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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Cold Steeping (Bob Wilcox)
  Draft Beer = Headache? (Mike B)
  Immersion Chillers (Andy Buhl)
  Re: Draft Beer = Headache? ("Pete Calinski")
  Guidance counterflow wort chiller ("Dan Diana")
  Draft beer sickness (Mjbrewit)
  Flaked corn=no boiler foam & freezing yeast ("C.D. Pritchard")
  Silver Linings (Epic8383)
   ("Mr j m")


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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 20:33:06 -0800
From: Bob Wilcox <bobw at sirius.com>
Subject: Cold Steeping

>So,

>Who can tell me about cold steeping of melanoidin grains?

 >-inky

I have tried cold steeping twice. First with chocolate malt for a
Schwartzbier , that a friend brewed. That turned out very nice. No
harshness from the dark grains, color came out very dark. Its something
I would use again. A little goes a long way though.

The second go at it was for a Vienna. I steeped 1/2lb of Aromatic in a
1/2 gal water. This is still in the fermentor. It had a nice flavor and
color(light orange). I added the whole amount to the boil.

We found that you do get some extract from steeping at least with the
chocolate. I didn't take a gravity reading with the aromatic.

I'm going to keep trying this with differant grains.

Give it a try. Here is a link to the Briess newsletter with the info.
http://www.briess.com/Newsletters/sepoct00.htm

- --
Bob Wilcox
Alameda & Long Barn Ca.
bobw at sirius.com
Draught Board Home Brew Club
http://www.dnai.com/~thor/dboard/index.htm




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Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 00:57:15 -0600
From: Mike B <mikebrx at swbell.net>
Subject: Draft Beer = Headache?

From: "Timmons, Frank" <frank.timmons at honeywell.com>
Subject: Draft Beer = Headache?
It is more likely the headaches are an environmental issue. YOU ARE SITTING
IN A TOBACCO SMOKE FILLED POORLY VENTILATED ROOM. I have noticed that I can
become nearly over-served in a non smoke place or at home and wake up next
a.m. fine. A crowded, loud, charged with sexual energy, hot, stupid, oxygen
breathing optional, closet of a club always leaves you with at the very
least a pounding head. Also, homebrew is somehow recognized as food and
digestible by the body while commercial beer? (malt beverage) is alcohol
buzz only.
YMMV



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Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 06:57:28 -0500
From: Andy Buhl <buhlandr at pilot.msu.edu>
Subject: Immersion Chillers

    In the past I have used an immersion chiller to cool my 2.5 to 3
gallon extract batches.  With lots of stirring and the addition of
chilled water, this worked fine.  However, with my graduation to full 5
gallon all grain batches, I have faced 1 hour chilling times only
reducing temperatures to the mid 90's.
    I finally took some advice read here on the HBD to heart, and
reformed the copper tubing of my chiller to follow the inside diameter
of my boiling vessel, as close to the top as possible.   Tonight, I took
the boiling wort down to 75 F. in 25 min. Without stirring at the same
water flow, same tubing length!  Go, convection currents!  No, it can't
compare to CF chilling, but I don't have the $$$ to blow on a commercial
CF chiller, and don't care to build a 1/2 a**ed one myself.

ASB



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Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 10:06:32 -0500
From: "Pete Calinski" <pjcalinski at adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: Draft Beer = Headache?


Frank Timmons described:

>Recently , I got pulled into a discussion between my secretary and one of
my
>co-workers about beer. They seem to think that I am an authority.

>Anyway, my secretary insists that draft beer gives her a slamming headache
>after one or two beers, but beer in bottles and cans doesn't. To her "beer"
>is bud, miller, coors, or corona for when she is being festive.

>I searched the archives and found references to sulfites, and specific
>brands of beer that cause headaches, but nothing about this. I told her
that
>it was probably in her head. Has anybody else noticed this?

I posted  a similar description about my friend with over 40 years of beer
experience.  He makes the same claim.  A number of people responded (Steve
A. was one of them) but it was before I upgraded computers.  The information
is on my mothballed computer.  As I recall, the answers tended to be more
speculation than hard assertion.  Search the archives for the last year or
less.

Pete Calinski
East Amherst NY
Near Buffalo NY
0^45'49.1" North,  5^7'9.5" East of Jeff Renner.




