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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Filtering (Alan Davies)
  Keg Welding->Where to put the tap? ("Bernd Neumann")
  not the plastic debate again! (Scott Morgan - Sun On-Line Telesales Representative)
  Spooky Brew 2000 results ("Jim Hodge")
  PBW, Yeast Freshness (Christopher Farley)
  Re: Malto-dextrin and amylase enzyme (David Lamotte)
  re: Keg cutting .../Recipes/DME-SG ("Stephen Alexander")
  PBW ("Mark Tumarkin")
  Re: Aireation with Venturi tube ("J. Doug Brown")
  How to clean copper coil jockey box ? (Rick Pauly)
  Rice (Jeff Renner)
  RE:Aireation with Venturi tube ("Walter H. Lewis III")
  Immersion Chillin' ("Charles R. Stewart")
  Venturi tube ("Bev D. Blackwood II")
  White Labs WLP830 Faillure ("Charles R. Stewart")
  Advice Heeded/All-Grain Easier Now (cmmundt)
  Venturi aeration (David Harsh)
  Re: SG to Alcohol (Demonick)
  pacman yeast characteristics, belgian specialties ("Czerpak, Pete")
  RE: stuck stout and being a brew wimp ("Brian Lundeen")
  Pitchable Wyeast--lag time. ("Richard B. Dulany Jr.")
  Re: SG to Alcoho- Digest #3466 (October 31, 2000) ("Dick Nelson")
  Caution on PVC Bulkhead fittings (John Palmer)
  Ten Gallon All-Grain Gott Trials (Ballsacius)
  Cask Conditioning (Hop_Head)
  plastic ("Sean Richens")
  White Labs (Mjbrewit)
  malto-dextrin ("Sean Richens")
  plastics anyone ? ("Stephen Alexander")
  re: Gleanings from the field on ready to pitch yeasts. ("lauritsm")
  Enzyme Kinetics - part 0 ("Stephen Alexander")


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 16:26:47 +1100
From: Alan Davies <afjc at cnl.com.au>
Subject: Filtering

Would the people who answered my request on beer filtering approx. 4
months ago please resubmit. My hard drive crashed and I lost all
information.

Thanking you in anticipation.
Alan Davies.



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 05:52:22 GMT
From: "Bernd Neumann" <homebrewz at hotmail.com>
Subject: Keg Welding->Where to put the tap?


Brewsters:

I have a stainless 1/2 keg, and a 1/2" stainless coupling and thought I was 
all ready to head out to the local welder to have the to two parts joined in 
welded matrimony when a brewing friend informed me of the two locations for 
the spigot. One being just above the chime for using a false bottom with 
"plumbing" on the top running to the spigot. The other possibility is having 
the spigot on the actual bottom of the keg and just using a false bottom 
with no "plumbing".

I was wondering what the best way to go is. They both seem pretty 
reasonable, except with the spigot on the bottom, there is no tubing to mess 
with inside of the keg.

Posts or private e-mail is fine. If there is a good archive for this 
question, then please point me in the right direction.

Thanks!,
"Bernie" Bernd  Neumann
KB2EBE
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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 17:02:30 +1100 (EST)
From: Scott Morgan - Sun On-Line Telesales Representative <Scott.Morgan at aus.sun.com>
Subject: not the plastic debate again!


Cant believe the anti-plastic brewing debate has reared its ugly head again.

Personally I cannot believe people brew in glass...hot wort, slippery glass 
and a very small hole to clean with.

I vote also for resurection of the HSA arguements to accompany this line of 
discussion....

Scotty





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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 00:17:04 -0600
From: "Jim Hodge" <jdhodge at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Spooky Brew 2000 results

The results of Spooky Brew 2000 are now posted on the web at:
http://home.att.net/~jdhodge/Win2000.html

Jim Hodge
Organizer, Spooky Brew Review 2000
Chicago Beer Society
6515 N. Springfield Ave.
Lincolnwood, IL  60712
847-679-3829:  voice
847-329-8691: fax
http://www.chibeer.org



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 00:33:20 -0600 (CST)
From: Christopher Farley <chris at northernbrewer.com>
Subject: PBW, Yeast Freshness

> From: Danny Breidenbach <dbreiden at math.purdue.edu>
> Subject: Where to get PBW
> 
> Where does one get PBW?  I'm supply shop challenged, and Northern Brewer
> doesn't show it in their catalog.  

