HOMEBREW Digest #3413 Sat 26 August 2000

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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:
  picnic cooler lauter tuns ("Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies")
  IBU readings and Color by Spec (Brad Miller)
  Capt. Newbie! Ahoy... ("Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies")
  spent grain as fertilizer/compost/mulch ("Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies")
  coolers ("Joe O'Meara")
  Hops Toxicity in Dogs ("Spar Hawk")
  Great Taste Panorama ("Bruce Garner")
  Notes from Charlie P. ("Paul Gatza")
  Cooler Phalse Bottoms (Dan Listermann)
  Re: Starboard Newbies (John Palmer)
  Printing your own Beer Labels? (Thomas Jones)
  Celis Tour Report (Jim Layton)
  Taking a walk on the hotside ("Charlie Papazian")
  I was blind but now I see ("Warren White")
  Chloramine and Priscilla ("Paul Mahoney")
  Alpha/Water/Alcohol ("A. J.")
  Hop back ? ("Ed Olsen / Kathy Riley")
  Papazian and Phil's Phloating Phalse Bottom (Anthony Parlati)
  Hops and pH (Martin_Brungard)
  Re: Brussles Beer, Falstaff (John_Doherty)
  Iodophor tip, FMH question (Kurt Kiewel)
  Re: Decoction (Rscholz)
  re: Jethro's report on urea (Jeff McNally)
  beer prices in Canada (Alan McKay)
  secondary vs lagering & yeast recovery ("Perry Q. Mertz")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:44:43 -0600 From: "Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies" <orders at paddockwood.com> Subject: picnic cooler lauter tuns Bill <rwfishbu at nospam.home.com> asks about picnic cooler lauter tuns, and is worried about the height of the spigot. Bill, when you start your lauter you will have a siphon that will neatly drain your cooler, as long as your intake is at the bottom. The liquid will easily be drawn up the two inch rise. Commercial false bottoms drain from the bottom (Phil's, ABT), or you can easily make a manifold out of copper pipe. Some folks have used perforated aluminum pizza pans as a basis for a homemade false bottom: a 90 degree 3/8 plastic elbow and flex tubing and away you go. There are diagrams of how to build a picnic cooler mash/lauter system on-line at Brewing Techniques. For picnic cooler mashtuns see John Palmers most excellent article: http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue5.4/palmer.html If you batch sparge then a perfectly even lauter is not very important, all you need is some method of keeping the grain out of your run-off tube. The repeated rinse and stir and recirculation will ensure even extraction. hope this was helpful, Stephen Ross ______________________________________________ Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies, Saskatoon, SK orders at paddockwood.com www.paddockwood.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 10:54:00 -0800 From: Brad Miller <millerb at targen.com> Subject: IBU readings and Color by Spec > > "patrick finerty jr." <zinc at finerty.net> writes > >hi folks, > >i've read that HPLC and/or spectrophotometry are accepted methods for >determining the amount of alpha acids in beer. spec measurements are >apparently made on toluene/MeOH extracted beer. what wavelength is >standard for the procedure? also, what is generally used for a >standard for these measurements? i assume such standards can be >purchased or at least the components purchased so that i could make >them myself. no doubt test runs using commercial brews with known IBU >levels would be useful. > >while HPLC is certainly more rigorous, i'm really not into spending >the time on our HPLC to do this. i'm also not willing to risk our >columns by pumping my beer or extracts thereof through them. > >basically what i'd like is an accepted protocol for measurement of >alpha acid content by spectrophotometry as well as some idea about how >to convert absorbance values to IBU values. > >cheers, > > Well HLPC would be like trying to drive a nail with TNT. A >spec would be far better, it would be standard independent while >HLPC would not. Hear's the protocol from ASBC: > >10ml cold beer + about 250microL octyl alcohol + 1mL 3N HCl + 20mL >2,2,4trimethylpentane into a 50 mL conical tube. Shake for 15 min. >Spin down and remove top clear phase. Prepare a blank with 20mL >isooctane and about 250micro L octyl alcohol. Zero spec with blank >at 275nm. Read sample at 275nm. >Calculations: BU=A275*50 > >*note: about 250microL is my estimate of the measurement given as >"one drop". One drop in SI units=2 smigins=.5 scoches. > > >Color Determination by spec: > >Degas beer (sonicate). Spin down sample (>500microL) in micro >centrifuge to remove turbidity. Blank at 430nm with water. Measure >sample in either a 1/2in or 10 mm cuvet. > >Calculations: SRM=10*(A430) in a 1/2 in cuvet for a 10mm: SRM=10*1.27*(A430) > > >Hope that all this helps. > >Brad Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:05:55 -0600 From: "Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies" <orders at paddockwood.com> Subject: Capt. Newbie! Ahoy... >some of the 4ml bleach/litre water sanitizing solution I'd put in the airlock was sucked in to the brew Shouldn't be a problem, but it's a good reason to use vodka or a no-rinse no-flavour sanitizer like StarSan in your airlock. I like to avoid Iodophor