HOMEBREW Digest #2421 Mon 19 May 1997
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FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: janitor@ brew.oeonline.com
Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of
Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
URL: http://www.oeonline.com
Contents:
Plate exchangers/Malta (Charlie Scandrett)
Upside down keg conversion (Red Wheeler)
Replacement Metal Dip Tube for Fasch Frisch C02 tapper (shaun.funk)
High Gravity, High Temp ("John Penn")
3rd Annual Boneyard Brew-Off ("Joel Plutchak")
Re: Hops (Paul Niebergall)
re:Foamy Beer vs Leaky Kegs (Charles Burns)
Mysterious Chunks In My Bee ("Craig Rode")
Language in public (John Wilkinson)
Kegging and Natural Carbonation ("LARSONC%DOM13.DOPO7")
Forced carbonization (John Wilkinson)
Pressure Cooking Extract (Paul Ward)
Abbreviation ("Kris Jacobs")
3-Day Follow-Up (DAVE BRADLEY IC742 6-7932)
Worrying, hop pellets ("Raymond Estrella")
Yeast gripes ("Raymond Estrella")
Seeds in my hops (nkanous)
getting rid of chill haze (Heiner Lieth)
fermenting in Corny kegs ("Bret A. Schuhmacher")
Hop Flowers ("A.S. Tomb")
Re: Increase in temperature during fermentation (Sharon/Dan Ritter)
Sake ("Sandow, Matthew")
Tri-State Brewers Web Page (Mark Warrington)
Force Carb at 72F - It works (Charles Burns)
Thoughts wanted on merits of freezing hops and damage doing so (JONATHAN BOVARD)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 18:29:46 +1000 (EST)
From: Charlie Scandrett <merino at buggs.cynergy.com.au>
Subject: Plate exchangers/Malta
First, my apologies to Lorenzo Barquin in Venezuala for not faxing him a
plate exchanger design as promised. Lo siento.
I will post the design to the "Brewery" within two weeks, if only to lower
my fax bill, I get continual requests. I will include some theory, care and
feeding.
Alpha Laval and APV are good sources of info about them, but Rolls Royce in
quality and prices.
I built one, but bought a second hand and better little Zilmet "Z2"
(Italian) which was more efficient and slightly larger.
Do not buy a permanently closed plate exchanger for food use! Plate
exchanger's only advantages over coil type counter flow exchangers is they
can be easily cleaned and are physically small for the exchange area. They
will clog up with hop debris and trub, plate shapes good for turbulent heat
transfer are bloody awful at clogging up.
The place to scrounge for little plate exchangers is the scrap yard. Bide
your time and get to know scrappies who specialise in SS. The exchanger you
buy will cost $150 - $200 and have something wrong with the gaskets.
Replace them if you are patient enough to learn how to and where they come
from. Easier is just to throw the bad plates out, you only need 0.5 square
metres for anything homebrew size.
Mount the exchanger on a plastic shower recess bottom. This should be on a
bench or frame with the drain connected to your waste water pipe. This
allows no mess cleaning of the PE and becomes the cleaning centre for your
brewery for anything big and cumbersome. More later at "The Brewery".
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Lang posted,
>Many years ago, while growing up on the Miami, Fla area, there were drinks
>called Malta India, Malta Goya, etc. They are a non-alcoholic drink made
>from Malt.
Perhaps Lorenzo could help here as the drink is everywhere in Latin America,
"Pony Malta" in Colombia. As far as I can tell, it is unfermented,
pastuerised and artificially carbonated Munich lager wort, very low in
bitterness, high on dark malt aromas.
Charlie (Brisbane, Australia)
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 06:33:11 -0400
From: Red Wheeler <fwheeler at mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us>
Subject: Upside down keg conversion
Hello fellow connoisseurs,
For the last four months I have been happily reading the HBD and brewing
with extracts. Having found a source of 10 dollar kegs I am ready to move
from extracts to whole grain brewing. I have been looking for ways to make a
system from kegs. I decided to this project by making a larger brew pot.