<commercial-intrusion class="apology">
   This situation is being rectified posthaste!
</commercial-intrusion>


> From: "Dan Diana" <dands at ftconnect.com>
> Subject: Gleanings from the field on ready to pitch yeasts
> 
>     In the first case, I had a White Labs WLP830 culture that was well
> within its Best Before date of 11/15/00. Given how close I was to this date,
> I chose to start the culture in 500g of a 1050 OG wort from a previous batch
> that I brewed. In short, the culture was dead even after two days of stand
> time at room temperature. Has anyone else had this type of issue? I doubt it
> was a procedural issue as this starter technique has been successful on
> about 20+ brews.

FYI: White Labs yeast we received on October 20th "expires" February 24th,
so, like Wyeast, they are assuming a shelf life of four months. You
would be better off with two-month old yeast. You would be even better off
with week-old yeast, etc. Your yeast was probably cultured and shipped
(from sunny San Diego) sometime in August.

>     Since I wanted to brew, I reformulated the recipe and fell back to a
> Wyeast pitchable tube of 1272 American Ale II. With the wort cooled to 72
> degrees, I directly pitched the contents of the tube into a 1051 OG wort. It
> has taken about 41 hours to reach low krausen and cover the wort surface
> with a foam head. The culture was manufactured on 8/16/00 and I pitched
> 10/29/00 (75 days). This was within the four months after manufacture date
> that Wyeast quotes an ale culture should be viable.

 ...assuming ideal storage and shipping conditions. 

>     Does anyone have any data on how much additional lag time you incur as
> these ready to pitch yeasts age? These excess lag times make me nervous as
> they are prime times for infection.

I haven't figured out a good rule, except the obvious: fresh yeast
ferments faster. 

>     My take away learning from this experience is that these ready to pitch
> liquid yeast cultures reduce the up front time but do not offer the peace of
> mind that I get from an active starter.

Unfortunately, the only practical way to determine the viability of yeast 
prior to pitching it into a batch is by watching it ferment. This is one
of the biggest drawbacks to so-called 'pitchable' yeast, and one of the
greatest assets of Wyeast 'smack packs'. 

- ----
Christopher Farley
Northern Brewer / 1150 Grand Avenue / St. Paul, MN 55105
www.northernbrewer.com



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 18:12:44 +1100
From: David Lamotte <lamotted at ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Re: Malto-dextrin and amylase enzyme

Jake asks about the quantity to add to a recipe.

That's an easy one - Zero.

Don't waste your money on such a one dimentional artificial additives.  If
you mash and pitch sufficient yeast you don't need them.

If you don't mash, you can easily do a minimash in a saucepan to add the
required dextrins, plus a lot of other good characters.

Plenty of info is around on how to minimash, or sing out if I can help
further.

David

Thanks, 

Jake


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 04:03:14 -0500
From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: re: Keg cutting .../Recipes/DME-SG

Richard L Scholz

>With Sabco http//:www.kegs.com selling Kegs with perfect tops and drains
>professionally welded,
>cleaned and polished for only $121 US. I see no reason to search down clean
>kegs, buy, rent, beg,
>or steal the tools to hack at the stainless steel and try to drill and weld
a
>drain coupling.

Let me explain the reason.  Used keg $15, cutting tool wear $1.70, ability
to make experimental tuns for <$20 - priceless.  I can also get choosy and
only pick the keg dimensions and gauge that I want (some Sabco's are pretty
thin & light).

My cutting method is simple.  Abrasive metal cutting blade in a circular
saw.

>I do not know about the rest of you, but even with finding cheap kegs and
>tools, the time factor makes  the few extra bucks worth the professional
job.

I agree - if Sabco makes what you want the exercise is pointless - but if
you plan on experimenting w/ designs then this method is cheap and takes
only minutes.  Currently I'm very  happy with my LIDS (lauter insertion
device system) so the need for a drain valves, welded or bulkhead fitted,
is absent.

