---

	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
		Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of 
		Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
				URL: http://www.oeonline.com


Contents:
  Re: Lead ("Timothy Green")
  Re: Is my beer going to kill me? (Steve)
  Adding new must to mead question (MSchilz)
  Re: Malt analysis and cloudy beer from munich malt/Kunze Komments ("Steve Alexander")
  Dry Yeast (Danny Breidenbach)
  Fermentap Contraption and Kegging/Bottling (CHUCK MORFORD)
  siphoning the sparge (Andrew Stavrolakis)
  Great American Brew Festival (Brandon Brown)
  Subject: Burners (Brandon Brown)
  RE: home brewery design (Brandon Brown)
  3rd Annual Music City Brew-Off (Stephen Johnson)
  No Carbonation ("NFGS")
  Inconsistent Carbonation, ("David R. Burley")
  Re: Collar design for an upright freezer ("McConnell, Guy")
  Reverse HERMS ("Houseman, David L")
  High molecular weight proteins, 2-cents ("Rich, Charles")
  Infected Beer! How do I save some of it? (Kenneth Sullivan)
  Copper in my keg? ("Jim McZLusky")
  Virtual homebrew clubs? (Gail Elber)
  18th-century brewing text on line (Gail Elber)
  Filter device (Ralph Link)
  Re gabf (JPullum127)
  now THATS protein! (Dave Sapsis)
  Re:Adaptation (or not) of cooler mash tun ("Michael Maag")
  Virtual Home Brew Clubs (pbabcock)
  3 tier brew tree ("Tom & Dee McConnell")


Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!

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----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 00:35:28 -0400
From: "Timothy Green" <TimGreen at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Lead

Here's my $0.02 on the lead comments.

Lead is a toxic chemical to the extreame. Damage can be caused in amounts of
0.1 mg or less. The most obvious damage is the loss of IQ. At higher levels
of lead poisoning, the damage can cause ADD and ADHD conditions. Massive
seazures are also not unknown.

Just because lead shot has been used for hunting for many years, as one
person has pointed out, does NOT make it safe.

Tim Green

Mead is great...
Beer is good...
(But beer is much faster)




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Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 23:25:16 -0500
From: Steve <steves at ro.com>
Subject: Re: Is my beer going to kill me?

Nathan Kanous reported:

>In toxicology class, we discussed lead poisoning (imagine that).  After
>discussing the manifestations of lead poisoning, the instructor read us a
>case report from the literature.  I'm going to guess it was mid '50's but
>that's not what's relevant.  The case involved a publican (pub owner in UK)
>that suffered from lead poisoning.  He had classic symptoms of lead
>poisoning (don't remember them all, but I know where to look it up).  The
>question was...how did he get lead poisoning?
>
>Well, as fate would have it, this publican felt it was good business to
>have a pint of ale with his first patron every day.  In fact, he would draw
>his own pint first, and serve the second to the patron.  His pub was
>outfitted with lead pipes running from the casks to the tap.  It was
>thought by the toxicologists called in that the ale that sat in the pipes
>overnight, absorbed more lead from the pipes than at any other time
>throughout the day...and the publican drank the first pint EVERY DAY!  What
>a fate.  Is your beer going to kill you?  Don't know...it's your choice.
>If you leave the lead in there long enough, it'll probably hurt.
>



This story is at least twenty-five years old, but I got it from a
metallurgist buddy of mine who told it as the truth. Seems that a
professional aquaintance of his had gotten a big honkin' dose of lead
through inhalation. (This interested me a bunch, because when I was a young
and dumb teenager, I would scavenge the lead from dead car batteries and
melt it down to pour into molds to make candlesticks and the like.) Anyway,
the victim treated himself to his own form of chelation therapy by self
prescribing a six-pack of beer a night for a month (if I remember the story
correctly). And lo and behold, the lead present in his bloodstream dropped
out. Can anyone here refute or confirm the possibility of such a therapy
working?

Steve Stripling
Huntsville, AL




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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 01:40:26 EDT
From: MSchilz at aol.com
Subject: Adding new must to mead question

 I have some meads that I wanted to add fresh must to (I'm
 making a hi-grav mead), but when I remembered they had 
 already cleared!  Can I still add the fresh must, or do I need
 to rack the mead off the lees first?
 
 Feel free to reply by private email.
 
