HOMEBREW Digest #190 Fri 30 June 1989

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

Contents:
  Yellow Dog Malt Extract Arrived Today (Dr. T. Andrews)
  RE: Homebrew Digest #189 (June 29, 1989) (")
  Re:Sterilizing (Brian Bacskai)
  Re: Questions etc, proper airspace (Pete Soper)
  Re: hop aging (Gordon Hester)
  re: whirlpooling (Darryl Richman)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 28 Jun 89 18:10:56 EDT From: Dr. T. Andrews <ki4pv!tanner at bikini.cis.ufl.edu> Subject: Yellow Dog Malt Extract Arrived Today My two cans of Yellow Dog (as advertized in the most recent issue of \fIZymurgy\fP) arrived today. You can guess what kind of beer I expect to brew this week-end. Has anyone had a chance to make this stuff yet? Any particular hops which seemed to go well with it? Views on adding crystal malt to it? In general, I like to add crystal to most everything, but the stuff does have 12% wheat in it and so may not want a lot of body-building. E-mail; I'll summarize. Results to follow in a few weeks. Dr. T. Andrews, Systems CompuData, Inc. DeLand -- ...!bikini.cis.ufl.edu!ki4pv!tanner ...!bpa!cdin-1!ki4pv!tanner or... {allegra killer gatech!uflorida uunet!cdin-1}!ki4pv!tanner Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 89 08:27 CDT From: "Move'm up & move'm out. Get along little yeasties!" Subject: RE: Homebrew Digest #189 (June 29, 1989) The mention of the miniscule amount of airspace (1/8 of an inch) that the person on UseNET put in his bottles makes me wonder about the whole matter. Papiazan, in his book, recommended from 1/2 inch to 2 inches. How much air space to most of you leave in bottles? - Patrick --- Patrick T. Garvin in the Society: Padraig Cosfhota o Ulad / Barony of Namron, Ansteorra ptgarvin at aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu / ptgarvin at uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu.UUCP Disclaimer: This message has no disclaimer. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 89 09:58:37 -0400 From: bacskai at eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Brian Bacskai) Subject: Re:Sterilizing Although I don't use everclear to sterilize any of my brew equipment, I work in a cell culture lab under aseptic conditions, and the general protocol for keeping away unwanted bugs and nasties is to use either or both UV irradiation and 70% ethanol (140 proof). This is the minimum concentration to ensure decontamination at the cheapest price. And you sure don't want to waste everclear! This is my first post to this mailing list and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the information the information I recieve. If I may solicit opinions, I've just purchased a pressure vessel, because I hate washing bottles, and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience using one. I'm really looking forward to having home-brew on tap!! But I can only guess what the disadvantages might be. Any comments? Brian Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 89 10:02:17 EDT From: Pete Soper <soper at maxzilla.encore.com> Subject: Re: Questions etc, proper airspace From: "Christian A. Ramsburg" <car7r at euclid.acc.virginia.edu> >had tried liners.... And lastly, on UseNet someone was recomending leaving >a very small airspace in each bottle so that there would be less propelent >gas when the bottles explode. Any comments?? Ouch. That was me and I'm sure I didn't say "when the bottles explode". I said IF a bottle breaks and there is only a very small head space, then there will be no explosion. I also explained why you can't get away with zero head space (ullage). See, the "Zymurgy" before last for a complete explanation plus some hard data. But I switched to a small head space (about 1/8 inch) last year to get more beer and especially less air per bottle. The safety factor just came along for free. I brought this up because somebody posted a dramatic description of bottle explosions which he then described as a "fluke". I can't deal with "fluke" explanations in homebrewing myself, but I figured if this guy was just going to accept the explosions and not track down their cause and cure, he needed a safety factor. Return to table of contents
Pete Soper +1 919 481 3730 arpa: soper at encore.com uucp: {bu-cs,decvax,necntc}!encore!soper Encore Computer Corp, 901 Kildaire Farm Rd, bldg D, Cary, NC 27511 USA Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 89 09:59:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Gordon Hester <gh0t+ at andrew.cmu.edu> Subject: Re: hop aging John Isenhour posted an interesting message about "hoppiness potential during hop aging" (was that supposed to be "happiness potential....? Nahh.) It included what looked like a very useful list of hop types/characteristics. Maybe I'm slow to catch on, but I'm not clear on the concept yet. Are we talkin' about what happens to hops when they are stored PRIOR to use, or is it what happens to the flavor (hoppiness) of your brew as IT ages, depending on the type of hops you used? If the latter (which I assume to be the case simply because it seems to me to be more interesting and useful information), then do the categories relate to hops added during the boil for bitterness, or at the end of the boil for aroma? John, could you (or anyone else) please clarify this? thanks. gordon hester gh0t+ at andrew.cmu.edu Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 89 07:36:13 PDT From: Darryl Richman <darryl at ism780c.isc.com> Subject: re: whirlpooling From: "1107-CD&I/VIRUS DISEASES" <henchal at wrair-emh1.army.mil> "To Darryl Richman: " You recent mentioned that you use the whirlpool method to "prevent excess trub from being transferred to your fermentors. "While I have heard that commercial breweries use this same "method, I am not sure how the homebrewer can use this method. I "don't think that this method will work for those of us who decant "our wort to the fermentor....you must drain your boiling kettle "from the bottom with a spigot. Am I correct? Yes, this is correct. This is my setup: I use a 15.5 gallon keg with the top cut out as a boil kettle. I also cut a 2" hole as close to the bottom as I could, and had a brass nipple welded on. I mash in this kettle and remove a 2" cap to spill the mash into my lauter tun (I use an 80 quart picnic cooler with a copper tubing manifold in the bottom). I have another 2" cap with a .5" hole in it, tapped to accept regular galvanized iron pipe (I actually use brass...). I have a short length of pipe that then leads to a ball valve. I hope this crude drawing explains: | | ----Keg | | ----2" Cap | | / ----Ball Valve | | -. / | 2" __ - | + |hole - |=O=== <---.5" pipe +-------+ -' I can boil 13 gallons or so. When done, I stir the wort madly for about 2 minutes, trying to get as deep a vortex as I can without splashing. Then I put my immersion cooler into the kettle and run it for an hour. The very first run tends to have a bit of hops and trub, and this I discard. It runs clear down to the last gallon or so, which exposes the pipe and the flow stops. Then I *carefully* tip the keg and run until I start to get hops and trub. This generally leaves about 1-2 quarts of wort in with the junk. I accept this loss as unavoidable. (I still get extracts of as much as 33 s.g. lb. grain/gallon of water, computed as volume in the fermenter, with 30-31 being typical.) Now, as to cooking on the stove, which I assume is where you're coming from: when I was doing 5 gallons (in an 8 gallon pot), I still whirlpooled the wort. After the boil, I whirled it, covered it, and placed it in my sink, where I ran cold water around the outside of the pot. In an hour I would put a racking tube in, against the wall of the pot, and siphon into my fermenter. I could get nearly all the liquid out of the pot. I don't think you could successfully decant the wort without upsetting the mound of junk that forms in the middle or else leaving behind a substantial amount of extract. But you might be amazed at how much stuff whirlpooling leaves behind! It really is fascinating to see a pyramid exposed as the level of wort goes down. --Darryl Richman Return to table of contents
End of HOMEBREW Digest #190, 06/30/89
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