---

	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:
  floating balls (Edward Doernberg)
  A mash pH experiment ("Nathaniel P. Lansing")
  plastic bottles vs. glass (Mike Foster)
  Exploding PET bottles (Rod Prather)
  German infusion step (Crossno)
  re: digital thermometer (Headduck)
  Sucking, yeast ("Glen Pannicke")
  beer and health (ensmingr)
  Beeston's Maris Otter ("Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies")
  mash-out (Prestoniam)
  Thanks for help with dark beer (SRNagley)
  DC Brewpubs (SRNagley)
  Sierra Nevada Summer beer request, and some observations ("Guy and Norine Gregory")
  Re: maris otter (Jeff Renner)
  Re: AHA/Zymurgy (phil sides jr)
  Re: maris otter (phil sides jr)
  Re: To suck or not to suck, that is my question. (phil sides jr)
  Back In The Land Of Ice ("Phil & Jill Yates")
  YAAAAAAHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!! ("Pat Babcock")
  No Tomorrow For Bret Morrow ("Phil & Jill Yates")
  suckers and blowers (Graham Sanders)
  kegging commercial beer (SRNagley)
  What? AGAIN? (Some Guy)


* Don't miss the 2000 AHA NHC in Livonia, MI 
* 6/22 through 6/24 http://hbd.org/miy2k

* All gave some, and some gave all. Remember those
* who have fallen in defense of their country today.

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


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


Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 19:56:50 +0800
From: Edward Doernberg <shevedd at q-net.net.au>
Subject: floating balls

in #3334 "Martin Brungard" <mabrungard at hotmail.com> writes

I checked with a couple of hollow plastic ball manufacturers and found that 
the effective specific gravity is about 0.25 for the balls they produce. 
That means the balls would float too high on the liquid surface, leaving too 
much of the liquid surface exposed to the atmosphere

(with much sniping)


if the balls are not heavy enough use more to push them down.

if three 1/2 the mass you want 2 layers of balls will mean the bottom layer
is where you want it and the top layer would slow air movement on the 9% you
quoted as not being covered.

Also if it wouldn't be seen as inappropriate coming from a non member of the
AHA I wold like to say that I wouldn't want a only mead issue of Zymurgy. Or
for that mater a issue on any single topic. I wold expect mostly beer (see
mission statement) with several articles on other subjects including mead
cider and maybe even chess in each issue.

All of one thing is boring.

Edward



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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 09:11:37 -0400
From: "Nathaniel P. Lansing" <delbrew at compuserve.com>
Subject: A mash pH experiment

Steve questioned if a congress mash with an unadjusted pH in distilled
water had any real-life bearing on brewing; the following is the results
of an experiment performed yesterday.
 100 grams of pilsner malt (DeWolf-Cosyns, lot #039100) was crushed
using a fixed gap JSP Maltmill.
 400 ml distilled water (prepared by steam distillation) was heated to
156 F. Malt was stirred in and allowed to settle after full hydration.
After 5 minutes a 10ml sample was withdrawn and cooled to 68 F.
pH was measured with a Kernco model 8514 meter calibrated at
4 pH and 7 pH at 68 F (instrument accuracy 0.01 =/- 0.01)
pH read 4.78. 
0.25 grams of calcium sulphate was stirred into the mash to bring
Ca++ ions to approximately 150 ppm, the mash was allowed to settle
and 10 ml of liquor withdrawn. pH meter was recalibrated and mash
liquor tested. pH was 5.68. Adjusting for temperature offset would
give a mash pH of 5.38 at mashing temperatures.

All equipment was rinsed with distilled water, pH meter recalibrated
and the experiment repeated. The distilled water mash produced
a pH of 4.82 on the second trial. Upon adding .25 grams of gypsum
the pH stabilized at 5.74 at 68 F, 5.44 at mash temperatures.

Conclusion: An extremely small mash responds to mash liquor
mineral content the same way a production mash responds to
mineral additions.

