Homebrew Digest Tuesday, 4 June 1996 Number 2059
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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:
The Porter House in Dublin (Ulick Stafford)
HBD bug (shawn at aob.org (Shawn Steele))
Aeration/RO/RIMS (ajdel at interramp.com (A. J. deLange))
Extraction (Bill Giffin)
RIMS (Bill Giffin)
RE: Pressure Reduction on Keg Lines ("Pat Babcock")
RE: Selling Homebrew in a Bar (genitom at nyslgti.gen.ny.us (Michael A. Genito))
Cheep Grain Source (Mark Dimke)
In-line heating ("Michael T. Bell")
1) Ale yeast, 2) selling homebrews??? ("David K. Schafer")
Looking for Heather! (Hot Rod)
Hammer Mills (gjfix at utamat.uta.edu (George J Fix))
RIMS Terminology (KennyEddy at aol.com)
Burner questions (Joseph.Fleming at gsa.gov)
over carbonation (Larry N. Lowe)
Transistion to All-Grain (Chris Cooper)
A Belgian beer laugh (PivoPrince at aol.com)
yeast cleansing and storage (Greg Thompson)
Food grad tubing (Kallen Jenne)
Strange Fermentation (John Chang)
Hop Flavor & Aroma (AGNORCB at miavx1.acs.muohio.edu)
RO Water ("J.A. Cadieux")
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ulick Stafford <ulick at indigo.ie>
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 11:24:23 +0100
Subject: The Porter House in Dublin
Dublin first brewpub is located on Parliament Street in the Temple Bar
redevelopment area. It is a fully refurbished structure with plain wood
interior and copper and brass rails. The walls are covered in cabinets
with a wide variety of beers from around the world and bottles of the
products produced there (for display only, although many interesting
imported bottled beers are also available). The building is on a few levels
with toilets and fermenters visible through a window downstairs. Bars on
the ground and first floor levels and a restaurant on the top level. The
kettle is visible through windows in the first and second floor levels. I
didn't eat there. The structure was attractive, but I am not sure how
well it would cope with a big crowd. On Sunday evening, while busy, it
was not stuffed with people and there was no seating available. Service
was a little slow at first, but less than the best service in not unusual
in Brewpubs, and it was better much than in many other pubs and
brewpubs. With time this should improve.
I didn't get many details on the brewing but had the samplers and
information on the sample sheet.
I sampled Plain Porter, Oyster Stout, Wrasslers 4X Stout, Hersbrucker,
Porterhouse Red, and a special called Weiser Buddy. Another special
called Probably Lager, and a potent brew called An Brainblasta were out
of stock.
The Plain is described as a classic modern light stout with the added
complexity of late kettle hops. They say aromatic character, rich roast,
dry clean and bitter without any sourness. Alcohol is 4.3% (normal for
Irish draught) and the grain bill was Pale ale, flaked barley, roast
barley, black malt, and crystal. Hops were Galena, Nugget, and East Kent
Goldings. Like all beer here it was filtered and pulled with Nitrogen/CO2.
I found the late hopping inappropriate for style, but otherwise
it was a fine brew and quite quaffable. I should comment that my tasting
was dulled due to the absence of a palate clearer and the first brew I
tried was intensely hopped.
The Oyster Stout is 4.8% and is described as brewed with oysters and as a
smooth drinking aromatic stout with a discernible but unidentifiable
aromatic aspect. Not suitable for vegetarians. Hops and malt were
similar to Plain, but no crystal.
I did not like this beer. The taste was wrong. It may have been
a nice smooth dry stout without the oysters, but they totally ruined it.
The third stout was Wrasslers 4X, 5.0% by volume. Hops and Grain as for
Plain but with addition of wheat malt. It is said to have been made to
recipe by Deasy's of West Cork in the early 1900's which was Michael
Collin's favourite tipple. It is described as full in every way, kettle
hops, roast grain, etc.
I found it sweetish and like many homebrewed stouts that I have
tasted. It really is too heavy for major consumption.