(Full boils in a 5 gal.pot are a real pain.) Reading about the negatives of
using either a Sawzall or having the top burned out of the keg, I decided to
try a different approach. In a previous HBD issue there was a description of
how to cut out the bottom of a keg instead of the top. I have been unable to
find the source of this idea but would like to give you the credit you
deserve and would also like to hear from anyone who has tried this upside
down conversion.
Using a grinding wheel in my circular saw, it took about fifteen minutes to
cut a fairly round 12 inch piece out of the bottom of the keg. This method
is probably as noisy as using a Sawzall but was easy and fast. Clean up the
grit left inside the keg was also easier than trying to remove burned on
slag. A few minutes with my trusty belt sander smoothed the edges on the
hole and on the cut out bottom piece. This is a somewhat crude method but by
chance the opening is fairly circular and the stainless steel top from my
old 5 gal. brew pot fits it well. As was suggested, I then drilled hundreds
of holes in the cutout piece to convert it to a false bottom. So far the
hardest part of this has been finding fittings for the drain.
IMHO, the pros have been: The ease of cutting the keg with a grinding blade,
not having to buy or rent a Sawzall, the realitively short time it took, not
having to drill a hole in the keg, and being able to use the cutout as a
false bottom.
I can now see why people proudly display their systems on Web pages. If I
could I would also.
Cerv isia illu mina tio mea!
Translation: Beauty is in the eye of the BEER holder!
Si hoc legere scis nimium gruditionis habis.
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 8:48:06 -0500
From: shaun.funk at slkp.com
Subject: Replacement Metal Dip Tube for Fasch Frisch C02 tapper
Last night I was screwing my plastic dip tube into my Fasch Frisch mini-keg=
CO2=20
tapper and I heard it crack. After I tapped the keg and turned the gas on,=
I=20
could here and see the effects of the gas coming out at the top of the can=20
right above the bung.
I vaguely recall seeing discussion of a metal replacement dip tube for mini=
-keg=20
tappers either in this forum or in rec.crafts.brewing, however my searches=20=
of=20
these forums yielded nothing. I have located one which is made for the Par=
ty=20
Star system and am wondering if it will fit the Fasch Frisch tapper. Does=20
anyone know if this will work? If not does anyone know where to get a meta=
l=20
replacement tube for Fasch Frisch tap?
Private E-mail OK. TIA
Shaun Brews Funk
Clemmons, NC
shaun.funk at slkp.com
Return to table of contents
Date: 16 May 1997 10:03:22 -0400
From: "John Penn" <john_penn at spacemail.jhuapl.edu>
Subject: High Gravity, High Temp
Subject: Time:9:45 AM
OFFICE MEMO High Gravity, High Temp Date:5/16/97
As for the high temperature fermentation--I'm not surprised to see a 5F
rise in temperature for a stout. The heavier the beer, the more active the
yeast, and the higher the initial fermentation--the more active your
fermentation will be and the higher the temperature rise. Sort of a positive
feedback thing, a higher the initial fermentation temperature leads to an even
higher additional temperature rise which makes the yeast even more active,
etc.
I have a stout based on AlK's Spread it on Toast Imperial Stout (Cat's
Meow) with a few minor modifations. The biggest mod was to use 4# of M&F
liquid malt extract in place of the Laaglander in the recipe to provide a
lower FG and a stronger beer. But even with that and two 3.3# cans of Morgans
dark barley malt, my OG of 1.085 seems stuck around 1.040. I'm afraid of beer
bombs! I racked to a secondary and pitched some additional yeast. Whitbred
initially and Nottingham on the racking. Any one use Morgans dark malt
extract and see a high FG? It was a very active ferment over three days but
now after a week its hardly doing anything and I have a tremendous SG! Any
ideas? TIA
John Penn
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 10:03:16 -0500
From: "Joel Plutchak" <joel at bolt.atmos.uiuc.edu>
Subject: 3rd Annual Boneyard Brew-Off
3rd Annual B.U.Z.Z. Boneyard Brew-Off, 2nd Announcement
The Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots (B.U.Z.Z.) is *still* organizing
their third annual homebrew competition. This a short version of the
full announcement.