Th-th-th-that's all folks,
  N.P. Lansing



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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 09:39:13 -0400
From: Mike Foster <mike at asyoulikeit.org>
Subject: plastic bottles vs. glass

I just can't see putting beer in plastic. It gives it an off taste, in my
opinion. What other reason would keep all the comercial breweries from
switching to plastic? I know I tasted the difference in Coke when it went
from glass bottles to plastic bottles...

Now I'm not arguing that glass bottles are perfect, either. I had one of
my bottles explode on vacation one year, and missed putting out a dear
friend's eye by about 1 inch. I switched to kegs. No more bottles on
vacation, at any rate.
(the explosion occured when the sun shifted, and the case of beer that
was sitting in the shade became exposed to nice hot sunlight)

- -- 
Wolfger
http://www.asyoulikeit.org/wolfger

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal.
My strength lies solely in my tenacity. 
- -- Louis Pasteur


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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 09:06:14 -0300
From: Rod Prather <rodpr at iquest.net>
Subject: Exploding PET bottles

Dave Edwards ABOUT Exploding PET bottles

>While the strength of PET bottles may be true on paper, it is not quite so
>true in real life. 

I believe I have a data point for exploding PET bottles. 

A friend was building water rockets with 1 liter pet bottles by using 
a nozzle and launcher made of PVC tubing.  It was for his son's 
Cub Scout den.  He filled the bottle half 
full of water, put it on the launcher, pumped air into it with a 
bicycle pump and then pulled the release with a string.  

His neighbor, an engineer, decided to help him make it more efficient.  
the addition of a few well placed o-rings made it possible to effectively
seal the system.  They then proceeded to launch the rocket using the 
neighbors air compressor.  They launched several times using about 60 - 80  
PSI.  The last time they launched, it was with near 100 PSI and the bottle 
exploded as my friend was trying to get the stuck launcher to disengage.  
For about a week he wore a very reddened face, burned by the force of the 
explosion.  He was lucky that was all he got.  Incidentally the Cub Scout 
experiment was canceled. 

I'll bet that there are bursting force numbers on PET bottles.  Does anyone 
know what they are?

My biggest concern about PET bottles is that they probably stress 
and weaken with each expansion and contraction phase and bottles 
that have been previously used might be more likely to explode 
than new bottles.  

- -- 
Rod Prather
Indianapolis, Indiana


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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 09:15:40 -0500
From: Crossno <Crossno at tnns.net>
Subject: German infusion step

Hubert HangHoFer types:
" ...Quick note to single temperature infusion mashers:
Please note that the "mouthfeel-rest" is an additional step! - It's
always 
preceded by a -more or less involved- (...depending on the brewmaster
;-) 
step infusion schedule.

snip

doing looooong mash-schedules in Salzburg, Austria"

First a confession, time generally forces me to do shorter or even the
dreaded overnight/day mash.  But on the rare occasion I get the chance
to multi-step or decoction I like to try different things.  What is your
looooong mash-schedule?  What is the German 2 hour schedule?

Thanks,
Glyn Crossno
Estill Springs,  TN

PS. HangHoFer - Really and Truely?
- -- 
 Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.


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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 11:27:34 EDT
From: Headduck at aol.com
Subject: re: digital thermometer 

Hal wrote:
    Just got back from LOWE'S, roaming
through the greenhouse area and there in with
the temp. probes was a digital therm. with a
SS probe with 3' of SS braided cable going
to a nice set up, comes with a timer to count
down those min. of mashing. All for $12.oo.
Not bad !!!
        
I just bought one of these thermometers and though it looks like a great 
thing, it doesn't work.  Moisture from the mash gets into the thermocouple 
and shorts it out, resulting in an incorrect temperature reading.  I am 
thinking of coating the braided cable with silicone and seeing if it will 
keep the moisture out, but haven't tried it yet.