 TIA,
 Michelle Schilz
 schilzm at aol.com



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 05:54:27 -0400
From: "Steve Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Malt analysis and cloudy beer from munich malt/Kunze Komments

Steve Jackson writes that ...
>"Silent Bob" wrote:
>>[...] A protien rest is advised because specialty
>>malts are often made from lower quality barley.
><snip>
><<<<
>Be careful with making such blanket statements. American specialty
>malts may be made from lower-quality barley, but European malts
>generally are not. In fact,

Steve - be careful when pulling the blankets off such blanket statements.
Kunze 2.9.1 states "Dark Malt(Munich type) - To produce dark malt all the
conditions which lead to the formation of aroma-producing Maillard products
(melanoidins) are favoured.  These include  at  processing barley with a higher
protein content, [...]".

Although having a high protein content isn't equatable to low quality, it does
speak to Silent Bob's point.

====

Wolfgang Kunze's book, 'Technology of Brewing and Malting', VLB Pub.,Berlin
1996,  $189US.  I've had this book for a couple weeks now and would like to
make some comments on it.

It's an English translation of a German brewing textbook which (in German) is
now in it's 7th edition.  I suspect that this is a primary textbook for a
semester or two of practical brewing coursework.  The keyword here is
"practical".  This is very much an 'engineering' book.  It answers the 'how-to'
questions beautifully, but it doesn't attempt to answer the 'why' questions at
all.  For this reason it is not a candidate for my "ideal brewing science"
book - tho' it is a very useful book.

It's about 720 pages, which are for the most part beautifully typeset with only
a few minor kinks (like some unfortunate linewraps).  The Graphics and diagrams
that contain text labels have those labels in German, however each such diagram
has a German=English translation guide.  Measures appear to all be given both
in metric and US English quantities. The book is organized into 11 chapters
plus an introductory historical chapter '0'. The chapters are raw materials,
malt production, wort production, beer production, beer container filling,
cleaning and disinfection, finished beer, small scale brewing, waste disposal
and the environment, energy management in the brewery and maltings, and finally
'from process automation to process integration of the brewery'.  The material
in each chapter is extremely well organized into subsections.  The overall
organization appears faultless.

Some aspects which are less than faultless are the translation, the literature
references and the subject index.  The translation stylistically seems to
wobble between a 'throw papa down the stairs his hat' literal translation and a
more direct, functional and fluent style.  The translator, Dr. Trevor
Wainwright, appears from credits to by British, however the text never
approaches the beautiful and precise use of the language (some would say
stilted) seen in 'Malting and Brewing Science'.  I suspect the style of the
original German text was less academic and more personal and direct than
'M&BS", as evidenced by the discussion of dextrins as the source of enlargement
of the front region (beer belly) and the admonition that good brewers are known
by the quality of the beer they brew, not by the quantity they drink.  The
translation of the text, aside from one instance where a German term is left
untranslated, is fully functional.  To be fair the textbook format with
prodigious in-line 'bullet' lists of important ideas and boxed text of
important concepts isn't intended to scan like Shakespeare's sonnets.  The
selection of material for the bullets and boxes is appropriate, but it
sometimes seems that a third of the chapter is presented in these offsets.
Don't German students own highlighter pens ?

The reference list for this large volume contains only 150 citations and the
majority of those are in German language only journals.  The explicit notation
in the text to references are few, so when an odd sounding assertion is made in
the text it will be damned difficult to track down any reference.

The Subject index has two faults.  The translation is subpar; words like
'alkohol' and 'glukan' appear and the index does not refer to all pages where
the term appears.  'Munich malt' refers to the page where the malt is
originally described but it does not help you access the several pages where
the terms Munich and/or Dark malt are using in describing malt bills for
various styles.  Generally a subject index line contains only a single page
number referral.  This makes it more difficult to use the book as a reference
volume.

Material covered includes a great amount of information for large commercial
operations.  This is of course appropriate for a technical school textbook used
to train assistant brewers.  As a HBer with curiosity about but no serious
aspirations for commercial brewing, the in-depth material covering process
control, sanitary pipe networks and calculation of power requirements and
especially the 90 pages devoted almost entirely to bottle and can filling were
well beyond my current level of interest.  I do appreciate that these are
present though.