Sanctioned by the AHA and BJCP; A Midwest Homebrewer of the Year event.
Saturday, June 14, 1997
Any homebrewed beer or mead is eligible.
AHA 1997 Style Guidelines; Additional special category:
No One Gets Out Alive High Gravity Brew-Off
Starting gravity over 1.070, any style or non-style; judged solely on
potency and overall drinkability. Not eligible for Best of Show,
but a special trophy will be awarded.
Send entries to:
Boneyard Brew-Off
c/o Picadilly Beverage Shop
505 S. Neil Street
Champaign IL 61821
*** PLEASE NOTE: Entries accepted May 27 through June 9, 1997 ONLY! ***
Fee: $5 per entry; $4 per entry for four or more per brewer.
2 bottles per entry; standard AHA bottle requirements apply.
Further information, including rules and instructions, on-line judge
registration, and entry forms for downloading can be found at:
http://starfire.ne.uiuc.edu/buzz/contest3.html
Judges/Stewards
- ---------------
Judges and stewards welcome! We plan the usual Friday evening Judge
Social, a post-competition dinner, and prize raffle. Please contact
the Judge Director or Competition Organizer for more details.
Sponsors
========
The B.U.Z.Z. would like to thank the following sponsor(s):
* Picadilly Beverage Shops, Champaign-Urbana IL
* Two Brothers Brewing Company, Warrenville IL
* Northwestern Extract Co., Brookfield, WI
* CYMBA, Darien CT
* American Homebrewers Association, Boulder CO
* Jack Schmidling Productions, Marengo IL
* Liquid Bread, Orlando FL
* St. Louis Bread Compamy, Champaign IL
* Hamburg Distributing Co., Champaign IL
For more information about becoming a sponsor, contact one of the
people listed below.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organizer: Registrar:
Joel Plutchak Daniel Juliano
email: joel at wave.atmos.uiuc.edu email: dan at starfire.ne.uiuc.edu
916 W. Charles Street
Champaign IL 61821 Judge Director:
(217) 359-4931 (eves & wkends) Troy Jesse
(217) 333-8132 (M-F, 8am-4pm) email: tjesse at students.uiuc.edu
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 10:10:37 -0500
From: Paul Niebergall <pnieb at burnsmcd.com>
Subject: Re: Hops
Home Brew Digesters (or ingesters?),
Been reading for awhile and thought I would submit some discussion
concerning the use of hops.
Regarding hops. I don?t see how anyone out there who has been
brewing for a while can still be using pellets or plugs. Fresh whole hops
are the only way to go. This debate seems to come up quite often and 5
or 6 years ago (before the availability of whole fresh hops) it had merit.
Ask your home brew supplier or mail order service what harvest (as in
year) the pellets or plugs are. Usually you?ll get a blank stare and then
some lame explanation that since the hops have been pelletized or
plugged it doesn?t matter. You can have faith in this if you want.
I recently did some inquiring at some of my local home brew supply
stores and found out some interesting things about hops. Those neat
little vacuum packed, refridgerated, foil pouches with two ? oz plugs in
it, aren?t what they seem. Most of them start out as whole hops in the in
the Northwest (assuming your buying domestic hops), travel to some
unkown destination in Europe (or the U.K. - nobody really seems to know
where), get plugged, and then travel back to the U.S. in bulk. Along the
way you can be assured of three things: they weren?t refridgerated,
they weren?t vacuum packed, and the time spent in transit is probably
well over a year. Your home brew supplier takes them out of a large
bulk bag, vacuum packs them with a Daisy Seal-a-Meal, and then puts
them on display in a refrigerator (hopefully). It?s really quite deceptive,
you see vacuum pack hop plugs in the fridge and your brew supplier
says ?all my hops are vacuum packed and stored under refridgeration?,
and you think - ?wow, these must be quality hops?. How wrong you are.