The Hersbrucker, 5.0%, was made with lager malt, cara malt (sic),
torrified wheat, galena, nugget, perle, and Hersbrucker hops. It is
described as a classic full-bodied continental style pilsener with an
ample balance of lip smacking Hersbrucker hops.
I disagree. It is underhopped for a continental style Pilsener.
Having said that, it was a quite drinkable beer.
The Porterhouse Red, 4.4%, was made with pale ale, crystal, wheat, and
chocolate malts. Hopped with Galena, Nugget, and East Kent Goldings. "At
last an Irish Red Ale with a traditional hop flavour to balance the fruit
character of the yeast and the luscious caramel flavour notes derived from
the malts used, as opposed to artificially added".
A pity they spoiled my enjoyment of a truly fine beer with this
drivel. It is overhopped for style, but a very drinkable beer.
Weiser Buddy is marketed ripping off Bud (much as the unavailable
Probably lager is a rip-off of Carlsberg), and is very pale. I have no
info as it is considered a special with no info on the sheet. It is
intensely overhopped, and ruined my palate for the other beers (it is the
lightest coloured). I would say that if this is supposed to be an
American Light Lager, it is way overhopped for style.
An Brainablasta was unavailable and is 7% a/v. Pale ale and crystal malt
and torrified wheat. Fuggles, East Kent Goldings, Nugget, and Galena. "A
deep copper coloured brew offering the connoisseur the complexity of
flavour expected from thrice hopping and longer fermentation leading to a
fruit character from both the lake (sic) kettle Goldings and yeast
fermentation flavour balanced by a soft bitterness, malty sweetness and
full floral aroma of Fuggles dry hops. Only available by the glass. Use
it, don't abuse it." (By glass this means 1/2 pint as opposed to pint).
It must have been good. It was all gone.
Overall, the beers were quite good and will improve when they get used to
the tastes of the customers. I do not like their excessive use of
Galena, a hop I dislike, but that is my opinion. I would like to see
them use Irish grown Northdown as part of their hop
bill. In many ways it is very similar to American brewpubs. The
Porterhouse Red and Plain are the most drinkable I tasted, but
their Probably lager was sold out. This Special would Probably be their
best seller.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Wexford Brewing Company | Ulick Stafford, Proprietor
Purveyor of Advanced Homebrewing Supplies | ulick at indigo.ie
Ballyhurst, Taghmon, Co. Wexford | Phone/Fax: +353-53-47957
Return to table of contents
From: shawn at aob.org (Shawn Steele)
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 96 11:32:16 MDT
Subject: HBD bug
There was a small typo (an extra \ if you want to know) in the Errors-To:
line of the HBD's that were sent over the weekend. This caused some
mailers to reject the HBD. The problem has been corrected, but if you are
missing an HBD, send e-mail to homebrew-digest-request@ aob.org and include
the following line(s) in the body of the message:
get n1234
end
(replace 1234 with the number of the digest you are missing.)
- - shawn
Digest Janitor
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From: ajdel at interramp.com (A. J. deLange)
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 07:55:49 -0500
Subject: Aeration/RO/RIMS
Jim Booth asks about aerating a stuck wort: The risk in doing this is not
so much that oxidation will take place. If there are any viable yeast in
the wort they will absorb the oxygen in pretty short order. The potential
difficulty is in what they do with it: revert to growth phase during which
the metabolic byproducts released are in different balance from those
produced during fermentation. The result is generally considered unpleasant
but note that some brewers do exactly this intentionally.
Also, RO stands for Reverse Osmosis, a process by which ions are made to
migrate through a special membrane from a high pressure water stream to a
lower pressure one. The low pressure stream goes to the sewer and the high
pressure stream is pretty clean (typically 12 ppm TDS).
And since we're doing abbreviations: RIMS = Recirculating Infusion Mash System
A.J. deLange Numquam in dubio, saepe in errore!
ajdel at interramp.com
Return to table of contents
From: Bill Giffin <billg at maine.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 08:25:50 -0500
Subject: Extraction
Top of the morning to ye all,
Tracy says:
>Please explain HOW. It seems to me that getting 10% of additional extract
>does little more than save a few pennies. Exactly how does that improve the
>beer?