The chapter on small scale brewing (10 pages) contains about 3 pages on
homebrewing and they give a very interesting viewpoint on how difficult
homebrewing must be in some places.  Generally the microbrewery and brewpub
descriptions are given short shrift IMO.

This book does discuss non-Reinheitsgebot and non-German brewing practices and
beer styles, but it must be considered a more parochial German book than 'M&BS'
is a British book.  One other manifestation of the locality of the source
material are the many references to IEC codes and safety laws and to laws of
operation of breweries.  I wish the author had included at least a synopsis of
the IEC codes under discussion.

Is it worth $200+US (incl shipping) ?  If you are seriously considering going
commercial, or getting involved in brewery design or just have a great interest
in these large commercial methods and equipment - then yes - it's a wonderful
book.  If you're a homebrewer looking for authoritative detail on commercial
process including calculation of various factors and descriptions of how things
work - this is again a great choice.  It is not a brewing science reference
work. It contains much of the information you'd expect to find in a general
brewing handbook but this is not really the focus of the text either.

Steve Alexander





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Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 08:06:01 -0400
From: Danny Breidenbach <DBreidenbach at nctm.org>
Subject: Dry Yeast

Howdy gang,

I got crazy and bought two packs of Whitbread dry ale yeast for my next brew. 
What are some advantages and disadvantages to pitching two packs (14 g each, I
think) into five gallons of a middle-of-the-road type brown ale?  I'm more
concerned with strong ferment and lack of nasty flavors than I am with a
microbiological explanation of the yeasties' life-cycle.

Also --- just follow the directions on the back of the sachet?  Or are there
other things (such as incantations, growing it into a starter, dancing naked in
my backyard to the light of the harvest moon) that help with a strong ferment
and lack of nasty flavors.

It's been a long time since I messed with dry yeasts.  Thanks,
- --Danny
 


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Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 09:08:23 -0400
From: CHUCK MORFORD <MORFORD.CHUCK at epamail.epa.gov>
Subject: Fermentap Contraption and Kegging/Bottling

I was wondering if any of you are using the "Fermentap" valve and stand,
 and what are your general opinions?

Also, I'm thinking of moving to the 5L "Party Kegs" from bottles...I've kegged
 in Cornelius kegs, and bottled in regular swing-top, plastic soda and
 champagne bottles. I guess I'm still looking for "Packaging Utopia"....
Anyone got any thoughts on this?

Chuck Morford
Mad Scientist
Creator of "Dr. FrankenMorf's Oktoberfest Monsterbrew"





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Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 09:29:00 -0400
From: Andrew Stavrolakis <andrew_stavrolakis at harvard.edu>
Subject: siphoning the sparge

Mark Terry asks whether it's possible to avoid drilling the side of a mash
tun by conducting the sparge via a siphon from the manifold.

This is the set up I use, and it works very well.  I just attach a vinyl
tube to the copper verticle T, though, it withstands mash temp just fine.
One thing to note, the siphon tube must be a very narrow diameter, or it
won't function properly.  I use 1/4" od tubing, stepped down with a screw on
nipple from the 1/2" manifold.  I had to experiment with a few before I
found the right diameter.  Trying to just limit the flow on wider tubing
with a valve didn't work.  

You can adjust the rate of your sparge by raising or lowering the mash tun
relative to the brewpot.

Good Luck,

Andrew.

andrew_stavrolakis at harvard.edu 



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 06:39:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brandon Brown <brandonbrown at yahoo.com>
Subject: Great American Brew Festival

Greetings listers--

My wife and I just became home brewers with some instruction from a
Siebel institute grad here in Chicago.  We've kinda gone way overboard
on our equipment and our brewing for the first week we had the
equipment; i.e. 4 different beers, acquiring a third refridgerator for
fermentation, etc.

