HOMEBREW Digest #1571 Sat 05 November 1994

Digest #1570 Digest #1572


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


Contents:
  Decoction Riddle, Pumpkin Ale! (Gary S. Kuyat)
  Ah Chillin-  The Kewl Whey! (COYOTE)
  Cornelius Keg Source (Alec Saunders)
  Manifold Venting/ G'nite Hops / BS-ing a storm! (COYOTE)
  Copyright Discussion (Gregg_Weir#123#Notes#c#_Gregg_Weir#064#DCI#125#)
  Water expanding ("pratte")
  Solenoid Valves ("Joe Stone")
  bulk extract quality question (Dan Sherman)
  Free Refrig! (Brad Roach)
  Do It Right ... Or Not At All (Richard A Childers)
  Wort chillers, Cornelius kegs, CO2 tanks, regulators (I'll buy you a ewe!)
  homemade crystal (Rich Hill)
  Can you malt barley? (Mark A. Stevens)
  Frugal Brewing Guide: Thank you HBD'ers! ("Robert W. Mech")
  Water and carboys.... (dbrigham)
  Idea's needed for cleaning bottle (Todd S. Taylor x4613)
  My last word on propane cooking indoors ("CANNON_TOM")
  a fermenting-time  observation (RONALD DWELLE)
  King Kooker Users-HELP (EKTSR)
  Re: dried apricots (bio_hannan)
  just curious (Stephanie Dolgoff)
  Re: Belgium Here I Come! (Spencer.W.Thomas)

****************************************************************** * NEW POLICY NOTE: Due to the incredible volume of bouncing mail, * I am going to have to start removing addresses from the list * that cause ongoing problems. In particular, if your mailbox * is full or your account over quota, and this results in bounced * mail, your address will be removed from the list after a few days. * * If you use a 'vacation' program, please be sure that it only * sends a automated reply to homebrew-request *once*. If I get * more than one, then I'll delete your address from the list. ****************************************************************** Send articles for __publication_only__ to homebrew at hpfcmi.fc.hp.com (Articles are published in the order they are received.) Send UNSUBSCRIBE and all other requests, ie, address change, etc., to homebrew-request@ hpfcmi.fc.hp.com, BUT PLEASE NOTE that if you subscribed via the BITNET listserver (BEER-L at UA1VM.UA.EDU), then you MUST unsubscribe the same way! If your account is being deleted, please be courteous and unsubscribe first. FAQs, archives and other files are available via anonymous ftp from sierra.stanford.edu. (Those without ftp access may retrieve files via mail from listserv at sierra.stanford.edu. Send HELP as the body of a message to that address to receive listserver instructions.) Please don't send me requests for back issues - you will be silently ignored. For "Cat's Meow" information, send mail to lutzen at novell.physics.umr.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Nov 94 12:28:06 EST From: Gary S. Kuyat <gsk at sagan.bellcore.com> Subject: Decoction Riddle, Pumpkin Ale! Full-Name: Gary S. Kuyat For some strange reason, everybody who talks about decoction mashing seems to speak in riddles. Q: What is the heaviest third of the mash? A: The stiffest third! Answers like this are in lots of books, and most people who have never actually done a "triple decoction mash" answer like this 'cause they're not sure! All we're talking about here is taking a strainer, and scooping up the GRAINS, with just enough liquid to keep it from burning. You need to dough in first, and you should let the mash sit for about 1/2 hour before your 1st decotion. The grains will have absorbed liquid, and you really don't want much more liquid than what's in the grain. The reason you want to get mostly GRAIN in your 1st decoction is, when you boil it, startches are released. This is the same reason that you DON'T want any grain in the final decoction. - ------- Regarding Pumpkin Ale... For this Halloween I made my "Pumpkinest Ale". What is the secret to Pumpkinest?!? First off, 70% of my fermentables were from pumpkin!!! Six row, with saaz hops baked to flavorlessness (for preservative). I used canned Libby's pumpkin in the mush. (No typo, this was MUSH!) I had to leave it in the oven at 150F for 9 hours to get conversion! I used a low attenuating yeast to leave it sweet. To my shock, after a lively ferment, it tasted like BEER in the secondary! Sure, you could taste some pumpkin in there, but not like what I wanted... So, I bought a cheese pumpkin (the kind for pie, not for Jackolanters), peeled and seeded it, and ran it through a juice machine (like for carrot juice). I took the bright orange juice, and pressure cooked it for 15 minutes, to kill it, and coagulate the starches. I cooled this, and added it to the secondary. Some additional fermentation followed, and the final result (after adding 1 gallon of juice) was MAJORLY PUMPKIN! My advice to aspiring pumpkin brewers is: 1> Brew an english bitter, or best bitter, without the hops. Use saaz, baked at 250F until crispy, in the boil for 30 minutes. No pumpkin in the mash. It's a pain to work with, and I've never gotten GREAT results just using that. 2> Let it ferment out, and transfer to the secondary. Juice a fresh pumpkin- canned is LAME. There is a BIG difference between fresh and canned, even