HOMEBREW Digest #1784 Tue 18 July 1995

Digest #1783 Digest #1785


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


Contents:
  Hops and Cherries ("Timothy P. Laatsch)
  Cherry wheat ("James Giacalone")
  wort chillers ("james s keller")
  Ko:ln (Cologne) (A. J. deLange)
  7 gallon GOTT (Lee Allison)
  Rubin v. Coors Brewing Post (Nicholas A. Franke)
  Stop Sparging, cooling samples (David and Carol Smucker)
  Re: Magic? ("Frederick L. Pauly")
  FrankenBrauCap (el cheapo carbonator) review (John Glaser)
  London - City (A. J. deLange)
  1056 and Fruity Flavor ("Dean A. Pulsifer")
  Source for Stainless Steel ("Houseman, David L [TR]")
  Re: Brewing and Society (fwd) (Scott Christian Gruber)
  ICBD, Edinburgh Scotland (ALEX NAGY)
  Blowoff revisited (Robert Brown)
  homebrew on campus (Wimblewthr)
  Glaring Typo in Lauter Post (John J. Palmer)
  Elements/Milk Cans/campus/Chiller cleaning (Robert Brown)
  Root/ginger beer ("Mark A. Melton")
  Re: Forgetting to prime (00bkpickeril)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 12:26:56 -0400 (EDT) From: "Timothy P. Laatsch <LAATSCH at kbs.msu.edu>" <LAATSCH at kbs.msu.edu> Subject: Hops and Cherries Hey All, I'm planning an all-grain cherry pale using 10 pounds of sour cherries. I realize there are a multitude of ways to add fruit to beer, but I plan to freeze the cherries, pasteurize them ala Papazian/Zymurgy, chill and transfer either the squeezed juices only to the primary or the whole fruit and juice to the secondary. Which is better and why? But to my main point...what hop varieties and IBU levels best complement the sourness of the cherries. The recipes I've seen call for fairly low bittering and use the noble lager varieties or Saaz, with some light finishing hops also added. I was going to use Goldings, but the citrusy notes may not provide the correct contrast/complement---can you say "fruit salad"? ;) Any pointers on yeast variety would also be appreciated----1056 American may have just the neutral character that would work well, but I have an on-going culture of Irish yeast that is really performing nicely. Thanks for any help. I'll summarize and post. Bones *=============================================================================* | Timothy P. Laatsch | email: laatsch at kbs.msu.edu | Aspiring | | Graduate Student-Microbiology | biz phone: 616-671-2329 | All-Grain | | Michigan State University/KBS | fax: 616-671-2104 | Homebrewer | | Kalamazoo, MI (Home of Bell's) | obsession: American Pale Ale | & Scientist | *=============================================================================* Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 11:27:23 MDT From: "James Giacalone" <JGiacalone at vines.ColoState.EDU> Subject: Cherry wheat I just tried Sam Adams cherry wheat. It's great!! I was wondering if anyone out there has a clone or similar recipe. Private E-mail is fine. TIA. "Every day after work I have a homebrew, RELIGOUSLY! , and it was good" From the book of beer pg. 234 Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 16:55:37 CST From: "james s keller" <keller.12 at nd.edu> Subject: wort chillers ***** WARNING!!! FIRST POST ***** TECHNICAL GADGET-TYPE MATERIAL TO FOLLOW Robert Brown [HBD #1780] sez: >Wort Chillers: I agree it is confusing. I think we set up a long and >complicated system of nomenclature for these beasties. >Here are my suggestions: <snip> >I could add a secondary chiller (BI-IW) to my CF/TC > bi-CF/TC-BI/IW > A dual chiller with a primary Counter flow Recircalated > Tap water chiller coupled to a secondary Bucket Immersion Ice > water chiller....Or maybe NOT!!!! :) I am a new brewer (1 batch...materials for 2nd ordered) and have been enjoying the HBD for approximately one month now. First batch was from a kit (boil-n-pitch) that the homebrew store owner talked me into buying and trying while I began to read about brewing. Not a bad brew...but could be SO much better. Extensive FAQ searching and HBD lurking have revealed the well-worn path toward better beers...AND pointed out the need for one of my greatest weaknesses...GADGETS. The second batch will be 7# of an Old Ale extract kit (M&F) supplemented with fresh Cascade hops and fermented with Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast. [Great yeast FAQ by Patrick Weix on the stanford archives, BTW.] Armed with recent HBD entries and the archives regarding sanitation, plastic vs. glass, "dropping", starters, and blow-off tubes, my neighbor and I should be ready to proceed with this batch...BUT there's a problem. THE PROBLEM: While the wort is cooling on these hot, hot days, my brewing neighbor and I spend FAR too much time discussing religion, politics, sports, and Suburbans...OBVIOUSLY, we need a wort chiller to eliminate this dead time and "purify" our brewing experience! Here's a quick(!?) history of the current design. (1) I decided to try for a counter-flow chiller (with my love of gadgets, the immersion chiller was clearly not complex enough). I looked at all the ASCII art regarding the "copper tube in a garden