---

	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: Harvest Ale, epoxy and polyamide resins.First an answer- (Brian Dixon)
  Re: good head (on a glass of homebrew!!!) (Brian Dixon)
  Constructing a Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter (David and Susan Tedeschi)
  coffee in the brew, White Sugar in English Ales , Artful Brewing ("Tim Holland")
  RE: good head (on a glass of homebrew!!!) ("Nigel Porter")
  dry yeast lag times ("Nathaniel P. Lansing")
  Kraeusening and Brewmaster's Bible (Alan McKay)
  Gimme Good Head! (Alan McKay)
  Heather ale (hal)
  Polyclar Use (AKGOURMET)
  re: Brewing Urban Legend Legacy, Stealth yeast (Dick Dunn)
  Strange question (Jeff Porterfield)
  Re: C*****TEST (Joe Rolfe)
  chunky lager (Wheeler)
  Re: Kraeusening, (Scott Murman)
  Edinburgh/London Pubs & Breweries (Richard_R_Gontarek)
  Fw: Life IS a permanent emergency after all ("Rob Jones")
  foil packaged hops, keg blowoff valve? (Teutonic Brewer)
  large yeast experiment - conclusions posted ("Dave Whitman")


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

* 2000 MCAB Qualifiers: Boneyard Brew-Off 6/12/99
* (http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/BUZZ/contest5.html);  Buzz-Off! 
* Competition 6/26/99 (http://www.voicenet.com/~rpmattie/buzzoff)

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


Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 23:20:55 PDT
From: Brian Dixon <briandixon at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Harvest Ale, epoxy and polyamide resins.First an answer-


Thomas asks about his steel reinforced polyamide epoxy-glued forked racking 
cane as a source of poison to his beer.  The quick answer is no, not to 
worry.  The slow answer is a) make sure the epoxy is cured, and b) test it 
first.  Many epoxies contain solvents that can leach out, especially at 
higher temperatures.  But if it is cured first, e.g. give it some time at 
warm (100+ F) temperatures to outgas all that it can.  Can't tell you how 
long to cure since it varies so widely among epoxies, but 24 hours should be 
good enough for your purposes.  Now on to testing it.  Unless an epoxy is 
designed for higher temperature applications (read the label), it may soften 
when it is heated up to sparge temperatures.  Epoxy is not a high-temp 
adhesive, and most soften enough to take a dent from your fingernail at 
temperatures as low as 140 F.  BUT there are high temperature versions that 
can withstand several hundred degrees, say 300 F or so ... definitely still 
not what I'd call oven proof.  But you only need the epoxy to be good for 
212 F or so.  If your label doesn't say anything about it, submerse the 
thing in boiling water for 30 minutes and try peeling off epoxy with a fork 
and see if you can.  Moral of the story: the cured stuff is about as inert 
as you can get, and it's _probably strong enough as-is_ for the sparge arm, 
but test it to be sure.

Brian

PS: I built a boat with extensive use of epoxy (completely encapsulated with 
the stuff) and I studied the heck out of epoxies because it was my FIRST 
boat building experience and I wanted to get it right.  It's been afloat for 
years now and not a single leak or break in the epoxy, so I guess I did 
alright...


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com


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Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 23:28:22 PDT
From: Brian Dixon <briandixon at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: good head (on a glass of homebrew!!!)

Is a good head necessary?  I like it even on beers that aren't normally 
known for their heading qualities.  I think the simple answer is that a good 
head looks good and is a good experience in general (still talkin' beer 
here).  But it also indicates appropriate proportions of protein in the 
finished product as well ... important to certain styles of beer and for 
appropriate levels of mouth-feel for those styles.

Brian

PS: I tend to favor BIG ales (barley wines, scotch ales, imperial stouts and 
the like) more than other beers, so I appreciate things that add mouth-feel. 
  (Sorry ... I'm not a pilsner man.  I can enjoy them and appreciate the art 
and the product, but I like my beers like I like my women ... big!  (just 
kidding on the women! ... Sometime I'll tell you that moped joke ...))


