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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  UNSPECIFIED BY SENDER (DAVE BEEDLE                  )
  Request for HBD (N_CARLSON)
  request to be added to the mailing list. (Jesse R. Buckley, Jr.)
  Philadelphia Brew-fans (STAFINIAK)
  Stuck Fermentations, O2 content, and MY working answer (S94TAYLO)
  Lagering (Norm Hardy)
  Drum Tap Redux (Martin A. Lodahl)
  Heat Exchanger Pump (Martin A. Lodahl)
  Filtered Air (Martin A. Lodahl)
  Sterilizing your immersion wort cooler (S94TAYLO)


Send submissions to homebrew%hpfcmi at hplabs.hp.com
Send requests to homebrew-request%hpfcmi at hplabs.hp.com
[Please do not send me requests for back issues]
Archives are available from netlib at mthvax.cs.miami.edu


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Date: 22 FEB 91 08:34 -00
From: DAVE BEEDLE <DBEEDLE at ILSTU>
Subject: UNSPECIFIED BY SENDER

     Hi all!   Welp, its time I jump into the homebrew game.  As soon
as I get a fermenter, etc, I'll be ready to go!  A few questions first,
though...

     I plan on buying a stock pot as a brewkettle.  Enameled, I've
heard, is good but I've also seen a "ceramic-on-steel" pot which is a
whole lot cheaper.  Would the ceramic on work just as well or are wierd
critters going to jump out of it and kill my beer?

     Two...I've noticed "dry" bottles (those that dry beer come in) are
a different shape and seem to be made of a thinner glass.  Is there any
reason not to use these?

     Three...Seirra Nevada Pale Ale is one of my favorites.  Is there a
fairly easy recipe which approximates SNPA?  or  what might I
experiment with to try to get it?

     Thanks!

TTFN

- --
  Dave Beedle                                     Office of Academic Computing
                                                     Illinois State University
  Internet:  dbeedle at rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu                     136A Julian Hall
    Bitnet:  dbeedle at ilstu                                  Normal, Il   61761

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Date:    Fri, 22 Feb 1991 10:31:28 EST
From: N_CARLSON at UNHH.UNH.EDU
Subject: Request for HBD

Rob Gardner:
	I would like to receive Home brew digest as I have just received an 
account here on the mainframe at the University of New Hampshire. My address
is N_CARLSON at UNHH.UNH.EDU .I pray this message gets to you as this e-mail 
stuff is new to me. If I sent it to the wrong address please let me know. 
Thanks alot and may the hops be with you.
Noel C. Carlson


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Date: Fri, 22 Feb 1991 12:41:40 EST
From: buck at sct60a.sunyct.edu (Jesse R. Buckley, Jr.)
Subject: request to be added to the mailing list.

        Please add me to your mailing list.


- -- 
 -Buck (buck at sct60a.sunyct.edu)
"So this is a leap second?" -- Me at 6:59:60 pm on Mon Dec 31, 1990

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Date: Fri, 22 Feb 91 12:52 EST
From: STAFINIAK at hermes.psycha.upenn.edu
Subject: Philadelphia Brew-fans

 Home-brew contest at the Dock Street Brewing Co. 
 March 24  at  2 p.m.
 winner will become one of the brews on tap at the Two Logan Square pub
 4 categories judged - pilsners, pale ales, stouts and fruit beers
 to enter, bring 6 bottles to Dock Street by noon March 23 - $5 entry fee
 for registration forms call 546-8862
 proceeds go to MADD


 Michael Jackson will conduct a tutored tasting of brews at the University of
 Pennsylvania's University Museum on April 13 at noon, 2, 4, and 6 p.m.
 Tix. $20 and can be purchased in advance (215-898-9451) or at the door.

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Date:     Sat, 23 Feb 91 09:38 EST
From: <S94TAYLO%USUHSB.BITNET at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject:  Stuck Fermentations, O2 content, and MY working answer

I agree with Brian Olson (HBD #582) that these problems are caused by low O2
in the wort.  The easiest way I have found is to drop your cooling water (I use
a 2.5 gallon bottle of artesian water that has been cooled to near freezing)
through a funnel into the primary.  The water splashes about merrily and gives
it plently of time to pick up oxygen.  This is followed with pouring the wort
(remember it should by somewhat cooled, since boiling hot wort can hold almost
NO oxygen) into the fermenter to mix with the cooling water.  I have brewed
about 10 batches like this and all the ferments have been complete.  Admittedly,
I once brewed a heavyweight barley wine that took a pitstop halfway through
the ferment, but that was before I started working with this method.
A quick note about cooling with ice.  As sterile as it might be, ice contains
almost no oxygen either, losing it all in the process of freezing.  This may
also contribute to a stuck ferment.
Give it a shot.
Al Taylor
Uniformed Services University
School of Medicine (just a first year!)
Bethesda, MD
s94taylo at usuhsb.bitnet

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Date: Sat, 23 Feb 91 13:14:00 PST
From: polstra!norm at uunet.UU.NET (Norm Hardy)
Subject: Lagering

A question was raised about lagering.  Since the word means "to store" one
must imply that the beer has finished or just about finished fermenting.  The
storage could be considered in the secondary or the bottle or keg.  Personally,
I see no value of lagering for more than a month before bottling.  Then, and
this takes patience, I let the bottles remain at the lagered temperature
until they are consumed. Sometimes I run out of fridge space, so the basement
floor has to suffice.

