---

	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:
  Minikegs ("Grant W. Knechtel")
  Re: Large yeast storage experiment  at  t=3 weeks (Scott Murman)
  GFCI trips (fridge)
  OMMEGANG, MILLS, CLEANING SS, YEAST CULTURE (Joe Rolfe)
  6-8 oz bottles (Lee Menegoni)
  CO2 and mini kegs (Lee Menegoni)
  Fruit flies (Rod Prather)
  1999 AHA Conference Set for Kansas City (Paul Gatza)
  Christmas Ale Sour!! (Aaron Banerjee)
  seeking "splits" (Rick Jarvis)


Merry Christmas from the Home Brew Digest!

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Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 20:46:31 -0800
From: "Grant W. Knechtel" <GWK at hartcrowser.com>
Subject:  Minikegs

Stuart Baunoch asks in HBD 2908:

>I am looking to buy a set of minikegs. 
 -snip-
>1) I saw several messages ion the archives saying not to use bleach to
>clean them because of oxidation of the plastic interior.  Is this true, 
and
>if not bleach what can you use to sanatize them?
 -snip-

Bbrite works well to clean them, and iodophor is a good sanitizer.  Bleach
is reputed to destroy the paint-like interior coating.  Bbrite also does 
some
sanitizing but hasn't been so certified, so can't be labeled as such.

>2) Saw several posts that said most kegs use 2-4 cartridges to dispense
>entire keg, Is there a better way? as they are expensive.  Like mabey a
>regulated co2 tank?

You can use a regulated CO2 tank for *dispensing* only, the difficulty is 
in
adapting the tank.  Williams Brewing (no affiliation) sells a kit to 
modify
their variation to use  a tank.   The better way is to bite the bullet for 
cornie
kegs, IMHO.  At ca. $15 US for a used tank, and a couple of bucks for 
o-rings, they're narrowly more expensive initially than minikegs with a 
tank 
and regulator, but you can force carbonate in them.  The stainless steel 
will 
last effectively forever with proper care, unlike the minikegs which are 
more 
fiddly to care for, and have a limited life span in any case.  The 
minikegs do 
have the advantage of a more handy size.  Just one of those choices we 
get to make!  Happy Holidays, and Prost!


 -Grant
Neue Des Moines Hausbrauerei
Des Moines, Washington USA


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Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 22:32:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Scott Murman <smurman at best.com>
Subject: Re: Large yeast storage experiment  at  t=3 weeks


> The lager yeast has also has significantly lower overall viability when
> compared to the ale yeast.
> 
> Dave Whitman

This is opposite to what I've observed.  I've never used Wyeast 2272,
but the two lager yeasts I do maintain are much heartier than any of
my ale strains when recovering from sterile water storage.  Pilsener
Urquell rampages.  In fact, the worst strain I have for sterile
storage is probably Wyeast 1968 (Fuller's), which seems to perform
pretty well for you (Dave).  I don't have any hard data, just several
years of experience with these strains.  Could there be a difference
due to the water being used?  Mine is a bit odd (pH = 9, hardness =
30).

 -SM-



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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 07:58:11 -0500
From: fridge at kalamazoo.net
Subject: GFCI trips

Greetings folks,

 In HBD #2908, Richard Johnson asks for help with his new (used) 
beer cooler that trips a GFCI receptacle after running for a few days.

 I suspect that condensate has gotten into an electrical connection 
or the electrical insulation has broken down somewhere and a small 
leakage current has developed to ground due to the moisture.

 A multimeter set to a high resistance range will be very helpful for 
tracking down the problem. With the coolert unplugged, measure the 
resistance between the ground prong and each of the other two 
prongs on the power cord plug. The meter should read infinite 
resistance (or very nearly so) in each case. 

 A lower resistance indicates a problem. Troubleshooting is most 
easily done by a process of elimination. Individually disconnect 
each component in the system, measuring the resistance at the plug 
after each is disconnected. The resistance will read infinite when the 
offending component is disconnected. Start simply - I have found 
bad power cords. Look for signs of corrosion on electrical 
connections.

 All components, including door heaters shoud be connected 
between hot and neutral. In no case should ground be used as part 
of the current path *assuming this cooler runs on 120 volts*.

 As an earlier poster related, GFCI manufacturers warn that a GFCI 
recaptacle installed at the end of a long wiring run *may* trip when a 
device (such as a fridge) draws a large inrush current upon startup. 
If the resistance measurements indicate no problems with the 
cooler, this may explain the tripping.

 Good luck with troubleshooting, and please report the results.