===
Chad Mundt says ...

>I have used my ESB as base for a light
>cream sauce for chicken

Interesting.  I get an unpleasant vegetal aroma from heating hoppy beers.
For that reason some of the less hoppy beers, stouts & lagers, seem better
for cooking - not that I use much beer in cooking aside from the obvious.

===
Will Fields says ...
>[...] you can achieve 45
>points per pound per gallon using DME.  If extract efficiency is 80 percent
>then it follows that the points would be closer to 36.

NO !   Extract efficiency from DME is virtually 100%, not 80%.

The original questioner wanted to achieve 1.025SG wort.  That's about
(25/4) 6.25Plato, so if you arrange for 6.25% of the wort mass to
consist of DME (93.75% water) you are there.


 -S




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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 05:47:21 -0500
From: "Mark Tumarkin" <mark_t at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: PBW

Danny,

You asked about a source for PBW. You can order PBW, or any of the other Five
Star products, direct from the mfg if your regular brew supplier doesn't carry
it (or won't order it special).

Check out    http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/

You might consider buying larger quantities and sharing the cost with your
brewbuddies. You get considerable cost savings in larger amounts if you can
split it up with friends. You'll want a goodly amount once you start using
it - it works really well and storage isn't a problem as long as you keep it
dry.

Mark Tumarkin
Gainesville, FL



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 06:55:02 -0500
From: "J. Doug Brown" <dougbrown at citynet.net>
Subject: Re: Aireation with Venturi tube

> I was wondering if anybody have contsructed a "Venturi tube"
> for adding air to the vort.

Greetings,
  I have created such a tube and had great luck with it.  I have found
my cooled wort to have much more foam and believe it is much more
areated than it was with the "shaking the carboy" method.  Safty is also
a big plus.  You can checkout how I built mine as well as see pictures
at: http://members.citynet.net/kbrown/Doug/Brew/aerator.htm  

  Hope this info is helpfull.
  Doug Brown

- -- 
		     J. Doug Brown - Fairmont, WV
		  Software Engineer  at  ProLogic, Inc.
mailto:dougbrown at citynet.net              mailto:dbrown at prologic-inc.com
http://members.citynet.net/kbrown/Doug       http://www.prologic-inc.com


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 07:22:47 -0500
From: Rick Pauly <flp2m at unix.mail.virginia.edu>
Subject: How to clean copper coil jockey box ?

I finally built a jockey box for our annual Octoberfest and it worked
great. Four taps in an iglo cooler each with 25 feet of 1/4" refridgerator
copper coil.

But I won't be using it again until next October so I'm conserned about
what might end up growing in the tubes and how to get it out before I use
it again.

After the party I flushed all the lines with hot water. I plan to blow the
water out with CO2.

Any other ideas? What should I flush with before next Octoberfest?

Thanks

Rick Pauly
Charlottesville,VA


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 08:38:19 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Rice

Brewers

It isn't about brewing, but 
http://usda-ars-beaumont.tamu.edu/quality.html has a lot about rice.

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: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 08:49:26 -0500
From: "Walter H. Lewis III" <wlewis at alliedlogistics.com>
Subject: RE:Aireation with Venturi tube

I've been using one for 3-4 years! I picked up the idea over on the wine
forum on Compuserve before I dropped CS.

All I did was take an old piece of racking cane and a hot nail or
needle. I melted a ton of holes in it and after getting the siphon
started  Iput it in the line.

I made one for some friends and their lag time reduced from an average
of 18 hours to 6 hours!

Walt



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 09:00:39 -0500
From: "Charles R. Stewart" <Charles at TheStewarts.com>
Subject: Immersion Chillin'

I've had success with mine - a double coil of copper tubing purchased from
Home Despot, with the coils spread apart by soldered braces (I'll try to
have photos on my web site by the time this posts.  If not, check back in a
few days http://Charles.thestewarts.com).  I hang mine at the top, and have
found if it is placed to one side of the brew kettle, you can actually watch
the wort circulate!  And it cools 50 liters to pitching temp in less than 15
minutes (although I have to use a pre-chiller in the summer).

