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


Contents:
  a question (CARRIER)
  My extract rate woes, your responses. (Jim White)
  Dextrin Malts (doug)
  Chicago Beer Society FAQ (R.Deschner)
  Refrig. temp control; effect of exposing fermenter to light (Tom Kaltenbach)


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Date:     Thu, 31 Dec 92 06:29 CDT
From: <CARRIER%FNALC.bitnet at UICVM.UIC.EDU>
Subject:  a question

        I am new to the net, and I need a answer to a question quickly be-
cause I am going on vacation and want to do some brewing while I am off.
        It seems that most people are brewing large quantities at a time-
5 gallons or so. My question is- can a beginner brew only 1 or 2 gallons at
a time and still get good results?
        Any help on this is needed by New Years day at about 7 am, thats when
my well deserved vacation begins. Thanks for the help.      Bob
        replies received at    SMTP%"CARRIER at FNAL.FNAL.GOV"    graciously.

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Date:    Thu, 31 Dec 92 07:53:38 EST
From: Jim White <JWHITE at MAINE.maine.edu>
Subject: My extract rate woes, your responses.

I recently posted a note re: my poor extract rate and recvd a number of
helpful responses. Thought I'd share them here.....


 - I used only 3.5 gals of sparge water for 10 lbs of grain. Respondees
  unanimously suggested I up that to 4.5 or more gals. Thanx, I'll do that.
  I ended up boiling the wort down to about 4 gals, and needed to add some
  to get back to 5 gals. I didn't test the gravity prior to the dilution.

 - It was suggested that I do some analysis on my water. I should strive to
  get my sparge water to about 5.5 pH. Here's what I did...

   I went to an aquarium store and picked up a pH test kit, ( one of these
   where you drop x drops of this stuff into a measured amount of water, than
   note the color).

    Results

    Source                               pH

    Water fresh (cold) from tap.         7.0  (Water district said it'd be 8.3)
    Same boiled with cover off(20mins)   8.0
    Same boiled with cover on(20mins)    8.0
    Same raised to 180F                  7.0
    Same raised to 200F                  7.3 (approx)

    I noted absolutely no mineral precipitation in my boiler after a 1/2 hour
    boil. I had also expected the pH to drop as a result of the boil, but
    the opposite occured. Adding 1t of Gypsum to about 2 gals of boiled water
    did not lower the pH a measurable amount (still looked the same color).
    I suppose it's near enough to neutral so as to expect little help from
    the gypsum.

    What seemed odd was that the pH started to raise between 180 and 200F.

    In any event, it seems I need to acidify. I'll see what's available at the
    local Homebrew supplier. I wonder, though, would a small quantity of
    Orange juice accomplish the acidification w/o making the resultant beer
    tastes like a morning breakfast drink. If so, how much?



Jim White


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Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 08:52:47 EDT
From: doug <doug at metabolism.bitstream.com>
Subject: Dextrin Malts

   Greetings:
   I was speaking to a local brewpub brewer recently and he suggested
   to me that dextrin malts should be added later in the mash than
   pale grains.  Any thoughts on this?

   Thanks in advance
   doug connolly, doug at bitstream.com


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Date: 31 December 1992 13:12:06 CST
From: R.Deschner at UIC.EDU
Subject: Chicago Beer Society FAQ

Rob Bradley asked, so let's just make this general...

The Chicago Beer Society's monthly homebrewer meetings are held on the
first Thursday of every month, at 7:30PM, at Goose Island Brewery, 1800 N
Clyborn Ave. There are also monthly single-topic homebrewer meetings,
where the making of a specific style is covered in depth, two major
public blind tastings each year, an annual AHA-sanctioned homebrew
contest, an annual Beer Judge Certification Exam, the Blues n Brews
Cruise on Lake Michigan, a picnic, periodic pub crawls by chartered bus,
and the annual Membership Meeting in January.

In general you should come to the Goose Island meeting on the first
Thursday to find out about these.

Dues-paying members receive the (roughly) quarterly newsletter
"Hoppenings", get major discounts on admission to all CBS tastings and
other events, and get the year's "beer item", such as an apron (to keep
wort splashes off your clothing), or some kind of glassware.

For more information, call or write
    CHICAGO BEER SOCIETY, BOX 1057, LA GRANGE IL 60525, 708-692-BEER
or just show up at Goose Island on the first Thursday - complete
membership materials will be available.

(No disclaimer. Yes, I am connected with the Chicago Beer Society.)

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Date: Thu, 31 Dec 92 7:20 EST
From: tom at kalten.bach1.sai.com (Tom Kaltenbach)
Subject: Refrig. temp control; effect of exposing fermenter to light


   I have a question concerning the effects of exposing a fermenter to a 
constant light source.  But first, I'll explain the reason for my 
question.  Here's the scenario:  I have been brewing my first lager in 
the refrigerator in my garage.  I use a Hunter Air-Stat to control the 
temperature in the frig to within a degree or two.  As the weather has 
gotten colder, however, so has the refrigerator, and there's nothing the 
Hunter monitor can do to correct for too low a temperature.  A friend of 
mine suggested a simple solution to this problem:  mount a light bulb 
inside the refrigerator, and always leave it on.  This provides a slow 
but steady warming of the frig, regardless of the outside air 
temperature.  I tried it, and it works quite well:  a 15-watt bulb 
provides enough heat that the frig runs for a total of an hour or so in 
a 24-hour period (5 or 6 minutes at a time).  

   However, I'm concerned about the effects of light on the beer and 
yeast.  I am aware that exposure to ultraviolet light is undesirable.  
I've been told that incandescent bulbs (as opposed to fluorescent) 
should not produce much UV light, and certainly 15 watts is not very 
powerful, but the bulb is only a foot or so from the fermenter.  I've 
also read that plastic is a strong absorber of ultraviolet light.  I 
normally use a plastic fermenter for the primary, and a glass carboy for 
the secondary, but in this case I used a plastic secondary as well.  

   Now for my question:  does anyone know which wavelengths of light are 
most harmful to the beer/yeast?  I'd like to use the glass secondary as 
I usually do.  I could use a colored light bulb to eliminate various 
regions of the light, for example, a yellow bulb should filter out blue 
light, etc.  Is there an easier (and inexpensive) solution?  Maybe a 
very low-power heating element?  Or am I just worrying unnecessarily 
about the exposure to light?

   Thanks for your thoughts.

Tom Kaltenbach
Rochester, New York
tom at kalten.bach1.sai.com

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #1046, 01/01/93