Hope this helps!
- ----------------------------------------------
Forrest Duddles - FridgeGuy in Kalamazoo
fridge at kalamazoo.net
The FridgeGuy is now online! Check out http://www.hbd.org/fridgeguy


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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 10:28:37 -0500
From: Joe Rolfe <onbc at shore.net>
Subject: OMMEGANG, MILLS, CLEANING SS, YEAST CULTURE

OMMEGANG HENNEPIN YEAST from bottle:

Anyone got this stuff to start from a bottle??  Five days and nothin'....
Are they pastuerizing now??


ON MILLS:

Alot of good info has been flying about on milling equipment.Any good 
quality
roller type mill will get you a good result if used properly with good 
ingredients.

Look at the grist, you can tell what the quality of the crush is like with 
some
experience.  The leave it alone.  Find another item to optimize.  There are
plenty more important things to worry about rather than meeting the 
Practical
Brewers specs.  Most micros dont measure to these specs.  Dont worry about
it.  Just look at the result from the mill, be as consistent as possible 
with
the mash/lauter.

One item I read that pretty much sums it up for small brewers is
from Jack Schmidling:

>Virtually every customer I have ever talked to with yield problems
> blamed on the mill, eventually found that the problem was either
> the malt or the lauter system or process.  I would put the greatest
> burden for variability on the malt, in particular, bottom end American 
malt.

With one minor change "bottom end North American malt" - now Jack, your
leaving out our fine maltsters from north of the boarder;).... There is 
alot
of crappy malt out there.  Some returned by micros that found it 
unacceptable.
And where do you think it ends up, on a bargin to some homebrewers. It
happens alot more than you think. I wont name names ( it is Christmas and I
will be nice for a change) here but they are out there.

SS CLEANING:
	
Kettles: clean with a chemical or scrub the heavy crap off
rinse, and on occasion acid wash.  why someone would say not to acid
wash stainless on occasion, has not worked in a brewery.  You dont have to 
do it every time but maybe twice a season for moderate use at homebrew 
level.

Fermenters: clean right after you empty it, same as above.  Acid here
is more important to remove "beer stone".  Bugs can "hide" under,
around stone deposits.  Acid every 3 batches helps keep it in check. Stone
is also believed to cause some gushing problems.

Chemicals: PBW never used it but have heard good things.   I like caustic 
or
a product in some Sams called Electrosol - cheap and make your hands very
slippery, use caution.

YEAST CULTURE EQUIPMENT:
All the items Scott Murman mention, except the stir plate.  You
really dont need it - but it sure helps speed up things...If you go to
the extent of a stir plate - get a centrifuge too.  Now you can go real
fast to 5 gal pitchable quantity...

The alcohol/lamp is ok, but the stuff evaporates like crazy.  Propane
is hotter (looks that way anyway) and faster to turn the loop red.  I
hate waiting at that stage.

For glassware, sure you can spend many hard earned dollars on "lab"
quality glassware.  But these fruit juice glasses with twist caps work
great, get a couple of different sizes for step ups.  I have used growlers
with fair success in the latter stages, but dont cap them off after you 
have
autoclaved them a few times.  The clear glass ones  seem to have a tendency
to blow the bottom off at a certain psi.

I stopped using agar slants years ago, switched over to 10% sucrose
in tubes.  Works fine for me.  I just pulled a tube of some nice yeast I
obtained in 1992 - it is up and running fine.  That is my longest.  Slants
are a waste - IMHO - for storage, you need to redo them fairly often to
keep the strain viable, and cleaning/reusing the tubes is painful.

HONEY USE:
	Adding to the kettle is easy but spores will not be killed, some
spores survive autoclaving, not many but some.  In addition adding to
the kettle you will get some waste, honey is fairly expensive at $1/pound 
or more.  There is a place in California, National Honey Board or something 
like that that has info on brewing with honey.  The jist of it was brew 
your wort as usual. The make a separate brew of equal strength honey/water 
and pasturize at 170F-180F for several hours.

Chill and add to the main batch that are already fermenting (like a day 
later).  Works just fine.  They have a flyer, maybe a web page now that
listed some baseline products from some commercial breweries in SF bay 
area.


Well happy Holidays to all, Good luck and great brewing

Joe Rolfe




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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 11:06:43 -0500
From: Lee Menegoni <Lee.Menegoni at digital.com>
Subject: 6-8 oz bottles

One option I found for  6-8 oz bottles:

Clear glass Coca Cola bottles.  I have found they still make a
returnable that is about 7 oz. I bought a few cases of them for the 5
cent each deposit.  I just keep the barley wine and other high gravity
beers I have in these bottles in a box to prevent light damage.