With the Hunter Airstat hooked up to the fridge, here is a typical lager:
Primary:  65 - 48f - 53f for 3-4 weeks.  The raise up to 53 takes place
          during the last 4-5 days (diacetyl rest)
Secondary:  48 - 38f for 2-4 weeks.
Bottling:   44f or thereabouts.

Trying not to shock the yeast, I change the temperature a maximum of 4-5
degrees a day.  

Carbonation has always been satifactory, with enough time in the bottle.

Norm Hardy


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Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 8:29:26 PST
From: Martin A. Lodahl <pbmoss!malodah at decwrl.dec.com>
Subject: Drum Tap Redux

In HBD 581, I wrote, about a faulty drum tap:

> I finally disassembled the tap by forcing aside the turn-stop rib
> and turning out the stem.  If anyone knows a better way to do this,
> I'd love to hear it.  To keep the cap in place, I used a drop of
> cement, and reassembled.  No trouble since.

I spoke too soon.  The trouble now seems to be that the little soft
plastic cap that provides the seals on the tap has hardened and
cracked.  Does anyone know where I can get a replacement cap?

= Martin A. Lodahl   			  Pacific*Bell Staff Analyst =
= malodah at pbmoss.Pacbell.COM       Sacramento, CA       916.972.4821 =
= If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, =
= Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me!  8-)   =


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Date: Wed, 20 Feb 91 11:08:48 PST
From: Martin A. Lodahl <pbmoss!malodah at decwrl.dec.com>
Subject: Heat Exchanger Pump

In HOMEBREW Digest #580, Clay Phipps asked:

> A few months ago, one of this mailing-list's regulars (Norm Hardy?)
> reported on his continuing efforts to find an appropriate pump
> to drive a heat-exchanger-style wort chiller.  In the last episode
> that I read, he thought that he was close to a good solution ...
> ...
> Could whoever was working on this project please give us an update,
> including identifying the manufacturer and model number
> of the pump used?

Clay may have been thinking of a series of items I posted a year ago
concerning my Search for the Perfect Pump.  At the time, I was using
an immersion chiller fabricated from 100' of 1/4" tubing, which
restricted the flow rate to the point where I doubt that much heat
was picked up by the last 75' of the coil.  My present chiller uses
50' of 3/8" tubing, and no longer requires all the waste-gate
whigmaleeries I needed with the other chiller.

The pump I've settled on is a Teel 1P579C.  Scarcely larger than a
pint beer bottle, this pump has two garden-hose fittings, and
connects to any 117v grounded outlet.  It's not silent, but is a lot
quieter than an electric drill.  I have no idea what it's flow rate
is, or what it cost (a friend was cleaning out his garage, and ...),
but from the quality of its construction, I would imagine it's not
cheap.

= Martin A. Lodahl   			  Pacific*Bell Staff Analyst =
= malodah at pbmoss.Pacbell.COM       Sacramento, CA       916.972.4821 =
= If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, =
= Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me!  8-)   =





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Date: Thu, 21 Feb 91 10:50:38 PST
From: Martin A. Lodahl <pbmoss!malodah at decwrl.dec.com>
Subject: Filtered Air

In HOMEBREW Digest #582, Bryan Olson offers:

>I've seen a few postings about fermentations that stopped at a high F.G,
>then seemed to restart for a little bit after racking.
>
>My 2 cents as to why this happens is there was not enough oxygen in the wort.

Hmm.  I don't think that's the cause.  Fermentation truly gets under
way when the oxygen in the wort is all gone, the mitochondria have
shut down, and the yeast have gone anaerobic.  Commercial producers
of bakers' yeast have discovered that the key to maximum yeast
production and minimum alcohol production is lots of oxygen.  In
effect, alcohol is a waste product of the yeasts' anaerobic
metabolism.  We aerate the wort to help the colony multiply rapidly
after inoculation.

>Is anyone using sanitize/sterilized air or medical oxygen to oxygenate thier
>wort? If so, I'd like to hear what they are using.

This topic came up at the last meeting of my homebrew club, and it
seems that at least one of the members has been using filtered air
for some time.  His filter is a length of large (>1") plexiglass
pipe, which he packs full of sterile cotton, and hooks to an
automotive air compressor.  That must move enough air to really
froth-up the wort!  I have no more information than that.

= Martin A. Lodahl   			  Pacific*Bell Staff Analyst =
= malodah at pbmoss.Pacbell.COM       Sacramento, CA       916.972.4821 =
= If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, =
= Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me!  8-)   =


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Date:     Sat, 23 Feb 91 21:35 EST
From: <S94TAYLO%USUHSB.BITNET at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject:  Sterilizing your immersion wort cooler

If you have the type of wort cooler made of copper coils that carries cold
water through it and want to know how to sterilize it, relax.  Simply put the
cooler into the boiling wort during the last 10-15 minutes.  That's it!  Just
make sure the outside is clean.
Al Taylor
Uniformed Services University
School of Medicine
Bethesda, Maryland
s94taylo at usuhsb.bitnet

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #584, 02/25/91
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