I honestly don't know how! I just know that it does from personal
observation. Beer with higher extraction rates have scored better and won
more frequently in competitions then beer brewed to the same recipe that had
slightly lower extraction rates. I have helped a number of brewers increase
their extraction rate by improving the process that they use to brew all
grain beer. The quality of their beer improved along with the extraction
rate.
I have searched for some substantiation in the brewing books that I have and
have only found a few clues to why better extraction gives better beer. It
seems that the books give you the how to and they expect, and rightfully so,
you will get the proper extract from the malt. I didn't find much about how
to correct poor extraction nor did I find any disadvantage to having low
extraction rates.
One thing that I came across was that about 30% of the husk material makes
it into the wort. Another bit stated that if the husk fraction of the malt
were removed from the grist the beer would be insipid. The book didn't know
why.
It would be nice if we were able to provide a nice clean scientific reason
for everything that happens in the brewing process, but their are many
thing that have resisted expaination and probally will continue to do so.
So when something works for me I pass it on and then those who try it can
make up their own minds if it works for them. The difference between great
beer and good beer is the blink of an eye.
May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you are dead,
Bill Bill Giffin
61 Pleasant St.
Richmond, ME 04357
(207)-737-2015
All you need is a few good friends and plenty to drink because thirst is a
terrible thing!
Return to table of contents
From: Bill Giffin <billg at maine.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 08:55:33 -0500
Subject: RIMS
Good morning,
RIMS is far too complicated for my taste. Give me a couple of pots and a
burner I without much bother and six or so hours will brew a very pleasant
beer in just about any style.
May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you are dead,
Bill Bill Giffin
61 Pleasant St.
Richmond, ME 04357
(207)-737-2015
All you need is a few good friends and plenty to drink because thirst is a
terrible thing!
Return to table of contents
From: "Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at oeonline.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 08:19:37 +0500
Subject: RE: Pressure Reduction on Keg Lines
Greetings, Beerling! Take me to your lager...
in HBD 2058, Kieran O'Connor <koconnor at syr.edu> sez...
"For an informative article on dropping the pressure of the keg from xx
pounds to dispensing pressure, check out the AHA's COnference
Proceedings, "Brew Free or Die." Not sure of the year. Dave Miller has
an article on exactly how much a foot of hose reduces the pressure. it
is, in fact, 2-3 lbs per foot, depending on the ID of the hose."
That would be "Just Brew It"; Beer and Brewing Vol. 12, The 1992 AHA
National Conference on Quality Beer & Brewing.
In a nutshell,
Drop per foot for Vinyl: 3/16 - 3; 1/4 - .85; 5/16 - .4; 3/8 - .2;
1/2 - .025
Drop per foot for Polyethylene:
3/16 - 2.2; 1/4 - .50; 3/8 - .07
Warning: Diatribe Capacitor Discharging...
For the genius types who will now jump up and down and say there is
no drop without flow, it will vary with viscosity, etc. I ask that
you take pause and consider the concepts of nominals and benchmarks.
I'm sure the people that rate these things know a whole lot more
about what they're doing than you apparently do - though they are a
lot less interested in looking like "The Mighty Brain". The ratings
are likely done at some *nominal* viscosity and flow rate and
provide a *benchmark* for those of us without a fluid dynamics lab
in our basement, dontchathink?
Consider this: this concept can be likened to the mighty field of
electric current flow. Even the best wire provides a resistance. The
voltage drop across the wire is relative to the current being
passed. Analagous to our situation: our "electricity" is beer and the
resistance is friction and other forces counter to flow. Yes, this
resistance is related to viscosity and rate of flow, among other
things. For our purposes, though, considering the viscosity is
picking nits. What we are after is a system in which this resistive
force, from tap to faucet, equals the force of the pressure driving
the beer. Saying the drop from keg to faucet is ALWAYS zero is an
oversimplification and ignores the dynamic nature of pressure within
the system.