Anyway, buy a 4 oz. oxygen barrier bag of Cascades whole hops from
Fresh Hops or Hop Tech (no affiliation, yada, yeda, yoda). Open the
bag, insert your nose and inhale. After you get up off of the floor, think
of what that flavor and aroma will do for your next batch of American
Pale Ale. Next open a bag of pellets. Go ahead and crush them up to
release some of the volatiles and make it a fair comparison. You get the
idea?
As far as hop utililization and bitterness. No one formula is the ?correct?
one. Pick one and stick with it. Be consistant and take good notes. All
you have to know is that ?x? number of bittering units according to the
Joe Blow formula works for your pale ale, and ?y? number of bittering
units (calculated using the same formula) works for your extra special
bitter, then you have it. You could spend years evaluating different
formulas and then post in the HBD that you have done an evaluation and
found that so-and-so?s formula is wrong and that you have found
(without a doubt) the very best formula. The only problem is that the
results of all that research is not transferable to anyone elses home
brewery.
Brew On,
Paul Niebergall
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 97 08:42 PDT
From: cburns at egusd.k12.ca.us (Charles Burns)
Subject: re:Foamy Beer vs Leaky Kegs
AlK may be right (again). I went to fill a few bottles last night for
sending into the California State Fair and found two kegs that had "lost"
pressure. I put "lost" in quotes becuase while the beer was still
carbonated, the regulator guage was at zero. Sounds like a leak, looks like
a leak, feels like a leak, must be a leak. I normally close the C02 tank
valve after serving becuase I did have a leak one time before and lost 10lbs
of C02:-(
So Al's probably right, I set the pressure in a keg at 25-30PSI, but it
doesn't appear to stay there. I'll be doing two things, a) checking for
where the leak is, b) trying the carbonation process Al suggests and c)
reposting to the rec.crafts.brewing newsgroup if I need to correct my process.
And who knows, maybe I enjoy beer that's carbonated more than the "standard"
says it should be.
Charley (happily back to single infusion mashing) in Rescue, CA.
Return to table of contents
Date: 16 May 1997 11:38:39 -0400
From: "Craig Rode" <craig.rode at qmcin4.sdrc.com>
Subject: Mysterious Chunks In My Bee
Maybe one of you can answer this. A few batches lately have had some whitish
'chunks' in them. They have shown up on the necks, just below the fill line,
and clustered around one side...sort of 'colony' looking. These are all grain
batches, and this has occured with both pale ale and porter. Single infusion
mash, glass primary and secondary, rather high carbonate in my water, Wyeast
1056 (yeah, I know, but I use this yeast for everything). In all other
respects, the beer appears, smells, and tastes dandy. It looks like
yeast...but why would it behave this way instead of settling on the bottom of
the bottles? And yes, I do store them upright. Any clue? Sure would
appreciate it.
Craig Rode (Brewing in Milwaukee.....and NO, they're not chunks of cheese)
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 97 11:16:24 CDT
From: jwilkins at imtn.tpd.dsccc.com (John Wilkinson)
Subject: Language in public
Laura wrote:
>Thanks to Rae Christopher J for the scientific discussion, but, could you all
>do us gals out here a favor and ditch the gyno-discussion? I have already
>dressed down the poor guy who posted the original. This kind of stuff is
>pretty offensive to the female brewers/readers out there. If I want to read
>about that sort of thing I'll find another news group.
