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FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
Re: dumb questions for the group (David Lamotte)
re: Spreadsheet for # PrimeTabs Per Bottle (John_E_Schnupp)
RE: Ale Dropping (Tony Barnsley)
Sweet Ciders (EFOUCH)
Water Profile in ProMash (Jeffrey Donovan)
Dropped 0/BU (AJ)
Re: Replies - Japanese hops, utilization, filters, wheat (Jeff Renner)
Re: Ale dropping & fermentation temp (Jeff Renner)
Re: long primary (Jeff Renner)
Moldy Marris Otter... (Jim Cave)
Uses for Spent Grains/Radiation-Reinheitgebot vs Gauss' law. ("Stephen Alexander")
Re: dumb questions for the group ("patrick finerty jr.")
Call for BHC7 Judges and Stewards ("Schneider, Brett")
Re: Brewater and Promash (Steve)
Blue camping pad as insulator ("Strom C. Thacker")
Alan Davies question ("Richard Sieben")
Old Stuff besdies myself (Beaverplt)
Re. "Bogus" Water Reports (John Palmer)
re: Reducing Cider Alcohol Level, Brewing Racks, & Kegs ("Charles R. Stewart")
trapped CO2 ("Richard & Laura")
*
* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!
*
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Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 17:32:31 +1100
From: David Lamotte <lamotted at ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Re: dumb questions for the group
Richard Dulany asked some thoughtfull (not dumb) questions ...
>>>
1) Is there any reason NOT to "rinse" my carboys with a small amount of
clear grain alcohol (vodka, rum) as a final step in the sanitizing
process?
The carboys have been thoroughly rinsed, but I want to negate anything
bad
in my tap water.
>>>
No, there is no problem doing this, but it won't do any sanitising.
Alcohol level needs to be around 80% and then you need fairly long
contact imes to be effective, plus not all organisms are knocked out.
You do not mention what you are using for sanitation - If you have
concerns about rinsing, the best approach would be a non-rinse
formulation (idophore etc).
If you still need to rinse out beach etc, I believe the best (and
cheapest for you guys in the USA) is the cheapest commercial beer that
you can find.
>>>
2) Should I try to aerate the beer when racking from the primary
fermenter
to the secondary fermenter? It seems to give the yeast new vigor.
>>>
Aeration is bad any time after the start of fermentation. While the
yeast may appreciate it, the alcohol and many other components formed
during fermentation can be oxidised, with a consequent deterioration in
beer flavour.
You may only be seeing the release of trapped CO2 caused by the physical
movement of the beer.
Hope this helps,
David Lamotte
Newcastle, N.S.W. Australia
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 00:02:02 -0800
From: John_E_Schnupp at amat.com
Subject: re: Spreadsheet for # PrimeTabs Per Bottle
Todd,
http://www.joshmadison.com/software/convert/
The one I use. I'm sure there are others. I bought a
calculator/graphing program for my PalmVx and it is pretty
good as a converter. I still prefer the one from Josh,
probably because it is the one I'm most familiar with.
John Schnupp, N3CNL
Georgia, VT
95 XLH 1200
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 10:58:41 -0000
From: Tony Barnsley <tony.barnsley at blackpool.gov.uk>
Subject: RE: Ale Dropping
Tom asked about dropping
About 18 months or so ago this was the subject of much discussion on UK
Homebrew. Things like When (if) to drop?, is it beneficial? As you say
Graham's books are a little contradictory, so I mailed Graham with some
questions, and he entered the fray.
The real upshot is that he no longer recommends dropping. Too many
homebrewers were experiencing slow or halted fermentations after dropping.
It comes down to a combination of two things in the end Commercial breweries
that practice dropping successfully, have taller fermentation vessels than
ours with more (active) yeast in suspension. When they drop (with aeration,
normally 14-18 hours after pitching), then they carry over enough yeast to
continue the fermentation. The other thing is that home (craft) brewers tend
to under pitch and so have little healthy yeast anyway. Pitching late
removes a lot of active yeast and so the fermentation stops.
Graham has even had problems dropping with the Morland yeast from when the
brewery was practising dropping! From experience gained over the last 18
months by brewers on UK homebrew if you are going to drop, Pitch BIG, do it
with aeration and absolutely no later than 18 hours after pitching, so that
you have lots of healthy yeast in suspension. I must admit though that I
haven't noticed any difference in ales that I've dropped (Imperial Stout,
Old Peculier, Special Bitter) which was using Wyeast 1084 Irish ale, so its
a practice I've stopped using.
Graham's Northern Yeasts are a severe top croppers, and need stirring back
into the wort at 2 hourly intervals. All the yeasts that I've played with
(Told you Welshmen have some funny habits ;-'> ) as a craft brewer have
never been that heavy a top cropper. Certainly things like 1968 (Whitbread)
have required rousing to ensure that they finish properly, but with plenty
of oxygen at the start normal yeasts work to completion with no special
treatment.