hose" variety of chillers but had to discard those plans because of the LOW SPOUSAL APPROVAL rating...No way that I am going to get a roll of garden hose into the kitchen, no matter how slick I design the coupling connections. (2) I designed a "copper tube in a clear plastic hose" chiller (sexy idea, lot of variations of couplings possible--my personal favorite is a Swagelok union tee and bore-thru reducer combination). Why not a micro-brewery quality "copper tube in a copper tube" arrangement (great flow geometry with a 3/8" in a 1/2" tube)...BUT, it is still a roll of tube in the kitchen! (3) I got very excited by the "copper tube in a PVC pipe" design discussed recently. I wanted to find dimensions for an insert spacer and a PVC tube which would ensure a "true" counter-flow design. I also wanted to route all the inlet and outlet tubes through one end of the device so that it could sit cleanly, upright and proud, without a gaggle of hoses and pipes protruding from it (remember the spousal approval concerns). The "insert" spacer need only be capped on one end if the water is designed to flow below the level of the inside tube. The winning design is a 3-1/8" OD piece of capped Cu tubing housed in a ten-inch length of 4" PVC pipe. The assembly should accommodate 22' of counterflow-chilled 3/8" OD copper tubing. After some searching, I actually found an eight-inch tall, 4" ID chrome-plated canister (scrap) in good condition that can serve as the PVC pipe (and win major bonus points in spousal approval). The wort inlet (and water outlet) is located on the top of the canister near the outer rim. The wort tube coils snugly around and down the 3-1/8" Cu tube and then turns and enters the bottom cap of this inner tube through a roomy 1/2" tube-to-MPT adapter. Inside the large Cu tube, a ten-inch long, straight section of 1/2" Cu tubing encloses the 3/8" wort tube and extends from the adapter through the canister top (center). A reducing tee is soldered to the top end of the 1/2" Cu tube and also to the outside of the 3/8" wort outlet tube thus providing a water inlet port. I can even purchase a slick-looking, black rubber 4" x 3" PVC pipe adapter to dress up the top of the canister and provide a pressure-tight seal. I will place a loose-fitting cap on top of 3-1/8" Cu tube so that it can be filled with ice and/or water if further cooling is required in the summer months. SO, WHAT DO I CALL THIS CONTRAPTION???? I was willing to call it a simple counter-flow chiller, but I guess (using R. Brown's terminology) I have a combination: a) counterflow (3/8" inside 1/2" Cu tube for ten inches) b) pseudo-counterflow (3/8" coiled inside 4"ID canister for 17 feet) c) bucket-immersion (same 17' coiled about ice-chilled 3" Cu can) AND, since my brewing kettle (still virgin) is a mere 20 quart capacity...I will be pouring the wort into approx. 1-1/2 gallons of aerated chilled water: d) dump chiller I plan to use tap water through this beast, but with the iced-Cu insert, I guess my water is also partially ice-chilled. ACCORDINGLY, this chiller is a "quad" variety...more precisely a <DRUM-ROLL, please.....> Counterflow-Pseudocounterflow-Bucket immersion-Dump chiller pumped with Tap & partly Ice-chilled water--a quad-CF/PCF/BI/DC-TC/IW chiller! So, will my beer be ruined? Thanks for the bandwidth :-). - --J <no tag> Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 19:19:16 -0500 From: ajdel at interramp.com (A. J. deLange) Subject: Ko:ln (Cologne) Ko:ln (Cologne) This is the tenth in a series of posts on the formulation of waters similar to those of famous brewing cities of the world. They are based on ion concentration profiles given by Dave Draper in his post in #1704 (10 April 95). See my post "Water Series" (#1763) for explanatory material (correction: in the Line 3 explanation read 1.8 ml of 1 N sulfuric acid, not 18 ml). Quick reminders: all ion concentrations and salt quantities are in ppm which is the same as mg/l. The water to which the salts are added is assumed to be ION FREE (i.e. it is DISTILLED WATER or REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER). The Koln profile is attributed to Bob Bloodworth in the HBD of 26 Jan 95. It is one of the easiest profiles we have had so far with a good anion/ cation balance at pH 7 so that it can be marginally formulated with simple salts without the use of external acid if we increase the weight on calcium to 1.4: Formulation I n: 700000 Temp: 0.000918 Energy (rms %): 10.278993 Koln Desired Cations: 8.685 Anions: 6.908 mEq/L Ratio: 0.795 ION WT DESIRED REALIZED ERR, % SALTS AMOUNT Ca 1.40 104.000 88.190 -15.20 NaCl 65.104 Mg 1.00 15.000 14.256 -4.96 Na2CO3.10H2O 0.000 Na 1.00 52.000 46.821 -9.96 CaCL2 0.000 K 1.00 0.000 0.000 0.00 CaSO4.2H2O 64.363 CO3 1.00 152.000 165.038 8.58 CaCO3 182.817 SO4 1.00 86.000 92.235 7.25 MgCL2 0.000 Cl 1.00 109.000 123.048 12.89 MgCO3 0.000 H 1.00 2.357 2.357 0.00 KCl 0.000 Na2SO4 0.000 MgSO4.7H2O 144.492 H2SO4 0.000 NaHCO3 77.519 HCl 85.966 Carbonic: 0.5317 Bicarbonate: 2.2165 Carbonate: 0.001061 mM Total Required Hydronium: 