>
>Tsssssssssssss, steam let off, going back to my bowl of milk,
I couldn't agree more. My language would probably embarrass a sailor when
I am around people I know it wouldn't offend. However, I don't think it
proper to broadcast such language. I don't know who might read my posts
and whether or not vulgarity would be offensive to them so I try to keep
it clean. It seems to be a matter of common decency to me.
John Wilkinson - Grapevine, Texas - jwilkins at imtn.dsccc.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 13:27:36 -0400
From: "LARSONC%DOM13.DOPO7" <Erik.Larson at MS01.DO.treas.sprint.com>
Subject: Kegging and Natural Carbonation
Date: 05/16/1997 01:25 pm (Friday)
From: C. Erik LARSON
To: EX.MAIL." homebrew at brew.oeonline.com"
Subject: Kegging and Natural Carbonation
Ladies and Gents,
I just bought a 5 gallon Cornelius ball-lock kegging system made by Foxx.
However, rather than force-carbonating my brew, I'm interested in
continuing to prime or kreusen for carbonation. I'll be using the CO2 to
drive my beer only.
Will it be necessary for me to modify the keg in any way if I want to do
this? For example, will I have to shorten the beer-side dip tube? If so,
then by how much? In addition, how much priming sugar should one use
for a Pilsner or Weizen in a 5-gallon batch? Will my standard 7/8 cup
(when bottling) of dextrose be enough, too little or too much for use in
the keg?
TIA,
Erik Larson (erik.larson at treas.sprint.com)
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 97 12:52:49 CDT
From: jwilkins at imtn.tpd.dsccc.com (John Wilkinson)
Subject: Forced carbonization
AlK and Charley have been disagreeing about forced carbonation and I feel
compelled to offer my unsolicited opinion.
My experiences have been more like Al's. I carbonate a low 30F keg at about
12 psi with good results, usually. When I have tried 25-30 psi my beer has
been very overcarbonated. It seems to remain that way even if I relieve the
pressure and only reapply only 6 psi serving pressure.
John Wilkinson - Grapevine, Texas - jwilkins at imtn.dsccc.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 14:31:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Paul Ward <paulw at doc.state.vt.us>
Subject: Pressure Cooking Extract
O.K., I'm a little slow but....
I tried searching the archives using the search option at "The
Brewery" but I don't know a boolean from shinola.
There was a discussion a couple of weeks ago concerning partial
decoctions using a pressure cooker. I'm an extract brewer (and proud
of it, dammit!), so I didn't pay a lot of attention, but some of it
must have sunk in subliminaly, boiled around in my brain for a while and then
burst to the surface with a question mark in hand.
The discussion concerned, as I recall, maximum hop utilization within
a matter of minutes at elevated heat and pressure. There were also
noted increases in malty flavor and richer color as well as a
stupendous hot break.
So anyway, is there some reason all this wouldn't be beneficial to
those of us who brew (yes, brew) with cans of syrup and bags of
powder? I can see where there would be a problem with hop additions
once the top was secured and the vessel pressurized, but that could
be experimented around if the basic premise is sound.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the use of a pressure cooker Re.
extract brewing? (Other than, "Damn extract brewers trying to turn
'cake mix' brewing into something even faster and more removed from
the art of all grain!). I ask because I don't have a pressure cooker and
am too frugal to buy one just to experiment on an idea that may be
inherently flawed.
Oh well, back into my cubicle.
Paul
- --
If vegetarians eat vegetables, what of humanitarians?
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 15:38:36 +0000
From: "Kris Jacobs" <jtsnake at serv01.net-link.net>
Subject: Abbreviation
Scott Wrote:
Hey.
My apologies in advance, I must be a drooling idiot because I just
could not find what I wanted in the hbd archives, nor can I find that
helpful web page with the abbreviations on it.
Anyway, what is AlK? Short for alkaline? It sounds like a caustic
from the way I hear people talk about it.
