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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Water Softener Using Potassium Chloride ("John & Joy Vaughn")
  Re: Re: "dry" Stout (Teresa Knezek)
  Re: Anderson Winter Solstace? (Robert Marshall)
  Cleaning aeration stone with alcohol (Fred L Johnson)
  1056 vs. WLP001 ("Dennis Collins")
  re: Mini kegs and other thoughts ("Tidmarsh Major")
  Henry and SS conicals ("Kenneth Peters")
  Stirred Mash? ("Shawn E Lupold, Ph.D")
  Siphoning/pressure ("Haborak, Kevin")
  cleaning SS stones, buckwheat beer, malty malts, and 2-row CAPs (Marc Sedam)
  Re: Siphoning/pressure (Jeff Renner)
  Re: Substituing 2-row for 6-row in a CAP (Jeff Renner)
  RE:heating/cooling with Johnson Controls A419 ("Bruce Garner")
  re: bronze vs stainless (Rama Roberts)
  Blowoff affect flavor??? (LJ Vitt)
  Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day Breaks Record ("Monica Tall")
  Re: Siphoning/pressure ("Strom C. Thacker")
  Anderson Valley Winter Solstice (David Harsh)
  tap a draft or party pig? ("James Payne")
  Re: chest freezer via Dorm fridge ("Angie and Reif Hammond")
  Orval Yeast ("Don Van Valkenburg")
  Kegging questions ("Rich and Kris Girardi")


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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 19:10:41 -0900
From: "John & Joy Vaughn" <hogbrew at mtaonline.net>
Subject: Water Softener Using Potassium Chloride

Greetings from Wasilla, Alaska,

I know that a lot has been said about water softeners adding too much
sodium to the water for brewing.  This assumes that one is using sodium
chloride to recharge the resin bed.  I recently moved to a new home with a
well.  The water was heavy on iron, about 5ppm.  It was undrinkable (ever
had rusty ice cubes), smelled bad, and turned the light colored laundry to
rust colored.  I had a water softener installed and am using potassium
chloride to recharge the resin bed.  The water tastes fine now.  Can I use
this water for brewing?  I assume I will need to add calcium for the mash.

Thanks to all the water gurus.

John Vaughn
Wasilla, AK
[2938, 320] Apparent Rennerian




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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 20:39:18 -0900
From: Teresa Knezek <teresa at mivox.com>
Subject: Re: Re: "dry" Stout

>From: Michael Hartsock <xd_haze at yahoo.com>
>
>a dry stout shouldn't be 1.022, thats not very dry!

Well, I actually meant "dry" as in "alcohol free"... heheh. The kit 
was labeled "Irish Stout" so I don't know if that's what you'd 
typically call dry flavor-wise or not.

The kit itself was 7lbs of extract, plus a bag of malto dextrin, plus 
some grains to steep before the boil, hops pellets, etc. Not one of 
those "all in one can" kits, or one with 1/2 extract 1/2 sugar, so I 
don't think quality of ingredients was a problem.

>pitch more yeast or roust the yeast cake off the bottom, it might be 
>stuck!  But if I had to put my money on a cause, you probably didn't 
>aerate the wort well enough prior to pitching.

Hmm... I poured the wort out of the pot into the fermenter, so it 
splashed around a lot going into the bucket, and then sloshed it 
around a bit after I finished pouring, but who knows. That could be 
the case.

I'm not too enamored of my racking cane at any rate, so I could 
modify that to create a wort sprayer...

>From: Donald and Melissa Hellen <donhellen at horizonview.net>
>
>I might be wrong here, but you may not have let it ferment completely.
>That sounds like a rather high FG to me. It is possible that you will
>get more fermentation in the bottles and eventually have "bottle
>bombs."

Well, my policy of drinking 2 or 3 of them a day should prevent that. 
:-) Next time, I'll shake up the bucket a bit if it seems "stuck" too 
soon (the Amber is still bubbling regularly away on day 3...), and 
make sure I leave it in the primary for at least a full week.
- -- 
:: Teresa ::
http://rant.mivox.com/

"We must live together as brothers,
or die together as fools."
	-- Martin Luther King, Jr.