Joe Yoder 
Lawrence, KS


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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 11:48:59 -0400
From: "Glen Pannicke" <glen at pannicke.net>
Subject: Sucking, yeast

In HBD #3336:

onald La Borde wrote of sucking vs. not -

>* I use a 3/8 od by 3/36 id vinyl hose about 5 or 6 feet long.  I
>put the small  end cap from a racking cane onto the end of the tubing.  Now
>I do not have that problem with the bubble appearing at the racking cane
>junction because I have no racking cane.

The bubble at the junction used to bother the &*#% at  out of me, but for those
who can't live without the cane, just pinch the hose shut for a second right
at the junction and then resume flow, it will dissapear.  If it keeps
recurring there's a leak at the junction which can be fixed with a simple
worm clamp around the hose.  I thought that kind of stuff only bothered me
;-)

Dalibor Jurina had some yeast culturing questions -

>... sanitize the container, then flame the mouth of the starter vessel
with a butane lighter... (how to flame the mouth of the starter)?

Wipe the neck with an alcohol pad or cotton ball containing 70% ethanol or
isopropyl alcohol and quickly run a lighter flame around the surface you
just wiped.

>refrigerate yeast culture ( refrigerate is under 32 F or above)?

Above 32 F.  You don't want to freeze unless the yeast is dry and pressed or
has been treated with glycerine.  It will rupture the cell membrane.

>gelatinized medium or agar (what is agar)?

A compound used to solidify liquid media (about 15 - 20g/L will work).  Can
be found in chemical supply, Asian food markets and health food stores.
Gelatin has been substituted in a pinch, but you may have to experiment with
the concentration.  Anyone?  Anyone?

> to make a starter (for 5 gal batch) from slants I need to make a
>microstarter 75 ml and then after few days and then pour the microstarter
>to starter (500 ml). The question is, if I want to make a starter for 50
gal
> batch
> I simple make pour 500 ml starter in larger vessel with 1,5 gal wort
>and make "macro starter" or not?

The basic principle is to innoculate a small volume of wort and step up the
volume successively by a predetermined factor (I prefer a 10X scale-up)
until you reach the proper volume to pitch into your wort that will give you
a specified concentration in cells/ml.  The commercial standard is about 6
million cells/ml.  G. Fix states that a good rate is around 1 - 2 million
cells/ml per degree Plato of wort for lagers and half that rate for ales.
He has also estimated that 1 ml of yeast solids (thick yeast slurry )
contains about 4.5 billion cells.  You'll have to do the math for yourself
and determine what is right for your setup.





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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 12:10:45 -0400
From: ensmingr at twcny.rr.com
Subject: beer and health

A recent paper from the "British Medical Journal" may interest readers
of the HBD. The conclusions are quoted below. The full text is available
at: http://www.bmj.com/content/vol320/issue7246/

"In this study of beer drinkers, the lowest risk of myocardial
infarction was found among men who drank Almost daily or daily and who
drank 4-9 l of beer a week. There was a suggestion that the protective
effect was lost in men who drank twice a day or more. This is similar to
results of studies of other beverages."

"It is unlikely that our results are due to bias or confounding. This
was a population based study with highly complete recruitment of
incident cases through a myocardial infarction register in a well
defined population and with good response rate in controls randomly
selected from the population  register. Questions on average consumption
usually lead to underestimation of the real intake, but the ranking of
subjects in terms of long term average intake is reasonably reliable.
Restricting the analysis to exclusive beer drinkers eliminated potential
confounding by other beverages. It is unlikely that cases and controls
answered questions differently; a cohort study in Bavaria, another beer
drinking region, produced similar findings. These results support the
view that the protective effect of alcohol intake is due to ethanol
rather than to specific substances present in different types of
beverages."

Cheerio!
Peter A. Ensminger
Syracuse, NY
just call me email: ensmingr at twcny.rr.com




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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 10:36:17 -0600
From: "Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies" <orders at paddockwood.com>
Subject: Beeston's Maris Otter

Pete (Pete.Czerpak at siigroup.com) asks which supplier we use for Maris Otter.