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Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 08:02:00 -0800
From: "Dan Diana" <dands at ftconnect.com>
Subject: Guidance counterflow wort chiller

    I have been brewing for several years and used an immersion chiller to
cool down my wort after boiling. I am beginning to get frustrated with the
amount of time it takes to cool, the poor control of the final wort
temperature, and the waste of good water. The only upside I see of the
immersion chiller is that the trub settles in the boil kettle and then the
"clean" wort is drawn off. As such, I have designed a counterflow chiller
but have been slow to begin using it because of a couple of questions that I
can't get a difinitive answer on. I was hoping to get some inputs from
folks.
    My first question is around trub removal. Since the counterflow chiller
would cause the trub to settle out in situ, do I need to worry about having
the extra trub in my primary? Does the excess trub result in off flavors,
poor yeast performance, etc? I could run it into a settling tank and then
decant to my primary fermenter but that is extra cleaning and effort. I
could also transfer the fermenting wort into a secondary earlier than I
normally would. Are these successful techniques that people have used?
    My second question is around sanitation. I plan to make it out a
continuous length of bendable copper tubing. Any suggestions on how to best
sterilize it before and after use?

Thanks much.
Dan



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Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 16:13:43 EST
From: Mjbrewit at aol.com
Subject: Draft beer sickness

On the topic of headaches from draft beer let me provide an observation.  
Maybe Frank Timmons secretary's experiences are tainted by beer she drank at 
draft beer kegger parties or taverns.  I always wondered why i never felt 
good after kegger parties.  Unsually the runs or an upset stomachs in 
addition to headaches.  I was once at a local beer club meeting, where we had 
a Sanke keg of microbrewery beer to finish.  To make a long story short we 
had no fitting to extract the beer.  Someone thought of the bright idea of 
going to get a tap from of local liquor store.  Since we had CO2 and was not 
going to be able to finish the beer that night we decided to take the tap 
apart and adopt the parts for use with a CO2.  When we took the valve apart 
much to my disgust we found a wad of mold nearly the size of a grape in the 
valve assembly.  All beer coming out was being filtered through the mold.  No 
wonder draft beer (keg) has a bad reputation.  When you return a tap they 
seldom clean them out but instead throw em in a dark drawer or closet which 
promotes bacterial growth.  Yeeaack!


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Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 16:38:13
From: "C.D. Pritchard" <cdp at chattanooga.net>
Subject: Flaked corn=no boiler foam & freezing yeast

I've been wanting to try corn in a brew after reading so much about it in
Jeff's posts so, to assess its affects, I added 2# of flaked corn to a
house ale recipe I've brewed many times before.  The weird thing was there
was absolutely NO FOAM during the boil.  With previous brews, I've had to
either watch the boiler for boilovers like a hawk in the boiler or add
FoamControl. I consider the lack of foam a good thing but it is very
curious since 1)the foam during aeration and the krausen in the primary
were more presistant than normal and maybe a tad more in volume and 2)a
sample after the primary indicates the head on the brew is going to be
better than normal.
 
Deltas from prior house ales: an unintended rest at ~146F for ~10 minutes
before the 152F rest, ~1.2# of rice hulls and a faster than normal sparge.
A delta from cream ales and CAPs is that I used plae ale malt.  I don't
*think* these have anything to do with the lack of foam during the boil.  

A *guess*:  Oil from the flaked corn suppressed foaming during the boil but
was removed from the wort via run-off through the manifold/whole hops bed
in bottom of the boiler after immersion cooling. 

Anyone got something better than my guess?

BTW, it's day 7, the brew tastes really good- noticably smoother than the
house ale.
 - - - - - - - -

For the above, the yeast was started from a 8 cc sample of Wyeast #1059
American ale which had been frozen at ~0 degF for 2 years, 4 months- the
longest I've revived one so far.  It had been frozen with Freeze Shield
(mostly gylcerine I think).  It was thawed and pitched into 4 oz. of 1.040
wort.  There was a bit of foam on day 2 and it was finished in a less than
5 days (I'd forgotten about it- DUH!).  Decanted and added 12 ozs. wort/1
drop of FoamControl which took off promptly.  Then repeated after a week.
Pitched it a day later just a bit past high krausen.  I bet if I used
"corned" worts for starters I could ommit adding the foam control!




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Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 18:35:30 EST
From: Epic8383 at aol.com
Subject: Silver Linings

    They say that every cloud has a silver lining. I am fortunate (?) that a 
family member requires lots of O2. The healthcare company delivered a 
portable unit that is much too small for her use, but perfect for oxygenating 
wort. It runs on house current and delivers plenty of pure O2 for as long as 
I like. Perhaps they're available at the various auction sites.
    Along the lines of beer cases and packaging stuff, does anyone make blank 
cardboard six-pack holders? I hate giving out bottles in bud cardboard, 
although I suppose I could hit them with a little spray paint.
    Gus Rappold
    Massapequa, NY
    


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Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 21:56:45 -0700
From: "Mr j m" <jmsanchezny at yahoo.com>
Subject: 

can beer go bad if its first chilled then allowed to warm (on a store shelf)
then chilled again ?
I was told this is skunking the beer ?
Can someone help ??
Is it o.k. to buy warm beer on a shelf ?
Thanks very much...




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