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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 21:37:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Robert Marshall <robertjm1 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Anderson Winter Solstace?

Don't know what they're using for sure, but the Perle
hop is described at Hoptech's website as having a
"minty" hoppiness.

Cheers!

Robert
- -----------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 16:23:40 +0000
From: beerbuddy at attbi.com
Subject: Anderson Winter Solstace?

 ...The most intrigueing beer that I tried this
weekend, though, was on tap at a pub, it was Anderson
Valley (I think) Winter Solstace. This was a very
malty ale, a touch sweet, and had a very interesting
"bubble gum" finish. That's the 
first time I've tasted such a distinct bubble gum
flavor. Being fairly new to identify what can create
such flavors, I am completely stumped. Any ideas as to

where this bubble gum taste comes from? 



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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 07:33:21 -0500
From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson at portbridge.com>
Subject: Cleaning aeration stone with alcohol

There was a post recently regarding cleaning an aeration stone with yet
another agent that will probably do more harm than good--rubbing alcohol.
The goal is to ionize, cleave, or emulsify the proteins and lipids.  Alcohol
may dissolve some lipids but it will do nothing for getting the proteins off
because they are less soluble in isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) and
could even become denatured within the stone. Alcohol may also precipitate
minerals in the stone.

I say stick with water and bases as cleaning agents for proteins and lipids.
- --
Fred L. Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA



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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 08:16:29 -0500
From: "Dennis Collins" <dcollins at drain-all.com>
Subject: 1056 vs. WLP001

I'm a faithful user of Wyeast 1056, however, when I went to the homebrew
shop yesterday, all they had was White Labs WLP001, so I bought that
instead.  I asked the owner if he's ever tasted the difference between the
1056 and the WLP001 and he said no, however, it was his understanding that
the difference was in name only, and that in fact, these were the same yeast
strains.  Is this true?  If not, what differences can I expect in brewing an
APA with the WLP001 and not the 1056 that I am used to?

Dennis Collins
Knoxville, TN
http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com

"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but not in practice".




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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 07:20:21 -0600
From: "Tidmarsh Major" <tidmarsh at bellsouth.net>
Subject: re: Mini kegs and other thoughts

Teresa asks about using mini-kegs for real ale. I can't give you any
suggestions for a hand pump or sparkler, but some of the minikegs
available here with commercial beer inside (Warsteiner comes to mind) 
have a built in tap and a black bung with a red spile that twists to 
vent the keg. There's also a cost advantage--no tap to buy, and you 
can fill one minikeg out of a batch and bottle the rest without 
committing to a whole system.

I used one last summer for a mild that worked well. No sparkler, but 
the gravity feed worked well.

Tidmarsh Major
Tuscaloosa, Ala.



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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 07:30:35 -0600
From: "Kenneth Peters" <kpeters6 at cox.net>
Subject: Henry and SS conicals

In his post of 18 Nov, Henry states:

"There's been a lot of posts lately about SS conical fermenters. I'm missing
the advantage to such a device. Is it just that you can 'dump' the precipitate
out at the start and then get clear beer, or is there something else here?

 To which I would suggest that he search the HBD archives and find more that
he will care to read. No need to re-hash all of this again.




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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 08:55:34 -0500
From: "Shawn E Lupold, Ph.D" <lupolds at jhmi.edu>
Subject: Stirred Mash?


I'm relatively new to all grain brewing and have a question about
extraction efficiency.  The more batches I brew, the worse my extraction
efficiency.  I've improved my efficiency a bit by slowing down the
sparge to about 2 quarts every 5 minutes; however, I still can't reach
my initial extraction efficiencies.  Looking back in my notes, I noticed
that I stirred my mash a little in the first few batches.  It makes
sense that stirring would help with extraction, but I've heard not to do
it because of oxidation.  Yet, we want to oxidize the boiled wort.
What's the deal?  Does everyone stir their mash?  How much?