The pressure is indeed zero at the faucet opening no matter what;
however, how it got to be zero can be drastically different! Did the
pressure drop to zero within the system? This will cause your beer
to outgas to drive itself through the remainder of the system. Foam
city and/or flat beer! Has the beer used all its driving energy at
the faucet? If not, the beer flows violently into your glass,
outgassing as it goes. Foam city again! Perhaps it is better to say
that we want the motive force of the beer at the faucet to be that of
gravity; that we want to have expended all the force of pressure
within the beer line.
Like most, I have purchased the magnificent
picnic-faucet-on-a-length-of-hose draft systems from homebrew supply
shops. These are, frankly, worthless. You have lovingly carbonated
your beer at X psig CO2 at Y temperature, and now must chill your
beer to some temperature A in order to dispense the beer foam free
without perturbing your carbonation level at suitable pressure level
B for that short little piece of line they give you. (Use the table
above with the carbonation charts available in many books and at the
brewery as a guide if this concept is unclear.)
Most simply muck around with the pressure - usually dropping it to
some extremely low level - in order to get foam free beer. Why does
the low pressure work? The beer outgasses to drive itself in the
line. This generally results in less foamy, but pretty still beer.
And zero pressure at the faucet opening.
Using the guidelines set out in charts outlining the drop per foot
in a given beer line, and knowing your typical dispensing conditions,
you can put a picnic faucet on enough line to give pleasant results.
May not be *PERFECT* because of flow rate, the (minutely) differing
viscosities of your beer and the unknown viscosity/flow rate of the
test fluid which generated the numbers, but it'll get you close. And
close is what we're all about...
See ya!
Pat Babcock in SE Michigan pbabcock at oeonline.com
http://oeonline.com/~pbabcock/brew.html
Copyright 1996 Jelly Kones. All rights arguable on technical
principles alone.
As always: Flames can be called in to the automated operators at:
1-800-SWIG-BUD
Return to table of contents
From: genitom at nyslgti.gen.ny.us (Michael A. Genito)
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 09:21:25 -0400
Subject: RE: Selling Homebrew in a Bar
In HBD 2054, Greg King wrote:
The owner of a small restaurant/pub wants to enter into an arrangement
with me where he sells my homebrew, offering it as a house brand.
Do any of you know if/how this can be done legally? (the restaurant is,
in Pennsylvania if that matters)
- ---------------------------------
Greg, if you were in New York State, you would have to obtain a Brewing
License from the State Liquor Authority, and you would also have to obtain a
valid food handlers license from the Board of Health. Since you are selling
these goods, you would have to obtain a state sales tax certificate and be
responsible for the various filings. In addition to some cost (I think the
brewing license costs $2500, the food handling is minimal)you would have to
attend a once every three year's food handling one day course, for which you
receive a certificate. The course in NYS is free of charge. The premises
from which you brew would have to be open to Board of Health inspection.
Pennsylvania may differ. But checking with your state Liquor Authority, your
local Board of Health, and your State sales tax office (or a good
accountant)would be a good start.
Michael A. Genito, City Comptroller
City of Rye, 1051 Boston Post Road, Rye, NY 10580 USA
TEL:(914)967-7302/FAX:(914)967-4604
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From: Mark Dimke <dimke at montana.campus.mci.net>
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 06:33:53 -0000
Subject: Cheep Grain Source
I don't want to start a commercial thread so lets do this via email. Would all
of you out there
who think they have a cheep grain source send me prices or information on your
source.
Commercial ads to my email are welcome.
Thanks
Mark Dimke
Dimke at montana.campus.mci.net
Return to table of contents
From: "Michael T. Bell" <mikeb at flash.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 08:51:32 -0500
Subject: In-line heating
Howdy,
I just got my mits on the Great Grains issue and happened across one of
the articles on RIMS. I'm designing mine now so this caught my attenton. It
mentions using an in-line, immersion-type element to heat the
recirculating wort. Does anybody have any practical experience with this?