TIA
Scott Dornseif
roundboy at wwa.com
- ----------------------------------------------
LOL! That's great Scott! AlK is a person, Al (as in Albert)
Korzonas (sp?) -- and yup, from what gather, he can be caustic
at times... 8)
- --Kris Jacobs
JPA Mash Works
"Noch ein Bier, bitte!"
Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 20:14:28 +0000 (GMT)
From: DAVE BRADLEY IC742 6-7932 <BRADLEY_DAVID_A at LILLY.COM>
Subject: 3-Day Follow-Up
About 6 weeks ago I wrote a little 2-part story describing
my 3-day brewing circus to make an Oatmeal Stout. You know,
the amusing story of mistakes+busy family life...
I received 5-10 responses from other HBDers, each writing in
support of trying to squeeze brewing into LIFE as we know it.
Well, here's the update on what became known as Madness Oatmeal Stout.
Yes indeed. My "Madness Oatmeal Stout" is odd, but salvageable.
The ON mash, ON rest as sweet wort, and eventual fermentation,
gave a rather tangy, smokey beer with an incredible velvety-smooth taste
and feel...from the 25wt% rolled oats used I believe. This is
not something I plan to drink much of anytime soon, but I'll try
it every few months to see how the flavors mingle. Would make
for a delicious black and tan currently I think (weekend expt???).
As I say, at the very worst I'll have 10gal of marinade for brats!
Dave in Indy
Home of the 3-B Brewery, v. Ltd.
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Date: Fri, 16 May 97 09:56:22 UT
From: "Raymond Estrella" <ray-estrella at msn.com>
Subject: Worrying, hop pellets
Hello to all, Keith Royster asks,
>Ray Estrella's sig line reads:
> "Never relax, constantly worry, have a better homebrew."
>Better perhaps, but can you still enjoy the process and the final
>product if you are so stressed and busy worrying? Just curious. (Oh
>no! Not another AR thread! ;)
Nothing to be concerned about Keith. I love this hobby. But my personal
belief is if you are going to do something, you might as well do it well.
Not AR (my wife wishes), just aiming for perfection, that way I will always
have room for improvement. And with 29 batches this year, you can be
assured that we are enjoying the final product !
Brian Pickerill says,
>I've brewed over 30 batches, I've but never used whole hops. I am almost
>out of pellets though, and I think I'll be using whole or plug hops
>exclusively next season. I'm looking forward to using them in my 1/2
>barrel "system", and getting some hot break filtering, via my easy masher.
>Whole hops are more natural, and I like that.
Is Folger's less natural than whole bean coffee, extract less natural than
whole grain barley, flour less natural than whole wheat, etc.? There is
nothing wrong with pellet hops. I use a 85 -15 % split in favor of pellets
right now. Will go to 60 -40 % next season, after I harvest my first hop crop.
( I only brew in the winter months, half the year here.) Pellets are easier
to work with, storing, measuring, etc. And give a better utilization for
bittering.
Just stay away from Synthetic Hops Pellets
Ray Estrella Cottage Grove MN
ray-estrella at msn.com
*******Never relax, constantly worry, have a better homebrew.*******
Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 17 May 97 02:40:23 UT
From: "Raymond Estrella" <ray-estrella at msn.com>
Subject: Yeast gripes
Hello to all,
Laura hisses,
>Thanks to Rae Christopher J for the scientific discussion, but, could you all
>do us gals out here a favor and ditch the gyno-discussion? I have already
>dressed down the poor guy who posted the original. This kind of stuff is
>pretty offensive to the female brewers/readers out there. If I want to read
>about that sort of thing I'll find another news group.
>Tsssssssssssss, steam let off, going back to my bowl of milk,
I was one of the people that asked for further clarification concerning an
earlier post suggesting that the yeast in homebrew could set off yeast
infections. As I said before my wife is very susceptible to them, and I do not
think it is offensive to her that I (and obviously others) would want to know
more. If you have information about beers effects on prostrate health I
promise
to read with an uncritical eye, and not dress you down for it. This digest is
for everyone, if you don't like a post, just hit PgDn. Maybe the next one will
be to your liking.
