Homebrew Digest Wednesday, 22 May 1996 Number 2043
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FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Shawn Steele, Digest Janitor
Thanks to Rob Gardner for making the digest happen!
Contents:
FWH, O2 Bags (Bob McCowan)
hop seeds (Dave Higdon)
Reviews and Whiners (Jack Schmidling)
Keg lube ("Michael T. Bell")
Re: Heart of the Hops (Roger Deschner )
Causes of stuck runoff & haze in rye & wheat beers (George De Piro)
Priming rates for Mini-Kegs ("Michael J. LeLaurin, IR/BRC, 245-7880")
Welcome, Shawn! (pbabcock.ford at e-mail.com)
Re: Wine Maker (John Artherton)
Non subscriber postings ("Rich Byrnes USAET(UTC
-04:00)")
HBD Advertising Scandal! ("Dr. Larry Allen")
Ooops. ("Dr. Larry Allen")
The Great Crabtree Debate.... (Jim Cave)
carbonation in keg (Paul - McDonald)
Febuary's Mead (Thomas Trautman)
using lactobacillus to begin fermentation (Cindy Renfrow)
Hydrogen sulfide (Paul.Lambie at ncal.kaiperm.org)
Carbonator (TM) trick ("Steven W. Smith")
re:immersion chiller dimensions (John Chang)
re: HOMEBREW DIGEST MOVED (brewmaster Mitch)
Re: All grain vs. Partial extract (Kirk Johnson)
liquid yeast woes ("Jeremy E. Mirsky")
Draft lines thru the house (Darrin Pertschi)
Pressure drop in hose (Kelly Jones)
Dry Hopping (Dave Draper)
Heart of the Hops (Don Van Valkenburg)
Timed Question (usbscrhc at ibmmail.com)
light and hops/100% fruit extracts (Algis R Korzonas)
Re: Maltrodextrin - usage (Des Zein)
BreWater 2.0 News Flash (KennyEddy at aol.com)
Grain Mills (Scott Abene)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bob McCowan <bob.mccowan at cfrp.varian.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 08:07:30 -0400
Subject: FWH, O2 Bags
A lot of people have posted little or no hop aroma with FWH. I made a
pilsener with whole saaz, 5 oz in 8 gallons, 25% FWH, 50% at the start of
the boil, the remaining 25% 30 minutes before strike. The wort was
decoction mashed ans had an OG of 1.051. Fermentation was done at 50F with
L09 from Yeast culture kit co.
The hops I used were whole flower Saaz, fresh from the O2 bag from Just
Hops. Very nice hops. The beer has a moderate hop aroma - very nice, with
no grassiness. There is also a fairly strong hop flavor and bitterness,
again with no grassiness.
George Fix's original post on FWH implied that only the *finest* hops should
be used for FWH. Maybe this is the difference.
- ----------------------------
O2 Bags-
I have a dazey vacuum seal-a-meal, and the vacuum is not particularly
effective. You'd do much better with a straw to suck the air out. The
sealing part works well, and will reseal the O2 bags from Just Hops. I
imagine it will reseal other O2 bags as well.
I am dismayed to hear that the bags in the vacuum seal-a-meal are not good
O2 bags. What good is a vacuum sealer if the bags are not good bariers?
- ---------------------------
Disclaimer: My only affiliation with Just Hops is that of satisfied customer.
Bob
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob McCowan
voice: (508)-922-6000 x208
ATG/Receiver-Protector fax: (508)-922-8914
CPI BMD
Formerly Varian CF&RPP e-mail: bob.mccowan at bmd.cpii.com or
Beverly, MA 01915 bob.mccowan at cfrp.varian.com
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: Dave Higdon <DAVEH at qesrv1.bwi.wec.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 09:02:01 EST
Subject: hop seeds
I looking to produce a strain of hops in my area (southern Maryland).
Does anyone know where I can get seeds, not rhyzhomes, seeds.
Return to table of contents
From: Jack Schmidling <arf at maxx.mc.net>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 08:20:22 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Reviews and Whiners
>From: robtrish at mindlink.bc.ca (Rob Lauriston)
>Jack thought his mill got a bad review in a magazine because he didn't
advertise in it....
I think you are confused. The MM never had a bad review. You are
referring to a comment I made about a comment someone else made
about an EASYMASHER review in said magazine. I did not see
the review and simply offered a gratitutous opinion.
>From: Bill Giffin <billg at maine.com>
>Many folks are happy with the MaltMill and 28-30 pppg.
Are you implying some connection between those number and
the MM? If so, you need to elaborate.
> I would much rather have a yeild of 31-35 pppg.
One can change the yield that much just by using a different malt
or any number of variable changes.
