HOMEBREW Digest #807 Wed 22 January 1992

Digest #806 Digest #808


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


Contents:
  NA Beers (Tom Dimock)
  Whitbread (1098), brewery investments ("Dr. John")
  re: publicly traded breweries (darrylri)
  re: Toffee notes (Carl West)
  re: Agar substitutes  (Carl West)
  Wetting grain for grain mill crushing (Carl West)
  Wort Chillers (Frosty D. Snowman)
  Mineral Content in Hot H2O (Drew Lawson)
  re THM (Chip Hitchcock)
  Re: Autoclaving carboys e (Chris Thompson)
  Re: ss ferment (Tom Quinn 5-4291)
  Yeast Starters / Faucet Adapters (Rich Lenihan)
  Hydrometer Reading (Alan Mayman)
  re: CO2 volumes/temp/pressure chart for kegging (key) (John Hartman)
  Coriander (Ed Westemeier)
  Are Eckhardt's formulae correct? (Stephen Russell)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 09:00:40 EST From: Tom Dimock <RGG at CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu> Subject: NA Beers For those interested in home brewing NA beers - write to Great Fermentations of Santa Rosa (address in Zymurgy, I don't have it here) and ask for their latest newsletter. It has an excellent article on brewing NA beers using a boil - ferment - boil process. The author claims his NA beers are just as good as his A beers... Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 09:50:45 EST From: "Dr. John" <JELJ at CORNELLA.cit.cornell.edu> Subject: Whitbread (1098), brewery investments Greetings, I read with interest, as always, George Fix's excellent post in today's HBD (#806). There is one point which I am a little unclear on though, is the 3-strain culture only the dried stuff, or is Wyeast 1098 the same combination in "liquid" (pure?) form? And if this is indeed the case, am I maintaining all 3 strains when I cook up slants in my kitchen "lab" and innoculate them directly from a freshly opened Wyeast packet? Chuck Cox, I beleive that the Capital Brewery in Middleton, WI made a public offering of some sort a few years ago. I don't know if their securities are listed or traded anywhere, perhaps someone in the Mad City has some information they could share with us. Ooogy wawa, Dr. John Return to table of contents
Date: Tue Jan 21 06:54:50 1992 From: darrylri at microsoft.com Subject: re: publicly traded breweries Chuck, I'd like to supply you with the info you're looking for, but alas, I don't have it. CAMRA has a trading club for UK breweries. However, I believe that they are losing their collective shirts right now. (I seem to recall reading that the fund is worth 89% of its original investment.) My former motorcycle dealer was a home brewer. Unless someone else was buying, however, he only bought Bud. To show his support of A-B, he bought a single share in order to frame and hang up. This was a number of years ago, and in the 70s, A-B stock value rose enough that they split 3 for 1. A-B has ever since been trying to get him to turn in his share certificate for a new one for three shares, but he doesn't feel the need to do that. --Darryl Richman Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 12:00:21 EST From: eisen at kopf.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Carl West) Subject: re: Toffee notes If your `toffee' flavor is anything like the `brown sugar' flavor I got in my last good batch, I would suspect that a caramel additive is what you're after. The batch in question was made with a can of American Eagle un-hopped light and a can of John Bull hopped amber (which has caramel listed as one of it's ingredients) and there was a bit of scorching in the kettle (more caramel?). Your idea (b) may well be a way of getting what you're after. Carl WISL,BM. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 12:08:55 EST From: eisen at kopf.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Carl West) Subject: re: Agar substitutes I recently made up some `solidified wort' using one package of Knox (tm) unflavored gelatine to one cup of wort.I pressure cooked it in it's jars for 10 min at 15 psi and it set up just fine. I used screw-top jars and put a little of the wort-gel in each, cooked 'em, tightened their lids and laid them on their sides to cool. I haven't had a chance to try putting any yeast on them yet so I don't know if they will work in that regard, but they *look* like they might work. Mmmmm! malt Knox Blox! :-} Carl WISL,BM. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 11:06:12 EST From: eisen at kopf.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Carl West) Subject: Wetting grain for grain mill crushing A Dietz's question brought to mind one of my own: When I ground/crushed malt for the first time I found that I was getting a fair bit of flour if I was breaking up grains at all, that is, to avoid getting flour, I had to avoid crushing grain :-/ Perhaps the grain was too dry? I'm sure it hadn't been stored well. Any good suggestions for re-hydrating it? How about running soaked grain through a Corona-type mill? Anyone with experience in this? Carl West WISL,BM. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 12:31:10 -0500 From: frosty at mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Frosty D. Snowman) Subject: Wort Chillers Hi all. I have a question. (Imagine that huh?) I am still an extract brewer, and when I sparge to my fermenter, I do it via papazian (ie. into cold water) I do not run it through a wort chiller. It does take a certain amount of time to strain the hops and such. Does this small amount of time make a difference. What is the big advantage to using a wort chiller. I know that in all grain brewing, temperature considerations are very important, but is this also true with extract? Lastly, if someone has some good ideas for making a wort chiller, I would love to see them (via email is fine). I read a little about it in Miller and Papazian. Thanks for the time, Frosty Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 12:45:28 -0500 From: lawson at BDCD102.nrl.navy.mil (Drew Lawson) Subject: Mineral Content in Hot H2O There has been a lot of traffic recently on the "hot or cold water" issue (one of the standard recurrant threads). There was an extensive discussion of this a couple months back on Compuserve, of which I only caught the tail end. :-( There was one point from that, hovever, that I would like to contribute. The water you get from your hot water tap may be significantly different in mineral content from that you get from the cold. The problem in this case is that the iron level may be significantly elevated. Of course, this depends on the construction of your heater, as well as its age. +------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Drew Lawson | If you're not part of the solution, | | lawson at bdcd102.nrl.navy.mil | you're part of the precipitate | | 71141.1660 at CompuServe.COM | | +------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 92 12:29:33 EST From: cjh at vallance.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: re THM richard at pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) says (referencing Miller's CHHB): > He also says that chloroform is another name for THM. IFF Miller says that, he blows much of his credibility as a chemist. THM ("trihalomethane[s]") is a generic term including fluoroform (very rare), chloroform, bromoform, and iodoform. (Fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine are all halogens(*); -form is an old suffix meaning a molecule consisting 3 of the named halogen and one hydrogen all attached to one carbon.) THM also includes all permutations of the above (e.g., 2 chlorine + 1 each bromine, hydrogen, carbon). Most of the THM in ]typical[ water is probably chloroform, but the analysis doesn't distinguish---THM's are similar enough chemically that distinguishing at low levels is (a) difficult and (b) unnecessary---you don't particularly want \any/ of them in your water. (*)My memory of the bottom of the periodic table is fuzzy---I think the heaviest halogen is astatine, which is radioactive and \very/ rare. Actually, the previous quote doesn't help Miller look good either: > ``I draw my brewing and sparge water > from the hot water tap at about 150'F; at this temperature, chloroform > boils and chlorine gasses out in a few minutes.'' 65C sounds a little low for the boiling point of chloroform, but I don't have a reference with me. However, the boiling point of a pure liquid has nothing to do with the temperature to which you have to heat a mixture in which that liquid is the lowest-boiling compound in order to drive off the last bit of it. At any temperature, vapor from water with a few ppm of chloroform in it will be mostly water---the concentration of chloroform will be higher in the vapor than in the underlying liquid, but not much. I wouldn't even bet on boiling to remove the last few ppm, as it's an asymptotic process---the lower the concentration, the less you can get out. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 13:30:01 -0500 From: Chris Thompson <christ at sci.ccny.cuny.edu> Subject: Re: Autoclaving carboys e Someone asked if anyone had access to large lab equipment, and if so, have they tried autoclaving carboys. He was worried about the glass cracking. We do, we did, it did. Scratch one carboy. Chris - -- Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 12:26:38 CST From: quinnt at turing.med.ge.com (Tom Quinn 5-4291) Subject: Re: ss ferment Al says Date: Mon, 20 Jan 92 14:22 CST From: korz at ihlpl.att.com Curt asks where the trub would end up after swirling the chilled wort. It should result in something like this: | | |------------| | | | | | | | | | tt | | tttt | |___tttttt___| Where the "t's" represent the trub. Siphon from the edge of the pot. Al. I tried the above approach on my last two batches (which are still fermenting). It certainly was faster and easier than my previous pour-through-the-strainer method, which took a _long_ time through my small strainer. However, this implies skipping the sparge-the-hops step as described in TCJOHB and other places. Or am I wrong? Do folks scoop the trub from pot after the siphon and sparge? Or is the trub just tossed? Tom Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 13:57:59 EST From: rich at bedford.progress.COM (Rich Lenihan) Subject: Yeast Starters / Faucet Adapters 2 questions: Yeast Starters: I've recently started using liquid yeast (Wyeast) and while I'm sold on their value for