Pete, we used to stock Munton's Maris Otter, but now carry Beeston's.

For a brief overview of Maris Otter check out
http://www.breworld.com/malt/maris.html

We are extremely impressed with the quality of Beeston's floor malted Maris
Otter.  Floor malting provides consistency of modification, which is
important for homebrewers since we brew in such small lots, we usually do
not have the ability nor resources to blend different batches to acheive
consistent, repeatable results in our mashes. For more on the advantages of
floor malting check out http://www.breworld.com/The_Grist/9604/floormlt.html

The Beeston's malt is also extremely clean- all of their malt has been
impressive.

While we believe the Beeston's floor malted Maris Otter to be the finest ale
malt available in the world, note that it is not always appropriate. For
example, if one were to brew a Bass Pale Ale clone, a relatively bland but
clean ale, Maris Otter would give too much depth of malt character.
Likewise, in an IPA it would be too much because of the higher gravity.  But
it would be wonderful in an Barleywine where depth of malt character is
important, and in Ordinary Bitters and Milds where you need  full flavoured
malt to compensate for the lower gravity.

We use the Maris Otter in our Milds, Bitters and Pales.  It's wonderful to
be able to brew a light beer like a Light Mild (3.5%) and still have good
depth of malt flavour.

hope this is useful!


Stephen Ross -- "Vitae sine cerevisiae sugant."
______________________________________________
Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies, Saskatoon, SK
orders at paddockwood.com  www.paddockwood.com



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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 14:35:15 EDT
From: Prestoniam at aol.com
Subject: mash-out

I am presently doing the oven temp control mash at 122/152/168, and it 
workairly well.
However, since so many seem to be using the rubbermaid cooler as an 
mash/lauter tun that seems like a better or more practical method. I use the 
bucket in a bucket lauter now. My question is, how do you guys who use the 
cooler do a mash-out?  Or do you?
     Secondly, when you take the spigot out of the cooler, what do you repace 
it with so the manifold can be internally attached and dismantled for 
cleaning?


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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 16:15:26 EDT
From: SRNagley at aol.com
Subject: Thanks for help with dark beer


Fellow HBDers,

First off, I'd like to thank the people who responded to my
inquiry of a month or more ago about brewing a dark color
beer with as little flavor as possible for my golf buddies.
Thanks go to  Bill Frazier, Kevin Tenbrink, Marc Sedam, Nathan
Kanous, Tidmarsh Major, Lou Heavner, Mathew Comstock, Paul
Claasen, JGorman, and the ubiquitous Jeff Renner (who of course
suggested a CAP - I promise, Jeff, I will soon brew one but
probably with flaked maize). I got some very interesting
responses, including carmelizing some sugar for the color, but
decided to go with a little crystal and 1/4 lb of CaraFa I
to give the desired color.

The beer slugs...er tasting panel was very complimentary, but
then again they were drinking free beer. I don't think I swayed
anyone from ordering their Coor's Light at the 19th hole but
it was good to see them at least try it and not spit it out.
I enjoyed the challenge and the beer to boot. Thanks again.

Steve Nagley
Old Forge, Pa


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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 16:23:56 EDT
From: SRNagley at aol.com
Subject: DC Brewpubs

Fellow HBDers,

It always seems that as I begin to formulate a question for the
group, someone else poses the same or something similar. I am
going on a beer crawl to NYC next week and lo and behold
HBDers start commenting on their favorite places (and places to
avoid). Special cudos goes to the Malted Barley Appreciation
Society for their web page devoted to just the NYC beer scene.

I'm going to be in the Wash, DC area at the end of June and
would be interested in any recomendations for Brew pubs. I've
searched Pubcrawler and come up with several Capitol City
locations and a John Harvard's Brew House (there is another
Cap City location in Arlington where I'll actually be staying)
I believe these are francise outfits but can anyone give a
thumbs-up or down for any of these places. There is also a place
called the District ChopHouse & brewery. The reviews were not
always flattering so any help from HBDers would be welcome.
I'll be visiting with my family, taking the kids to the usual tourist places
so I'm not on the 'Brewpub tour of DC' but I'm sure I can squeeze 
in a lunch or dinner at one or two places.