On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, Matt Marino queried:

>Im thinking about building a new immersion chiller and am wondering if
>anyone has had any luck designing a no-stir im.  Ive seen them advertised,
>usually all the coils are at the top and convection does the work.  Has
>anyone designed one that actualy works without having to stir.  I love
>immersion chillers but hate having to stir the whole time. I also used an
>Easymasher for the first time today and it worked great! Thanks Jack.
>MADMAN

Chip Stewart
Charles at TheStewarts.com
http://Charles.TheStewarts.com

Pursuant to United States Code, Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II,
Section 227, any and all unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) sent to this
address is subject to a download and archival fee of US$500.00.  The
sending or forwarding of such e-mail constitutes acceptance of these
terms.



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 08:17:25 -0600
From: "Bev D. Blackwood II" <blackwod at rice.edu>
Subject: Venturi tube

>I was wondering if anybody have contsructed a "Venturi tube"
>for adding air to the vort.

Jens,
When I was having trouble getting enough O2 into my wort, I was 
advised that one thing I could do would be to make a short nozzle on 
the end of the siphon hose with holes drilled through it to entrain 
more air into the stream as it entered the fermenter.  Basically I 
took a piece of 1/4 inch (maybe 3/8th) copper tubing about 3 inches 
in length, then drilled a set of holes through it at regular 
intervals, ending up with 10-12 holes along the lower 2 inches of the 
tube.  This was placed on the end of my siphon hose (sanitized of 
course.)  It seemed to do a good job of adding air to the mix, as my 
fermentation improved *some*  However, I eventually caved in and 
started putting pure O2 into the wort with a "stone," which has made 
a huge difference.

 -BDB2

Bev D. Blackwood II
http://www.bdb2.com/


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 09:18:34 -0500
From: "Charles R. Stewart" <Charles at TheStewarts.com>
Subject: White Labs WLP830 Faillure

I, too, had problems with WLP830 German Lager Yeast about a month ago.  I
pitched a vial of the pitchable liquid yeast into a well oxigenated, 70
degree F starter, and after 36 hours, nothing had happened.  The retailer
Bob at the Flying Barrel in Frederick, Maryland, USA - NAYYY) gave me
another tube of the same.  Again, nothing!  In desperation, I pitched a
smack-pak of Wyeast that had been kept under the same conditions to great
success.

Chip Stewart
Charles at TheStewarts.com
http://Charles.TheStewarts.com

Pursuant to United States Code, Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Section
227, any and all unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) sent to this address
is subject to a download and archival fee of US$500.00.  The sending or
forwarding of such e-mail constitutes acceptance of these terms.


On Mon, 30 Oct 2000 Dan Diana bemoaned yeast failure:

>Hi,
>    I just wanted to provide an update from the field on my recent
>experiences with two ready to pitch liquid yeast cultures.
>    In the first case, I had a White Labs WLP830 culture that was well
>within its Best Before date of 11/15/00. Given how close I was to this
date,
>I chose to start the culture in 500g of a 1050 OG wort from a previous
batch
>that I brewed. In short, the culture was dead even after two days of stand
>time at room temperature. Has anyone else had this type of issue? I doubt
it
>was a procedural issue as this starter technique has been successful on
>about 20+ brews.


Return to table of contents


Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 09:28:36 -0500
From: cmmundt at AircraftBraking.com
Subject: Advice Heeded/All-Grain Easier Now

Hi all,

     I would like to thank everyone for their advice given about all-grain
brewing.  I brewed my second batch of all-grain last night and the
experience was much smoother than the first one.  The only fiasco was
minor, I forgot close the hose from the lauter-tun tun when I added the
water.  I spilled less than a cup of hot water on the floor, much better
than the wort I spilled last time.  I brewed an ESB, one of my favorites
from extract brewing, using a single temperature infusion at 153 F.  The
first runnings had a gravity of 1.082 and I stopped collecting the sparge
when it was 1.028.  After boiling I had 5 gallons of wort with an OG =
1.052.  My target OG was 5 gallons at 1.054.  I was quite happy with my
results.  Here is the recipe I concocted.  Is this indicative of the style,
as I am brewing all-grain I have become more concerned about staying true
to style.