We decided it would be great fun to go to the Great American Brew
Festival in Denver to take a look at the great beers from around the
country.  After seeing the festival, we learned that the majority of
the people serving the beers are volunteers from the Denver area and
few of the brewers were there representing their own products.  Our
note was it would have been alot of fun to talk to the brewmeisters
about special techniques, how they came up with the beers, or hell,
even the characteristics they were trying to come up with for the
specific beer. It seemed like the crowd was very young and pretty
hammered.  I'm not sure if we'll go again, but I was wondering if
anyone has been to a homebrew festival, what is the atmosphere like,
etc?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.  If you think I'm crazy,
send me a direct email instead of junking up the list serve......

brandonbrown at yahoo.com

Thanks again,

Brandon




==
Brandon Brown                                 (773)251-5353
Director of Development                   Fax:(773)442-0131
Protech Solutions Inc.                bbrown at protechinc.net


_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free  at yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 07:06:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brandon Brown <brandonbrown at yahoo.com>
Subject: Subject: Burners

I purchased my burners from Cabella's for $99.  Its a King Kooker with
two propane burners each rated at 175,000 BTUs.  They're great!




==
Brandon Brown                                 (773)251-5353
Director of Development                   Fax:(773)442-0131
Protech Solutions Inc.                bbrown at protechinc.net


_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free  at yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 07:20:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brandon Brown <brandonbrown at yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: home brewery design


I stated earlier on the list that I use the King Kooker dual propane
burners with great  results.  We brew in our basement and I put a fan
in the window and bought a digital CO (Carbon Monoxide) monitor to
make sure I wasn't going to kill us!  After testing with both burners
running I found:

Without the fan running and both burners on high, the highest level I
was able to obtain with just the windows open was 25.  With one fan
running on exhaust, the highest was an 8.  Generally I'm only using
one burner at a time, and during the wort boil, there is no CO
registering on my meter.  Most of the time even when I do have levels
without the fan running, the peak occurs right at the beginning and
drops as the burners run.



==
Brandon Brown                                 (773)251-5353
Director of Development                   Fax:(773)442-0131
Protech Solutions Inc.                bbrown at protechinc.net


_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free  at yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com



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Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 11:01:37 -0500
From: Stephen Johnson <Stephen.Johnson at vanderbilt.edu>
Subject: 3rd Annual Music City Brew-Off

Just a reminder that entries are now being accepted for the 3rd Annual Music
City Brew-Off on October 24th at Boscos Nashville Brewing Company.
If you need an entry packet, please e-mail competition coordinator
Steve Johnson at Stephen.Johnson at vanderbilt.edu or
Chuck Bernard at Bernardch at mindspring.com

Include your snail mail address and we'll get something to you ASAP.  Entries
are $5 and should be sent to:

Boscos Nashville Brewery
c/o Music City Brewers
1805 21st Ave. S.
Nashville, TN   37212

We will be accepting entries at Boscos Nashville Brewery in all of the 
1998 AHA style categories and subcategories beginning September 28th.
Entry deadline is October 19th.




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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 12:03:53 -0700
From: "NFGS" <fjrusso at coastalnet.com>
Subject: No Carbonation

My beer brewing has been limited to using extracts.  I have only been doing
this for 4 months.  Up until the present I had no problems.  I made an
oatmeal stout. Using malt extract and Quaker quick oats.  My O.G. was at
1.058,  moved to the secondary after 5 days and after 1 week went to
bottling.  MY F.G. was 1.018.  I bottled using corn sugar at standard conc.

After 3 weeks I opened a bottle and there was NO carbonation.  What has
happened?  Can I save this?  If I add a small quantity of a dry yeast to
each bottle can I initiate the carbonation?

Frank
fjrusso at coastalnet.com




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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 12:22:39 -0400
From: "David R. Burley" <Dave_Burley at compuserve.com>
Subject: Inconsistent Carbonation,

Brewsters:

FL Johnson bemoans the fact that even with careful weighing of
sugar, he gets woefuly inconsistent carbonation.  He suggests that
this may be due to differences in dissolved CO2.

It also may be due to incompete conversion of the dextrose
priming sugar.  Check the glucose sugar content before bottling
and after priming and bottle fermentation.  Chances are you will
find that not all the priming sugar has disappeared.  If so, try
using an active yeast starter ( see my previous comments in the
archives on a kraeusening starter).  Often, especially with
flocculent ale yeast that has been allowed to rest in the
secondary for a long time, the yeast will not complete (or even
start) the in-bottle fermentation and lead to inconsistent
carbonation on a batch-wise basis.
- -------------------------------------
Lead does get into the water from the pipes.