Thanks,
Steve Nagley
Old Forge, Pa



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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 13:33:33 -0700
From: "Guy and Norine Gregory" <guyg at icehouse.net>
Subject: Sierra Nevada Summer beer request, and some observations

Fellow brewers:

I just had a Sierra Nevada Summerfest Lager...wow, what a wonderful beer,
and I've racked my brain and tastebuds trying to figure out the hop.  Spicy,
bitter, and perfectly balanced with the dry malt profile.  I didn't have a
glass, so I couldn't judge the color, but wow, I want to clone (or at least
close with) this beer.  Does anyone know what the ingredients might be?

Siphon starting:

If you think you've contaminated a batch blowing through the carboy cap,
you're fooling yourself.  Either blow, not spit, but blow through the cap,
or otherwise replace every bit of plastic in your brewhouse.  I had a runin
with a blowoff hose a few years ago, I went to glass, no problem.

AHA

New AHA folks, keep it up.  Please make it relevant, and maybe I'll join!

Thanks.

Guy Gregory
Lightining Creek Home Brewery
Spokane, WA
Rye lager time!!!




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Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 15:31:34 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Re: maris otter

"Czerpak, Pete" <Pete.Czerpak at siigroup.com> wrote
>
>A few days ago I asked a question about maris Otter.  I have found that
>there are definitely a few suppliers of it.  Muntons, Hugh Baird, Beestons,
>and i think that may be all that I have found for US available varieties.

You forgot Crisp.  I think they were the first ones to send it here.  G W
Kent of right here in Ann Arbor import and distribute it.  (Owners Randy
and Chantel pay me large amounts of money to mention this).  Others may as
well.  (Import it, I mean, not pay me large amounts of money.  Not that I'd
turn it down.)

Jeff

 -=-=-=-=-
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, c/o nerenner at umich.edu
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943. 




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Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 01:48:39 -0400
From: phil sides jr <hopsock.geo at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AHA/Zymurgy

Bill_Rehm at eFunds.Com writes:

>This whole AHA/Zymurgy discussion is nuts!  If the magazine sucks that
bad
>why do you keep getting it?  You all seem to know more than they do
about
>running a large scale home brewing magazine and organization.  I agree
that
>BT may have been a better magazine, but hey it's gone now (why it
didn't
>survive and Zymurgy does I don't know?).  Just so you all know what my
>point of view is, I don't do mead (that's my wifes cup of tea), but I
do
>use honey in many of the beers I brew.

>So just relax, where I am $33 will hardly get you 2 cases of Miller and
a
>bag of corn chips!

My sentiments exactly...  Bill, I know you speak for more than a few of
us.

Phil Sides, Jr.
Concord, NH
- --
F u cn rd ths u cnt spl wrth a dm!



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Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 02:03:36 -0400
From: phil sides jr <hopsock.geo at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: maris otter

"Czerpak, Pete" <Pete.Czerpak at siigroup.com> asks:

>A few days ago I asked a question about maris Otter.  I have found that

>there are definitely a few suppliers of it.  Muntons, Hugh Baird,
Beestons,
>and i think that may be all that I have found for US available
varieties.

>Could anybody comment on their happiness with any of them?  I got
muntons
>but only cause I didn't realize there were other brands to try for - I
would
>have asked for Hugh Baird if I had known since I seem to recall more
folks
>using this one.  people refer to using maris otter in a number of HBD
posted
>recipes - which one did you use, did you like it, how consistant is
it??