or bleach solutions in the airlock for just this reason. > 3.4kg/7.5lbs of hopped extract in 23 litres/6 gallons...whopping 1.062! Should have been around 1.054, but extracts vary in their potential. Or you could have had air bubbles on your hydrometer... either way, don't worry, it will be fine, I'm sure... >All I saw was a rolling black liquid, then a big-arsed white foam, then more rolling black Sounds like a little road trip I took.. never mind... The rolling foam was part of your hot break. At the end of the boil if you have it just gently boiling, you will see proteins coagulating together like big fluffy clouds. Irish moss can help them coagulate and precipitate. If you are boiling too vigorously they will be broken up. When you chill you will get even more precipitate, and it looks like a grayish gelatinous mass at the bottom of your kettle. >I'm not racking to a secondary for my first brew. >Is it possible to safely bulk-prime a primary before bottling? Yes, but it can be tricky with a dry yeast; they tend to not be as flocculent IMO as highly flocculent liquid yeasts. You want to boil your priming sugars (either DME or corn sugar) first, cool, then gently swirl into the bucket whilst avoiding stirring up the yeast and trub at the bottom. It's much easier to do this is secondary. FG only affects priming if you are not letting the beer completely ferment. Let the beer finish. You can take readings if you wish to be sure. No change in gravity for 3 days usually indicates finished beer. Or you can just wait until you think airlock activity has ceased, and wait 3 more days to be on the safe side. Since you are adding sugars to your primary, you may wish to use a fining agent like isinglass to help clarify the brew a few days before adding your priming. >Is dry yeast susceptible to contamination? I snipped the packets with unsanitised scissors On the list of possible contamination vectors this is pretty minor. Go and sin no more. > Is it safe to splash a little at this stage (it was pretty aggressive stirring), or is it a no-no until it's cooled below 26oC/80oF? Respect the wort. Treat it gently until it's cool. Then you can knock it about all you like. I'd say below 76F. > Can you brew smaller (say, 11.5 litre/2.5 gallon) batches just by halving the recipe? Yes. If you start majorly scaling recipes up or down, or changing the gravity of the boil you have to make adjustments, but you can safely halve and double most homebrew recipes with impunity. hope this helps, Stephen Ross ______________________________________________ Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies, Saskatoon, SK orders at paddockwood.com www.paddockwood.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:11:13 -0600 From: "Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies" <orders at paddockwood.com> Subject: spent grain as fertilizer/compost/mulch EdgeAle at cs.com asks about using spent grain as fertilizer. I see the Pat Babcock has been doing this with good results ... I compost my spent grain, and the resulting compost makes great fertilizer, but when I first dump the grain into the compost bin, in about 4 days it's completely colonized by mold. I think this is what is the source of Pat's awful smell. Well, not Pat's smell, but his spent grains'. You wouldn't want to get mold on your damp grass. Grain makes great compost, and compost is great for your lawn and garden. Dig it into your garden, or top dress your lawn with about 1/4 inch well composted mulch. hope this was useful, Stephen Ross ______________________________________________ Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies, Saskatoon, SK orders at paddockwood.com www.paddockwood.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:07:49 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joe O'Meara" <drumthumper_2000 at yahoo.com> Subject: coolers I built my mash/lauter tun out of an Igloo Wheelie -- Cool that cost me $15 dollars at K-Mart. No spigot, so I was able to go through the bottom. Built a manifold from CPVC pipe (plans are in Brew Ware, you're welcome for the plug, Karl), and it works great. I'd highly recommend Brew Ware to anyone who doesn't have it, just for the plans for a motorized malt mill that is in the back of the book. Hope this helps, ===== Joe O'Meara Mad Dwarf Brewery (AKA my kitchen and coat closet) ICQ # 60722006 http://homebrew.4mg.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/ Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 14:50:46 EDT From: "Spar Hawk" <sparhawk911 at hotmail.com> Subject: Hops Toxicity in Dogs Some Guy writes: > What about spent hops? > I feed them to the plants alongside the house, or I throw them out. Haven't really looked at them in terms of the lawn or how long they take to decompose. Sorry... I have read several times in the HBD and various brew posting sites about what to do with spent grains and hops. The grain, as far as I know is good for composting, etc. Hops are TOXIC to dogs and other animals. As a dog owner I have to pass this along. This is a very interesting post. Size limitations prevent me from cut & pasting it here. Re: Hops Toxicity in Dogs: Cats, too ???? http://brewery.org/brewery/wwwboard/archives/2000-7-15/60631.shtml ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 14:16:14 -0500 From: "Bruce Garner" <bpgarner at mailbag.com> Subject: Great Taste Panorama This link is to a panoramic photo of August 12th's Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival in Madison, Wisconsin. 