> That last 10 per cent is where a lot of the flavor
resides.
That I find very hard to believe and many would contend that
is where most of the evils lie.
Aside from better flavor. I paid for the malt and I will get
everything I can out of it.
No one is discouraging you from doing that but what does it have
to do with a MM.
>For doubting Tracy. That was the crush I got with my poor old beat up,
terrrible Corona....
I have posted several times, a study I did comparing the Corona with
several variations of the MM. It was actually a test of the
EASYMASHER because I used the Corona to make flour and I
wanted to see how the EM dealt with it. Bottom line is, the yield
was about the same but the flour wort from the Corona was clearer.
You figure that one out.
I never claimed that you couldn't make good beer with a Corona and
people who buy rollers mills for that reason are being mislead. Most
people like their MM's because it turns a chore into a really fun
part of brewing. It's the right tool for the job and a pleasure to use.
The Corona is a compromise that works but is a pain in the butt
to use BUT it's cheap..
>From: denisb at cam.org (Denis Barsalo)
>Every time *anyone* has an *anything* to say about Mills,
EZMashers, Skewed Rollers, Fixed Rollers, etc. on comes
Jack with a "rant" to defend his *product*.
A slight correction.... everytime anyone has anything INCORRECT
to say about......
> Look, I. don't mind reading ....
Well, I DO mind reading statements that misrepresent my products and
you will just have to get used to my defending them because I will
continue to do so.
***********************
Visit our Web page for product flyers, applications info and other
totally unbiased opinions from the World's Greatest Brewer.
http://dezines.com/ at your.service/jsp/
- ------------------------------
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From: "Michael T. Bell" <mikeb at flash.net>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 08:35:37 -0500
Subject: Keg lube
In HBD#2042 Howard writes,
> Does anyone use anything in addition to the o-ring to seal the top of the
> corny kegs? I'm thinking there might be some food grade viscous stuff (grease
> of sorts???) to help this seal. I have a couple kegs that just don't have a
> perfect fit and it takes more effort than necessary to get the seal....
> I played for about 20 minutes this morning just to make sure I'm carbonated
> for this afternoon, and I don't like sitting at work with my hands smelling
> like brew!! (ok, I do like it) And where do you get replacement o-rings, while
> I'm at it??Thanks!
Look for a product called Keg Lube from Williams Brewing. It is food grade
and has the look and feel of Vasoline. It worked great on my 5L kegs.
Should be very good for your purposes.
- --
- -mtb
beer is good food
Michael T. Bell
E- mail: mikeb at flash.net
Home: 817.468.8849
Fax: 817.468.7121
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From: Roger Deschner <U52983 at uicvm.uic.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 08:21:21 CDT
Subject: Re: Heart of the Hops
It's both more interesting, and more sinister.
They are not surgically removing the leaves, the lupilin, the gizzards,
or anything of that sort to get at the hop's heart organ.
Instead, it is basically a waste product. Miller extracts the alpha-acid
from hops for use (admittedly, by the thimblefull per zillion-gallon
batch) in its regular beers such as MGD, High Life, etc. What is left
over is all this wet green vegetable material that was formerly
landfilled or used as garden mulch. Now they're brewing with it.
The end product is a remarkable brew. I have never before tasted a beer
which had such high hop flavor and such low hop bitterness, together. But
it makes sense when you know how it is made with the "Heart of the Hops".
I'm not saying new Miller Beer is good beer, or bad beer, but rather more
of a curiosity.
Roger Deschner University of Illinois at Chicago rogerd at uic.edu
Aliases: u52983 at uicvm.uic.edu R.Deschner at uic.edu USUICZ3P at IBMMAIL
=============== "Civilization was CAUSED by beer." =====================
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From: George De Piro <George_De_Piro at berlex.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 07:51:14 -0700
Subject: Causes of stuck runoff & haze in rye & wheat beers
In HBD #2041 Guy Gregory states that it is the fine grain particles of
rye and wheat that cause stuck sparges and hazy beer. This is not
entirely correct. If the grain is milled too fine, then the small
particles will indeed clog the lauter tun (as Guy states). If the
grains are milled properly, you can still experience trouble in the
lauter tun because of the high protein content of these grains (see
Eric Warner's book about Wheat Beers). Rye is especially gummy
(protein gum, that is) but unmalted grains (like raw barley) are also
high in protein and can cause problems. During malting, proteins are
degraded. That's why you can skip the protein rest with highly
modified malts (like English Pale Malt) and not have any lautering
problems.
The haze in these beers is also caused by the high protein content of
the grains, not by fine grain particles. Remember that chill haze is
caused by protein-tannin complexes. If fine particles were making it
all the way to your finished beer, they would cause more problems than
just haze! Unconverted starch particles would leave the beer VERY
vulnerable to infection (because brewing yeasts don't metabolize
starch, but some bacteria do) and husk fines would very likely make
the beer unpalatably astringent.