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com


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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 16:41:15 +0900
From: David and Susan Tedeschi <tedeschi at shinbiro.com>
Subject: Constructing a Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter

A few weeks ago I posted a question about Conical Fermenters. 
Unfortunately it was a "agitated" time for the HBD and while I did get
some members to personally E-mail me, I really did not get the response
I was hoping for.  There is now a tread about welding Stainless Steel
and the hysteria has die down, so I will try again.  

First I would like to thank those who personally E-mail for their
information and keeping in spirit of what HBD is about, passing along
information on brewing, drinking and making beer in pleasant forum based
on knowledge and experiences.

I am living in South Korea and due to a number of circumstances that are
too lengthy; having a stainless steel fermenter made in country makes
sense and is very, very low cost.  This is a given and if you want the
long story of why and a smile, I will be glad to share it with anyone.

I have now gathered enough information from those who sent it to me to
draw up plans with the recommended heights and lengths.  I have also
located a fabrication shop and had a 13 gallon stainless steel brewing
pot made for $50 to $60 (depending on the exchange rate used).  The
biggest problem I am having is where to put the racking tube on the
cone.

Do I based it's placement on some type of height/length ratio?

Should I make the racking tube rotate?  

If so, I know the commercial ones use a clover clamp and obtaining one
here will be close to impossible.  Getting one from the States at this
time is possible as some of our staff is back home for a meeting.  It is
easy to bring in something that can be fitted in a suitcase.  But I need
to know where to get one, so I can E-mail them and get something going
very soon. 

Once again I would like to thank those of you who responded to my
E-mail, you showed me the true intent of what the HBD is about.


Dave

"Brewing in the land of just not quite right"


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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 00:53:34 -0700
From: "Tim Holland" <tholland at alaskalife.net>
Subject: coffee in the brew, White Sugar in English Ales , Artful Brewing

Howdy all!

I don't post often, but these 3 subjects are dear to my heart.

First:

Coffee in the brew.

Most, if not all, of the coffee beers I've tried have a very astringent,
chemical flavor that I personally find horrid.  The one that I did find
tolerable had a huge residual sweetness provided by large amounts of crystal
malt and a healthy dose of chocolate malt.  Do you just love coffee, or do
you want to be awake and "buzzed"?  :-)  A very sweet stout with coffee
might be enjoyable, but you need a lot of dark malts to cover the solvent
flavor provided by the coffee.  (please note that this is just my personal
opinion.  I am not a big fan of sweet beer.)

White Sugar in English Ales

I love bitters!  This is not an understatement by any means.  When I first
started brewing, I bought Lines book "Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy" and
read it extensively.  Many of his recipes include sugar of some sort.
Through totally subjective experimentation I came to the realization that
using a half a pound to a pound of dark brown sugar added a subtle flavor to
my ordinary and special bitters that made them most enjoyable.  I then
started using it many other beers.  Maybe I've just gotten used to the
flavor, but it makes my old bitter, pale ale, taste more like the English
and Yorkshire beers I've tried.  There's no denying it makes the grain bill
a little cheaper too.  (Can you tell I descended from Orange Irishmen?)
Molasses can add a similar flavor profile, but it must be used in
moderation.  Otherwise, It can add a strong flavor that will affect the
overall flavor profile.  Once again, this is just personal opinion.

Artful Brewing

This topic has come up many times while enjoying a good pint with pals.  I
am an analytical chemist by trade.  When I started brewing I measured
everything and recorded the results extensively.  Then I ran into a friend
that brewed all-grain and didn't even use a scale.  His beer was
exceptionally good.  I noticed that reproducing a beer of my own was hard
but not impossible, but I started trying a lot of different things and liked
the results.  Some of my experiments have turned out not-so-good, but I
haven't poured any down the drain either.  To me, brewing is a lot like
cooking not like a huge, controlled science experiment.  I think this is
because I brew for my self, my wife, and my friends but not for
competitions.  There are to many variables introduce most of the time.

 If I were more competitive in nature I'm sure I would fret much more over
each batch.  Because I'm a chemist, I find the deep discussions about the
chemistry of brewing very informational and entertaining.  I even look
forward to them.  However, I don't use them as a measure of my beer.  Some
people seem to me to  get overly anal about brewing but I'm sure they are
enjoying brewing as much as I do, but to claim that homebrewing is science
is a bit of a stretch.