Lee Menegoni
email: Lee.Menegoni at Compaq.Com



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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 11:20:23 -0500
From: Lee Menegoni <Lee.Menegoni at digital.com>
Subject: CO2 and mini kegs

An other option for gassing  mini kegs besides the cartridges is "The
Carbonator"  . Its threads fit the end of the cartridge holder.  It
allows for use of a ball lock corny keg fitting.  I read about this in
HBD about 5 years ago and tried it out this summer when I obtained a
min-keg setup.  I use this to artificially carbonate a keg .  It allows
me to control the carbonation level  and to serve at home or parties
where other folks have kegs and gas.  Since the beer is carbonated there
is little gas loss when I switch to the cartridge to dispense when
needed. 

Lee Menegoni
email: Lee.Menegoni at Compaq.Com



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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 11:50:10 -0500
From: Rod Prather <rodpr at iquest.net>
Subject: Fruit flies

Excuse me.  Perhaps I missed the point that it did win 3rd place.  However
Fruit flies DO carry wild yeasts.  I would be especially suspicious of one
found in an area known for brewing beer or wine.   Perhaps not wild but not
pure.  Fruit flies are the source of yeasts for wines that are
"spontaneously"
fermented.  They are also the source of bacteria that produce acetic acid
and
other nasty flavors.

The fact that the beer won third place does not prove that the fermentation
was
not contaminated nor that fruit flies do not carry wild yeasts.  This
logically assumes
that all wild yeasts are bad.  Perhaps it is more likely that the yeast
contamination
produced a result that was desirable to the judges in the competition.  As
we all
know it is often not always perfection but a quality of  uniqueness that
catches
the judges eye.  Or maybe I mean the judges palate.  It might be more
logical
to collect the yeasts, identify, isolate and reuse them.


Paul Niebergall Wrote on fruit flies.
>I think Rod is missing the point of the fruit fly post.  The fact that the
>Fruit Fly Bitter won third place is *proof* that at least in this one
>case,
>the fruit fly was not a *primary carrier of wild yeast* nor was the
>starter
>*heartily contaminated*.  Aside from speculation, we have yet to see much
>in the way of actual proof that fruit flies have caused a contaminated
>batch of beer.



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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 12:56:47 -0700
From: Paul Gatza <paulg at aob.org>
Subject: 1999 AHA Conference Set for Kansas City 

The 1999 AHA Conference is set for June 24-26 in Olathe, Kansas. I
signed the hotel contract on December 23rd with the Holiday  Inn in
Olathe, Kansas, just outside of Kansas City. Room costs will be
$75/night whether it be one or four occupancy. This year' s conference
is being planned and run by AHA-registered club members from throughout
Kansas City and neighboring areas in coordination with the AHA staff and
Board of Advisors.  Registration and other information will be available
at beertown.org or the KC Bier Meisters website http:/kcbiermeisters.org
in January 1999. The organizing committee's e-mail address is
99con at kcbiermeisters.org. 

The AHA Conference will again coincide with the AHA National Homebrew
Competition second round judging.  Nighttime events include an opening
reception, a pub crawl, "Blues, Brews & BBQ" hosted by the Pony Express
Brewery and an awards banquet on Saturday night. Confirmed speakers as
of now are Steve Bradt, Ray Daniels, Charlie Papazian, Paul Farnsworth,
super beer chef Dan Turner and David Houseman & Al Korzonas. 

The 1999 AHA Conference will be a blast-good times and good brewing
information. We look forward to seeing you in Kansas City.

- -- 
Paul Gatza
Director
American Homebrewers Association	(303) 447-0816 x 122
736 Pearl Street			(303) 447-2825 -- FAX
PO Box 1679				paulg at aob.org -- E-MAIL
Boulder, CO 80306-1679			info at aob.org -- AOB INFO
U.S.A.					http://www.beertown.org -- WEB


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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 16:48:56 -0500 (EST)
From: Aaron Banerjee <aaron at mirror.his.com>
Subject: Christmas Ale Sour!!


Tried the first of my Christmas Ale (this is Christmas Eve).  It tastes
terrible!!  (has that metallic taste I sometimes get with green beer).
It's been aged 8 months...


Looks like I'm sticking to egg nog this year....




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Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 21:58:47 -0500
From: Rick Jarvis <rjarvis at nauticom.net>
Subject: seeking "splits"

Splits of "OV" are still available according to someone I know living in Clayton
NY.
I remember them as a great little beer way back in the early 80's

Rick Jarvis



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