I am a long-time Maris Otter user and have tried malt from several
maltsters.  I do not brew English style beers with any other base malt.
My order of preference is:

#1 - Crisp or Beeston
#2 - Hugh Baird
#3 - Munton's

You will find the flavor profile of these malts drastically different
from American two-row or even the Munton's standard (non Maris Otter)
two-row.  They all make good beer, but I do not *think* the Munton's is
floor malted.  It looks quite different in color and composition
(dustiness) compared to products from the other maltsters.  If you get a
chance, also try Pipkin and Halcyon.  They are both similar in color and
performance/extract but again, a little different in the flavor.  All of
these malts have huge, beautifully plump kernels.

Hugh Baird is probably slightly easier to find in homebrew shops than
the Crisp or Beeston.  That reminds me, my source for Beeston is going
out of business at the end of June :-(

Phil Sides, Jr.
Concord, NH
- --
F u cn rd ths u cnt spl wrth a dm!



__________________________________________________
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Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 02:41:33 -0400
From: phil sides jr <hopsock.geo at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: To suck or not to suck, that is my question.

"patrick finerty jr." <zinc at finerty.net> wrote:

>disclaimer: i make 2.6 million dollars for each auto-siphon sold.

But that's only Canadian dollars, right Patrick? *grin*

Phil Sides, Jr.
Concord, NH
- --
F u cn rd ths u cnt spl wrth a dm!



__________________________________________________
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Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 21:59:39 +1000
From: "Phil & Jill Yates" <yates at acenet.com.au>
Subject: Back In The Land Of Ice

I'm not talking about ice beer here, I'm talking about real ice!
After basking in tropical warmth and sunshine for the past week in the
Whitsunday Islands, we have returned to the Southern Highlands tonight to
find it is snowing. This would be no big deal to our USA brethren but in
Australia this is an outrage! Wes Smith never warned me about this.
How is one to ride his Norton dressed in nothing but his jocks (which is my
practise) in weather like this?

First thing I did was to race into the garage and check my two fermenters of
wort into which I had pitched the Ayinger yeast just before we left home.
Found it fermenting nicely at about 10C (or 50F - just to rub it in for Jeff
Renner). Thankfully the chest freezers also act as insulators. You have to
understand I have never brewed in temperatures such as this. Usually in
Australia we are trying to get the heat out of the brewhouse, not put it in.
I am not looking forward to my obligatory motorcycle ride around Burradoo at
5.00am tomorrow morning. Which other Barons have to endure this? Wes Smith,
you have a lot to answer for!!

But forgetting the cold for a moment (Richard Pass would tell me I am a big
girl), I wanted to report on beer and troughs found on Queensland's tropical
islands. I have to mention troughs (James Binkowski would want to know),
there weren't any. All replaced with modern American "do it in the hand
basin style" Fowler high density vitreous china, to be precise.

And the beer? Well not a lot to report on here. A few years back I was
impressed by an extraordinarily large range of beers from everywhere that
could be had. But most of these have disappeared and we were back to having
to drink bland beer from the big two. Not totally though. Bottled Coopers
was found in one bar and one restaurant had Stella Artois on tap, along with
James Squire Amber Ale. First time I have actually tried either of these
beers in draught form.

We had a great holiday but from a beer point of view it's good to be home.
I'm glad to see the pussy cat
(I mention this for Dave Humes)
I'm glad to be peeing in real toilets
(I mention this for James)
But most of all
I'm bloody glad to be drinking a homebrew!

Can't say I am looking forward to that ride in the morning but I am going to
make sure Wes comes with me as pillion, wearing nothing but his jocks and
hunting cap!

Cheers
Phil





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Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 00:37:17 -0400
From: "Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: YAAAAAAHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!

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

Oh, I'm back in the brewery again!
  Back where a paddle's your friend!
Oh, I'm back in the brewery again!

I brewed today in my newly recombobulated garage brewery. And, despite all
the cursing, I enjoyed it! And now: a reading from the book of calamities...

First, my newly devised motorized grain mill WORKS. But (there's always one,
isn't there?), the exit chute slope isn't quite as fast as it need be. I had
to continuously rap on the side of the chute assembly to keep the grain from
building up under the mill. When it would do so, the grain in the mill
rollers would continuously recirculate and become flour. The dust from the
contraption was much less than I had expected, so I removed the cover from
it. This allows me to help the milled grain if I have to, but it also
removes what I believe to have been the cause for the slope being too slow.