I would tend to believe that it may carmalize the wort unless element
temps were kept pretty low. The one I found was 1000 wats, adjustalbe
from I believe 110-190F, with a wat density of 31.
TIA
- --
- -mtb
beer is good food
Michael T. Bell
E- mail: mikeb at flash.net
Home: 817.468.8849
Fax: 817.468.7121
Return to table of contents
From: "David K. Schafer" <DSCHAFER at museum.nysed.gov>
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 11:08:33 EDT
Subject: 1) Ale yeast, 2) selling homebrews???
Hi there all.
I have two questions to pose to the collective experience of the
group. First a bit of background. I have recently gone over to
all grain, and am LOVING the new opportunities, sense of control
and creation, and taste of the brews. I've done two IPAs and one
oatmeal Russian imperial stout (inspired by West Coast Brewery's
((Fort Bragg CA)) fabulous Rasputin Imperial Stout!!!). Anyway,
I'm looking for ways to improve the taste and become even more
involved with the brewing process. (At one with my grains????)
My first question is... Should I switch from dried packaged yeast
to liquid cultures??? I'm willing to do the extra effort if it
will improve my ales. It's important to note that I will ONLY be
brewing ales.... Prefer the taste and don't have the room for
chilled fermentations. Will liquid cultures make a noticeable
improvement in ales? Any recommendations for which brands to
shoot for? Any advice would be appreciated.
Second question, and on a totally different track. My wife is
performing in a concert this weekend, and in order to raise extra
money they are having a cash bar afterward. The catch is that
each musician is suppose to bring a bottle to donate to the bar
(does the conductor get the leftovers???). Anyway, how illegal
would it be for me to bring my homebrews and sell them. I'm sure
the alcohol, tobacco and firearms folk would not be thrilled, but
this is a church-social-level event for a non-profit
organization. One shot deal, and I'm not making a business of
it. Will I be arrested for even suggesting such a thing? Should
I call the stuff Freemen Ranch Ale? Should I just bottle the stuff
in old Bud bottles? Or should I just go out and buy a bottle of
scotch for our contribution?
Thanks in advance for any comments.
!Salud! And happy brewing!
Dave
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
David Schafer Cultural Resource Survey Program
dschafer at museum.nysed.gov New York State Museum
518/473-1503 3118 Cultural Education Center
FAX 518/473-8496 Albany, NY 12230
Return to table of contents
From: Hot Rod <hotrod at iwanna.cum>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 11:36:35 -0400
Subject: Looking for Heather!
I would like to brew a heather ale, but cannot find it anywhere. If any one
knows where I may purchace heather
(via mailorder) and how much I should use in a five gallon batch please let me
know.
Thanks in Advance,
Dave "Brews" Rutkowski
Brews at bbn.net
Brews1933 at aol.com
I Brew, Therefore I Am!
Return to table of contents
From: gjfix at utamat.uta.edu (George J Fix)
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 96 11:18:52 -0500
Subject: Hammer Mills
A word of caution about hammer mills. They have been designed to work
with mash filters, where it is acceptable and indeed desirable to crush
the grain to a powder. This is a entirely different configuration
than the mash tun/lauter tun system we all use, and as a consequence
it makes no sense to compare crush requirements for the two systems.
I have always felt that the old type mash filters imparted a distinct
bite in beer. Lone Star (San Antonio) is an example that comes
immediately to mind. The word is the new versions (e.g., Mash Filter 2001)
do not have these problems, and they appear to gaining world wide
acceptance. In any case, the relevance of this (in lieu of a homebrew
version of a mash filter) is marginal, unless of course one is into
astringent beers.
The criteria Jack Schmidling has long cited concerning a slightly coarse
crush makes a lot of sense to me. It won't give the type of yields that
would be obtained with a finer crush, but at least in my system it
gives a better tasting beer (as I have found out the hard way!).
George Fix
Return to table of contents
From: KennyEddy at aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 12:08:44 -0400
Subject: RIMS Terminology
Kirk sez:
> Automated vs manual feedback control aside, note that some time back Al K.