Good lord.  I just read over what I've just written and realize I've
probably had a little more home-brew than I thought.  Aw what the hell,
we're all here to have fun anyway.

Even though I've never read Papazian, relax, don't worry, have a home-brew.
:-)

The king salmon are still running good.
Tim




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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 11:07:53 +0100
From: "Nigel Porter" <nigel at sparger.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: RE: good head (on a glass of homebrew!!!)

>Here's one to raise a few blood pressures.  Is there any practical
>benefit
>to having a thick creamy head on a glass of beer??

Over here in the UK it seems a very regional thing, and is 
constantly a source of argument between northern and southern 
drinkers.

Up North, beer (from a hand pump) is served through a swan neck 
& sparkler, giving a tight vreamy head. Back Down South no 
sparklers or swan necks are used, and beer tends to have less 
head.

Nigel


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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 08:50:47 -0400
From: "Nathaniel P. Lansing" <delbrew at compuserve.com>
Subject: dry yeast lag times

Paul Shick asks: >> Nate, can you explain your
reasoning a bit more clearly? <<

I'll give this a go. The Pasteur effect is when yeast postpone 
fermentation
 in the presence of oxygen. The dry yeast is usually pitched at high 
enough
cell counts that they do not need to replicate to come to fermentation
cell counts so there is no need for oxygen to produce sterols. So if you
pitch
dry yeast to an aerated wort the yeast _may_ wait for the O2 levels to 
drop
before they start fermentation. The bubbling you see when you rehydrate
dry yeast is not fermentation, it is oxygen being release that is 
naturally
trapped in the cells during freeze-drying. Dry yeast come with their own
oxygen supply, no need to add more.
   And on adding nutrients to the water during rehydration...DON'T!!!
It is not beneficial to the yeast, it is a detriment! Add the nutrients 
to
the wort; though an all malt wort shouldn't need them.
The yeast need to be hydrated, that is all, if you add anything to the
water you cause problems due to increased osmotic pressure.
You can literally explode the yeast. The yeast are dehydrated to 

a dormant state and before they can resume normal life process
they must first rehydrate to normal levels and become accustomed
to being alive again. If you add sugar to the rehydration then they are
trying to rehydrate and ferment at the same time. Similarly, if you found

a person dying of thirst in the desert would you try to stuff a prime
rib down his throat or give him small sips of water till he recovered?
  When the instructions say hydrate for 15 minutes they mean 15 minutes
and certainly no more than 30 minutes. Yeast cell death happens
_rapidly_in the presence of oxygen and with no nutrients available;
remember that is O2 bubbling off during hydration in plain water.
  Hope this helps, but since I sell dozens of Nottingham yeast each
week with no reports of long lag times I must conclude that long lag 

times would be a problem with methodology and not the yeast.
  

 

 


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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 12:46:24 -0400
From: Alan McKay <amckay at ottawa.com>
Subject: Kraeusening and Brewmaster's Bible

Dave Burley quotes :

Steven Snyder in "The Brewmaster's Bible"
( a really excellent book, IMHO)  says:

I couldn't agree more.  In fact, until I'd read Hombrewing
for Dummies, it was the one book I would recommend for
a beginning brewer.  Reviews for both can be found at :

http://www.bodensatz.com/homebrew/reviews/

Actually, Snyder's isn't up yet, but I'll have it there
by the end of the weekend.

cheers,
 -Alan

- --
   "Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer"
    - Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide
http://www.bodensatz.com/
What's a Bodensatz?  http://www.bodensatz.com/bodensatz.html


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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 12:53:38 -0400
From: Alan McKay <amckay at ottawa.com>
Subject: Gimme Good Head!

Dave Clark asks :

Here's one to raise a few blood pressures.  Is there any practical
 benefit to having a thick creamy head on a glass of beer??  I 
poured a dunkel last week and it took four or five minutes for 
the foam to subside enough where  I could get the whole bottle 
in the glass.  

I reply :

Yes, there's a huge benefit to good foam, and you just
experienced it.  I always carbonate my beers and serve in
such a manner as to give me the huge, creamy foam which
takes quite a while to settle out.  The benefit is purely
aesthetical and depends on the tastes of the brewer,
but personally I do it for every beer and to hell with
styles guidelines simply because that's the way I like
to drink my beer ;-)  Isn't that what Homebrew is supposed
to be about, afterall?