5000 paid attendees visiting nearly 100 breweries enjoyed perfect weather. Next year I hope we can make an effort to have HBD members get together at the event. Be there the second Saturday in August next year, August 11, 2001. http://www.globaldialog.com/~steve/gt.jpg The Great Taste is put on by the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild. Bruce Garner Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 13:38:01 -0600 From: "Paul Gatza" <Paulg at aob.org> Subject: Notes from Charlie P. Hi everyone. I forwarded a couple of the posts related to hot-side aeration to Charlie P. He offers up the following experience. >I haven't been following the entire thread about hotside aeration and homebrewing. But I must admit it is not and never has been a very big concern for me. I continue to use the procedures outlined in my book and make beer that seems excellent to me. I have seen hotside aeration in some the most classic and famous breweries in Belgium, England and the United States -- I'm sure the beers made by these breweries I have seen with my own eyes are some of you very favorites. There is no ill effect on the quality of their beers that I perceive. In fact I've seen a lot of older breweries upgrade to newer equipment and modern "wiser" technology and processes, only to lose the house quality that made their beer so endearing and legendary. The modern approach has resulted in these beers becoming a ghost of their former selves. Not interesting to me any longer. I go to many professional brewing conferences and I often despair that modern wisdom is often taken so literally without consideration of traditional flavors that we've come to appreciate. I don't think we are looking for the ultimately cleanest and most stable of beers. If you are then you are in the league of light lager brewers that sell and export their beers. I take the care of stabilizing my beer by keeping it in a cool place and don't transport it around and don't vary temperatures. This goes sooooo much farther in preserving the qualities of beer than extreme attention to hot side aeration. I think. Of course adding a pinch of cinnamon to my mash may be helping avoid hot side aeration. Cinnamon is a strong antioxidant during the mashing process, so I have been told by some very knowledgeable old time Dutch brewers. Charlie Papazian President Association of Brewers VOICE: +1-303-447-0816 ext. 111 736 Pearl Street FAX: +1-303-447-2825 PO Box 1679 mailto:charlie at aob.org (e-mail) Boulder, CO 80306-1679 http://www.beertown.org (web) U.S.A. Visited by 65,000 people every month Our web site home page is http://www.beertown.org Homebrewing http://www.beertown.org/AHA/homebrewing.htm Great American Beer Festival is October 5-7 in Denver http://www.beertown.org/GABF/gabf.htm< Paul Gatza Director American Homebrewers Association Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 15:45:30 -0400 From: Dan Listermann <72723.1707 at compuserve.com> Subject: Cooler Phalse Bottoms Bill F (rwfishbu at nospam.home.com) asked about converting a Gott cooler to a lauter tun. Listermann Mfg. makes false bottoms for these coolers. They are unusual in that they seal not on the sides of the cooler but the bottom. An inverted dish design keeps the space under the bottom to a minimum - about 5/8". The connection to the outside is an elbow that is attached to the center on the bottom and is connected with a tube. The bulkhead fitting is as simple as a #4 drilled stopper. Check it out at listermann.com We are just now becomming E-tailers!!! Dan Listermann Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:52:00 -0700 From: John Palmer <jjpalmer at gte.net> Subject: Re: Starboard Newbies Have you seen the movie Chicken Run yet? Absolutely hilarious! Anyway, Matt apparently found my How to Brew online book very helpful and I am really, really gratified to hear it. Glad I can help! Here are some comments on your first batch: 1. The foam that forms on the surface of the boil is not the hot break per se. The proteins that precipitate as the hot break are responsible for the foaming though. And hot break is the egg drop soup stuff whirling around in the wort during the boil. Cold break looks the same - just floaty specks You don't notice the cold break forming during chilling, just that the wort gets cloudier. 2. Sucking the airlock sanitizer into the fermenter is one of those things that everybody does once. Or twice in my case. Not a big deal. You won't taste that little bit of chlorine. 3. Based on 3.4 kg (7.5lbs) of extract at a nominal 36 pts/lb in 5 gallons, I calculate 1.054 as the OG, but you may have had stronger extract or boiled to less volume which could have raised your OG. With all your shaking, I wouldn't expect a non homogeneity problem to be causing the high OG, and your measurement method surely is not too blame. Unless your sample was full of suspended break material. That will temporarily increase your gravity. 