My wheat worts are quite clear before the boil-no fine particles are
getting through. If you desire clear wheat and rye beers, use a
protein rest, a relatively long boil (good hot break), quick wort
chilling (good cold break), and cold-lager the beer to settle out the
chill haze (or filter it if you're in a rush).
George De Piro
PS: Sorry if this is posted twice, but I had trouble figuring out ccmail
- ------------------------------
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From: "Michael J. LeLaurin, IR/BRC, 245-7880" <lelaurin at shellus.com>
Date: Mon, 20 May 96 14:34:22 -0500
Subject: Priming rates for Mini-Kegs
All,
I have just started using the approximate 1.25 gallon kegs. I was told
to prime with 1 level tablespoon of corn sugar / keg. The first keg I
tapped was/is flat. The beer conditioned for 2 weeks at room
temperature and then for 6 days in the fridge. The beer is a rather
heavy stout. Maybe it needed longer to condition. Now to my
questions...
1.) Is the 1 level tablespoon the right amount?
2.) I boiled about 1/2 cup of water and disolved the sugar
in the water and added to the keg as the beer was being siphoned
into the keg. Right or wrong procedure? Too much water?
Don't use water at all...? Just add dry sugar to keg...?
Please advise.....I'm tired of bottlin'!!
Thanx................
d:-)
**********************************************************************
* Michael J. LeLaurin | oooooo |I was told by my wife that *
* Integrated Interpretation| oooooooo |if I brew one more batch *
* Shell EP Technology Co. | /_| oooooo |of beer she would leave me!*
* Phone (713)245-7880 |// | ooo | *
* FAX (713)245-7581 |\\_| oo | | *
* | \_| o| | I'm going to miss her :-) *
* | |______| | *
*=====================================================================
* e-mail:lelaurin internet:lelaurin at shell.com PROFS id mjl8 *
**********************************************************************
- ------------------------------
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From: pbabcock.ford at e-mail.com
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 11:12:11 EDT
Subject: Welcome, Shawn!
Pat Babcock Internet: pbabcock.ford at e-mail.com
Bronco Plant Vehicle Team - Body Construction Assembly Engineer
Subject: Welcome, Shawn!
Just a quickie to note the passing of Rob Gardner as Digest Janitor, and to
wel
come Shawn Steele in that capacity.
Shawn: They're mighty big shoes you're stepping into. From what I know of you,
they should be a perfect fit!
Long live the Digest!
See ya!
Pat Babcock pbabcock at oeonline.com
http://oeonline.com/~pbabcock/brew.html
Return to table of contents
From: John Artherton <metlhead at ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 01:35:43 -0700
Subject: Re: Wine Maker
Aesoph, Michael wrote:
>
> Sir:
>
> You use a complicated wine recipe. I would like to know where you
> get it from and how well it works. I've been using nothing but sugar,
> lemons, fruit, raisens and yeast - no chemicals and things turn out
> pretty good. Plus it's one hell of a lot cheaper ($1 per bottle).
> Please give me the scoop on the sparkling wine aspect as well.
I work at a company which produces filtered, pastuerized, and
concentrated juices from raw fruits. I am experimenting with the proper
dilution rates for wines. I dilute down to single strength presently,
then add sugar to bring the specific gravity up to where I want it. I
am using the acids to adjust the total acid content to 0.60%. As far as
costs go, I get the sugars, juice concentrates and chemicals for free as
samples. My cost is in the equipment and time. I have been told that
1/3 to 1/2 cup per 5 gallons for bottle priming will work, haven't tried
it yet. Just did a batch of red cherry wine today! Hope it's good.
Thanks for your reply, will have to try your recipe, I have some grapes
growing every year (small patch maybe 50 lbs.)
- ------------------------------
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From: "Rich Byrnes USAET(UTC -04:00)"
<rbyrnes2.ford at e-mail.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 12:02:17 EDT
Subject: Non subscriber postings
Hold on here, before we get crazy and close the doors on posting
lets consider how many legitimate non-subscribers we have out
there.
A well renowned brewer I work with (lets call him the plaid man)
is the main subscriber, and turns around and fans it out to about
50 people in the club, all "non-subscribers". Does this mean that
us 50 can't post if this plan goes through, what's to prevent
someone for subscribing for a day, posting his ad, then unsubscribing.
Let's not get too paranoid, this is a public forum, and while I cringe
at those ads, I also cringe at mill-wars, canadian beer bashing, 18
page dissertations on water chemistry, contest results etc, all of
which have been discussed st great lengths in the past, thank god my
page down key functions as intended (oh no, the religion thread resurfaces)
I would rather not see any ads either, but lets not shut the forum down
to outsiders as a control method, thanks!