Anyway, aside from that don't worry about it.  If you 
like the beer and want good head (on the beer ;-)), then
read up a bit on how to do that.  Buy some malted 
wheat and visit my FAQ.  [ 2 minutes pass ] Actually,
I just checked my FAQ and good head doesn't seem to
be there, but I'll add it before next weekend so
stay tuned.

cheers,
 -Alan


- --
   "Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer"
    - Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide
http://www.bodensatz.com/
What's a Bodensatz?  http://www.bodensatz.com/bodensatz.html


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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 14:49:24 -0600
From: hal <hwarrick at springnet1.com>
Subject: Heather ale

Does any one have a recipe for a " Heather Ale "?
My wife and I would like to brew this for the up
coming summer solstice. We've heard  of this type
of ale but can't find any recipes. Should we gather
Heather branchs, flowers, or what ? Any ideas will
be most helpful.....Hal



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Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 16:04:38 EDT
From: AKGOURMET at aol.com
Subject: Polyclar Use

>Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 21:42:52 -0400
>From: Peter Owings <peteo1 at mindspring.com>
>Subject: Polyclar

>I'd like to get some info on the use of Polyclar. I've done some research
>and have found various amounts and techniques used. I'd like some practical
>information before I put "plastic" in my beer!
>Beer Man

I'm no scientist, so I can't throw around chemical formulas and the like, but 
I do have some limited practical experience with Polyclar.  In ten years of 
brewing on a regular basis, I've used it twice -- both times in the last six 
months.  The first time was in an all grain pilsner.  I used 2 teaspoons of 
Polyclar in a half-cup of boiled and cooled water.  Added it to the secondary 
after the beer had sat for 5 weeks (this was a lager so it was about 40f.).  
Then let it sit another 10 days.  It was fairly clear before and brilliantly 
clear after the addition -- as clear as any filtered commercial lager.  The 
Polyclar also seemed to hold the yeast cake down when I racked it to a keg -- 
I remember the yeast cake having almost a glossy appearance, although that 
might be normal for the Wyeast Pilsen yeast.  This beer won first place in 
the light lagers at the Haines Craft Beer & Homebrew Festival and first place 
in the first round of this year's National Homebrew Comp., Northwest 
Division, American Premium Lagers.  

With the success of the above beer, I decided to try some Vierka dry lager 
yeast on a split batch -- Vierka dry lager in 5 gallons; Wyeast Kolsch (with 
a starter) in 5 gallons.  The recipe was 18 lb. Briess 2-row, 1 lb. Munich, 3 
hop additions plus dry hop in the secondary.  OG 1.048.  The Kolsch fermented 
1 week in the primary, 2 weeks in the secondary at 60-62f. and turned into a 
very nice beer.  Clear, good head, FG 1.008.  The Vierka fermented very 
slowly at 50f. and was still hazy after 4 weeks in the secondary.  I 
Polyclared it similar to before, but it didn't help much.  I went ahead and 
kegged it after another week and will see how it is when the Kolsch is gone.  
 It probably just needs time.  It tastes good, but was only at 1.014 when 
kegged so hopefully it will drop a couple more points and clear.

Will I use Polyclar again?  Probably.  Not on every batch, but for a 
competition or a special event (like a wedding) where I want to showcase my 
homebrew I would.  I probably wouldn't use it on anything other than very 
light lagers or ales. 

Bill Wright
Gourmet Alaska
Juneau, AK


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Date: 12 Jun 99 21:53:21 MDT (Sat)
From: rcd at raven.talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Subject: re: Brewing Urban Legend Legacy, Stealth yeast

Dave Burley writes:
> Fred Wills asks for opinions on the reason for such
> negative vibes on the use of Sucrose in brewing
> and wonders if it is a Brewing Urbal Legend (BUL).
> 
> When you consider the Yuppie Colorado source
> ( CharlieP) for the use of corn sugar in brewing,
> you can appreciate that this is a Brewing Urban
> Legend Legacy ( BULL), as you suspected, from
> the past belief that "sugar" is somehow bad for you, 

Dave is smoking rope.  Actually, it appears Dave is trying to find an
excuse for flaming Charlie P., even if it takes complete invention and
confusion spanning 2 decades.  I'll try to put this in historical per-
spective and then give the real answer to Fred's question.