     9 lbs of Muntons Pale Malt
     1 lb of Crystal 20 L
     0.7 lbs of Weyerman Vienna
     0.5 lbs of Carapils 10 L

     Infusion mash at 153 F for 1.5 hours, passed the iodine test.  Boiled
for 60 minutes

     2 oz. of Challenger pellets  at  5.7% AA    FWH
     1 oz. of East Kent Goldings Leaf  at  6.2%  added at T=50 min
     1 oz. East Kent Goldings Leaf  at  6.2% AA, added at T=58 min

     Wyeast #1275 Thames Valley Ale in a 1 qt. starter.

     Will add 1/2 oz of EK Goldings as a dry hop in secondary.

Chad Mundt
cmmundt at aircraftbraking.com



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 10:36:00 -0500
From: David Harsh <dharsh at fuse.net>
Subject: Venturi aeration

Jens P. Maudal <Jens.maudal at c2i.net> asks about aeration with a venturi tube

Briefly:  it works very well, but not as well as using pure oxygen and
an airstone.  The maximum you can get with air is only around 7.5 ppm
O2, but with pure air you can get about 5 times that.  

However, I used one successfully for many years, and you don't need a
constriction in the tube.  Just drill about 10 or 12 very small holes in
your outlet line about 1 foot from the end.  The flowing fluid will
develop a vacuum and it will work.  I just used a racking cane:

Lame ascii art:  the "o" are the holes

    -------o-o-o-o--------------------------------
      -->             wort flows this way -->
    -------o-o-o-o--------------------------------
 
The only problems here are if you brew in a high ambient microflora time
of year (in Cincinnati, that means not winter) and aren't making
Belgians, you risk off flavors.

Dave Harsh						Cincinnati, OH
Bloatarian Brewing League


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 07:41:12 -0800
From: Demonick <demonick at zgi.com>
Subject: Re: SG to Alcohol

   A  = alcohol content of finished beer by % weight.
   RE = real extract of finished beer in degrees Plato.
   OE = original extract - measured degress Plato of wort
   AE = apparent extract - measured degrees Plato of finished beer.

   Convert all SG measurements to degress Plato thusly:
   P = (1000 * (SG - 1.0)) / 4.0 = 250 * (SG - 1.0)

   Then  RE = 0.1808*OE + 0.8192*AE
   and   A  = (OE - RE) / (2.0665 - 0.010665*OE)

Domenick Venezia
Seattle, WA



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 11:23:34 -0500
From: "Czerpak, Pete" <Pete.Czerpak at siigroup.com>
Subject: pacman yeast characteristics, belgian specialties

I keep kicking around the culturing of the PacMan yeast from a bottle or
three of Rogue stout.  Can you folks offer any advice about during or
post-ferment characteristics?  Especially compared to main stream yeasts...

Also, plenty of recipes advocate use of belgian specialty grains such as
caravienna, caramunich,....  How close are these to the various US or
british crystal or carapils grains out there? Anybody do some side-by-side
or triangle type tasting to determine equivilents and taste impression? I
use the belgian ones for belgian recipes but only to stay authentic...

Thanks all.

Just ordered my pound of columbus hops for a new all-grain columbus only IPA
recipe.  I am actually considering culturing up the Anderson Valley yeast
for this one as their IPA is crazy good!

Pete czerpak
albany, NY


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 10:34:04 -0600
From: "Brian Lundeen" <blundeen at rrc.mb.ca>
Subject: RE: stuck stout and being a brew wimp

Petr Otahal writes of his recalcitrant stout:
>
> Got a bit of problem.

(snip)

> I took a reading today (12 days after pitching) and it is
> only at 1.017.
> The beer is not as dark as I expected, if fact it looks like liquid
> chocolate.  It doesn't have that roasted taste I expected,
> and in fact is
> fairly sweetish
> Does anyone have any ideas as to what happened to my stout???
>

Well, Petr, I have many ideas and most of them are usually bad. Your
experience with an extract based stout seems to mirror mine, so consider
that a warning as you read my words of wisdom.