> suggested the whole thing was a misnomer: it can't be "infusion mashing"
since
> there are no infusions of hot liquor.
Not being RIMS-ready just yet, I'm speculating here, but doesn't anyone
"mash-in" at the first rest temp, even with RIMS, in whcih case you WOULD be
infusing?? Or is it always started with tap/room temp water?
> I suggest Recirculating Automated Temperature Control mashing, or RATC, as
the
> most descriptive of systems using temperature controllers and
recirculation.
> Unfortunately, it's not an acronym, so it's doomed from the start!
Not quite -- how 'bout RECirculating Automated Temperature ContROL --
RECATROL! Naahhh -- sounds like a headache remedy.
Ken Schwartz
KennyEddy at aol.com
http://users.aol.com/kennyeddy
Return to table of contents
From: Joseph.Fleming at gsa.gov
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 96 12:22:27 EST
Subject: Burner questions
My quest for a basement brewery is a most arduous one indeed!
First I bought an LP iron ring burner from Northern ($40 or $50 35K
BTU I think) but NO ONE would tell me how to convert it to NG! The
gas co. said no problem, a good plumbing store would help me out, but
the many plumbing and hardware places I checked with said they had no
clue or were not allowed to tell me for fear of lawsuit.
Fortunately (yet again) the esteemed homebrew collective was able
to help me where others were not - a digest search turned up what I
needed. I drilled the orifice a with a 7/64" bit, just short the
.110" it should be for NG. A brief hunt and peck search in the Home
Depot plumbing isle turned up a union between the copper jets and 1/2"
black pipe. No problem!
In practice the solution is not perfect. When the gas line is
fully opened and the valves on the three jets are used to decrease the
flame, the flame backs up into air intake (Venturi? Oh no! Not
again!) and the jet orifice. I believe the pressure in the gas line
itself prevents this from backing up the gas line and being a problem.
Right? However, sometimes the flow is disrupted enough to spill over
outside the orifice (i.e. a small, untidy fireball). As long as I
keep the gas line ball valve (not the burner valves) only half way
open there's not a problem. My question (finally): was the orifice
opened too much, perhaps by imprecise drilling? Is it not a smooth
enough pathway? Note: I checked the pathways of the ring itself for
obstruction and there is none. Any other massive errors I've
overlooked?
Also - the flame is mostly yellow and somewhat sooty when on higher
power. I guess I'm getting poor combustion. Any suggestions or is
this just the price to pay for using an LP burner with NG?
One more - each of the three airways has a screw in it. I have
them fully retracted out of the pathway. Any clue what they're for?
In any case my California Common brewed great. Got a new 10 gal
aluminum pot - with the burner it heats 8 gal in less time than it
took me to get 4 gal in my SS pot going on the kitchen stove. The
burner is under a new window I installed and a fan blows most of the
humidity (and hopefully CO) out. Must remember to plug in the CO
detector next time - the Utah-Sonics game alone kept me from blacking
out.
While I'm bending the collective ear I'd like to reissue a question
I asked a few months ago. I tried aerating a starter once with
electric beaters - *massive* bubbles! Someone mentioned FOOP, so I
looked up the FOOP (foam only once proteins) thread. While I do not
wish to reintroduce a thread which has run its length, can someone
(Domenick?) clue me in on its resolution (which I didn't quite pick
up)? Is this more violent process damaging? Is the fact that no one
does this my answer?