It is ludicrous to suggest that Charlie P and a yuppie perspective are
responsible for the anti-table-sugar attitude, because (1) It didn't
originate with Charlie P, (2) the early Boulder homebrew scene, the nascent
AHA, and the early versions of the ..._Joy_of_Homebrewing_ was not yuppie
in any sense, (3) Charlie in particular had if anything the opposite bias,
and (4) there is an explicit and well-known explanation for why one would
not use table sugar in brewing.  To elaborate:
  1 The bias against sucrose appears in all homebrewing books available in
    the late 70's (which corresponds to legalization in the US and the
    approximate beginning of the homebrew boom).  This includes books
    which predate Charlie P's first versions of his book.
  2 The Boulder homebrew scene circa 1980 (say) was--if any single word
    could characterize it--hippie rather than yuppie, although in included
    various free spirits, bikers, and eclectics.  It was eclectic enough
    overall that no dogmatic attitudes survived very well, and in any case
    there was no sort of idea that one white sugar was inherently better
    than another.  You'd have to have seen the dessert table at an early
    Beer and Steer to understand at the gut level just how ridiculous it
    is to suggest that these people believed white sugar was bad for you.
  3 The guy who started the Great American Pie Festival and had the license
    plate "PIES" would hardly be harboring an anti-table-sugar bias!
  4 The real reasoning against table sugar was that in larger quantities it
    would give a "cidery" character to the beer.  Now, whether it was true
    or not (more below), it was definitely the accepted wisdom of the time.

> or that yeast do not ferment sucrose happily.
> These same people seem to not understand that
> those "complex carbohydrates", like pasta, convert
> into sugar ( but not sucrose) in the body such that
> a small serving of pasta is equivalent to eating 1/4 to
> 1/2 cup of sugar.
[...and on and on about carbs and athletes...]
As the saying goes, "merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic
verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative."

For an example of the thinking of the time, here's an item from a common
book in homebrew shops in the 70's, _The_Art_of_Making_Beer_, by Stanley
F. Anderson with Raymond Hull, copyright 1971:
    "What happens if you do use cane sugar for beer?  The yeast will
    produce an enzyme called invertase that eventually inverts the sugar
    and allows fermentation to proceed.  But for various reasons this
    process leaves a slightly sour after-taste that cannot be eliminated
    from the beer.  This sourness is one of the most common faults in home-
    brewed beer."
Anderson was(?is?) Canadian.  This writing is not seminal, but it certainly
precedes Charlie P's.  You can find the same idea, "table sugar = cidery
taste", in all books of the period that bothered to discuss the question
of using table sugar.

As to whether table sugar actually does produce more of a cidery/sour
taste, you've got a handful of factors to consider before you can evaluate
the belief of that time.  Everyone was certainly brewing away like crazy,
and tasting and comparing every chance they got, although there was a lot
that was unknown and there were many wrong guesses.

At an early AHA annual conference (I think it was 1982), Michael Lewis (UC
Davis) commented on this matter of cidery beer and the power of suggestion
when tasting.  Minor brewing faults were common, and so the comments in a
tasting could feed on one another, from an initial comment of "There's a
bit of a, well, I don't know, a cider taste or something here" proceeding
after a few stages to "Yup, it's cidery as hell."

Keep in mind that we were working with ingredients that sometimes had shady
backgrounds, and generally very little information about them.  Almost all
brewers were doing extract.  The yeasts were not necessarily fresh, and
especially were not particularly clean.  Recipes were different--it was not
uncommon to have a recipe with several pounds of sugar in a 5-gallon
batch.

So this drives Fred's question down a couple of separate paths:
  1 Was there a good reason initially for the bias against table sugar?
  2 Is there any reason for that bias to remain?