4. Dry yeast packets are not really susceptible to contamination from cutting them open. Don't be a wuss, use your teeth to tear that puppy open! ;-) 5. When cooling the wort, splashing should definitely be kept to a minimum. And you are not trying to mix the wort, just keep it moving against the walls of the pot for best heat transfer. 6. To bulk prime the primary fermenter: a. Boil your priming solution to drive off the oxygen and sanitize it, and let it cool. b. Gently pour it into the fermenter. c. Gently stir the solution into the beer. Stir slowly but thoroughly. There should be very little agitation of the surface to reduce oxygen pickup. d. Allow the trub to settle back down (half hour). Then bottle and cap. 7. Yes, you can make half-size batches, it just depends on what is convenient for you. But since hop utilization is nonlinear, I would recalculate any hop additions you make. Hmmm, I guess what I am actually saying is No, you can't just cut the recipe in half. (But the difference in amounts is small). So, the answer is yes and no. ;-) John Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 08:57:30 +1200 From: Thomas Jones <jonth957 at student.otago.ac.nz> Subject: Printing your own Beer Labels? I'm trying to print my own labels (105mm by 74mm-- about 4 inches by 3 inches). To save me the trouble of designing one 'from scratch',does anyone have a template for a label I could use, or suggest some other way I could do this? Cheers, Tom. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 16:16:21 -0700 From: Jim Layton <a0456830 at rtxmail1.rsc.raytheon.com> Subject: Celis Tour Report I and nine fellow members of the North Texas Homebrewers visited the Celis brewery last Saturday. As I'm sure most of you know, Miller Brewing Co. now owns 100% of the Celis brewery. The brewery tour was led by Lenzie Kinyon. I didn't ask him for his official title, but Lenzie obviously knows his stuff. The answers he provided to our questions indicated that he has a thorough background in brewing science and knows the operations of the Celis brewery upside down and inside out. He answered all of our questions in a direct manner, without any hint of reluctance to divulge his brewing "secrets". He spoke of such things as the importance of trace minerals in yeast nutrition, drawbacks of the old copper mash tun/kettles they use, oxygen and flavor stability, mash stirrers, and the row of spigots on the side of the lauter tun. Here are a few of the details we were able to glean regarding Celis beers and the future of the Celis brewery. The only spices used in Celis beers are coriander and bitter orange peel. They use ordinary granulated sugar, sucrose, as an adjunct in some of their beers. Up to 25% in the Grand Cru. Four strains of yeast are currently used, down from five. Two of the yeast strains are proprietary, brought from Belgium by Pierre Celis. That fifth yeast, I surmise, was a lager yeast used in the discontinued Celis Golden. I wish I'd asked if any of their beers are fermented with mixed yeast strains, my guess would be no. Celis White is flavored with glacial acetic acid, not lactic acid, just prior to packaging. The Celis brewery is for sale. $3M is the asking price. Miller wants to sell soon, 90 days was mentioned but I don't know when the ticker was started. There was much more, of course, but these are some of the details that I thought the HBD readers might find interesting. I was really surprised about the acetic acid. I was not too surprised about Miller wanting to sell. Barring some white knight arriving on the scene, Celis appears to be doomed. Jim Layton Howe, TX Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 16:22:07 -0600 From: "Charlie Papazian" <charlie at aob.org> Subject: Taking a walk on the hotside I haven't been following the entire thread about hotside aeration and homebrewing. But I must admit it is not and never has been a very big concern for me. I continue to use the procedures outlined in my book and make beer that seems excellent to me. I have seen hotside aeration in some the most classic and famous breweries in Belgium, England and the United States -- I'm sure the beers made by these breweries I have seen with my own eyes are some of you very favorites. There is no ill effect on the quality of their beers that I perceive. In fact I've seen a lot of older breweries upgrade to newer equipment and modern "wiser" technology and processes, only to lose the house quality that made their beer so endearing and legendary. The modern approach has resulted in these beers becoming a ghost of their former selves. Not interesting to me any longer. I go to many professional brewing conferences and I often despair that modern wisdom is often taken so literally without consideration of traditional flavors that we've come to appreciate. I don't think we are looking for the ultimately cleanest and most stable of beers. If you are then you are in the league of light lager brewers that sell and export their beers. I take the care of stabilizing my beer by keeping it in a cool place and don't transport it around and don't vary temperatures. This goes sooooo much farther in preserving the qualities of beer than extreme attention to hot side aeration. I think. Of course adding a pinch of cinnamon to my mash may be helping avoid hot side aeration. Cinnamon is a