Thanks for your help,

Shawn Lupold
Alexandria, VA



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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 06:02:35 -0800
From: "Haborak, Kevin" <KHaborak at golder.com>
Subject: Siphoning/pressure

In relation to Jeff Renner's comment, Strom Thacker asks:

>My question: If both vessels are sealed (as one would want if trying 
>to avoid oxidation, a main benefit of counter pressure transfer), 
>wouldn't the siphon stop as soon as the pressure in the receiving 
>vessel rose to a certain level (and the pressure in the higher vessel 
>fell to a certain level)?

You are correct. Assuming the temperature stays the same, the pressures in
each keg would change inversely with respect to the volume that the gas is
able to occupy.  Therefore, you would need to bleed the pressure from the
keg to which the beer is being transferred.  The easiest way to accomplish
this may be to connect the two 'gas in' valves after the siphon has started,
therefore you wouldn't have to mannualy work the pressure relief valve. 


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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 10:07:39 -0500
From: Marc Sedam <marc_sedam at unc.edu>
Subject: cleaning SS stones, buckwheat beer, malty malts, and 2-row CAPs

Nothing like trying to capture everything in one email...

SS AERATION STONES
One often unmentioned issue with cleaning and using SS aeration stones 
is that they do get plugged over time with various and sundry organic 
matter AND minerals from water or the cleaning materials.  I had soaked 
my stone in PBW for a few days (to give it a good cleaning) and let it 
air dry.  The PBW itself wound up clogging the pores in the stone making 
it all about unusual.  I finally got it good and clean by soaking in 
acetone, followed by a very thorough rinse with distilled water, and 
repeating 3x.  Methinks AJ turned me on to the procedure.  Works like a 
champ.  In the end, I would think the best storage medium would be clean 
grain alcohol diluted to 70% with water.

BUCKWHEAT BRAU
I do think it's possible to make 100% buckwheat beer, assuming you can 
malt the buckwheat yourself.  You can fix the issue of buckwheat not 
having a husk by adding a very healthy proportion of rice hulls 
(available at most HB shops via mail order).  Maybe 2lbs?  Rinse the 
hulls in hot water first.

SPECIALTY MALTS FOR "MALT" FLAVOR
I am officially too lazy to decoct unless I'm doing a CAP, in which case 
the cereal mash serves as a decoction for my purposes.  I have also 
tried to find a nice combination of "other" malts to deal with pulling 
in some added flavor.  The recent Zymurgy has some nice information on 
malts as well.  From my brewing, I find that melanoidin, Special Roast, 
and Victory malts add a pleasant malt flavor to pilsners.  I also like 
to toss a pound or two of light Munich into my CAPs and pilsners as 
well.  A more subtle flavor, but certainly noticeable.

USING ACIDULATED MALT WITH SOFT WATER
If you're using very soft water then there's absolutely no reason to use 
acidulated malt, and possibly every reason not to use it.  This is a 
good malt for people with high levels of temporary or permanent hardness 
in their water who still want to try and make a good pils.  If you have 
soft water this may (emphasis on "may") drop the pH of your mash too 
low.  And we all know that all hell breaks loose when your mash pH is 
too low.  ;-)

DOES USING 2-ROW MALT "BUST A CAP"?
Lastly, much to Jeff's chagrin, I brew all of my CAPs with 2-row malt 
and I think they taste mighty fine.  I will say that, having some of 
Jeff's CAP two years back, using 6-row does add a nice graininess that 
complements the style.  But my last one used 2-row and that blasphemous 
estery Saflager S-23 yeast and I think it is just delicious.  I don't 
mind the esters so much and, like Randy Ricci, I think it makes one hell 
of a beer when properly lagered for 2-3 months.

Cheers!