To answer (1) you'd have to try a 70's-style recipe.  Say for 5 gallons,
use 3-4 lb of dry malt extract.  After the boil split the batch and add
1.5 lb of corn sugar to one half, 1.5 lb of table sugar to the other half.
Do everything else the same for the two half-batches and compare the re-
sults.  (To be more accurate, you'd need to use a starter made up from an
old packet of fair-quality dry yeast and hop pellets from a packet opened
and left in a permeable bag at room temp a week or so before brewing.:)

It may be that the "cidery taste" is purely the sort of constructed legend
to which Lewis alluded.  But I think not; I think it is likely part legend
and partly the result of using such large amounts of sugar, possibly
coupled with using marginal yeasts.  Note, by the way, that you can't
extrapolate from a baking yeast to a brewing yeast here; the characteristics
of the yeast are part of the puzzle.

As to (2), whether the bias makes any sense any more, let's first do the
experiment for (1).  If the result is negative, we're done; if it's
positive we do a similar experiment but with much smaller amount of sugar
(like the priming amount) and taste double-blind and very carefully.
That--rather than any dextrorotation or levorotation or other rotation of
historical facts--will give us something to work with in debunking the
table-sugar myth (if indeed it is a myth).
- ---
Dick Dunn          rcd at talisman.com          Hygiene, Colorado  USA


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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 08:41:10 +0000
From: Jeff Porterfield <jporterf at erols.com>
Subject: Strange question

Here's a strange one for to collective to consider.  Can anyone 
recommend a beer to go with Italian food?  We recently tried a Framboise 
lambic with some lobster ravioli in Alfredo sauce and it was a delicious 
match.  However, I think that it would be overwhelmed by something like 
lasagna or spaghetti.  What say you?

Also, I've never heard of an Italian beer.  Are there any?

Just wondering.

Jeff Porterfield
Columbia, MD


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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 09:15:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Joe Rolfe <onbc at shore.net>
Subject: Re: C*****TEST

> Joe Powers  of Siebel answered:
One key phrase tho...before you do a blanket endorsement

<SNIP>
> TWENTY-FIRST CENTURE.  THE TEST, THOUGH, DOES REQUIRE SOME INTERPRETATION
> OF THE RESULTS.  ..........

Do not forget who you are getting the info from, people who support
large brewers(larger than 5/10 gal), who brew the same beers day in and day
out. 

Like I said - it is a great idea, small volumes needed, and you will get 
a good idea if it done.  Back to the last sentence of Dr. Joe Powers test.
For those of us brewing a different beer every brew, you will need to 
really work on the interpretation part....


Joe Rolfe


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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 09:21:59 -0400
From: Wheeler <wheeler at netaxs.com>
Subject: chunky lager


Help, I'm suffering from chunky lager.

Having recently found a small frig at a yard sale I am attempting to make
my first lager. I decided to try making a Munich Helles. I made six gallons
of wort which sat in a glass primary for a week at 45F-50F, then
transferred five gallons of that to a cornie keg and the rest into two 1/2
gallon glass bottles. The Helles has been at 35F-37F for three weeks. After
starting with a S.G. of 1.048 it has slowly dropped to 1.018 and is still
making a fair amount of CO2 so without a more definitive test for the
remaining sugars I would guess that it still has further to go.  What is
confusing to me is that both of the 1/2 gallon bottles have cleared while
the keg is cloudy with large yeast chunks. Why would they be different? The
Helles in the cornie keg and the Helles in the bottles tastes the same and
have both dropped to the same gravity the only difference is that the beer
in the cornie keg has those large chunks of what I hope is yeast floating
in suspension whenever I pull a sample.

Will the cornie keg eventually clear? Is it normal for a lager to take this
long?  Are the yeast chunks really yeast? All ideas or opinions are welcomed.


Red Wheeler
in Blue Bell, PA
http://netaxs.com/~wheeler

"too disoriented to know how far that is from Jeff, same continent just
somewhere down and to the right an inch or two"



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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 10:02:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Murman <smurman at best.com>
Subject: Re: Kraeusening,


The volume of wort (speise) to add when kreusening (or kraeusening, or
 ...) can be easily calculated and programmed into a spreadsheet.  No
tables, approximations, etc. are necessary.  I have a page that
describes the formulas in detail,
http://www.best.com/~smurman/zymurgy/kreusen.html

 -SM-


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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 14:58:00 -0400
From: Richard_R_Gontarek at sbphrd.com
Subject: Edinburgh/London Pubs & Breweries

I am headed off to Edinburgh, Scotland for a meeting next week, and I'd
love to hear from anyone who has any notable pub/brewery recommendations.
Also, the week after that, we'll be in London for a few days, and I'd
appreciate hearing from anyone with any recommendations for London as well.