I will assume that you steeped the grains at an appropriate temperature and
that the grains were loose in the bag so that the water could get at them.
Even so, 300 grams does not seem like enough. I use about twice that amount
in total dark grains (roast barley, chocolate malt). And I could be wrong on
this, and will no doubt hear about it if I am, but I don't think steeping as
you did yields the same color and roast character as the two hours of
soaking and rinsing achieved in a good long mash and sparge.

What roast character you did pick up is almost certainly being masked
somewhat by the unfermented sugars at this time. I can only guess why the
gravity did not go lower. Possibly a characteristic of the extracts used,
possibly it didn't like the temperature drop. It could be a nutrient issue,
and perhaps the addition of some yeast energizer might kick start it. I
don't know what effect pH has on yeast activity, but it would be interesting
to know what the pH is with that much calcium carbonate put in. I use about
a teaspoon in the mash to offset the acidity of the dark grains, but my
water is different from yours. Still, 4 teaspoons seems like an awful lot.

The big question is, do you think you can drink this stuff as it is? I would
be inclined to just leave this in carboy, make a second batch with more
roast and less CaCO3, get that fermenting well, then blend in the first
batch toward the end. If there are still fermentables, this will finish them
off.

Glen Pannicke writes:

> I also think it's a matter of pride.  I can get a while RIMS
> or HERMS system
> with all the bells & whistles delivered to my home for
> something like $1500
>  - but I can't say that I made it.  Hours on end of sweatin', cussin',
> spittin' and yes, sometimes bleedin' will give you that
> feeling of personal
> satifaction that can't be had any other way.
>

I guess I fall into that small minority of home brewers that is so
mechanically dysfunctional that anything beyond tightening a screw will
cause my wife to fear for my well-being. Without significant help from my
friends, which basically means they will do it while I prepare a nice meal
for their troubles (this has the added benefit of keeping me out of their
hair), I can only have the personal satisfaction of buying a system that
actually works and maintaining full use of all my body parts. ;-)

Cheers,
Brian



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 09:52:43 -0700
From: "Richard B. Dulany Jr." <RDulany at co.el-paso.tx.us>
Subject: Pitchable Wyeast--lag time.

I brewed a 5 gallon batch of stout from extract (OG 1048) on Sunday, Oct.
22. I pitched a tube of Wyeast Irish Ale #1084 directly into the 72 deg. F,
well-stirred wort. Trusting the beer fates, I decided not to make a starter
although the yeast was packaged on August 30, 2000 and was almost two months
old. I just took the tube out of my refrigerator the night before I brewed
and let it warm to room temperature.

There was no visible fermentation for the first 36 hours. But, sometime
between 36 and 48 hours (while I was at work), the yeast "erupted" and foam
spewed through the airlock. I racked to a carboy on Friday, Oct. 27. Bubbles
are still escaping through the airlock every minute or so as of this
morning.

I was concerned about the lag time too, but the beer seems ok. I'm hesitant
to use the pitchable tubes again though because of the lag time. The
slap-packs seem safer.

Richard Dulany
El Paso, TX



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 17:29:19 -0500
From: "Dick Nelson" <nelsonk at massed.net>
Subject: Re: SG to Alcoho- Digest #3466 (October 31, 2000)



- ----------
Jeff,
    Noonan, "New Brewing Lager Beer", pg. 321, "Formulas for deriving
approximate alcohol by weight (ABW) or alcohol by volume (ABV) from apparent
attenuation (OG-TG):

            ...
            ABV (v/v), G = OG-FG x .129
            ABW (w/w), G = OG-FG x .102
            ..."
Hope this helps,
    Dick Nelson in Dover, MA

>
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 16:12:46 -0600 (CST)
> From: Jeff Lutes <jlutes at osprey.net>
> Subject: SG to Alcohol
>
> Brewers,
>
> I am looking for a formula that will use the starting and ending gravity of a
> brew and find the estimated potential alcohol content.  I'm sure it's out
there
> somewhere, but I can't find it!
>
> TIA
>
> Gemus Brauen Haus
> 


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 14:30:11 -0800
From: John Palmer <jjpalmer at gte.net>
Subject: Caution on PVC Bulkhead fittings

Mark Kempisty posted a great idea the other day to use CPVC fittings from 
Home Depot to make a quick and easy bulkhead fitting.