- -- 

Marc Sedam
Chapel Hill, NC




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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 11:01:27 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Siphoning/pressure

"Strom C. Thacker" <sthacker at bu.edu> of Palo Alto, CA writes:

>My question: If both vessels are sealed (as one would want if trying
>to avoid oxidation, a main benefit of counter pressure transfer),
>wouldn't the siphon stop as soon as the pressure in the receiving
>vessel rose to a certain level (and the pressure in the higher vessel
>fell to a certain level)?

It works because you hook up two jumper hoses between the kegs - one 
from beer-out to beer-out (for the beer), and the other from gas-in 
to gas-in (for the CO2).  Then as beer flows via gravity to the lower 
keg, it displaces CO2, which flows into the higher keg, replacing the 
volume of beer that is flowing out.  The pressure in the two kegs 
remains equal.

As I said, very elegant.

Jeff
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 11:14:41 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Substituing 2-row for 6-row in a CAP

Mark Kempisty <kempisty at pav.research.panasonic.com> asks

>I'm thinking of doing a CAP and would like to know how different it 
>would be if I substitute 2-row for 6-row.

It's no problem, although not as authentic for most American historic 
beers.  Modern six-row is apparently a better brewing barley than 
formerly.  See the excellent Brewing Techniques (RIP) article, "A 
Comparison of North American Two-Row and Six-Row Malting Barley" by 
Paul Schwarz and Richard Horsley at 
http://brewingtechniques.com/bmg/schwarz.html .

I still prefer six-row for its slightly more assertive character. 
George Fix (also RIP) preferred two-row for what he called its 
refined character.  It's a matter of personal taste.  George also 
disliked Cluster hops, which I like for bittering in historic brews, 
again for its character and authenticity.

At MCAB-2 in St. Louis in 2000, the crowd killed a five gallon keg of 
CAP brewed with 6-row and Cluster in just a few minutes before my 
short talk (I don't think they ever turned the tap off, just moved 
glasses under it).  In my talk I mentioned that George disliked these 
two ingredients.  He very graciously lifted up his glass and said, 
"Jeff, you're making a liar of me."

Either will easily convert all the adjunct you would want to put in 
it (30% max for my money, I usually brew 22% corn).

Jeff
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 10:23:24 -0600
From: "Bruce Garner" <bpgarner at mailbag.com>
Subject: RE:heating/cooling with Johnson Controls A419

Scott asks about controllers. I use and love Johnson Controls A419
controllers.

As manufactured you have to open the case and open a jumper to switch from
heating to cooling. (You could wire an external switch to the jumper if you
switched the mode frequently.) The unit can switch 16 amps at 120V or 8 amps
at 240V. you provide all plugs and power wire. The unit comes with a
temperature probe. At $50 it is a fine thermometer before you control
anything with it.

I use a water heater element heat stick controlled by an A419 to raise and
hold strike water to 165 right in my mash tun. After I mash in I boost the
temperature in the controller and put the stick in my sparg/dilute water
container. As the wort goes into the kettle first one heat stick then the
sparge heat stick go into the kettle to add to btu's from the gas burner.

I set the A419 to cooling and use it to feed a small chiller (six feet of
3/8" copper) immersed in my beer keg open fermentor. The cooling water is a
keg tub sitting outside with a submergible utility pump in it. This works
great and allows me to control ferments within a degree. If the tub outside
ices up I can use an immersion heater of some kind (heat sick with another
A419 or fish tank heater) to keep it just above freezing. I have also
considered using the freezer section of my beer fridge to keep water and
some antifreeze at 17 degrees. If I use less copper tubing in the fermentor,
the pump will run longer and boost the tub temperature a bit.

Bruce Garner
Madison, WI




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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 08:59:42 -0800 (PST)
From: Rama Roberts <rama at eng.sun.com>
Subject: re: bronze vs stainless

Scott asks: 
Is there any real disadvantage to bronze vs stainless ball valves, and is
lead a problem when using bronze? 

BYO's mysterious Mr Wizard just wrote about SS vs other materials:
http://www.byo.com/mrwizard/1010.html

If you want to check this for yourself, you can always split a batch and
include a chunk of bronze in with the mash/sparge/boil/wherever with part
of it, bottle seperately, then compare at the end. (then report back to
us with your findings!)