in pie! To the juice, add your pie spices, I use cinnamon, ginger and clove. Pressure cook this for 15 minutes. Cool, and add to the secondary - 1 part juice to 4 parts beer. Let it ferment out, and bottle keg or lager as is your custom. If you don't have a juicer, ask around. My mom had one from years ago, and I wouldn't have known if I didn't ask. Every ten years or so "juicing" comes into fashion, and then fades, 'cause it's a pain. If you can't get a pressure cooker, boil - I guess, but pressure really clumps up the starches. At our club meeting, more that one person said that I should serve my ale with a squirt of whipped cream! - -- -Gary "Pumpkin" Kuyat gsk at sagan.bellcore.com (908)699-8422 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 1994 10:38:48 -0600 (MDT) From: COYOTE <SLK6P at cc.usu.edu> Subject: Ah Chillin- The Kewl Whey! > Jimmy Fingerle email (internet): fingerle at nadc.navy.mil >if I had the $$, I'd have a wine celler, a heat and humidity chamber for my musclecar Buick, and a stabilized walk-in refridgerator for lagering, another for fermenting, another for serving British ales, another for...well, you get the picture. * Ain't gonna cost me a whole lotta money! Well- at least I hope not. I'm still working out details of my cooler/lagerer. But I'll give a little preview. Once it's in place I'll post my copywrited plans to the hbd for publication all over. But I'll insist upon the right to come and visit your house to sample your beer if you use and implement my ideas! Here's the basic plan in pseudo ascii. Please don your 3D glasses at this time Ceiling. Joists running at you! Duck! _______\_____\_____\_____\_____\____\_____\ Wall / Window | | _ | | _ | | | | | | /| Hot air | | / \ ----------- / vents | | | | <--|Window air | outside | | | | -->|Conditioner| cooler | shelf | --- ----------- next to |------------------------------------------- wall with window | fan | fan | | to furnace room | | | /\ | | next door | | | | | | | \/ | | | | | | | | ____________________________________________ The uprights and frame are gonna be studs, while the walls will be waferboard with fiberglass and vapor barrier insulation. I've got some metal plates with holes that I'll build into the shelf where the fans will sit. I've also got some wire- fridge shelves which would work fine. I want air to circulate from top to bottom but I also want to be able to shut them off so the two halves (upper, lower) can be held at different temperatures. The fans are computer fans I've scavenged over the years. The window air conditioner I got salvage for $5. Works FINE! I bought a hunter airstat fridge controller. Right now it's serving as the most expensive digital thermometer I've ever bought! (~$30) The studs I'll buy. Figure...$2 by about a dozen. The waver board I got scrap, the insulation was $6 for a roll, plastic-cheap. I'll be walling off the back side of the conditioner to vent out of the room into the rest of the basement. I had a door covered with metal on one side. It's the base. Sitting on cinder blocks on a dirt floor. It's a heavy door so I figure it'll be a good base support, and insulate well. I'll put some big doors on the front so I can move carboys in and out. It'll hold kegs upright, or laying down, and plenty of space for cases and carboys. It's gonna be 5 feet long, and a bit more tall. About 2.5 ft deep. Should give me plenty of room. The furnace room sits now at a comfy 62-4. The dirt room has a vent to the outside and is now a chilly 56. If I were to even just pull in outside air I'd probably chill it right down. But I want something that'll work in the summer too! But at least for now- the cooler shouldn't have to run much at all to keep things at 40. If I put the sensor on top, the bottom should stay even cooler- so I may not have to modify the airstat. ?? The garage is down to 40's but is still rather variable. Especially on bru or laundry day! It can get quite warm. I got my first lagers started, and with any luck I'll have this thrown together enough to toss them in by the time they are ready for chillin! Later Gator. I'll keep ya'll updated. Oh- you can take off those silly glasses now! You look foolish! John (The Coyote) Wyllie SLK6P at cc.usu.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 94 22:52:59 PST From: Alec Saunders <alecs at microsoft.com> Subject: Cornelius Keg Source Klaus Vogel writes: "I am looking for an economical source for cornelius kegs.I am from Canada and the local supplier charges $70 for the standard 20 litre stainless steel type.This is just too much for my budget.On a related topic,is there any mail order homebrew suppliers located in Canada?The costs and hassels of cross border mailing makes it just not worth it." I recently bought a full kegging system from Spagnol's just outside Vancouver in BC. It was cheaper for me to drive to Vancouver from Seattle than to buy it locally -- I saved about $150 US. I don't have a phone number handy for them, but they're in the book and they do mail order. Alec. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 1994 11:20:11 -0600 (MDT) From: COYOTE <SLK6P at cc.usu.edu> Subject: Manifold Venting/ G'nite Hops / BS-ing a storm! *** > From: Spencer.W.Thomas at med.umich.edu Subject: Re: Superior manifold design > My manifold has a vent pipe. At first, I liked it, because it kept me (I thought) from drawing wort from the grain bed too fast -- it starts entraining ("sucking") air into the sweet wort. > Now I don't like it because of the same reason. It's essentially impossible to run the sparge from a 20lb mash (in a 10 gallon cooler) slowly enough so that it doesn't entrain some air through the vent. So I plug the end of the vent with a clamped bit of plastic tubing. > Why not get rid of the vent all together? Because I use it to underlet my mash infusions. I think I get better mixing this way, by putting the hot stuff in at the bottom instead of the top. * i kinda figure that the other way, since it's gonna flow from top to bottom, if it goes in the top, the thick stuff comes out the bottom, then get thinner later. I probably don't get temp changes down in the bottom of my cooler, but oh well. Enough does. * This is from an old post of fine. I've recently updated my system and thought I'd share it again. As it all depends on VENTS. old post.... Ok now to attempt some ASCI diagrams- I know they've been done before...but Top View: Side View: IN>>> ------------------ |-------------------| | Sparge water sprinkles |-------------------| Down| T-up | |--> Tube| |-------------------| | Manifold system |-------------------| |--------------------|__Spigot OUT>>> I think we need a verbal description here too. I have a 48qt rectangular cooler. I removed the drain valve. Drilled a hole at the opposite top. Collected suitable hardware for threaded connections inside and outside the drain- attached a standard garden hose faucet outside the cooler. The manifold is made from 4 lengths of 3/8" tubing sawed through halfway (hack). Connected with T-pieces and small pieces as needed. The middle end pieces are T's. Drain side goes out, the opposite attaches to the Down tube. A T at the tops of the down tube exits the cooler through the hole drilled there, and also attaches to the Sparge Tube. This tube extends across the top of the cooler, and has holes drilled on both sides. The advantages of this tube and T are that I can place a bucket w/spigot above the cooler containing hot sparge water, and let it trickle onto the mash bed. I can control the in-flow rate to match the out-flow rate. Constant bed height. I can also remove the sparge tube, close that off and underlet water into the bed- It is all within the cooler so sprinkling does not cause heat loss. * What I suggest now after much use is that during sparging the vent should be closed off completely so that air is not drawn into the runoff- a possible source of HSA. Also seems to slow the sparge too much. I tried clamping and plugging off the upper T of the manifold (IN-let). I still got bubbles in my outflow. So I tried putting a copper cap on the T at the bottom of the DOWN tube and basically removing the down tube. I wasn't using the underletting ability anyway. Hell I even stopped using the sprinkler attachment, and just pour sparge water into a saucepan or colander sitting on the grainbed! If I ever put a spigot on a pot I'll use it, but my sparge water was too hot for my plastic buckets. I could still use the sparge sprinkler, but I have decided that I prefer having the manifold closed off at the end to gain proper flow through the grain bed. New Side View: IN>> --|-- cap _ |-------------------|__Spigot OUT>>> Maybe Dick is right afterall. Simpler is better. *** Just a hoppy note before I go. Put the bines to sleep yesterday. It was a somber moment to snip the glory and thickness of vine. But not all was of sorrowful loss, for alas there be new shoot buds already formed along the base of the crown. Some above, and some below ground. But most pretty red and purple rocket heads waiting to soar into a new spring after their winters slumber. So I puffed up a pillow of peat, and laid them to sleep with a blanket of straw strewn atop. There they will sit awaiting to mark the end of the ski season. And the beginning of new spring constructs in the Coyote's garden. (trellises and arbors. Money, time, and the wife permitting!) Brew On Hoppily!! John (The Coyote) Wyllie SLK6P at cc.usu.edu Oh- about all the bs of late....I think if what's his name had said in the initial offer of printing the HBD that it was a NOT FOR PROFIT effort all the hoopla could'a been avoided. So just friggin' drop it now! And who does what where....it's all relevant. That's part of the joy of internet- touching the whole country, the whole word. Plus there's always mail order which makes it all relevant. Travel pulls us to brewpubs... Just suck it up and hit fast forward if it's not something you prefer! It never came up in public- but recently someone borrowed portions of the Mead lovers version of the Cat's Meow (Bees Lees) for a publication. He asked permisssion, and I figure I get my name in lights, and a copy of