brewing, I've twice had trouble getting the yeast started. In each instance, I popped the seal, the package swelled within 24 hours and then I added the yeast to my prepared starters (once a dilute dextrose solution, once a dilute wort solution). Both times the yeast died in the starter. Is there a *simple* sure-fire no-miss method for preparing yeast starters. Note that I don't currently have access to an auto-clave or pressure cooker. Faucet Adapters: I recently purchased an immersion chiller and was very excited about using it the first time. Tested it out at home and it worked fine. Brewing time: different story. Somehow, in my haste or excitement, I managed to strip the threads on my faucet adapter. So, not only couldn't I get the hose to the chiller in straight, I can no longer get the aerator back in place. My wife is not too thrilled (nor would my landlord be if he knew). I figure a trip to the hardware store and some $ will fix the faucet. What I'd like in the future is some sort of adapter that would allow me to put the hose onto the faucet without removing the aerator. Ideally, this device would allow the hose to snap onto the faucet without screwing. Does anyone know of such a gizmo? Thanks, -Rich Rich Lenihan UUCP: mit-eddie!progress!rich Progress Software Corp. Internet: rich at progress.com "Beer is a mellow drink, but it keeps you on the run..." - The Bartender's Bounce Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 16:12:42 -0500 From: Alan Mayman <maymanal at scvoting.fvo.osd.mil> Subject: Hydrometer Reading Howdy, I recently aquired a hydrometer for my extract brewing edification, and have been getting what seems to be really low readings. I have checked my thermometer against a fever thermometer and checked the hydromter in tap water and everything checks out at 60 deg. But this weekend I brewed a batch with 9.6 pounds (3.3 dark, 3.3 amber, 3 dark DME) and my triple checked hydromter reading was only 1.042. Does this seem low to you vetrans and if so, what might I be doing wrong? my new motto: "When In Doubt, Drink A Homebrew" Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 08:31:43 -0500 From: hartman at varian.varian.com (John Hartman) Subject: re: CO2 volumes/temp/pressure chart for kegging (key) In HBD 805, Ken Key writes: >Folks were curious about the chart I got for finding the >pressure to use to artifically carbonate beer. I entered it >in and it can be anon. FTP'ed from cs.utk.edu in the >/pub/key/ directory as co2-chart. The chart is approx. >154 char wide by 44 lines long of text. It was printed from the If someone with access to the internet could kindly email it to me at hartman at varian.com this brewer would greatly appreciate it. Thanks John Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 21:45:53 EST From: homebrew at tso.uc.EDU (Ed Westemeier) Subject: Coriander Danny Breiden asks about crushing coriander. Ray Spangler (who should know) says that your 2-3 year old coriander will be OK to use (R,DW,HAH). Crush it slightly (just run it through the grain mill like your malt). A Half to one teaspoon in the boil is normally quite enough. Dry-"hopping" (dry-seeding) with it is at least three times more effective per unit quantity used. Coriander should be used very sparingly -- just enough to give a slight twist to the brew. When you drink it, you should not be able to recognize the flavor, unless you know what you are tasting for. It should just be "some kind of slightly unusual twist" to the brew. Note that this is extremely effective in a sour mash beer. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 23:18:54 EST From: srussell at snoopy.msc.cornell.edu (Stephen Russell) Subject: Are Eckhardt's formulae correct? WARNING: HIGHLY NERDLY QUESTION IMMINENT!! Ok, you were warned...:-) In Fred Eckhardt's book, _The_Essentials_of_Beer_Style_, he quotes the following formulae on p. 29: (1) AE = RE + .46(ALC) and on p. 31: (2) ALC = .4167(OG - AE) where: ALC = weight percent alcohol (3.5% goes in as 3.5) AE = apparent extract, in degrees Plato, which is just the final gravity RE = real extract, in degrees Plato, which is the final gravity of the 'wort' you'd get if you boiled off the alcohol OG = original gravity, in degrees Plato with degrees Plato = .25(G - 1), G = specific gravity in g/cc, and the density of alcohol = .796 g/cc at 60F. I attempted to derive these, using reasonable (IMHO) approximations and taking it as only to first-order. Although the relationships I got were similar, the numbers weren't. If anyone else has done this, did you get Eckhardt's numbers? Anyone else interested in trying? Please e-mail to me directly; I am sure this is not of general interest. Yes, I know, I have nothing better to do with my time 8-) Yours in Nerdly Bliss and Heavenly Suds, STEVE =============================================================================== Stephen Russell Graduate Student, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Internet: srussell at snoopy.msc.cornell.edu work: 607-255-4648 Bitnet: srussell at crnlmsc3 home: 607-273-7306 =============================================================================== Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #807, 01/22/92