Thanks,
Joe
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From: Larry N. Lowe <lnl at awips1.abrfc.noaa.gov>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 11:59:41 CDT
Subject: over carbonation
i brewed a honey amber ~6 weeks ago. the beer tasted wonderful....until it
became overcarbonated. i primed with 1/2 cup of honey after a 3 to 4 week
period in the secondary (it is a 5 gallon batch). my understanding is that
it wouldn't appear that i over carbonated, but i definately have. question
is...what is the solution to my problem? gently open all remaining bottles
a re-seal sounds most logical, but i am not certain. TIA
- --
from: Larry N. Lowe, HAS Forecaster
lnl at apwk01g3.abrfc.noaa.gov \\\|///
http://info.abrfc.noaa.gov (o) (o)
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From: Chris Cooper <ccooper at a2607cc.msr.hp.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 14:23:05 -0400
Subject: Transistion to All-Grain
Hi all! I am currently starting down the path to all-grain brewing
and would like the collective's opinion on the following process
(I know, asking for an opinion from this group can be dangerous
but I feel up to the task!). I just got a propane cooker unit
(160,000 btu) and a converted keg and did a partial mash recipe
with my brother-in-law. Here is the process we followed:
First we put a large grain bag in the keg and clipped it to the
rim so that the bag was suspended about 6"-8" above the keg bottom
and added 7 pounds of grain (crystal and American 2-row) and enough
water to just cover the grains. Next, with the burner the
temperature was brougth to 125^F an allowed to stabilize there for
30 minutes. The temperature was raised to 160^F for 30 minutes
(the burner was cycled whenever the temperature dropped to 155^F).
Finally the temperature was raised to 180^F for 10 minutes. The grain
bag was then unclipped from the keg rim, gathered, and raise above
the wort level and allowed to drain for about 5 minutes. At the same
time the burner was turned on and addittional extract and water was
added to make up the full desired volume plus 1 gallon extra to be
lost during the 60 minute full boil.
This procedure worked smoothly and other than loosing more during the
boil than I had predicted (should have had 1.5 - 2 gallons of extra
H20 or reduced the boil time) all went well. This batch is now in the
primary and I'll report later on the results.
My question to the collective is what effects or problems might arise
from this somewhat abbreviated form of mashing (not having a seperate
mash and boiling vessel) and would this method scale up to a full
mash recipe ? I am concerned about using this approach for an all grain
batch as the increased amount of grain would be a bite much for the grain
bag to handle. One possible idea would be to make a type of grain basket
to fit inside the brew kettle (somewhat like a vegatable steamer).
The basket could be suspended inside the brew kettle to keep the level of
the grain bed just below the water level. Sparging would be accomplished
by slowly raising the basket out of the kettle.
* * * --> inner grain basket
* * ** G --> grain bed
---* *--- | --> kettle wall
| * * | ~ --> water level
| * * |
|~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~|
|~*GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*~|
|~*GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*~|
|~*GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*~|
|~*GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG*~|
|~**********************~|
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
--------------------------
Before I go down the path, What do you think?
Chris Cooper , Commerce Michigan --> Pine Haven Brewery <--
ccooper at a2607.cc.msr.hp.com --> aka. Deb's Kitchen <--
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From: PivoPrince at aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 15:06:28 -0400
Subject: A Belgian beer laugh
I'm not quite sure how to describe this, but for a laugh about Belgian
Abbey-style beers brewed in Kokomo, Indiana (!) call, toll-free
1-800-954-0064. It's an automated message and they're not selling anything,
but boy is it strange..........
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From: Greg Thompson <gregt at visix.com>
Date: 03 Jun 1996 17:19:19 -0400
Subject: yeast cleansing and storage
hbders,
i'm trying to save the yeast from my latest batch of a strong belgian
kinda thing. i'm following the directions for washing the yeast in
the yeast faq, and it isn't quite working out as nicely as the faq
suggests.
after siphoning all the beer off of the yeast and trub, i dumped some
sterile water into the fermenter, mixed everything up, and dumped
everything into a 1/2gal glass milk jug. this stuff hasn't really
separated much at all. just a big huge thick mess. i'd expected hop
residue and trub to quickly settle out so i could pour the liquid
(with the yeast in suspension) into another jug for more cleaning, but
even after sitting in my fridge overnight (sealed up, of course),
there's been very little separation. should i just pitch all this
crap into a future brew, or dump out half of it, add more sterile
water, and try to separate things some more?