the booklet (hell- it's only $4.95- he can't be making much!) then what the heck. But basically- he was using our stuff, plus a bunch that he collected and putting it in print for distribution. No biggee. If you want to save you designs, ideas, thoughts, beliefs...from the public. Don't bring em here. I don't like the idea of someone making money off of what should be free, especially if I gave it to em. But there are enough free sources of access to the hbd that I can't see any of us losing out. Personally I wouldn't want to waste all the damned paper. The crap that get spewed around here isn't worth it! A little here and there, but not the whole entire thing. I don't need a printout of brewstores in Jersey, but I know someone who could. So he can print it for himself! I'll hang on to the portions of interest to me. Well now I'm caught up on hbds. So I'm outa here. John. But really-lets get back to business and keep email to email, and brew to brew! Return to table of contents
Date: 03 Nov 94 07:34:49 GMT From: Gregg_Weir#123#Notes#c#_Gregg_Weir#064#DCI#125# at mail.discovery.com Subject: Copyright Discussion Greetings Fellow Brewers- Just a suggestion here. Instead of discussing copyright law and how it applies to your posts, do us all a favor. Do some research. Unless you are an attorney whose practice specializes in Copyright Law and Intellectual Property don't make some half-baked comment. You only look foolish and you are wasting time on something that won't make your beer taste better. We all want to make better beer and that is why we read the HBD. If you don't have something constructive to add to making us all better HOMEBREWERS, keep your ego and comments to yourself. If you feel you have a copyright that has been infringed, get a lawyer and proceed. Until a violation has been made, there is nothing to talk about. This is a forum for making better home brew, not gossipi ng on law theory. Can we please get back to an open discussion on BREWING PRACTICES, and leave the legal discussions out of this forum? I know this post hasn't added to making a better homebrew but it is tedious to continue to read the hackneyed legalese that has been posted. If you think you have ideas, practices, knowledge that is worth copyrighting, please publish them and do the homebrew world a favor. If you want to discuss homebrew practices, you're in the right place. But please, quit whining about your posts and having your copyrights violated. Don't post in a PUBLIC forum if you have a worry about someone using your idea without your express written permission. And to you wanna be lawyers, it's never too late to change careers or majors. But until you know excactly what you're talking about, stick to home brew discussion. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 14:44:16 EST From: "pratte" <PRATTE at GG.csc.peachnet.edu> Subject: Water expanding In today's post, MR_SPOCK correctly states that the boiling point of water is increased and not decreased by the addition of sugars. However, I would like to clarify something else he wrote. He said that water expands when it is cooled down. Please note that this is only true NEAR THE FREEZING POINT. Away from the freezing point (4 C and higher), water expands with INCREASING temperature. A perfect display of this is to fill your glass carboy to near the brim with cool tap water. If you allow the water to warm to room temperature (hopefully 10 C higher), you'll notice that the water will overflow the carboy. Try it, science is fun. John - -------------------------- Dr. John M. Pratte Clayton State College pratte at gg.csc.peachnet.edu - -------------------------- Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 94 12:18:55 PST From: "Joe Stone" <JSTONE at SJEVM5.VNET.IBM.COM> Subject: Solenoid Valves Jeff Berton and others have used solenoid valves to control the flow of water/wort through their automated/semi-automated brewing systems. Jeff mentioned that he uses a solenoid valve (in conjunction with a float switch) to control the flow of sparge water. In addition to sparge flow control, I would like to use a solenoid valve(s) to redirect the flow of wort from the mash recirculating path to the boiling vessel (once the mash is complete and sparging begins). I'm interested in what types of solenoid valves people are using (make, model, fittings, ...). I've visited a number of my local (San Jose, CA) surplus shops looking for valves and I quickly realized that I had no idea what type of valve I was looking for. Grainger offers a whole line of solenoid valves, but they are all rather expensive. Brass valves seem to be available with larger (>= 3/8") NPT fittings. Stainless valves are only available in smaller (<= 1/4") NPT fittings. I hope to use a three- way valve for the recirculating-path-to-boiling-vessel valve. Grainger only offers smaller diameter three-way valves. If you have a source for reasonably priced new valves (or even a surplus shop which I could access) it would be greatly appreciated. I realize this particular subject is rather specialized and probably not of general interest to the brewing community as a whole so private e-mail would be appreciated. Joe Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 13:19:08 -0800 (PST) From: dsherman at sdcc3.UCSD.EDU (Dan Sherman) Subject: bulk extract quality question I am purely an extract brewer & recently have found some homebrew supply shops near me which sell extract in bulk. I was wondering if there is any appreciable differenct between the different brands of bulk extract. One store has: Alexander's Pale, Amber, and Dark The other has: John Bull Pale, M&F Amber, and Australian (?) Dark All are between $1.50-$1.70 per pound. Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about any of these? Should I be frequenting one shop more than the other? TIA On another note, I can't resist putting in my $.02 about the publication of the HBD thread. As far as the HBD goes, I am much more of a "learner" than a "teacher," so I contribute much less than many others. IMHO, as long as someone is NOT making a profit from distributing hard copies of the HBD, let them! What's the difference between someone paying for an account to access HBD on the internet and someone paying the cost of making an HBD hardcopy? Dan Sherman dsherman at ucsd.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 94 13:52:11 PST From: b_roach at emulex.com (Brad Roach) Subject: Free Refrig! For those of you who live in Southern Calif and more specifically Orange County, read on.... I need to give away soda pop vending machine that has been converted to hold two 5 Gal. soda pop kegs and a 10 lb. CO2 tank. I would like to say that the frig works fine, but I think that the freon has leaked out. The compressor works great but it doesn't get cold anymore. You can reach me at b_roach at emulex.com Brad Roach PS. And keeping with the latest BrewHaHa // ************************************************************ // Copywrite (c) 1994 by me // ************************************************************ Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 18:48:32 -0800 From: pascal at netcom.com (Richard A Childers) Subject: Do It Right ... Or Not At All A lot of people seem to want to smear anyone so foolish as to suggest that the law may be relevant to determining a universally satisfactory answer. With respect to copyright, what we're looking at is 500 to 1000 years of collected experiences and distilled wisdom. Before we toss it out as out- -worn rubbish, perhaps we should examine the consequences of ignoring it. ( I have personally seen two situations where people ignored the law, and in both of those situations, the parties involved are still hurting ... and it hasn't even reached court yet. They could have avoided a lot of problems by consulting with professionals, instead of accepting advice from uninformed amateurs with personal, social and political agendas. So if I'm advising <clayglen at netcom.com> to approach this with caution, it's not because I want to see him hurt ... it's because I don't want to see him become legal cannon fodder for a bunch of uninformed, over-opinionated people who don't understand the issues involved. ) Three cheers to those whom have articulated this understanding, by the way. -=8=- If I was going to publish the Home Brew Digest, here's how I would do it. (1) Read the entire collected digest, developing categories with which to describe the threads contained within. From this we would be able to identify the range of topics. (2) For each thread, locate each specific article and grade it using a 1 to 10 scale or some such. Use this to filter out those articles which are less acceptable. Software would speed these steps up considerably, of course. (3) Skim the top articles for each thread off the stack, and begin reviewing them and contacting the authors. - Some authors will want nothing to do with you. They go into the bottom of the stack, as reserves. - Some authors will want money. You either negotiate with them or put them into another reserve stack, just in case you can't find anyone better. - Some will let you have their copyright, free. Most will want something between ... and you'll want to get a lawyer involved. - The lawyer will do several things. 1 - S/He will verify if this is in the public domain, as some wish to believe. ( :-) 2 - S/He will assist you in drafting a boilerplate agreement ( probably copying it from a book and charging you a few hundred $$ for it ) that'll keep you out of trouble with the law. 3 - S/He will assist you in negotiating with the few individual cases that don't fall into the above-defined neat categories - the curmudgeons and the wanna-be lawyers, like me. (-: (4) Now you have assembled the beginnings of a book. You'll have a lot of editing, a lot of proofreading, a lot of galleys to examine and approve ... typesetting considerations ... layout ... photo-ready copies ... binding ... circulation ... If you've gotten this far, you're a professional. The Home Brew Digest is in good hands. And you have a good reason to charge for it ... you have added some value to the contents and made it publically accessible. If you haven't, you're probably in over your head, and should get out now. But if you're going to do it ... at least, do it right. - -- richard "I gathered I wasn't very well liked. Somehow, the feeling pleased me." _Nine Princes In Amber_, by Roger Zelazny richard childers san francisco, california pascal at netcom.