- --rama




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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 09:59:19 -0800 (PST)
From: LJ Vitt <lvitt4 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Blowoff affect flavor???

Brendan asked about blowoff tubes....

>Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 19:07:28 -0800 (PST)
>From: Brendan Oldham <brendan_oldham at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Blowoff affect flavor???
 
>I want to brew 2.5g batches in a 5g carboy. Because of
>the airspace, I don't need a blowoff tube. However,
>the JOHB states that the blowoff tube, "gets rid of
>excessively bitter hop resins,excess yeast and other
>things that may contribute to hangovers".
>Has anyone ever proved/disproved this? Should I still
>use a blowoff tube? Thanks for any info.

I regularily put 5 - 5.5 gal into a 7 gal fermenter.
and rarely need to use a blowoff tube.  If i need to use
one, its because the fermentation was that vigorous.

As far as hangovers go, I hear the theory about all malt
beers reduce hangovers compared to adjunct beers.  I can't
tell if that one is true either.

I suggest you follow your plan of using 5 gal carboys
without the blowoff tube.  


=====
Leo Vitt
Rochester MN



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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 11:14:11 -0700
From: "Monica Tall" <monica at aob.org>
Subject: Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day Breaks Record

Another record is broken for the 4th Annual
American Homebrewers Association's
Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day - Nov. 2, 2002!

The American Homebrewers Association wants to
thank every participant that made this event the best ever!
We appreciate your dedication to homebrewing.

*Record number of homebrewing sites = 124 sites around the WORLD!

*AHA estimates more than 450 new homebrewers were introduced to the
homebrewing hobby.
*More than 1,000 homebrewers participated -- an increase of 400 participants
from 2001.
*63 percent increase of participants from 2001's registered sites.

Check out www.beertown.org later this week for post-event information.

One site boasted an attendance of 75 at their Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day
celebration with a record 60 new brewers in attendance.

Homebrewers registered their event/site on www.beertown.org, helping the AHA
keep a running tally. After the event, homebrewers reported on the web site
the number of attendees and new homebrewers introduced to the hobby.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
What is Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day?
The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day
is an international effort to introduce people to the homebrewing hobby and
establish relationships with local homebrew supply shops.

Each year on the first Saturday in November homebrewers around the world
are encouraged to invite friends over and introduce them to the hobby by
having them help brew a batch of beer.

Cheers to this year's success,
Monica Tall
Sales and Marketing Coordinator
Association of Brewers





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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 10:46:22 -0800
From: "Strom C. Thacker" <sthacker at bu.edu>
Subject: Re: Siphoning/pressure

Jeff Renner and Steve Jones (offline) were kind enough to point out 
what I missed in the original post.

Thanks, guys.  Very elegant, indeed!

Strom
Palo Alto, CA

At 11:01 AM -0500 11/19/02, Jeff Renner wrote:
>"Strom C. Thacker" <sthacker at bu.edu> of Palo Alto, CA writes:
>
>>My question: If both vessels are sealed (as one would want if trying
>>to avoid oxidation, a main benefit of counter pressure transfer),
>>wouldn't the siphon stop as soon as the pressure in the receiving
>>vessel rose to a certain level (and the pressure in the higher vessel
>>fell to a certain level)?
>
>It works because you hook up two jumper hoses between the kegs - one 
>from beer-out to beer-out (for the beer), and the other from gas-in 
>to gas-in (for the CO2).  Then as beer flows via gravity to the 
>lower keg, it displaces CO2, which flows into the higher keg, 
>replacing the volume of beer that is flowing out.  The pressure in 
>the two kegs remains equal.
>
>As I said, very elegant.
>
>Jeff
>--
>Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at comcast.net
>"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943



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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 14:29:48 -0500
From: David Harsh <dharsh at fuse.net>
Subject: Anderson Valley Winter Solstice

Timothy (beerbuddy at attbi.com) asks:

> ...Anderson Valley (I think) Winter Solstace. This was a very malty
> ale, a touch sweet, and had a very interesting "bubble gum" finish...
> ... a distinct bubble gum flavor....