Private email is fine. Many thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Rick Gontarek
Owner/Brewmaster of The Major Groove Picobrewery
Trappe, PA
email: Richard_R_Gontarek at sbphrd.com




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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 17:15:09 -0500
From: "Rob Jones" <robjones at pathcom.com>
Subject: Fw: Life IS a permanent emergency after all

Forwarded for a friend in need.

Contact Si if you can help. He's in the East-end of Toronto, Canada.

- -----Original Message-----
From: Si Cowe <sicowe at idirect.com>
Date: June 11, 1999 1:04 PM
Subject: Life IS a permanent emergency after all


>URGENT
>
>One of my 6 self contained steam jacketed 20 gallon standing pilot Escan
>GL-20 kettles is dead. RIP. The jacket burst after it caught fire while I
>was away fishin'. God's punishment for enjoying yourself. To repair is a
>huge job - back to the factory, take a guy off the production line, strip,
>reweld, rebuild, pressure inspection, gas inspection, certification,
>blah-di-blah etc.
>
>So anyone know of a previously enjoyed unit around? Or something similar?
>
>Yours in desperation,
>
>Si
>
>



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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 18:34:08 -0600
From: Teutonic Brewer <claassen at swcp.com>
Subject: foil packaged hops, keg blowoff valve?

Hi All,

When hops plugs are vacuum packed in the yellow foil (like the Saazer that
I just bought from the local homebrew store), can they be kept at room
temperature?  I know you lose about 50% of the alpha acids per six months
at room temperature, but do these foil packs circumvent the need to keep
them in the freezer since (I assume) there's essentially no oxygen inside
the package before I open it?

I'd like to krausen my beer at the same time that I rack it to the C keg,
but a 15% volume of krausen can produce excess carbonation.  Does anyone
know of a way to fit a 10 to 15psi blow off valve to a C keg so it can vent
the excess pressure?  Maybe a gas fitting with a short piece of air hose to
some kind of relief valve?  If so, what kind of valve should I be looking for?

TIA!

Paul Claassen (Teutonic Brewer)
Albuquerque, Chile Republic of New Mexico



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Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 20:57:32 -0400
From: "Dave Whitman" <dwhitman at fast.net>
Subject: large yeast experiment - conclusions posted

I posted final results on storing ale and lager yeasts under DI H2O, 2% KHP,
2% NaCl to my website:

http://www.users.fast.net/~dwhitman/yeast/index.htm

Also included is data on 0.9% NaCl and 10% sucrose, although for shorter
time.

The data and conclusions are on the website, but here's the highlights:

Ale yeast is good for 6 months under water, KHP or NaCl.  No obvious
differences between the media in terms of survival, susceptability to
contamination.  KHP may give fewer RD mutants, or the difference may just be
noise.

The lager yeast was much less robust and it's probably only safe to keep
keep it for 2 months between reculture.  Clear differences were noted
between some of the media tried, with best performance from 2% KHP or 2%
NaCl.  DI water and isotonic 0.9% NaCl gave faster die off.

Although I don't have as much data as for the other media, 10% sucrose isn't
looking good.  Die off rate so far for both lager and ale is higher in 10%
sucrose than other media.

Mold and bacterial contamination was sort of an all or nothing thing.  After
months of opening and closing the vials, some were still pristine with only
yeast, while others were grossly contaminated with either bacteria or mold.
No signficant difference in contamination rate was noted between media.  It
appears that the stored yeast themselves can provide enough nutrients to
support reproduction of contaminants.

No difference in die off rate was noted between fresh lager yeast, and a
subculture grown out after >90% of the original culture had died.  This
suggests that no selection for water storage survivability seems to be
occuring (or at least that you'd need more cycles to see it).

- --
Dave Whitman
dwhitman at fast.net



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