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 1994 18:21:43 -0500 (EST) From: I'll buy you a ewe! <STU_GJCARRIE at VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU> Subject: Wort chillers, Cornelius kegs, CO2 tanks, regulators I just built a wort chiller (25 ft of 3/8 copper tube) that is the kind where the beer goes in the tubing. A question: how do I start the syphon. As long as the exit is lower than the wort entrance a siphon should work, right? Should I gargle grain and suck the tube? That sounds weird... Does anyone know where to get cheap Cornelius kegs? The cheapest I have found is $40 which isn't very cheap to me right now... A local place will give me a leased 20# CO2 tank for $11.50 + $35 a year. Each refil within the year is another $11.50. Worth it? Or should I wait until I can afford to buy one? Buy a smaller one? Any inexpensive sources? Anyone know where to find inexpensive regulators? (Yes...I want to move on to kegging ;) Finally, does anyone have a temp controller for a RIMS serup that they really dig? I am building one based off the Zymurgy article a few years back. An RIMS system that is...I can't build the temp controller from the specs... Umm...sorry about all those questions. Here's some real beer info. My low extract mashing efforts seem to be over. The Cranberry Dopplebock I brewed this weekend has an OG of 1.110 (!!) My mead wasn't that high! I'm sure it's out of style and all, but I'm sure it will be yummy...I am using the Wyeast Bavarian Weizen on it. Thanks in advance for any help... Gregg *********************** We gotta get on the road ***************************** * Gregg Carrier (aka Uncle Zany, the guy in the floppy green hat) * * 332 Old S. High St. stu_gjcarrie at vax1.acs.jmu.edu * * Harrisonburg, VA 22801 (703) 434-8214 * *************************** Destiny Unbound ********************************** Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 20:41:50 -0800 From: rihill at ednet1.osl.or.gov (Rich Hill) Subject: homemade crystal greetings, does anyone here know how to make crystal? I went to brew and my cupboard was bare. Here in the high desert of Oregon that doesn't just mean a trip to the store, it means mail order or a trip over the hill (250 miles). thanks Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 94 23:55:20 EST From: Mark A. Stevens <stevens at stsci.edu> Subject: Can you malt barley? Malting is not a simple process and you should not expect your results to rival those of the commercial malt companies. That said, it is possible to malt your own grains. As usual, if I've made any mistakes here, my kind friends will point them out ;-) MALTING PROCESS IN A NUTSHELL First, you need to select raw barley that is suitable for brewing. A professional maltster measures the amount of protein in the grain, looks for suitable moisture content, etc. You, on the other hand, can only gauge the quality of the grain by look and feel. Look for large plump kernels of 2-row barley. You also want the kernels to be of fairly consistent size to encourage a consistent germination rate later. Okay. You've got your barley, what next? Well, you need to soak it in water. You want the water content of the barley to get up to about 45%. This means that if you're malting 10 pounds of barley, you want it to weigh just over 14 pounds when you're done. The soaking process will take you a minimum of 40 hours, or at least two days. Historically, quality malts were soaked 65-72 hours [1]. During this time you need to change the water at least daily, and preferably every 8 to 12 hours. You could also devise system whereby the water is constantly but slowly drained while being replenished by some type of slow sprayer. Nineteenth century maltsters changed the water every 24 hours, but current practice is to sprinkle fresh water over the grain constantly---which also allows the soaking time to be reduced to the 40-45 hour range. After your barley is soaked, you need to germinate it. The traditional floor malting method should work fairly well for you. To do this, spread your soaked barley on a clean floor to a depth of about 8 inches. The temperature in your germinating room should remain consistent at about 60 degrees F. It will take about 8 to 15 days for the barley to germinate. During this time, you will need to turn and move the barley about every 12 to 24 hours. You should also spray a light mist over it to keep it moist, though not wet. Note that the time the barley takes to germinate properly can vary widely. Less than 8 days is possible, though sometimes as much as 24 days may be required.