2.3572 Sulfuric Hydronium: 0.0000 mEq Hydrochloric Hydronium: 2.3572 mEq H2SO4 perturbed. HCl adjusted to maintain pH 7.00 Solubility Products - CaCO3: 8.70E-09 MgCO3: 2.60E-05 Ion Products - CaCO3: 2.33E-09 MgCO3: 6.22E-10 Alkalinity: 2.19 mEq; 109.51 ppm as CaCO3. Temporary hardness: 5.50 mEq; 274.93 ppm as CaCO3 Permanent hardness: 0.07 mEq; 3.72 ppm as CaCO3 This formulation is just shy of our tolerance limits both overall and in the calcium but so close that we feel that it should be offered as it is one of the few opportunities to formulate a water reasonably accurately at a reasonable pH without recourse to external acid (carbonic or otherwise). It works because the very high chloride requirement allows us to use a lot of HCl which neutralizes much of the alkalinity. An extremely accurate formulation with external acid and simple salts is given by Formualtion II Formulation II n: 770000 Temp: 0.000921 Energy (rms %): 0.039660 Koln Desired Cations: 8.685 Anions: 6.908 mEq/L Ratio: 0.795 ION WT DESIRED REALIZED ERR, % SALTS AMOUNT Ca 1.00 104.000 104.071 0.07 NaCl 119.634 Mg 1.00 15.000 14.994 -0.04 Na2CO3.10H2O 0.000 Na 1.00 52.000 52.011 0.02 CaCL2 0.000 K 1.00 0.000 0.000 0.00 CaSO4.2H2O 48.014 CO3 1.00 152.000 152.073 0.05 CaCO3 231.980 SO4 1.00 86.000 86.031 0.04 MgCL2 0.000 Cl 1.00 109.000 108.967 -0.03 MgCO3 0.000 H 1.00 2.807 1.027 -63.41 KCl 0.000 Na2SO4 0.000 MgSO4.7H2O 151.980 H2SO4 0.000 NaHCO3 18.110 HCl 37.456 Carbonic: 0.4899 Bicarbonate: 2.0424 Carbonate: 0.000978 mM Total Required Hydronium: 2.8067 Sulfuric Hydronium: 0.0000 mEq Hydrochloric Hydronium: 1.0270 mEq 1.7796 mEq additional hydronium required to maintain pH 7.00 Solubility Products - CaCO3: 8.70E-09 MgCO3: 2.60E-05 Ion Products - CaCO3: 2.54E-09 MgCO3: 6.03E-10 Alkalinity: 2.02 mEq; 100.90 ppm as CaCO3. Temporary hardness: 5.07 mEq; 253.33 ppm as CaCO3 Permanent hardness: 1.36 mEq; 67.98 ppm as CaCO3 The external acid requirement is modest at 1.8 mEq/L. Comparing this formulation to Edinburgh 3 we see that similar amounts of CaCO3 and hydrochloric acid are used and that a similar amount of external acid is required for pH 7. We would thus expect that the reasoning used to justify ignoring the external acid addition for Edinburgh 3 would be equally applicable here. Should the CO2 option be desired aeration to pH 7 would yield about 290 ppm total carbonate. Aeration to about pH 7.5 would be required to get to approximately 150 ppm total. Thus we have two choices here. Formulation I could certainly be considered an adequate representation of Koln water. Perfectionists may use Formulation II. A.J. deLange Numquam in dubio, saepe in errore! ajdel at interramp.com Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 20:00:50 -0700 From: grandcru at ix.netcom.com (Lee Allison) Subject: 7 gallon GOTT Kevin writes in HBD 1780: Q1) Is a 7 gallon Gott (Gott is German for God, but this is not a religion post. Please, no flames!) big enough for mashing 10 gallon batches? Kevin: Remember that you will want to add from 1.5 to 2.5 quarts of water per one pound of grain depending on how stiff of a mash you want. You will then need to figure the total amount of grain you might need for a 10 gallon batch. WARNING: This number will vary tremendously depending on the target OG of your brews!!!!! Now that you know the strike water volume you will have to figure about half again that volume because of all that grain!! My point is that you need as much room as possible in the mash/lauter tun. Trying to cram the thing to it's rims just ups the possible anxiety factor. A 7 gallon cooler will comfortably hold MOST 5 gallon batches, but I doubt 10 would go into it. I just jumped from 5gallon batches to 15gallons, and learned one very important thing (Yes, just one. I was in a stubborn mood that month!) WHEN YOU GO TO BIG BATCHES OVERSIZE ALL OF YOUR TOOLS. Good thing for me that one of my tools was already well oversized! ;^) Hmmm, I think I hear the sound an incoming Napalm strike! COVER!!! Lee Allison Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 22:04:36 PDT From: NAFRANK at pop03.ny.us.ibm.net (Nicholas A. Franke) Subject: Rubin v. Coors Brewing Post In HBD #1781 (July 14), DougO made reference to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Rubin, Sec. of the Treasury v. Coors Brewing Company. In that decision, the Court struck down the federal prohibition against listing the alcohol content of beer on the product label. The brief summary of the case posted by DougO was not actually the Supreme Court's decision in Rubin v. Coors. What was posted is referred to as the case syllabus, and it is not part of the Court's decision. In fact, the syllabus is not drafted by one of the Supremes, but is written by Court employees in conjunction with West Publishing Company. I have the full decision of the Court in Rubin v. Coors available, if anyone is interested in reading it. Please respond by private e-mail, as the decision is too lengthy (and generally too boring) to post. nafrank at ibm.net Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 