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


Contents:
  hydrometry (Alan Duester)
  fermentation:  fast start, slow finish. (CASEY)
  wort chiller (Wayne Hamilton)
  "thief" for hydrometer readings (Wayne Hamilton)
  Rousing dried yeast. (Doug Roberts  at  Los Alamos National Laboratory)


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Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 11:34:02 EDT
From: capnal at aqua.whoi.edu (Alan Duester)
Subject: hydrometry

in #262, Mark Nevar asked:

> readings to determine if the ferment is done.  I don't like the
> risk of opening the fermenter and syphoning.  I know there must
> be some kind of beer "thief" that can act like a syringe.  I tried
> using a large syringe, but the needle opening was too limiting.
> Any ideas ? I'd rather use hydrometer readings instead of counting
> the time between bubbles (BTW, I usually wait for 5 min intervals

I've found that a turkey baster works fairly well for this. Disassembles
for sterilization. It fits through the neck of a glass carbuoy, and if
you're careful won't dislodge much of the scum & dried yeast left from
blowoff in the neck. You will really have problems trying to get it
through the smaller holes I've seen in the lids of the 7 gallon plastic
brew buckets, though.

You'll want to find one that has a small hole at the tip, as large holes
make it harder to keep the wort from dripping back into the carbuoy.
Mine has a 7/32" hole, and I'm going to have to look for one with a
smaller hole (1/8" is what I think I'm going to try and get). It
ususally takes me 2-3 "slurps" to fill my cylinder for hydrometry
measurements.

========================================================================
Al Duester, Ocean Engineer, MS S201   #  SPAN: 6308::capnal 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  #  INTERNET: capnal at aqua.whoi.edu
Woods Hole, MA  02543                 #  GEnie:  A.DUESTER
(508) 548-1400 x2474 
(508) 457-2000 auto-receptionist for touch tone phones
========================================================================

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Date: 	  Sat, 23 Sep 89 11:20:43 PDT
From: CASEY%MIT.MFENET at CCC.NMFECC.GOV
Subject:   fermentation:  fast start, slow finish.

There is a problem on my kitchen table right now.  I brewed it two weeks ago,
recipe:   1x4#can Alexander pale extract
          1x3.3# can M&F light extract
          1# rice syrup
          .5# crystal
          1.5 oz Goldings & 1 oz Cascades Boiling hops
          .5 oz Goldings finishing hops
          1 tsp gypsum
          1 tsp irish moss
The intention of this batch (5 gal) was a light flavored strong beer.  I'd
never used rice syrup before, the rest is standard.  I pitched with 2 paks
of Edme dried yeast, generally pretty trustworthy.  Temperatures were high,
but not beyond my normal range (i.e. about 75F at pitching).  OG was 1.050.

I took pains to get it fairly clear - e.g. the irish moss and good hot and
cold breaks.  I racked it off the throob about 20 min after sparging, and
right before pitching the yeast.  It fermented as normal (vigorously) for
about the first two days, then started to settle down.  I figured I could
bottle within 4-5 days after cooking, perhaps rack for a week if it looked
muddy.

Well, after a week, it was still fermenting slowly (10-20 sec bubbles), the
gravity was only down to 1.020, and it was very muddy looking.  I racked it
since I was starting to worry about autolysing with all the yeast on the
bottom.  The racking seemed to shock it, and it started to settle.  The 
"clear region" at the top only got about 5-6 inches down before the settling
stopped, and the whole mixture became muddy again.  It is now a week later,
and it is still fermenting slowly, there is another layer of yeast on the
bottom, and it is still very muddy (too much to bottle in my opinion).  
I'll rack again, but I'm a little worried.  Is it infected?  Is the recipe
too strong (i.e. too much alcohol for the yeast to finish off the sugar)?
Should I keep racking every week until it settles?  Toss in some champagne
yeast?  Bottle anyhow and hope for the best?  I've never had a batch go
this long before.  Any opinions will be gladly received.  Thanks.
                                Jeff Casey
                                   CASEY%MIT.MFENET at CCC.NMFECC.GOV