strong antioxidant during the mashing process, so I have been told by some very knowledgeable old time Dutch brewers. Charlie Papazian mailto:charlie at aob.org Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 09:57:25 EST From: "Warren White" <warrenlw63 at hotmail.com> Subject: I was blind but now I see Hallelujah Reverend Steve!!! Ahhhh here's yaaah brudda!!! Ahhh wuz blind... now I can see!!! (Done to the tune of Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show") - -------------------------------- Brother Steve Lacey says... So spread the gospel of quality beer making to the unenlightened, and fight he forces of darkness that conspire to repress our side of the hobby. God kows, it took me the best part of 7 or 8 years to discover a world beyond kits. - -------------------------------- Brother Warren replies... Seriously though if you ever want to read the greatest example of Homebrewing McCarthyism, go to the Holy Church of Kmart, proceed to the Shrine of Brewing ingredients, (it's right near the Fowlers Vacola Jars - preserve those peaches - I hear ya lord), get on your knees boy and prey!!! Then pick up the Holy Treatise of the Church of Brewing Austerity "Understanding Beermaking" by Grant Sampson, The Reverend Fred Nile of Homebrewing. These are his 10 commandments as follows... 1. Thou shalt not rack thou beer, it will wreck thy beer; 2. Thou shalt not use thou starchy adjuncts... follow the rules, no extras please hey says; 3. Thou shalt not use anything other than cane sugar; (surprise, surprise); 4. Thou shalt not boil smelly hops or boil at all for that matter as this will lead to despair, disaster and divorce, hmmm... wonder what his thoughts on birth control are; 5. Thou shalt not like Engllish Bitter he says, he goes on to describe it as being and I quote "a thick mucky drink made with top fermenting yeasts" educate thy so-called palate Mr. Sampson! 6. Thou shalt not believe any Australian Beer Kits to be Ales, he says (and this is the best bit) that they "ARE ALL LAGERS" (huh!), he says that lagers or his idea of them are better, crisper beers. 7. Thou shalt not trust thou airlock, he says you should all put Gladwrap on top of your fermenters! Yeah I know there are only actually seven commandments, they should really be seven deadly sins, but I'm only quoting this book from memory as I spurned it to the pits of hell long ago, I'm sure there are another twenty or more for us to guffaw and poke shit at! I Wander oops I mean I wonder how many loyal disciples to the "Church of Wander Draught and kilo of Cane Sugar" this little gem spawned! Thank the lord it only took me 1 year of beer kits to see the light! Ahhh wuuuz saved by the "Loyal Order of the All Grain Brothers" They sparged... oops should I say cleansed my soul! P.S. Steve I'm now a born-again member of the Church of Alexis Pilsner Malt - Great extraction efficiency! Hallelujah! Warren L. White John Barleycorn Mission Melbourne, Australia (Apologies to the religiously inclined) _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 20:32:31 -0400 From: "Paul Mahoney" <pmmaho at earthlink.net> Subject: Chloramine and Priscilla In HBD #3410 AJ discussed chlorine and chloramine. I have been following this thread with great interest since my local public water supply uses chloramine. Thanks AJ! AJ said the following: > > The most convenient methods of chloramine removal are granulated active > carbon and chemical treatment. GAC filtration is relatively inexpensive > and effective but you do need to buy, install and service the filter. > Several sulfites will remove chloramine effectively without adding > significant ammounts of new ions to the water. Sodium thiosulfate > (photographer's hypo) will work but I recommend sodium or potassium > metabisulfite which is sold in brewing and winemaking shops as powder > and as "Campden Tablets" i.e. it's a readily available food grade > source. I Campden tablet should treat 20 gallons of water unless the > water authority is really loading it up. As a simple test, if it still > smells chlorine-like, there's still un-neutralized chloramine. > <end quote> Does GAC filtration include running your water thru a Brita filter? I use 1 crushed up Campden tablet now for about 8 gallons (mashing plus sparging water), but I could use my Brita pitcher to prepare my brewing and sparging water the night before. Recommendations? Next, I read with interest about our Australian friends, and their plans for the closing ceremonies at the Olympics. It appears that the local drag queens will be allowed to participate in the festivities (causing great consternation to several groups!). So will Phil/Jill be preparing a special, "pink" brew (instead of an amber), called "Priscilla" to commemorate this event? - --- Paul Mahoney - --- pmmaho at earthlink.net Redskins and Homebrew, what more could a man want! Roanoke, Va. StarCity Brewers Guild Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1904 07:10:29 +0000 From: "A. J." <ajdel at mindspring.com> Subject: Alpha/Water/Alcohol For Partrick in Toronto: yes, UV spectrophotometry on a toluene extract is a method approved by the ASBC (Hops-6) for determination of alpha and beta acids. Before going into the method let me just mention that the 80 IBU pils I have mentioned a couple of times recently was hopped based on alpha acid levels measured by this method. I was shooting for 45. 