Regards,_Rich Byrnes Jr
Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen \\\|///
phone #(313)323-2613, fax #390-4520_______o000_(.) (.)_000o
rbyrnes2.ford at e-mail.com (_)
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From: "Dr. Larry Allen" <docsbrew at inland.net>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 09:18:33 -0700
Subject: HBD Advertising Scandal!
Well I just gotta toss in my $.02.
I totally agree that this is not the place for advertisements, but taking it
to the other extreme, I implore you not to support ANY type of censorship.
This talk about unsubscribing someone is silly - they can just re-up if they
want - even under another or an assumed name! If someone REALLY wants to
mess with the digest - or an individual - they're gonna find a way to do it.
Flame throwers and spam hurlers should just be ignored, and MAYBE they'll go
away. Of course, maybe they won't, but that's the price, blah, blah.
Especially now that the AoB has taken the reins (and this is NOT an AoB
slam!), imagine if somebody formed the _Nat'l_Homebrewers_Association_ (can
you see it - the Superbowl of Homebrew!), but they weren't allowed to post
to HBD because they're "the enemy!" That would be silly.
We must be tolerant - - and allow even stupid people to participate!
LPA
The strength of the Constitution lies entirely
in the determination of each citizen to defend it.
Albert Einstein
Return to table of contents
From: "Dr. Larry Allen" <docsbrew at inland.net>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 09:18:40 -0700
Subject: Ooops.
Sorry for the long signature. Forgot it was there.
Hope you learned something, tho!
LPA
The strength of the Constitution lies entirely
in the determination of each citizen to defend it.
Albert Einstein
Return to table of contents
From: Jim Cave <CAVE at psc.org>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 9:31:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: The Great Crabtree Debate....
Al talks about the crabtree effects and notes that this still
occurs with maltose. However, malt extract contains other sugars than
maltose and other simple sugars. In my opinion, and it is only an opinion,
the crabtree effect is irrelevent with the levels of sugars added to
bottle condition. Yeast health is probably far more important. I have found
far better and faster bottle conditioning, when I add a small (250 ml) starter
to 20 litres of beer for bottle conditioning. Conditioning will take place
very rapidly. As for oxygen, I would suspect that a healthy yeast from an
all malt starter would likely very quickly assimilate any oxygen in a head
space in a bottle of beer.
On adding Dextrose to beer....
I made a Duvel clone with two (reputedly) different strains of the
Duvel yeasts. Duvel is mashed to about 1.058 and then the gravity is raise
to the 1.070's with dextrose. For fear of Crabtree with the very high levels
of dextrose to be added, I prepared a very large starter (2.5 litres) with
45 litres of beer. I pitched this in a conventional gravity 1.058 wort, well
oxygenated, and got a very happy ferment going. My thoughts were to get a
vigorous ferment and then add liquid dextrose...wrong! I added the Dextrose
and the ferment virtually came to a halt. It took 3 weeks for the yeast to
finally poop out and as it was still sweet, I ended up finishing the beer
with some Celis yeast which I had collected from a Primary. This finished
quickly.
The moral to the story is...make a small beer first and pitch all
of this yeast into a strong beer made with dextrose. BTW this beer was
bottle conditioned with fresh Duvel yeast and was fully conditioned in 5 days.
The resulting beer was judged quite close to Duvel and in a side-by-side blind
taste test with the real duvel, judges, thought the real "Duvel" tasted
"old", which may have been the case. Both were bottled in Duvel bottles with
Duvel caps.
Jim Cave
Return to table of contents
From: Paul - McDonald <pzm at rfc.comm.harris.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 12:37:10 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: carbonation in keg
I have just built a counter flow bottle filler and I was wondering if
anyone had any info on how much carbonation I should have so that the
beer comes out ok in the bottle. I have a gauge that fits my keg so I
can control the amount of co2 build up. (I was planning on conditioning
the beer naturally.)
Thanks- paul mcdonald
- ------------------------------
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From: Thomas Trautman <cc47jv18 at coastalnet.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 13:20:29 -0400
Subject: Febuary's Mead
Dear Digest,
I've just cracked open the first of my blackberry mead. I
personally have never had any sort of mead before. I'm not sure what it
should taste like. This stuff tastes like red wine with a kick.(15%+
alc.) I like it, but it's not very fruity at all. I pasturized the
berries after the boil and let them steep for a week in the primary.
After that I racked it to a carboy, secondary, for four weeks. Then
bottled. Is this mead just too green? Will it mello with age?