06:54:18 -0400 From: smucker at use.usit.net (David and Carol Smucker) Subject: Stop Sparging, cooling samples >From: "Timothy P. Laatsch <LAATSCH at kbs.msu.edu>" <LAATSCH at kbs.msu.edu> >I have a variation of the age-old question, "When do I stop sparging?". >After 12 successful all-grain beers, I'm tempted to go with what I've been >doing. However, I'm also convinced that the only minor flaw in my all-grain >brews, slight roughness in the malt/grain, is attributable to oversparging. >I know about the standard indicators for stopping the sparge: > > 1. When the pH starts increasing rapidly and rises above 6.0 > 2. When the gravity of the runoff falls below 1.008 > >Because I can't afford a pH meter and I've found the papers to be unreliable, >my technique is to stop when I've reached an adequate volume. My question is >about taking a gravity reading of the runoff. Obviously, you can't take the >time to chill the sample prior to the reading or you have defeated the >purpose of taking the measurement in the first place. If the gravity is read >while the solution is hot, do the standard temperature correction formulas >remain linear near 180 F? Or does the gravity cutoff value refer to the >uncorrected hot reading? Elementary questions, I am sure. There are two ways in which I use the "measure the specify gravity method". First I cool the sample, and I switch between collection containers. To cool the sample I simply use a very thin aluminum pie pan, (Sara Lee) put the sample in this and place this in a cold water bath in the sink. Cools to a useable temperature in a minute or three. About the time I take a sample, I switch collection containers so I may decide that these very last running are for the drain and not the brew kettle. The other factor I use is the amount of sparg water I have heated. Knowing about where I will come out for a given number of pounds of grain, I only heat so many gallons of sparg water. Hope these ideas help a little. It is surprising how fast a sample will cool in that thin wall aluminum formed container and a water bath. David E. Smucker, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA <smucker at use.usit.net> Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 08:00:55 -0400 From: "Frederick L. Pauly" <flp2m at galen.med.virginia.edu> Subject: Re: Magic? ok , ah.... somehow you must have seen his message on the same day it was posted and replied to it that day so both messages made it into the same digest? Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 95 06:35:42 -0700 From: John Glaser <glaser at widlar.ece.arizona.edu> Subject: FrankenBrauCap (el cheapo carbonator) review Since I'm a frequent reader, I'd thought I'd contribute something, a review of the FrankenbrauCap(tm) (sp?), an idea that some unremembered genius posted a few months back. (Sorry I don't remember who you are, and I am too lazy to look at back issues). The FrankenbrauCap is a poor man's Carbonator for carbonating beverages in plastic PET pop bottles. The idea is so simple, I wish I'd thought of it. Goes to the auto parts store, and buy a couple of tire valve stems. Soak them in baking soda for a week or so (or put them in the hot Arizona sun, if availible ;) ) to get rid of the digusting odor. Drill an appropriately sized hole in the center of a couple of caps for the aforementioned PET bottles, and pop in the valve stem. Now, go buy an air chuck (the little thing that you inflate tires with) at any tool or hardware store. Attach air chuck to your CO2 regulator. Fill your bottles with desired liquid and chill. Cap with the FrankenbrauCap. Inflate your bottles with CO2 at the desired pressure. It's just like filling up your bike tires. Shake vigorously a minute, and inflate again. Do this 3 or 4 times. Presto, carbonated beverage! It works great and is easy to use. Costs: 2-pack valve stems $2.88 air chuck $2.00 hose barb for above $0.69 ----- $5.57 2 Carbonators(tm) ~$20-$25 Extra notes: Valve stems are probably not food grade. I carbonate, let sit for a day in the fridge, and recap with an unmodified cap. I think it's OK since I got the smell out, and the beverage does not sit in contact with the valve stem. It helps to overcarbonate some if you do this. Recipe #1: Cranberry-Ginger Ale 3.25 qts water 1 cup honey 1oz freshly grated ginger 3cups cranberry juice (yes, pure juice, not that juice cocktail stuff!) Dissolve honey in water. Bring to boil, and add ginger. Simmer 30 min. Cool to room temp or colder, and mix in cranberry juice. Bottle, chill, and carbonate. Use 50 psi if you want to recap. Delicious! It even has a little head retention. Recipe #2: Garlic Lover's Soda 4 qts water 1 cup honey 5 minced fresh garlic cloves Dissolve honey in water. Bring to boil, and add garlic. Simmer 10 min. Cool to room temp or colder. Bottle, chill, and carbonate. Use 50 psi if you want to recap. Now if you have read this far, go check yourself into a nut house for even thinking of making something this disgusting. Yecch! Eew!!! #( And I'm a garlic lover, too! (That Red-Dog-drinkin' Devil spoke to me thru those beer-stealing aliens and made me write this.) Have fun, John Glaser glaser at widlar.ece.arizona.edu *Ok, I guess I can write another sentence of my dissertation now.