- --
-greg ego is beast and ego is evil
but ego knows best,
at least she says so
-the god machine
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From: Kallen Jenne <tirado at sprynet.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 15:57:47 -0700
Subject: Food grad tubing
I'm looking for some high-temp (212 F) food-grade tubing to run between
mash tun and my pump. Anyone know what to look under in the phone book?
Hardware stores only seem to have 180 F vinyl, which tends to stink
things up.... Any help appreciated. What, exactly am I looking for?
+++++++++++++++++++
They can take my beer when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers. . .
or when it's reached room temperature, whichever comes first.
Kallen
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From: John Chang <75411.142 at CompuServe.COM>
Date: 03 Jun 96 20:18:05 EDT
Subject: Strange Fermentation
From: John Chang, 75411.142
TO: Collective, INTERNET:homebrew at aob.org
DATE: 6/3/96 12:30 PM
Greetings all,
I just pitched a 5 gal batch of pale ale with a strain of Wyeast 1084 Irish
Ale
yeast saved from the prior batch and built up into a 1/2 gallon starter. This
starter had sat dormant at room temp (75F) for week prior to pitching. (bad
handling?)
My concern is that there was a huge amount of what looked like big gobs of
trub/cold break that rose to the surface prior to the fermentation beginning
after 12 hours. This trub-like "precipitate" was very thick, with big "legs"
dangling down, and completely covered the top four inches of wort. In the last
twelve hours things started to improve, with perhaps 20% of the " trub"
settling
out, the wort starting to clear, and the production of Co2. The odor coming
from the airlock seems normal.
Question: what is this floating stuff and can I just wait for it to settle
before racking to the secondary? (The only difference in this and the prior
three batches was that I used a total of 4 tsps of calcium carbonate to adjust
my water, and the sparge water was closer to 185F than 170F).
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm tryin' to just not worry,
but the trub gob looks like you could float a truck on it. Private email fine.
TIA,
John
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From: AGNORCB at miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 20:23:39 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Hop Flavor & Aroma
Hi
I am posting a new (to me) technique for adding hop flavor and aroma to my
brews with the hope of getting some feedback about potential problems or
improvements to this technique.
When I brew I do full wort boils and chill with an immersion chiller (30').
Chilling the wort usually takes about 20-30 minutes in the winter and up to 45
in the summer.
I have had difficulty getting the pronounced hop flavor and aroma that I am
looking for from the late addition of hops to the boil (usually about an ounce
at 10 minutes before the end and another ounce at 2 minutes). I attribute the
lack of kpronounced hop flavor to the somwhat long cooling time required.
Perhaps the flavor and aroma oils are being lost somehow during the cooling
period.
To get better hop flavor and aroma I have begun adding hops to the priming
sugar and water mixture that I add to the fermented beer at bottling time.
This sugar-hops-water mixture is strained to remove the hops and is cooled
practically instantaneously as it is mixed with the 5 gallons of beer. To date
I have used this technique on two different batches (both IPAs) with
outstanding results.
Are there any problems with this method? Are there any drawbacks to boiling
hops in sugar water instead of wort? Is anyone else using this technique
either successfully or unsuccessfully?
Private email is preferred. I'll post a summary if it looks to be of general
interest. TIA for your input.
Craig Agnor
agnorcb at miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
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From: "J.A. Cadieux" <s710724 at aix2.uottawa.ca>
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 22:33:45 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: RO Water
In HBD #2058, Kathy Booth asks about RO Water. RO water is essentially
the same as distilled water - the only diference is in the method of
preparation. RO, or reverse osmosis, water is made by passing water
through a semi-permeable synthetic membrane. Water can pass through, but
ions cannot, leading to ion-free water.
The process is known as "reverse" osmosis as an external pressure is
required to achieve such a separation - the water is being pushed from a
region of high ionic strength to one of lower ionic strength, the
opposite of what occurs in natural osmosis.
In short, treat RO water as you would distilled water.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay A. Cadieux "Out of the crooked timber of humanity,
Univ. of Ottawa (Hon. Chem.) no straight thing can ever by made."
s710724 at aix2.uottawa.ca -Immanuel Kant
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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