Thomas "t-man" Trautman
I'm going to line my pockets with money and sin
Return to table of contents
From: Cindy Renfrow <renfrow at skylands.net>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 13:50:51 +0100
Subject: using lactobacillus to begin fermentation
Hello! I'm relaying a request for information. Does anyone have any old
recipes which use lactobacillus (whey, yogurt, sour milk, etc.) to begin
fermentation of a beverage, any beverage? (In particular, she is hoping to
find a recipe for small beer which is made with whey.) If so, please email
me with a citation or recipe. Thanks!!
Cindy Renfrow
renfrow at skylands.net
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/
- ------------------------------
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From: Paul.Lambie at ncal.kaiperm.org
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 10:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Hydrogen sulfide
I brewed my first batch of wheat beer this last weekend and have noted
an odor of hydrogen sulfide from the fermentation:
8 lbs. DeWolf Cosyns Pils malt
8 lbs. Great Western white winter wheat
Infusion mash at 155 F with 1 tsp gypsum
Chilled wort split into 2 carboys - total 11 gallons, O.G. 1.042
2 quart starter Wyeast #3068 pitched into each carboy
Fermentation began quickly at 65 F
There has been a strong hydrogen sulfide odor throughout the
fermentation. Is this characteristic of this particular yeast strain or
is there another cause for this? Will this eventually be purged by CO2;
if so, long will this take?
TIA
Paul Lambie
- ------------------------------
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From: "Steven W. Smith" <SYSSWS at gc.maricopa.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 11:25:47 -0700 (MST)
Subject: Carbonator (TM) trick
Hola, zymurgists, I'm back from an extended lack of anything useful to
write about! I'm up to early April with my HBD readings (that durned
vacation set me back big-time), so if this is common knowlege I apologize...
In reply to Art McGregor's Carbonator post of April 9th or thereabouts.
Paraphrasing: "Carbonators are expensive and I don't wanna give 'em out to
my friends". Here's my as-yet unpatented method ;-)
After pressurizing the bottle, you refrigerate it to help the CO2 go into
solution and you shake the bottle occasionally. Once it's "fully carbonated"
(mine tends to end up "fizzy" - lack of practice?), shake the bottle again to
get a good head of foam at the top and transfer the bottle to the freezer.
It may take a re-shake or two until the temperature gets low enough, but with
minimal effort you can get a "plug" of frozen foam at the top of the bottle.
Pray silently, then quickly unscrew the Carbonator and replace it with the
original plastic cap. Now you're ready to go on the road with
fully-disposable-beer-gear.
I'll now vanish silently into the ether; hope that helps someone.
_,_/| Steven W. Smith
\o.O; Systems Programmer, but not a Licensed Therapist
=(___)= Glendale Community College. Glendale Az.
U syssws at gc.maricopa.edu or smith at peabody.gc.maricopa.edu
End procrastination tomorrow, ask me how!
- ------------------------------
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From: John Chang <75411.142 at compuserve.com>
Date: 21 May 96 14:26:48 EDT
Subject: re:immersion chiller dimensions
Hello All,
Greg King in HBD 2039 inquired about immersion chiller diameter and efficiency.
I just completed mine with recommendations from my father-in-law, who has been
working in the nuclear powerplant industry, pump division, specializing in heat
transfer.
He reports that the difference in efficiency of 1/4" O.D. and 3.8"O.D. copper
tubing is nil, given the length of tubing required and the flow of water at
the
rate that homebrewers use (mostly straight from the tap). The most important
considerations in the construction of the chiller are:
1) to have the input end of the tube enter the coil from the top (heat rises).
2) build the coil diameter large enough to facilitate stirring.
3) build the maximum surface area of tubing that will fit in the boiling vessel
as long as the entire coil structure remains submerged.
4) for those using a pump (I use a 3gl/min submersible in an icebath after 10
min of pumping straight tap water) you must route the input tube to a
height of 24 inches above the pump, then into the coil structure.
This is to maintain the proper resistance for the pump.
Also, I use SS hose clamps to attach plastic tubing to the ends of the chiller
for input from the pump and output to the sink. With my boiler mostly covered,
my drop in temp (5gal) goes from boiling to 70F in ~20 min. I only uncover
the
pot to stir.
Hope this helps,
John
john.chang at newhorizons.com
- ------------------------------
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From: brewmaster Mitch <gellym at aviion.persoft.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 96 19:00:56 GMT
Subject: re: HOMEBREW DIGEST MOVED
> homebrew at aob.org (SUBMISSIONS ONLY)
> homebrew-digest-requests at aob.org (SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, etc.)
Ack ! A takeover !
Run for cover !