* John Glaser Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 10:17:07 -0500 From: ajdel at interramp.com (A. J. deLange) Subject: London - City London City This is the eleventh in a series of posts on the formulation of waters similar to those of famous brewing cities of the world. They are based on ion concentration profiles given by Dave Draper in his post in #1704 (10 April 95). See my post "Water Series" (#1763) for explanatory material (correction: in the Line 3 explanation read 1.8 ml of 1 N sulfuric acid, not 18 ml). Quick reminders: all ion concentrations and salt quantities are in ppm which is the same as mg/l. The water to which the salts are added is assumed to be ION FREE (i.e. it is DISTILLED WATER or REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER). The London City profile is from Westerman and Huige, "Fermentation Technology". It is a problem profile like several of the others we have had in that its anion/cation ratio is very unbalanced at pH 7 and the source of the imbalance is, as is usually the case, that not enough carbonate is allowed to balance the desired calcium. We therefore use the approach we have used before of letting the carbonate go wherever it wants. The result is Formulation I, an accurate representation at pH 7 using simple salts and external acid. Formulation I pH 7.00; use external acid; Minimum salts n: 770000 Temp: 0.001807 Energy (rms %): 0.067889 Accepted: 0 Rejected:10000 n_sol: 0 n_0: 21 n_hyd: 0 London City Desired Cations: 5.941 Anions: 1.884 mEq/L Ratio: 0.317 ION WT DESIRED REALIZED ERR, % SALTS AMOUNT Ca 1.00 90.000 90.044 0.05 NaCl 9.376 Mg 1.00 6.000 6.001 0.02 Na2CO3.10H2O 0.000 Na 1.00 22.000 22.003 0.01 CaCL2 0.000 K 1.00 0.000 0.033 0.03 CaSO4.2H2O 0.458 CO3 0.00 82.000 182.526 122.59 CaCO3 224.597 SO4 1.00 24.000 23.963 -0.15 MgCL2 0.000 Cl 1.00 10.000 9.993 -0.07 MgCO3 0.000 H 1.00 2.831 0.121 -95.74 KCl 0.062 Na2SO4 0.000 MgSO4.7H2O 60.825 H2SO4 0.000 NaHCO3 66.925 HCl 4.400 Carbonic: 0.5880 Bicarbonate: 2.4514 Carbonate: 0.001173 mM Total Required Hydronium: 2.8308 Sulfuric Hydronium: 0.0000 mEq Hydrochloric Hydronium: 0.1206 mEq 2.7102 mEq additional hydronium required to maintain pH 7.00 Solubility Products - CaCO3: 8.70E-09 MgCO3: 2.60E-05 Ion Products - CaCO3: 2.64E-09 MgCO3: 2.90E-10 Alkalinity: 2.42 mEq; 121.11 ppm as CaCO3. No permanent hardness. Temporary hardness: 4.99 mEq; 249.34 ppm as CaCO3 As before we prefer the use of CO2 as the external acid. If we were to make up Formuation I and then saturate it with CO2 the pH would go to about 5.57. It is not necessary to saturate but only to dissolve enough CO2 to dissolve all the CaCO3 but as a practical matter we will wind up near saturation anyway. If we now aerate the water to various levels of pH we get the following: pH total carb, ppm PaCO2, mmHg Ca, ppm 7.00 385 27.95 90.06 7.10 370 22.50 90.06 7.20 356 17.83 90.06 7.30 356 11.00 90.02 7.40 210 6.86 89.96 7.50 164 4.35 89.90 7.60 129 2.75 89.81 7.70 103 1.79 89.72 7.82 77 1.03 89.57 Thus we must raise the pH to about 7.8 to get the carbonate to the specified level. We would expect from this that the pH of London City water would be near this value. We note that even at pH 7.8 the partial pressure of CO2 is about three times the level of equilibrium with atmospheric CO2 and would therefore expect this formulation to continue to lose CO2, if slowly, until the pH reached about 8. We also note that some CaCO3 is precipitated as we aerate to pH values above 7.3 but that the amount of Ca lost is minimal. We would be inclined to try this formulation without external acid of any type but would keep the lactic acid bottle at hand in case the malt did not have enough buffering capacity to bring the pH down to the desired range for conversion. What will actually happen depends, of course, on the composition of the grist (i.e. there should be plenty of acid in the dark malts used in a porter) and the brewing technique (including any water treatment). A.J. deLange Numquam in dubio, saepe in errore! ajdel at interramp.com Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 95 10:39:38 PDT From: "Dean A. Pulsifer" <pulsifer at iglou.com> Subject: 1056 and Fruity Flavor In HBD 1782: >In reference to previous post on this citris thread I have found >that under some conditions 1056 which has always been very clean >for me can sometimes produce very fruity flavors. One local brewer >swears that 1056 is the fruitiest flavored yeast he has ever used. >I think the fruitiness is caused by under aereation and is the >result of ester formation. I recently made a batch of American Pale Ale with Wyeast 1056. I had a very fruity brew which eventually mellowed out. It was very well aerated (I had several inches of foam after siphoning into the primary), but during fermentation the temperatures got above 75 during a suprise hot spell. I think