5 grams of freshly ground hops are extracted into 100 mL of toluene on a wrist action shaker for 30 minutes. An aliquot from the extraction bottle is centrifuged for 5 minutes and 5 mL of clarified extract diluted to 100 mL with methanol. An aliquot of this dilution is then diluted further with alkaline (0.2 mL 6N NaOH per 100 mL MeOH) methanol to the extent that the absorbances at 325 and 355 nm fall within the dynamic range of the instrument. Absorbances are then read at 325, 355 and 275 nm against a blank prepared by applying the same two dilutions to 5 mL toluene. The three absorbtions are weighted by a set of coefficients, summed, and scaled by the dilution factor. One set of weights gives the alpha acid content and another the beta: % = d(w1*A355 + w2*A325 + w3*A275) for alpha, w1 = -51.56, w2 = 73.79, w3 = -19.07 for beta w1 = 55.57, w2 = -47.59, w3 = 5.10) d = (mL first dilution)(mL second dil.)/[(500)(extract mL used to make first dilution)(mL from first dilution used to make 2d dilution)] There is a standard isohumulone mix sold by the ASBC for checking on this and other methods. It is very expensive - I don't recall the price but over $100 for the minimum quantity. You can get the details on how to buy this stuff from ASBC (they have a web site). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For D. Root in Medina, N.Y. Find out what the alkalinity and hardness of the water are by having it tested. Culligan will do this for free if you'll listen to a sales pitch. In the interim, boil it to drop the majority of the bicarb. There will be plenty of minerals left for most beers. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For Jim, The constant isn't a constant; it depends on the original gravity and is based upon some assumtions made by Balling many years ago concerning the amount of CO2 and ethanol produced from a gram of extract. Thus any of the values you have seen can be considered as good as any other practically speaking. The net is very slow tonight so I don't seem to be able to get into the archives to find them but if you will search 1999 under "alcohol" you'll find a couple of posts on this subject. The single constant which best fits Ballings's tables is given as are simple polynomials which yield the "constant" as a function of OG. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 21:38:37 -0700 From: "Ed Olsen / Kathy Riley" <olsen-riley at worldfront.com> Subject: Hop back ? Greetings all, Just saw a really spiff drawing (in Zymurgy) for a hop back rig using PVC and tea ball screens. I am considering building one for my whole grain "beer machine". The real goal is to reduce the amount of trub and gak I end up with my primary. I understand I should locate it upstream (before) the wort counterflow chiller to get the full effect...any suggestions and/or hot tips?? Thanx, EO Ed Olsen / Kathy Riley Home: olsen-riley at worldfront.com Life: edolsen at alum.mit.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 06:10:14 -0500 From: Anthony Parlati <deadhead at ndak.net> Subject: Papazian and Phil's Phloating Phalse Bottom I also think you're being too hard on CP. Several years ago, when I was a kit brewer, I read TNCJOH and took away these words of wit. 1). Don't follow the directions, BOIL your kits 2). Use light dry malt extract in place of corn sugar (except for bottling) 3). Use a good yeast, not the white foil packet that comes with the kit 4). Keep things sterile 5). Use glass to ferment in 6). Use Irish Moss 7). Keep things sterile There ain't a single thing wrong with any of that advice. One of my favorite beer memories is the first time I did a Munton&Fison Export Stout kit, and applied Papazian's advice to make a wicked good kit brew. I've got too much self respect to make beer from a can now, but... Now, to what I really wanted to post. WHY IN GOD'S NAME DOES PHIL'S PHALSE BOTTOM PHLOAT?????? Rhetorical question. I know WHY it floats, but why was it made out of something that does float? Almost as stupid as making a life preserver out of cast iron. Does anyone make a non-floating false bottom for the ten gallon Gott cooler? It would make my brewing life so much easier. Tony P. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 09:27:51 -0400 From: Martin_Brungard at urscorp.com Subject: Hops and pH Dave Burley made the following comment: "Marc, the hops have virtually no influence over the pH of a mash. Buffers in the malt and reactions of calcium ions in the water with phosphorous compounds control this, mostly." Dave, has there actually been an experiment of this sort? I agree that the effect of mash hopping shouldn't affect the mash pH MUCH due to the buffering capacity of the water used. But any acid addition does consume some of the buffering capacity. That can create a larger pH shift in conjunction with the other mash reactions. I'm curious if its meaningful though. Has anyone done an experiment like this...measuring the pH drop in distilled water with an amount of hops at a given alpha percentage? I'm suggesting distilled water since the buffering capacity is very low and the pH change would be more pronounced. I envision