Once in India on vacation, I took along a water purification kit
based on iodine and when I used it on the hotel (oldest and
most expensive one in Calcutta) water ( provided to us as "safe"
water in a metal jug)  I got this lovely, voluminous, heavy yellow
precipitate which looked like lead iodide from the undoubtedly
lead pipes installed when India was part of the British
commonwealth. I decanted it and we drank it!
- ------------------------------------

Keep on Brewin'

Dave Burley
Kinnelon, NJ 07405
Dave_Burley at Compuserve.com

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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 11:32:27 -0600 
From: "McConnell, Guy" <GuyM at Exabyte.COM>
Subject: Re: Collar design for an upright freezer

Mike Logan writes:

> I have recently had the good fortune to acquire a mid-sized upright
freezer
> for free. 
> It has the coils fixed to the shelves, making the shelves fixed. Since
I need
> a place where I can ferment my 5 gal carboys I am looking into
expanding the
> cooled space.. 

> Here is what I am thinking..
> I want to remove the door, build a collar out several feet, and
re-attach the
> door to the collar. I haven't settled on the exact dimensions but I
want room
> for at least 2 carboys. 

Mike, I did this with an upright and based my design on the one from
Fred Eckardt
(I believe) in an old issue of Zymurgy (sorry, don't have the reference
in front of me)
in an article called "Stalking the Wild Coldbox" if memory serves.  I
essentially built
a plywood box the same approximate size as the upright freezer,
insulated it with
Celotex (foil on both sides), removed the door and attached to the front
of the 
freezer.  One design change that I made was suggested by the article.  I
turned
the freezer sideways and attached the box with the door on the box's
"side" to
make access to the shelves easier.  When facing it, the freezer is on
the left, with
its opening facing to your right (into the plywood box).  When you open
the door,
the freezer's shelves are on your left.  I made one removable shelf in
the box section.
I can ferment 10 gallon batches easily in there and have room for 18 or
so kegs in the 
cold box area with lots of room on the freezer's shelves for bottles.  I
used 2x4's for the
frame and 3/4" plywood for the box.  It is attached to the freezer with
long sheetmetal
screws and any cracks siliconed to prevent cold air leaking out.  It as
sturdy enough to
be moved from North Carolina to Colorado by the movers without coming
apart!

> Also, I will be hooking up a temperature controller, any recommended
models
> here?

I use the Johnson Controls one and it works flawlessly.

Good luck,

Guy McConnell  /// Loveland, Colorado  ///  guym at exabyte.com
"And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one for
dessert..."


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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 13:36:45 -0400 
From: "Houseman, David L" <David.Houseman at unisys.com>
Subject: Reverse HERMS

This weekend I did a little, informal experiment to see if this idea
would work.  I created a psuedo "mash" of 5 gallons in a Gott cooler at
140oF.  This was simply water as I didn't want to waste grain for an
experiment.  In this I put my old immersion chiller which is about
20feet of 3/8OD copper tubing.  I heated my HLT to boiling and turned
off the heat.  With a simple adapter I was able to use my RIMS pump and
tubing to circulate the hot water through the copper coil to heat the
"mash."  By stirring constantly (would have to build a motorized stirrer
to make this less labor intensive), I was able to achieve 4oF/min temp
rise for the "mash."   This is considerably better than I can do with my
RIMS (only 120V available).  So without additional equipment, I believe
I have the ability to do a step mash in my Gott by means other than
decoctions or adding boiling water.  A 10 gallon, no-sparge batch with
mash out should now be possible.  I know that this experiment is by no
means scientific but it at least convinces me that this is possible
albeit with many details to work out.   This essentially is a very
rudimentary form of Reverse HERMS that Dave Ludwig put together, called
Soft Heat Mash System, and shows on his web site,
http://www.us.hsanet.net/user/dludwig/index.html.  For anyone with a
pump and an immersion chiller they can make a hot water heat exchanger
using the same copper coil.  

Now I want to try a similar approach by using an old pressure cooker as
a steam generator to underlet with steam; again a stirrer (manual or
otherwise) will be necessary.

Dave Houseman


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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 10:41:21 -0700
From: "Rich, Charles" <CRich at filenet.com>
Subject: High molecular weight proteins, 2-cents

In HBD #2840, George De Piro wrote:

"Wolfgang Kunze writes that too much protein degradation will actually
cause more haze potential in the final beer.  This is because it is the
high-molecular weight protein degradation products that are the most
potent haze causing proteins.  You therefore don't want to degrade the
largest proteins too much.