> ...where this bubble gum taste comes from?

If you want a bubblegum flavor, use Wyeast 1214 and let the temperature
get into the mid 70s.  You'll get that flavor!  As far as Winter
Solstice goes, the spices have just seemed totally overdone the last
couple of times I've bought any - and they don't seem to mellow very
quickly.  Frankly, its the only one of their beers I don't consider top
notch.  Luckily, I'm not required to drink it, but I'll probably try a 
bottle again this year.

Dave Harsh 
Bloatarian Brewing League                   Cincinnati, OH


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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 18:09:29 -0500
From: "James Payne" <james at houseofpayne.us>
Subject: tap a draft or party pig?

Greetings fellow homebrewers,

I'm considering purchasing an alternative kegging system (ie either a "Tap a
Draft" or "Party Pig").  Has anyone used either/both and what are your
general feelings toward them?  Do they dispense well or do they falter after
the beer level is below the mouth of the container?  Which is better?  I'm
going this route because I have neither the space nor finances to go to a
true kegging system but I would like to get away from having to bottle 5
gallons of beer at a time.  Any and all information/comments are welcome!

Thanks!
James Payne
Charlotte, NC

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.

"Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all
things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less."
Gen. Robert E. Lee




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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 18:12:52 -0500
From: "Angie and Reif Hammond" <arhammond at attbi.com>
Subject: Re: chest freezer via Dorm fridge

When my chest freezer died (coils corroded out) I took an old dorm
refrigerator and cut it apart.  I then hung the freezer plate over the
side into my old freezer with a drip pan under it to catch the
condensation.  The compressor and coils stayed outside the freezer.  I
wired it to the thermostat I had been using to keep the freezer at the
proper serving temperature.  Turned out the fridge was undersized for
this application (no surprise), and it ran all the time, so I attached
the coils to the front of an old box fan that I also wired into the
thermostat (forced convection).  Now it runs about half time.  Not the
best, but it was almost free, and I did not cut any holes into the old
chest freezer.  I may do the same with a second old dorm fridge for more
cooling capacity.

A small muffin fan blowing on the freezer plate inside the chest freezer
did not make much difference there.

Reif Hammond
Durham, NH




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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:52:52 -0800
From: "Don Van Valkenburg" <dvanv at earthlink.net>
Subject: Orval Yeast 

Lovers of Orval might want to try using a new yeast available from White
labs soon.  It will be one of their Platinum series available (I think) in
January under the name of Bastogne.  I obtained a vile of this yeast on a
tour of Orval while on a Belgium tour last year.   I sent it to White labs
with the hope/expectation that they might make it available to the
homebrewing community - and they did.

However, you might want to know that Orval actually uses three cultures.
The one I asked for at Orval will be available from White Labs is the first,
primary fermentation yeast.  I was told they later introduce (I am a little
fuzzy about which one) a bretamices or lactobacillus (sp?).  Maybe someone
out there can suggest which one would be appropriate.  Anyhow, finally for
bottling they use a bottom fermentating yeast (lager).  This is not uncommon
among many Belgium breweries that add yeast at bottling time to add a
different yeast, and usually simply a clean lager yeast.

Now for the search for a recipe.

Don



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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 22:46:02 -0500
From: "Rich and Kris Girardi" <kgirardi at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Kegging questions

Just started corny kegging and have noticed a nasty, bitter/acidic,
aftertaste when dispensing through my copper jockey box.  I was wondering if
there was a special way to clean the copper tubing prior to dispensing.  Can
you use plastic tubing in a jockey box?  I also use a copper immersion
chiller and although I haven't noticed any particular off tastes, I wonder
if I would be producing better beer with a SS chiller.  Another question:  I
have been using an iodophore solution to sanitize my kegs, is it OK to leave
this solution in my kegs for long periods of time (months).   Thanks

Rich
Raleigh NC




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