boiling a measured volume of distilled water, removing from heat, and adding a measured quantity of hop pellets at some reported alpha. The cooled sample would be measured for pH. Maybe do a few different hop quantity additions to assess the effect. Could also do a study with high alpha and low alpha hops. I'm not sure if this experiment would show anything at all, but I would appreciate some input from some learned souls as to whether they think this has already been done or if would produce any useful results. This is a new wrinkle to hops usage...mash hopping. I think that its effects on pH could be useful. Martin Brungard Tallahassee, FL Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 09:54:37 -0400 From: John_Doherty at cabot-corp.com Subject: Re: Brussles Beer, Falstaff In HOMEBREW Digest #3411 on Thu 24 August 2000 "John S. Watson" <watson at george.arc.nasa.gov> wrote >Subject: Re: Brussles Beer, Falstaff > >In HOMEBREW Digest #3407 on Fri 18 August 2000 mohrstrom at humphreypc.com wrote: >> >> If you are there on Friday or Saturday evening, the Falstaff, near the >> Bourse, ... > >When I was staggering around Brussels in May of 1999, sampling >as much Belgian Beer as possible, I tried to locate the Falstaff, >and found only an empty space where it was supposed to be. >So unless I was lead to the wrong address, I think the Falstaff was >out of business. I could be wrong, since I was not fluent in French, >the signs in the window may have said moved to a new location or something. The Falstaff is alive and well... at least it was 16 days ago when the wife and I popped in there while honeymooning in Europe. I'm pretty sure that the address for the Falstaff in the GBG2Benelux was correct, since that's how we found it off the Grand Place. We managed to get there early afternoon and were the only people in the place for most of the time we were there. Of course, the kitchen was closed, but the beer was flowing. Don't have my notes here, so I can't tell you what I tried, but I remember that the beer was superb everywhere we went in Belgium. Alot of places in Brussels "close" for a spell each afternoon between the lunch and dinner crowds. Also, some places are just plain closed on a given day, usually Sunday or Monday. Also, the Falstaff is a little deceptive if I recall - it stretches front to back between 2 streets, and there are signs on both streets for it. We stumbled upon the "front" entrance first, so we went in. When we left, we walked around the corner and saw the "back" side, which did indeed look closed. And I think that the address in the GBG2Benelux may have been for the "back". >If you get a chance, pop over to Brugge. I enjoyed the small towns >in Belgium (and the rest of Europe) a lot more than the Big Cities. I wholeheartedly agree about Brugge. Visited Straffe Hendrik there (just missed a tour - they have recently dropped the 5PM tour!). Took a canal boat ride. Had drinks at Brugges Beert'je with a few other saavy tourists from UK and Denmark where we pondered the beer list of about 200 selections. Ah, I miss Belgium... Cheers, John Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 08:59:05 -0500 From: kiewel at mail.chem.tamu.edu (Kurt Kiewel) Subject: Iodophor tip, FMH question HBDers, I devised a handy method for dispensing Iodophor that you may find useful. Instead of measuring out capfuls of Iodophor and spilling it on your hands, down the bottle, on the rug etc., go to the store and get a bottle of REACH ACT Anticavity Fluoride Treatment Rinse by Johnson & Johnson. (by the way, I stand to make millions, maybe billions, if you all go out and buy this stuff) It has a small reservoir at the top that is filled by squeezing the bottle gently. Once filled it can be poured out without spilling a drop. The best thing is that the reservoir at the top measures exactly one capful of iodophor. To fill the bottle with iodophor just pull out the dispenser nozzle with a needle nose pliers, fill and put the nozzle back in. I plan to FMH (first mash hop) my next batch. If I use 1.5 to 2 oz. of pellets in about 23lbs of grain do I need to worry about a stuck mash? Kurt, College Station, TX Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:24:04 EDT From: Rscholz at aol.com Subject: Re: Decoction Charley writes in HBD #3410 > Please - anybody - tell me how to change the recipe, keep the flavor/body profile the same and eliminate the double decoction (process described below the ingredients): Grist: 1.0 lb. Cara-Pils 1.25 lb. Cara-Vienne 0.25 lb. Chocolate 7.00 lb. Lager 2-Row (DWC Pils) 8.00 lb. Light Munich (DWC) 1.0 lb. Vienna 0.75 lb. Wheat Hops: 1.50 oz. Hallatauer 3.7% 60 min 1.0 oz. Tettnanger 4.4% 10 min Grist/Water Ratio: 1 quarts/pound (thick due to limitation of mash tun size) Munich Wyeast 2308 - 2 quart starter > I&#8217;ll take a crack at this one since I hate loooooong brew days I have tried to cut down time by Batch/No Sparge and FWH into a kettle on the heat as soon as the wort is deep enough not to scorch. And to avoid the time of decoction I have experimented with trying to bring the malt profile forward in the beer without decoction. From my notes on about half a dozen iterations on Double Bocks with some input from the Scotch Ales. I find that replacing some