I am a metallurgist. I like metal. So naturally my bulkhead fitting ideas 
on my book webpage involve brass fittings. However, I have long wanted to 
come up with a cheaper PVC option. I had designed one using a PVC nipple, a 
spacer, and flat rubber washers, but it was clumsy so I shelved it while I 
worked on other things (like lauter tun flow. Dan, thanks for the false 
bottom material, I will do the false bottom flow soon, I have just been 
really busy with the kids activities lately).

While Mark's ascii art was less than perfect (isn't everyones?!), it did 
serve the purpose. So, on Sunday, I went to Home Depot to look at the 
fittings. I went over to the brass fittings section to find Delrin 
compression sleeves in 1/2 inch (don't ask, dead-end idea.). Standing next 
to me was another guy pondering a handful of fittings and a Gott spigot.
"Building a lauter tun?" I asked.
And so I met another HBDer, Eric Kern, and we spent an enjoyable half hour 
(maybe more) discussing fittings and tun design. When we parted, I was 
still pursuing a dead-end, and he had mentioned using a hose barb fitting 
on one side and connecting directly to a ball valve on the other. The more 
I thought about this, the more I realized he had the solution. This morning 
I made the mandatory 3rd trip to Home Depot to return the parts I had not 
used and get another Riser Extension. (Johns Rule of Do-it-Yourself: Every 
project requires 3 trips to Home Depot.)

And here is where this post does a 180. The above is from a post I 
cancelled a half hour ago because I made a fundemental error in choice of 
materials. PVC is NOT stable at mashing temperatures!!

I had remembered posts to the hbd years and years ago saying that ordinary 
PVC was not a good choice for manifolds. So, after I sent my previous post 
extolling the virtues of my PVC bulkhead design, I asked one of the 
chemists here if there was a temperature problem with PVC, and if so was it 
solely due to softening and loss of pressure capability. (I'm thinking - 
Hey, we are not really using it under load, what's a little loss in 
strength matter...) However, the chemist blithely informed me that PVC 
definitely starts offgassing above 60 C and if you have it in hot water, it 
will give off HCl (acid) and plasticizers.  Bad news.

Well, I thought, even if that is the case, maybe its just a little bit. So 
I took one of my new fittings and got a cup of hot water from the coffee 
machine and dropped it in. It sat a moment and then I took a sniff. Strong 
plastic smell. Rats!  Took the fitting out and squeezed it. It yielded. Rats!!

Now CPVC is rated to 200 F, which is a more useful number, especially when 
it comes to boiling water infusions.
Marks system uses CPVC and apparently works fine. I am going to go back to 
Home Depot and see if I can find the CPVC fittings he is talking about.
 -John

- --
John Palmer
Palmer House Brewery and Smithy
http://www.realbeer.com/jjpalmer
How To Brew - the online book
http://www.howtobrew.com



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 17:52:17 EST
From: Ballsacius at aol.com
Subject: Ten Gallon All-Grain Gott Trials

I am firing up the brew kettle this weekend and I want to try my first ten 
gallon all-grain. I have a 10 gallon Gott cooler system and am wondering if 
they will hold the neccessary 17 pounds or so of grain, plus strike water (1 
to 1.25qt per pound) and still have room to add the boiling water at the end 
of the mash? If anybody could give me some advice, I would appreciate it . 
Thanks in Advance.

Bob Fesmire
Madman Brewery
Downingtown, PA
Ballsacius at aol.com


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 20:08:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Hop_Head at webtv.net
Subject: Cask Conditioning

What is the proper method for cask conditioning in a corny keg? How much
priming sugar? How long does it take before it is ready? Do I "seal" the
keg with CO2 pressure? Any details or suggestions will be helpful.
Thanks..........Jim



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 20:32:47 -0600
From: "Sean Richens" <srichens at sprint.ca>
Subject: plastic

The secret to successful fermenting in plastic is NOT owning a carboy brush.
Soak, soak, soak.  I like to get rid of most of the hop resins with hot
water alone before I use anything chlorinated, just to avoid adsorbing
chlorophenols into the plastic.  I do primaries in pails to get the really
sticky stuff out, and wash that off with bare hands or cloths.