- --
Wassail!
The Scurrilous Aleman (ICQ 46254361)
Schwarzbad Lager Brauerei, Blackpool, Lancs, UK
UK HOMEBREW - A Forum on Home Brewing in the UK
Managed by home brewers for home brewers
To Subscribe send blank email to uk-homebrew-subscribe at smartgroups.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 07:13:00 -0500
From: EFOUCH at steelcase.com
Subject: Sweet Ciders
On the topic of cidermaking, Ken asks:
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 12:05:26 +0000
From: Ken Pendergrass <kenp794 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re reducing alcohol in cider
I too have had cider go way too dry on me. Although I wasn't concerned
about the alcohol content only the taste. What is the best way to kill
yeast in cider to keep some sweetness in it?
Ken
in Ypsilanti
The following is a note I sent regarding sweet ciders to a few people
off-line. At the end, I'll add an epilogue.....
I have two 5 gallon batches of cider going.
Last Saturday,(back in October) at Bedford Farms in fabulous Uptown Morely,
Michigan, we pressed 140 gallons of cider. The apple blend was less than
optimal; about 2/3 Ida Reds, 1/3 Red Delicious. I did find a Northern Spy
tree, and got about a peck or so of usable apples. So the cider I got ended
up around 20% Red Delicious, 20% Northern Spy, 60% Ida Reds. Not too bad.
To one 5 gallon fermenter, I added 12 oz Cran-Apple concentrate, and
2#'s brown sugar, in an attempt to emulate Jeff Carlson's 2000 AHA Gold
Medal Cider.
The other fermenter was keeved: An old French practice of adding
NaCl and CaCO3 (or CaCl2) to the juice ASAP. This causes carbonate
compounds to complex with the pectins and tannins and separate out from the
juice. A properly keeved cider forms a sludge at the bottom, and a brown
cap at the top, with clear juice in the middle. The clear juice is racked
out, and being deprived of nutrients due to the keeving, finishes naturally
sweet.
Both ciders were left to go spontaneous.
The keeved cider looks like it partially keeved. Last night it had
a brownish- white cap. Small bubbles were developing with a little
airlock activity. If the cider begins to ferment, the keevage is mixed back
in, and all is lost. So, last night, I racked out the clear juice, and
we'll see what happens.
This wasn't a textbook keeving, as you normally let the separation
develop for at least a week, and I racked at four days, due to fermentive
activity.
It may finish not as sweet as a full keeve, but it will be interesting.
Epilogue:
The caveats I have found with keeving are these: You really need a proper
cider blend of apples to make it work. Store- bought cider won't do it.
The cider needs to have the proper apple mix, and the pH needs to be around
5.4- adjusted by adding acidic apples, like Russian Crab apples, or any crab
apples in a pinch.
I cheated, and tried to adjust the pH with lactic acid, and that's probably
why I only got a partial keeve.
Another key to decent cider is the anal-retentive avoidance of oxygen.
After fermentation has started, flush any transfer vessel with CO2.
Both of the ciders have been racked to kegs and tasted. The keeved cider
still finished dry, probably because of the partial keeve. Today I am going
to add 1# of brown sugar to try to sweeten it up.
The other cider has decent sweetness, and good apple aroma, but is a bit
acidic, since I added some lactic acid to try to get the pH around 5.4.
I first heard of keeving at our brewclub meeting from a guy who runs his own
professional cider making outfit. I also found
http://www.westberks.demon.co.uk/lvcider/ferment.htm
on the internet.
Next year, I will try the keeving again, after finding the right apples to
mix in and if I don't feel I get a good keeve, I'll adjust the cider with
brown sugar to add sweetness.
Another benefit of keeving is the resulting color. Very light, and crystal
clear!
Eric Fouch
Bent Dick YoctoBrewery
Kentwood, MI
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 05:24:21 -0800
From: Jeffrey Donovan <jeffrey at promash.com>
Subject: Water Profile in ProMash
Pete wrote,
>I agree and I have used Brewater a lot in the past. My son got me Promash
>for xmas and it looks like it uses Brewater for its water calculations.
>Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have the "tsp" option. It seems to be
>limited to "Grams Per Gallon". Is that correct? I took a quick look at the
>Helps and couldn't find any way to get the output in "tsp per total H2O" or
>per gallon.
What you have to remember is the grams per gallon figure is used simply to
match a profile. It is not meant to give you the weights to measure into
your actual water. So, make the adjustments to the profile you want to
match in grams per gallon, then press the "Mash and Sparge Totals" button
on the profiler screen. It is here you will find the mineral additions to
actually add to the water, as Ounces or Grams.
Sorry but we do not support the "tsp" measurement, only weight measures.
However, I do think this addresses your problem. Feel free to email me
directly if you have any further problems understanding the profiler.
Cheers!
