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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Municipal Water pH ("A.J deLange")
  Malt Madness Homebrew Competition ("Al Hazan")
  More Chill'n (Pete Calinski)
  New to Homebrewing ("Daniel Chappell")
  brewing software. (Christopher Bartlett)
  Qualitative color labels for srm measurements. (Christopher Bartlett)
  Hofbrau Dark Reserve ("Dave Larsen")
  Re: Yeast under pressure ... ("steve.alexander")


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:54:38 -0400
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Municipal Water pH

RE: >Speaking of high pH in tap water, my understanding is that the utilities
do this to keep calcium from plating out on the plumbing.<

Water utilities try to set the pH very close to the saturation pH of the
water they produce. At this setting a thin film of lime builds up on the
inner surfaces of the mains but does not become thick enough to obstruct
flow. The film is desireable because it protects the mains from water which
is quite corrosive.

Saturation pH is determined by alkalinity and hardness. These are adjusted
by the supplier to meet state and federal standards and consumer preferences.


A.J.



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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 07:48:32 -0400
From: "Al Hazan" <hazan at ptd.net>
Subject: Malt Madness Homebrew Competition

This is the second announcement for the Lehigh Valley Homebrewers' (LVHB),
homebrew competition, Malt Madness, which will be held on Saturday,
September 6th at the Allentown Brew Works in Allentown, Pa.

All BJCP recognized styles (2008 guidelines) including meads and ciders are
eligible for entry.  For complete details and forms, please visit the LVHB
web site at http://www.lehighvalleyhomebrewers.org

Entries will be accepted from August 11th through August 22nd.  For drop off
and mail in locations please refer to the LVHB web site.  

Please, do not mail entries to the Allentown Brew Works.

BJCP Judges and stewards are always very much needed and appreciated. If you
are interested in volunteering, please contact me at the below address.  All
judges must be BJCP certified (any ranking) or have relevant experience.   

Good luck to all, 

Al Hazan
Competition Organizer
hazan at ptd.net




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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 09:39:35 -0400
From: Pete Calinski <petec.100 at gmail.com>
Subject: More Chill'n

Well, not to be left out in the cold but....  I brewed yesterday and kept
some records of my chilling.  Now, I'm in Buffalo, NY so there is some
climate difference but, thanks to Al Gore's second greatest invention (after
the internet), Global Warming.....well anyway.

Nominal wort volume - 5 gallons.
Ambient Temperature - 72F.
Tap Water Temperature - 72F.

I filled 7 gallon plastic bucket (pre-chiller) with some frozen "refrigerant
gel packs", approximate volume about 1 gallon, leaving about 6 gallons of
water in the pre-chiller.  The pre-chiller has an outlet on the bottom.

At the end of the boil I let the wort come down to about 185F before I
started running tap water through the immersion chiller.  I keep the chiller
moving up and down constantly; well pretty much constantly.

When the wort got down to about 81F the chill rate had slowed considerably 
so I
switched to the pre-chiller.  I had a temperature probe in the pre-chiller
and it read 55F.  I put another probe in the outlet of the immersion
chiller. I was real stingy with the pre-chilled water.  When ever the
temperature of the outlet water got 4F or so lower than the wort I pinched
off the outlet tube to slow the flow and get more heat transfer.

I quit when the wort was 68F.

I still had about 2 gallons of water in the pre-chiller.

Tap water used before connecting pre-chiller, ~15 gallons.
Pre-chiller water used ~4 gallons.
Total elapse time ~50 minutes.

Hope this helps.

Pete Calinski
East Amherst NY
Near Buffalo NY

http://hbd.org/pcalinsk


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*My goal:
*      Go through life and never drink the same beer twice.
*     (As long as it doesn't mean I have to skip a beer.)
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Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 13:57:05 -0400
From: "Daniel Chappell" <daniel.chappell at gmail.com>
Subject: New to Homebrewing

Greetings!  Since I just joined this listserv yesterday evening, and
this is my first post, allow me to introduce myself properly.

I'm Daniel (chorus of, "hi, Daniel"), and I've been a homebrewer for 0 days  :)

I'm at Day Zero because I've not yet started.  I'm still in the
research/reading phase for now: I've read Papazian's book, and I'm
reading Palmer's book as well.  Both of them have been good resources
for brewing how-to and arcana, but I've got a number of questions
about equipment (since neither seems to have completely addressed the
issue). Someone on a local homebrew forum suggested that a beginner go
with the nicest stuff available (assuming it's within price range) at
the get-go; I agree with this sentiment, as my motto is, "work
smarter, not harder."  That idea segues nicely into my questions...