Pails will always get scratches here and there, since you at least have to
stir them once in a while.  When I start to worry, I buy new ones and use
the old ones for wine.  You can always add sulphite to wine.

Sean Richens
srichens.spamsucks at sprint.ca



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 21:40:10 EST
From: Mjbrewit at aol.com
Subject: White Labs

I too had a bad experience with ready to pitch White Labs Yeast when it first 
came out.  The brewer who relayed his experience was fortunate that he made a 
starter and did not find out (like me) on brew day.  The simple story was 
that it was dead yeast.  Thats right, expired!  Gone to meet its maker!  In 
short ex-yeast.  Boy was I angry.   I had five gallons of double bock and no 
yeast.  As it turns out it was not White Labs fault, it was the handling of 
the homebrew store/distributor.  To their credit, White Labs reimbursed me 
four-fold when I wrote to them and complained.  They are definately good 
people.  I learned a valuable lesson that day.  Always make a starter, at a 
minimum, to assure yeast viability.   Mike Brennan - Chicago


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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 20:40:07 -0600
From: "Sean Richens" <srichens at sprint.ca>
Subject: malto-dextrin

When I've used malto-dextrin, I just take it as 45 SG points per pound in a
US gallon, but I calculate its contribution to the FINAL gravity, like
glucose but with 0% fermentability.

In other words, for 5 USG, with a recipe that should give FG of 1.012, one
pound of malto-dextrin boosts the FG by 45/5 = 9 for a final result of
1.021.

What that does for you (or your beer) is controversial.  I found that it did
help provide "background" in a cranberry beer.  The math worked out OK.

I know some kits include "pilsner enzyme" which could be amylase, but I
figure the best amylase source is pale malt.

Sean Richens
srichens.spamsucks at sprint.ca



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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 23:09:22 -0500
From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: plastics anyone ?

Clifton Moore says,

> have never understood how people can get away with fermenting in
>plastic.  Under magnification the surface looks like a pile of hay.

Huh - you are dreaming if you think such a simple characterization of
such complex stuff is relevant.  There aren't anything like 1micron gaps
or voids in virgin plastics unless there is a compounding problem.  The
biggest problem is that even modestly abrasive materials can make
nice ~1u grooves which are a pleasant place for bacteria to reside.

Also consider the WOODEN fermentation vessels traditionally used for
brewing and distilling fermentations.  They "got away" with they for
several centuries.

Ant Hayes replies ...

>Having fermented in plastic since mid 1988, my answer is "bleach is cheap".
>Between batches, my fermenter sits full to the brim with a strong bleach
>solution.

You sanitation is great but try not leaving the bleach in the fermentor
between brews.  Bleach and surfactants will allow plasticizers
to leech and cause brittleness and crazing of plastics. The craze lines
(cracks) are a great place for errant bacteria.  Clean and sanitize after
use and again before reuse, but don't store the plastics in alkaline
cleansers.

 -S




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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 21:42:24 -0800
From: "lauritsm" <lauritsm at email.msn.com>
Subject: re: Gleanings from the field on ready to pitch yeasts.

I've had the same problem with Wyeast.....twice now. Once with a weisen and
once with a British Ale. Basically it delayed my brew dates was all.  What a
pain.  So, I go with Whitelabs or Danstar from then on.

M





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Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 00:06:40 -0500
From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Enzyme Kinetics - part 0

Well it's Sambain  and my birthday - so time to raise the spirits of the
departed HBD Luddites.

I intend to produce a multi-part missive regarding enzyme kinetics.  The
notes from which this material was derived were intended as grist for a BT
article in development.  I have several times offered (threatened) to post
notes on enzyme kinetics in order to clarify common HB misperceptions on the
topic, but I have never delivered on this threat because my notes/paper
remain incomplete.  I hope that by posting a couple modest sized notes per
week (bandwidth limited) that I will be able to force myself to complete the
work in time for the final segments.

We'll see,

 -S




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