Some HBDers disagree with Kunze about this last bit, but he has a better
resume than any of us.  Seek out more info if you wish to refute him;
I'm just repeating what he has written!"


Here's a datapoint from a recent brew gone bad, that I think supports
Kunze.  My Polder digital Thermometer/Timer's probe went t*ts-up during
the brew and read 13F below actual.  I determined this after about 80
minutes at 138F; I'd intended 151F but wasn't getting evidence of sugar
conversion, no rainbows on the bubbles, no transparency etc.  

That beer, a CAP, had nil hot break (and consequently showed
astringency), had little or negligible cold break, and was tenaciously
very hazy.  Polyclar helped pull some of haze and astringency, but it
was still unshowable IMO.  The long rest at 138F is just at the end of
the temperature range where proteolytic enzymes would be expected to
degrade high molecular weight proteins.  Funny enough, the beer has a
lot of body but a poor foam stand.

Cheers,
Charles Rich



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 13:04:07 -0600 (MDT)
From: Kenneth Sullivan <Kenneth.Sullivan at Central.Sun.COM>
Subject: Infected Beer! How do I save some of it?

I'm still trying to adjust to to my new brewing area and coordinate my
brewing techniques and procedures.  Right now I need about 6 hands to do it.

I brewed St. Pats brown ale extract kit and made the mistake of trying to add 
some water to the secondary.  THe water must have sucked some nasties in with 
it and now I have about 3 colonies of 'mold' growing on the surface :-(

Does anybody out know if I can siphon out from underneath the surface and
salvage a large portion of the beer?   Should I assume that the infection is 
throughout the beer and must be tossed?

The beer had fermented out when I added the water,  now the colonies are 
really funky looking and gaining mass, but just on the surface.
The large colony is about the size of a dime.

I added water to a different batch and it's just happy, no infection.

kjsulli at central.sun.com



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 15:33:41 -0700
From: "Jim McZLusky" <crash at pgh.net>
Subject: Copper in my keg?

I am currently modifying a 1/2 barrel into a brewing vessel and everything
I've seen calls for stainless steel tubing and fittings and ball valve to
be used as a drain...why not copper?
I will be using the keg to boil and then hookup to a counterflow chiller.
Please tell me I can use copper!
Thanks in advance,
Jim Franz 


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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 12:24:58 -0700
From: Gail Elber <gail at brewtech.com>
Subject: Virtual homebrew clubs?

Does anyone know of any virtual homebrew clubs -- i.e., existing only
on-line? I know about the Virtual Village Homebrewing Society on
CompuServe, which holds AHA-sanctioned competitions. Any others?





Gail Elber, Associate Editor
BrewingTechniques
P.O. Box 3222
Eugene, OR 97403
Tel. 541/687-2993
Fax 541/687-8534
http://brewingtechniques.com




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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 12:43:01 -0700
From: Gail Elber <gail at brewtech.com>
Subject: 18th-century brewing text on line

A scan of The London Country Brewer, 2nd edition, published in 1736, is
newly available at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/london/.





Gail Elber, Associate Editor
BrewingTechniques
P.O. Box 3222
Eugene, OR 97403
Tel. 541/687-2993
Fax 541/687-8534
http://brewingtechniques.com




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Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 16:06:20 -0500
From: Ralph Link <rlink at escape.ca>
Subject: Filter device

I was recently given a stainless steel filter gizmo. I believe that it was
part of the lint trap in a gas clothes dryer. I has a relatively fine mesh
to it, the problem as I see it is the two openings a large one on one end
and a smaller one on the opposite end. The small opening fits nicely on the
bottom of a keg, and I propose to cover the larger end with a piece of SS
and fit a pipe through it as a collection point. I have taken a couple of
pictures of it and should anyone in the collective like to offer an opinion
on what I have or my plans I would be happy to forward the pictures as an
attachment via e-mail.
Thanks in advance.
"Warm beer and bread
They say it will raise the dead"


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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 17:20:36 EDT
From: JPullum127 at aol.com
Subject: Re gabf

just got back from denver and had a real good time.. falling rocks had a
superb belgian dubbel on tap also the sierra nevada celebration was
wonderfull. my favorite beer from the festival was "collaborator milk stout"
from a homebrew club(the oregon brew crew). if anyone on hbd knows any of the
brewcrew please!!!! get a recipe from them and post it. since its not a
commercial brewery i figured they might share.  wonderfull stuff. enjoyed
meeting with everyone, sorry mark t. i'd tried to catch you at the aha booth,
but you allways seemed to be out tasting! the mission has been assigned this
post will not self-destruct in 30 seconds


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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 14:39:10 -0700 
From: Dave Sapsis <DAVE_SAPSIS at fire.ca.gov>
Subject: now THATS protein!