I decided to try the technique I'd read about, adding hops to the mash. In
went 2 oz of Cascades. Then, once I had mashed in, I went to grab my gallon
of iodophor. Like an idiot, I grabbed it by the pump rather than the handle.
Well, apparently iodophor can do weird things to plastic, or this was an
accident waiting to happen. The threaded portion of the neck was cracked,
and the bottle bounced once spraying iodophor on a few choice things. That
and losing a few ounces of the precious stuff. Sigh.

Anyway, I got over that quickly enough, dispensed the necessary quantity to
two 'boys and one bucket, and sanitized the aerator, blow-off hoses, and
fermenters. What's that? No flow from the recirc in the mashtun? DOH!

With all the flour from the over-milled grain, the grain bed regularly made
itself impermeable to the liquor. Dough-in took MUCH longer than normal, and
raising to saccharification was no picnic. On the plus side, the tun
absolutely held temperatures rock-solid (like the grain bed...) during the
mash.

After having underlet the grain multitudinous times to clear the pump from
all the bypass due to the constant bed cutting (sigh), the mash tun was
pretty full by mashout time. The rise to mashout went well, and the
temperature in the HLT was quickly raised to 190 to support the sparge.
The sparge went so well, I was able to go in and have dinner with the
family whilst it commenced. 14.25 gallons of bitter wort were collected in
the kettle. This was boiled down to 10.5 gallons, cooled through my trusty
old counter flow chiller to two 5 gallon fermenters, and each pitched with
one of the starters I had been stepping up since November last. And
cleanup didn't take forever after, either, since I was able to do much of
it while the boil was happily going about its business.

Anyway, within about five minutes of pitching, the one yeast, a starter made
from the bottle dregs of a Kalamazoo Brewing Company's Two Hearted Ale,
looked like it was already forming flotillas of colonies on the surface of
the wort, and the other, 1056, was already putting positive pressure on the
water in the blow off bucket. It is interesting to note the differences
between the two, outwardly, as well. The batch pitched with 1056 is very
turbid, while that with the THA yeast seems much clearer.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing "the storm in the bottle" again. It's
been a while. Ah! My clothes still smell of the malt, water and hops! Mmmmm!

Anyway, time for sleep. The morning will be coming 'round a lot earlier than
it might seem...

 -
See ya!

Pat Babcock in SE Michigan         pbabcock at hbd.com
Home Brew Digest Janitor           janitor@hbd.org
HBD Web Site                       http://hbd.org
The Home Brew Page                 http://hbd.org/pbabcock
   "Just a cyber-shadow of his former brewing self..."




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Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 07:02:28 +1000
From: "Phil & Jill Yates" <yates at acenet.com.au>
Subject: No Tomorrow For Bret Morrow

Should young Bret ever fancy himself on a visit to the FREEZING lands of
Burradoo (no way am I going out on that motorbike this morning!!) I fear it
will be the end of him.
He continues with insults:
>I meant to say 90 kilograms and 90 score old ;-)

For the record, Jill is 47 kg and clocked up age thirty a couple of years
ago. Her girlfriends are around the same. Her sister Helen and her
girlfriends are around eight years younger.

They look a dainty bunch around the billiard table but no way would I be
hurling any insults at them. I just serve up the rice lager and keep my
mouth shut. I've seen enough of the wrong end of that "cat of nine tails"
not to say anything silly in front of ten or so feisty women.

So Bret, come on over and speak your mind. Just give me five minutes head
start on the motor bike before you do.
But don't say I didn't warn you. I'd rather crawl down a bull ant's nest
than give cheek to the ladies of the billiard room.