- --
-- Mitchell B. Gelly -- owner & brewmaster of the ManOwaR nanoBrewery
--
software QA specialist - UNIX|VMS|AOS systems administrator - Usenet admin
BJCP certified beer judge - brewer of ales, lambics, meads, and ciders
-- gellym at aviion.persoft.com -- Existential Void Where Prohibited --
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From: Kirk Johnson <johnson at primenet.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 12:04:57 +0900
Subject: Re: All grain vs. Partial extract
>>Are there any easy ways to brew all grain with out having to buy all
of the equipment?
I made the jump to all grain for about $50 dollars. I have brewed 4
all grain batches to date. My extraction rate is on the low side at
27-28 pts*lbs/gal. My ability to brew specific styles has taken a
quantum leap and my all grain batches are the best I have made.
I have the grain crushed at my local homebrew store so I don't have
to buy a grain mill. I bought a 8 gallon enamal brew pot (slightly
dented) for $29.00. My 6.5 gallon bottling bucket has a 3/4" threaded
spigot; so I created a square manifold (with drilled holes in the
manifold sections) out of PVC for $5.00. I mash the grains in the brew
pot and sparge in my bottling bucket with manifold. I borrow my
neighbors cajun cooker to mash and boil the wort (if purchased it costs
about $39.00). You can do it on the stove, but it takes forever to
heat large volumes of water. When sparging, I heat the sparge water in
my brew pot and trasfer it to anouther bucket ($10 dollars) to free up
my brew pot for collecting the wort. Total cost was about $45 dollars
or $85 with the cajun cooker (I prefer the neighbor approach myself).
The manifold design was based upon an early post to the HBD a few years
ago. The design uses a 3/4" threaded to 3/4" smooth elbow, three 3/4"
smooth elbows, a 3/4" cap, and 4 sections of 3/4" PVC pipe. I took 3
sections of 3/4" PVC pipe (approx 4.5 inches each) and drilled three
rows of 7/32" holes in on the bottom of each piece. The section from
the spigot/threaded elbow to the first smooth elbow (approx 3.5 inches)
does not require holes. The manifold should sit snug in the bottom
of the bottling bucket. The PVC elbows keep the manifold sections about
a 1/8 inch off the bottom. Make sure the holes are facing down. Do
not glue the pieces together, they should fit together snug and are
very easy to clean after each batch by disassembling and reassembling
the manafold. Put together it looks like the diagram below.
|_| <-- 3/4" threaded spigot
|_| <-- 3/4" threaded to 3/4" smooth elbow
|____
| |
| | <-- 3 elbows + 1 cap + 4 sections of 3/4" pipe
| |
|________|
I hope this helps in your quest for all grain brewing on a budget. All grain
brewing takes me about 5 hours compared to 2 hours for extract, but the beer
is much better. Have fun.
Kirk Johnson
- ------------------------------
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From: "Jeremy E. Mirsky" <mirsjer at charlie.cns.iit.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 14:17:16 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: liquid yeast woes
Hi folks. I just tried liquid yeast for the first time (Wyeast 1272 -
American Ale II). I followed the advice I received from the collective
and made a starter, which never got very active over the 2 days it sat.
I pitched it yesterday, and I'm finally seeing some activity. My
question is, is the starter (I used a 22 oz. bottle, a couple tbsps. of
malt extract, and some hops) supposed to ferment vigorously?
I noticed some krausen, which died down quickly. When the starter is
pitched into the fermenter, should fermentation commence quickly?
I'm not sure if I was anal retentive enough about sanitization with
regards to the starter bottle. I've been advised so many different ways
from so many different people (and I appreciate all of the help!).
My second question pertains to my hydrometer readings, which are usually
discrepant with the recipe or the calculated gravity. This time I boiled
about 3.5 gals of wort and tried to mix as well as I could with the
water in the fermenter. Suds4.0 gave me a O.G. of 1.046, yet my reading
was about 1.038 (after cooling below 80 deg.)
This has happened with most of my batches. Has anyone had similar
experiences?
Thanks again
Jeremy
- ------------------------------
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From: Darrin Pertschi <darrinp at cowles.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 15:59:18 -0400
Subject: Draft lines thru the house
I should probably get the bugs ironed out of my first kegging experience
before question this one, but what the hell, at least it's beer related:
I can see it clearly: Refrigerator with corny kegs in the basement. Beer tap
in the kitchen, mounted right in the sink beside the hot/cold water tap.
Anyone have any info (or direct me to it) regarding how this would be
properly executed; beer line material & diameters, pressure adjusting,
cooling, etc. I could probably get the line from the basement to the kitchen
as short as maybe 15 feet.
Anyone else interested in starting a kegging thread (since it's my newest
obsession)?