George dP writes:
"There are plenty of amino acids for the Maillard reactons in a barley
with 11% total nitrogen".  That indeed would be true.  Its even true
when it is 11% *protein*.  To find the N content when protein is given,
devide by 6.25.  In fact, listed protein is usually estimated based on a
digestion of N by multiplying by said factor.  Having not been satisfied
with correcting another HBD luminary privately (Renner using an
out-of-date taxonomic distinction), I get to correct George, who most of
you know, makes very few errors and is a bastion of solid information.

Peace,
- --dave, sacramento
"This wall is not real. How can it be real?  Its only made of concrete
and barbed wire"
							-Lucinda
 



David Sapsis
Fire and Fuels Specialist 
CDF Fire and Resource Assessment Program
916.227.1338       dave_sapsis at fire.ca.gov



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 17:40:53 -0400
From: "Michael Maag" <maagm at rica.net>
Subject: Re:Adaptation (or not) of cooler mash tun

Mark asked:
I'm in the process of building a mash tun from a Picnic Cooler, but I was
thinking that
I could avoid drilling it to install a ball valve.  Would anuyone like to
comment on the
likely performance of this idea:
Construct standard copper manifold, but 'tee' off vertically,  bend through
180 degrees
over side of tun.  I would construct the pipe so that it would be possible
to
place lid on mash tun during mash.  This would obviously be removed during
sparge.
Are there any good reasons why this would not work?

Mark, it works just fine.  I have a stainless 10 gal brewkettle that I use
as a lauter tun.  I could not bring myself to cut a hole in a $180 stockpot,
so I made a circular (octagonal) manifold from copper pipe.  After the mash
I add about two gallons of hot water to thin the mash, then shove the
manifold to the bottom of the kettle with a spoon and the upright pipe.  I
start a siphon and drain the wort into a bucket.  I recirculate untill it
clears.  You need a good clamp to shut off the flow close to the end of the
hose where it is draining into the bucket (Iuse a "c" clamp).  Pour the wort
back into the lauter tun and open the clamp, the siphon continues.

Cheers,
Mike 8*)
(In the middle of the Shenandoah Valley)



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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 17:34:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: pbabcock <pbabcock at mail.oeonline.com>
Subject: Virtual Home Brew Clubs

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

Aside from the rather global virtual club known as the HBD, and
CompuServe's Virtual Village, I know of two others:

The Computerized Homebrew Avocation and Obsession Society (CHAOS) in the
Food and Drink Network of AOL (homepage at http://hbd.org/chaos)

and 

The Bathtub Brewers of Yahoo's "Yahoo! Clubs"  (homepage:
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/bathtubbrewers) 

CHAOS has been around for about four years now. Bathtub Brewers is about
two month's old. BTB  is unique in that you need only have web access to
join in - A nice feature.

There are also "Web Chats" that act sort of like homebrew clubs, and there
are homebrew clubs on the web that have virtual features (web-based
discussion boards). Stop by Scott Abene's "Skotrat's Brew Chat" at
http://www.wwa.com/~skotrat, the Brewery's chat at http://brewery.org. Off
the top of my head, I can't think of any of the clubs I've seen discussion
boards on (TRASH?), but many use centrallized e-mail distribution list
through which they communicate throughout the day. 





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Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 00:33:40 +0100
From: "Tom & Dee McConnell" <tdmc at bigfoot.com>
Subject: 3 tier brew tree

I am trying to find something on the Web that I once found, did not 
bookmark, and now need to find again.  It was a 3 teir brew tree 
with (at least one of) the arms that could be raised up and down.  
Seems that the one I saw used a come-a-long to move the 
keg/burner up and down.  If I can find that then I could boil at 
(almost) ground level and then raise the keg up to empty into 
fermenter.  Figure that will clip off about 30" of height requirement.

Anybody know what the URL is for this?



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