[1] Examine the barley to see when germination is complete. You want to look for the new growth stemming out from the end of the kernels and up the back of the grain. This growth is called the "acrospire". When the acrospire is roughly the same length as the kernel, the malt is fully modified. If you let it grow longer than the kernel size, the malt is said to be "over modified". If it is shorter than the kernel size, the malt is "under modified". Neither under nor over modified malt is desired. Undermodified malt still has starch in the grain that could be converted to sugar. Overmodified malt has already started consuming the sugars during the normal plant growth cycle. When the malt is fully modified, you need to "kiln" it. This is a 2-step process: drying and curing. In the first step, you are drying the malt at a low heat over a long period of time to drive off the moisture. This is typically done at 90 to 100 degrees F with constant air movement, and takes about 2 days. The grain is done drying when the moisture content drops into the 4 to 5% range. In the curing stage of kilning, the temperature is raised to 172 to 220 degrees F for another day and half to 2 days (in the 1880s, the preferred temperature was 172, in the 20th century, the practice changed to use 180-220 F). If you are producing lighter colored pale ale malts, your malt is now ready. However, if you want darker colored malts, you would increase the temperature during the curing stage to produce what are called "high kilned malts". Some malt varieties would require some changes in the schedule. For a black patent malt, you would roast the malt in a revolving drum at over 400 degrees for one to two hours. For an amber malt, you would increase the temperature during the last 14 hours of drying time to about 140-150 degrees. To make a crystal malt, you would take the germinated barley and heat it to 150-170 degrees for 2 hours with no ventilation, and then increase the temperature to about 250 degrees F. [1,2] REFERENCES: [1] "Steeped in Tradition: The Malting Industry in England", by Jonathan Brown, 1983, University of Reading Institute of Agricultural History, Whiteknights. [2] "Malting and Brewing Science, Volume I", by J.S. Hough et al., 1982, Chapman and Hall, London and New York. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 01:07:50 -0600 (CST) From: "Robert W. Mech" <rwmech at eagle.ais.net> Subject: Frugal Brewing Guide: Thank you HBD'ers! I would just like to take a second and thank ALL of the people who have responded with frugal Ideas on how to brew beer. The Guide is comming along quite nicely. With all of the things I have gathered, anyone who is looking to save money will benifit by this information. Just reading it over *I* have already saved HUNDREDS of dollars (or soon will) by using some of these ideas. PLEASE KEEP THEM COMMING. This guide is no where near finished, I should have a "first release" done by this weekend. I would like to personaly thank those of you who sent in ideas about purchasing hops, grains, malts, etc in bulk. Great Job! To keep you all up to date, we have frugal methods of obtaining/making the following. Fermentors Carboys Bottles Kegs Grains/malts/hops Mash/Lauter Tun's Wort Coolers Siphon Hoses Kettles PLEASE keep them comming so I can add your ideas to this guide! The more items I have the more I can help others by sharing ideas. Im particularly looking for some of the following: Grain Mills (Make your own, or buy alternative) Yeast (make your own recipie) Air Locks (Make your own/Buy Cheap) Burners gas/electric (Make your own/Buy Cheap) Filters (Make/Buy Cheap) Air Pumps/Airation (Make/Buy Cheap) Or if you have any other ideas on ways to save money on brewing by making your own or buying in bulk. PLEASE include phone numbers and/or addresses when recommending a place to buy things in bulk or cheap. Once again, Thanks, to all of you who have submitted your ideas! -- Robert W. Mech - rwmech at eagle.ais.net Freelance IS Support / Administration / Programming "If you want to get it done right, pay somone else to do it for you." Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 94 09:21:50 EST From: dbrigham at nsf.gov Subject: Water and carboys.... Forgive me if this is general knowledge, I have done some reading up, but I haven't found this info yet: - where I reside (Columbia, MD) I do not trust the tap water quality much (haven't tested it tho), I use a Britta for personal drinking water and for formula for the baby. Well, at work we just got a water cooler from Aqua Cool, and the water comes in these nice 5 gallon plastic carboys. Would this quality water be alright for homebrew? There is a label on the carboy: sodium 1.5mg/liter calcium 22mg/l lead 0.0mg/l magnesium 1mg/l arsenic 0.0mg/l bicarbonate 35mg/l nitrate 0.0mg/l chlorine 22mg/l flouride 0.2mg/l sulfate 2mg/l Total Dissolved Solids 84mg/l in 'The New Joy of Home Brewing' concentrations are rated in parts per million/billion - is there a conversion from mg/l? - also, if I were able to get ahold of these plastic 5 gallon carboys, are they worthwhile as primary or secondary fermenting vessels? Thanx to one and all - Dana Brigham, dbrigham at nsf.gov Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 94 09:37:56 EST From: taylorts at e5sf.hweng.syr.ge.com (Todd S. Taylor x4613) Subject: Idea's needed for cleaning bottle I received a bunch of grolsh bottles that need cleaning. I need ideas on how the clean these bottles without alot of work. I'm lazy. Will B-brite work good in each bottle, if they sit for awhile? Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks Todd Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 94 07:59:07 EST From: "CANNON_TOM" <CANNON_TOM at hq.navsea.navy.mil> Subject: My last word on propane cooking indoors I posted last week on the issue of using propane cookers indoors. I want to thank all of the respondants particularly for answering off-line on private E-Mail. Saved valuable band width for more worthwhile discussions :-). I got 28 responses which is exactly what I needed. Comments were uniformly negative, as in don't do it under any circumstances! Rational was on the order of: 1.) Propane sucks in large amounts of oxygen, on the order of depleting an enclosed house of its total supply within an hour. Massive amounts of ventilation required (more than a few open windows) in order to resupply oxygen. 2.) Carbon Monoxide build-up after combustion is also life threatening requiring serious ventilation (again, more than a few open windows). 3.) Big burners are a fire hazard. 4.) Occasionally, you have propane leaks. Being a truly orderless and colorless gas, this can lead to situtations resulting in death. 5.) Propane is not the cleanest burning gas in the world and could result in large soot stains on ceilings. 6.) Do you really want to risk a 15.5 gallon boilover inside a house? I think the bottom line can summerized by the fact that dead brewers make bad beer, so why risk it. The volume of responses is what's important here. The guys I brew with can easily say "well I heard about some guy who uses his in his kitchen and isn't dead yet" to which I can role up hard copies of the responses and beat them senseless (hope this doesn't violate any copyrights). Again, thanks for the input. I started to thank you folks personally, but I began to get overwhelmed by the numbers. The time taken for the personal responses was really appreciated. Tom Cannon DH Brewery Fairfax/Annandale VA Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 94 09:50:06 EST From: dweller at GVSU.EDU (RONALD DWELLE) Subject: a fermenting-time observation Up until last September, I had made a total of 31 batches of all-grain, using a single-stage fermentor (carboy)--no primary / then secondary. Because I was always getting some sludge in the bottom of the carboy and because of G.Fix's notes on fermentor geometry and other comments about open fermenting, I decided to try out the more normal two-stage fermentor, doing a primary in a big open stainless pot and then racking to a carboy for the secondary. I've done three batches that way. My observation--I am getting tremendously longer ferments. The first batch took a total of 32 days to ferment out. The second batch, started October 12, is still bubbling merrily away on November 4. The third batch, started October 19, is still wild. This is three different yeasts (california lager, american ale, canadian ale) in three different types (steam, pale ale, dirty stout). I don't know yet if there's any difference in the beers. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 09:55:58 -0500 From: EKTSR at aol.com Subject: King Kooker Users-HELP To anyone with a King Kooker from Metal Fusion: I am confused as to which model to order. My keg is approx. 14" diameter and ROUNDED on the bottom. Seems the King Kooker models would all be a little unstable with a rounded bottom keg. Could you please private E-mail me the model # of the King Kooker you have and how stable it is?? TIA ! ! Stan White, ektsr at aol.com "The Way to BE is to DO"--Lau Tzu Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 09:58:15 -0500 From: bio_hannan%emuvax.dnet.emich.edu at emunix.emich.edu Subject: Re: dried apricots Why not just use unsulfured (i.e. "organic") dried apricots from a health/ natural foods store? Gary Hannan Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 10:35:17 -0500 (EST) From: Stephanie Dolgoff <dolgoff at GRAPHICS.CS.NYU.EDU> Subject: just curious I just want to see if this is the way to hook up with homebrew digest. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 94 10:37:10 EST From: Spencer.W.Thomas at med.umich.edu Subject: Re: Belgium Here I Come! Kimberly Carney comments that she was unable to buy Jackson's Belgian beer book in the U.S. It is available if you know where to look. Perhaps it was not when she was looking. Jackson's _The Great Beers of Belgium_ is marketed in the US by Vanberg Dewulf of Cooperstown, NY. You can mail-order it from them (see Zymurgy for an ad, e.g.), or I believe you can get it from the AHA by mail-order (probably costs more, though). My local homebrew shop carries it, so you might want to check there first. =Spencer in Ann Arbor, MI Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #1571, 11/05/94