Darrin
Proprietor-Simpleton's Cosmic Brewery
- ------------------------------
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From: Kelly Jones <kejones at ptdcs2.intel.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 13:34:27 -0700
Subject: Pressure drop in hose
Jay Reeves asks about pressure drop in hoses.
Again, the simple answer to this question is that if your keg is at 12
psi, then the pressure drop from the keg to your glass is always 12 psi,
regardless of your hose length. It is not possible to specify a pressure
drop per foot of hose, as the pressure drop per foot is dependant both
upon hose diameter AND flow rate.
It is surprising that you needed to increase your tubing length to 16' in
order to reduce your flow rate enough to cause foaming. Perhaps
something else is causing your foaming? What type of tap are you using?
Do you have fittings or obstruction in your flow path? What is your flow
rate (How long does it take to fill a 12 oz glass)?
- --
Kelly
Portland, OR
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From: Dave Draper <david.draper at mq.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 07:20:35 +10
Subject: Dry Hopping
Dear Friends, in #2041 C.D. Pritchard reported that out of his 30+
batches, he has had one infection, which he attributes to
dry-hopping, and said he will never dry hop again. Well... consider
the thousands and thousands of dry-hopped batches represented by the
collective experience of the HBD, and the exceedingly small
frequency of any problems (I have yet to hear of a *single* one that
can definitely be attributed to dry hopping) and I think this
conclusion is a bit hasty. C.D., I do not doubt your conclusion
that your batch was infected and that you take every precaution to
reduce the risk of contamination. But to conclude that dry hopping
should never be tried again seems just a bit premature to me.
Yes, hops are a product of agribusiness and cannot be trusted to be
squeaky clean. Yes, you can get good results from hop teas. But
there is something about dry hopping, intangible though it may be,
that is achievable no other way.
All I'm saying is maybe try it a few more times, see how it goes...
an infected batch is no fun but a good dry-hopped beer is simply
wonderful, and no one should be deprived of such a thing. The weight
of experience, from homebrew to micro scale, is *drastically* in
favor of the notion that the risk of infection is very low.
Cheers, Dave in Sydney
"Don't pick your nose." ---Domenick Venezia
- ---
***************************************************************************
David S. Draper, Earth Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney NSW Australia
Email: david.draper at mq.edu.au WWW: http://audio.apana.org.au/ddraper/home.html
...I'm not from here, I just live here...
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From: Don Van Valkenburg <DONVANV at msn.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 96 21:25:24 UT
Subject: Heart of the Hops
Stanley A. White writes:
>.....(His wife) ....Saw the Miller beer ad and asked" if the "heart of the
hop"
>is so good, why aren't you using it in my homebrews.
>So, what's "the heart of the hop"????
My guess is that since Miller is (I'm told by people in the hop trade) using
hop extracts/oils, not whole or pellets, they are using this as an advertising
ploy to call these extracts "the heart of the hop", ie, extracts use only the
essence, the heart of the hops.
The breweries that use hop extract, buy the stuff in 55 gal drums. They can
control quite precisely the amount, the bitterness, aroma etc., without any
waste. I have heard that among the breweries that use hop oil/extracts are:
Heiniken, Miller and several of the Japanese breweries.
Don Van Valkenburg
DONVANV at MSN.COM
- ------------------------------
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From: usbscrhc at ibmmail.com
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 15:51:39 EDT
Subject: Timed Question
I made my first starter - 600 ml - last Wednesday. It went to work, subsided
some, and I refridgerated. It remained somewhat active (or reactivated, really)
on Thurs. and has sat there clean ever since. So how long do I have until
I must refeed it rather than pitch right into a fresh batch?? It still has
about a 1/2 inch of head on it....Thanks.
Howard
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From: Algis R Korzonas <korz at pubs.ih.att.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 96 13:57:31 CDT
Subject: light and hops/100% fruit extracts
Mark writes:
>If you have CO2 (or nitrogen) purge the bags before sealing. If you don't,
>just manually squeeze most of the air out of the bag and seal. Some air
>will remain in the bag, but the point is to stop the constant in-flux of O2
> - so once the bag is sealed and the trapped air is "used up" no futher
>deterioration of the hops will occur - and in practice that which does occur
>is extremely minimal. Make sure these hops are stored in the freezer and
>minimize their exposure to light as the Dazey bags are clear.
Intuatively AND in my experience, this theory that "trapped air is 'used
up' no further deterioration..." is false. Especially in whole hops, there
is more than enough air (and therefore oxygen) left in the bags to deteriorate
the hops SIGNIFICANTLY. This is especially true of the hop aromatics.
If you don't own a CO2 tank, get one of those sport bottles, pull the straw
out an inch or two, add a teaspoon of baking soda and two tablespoons of
distilled vinegar (heck, you can use AlkaSeltzer and water if you want),
seal up the bottle and then direct the escaping CO2 into your bag of hops.