that temperature has a larger effect on fruitiness than aeration. Just my opinion which isn't always worth much. - ------------------------------------- Name: Dean A. Pulsifer E-mail: pulsifer at iglou.com (Dean A. Pulsifer) WWW: http://www.hal.com/services/juggle/home/pulsifer at iglou.com/ - ------------------------------------- Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 95 11:45:00 EDT From: "Houseman, David L [TR]" <DLH1 at trpo3.Tr.Unisys.com> Subject: Source for Stainless Steel Does any one know of a source (reasonably priced) of stainless steel, rod, plate, and perferated (perf) plate 3/32 holes on 5/32 centers to use for a keg based mash/lauter tun false bottom? Mail order or close to Philly (on West side) preferably. Dave Houseman dlh1 at trpo3.tredydev.unisys.com Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 12:26:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Scott Christian Gruber <gruber at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> Subject: Re: Brewing and Society (fwd) Okay, this is my first post to this list. I just thought I'd respond to the thread about homebrewing's "image" in society with my own experiences as a VERY new brewer (just finished my 2nd extract batch). I don't know if people see homebrewing as "immoral" or "offensive." People I've talked to and who have tried my first brews are usually impressed. The only objections are generally health-related. "You're gonna go blind, man"..."That stuff'll kill you, dude" and so on. This probably comes from prohibition-era images of "bathtub gin" and liquor that did, if I remember correctly, kill people. These concerns, regarding homebrew, are completely erroneous (aren't they?), but I think that collective image persists, and the general populace will have a distrust of homebrewers and even small brewpubs. In NY metro, where brewpubs have been multiplying recently, there have been several news reports of the "underregulation" of brewpubs, and of people feeling sick after drinking brewpub brews. I think this is the only image problem we have to be concerned with, and this may change too as more people learn to appreciate real beer. BTW, I read the posts about college brew clubs with interest, being a college brewer myself. I'm the only homebrewer I know of at my school, but I've found that this is a hobby that spreads. Since I became interested in homebrewing, several friends and family members have also taken up the hobby. Peace and Beer, scg +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Scott C. Gruber "Our family has a long and great tradition of running breweries into bankruptcy." -Jim Koch http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gruber gruber at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 10:45:15 -0700 From: alexmn at ix.netcom.com (ALEX NAGY) Subject: ICBD, Edinburgh Scotland Hello Fellow Imbibers Are there any graduates of the Masters program at The International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland lurking on the HBD? If so, I would appreciate a private communication to that effect. Thanks Alex M Nagy alexmn at ix.netcom.com Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 17:26:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Brown <rbrown00 at uoguelph.ca> Subject: Blowoff revisited Hi again, Reading HBD #1782 comments/questions from Joseph Fleming and Bob Devine I realized in my rush to get to my dinner I did not explain my system well. Apologies to all left confused, I will try better this time. The way I see it you want to get rid of your blowoff but not suck back through the hose. In addition as Bob Devine is concerned about keeping it all sanitized, I agree. I do blowoff (tube on carboy mouth) and I most definitely have a closed fermentation. Before another flawed description lets try a drawing: /-------\ / /-----\ \ Blowoff tubing I I II __) (__ II I I II I I II ___ I I II I I Bubbler (or Air filter/sterile cotton) I I II III I I _II___I_ I I lII l I I l l I_______I l_______l Carboy Bucket Okay does that make sense so far. The bucket has no liquid in it so there can be no suck back. The bubbler "seals" out any nasties, and if you are concerned about sucking water/sanitizer from the bubbler you can use a filter/cotton instead. The pure blowoff is now stored in a sanitized container. The contents of the bucket are as "sterile" as the wort and could be used as a starter, for culturing, to taste, or anything else you might want to use "sterile" undiluted(no chlorine/Iodophor) Blowoff for. I have never repitched directly but the yeast(ALE)/wort concoction is very active and continues to ferment when placed in the fridge for storage. As to the question of what happens before and after fermentation due to expansion and contraction of air/liquids. A fraction of an ounce of water from the bubbler might land in the bottom of the bucket before fermentation. And at the end of the blowoff period another air contraction could suck up a little ? (I guess it's beer), if the blowoff tube extended to the bottom of the bucket. Nothing