lager malt with Weyermann melanoidin. (great site www.weyermann.de/specialmalt.html) With your grain bill of 19lbs (aren&#8217;t you Aussies jealous of the variety?) of which 7 lb. are lager 2-row I would start with 1 1/2 to 2 lbs. substitution. Then use a mash schedule of 30-45 mins at 135-140 F followed by 45-60 mins of 160-165 until conversion. You will have to play with the amount and the mash times. Less low temp time or high temp time will change body profile. Good luck and hope this helps. Richard L Scholz Brooklyn, NY (624 miles, 102 degree polar rennarian) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 11:20:33 -0400 (EDT) From: mcnallyg at gam83.npt.nuwc.navy.mil (Jeff McNally) Subject: re: Jethro's report on urea Hi All, Rob, thanks for the interesting info on urea. Since most people that read Rob's post have probably asked themselves if the nutrients they use contain urea, I'll post the following info. This was originally posted in the Mead Lover's Digest (MLD). Does anyone (Rob?) have info on the ingredients used in Lallemand or J.E. Seibel brand's of yeast nutrients? Note for Rob: I have tried sending you email in the past, but it bounced because your domain name (isunet.net) is not in my name server's host table. Can you send me the IP address for this domain so that I can add it to my local host table? Hoppy brewing, Jeff ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subject: Yeast Nutrient Composition From: Mark Evenson <wine-hop at dnvr.uswest.net> Date: Mon, 01 Dec 1997 13:04:56 -0800 For the person with the question on chemical composition of yeast nutrient: Three of the largest homebrew/winemaking wholesale suppliers use varying formulas in their "house brand". Your local homebrew shop should be able to identify their source (especially if you're willing to share your info). L.D. Carlson (Kent, OH) food-grade urea and diammonium phosphate; white in color with fairly large, rounded granules G.W. Kent (Ann Arbor, MI) these folks have two types - -"Nutrient" diammonium phosphate; white, small crystals similar in size to sugar crystals (though more long than square) - -"Energizer" diammonium phosphate, yeast hulls, magnesium sulfate, thiamine, folic acid, niacin, calcium pantothenate; small tan grains with some white particles visible. I believe this is from Lalvin. Crosby & Baker (Westmort, MA) Fermax(TM) contains diammonium phosphate, dipotassium phosphate, magnesium sulfate, autolyzed yeast. also DLB Vineyards (Westlake, OH) diammonium phosphate; white grains. Sorry for the delay in responding; I wanted to check with the suppliers listed above to get official permission to post this info. Nobody said "no" although if you want more detailed info (i.e., what percentage of each chemical) you should contact your local homebrew shop. To support one of my comments of 11-22-97, I haven't found yeast nutrient to be helpful in my fermentations when pitching *large* quantities of yeast (5 gr dried wine yeast/gallon). My starting SG ranges from 1.090 to 1.100, and ferments to dryness (0.996 to 1.002) in about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. When I did use 1 tsp nutrient in a 6 gal batch pitching 5 gr yeast/gallon, fermentation time was still 3 weeks, and left a strong chemical flavor (metallic, to my tastebuds). I'd like to stress that I've not done side-by-side tests with yeast hulls or bee pollen, so I don't know how these behave. After the "test batch" came up with such a strong flavor of nutrient, I swore off nutrient entirely... Anyway, that's my nickel's worth. Thanks for providing the forum for discussion! Anne T c/o wine-hop at dnvr.uswest.net ========================================================================== Geoffrey A. McNally Phone: (401) 832-1390 Mechanical Engineer Fax: (401) 832-7250 Naval Undersea Warfare Center email: Systems Development Branch mcnallyg at gam83.npt.nuwc.navy.mil Code 8321; Bldg. 1246/2 WWW: Newport, RI 02841-1708 http://www.nuwc.navy.mil/ Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 11:51:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Alan McKay <amckay at ottawa.com> Subject: beer prices in Canada Brian, $22 for a two-four (or 'case' in Ontario) is a bargain for good beer. I regularly pay about $35 for a two-four of my favorite beer, Muskoka (sp?) "Brewers make wort. Yeast Makes Beer." - Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide http://www.bodensatz.com/ What's a Bodensatz? http://www.bodensatz.com/bodensatz.html Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:57:43 -0500 From: "Perry Q. Mertz" <pqmertz at netweavers.com> Subject: secondary vs lagering & yeast recovery Doing my first lager and all grain at the same time. Have a rookie question I have not been able to find a direct answer to. What is the differance between secondary and lagering? Is it just that it is handled one more time to remove further slurry from the bottom? I am assume when you lager you still are not carbonated, or am I wrong there, where aging and lagering are the same only one is done under cold temps. Also, with a lager where is it best to try to get recover yeast for another batch? I assume primary here too. Thanks in advance. Return to table of contents
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