Ray Estrella Cottage Grove MN
ray-estrella at msn.com
*******Never relax, constantly worry, have a better homebrew.*******
Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 13:24:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: nkanous at tir.com (nkanous)
Subject: Seeds in my hops
Made a batch of beer this weekend. Used 3 varieties of hops. Two are from
packages I have already used and not seen any seeds. The "odd" hop was
labeled as Kent Goldings Product of UK. Should Kent Goldings hops have
seeds? I only thought Fuggle had seeds. Is that true? Did I get "ripped
off"? I'm sure the hops are fine, just labeled as the wrong variety. THanks.
Nathan in Frankenmuth MI
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Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 23:07:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Heiner Lieth <lieth at telis.org>
Subject: getting rid of chill haze
My $0.02-worth on getting rid of chill haze:
I know that the chill haze is no big deal, but then neither are any of the
dozen-or-so other refinements that I'd like to make to my beers.
(Personally, I think my beers are pretty good, yet still get better with
each refinement). I think most would agree that if you have a choice of two
mugs of identical beer, one with and one without chill haze, most would
prefer to drink the one without the haze.
Personally I would like to know how to get rid of chill haze. For me it is
one of the refinements I want to make. When I try to explain away chill
haze when my friends are over, it sounds like a bunch of excuse-making. I
would rather not have to do that.
I've searched the HBD archives, and have followed the lastest thread; there
appears to be more conjecture than fact. There is info there that suggests
that Irish Moss is the needed ingredient; well I use it and many of my beers
still have chill haze. I don't filter, I don't have cold lagering
capability, I prime with corn sugar, and I'm not going to add any plastics
to my beer. These are fixed factors in my situation. Given that, can anyone
make suggestions as to what to do to avoid chill haze? I noted the idea of
using gelatin; I'll try that. Anything else to try?
Heiner.
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Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 11:23:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Bret A. Schuhmacher" <bas at healthcare.com>
Subject: fermenting in Corny kegs
Hi,
I recently punched a hole in my 5 gal glass carboy while cleaning it
and it got me thinking about the perfect fermentation vessel. I
decided to try fermenting in a corny keg - it's indestructible, has
nice handles on it, you can get hydrometer readings and transfer using
CO2, etc. The only down-side is you can't count "glugs" from the
fermentation lock so you know something's happening. I've done lots
of reading, but I still have a question.
I bought a 10 gallon corny keg so I wouldn't need a blowoff tube (I do
5 gal batches). I filled the headspace with CO2. My question has to
do with yeast's ability to grow/reproduce in a pressurized
environment. I've seen some people making 12psi relief valves using a
poppet spring from an extra tank plug, while others simply release the
pressure once per day (my choice).
Does anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks in advance,
Bret
- --
Bret A. Schuhmacher - Software Engineer
bas at healthcare.com These opinions are no one's
Healthcare Communications, Inc. fault by my own.
I stopped to think and forgot how to start again.
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Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 12:15:01 -0500 (CDT)
From: "A.S. Tomb" <astomb at ksu.edu>
Subject: Hop Flowers
If we want to all sing from the same page then lets do it based on
good botany. Hops has come to be the name of a plant and the name of the
cluster of bracts, stem and flowers that are used in brewing.
Hops as we use them in brewing are not just the flowers. The actual
flowers are small, occur in pairs under bracts. These bracrs are clustered
together to make a "cone like" inflorescence. Botanically this is an oblong
spike of female flowers protected by the bracts. So most of what we are
using are these bracts that protect the flowers. (That is probably more
than anyone wanted to know.)
Some other botanical facts about Humulus lupulus L.
1. Hops are dioecious. There are male plants and female
plants. The female plants are used.