First, I was under the impression that pretty much all fermentation
took place in a bucket or a carboy, so I was very surprised to find a
number of conical-style fermenters out there.  I'm familiar with
buckets and carboys (one of my chemistry professors is big into
homebrewing, and he uses carboys); I've read a bit about conicals, and
they seem so much easier to use that I was considering going for one
of those.  Can anyone give me any tips, and address the issues of
stainless steel v. plastic, along with sanitary v. standard fittings?

The other big question I have concerns bottling v. kegging.  I've
gotten the pros and cons of each, but I'm still on the fence (leaning
towards kegging).  I understand that kegging is light years faster
than
bottling, and I'm told that it's also considerably easier.  I know you
have to have a keg or two and a CO2 (or N2) tank for kegging, whereas
you only need bottles, bottlecaps, and a capper for bottling.  My
first question here: would you recommend kegging or bottling?  Some
say bottling is a good start ("it builds character"), but some say to
go with kegging.  Is there any taste advantage to kegging or bottling?
 Other than your brew being ready to drink in a fairly short period of
time (or so I've read), I can't help but wonder if there's any big
advantage to kegging; the start-up cost seems fairly high to me (I
assume the equipment isn't cheap!), so I'm wondering if I should
splurge with kegging or on a conical fermenter.

I know this is a lot of material for a first post, but I'm confident you
ace homebrewers out there can/will help me out.  Thank you in advance!

Daniel


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Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:12:30 -0700
From: Christopher Bartlett <bridgeweaver at khanfusion.net>
Subject: brewing software.

As part of our upgrading project for the old home brewery, I am 
interested in exploring brewing software to see if there is anything 
that beats my venerable Promash 1.8 that I have had for several 
years.  It seems that there isn't a new version of Promash beyond what I have.

Do any of you use other software that you love?  I'm looking for 
something that can be run under Windows XP or Vista.

	Christopher Bartlett



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Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:14:32 -0700
From: Christopher Bartlett <bridgeweaver at khanfusion.net>
Subject: Qualitative color labels for srm measurements.

I am totally blind, but have a memory of colors.  Color is an 
important factor in our craft, and once I knew what the srm numbers 
equated to, but that knowledge has fled my aging brain.  Could 
someone post a chart with the color descriptors for various srm values?

	Chris Bartlett



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Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 10:02:52 -0700
From: "Dave Larsen" <hunahpu at gmail.com>
Subject: Hofbrau Dark Reserve

Does anybody here remember a beer called Hofbrau Dark Reserve?  It was
in a green bottle with a gold foil top.  This is going back 15 years
ago or so.  It used to be readily available here in Arizona.  They
even had it in supermarkets.  Then it just disappeared.  It was one of
the beers that taught me that there was more then mega-swill out
there.

The Hofbrauhaus in Las Vegas has a beer called Hofbrau Dunkel.  It is
in a different bottle, but I wondering if it is the same beer.  I will
not be in Vegas anytime soon, so I cannot try the beer.

Dave
Tucson, AZ
http://hunahpu.blogspot.com/


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Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:41:10 -0400
From: "steve.alexander" <-s at roadrunner.com>
Subject: Re: Yeast under pressure ...

I'm a little surprised at the comments wrt yeast under pressure. In
several papers fermenters kept under CO2 pressure produces less
by-products (fusels and esters) and this has been used for the purpose
of fermenting lager style beers are higher than traditional
temperatures.  CO2 in solution however slows fermentation as it makes
one of the common yeast enzymes less active (pH dependency IIRC), part
of the pyruvate energy pathway, One German poster to HBD had a
spring-loaded syringe mechanism to keep the over-pressure fairly
constant.  The scheme has reportedly been used commercially.  My
recollection is that the ester reduction was more effective than the
fusel reduction but that's a guess till I dig out the paper.

Thanks to Dean for his comments on SiValley beers.  I happen to be
doing some work for a San Jose company and get out there irregularly.
I've tripped across two of his selections by chance and will try
others.  Found some good Ethiopian food (like I would know - hah)
along El Camino Real.  The Valley really has changed.

 -S





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