Cheers
Phil





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Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 11:26:13 +1000
From: Graham Sanders <GrahamS at bsa.qld.gov.au>
Subject: suckers and blowers


G'day all

I must say all this talk about whether you are a sucker or blower has got
'she who must be obeyed' in quite a spin.  I keep telling her its about
brewing and she keeps saying "whats her real name".

Anyway, we down here dont use glass carboys a lot.  In fact hardly at all.

So, why dont you lot just put a tap on the bottom, problem solved.  You have
the technology, you have the means.  Why doesn't someone just make one with
a tap thread: they would make a killing.                  

Just a thought. - Now, back to SWMBO and that sucking (or is it blowing). 

Shout

Graham Sanders


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Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 23:37:37 EDT
From: SRNagley at aol.com
Subject: kegging commercial beer

Greetings

I'm planning a family party in a few weeks and the recent mention
of Genessee Cream Ale brought back memories from my youth
when it was a favorite among myself and friends.

Knowing that my homebrew probably won't go over very well with
this crowd (actually there won't be that many beer drinkers there
anyway) I was thinking of getting 1/4 keg of Genny Cream. Then
I thought that maybe I could make it even more worthwhile - get
a half keg and put any remaining brew into my own cornies. Has
anyone done this? I mean, it's prety much what they do at brewpubs 
anyway when you get a growler to go. If it's feasible are there any 
things I should know? If I'm unable to get a commercial tap for the keg 
could I pump the beer into my cornies with the rented air pump tap? 
I would immediately purge any air and repressurize my keg. Would 
I need to absolutely keep the keg refrigerated? (I have limited cooler 
space) 

This idea has importance to me as I haven't found enough time to brew  
lately and I may not have a sufficient supply of homebrew to last the 
summer. 

Any help from the group would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Steve Nagley
Old Forge, Pa


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Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 00:00:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Some Guy <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: What? AGAIN?

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

Well, like the spritely young stud on his wedding night, I found it within
myself to do it twice. Two more fermenters are graced by the presence of
my attempt at Olde Detroit Amber Ale, once known during the late summer
and early fall simply as "Dragon's Breath"; brewed by the Head Brewer
(Fred Scheer) of the Frankenmuth brewery before the building's roof made
its exodus to Oz.

Today's adventure went MUCH better than the rewetting of the feet. Without
the upper plate on the grain chute, the grain can be easily scooped into
the bucket. Not as "unattended" as I had hoped to make the setup, but I
can always redesign the escapement to have a greater incline.

Mashed in at 122'F (50'C) by underletting with 134'F water into the roughy
65'F grain. Quickly stepped up to 144'F (62'C) and held for 20
minutes. And the pump stuck. BUT - I was ready for it this time! I quick
backflush, and off she went! Steps to 154'F (68'C) for 10 and 162'F
(72'C) for 20 went like clockwork. Stepping to 172'F (78'C) was another
walk-in-the-park, and the sparge using 180'F hot liquor kept the grain bed
at a comfortable 172'F the whole time. 

Oddly, though: the runnings lost therir sugar content about two gallons
earlier than anticipated. The gravity was high enough that topping up to
the expected volume yielded what ProMash had calculated for the pre-boil
gravity. There was nothing peculiar about the sparge - just a whole lot
more efficient that I had anticipated!

Anyway, the boil was a thing of beauty. Once it finished its 90 minute
course, there was barely eight gallons remaining in the kettle. Topped up
to 10, recirculated to ensure mixing, then counterflow chilled into two
five gallon ferementers. 

That's four full fermeneters of beer this weekend. Not bad for a
restart (and only 11 more empties left in the basement. Hmmmm...  Nah! A
third day of brewing would risk the loss of spousal approval...)

Ok. I'll stop writing about session my revived brewing. Just that I'm
so... So... Happy. 

- -- 
 -
See ya!

Pat Babcock in SE Michigan         pbabcock at hbd.com
Home Brew Digest Janitor           janitor@hbd.org
HBD Web Site                       http://hbd.org
The Home Brew Page                 http://hbd.org/pbabcock
           "The Man From Plaid Returns!"



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