Incidentally, if you need to buy O2 barrier bags, I'm sure you can buy them
from either Freshops (541-929-2736) or Just Hops (217-864-4216).
[No affiliation, actually, if I did mailorder, they would be competetors!]
Secondly, Mark's book, articles and posts are the *only* places I have
seen any mention of light negatively affecting hops. When Mark initially
posted this idea on HBD, I asked Dr. Alfred Haunold (the world's foremost
hop researcher and developer of Mt. Hood, Liberty and many other new hops)
whether light negatively affects hops. His response was "they may lose
a little green colour, but their brewing capabilities are unaffected.
Think about it... the hops spend all summer in the sun!!!
***
Chris writes:
>I added 3/4 cup priming sugar and a 5 oz
>bottle of pear flavour from Hop-Tech, the stuff tasted like a pear
>and supposidly had absolutly no yeast food in it. At seven days it
>was horrid, at 20 it was better but still had this 'off taste'. All
>of the non-beer drinkers that have tried the stuff think its great, I
>HATE IT! I recently tried some beers I have not had before, the
>Bishops Finger Kentish Ale someone suggested is very nice, The
>Coopers Sparkling ale has the exact 'off taste' as my pear brew. Is
>this an ester (sp) taste? Any input about what this is and how to
>git OR NOT GIT this taste would be greatly appreciated.
When you mentioned Coopers Sparkling Ale, that rang a bell in my head.
This beer has a rather strong phenolic aroma/flavour. I have tried
many different varieties of those "100% fruit" extracts and every
one of them seems to have a little of that sort of phenolic/medicinal
aftertaste. Furthermore, many of them are rather bitter. I was
experimenting with them by adding them to finished beer with a pipette.
By the time I put enough in to get an acceptable flavour/aroma, the
beer was too bitter and took on that phenolic/medicinal character.
Some people have reported success with them, but I've yet to taste
a good homebrewed or commercial beer made with fruit extracts.
This weekend, at the International Beer Exposition in Chicago, there
were two raspberry beers I had not tasted yet. One was from Estes Park
Brewing Co. and the other from Big Buck Brewing Co. The EPBC beer
was made with extract and the BBBC with real fruit. In my opinion,
the difference was striking. The real fruit beer was far superior,
in fact, I told the server "this is made with extract" or "this is made
with real fruit" and they confirmed. There are others: Samuel Adams
Cherry Wheat (extract), Brimstone Brewing Blueberry Ale (real fruit).
Al.
Al Korzonas, Palos Hills, IL
korz at pubs.att.com
Copyright 1996 Al Korzonas
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From: Des Zein <dzein at iprolink.co.nz>
Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 13:47:31 +0200
Subject: Re: Maltrodextrin - usage
I see from time to time mention of maltrodextrin in beer making. As this is
new to me (sorry if this is basic stuff) I would be interested to know more
about it.
I suspect it is used to increase the body of the beer but wonder if this is
the only reason for its use.
At what stage of the brewing process is it used and does it act on the yeast
in any way?
As there are various grades of maltrodextrin is one more suitable than another?
And of course does it work or affect the flavour in any way?
Any information will be appreciated, thank you.
Onwards to better brewing.
Des
dzein at iprolink.co.nz
Internet ProLink NZ
New Zealand's Professional Internet Service
phone: +64-9-302-3352
fax: +64-9-302-3341
modem: +64-9-302-2507
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From: KennyEddy at aol.com
Date: Wed, 22 May 1996 00:07:40 -0400
Subject: BreWater 2.0 News Flash
Well, either no one is downloading BW2.0 or they didn't notice (as one person
pointed out to me) that the BREWATER.HLP file does not copy from the install
directory! I've updated the ZIP file (still 2.0); you can manually copy
BREWATER.HLP into your BreWater directory.
Ken Schwartz
KennyEddy at aol.com
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From: Scott Abene <skotrat at wwa.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 23:05:55 -0500
Subject: Grain Mills
Hey all,
Does anyone here have an opinion on a good grain mill to buy?
-Scott "I just couldn't resist this sick little bit of sarcasm" Abene
####################################################
# ThE-HoMe-BrEw-RaT #
# Scott Abene <skotrat at wwa.com> #
# http://miso.wwa.com/~skotrat #
# (Skotrats Official Homebrew "Beer Slut" Webpage) #
# OR #
# http://miso.wwa.com/~skotrat/Brew-Rat-Chat/ #
# (Skotrats Brew-Rat-Chat Homebrew Chat System) #
# "Get off your dead ass and brew" #
####################################################
- ------------------------------
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