would happen if the tube was flush with the lid. A "double bubbler" (?) type commonly found for winemaking that would work in both directions might work well. By having a reversible (larger bulbs/longer necks) bubbler, only air would be drawn into the bucket during any suck back. The same would be true of a "coiled tube bubbler" with elongated (upwards) coil(s). The vertical portion of the tubing must be sufficiently long and wide enough to allow the water to fall back to the bottom. During times of rest or blowoff an empty coiled hose (Pasteur swan neck flask like) would suffice. ASCII below For air purists a filter would would remove particulate matter, beasties, etc during a potential suck back/contraction phenomenon and have no water to suck back to boot. A sterile cotton filter could be fashioned from an old margerine tub, a tube, and sterile first aid type cotton. Perforate the tubs bottom and stick a tube in. Sanitize the body and replace the cotton (aseptically), packing it firmly to remove air channels, on a regular basis. That should work or you can just buy premade filters. _______ /______ \ ____ II II lIIl II II II II II II ___________________________ II II II lI Il II II II I II I II II II I II I II / \ / \ I II I II / \ / \ I sterile II cotton I II / \ / \ I II I II \ / \ / I II I II \ / \ / I II I II \ / \ / I_-_-_-_-_-II_-_-_-_-_-_I II II II II II \ \______/ / II II \H20_trap/ II II II _______II_______ ______II______ \ II / \ II / \ II / \ II / \ II / \ II / \___II___/ \__II__/ reversible double Margerine tub air filter bubbler BTW my blowoff bucket is 1gal/6gal but the bucket size would be proportional to amount fermented, how active the yeast culture is, and the "foaminess" of the blowoff. You could also use a small (1 gal) jug if you have the right sized 2 hole bung. You can use siphon tubing if their are no chunks in your wort to clog, as suck backis not a problem. Sorry about my presumption and lack of explanation before. I figure since I know what I'm talking about so do you. My mistake, not yours looking at this explanation my first one "maybe" a little short.:) See Ya, Rob Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 17:47:04 -0400 From: Wimblewthr at aol.com Subject: homebrew on campus I felt that as a long-time college student (10 years worth) I needed to respond to Harry Bush's recent post. In fact, IMO, a college campus IS a breeding ground for communism, atheism, etc. Fortunately, very little of that leaks out into the real world, mostly through govt. jobs and the ACLU. What is far worse is that a college campus is a huge pit of IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR! The most likely suspects for homebrewing IMO would be the Frats which would greatly worry me. Starting in San Diego, I have seen Frats in trouble for raping drunken women (SDSU, PKA) and recently here at U. Texas, there has been a death related to drinking and hazing. Not a good record. I may be overstating the danger since price would still be a factor, the cheaper the better for most, but higher alcohol levels and not getting carded might be tempting. But I do have a legitmate question. I am an extract brewer with some grains that I steep. In my last batch (red ale w/ .75# Munich and Cara-M malts) I squeezed the grain bag and let the thick stuff drip into my wort. Is this proper? Should I have been doing this all along? It would be nice to know since I am the homebrew supply for my church's choir. The choir director just loves me as each batch is finished. Thanks for the space, don't be too harsh about my opinions. Greg Shannon wimblewthr at aol.com Austin, TX shannong at tenet.edu The equal toleration of all religions...is the same as atheism. Leo XIV Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 17:08:30 -0800 From: johnj at primenet.com (John J. Palmer) Subject: Glaring Typo in Lauter Post Hi Gang, On Saturday, I said: >Depiction of coning effect. Gradients are not as steep as depicted, due to / and \. Rolled Scr. Tubing M. |------------| |------------| | Best | | Best | You get the idea. Both types of manifold |\ extr. /| | extr. | give dead zones off to the sides in the | \ / | | | corners where there is no pressure diff. | \ / | | | to drive the fluid flow. Slowing the flow | \ / | |\ /\ /\ /| rate will decrease the gradients, as will | \ / | | \/ \/ \/ | as stirring or "Racking" during the sparge. |_____*______| |__*___*__*__| ^^^^^^^^^ Geez! someone must have interupted my train of thought, I meant RAKING. I bet the AI Robot just cleared my point totals for the year. Doh! -John John J. Palmer Metallurgist johnj at primenet.com or palmer at ssdgwy.mdc.com *Check out my new Homepage, The Palmer House Brewery and Smithy at http://www.primenet.com/~johnj/ Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 22:21:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Brown <rbrown00 at uoguelph.ca> Subject: Elements/Milk Cans/campus/Chiller cleaning Hey Guys a few more points, Electrical elements in the basement (3 points) 1) The standard burners for the kitchen probably are inadequate so try a restaurant supplier they will probably have something powerful enough 2)Gas burners-already discussed recently, I wouldn't use propane indoors. Do you have natural gas hooked up? 3)The english have the BRUHEAT (110 or 220v) basically a coiled electric(hot water tank) element + thermostat in a bucket. It might caramelize your wort but should do the job (?) -Oh yeah stoelting has a nice one for only $629 (ouch!