whole mass. Rock the chiller back and forth a bit or stir gently to get rid of any convection currents. I recirculate my kettle also for this reason. Yeast--Alot of folks spend weeks and month putting their system together, spend days putting together a recipe, fret for hours about temps while brewing only to totally blow it in the end by not pitching enough yeast. IT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF HOMEBREWING! Wyeast smacked packs need to be stepped up Twice for normal beer, Three times for high gravity Ales and Lagers--Even more for high gravity lagers. Attemperation of dry yeast and Airation of the wort are all important steps not to be overlooked. 2 packet minimum for dry yeast, 3 isn't overkill. Best of luck to ya, your doing great so far! Phil Wilcox Poison Frog Home Brewer Warden-Prison City Brewers In Jackson, MI 32 Mi. West of Jeff Renner Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 14:30:15 -0500 From: John.Wilkinson at aud.alcatel.com (John Wilkinson) Subject: RE: Stirrer Motor, Another possibility Pete Calinski wrote: >Has anyone ever considered using part of an ice cream maker? I haven't >been around one in a long time but I seem to remember it consists of a >motor mounted to the cover of the bucket. It includes a "paddle" of sort >that scrapes the sides of an inner container. I believe it is designed to >run until the ice cream get thick enough to stall the motor. I tried that without much success. I found upon examination of the ice cream freezer I had that the paddle is stationary and the container is turned. The drive for the container is (in my case) octagonal. I tried pinning a large square nut to the mash stirrer shaft and engaging that with the ice cream freezer motor. That might have worked but the damn thing ran a lot faster than I wanted. I had tried gas grill spit motor before that but it wouldn't take the load for long before crapping out. Perhaps if I had used a thinner mash. My last attempt was with a motor I bought from someone on HBD (don't remember whom) and it worked OK if the mash was not too thick. However, I was getting lots of stuck runoffs which quit after I quit using the mash stirrer. Now mind that I was stirring in a cylindrical cooler and not a kettle mash tun. I decided the stirrer wasn't even necessary in my mash tun and abandoned the project. Now I use RIMS. John Wilkinson - Grapevine, Texas Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 14:58:56 -0700 From: Badger Roullett <branderr at microsoft.com> Subject: HD#3063: Subject: converting kegs >Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 00:21:52 -0500 (CDT) >From: jgibbens at umr.edu >Subject: converting kegs >Just wanted to share some of my experiences with converting 15 gallon >kegs into mash tuns, brewing pots, and fermenters. I've done some >cutting with a dremel tool and also with an 8" abrasive cut-off blade for >a circular saw. A plasma torch was also used for a few of the cuts. The >best results were with the 8" abrasive wheel. It was over 10X faster >than using a dremel tool and the cut was much smoother than the plasma >torch cut. I would like to hear your step by step of this one.. I am going to be making a mash tun soonish. and I have a circular saw.. what type of blade? how did you get the cuts even? what depth., etc.. Also, a Question for the HBD... Best type of (cheap too) Burner for a mash tun? and how to keep it from scorching the grains? (private emails are ok) badger Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 00:57:48 GMT From: stencil at bcn.net (stencil) Subject: Muotrichstraum Weizen This is as close as memory lets me get to the Maxlrainer and Auerbraeu weizens that were my first introduction to the type, and that impelled me to homebrewing. The unexpectedly high ABV (felix culpa!) is the result of the finer (for me) crush and the two-yeast regime. My single prior experience with the Brewtek CL920 had led me to bottle too early and so to sufffer many cracked Grolsch bottles (no bursting, just a quiet separation of the botttom of the bottle and a cellar filled with the aroma of baking bread.) Grain - 6# Briess 2-row Pale Malt crushed (Valley Mill) 0.065-0.035-0.025" 4# Briess Wheat Malt crushed 0.35" All let to steep overnight in 6qt plain tapwater at 55F; mash pH 5.9. Water - pH7.3, 58ppm Ca as CaCO3, 90ppm alkalinity. 6+ gal brought to pH5.7 w/ ca 2ml phosphoric acid. Hops - First-wort: 25gm Northern Brewer 6.3%; finishing 1.5oz Hallertauer pellets AA(?) Mashed-in w/ 6qt 160F treated water; struck at 100F; rest 30min. 10min heating to 120F; rest 30min. 20min heating to 155F; rest ca 90min 90 min heating to mashout and sparging: 7-1/4gal SG1040 wort. Boiled 90min, finishing hops after flame-out. 30min to cool to 180F, then immersion-cooled to pitching temp 65F. Yield 5+gal, SG1058; ca 29 pt-gal/lb. Wort very clear, dense persistent foam. Yeast - Primary Brewtek CL920 Bavarian Weizen from slant to ca 900mL starter; last feeding 0800 brewday, high kraeusen ca 1500. - Secondary: on day 8 racked SG1032 beer into just-vacated carboy with yeastcake of Brewtek CL640 EastEuro Lager. In secondary at 60-65F for seven weeks. Final SG1008. Force-carbonated in cornelius keg, 30psi at 35F. Despite the low FG it has a very substantial mouthfeel and persistent rocky head. I will do it again. =========== Bill Gates has done more for me than Janet Reno ever thought of trying. =========== Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 21:59:24 -0400 From: Dan Listermann <72723.1707 at compuserve.com> Subject: Warsteiner I have never particularly cared for the taste of Warsteiner, but I have reason to believe that it has become much worse. I had to buy a 5l can for research purposes and found that the beer had a skunkiness to it. This was odd for a can. The next weekend I had some on tap at Cincinnati's annual German Day and it had the same taste. Has Warsteiner intentionally skunked the beer they send to the States to give it that "import" flavor? Dan Listermann dan at listermann.com 72723.1707 at compuserve.com Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 22:31:44 -0500 From: Harlan Bauer <blacksab at midwest.net> Subject: Many thanks! Many thanks to all who answered my question on making a 0.1N NaOH solution. The answer was: 4g/L NaOH/dH2O. Most days this group really shines! Thanks again, Harlan. Return to table of contents
[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]
HTML-ized on 06/23/99, by HBD2HTML version 1.2 by K.F.L.
webmaster at hbd.org, KFL, 10/9/96