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Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 15:29:46 -0500
From: Wayne Hamilton <hamilton at osiris.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: wort chiller

> The wort chiller's made of some 20 ft of copper refrigerator coil with a
> female hose connection at one end and a male at the other.

i just made a wort chiller too, and i'm so proud of it i've been telling
everybody all about it...

i started with the idea of using garden hose to connect the chiller to
the kitchen faucet, where i have a kitchen-to-hose adapter for my jet
bottle washer.  first, it took a while for the hardware store guy to find
the right combination of compression fitting and adapters to fit the
copper tubing.  then after i got it all put together, no matter how
tightly i screwed the fittings, i kept getting a slow drip.  and finally,
25 feet of garden hose to cover the ~8 feet between my sink and the stove
was just too cumbersome.

while i was at the hardware store buying some pipe thread tape to fix the
drip, i saw a gizmo called a "sweeper nozzle" on sale for $.49.  it looks
like the top of the plastic ketchup bottles you see in restaurants.  i
think it's designed to be used on your garden hose to sweep dirt, leaves,
etc off your driveway or sidewalk.  the long nozzle holds 3/8" ID plastic
syphon tubing pretty well, even without a clamp.  the same tubing mates
with the 3/8" OD copper, but small hose clamps are needed to prevent
leakage.  i had some vinyl patching glue handy, so i glued 2 8' lengths
of syphon tubing together side-by-side, like a stereo cable.  one end is
permanently clamped to the chiller, and the other end attaches to the
faucet and drains into the sink.

    $17.25 25' 3/8" OD copper tubing  at  $.69/ft
      4.80 16' 3/8" ID plastic tubing  at  $.30/ft
       .49 1 sweeper nozzle (regular price $.79)
      2.07 3 small hose clamps  at  $.69
    ------
    $24.61 (plus tax)

someone else mentioned using a bending tool on the copper tubing.  the
copper i bought came in a coil about 2' in diameter.  it was easy to
re-coil it around a large can without tools.

	wayne hamilton
	U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL
UUCP:	{convex,uunet}!uiucuxc!osiris!hamilton
ARPA:	hamilton at osiris.cso.uiuc.edu	USMail:	Box 476, Urbana, IL 61801
CSNET:	hamilton%osiris at uiuc.csnet	Phone:	(217)384-4310

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Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 15:43:41 -0500
From: Wayne Hamilton <hamilton at osiris.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: "thief" for hydrometer readings

> I'm not one for constantly taking hydrometer readings to determine if
> the ferment is done.  I don't like the risk of opening the fermenter
> and syphoning.  I know there must be some kind of beer "thief" that can
> act like a syringe.  I tried using a large syringe, but the needle
> opening was too limiting.  Any ideas?

on another shopping excursion, i found a 60cc (2 fl oz) syringe with
a large-bore "needle" that i think is designed to fit the duct in a
cow's nipple, rather than to puncture skin, etc.  the barrel of the
syringe is just small enough to fit thru the mouth of a carboy, so
air-borne contamination is limited.  my hydrometer tube needs about
3.25 fl oz, so i have to use the syringe twice to get a reading.  i
think i paid $4 or $5 for needle and syringe, at a local store that
caters to farmers.

	wayne hamilton
	U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL
UUCP:	{convex,uunet}!uiucuxc!osiris!hamilton
ARPA:	hamilton at osiris.cso.uiuc.edu	USMail:	Box 476, Urbana, IL 61801
CSNET:	hamilton%osiris at uiuc.csnet	Phone:	(217)384-4310

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Date: Sat, 23 Sep 89 21:46:13 MDT
From: roberts%studguppy at LANL.GOV (Doug Roberts  at  Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Subject: Rousing dried yeast.

I'm convinced, I'll try it.

--Doug
================================================================
Douglas Roberts                |
Los Alamos National Laboratory |When choosing between two evils,  
Box 1663, MS F-602             |I always like to try the one 
Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545   |I've never tried before.
(505)667-4569                  |
dzzr at lanl.gov                  |
================================================================

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #263, 09/24/89
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