$), let me know if you want the number:) Milk Cans Try your local dairy/dairy processing plant (the older ones) if you haven't already. I would stop by the dock or maintenace shop first (side/back). They will really know what is in the company "scrap" equipement heap. If your lucky you will find an old timer who will tell you about when they hauled all the milk in SS cans from the farm to the dairy on a truck. Now they are hauled in tanker trucks (hence your visit). They may also have some "scrap" pots/tubs/whatever that could make a mighty nice SS kettle. A lot of the equipement at a dairy plant could make some awful nice beer. If you just stop in at the office,and it's busy, they may just say no since they don't really know to start with. It's worth the trip around the back if you can get what they will eventually scrap for peanuts. Campus Brewing Yep, making beer in the dorms is very frowned upon, but lots of students live off-campus. If your state drinking age is 21 and undergrads arrive at what, 17-18 it would be a hard hill to climb especially in the bible belt. Here (Ontario) things stack up a little differently, drinking age is 19 and most undergrads will be legal by the end of first year. So instead of a theoretical 1/4 we have a 3/4 audience. (grade 13= 18+ yrs at registration on average) As a matter of fact there is a wine club run by a faculty member. So my point is (what is my point? Oh yeah) that depending on drinking age locally you can make a stab at the chance of a sanctioned club being allowed. So if your state/province drinking age is low enough you've got a chance. For instance Quebec 18 year olds get their first official kick at the can, as well as some very happy 18 year olds who live across the border and get a year or three headstart on their geographically impaired cousins. Which brings up another point why can you vote, die for your country blah blah blah, but must wait another 1-3 years to have a beer legally? I probably now the answer but it seems stupid just the same. Chiller Sanitation Iodophor seems to be the weapon of choice, chlorine is just to corrosive. I have been running steam through mine and just felt like saying so. :) See ya later, Rob Return to table of contents
Date: 15 Jul 95 23:49:55 EDT From: "Mark A. Melton" <75452.277 at compuserve.com> Subject: Root/ginger beer I have seen references to root beer and ginger beer recipes that result in a sweet, carbonated, mildly alchoholic beverage. I have not been able to actually find one of these recipes. The commercial recipes appear to be quite dangerous, in that one must rely on chilling the fermenting wort to the point that the yeast settles or flocculates out, then pour off the clear, carbonated, non-yeasty decantation and bottle it. NO THANK YOU!! If there were ever an invitation to an explosion that method must be it. Does anyone have a tried and true --i.e. non speculative, non-mythological-- recipe for root beer and/or ginger beer. I would expect a successful method to work for both. Please do not quote the Cat's Meow as I can't get there from CompuServe. Mark A. Melton Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 01:45:43 -0500 (EST) From: 00bkpickeril at bsuvc.bsu.edu Subject: Re: Forgetting to prime Mike Davis <mdavis at BayNetworks.com> asks: > Anyway, just after I got the > last 12 oz. in a bottle, I noticed that I had forgotten to put the > priming sugar in the bottling bucket. I was somewhat anxious about > what to do. Either pour everything back into the bucket, prime and > re-bottle, or try to pour just the right amount of sugar solution into > each bottle. That is, enough sugar without overflowing the liquid > level. I decided for the latter, because the former seemed like it > would put too much air into the beer from splashing, and that it would > be quite a pain to boot. I wasn't going to tell anyone, but this happened to me once. ;-) It was about 1 or 2 am when I noticed I forgot to prime, too. Even though this batch actually ended up being one of my best, I didn't get much sleep that night. I CAREFULLY poured everything back into the priming bucket. I figured I was out the crown caps anyway, so I might as well be sure I got the right amount of priming in each one. In my case, it was a bock so that might have helped mask any oxidation. Since this worked for me, I'd recommend it. As Mike suggested, once you do this once, you really should not ever forget it again! Too many homebrews that night is my only excuse. ;-) - --Brian Pickerill <00bkpickeril at bsuvc.bsu.edu> Muncie, IN Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #1784, 07/18/95