2. Hops were called Lupulus salictarius by Pliny or the
"willow wolf" as the vines can cling to willows.
3. Hops are often grown as ornamentals and used as screenings.
Spencer Tomb
Manhattan, Kansas
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Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 16:14:49 -0700
From: Sharon/Dan Ritter <ritter at camasnet.com>
Subject: Re: Increase in temperature during fermentation
Jeff writes:
>The basement temperature is a pretty
>constant 68 deg F and the wort temperature was also 68 deg
>when fermentation commenced. I noticed that at peak
>fermentation (burping about 80/min) the temperature, according
>to the Fermometer, was about 72 or 73 deg.
A four or five degree temperature increase in a beer of that OG (1.058) is
normal from my experience. When I added Fermometers to my glass fermenters,
I was amazed to see how much heat is produced at peak fermentation. I now
anticipate this temperature spike and cool my fermentation room as things
heat up.
Dan Ritter <ritter at camasnet.com>
Ritter's MAMMOTH Brewery - Grangeville, Idaho
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Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 10:02:00 +1000
From: "Sandow, Matthew" <MSandow at nibucorp.telstra.com.au>
Subject: Sake
Greetings all,
I realise that this may not be totally within the context of beer but I
have a Japanese student living in my home. A group of her friends came
around for a party and they managed to make a fair dent in my home brew
stocks 8-) One of them brought some Sake and I was asking about how it
was made. I think that Sake is only fermented and not distilled so
presumably it would be relatively simple to make. Have any of you made
Sake? and if so was it a full grain or is there an extract available?
My brewing experience so far is extract with additives so I don't have
any experience with full grain "real beer" making so your help will be
appreciated.
with thanks
Matthew
msandow at nibucorp.telstra.com.au
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Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 21:04:14 +0000
From: Mark Warrington <warringt at erols.com>
Subject: Tri-State Brewers Web Page
The Tri-State Brewers are still online. We are at:
http://users.aol.com/tristateb/welcome.html
We asked webmaster at alpha.rollanet.org to put up a simple "we're sorry,
we've moved to a new server" message, but they just deleted everything
and didn't put up the transfer message for even a short time. Oh well!
All the major search engines point to our new page anyway. We still have
lots of links to the best beer pages on our links page. We still have a
lot of info on the Delaware brewpubs and our only Delaware (so far!)
microbrewery. Come visit us at our new home.
Mark Warrington
Tri-State Brewers
Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 18 May 97 18:43 PDT
From: cburns at egusd.k12.ca.us (Charles Burns)
Subject: Force Carb at 72F - It works
Based on AlK's recommendation, I went ahead and tried force carbonating at
higher temperature:
At 4:00 pm Saturday.
1. My porter was at 72F for the last 2 weeks in secondary vessel.
2. Kegged and pressurized to 30 psi.
3. Rocked keg for 8 minutes (longer than my 5 minutes at 33F).
4. Set refrigerator to 44F and placed keg in the fridge.
Sunday at 9:00 am.
5. Depressurized keg. Note that very little pressure was left to escape out
the relief valve. I guess all the gas in the headspace went into the beer.
6. Repressurized to 10 psi.
7. Poured 4 oz of gunk into dump bucket.
8. Poured a perfectly carbonated glass of porter.
9. Went great with scrambled eggs.
Charley
Charley
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Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 13:49:14 +1000 (EST)
From: JONATHAN BOVARD <j.bovard at student.qut.edu.au>
Subject: Thoughts wanted on merits of freezing hops and damage doing so
Ive frequently been told that deep pfreezing hops is the best way of
preserving them whilst Ive been told by some decent brewers that this
destroys the chemistry,dehydrates or ruptures the lupulin glands.
Ive also been informed that pellets tolerate freezing more so than
cones/leaf.
What are your thought from experience.
Cheers
JB (private E-mail OK( j.bovard at student.qut.edu.au)
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