Jeffrey Donovan
Beer Engineer
The Sausalito Brewing Co.
jeffrey at promash.com
http://www.promash.com
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 10:46:01 -0400
From: AJ <ajdel at mindspring.com>
Subject: Dropped 0/BU
Oops. Typed 10x/y when I wanted 100x/y i.e. to convert the fraction x/y
to a percentage in th Plato post. Sorry.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"craftbrewer" makes the point that one can estimate the level of
bitterness in beer by taste alone and that is quite true as long as the
taster has something to calibrate against. A pro will brew the same
beer with the same materials using the same method day after day and
subject each batch to taste tests as part of QC. If his bitterness is
off by a few (I say as few as 3 - 5 or perhaps even less) BU he'll know
it, i.e. he's calibrated against his own beer or beers. At some time
he'll send the beer(s) off to a lab for analysis. Now he's calibrated
against an absolute scale and ought to be able to declare the
bittereness of an unfamiliar beer to within 5 BU.
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 09:56:46 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Re: Replies - Japanese hops, utilization, filters, wheat
Graham wrote:
>Now jeff i didn't know you were serious about all this. Now
>I dont have a GPS but I could get damn close if you like.
>So do you want a picture of Hidden Valley. If so I'll get it for
>you. Anyway what the point getting it exactly right with a
>GPS. Continental drift will mean its wrong almost immediately.
>What are we moving, something like a centimetre a year North.
Graham
It's a wonder you don't get dizzy, upside down and surfing north at
such a clip! Actually, that might explain a lot.
I thought you might enjoy it as a project. It's the sort of thing
that seems to have crossover appeal to many homebrewers. Take a look
at http://confluence.org. If it doesn't do anything for you, don't
bother. If you still haven't visited by the time I get to Oz
in a few years, we can go together and you can point out the quaint
local flora and fauna along the way, such as salties, cod and frogs
with peculiar appetites, nasty trees, etc.
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
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 10:37:02 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Re: Ale dropping & fermentation temp
Tom Smit <tom at lunica-data.com.au> asked
> Does any one practise dropping with aeration? At what time? Have you noticed
>any significant positive or negative effects? Graham talks about northern
>yeasts needing rousing-how does this relate to Wyeast & White Labs yeasts?
>Perhaps a note re rousing/dropping could be added to the table of yeasts
>someone wants to build up?
In the past I experimented with (OK, it wasn't true experimentation)
with dropping with aeration at high kraeusen, about 24-36 hours, but
I got such high diacetyl levels that I discontinued it. It was
worthwhile for the experience. Some yeasts are more prone to
diacetyl production than others, and some (the true Ringwood is one)
apparently need this boost of oxygen to ferment the wort fully. A
bit of diacetyl can enhance the maltiness of some ales, but I find it
off-putting in very high levels at all. Our local Ringwood brewpub's
beers all have a house character of high levels.
Now I will often drop, again with aeration, at 14 hours. This period
was suggested at MCAB 1 by Danstar/Lallemand's Dr. Clayton Cone as
being the time at which the yeast have exhausted their various
reserves that can be restored by oxygen. Apparently they are still
actively enough fermenting to take care of any excess diacetyl that
this might produce. This period is also serendipitously the time at
which commercial brewers who fill a fermenter with two successive
brews will add new, aerated wort to the fermenting wort from the
first brew.
I have not noted any increase in diacetyl when dropping at 14 hours,
and, of course, there is the advantage of leaving behind break
material and other trub.
I'll leave the question of 24C fermentation by-products to others
except to say that it will probably produce more flavors that some
consider off flavors than lower temperatures, including higher
alcohols (fusels).
Glad the bock is progressing well.
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
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 10:41:21 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Re: long primary
Jon Sandlin <sandlin at bendcable.com> of Bend, OR, is concerned:
>I have a batch that I made right before the holidays and I have neglected to
>bottle; it has been in the primary fermenter for about a month now. Will
>there be enough viable yeast in order to carbonate in bottles? Do I need to
>rack to a secondary or can I just bottle? What should I do. Thanks in
>advance for your help.
We've all done this, and some brewers do it routinely, making sure
that there is not excess head space or air exchange. I assume your
beer is now clear enough to bottle, so it won't need any further
settling. In this case, just rack to your bottling bucket and be
sure to pick up just a little extra yeast from the bottom with the
tip of your racking cane. Don't worry, it will be viable.
The advantage of this is that you will have very little sediiment on
the bottom of your bottles.
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
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 08:44:18 -0800
From: Jim Cave <cave at psc.org>
Subject: Moldy Marris Otter...
What was the brand? Have you tasted/chewed the malt? It it was moldy,
I'd take it back if you've only recently bought it. I finally threw out a
bag of old crystal malt that had gone somewhat "slack" or soft. I felt
this had given an off flavour to my beer.
I use Beeston's Marris otter. I buy it from a Brew Pub and find it
excellent.
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 11:39:30 -0500
From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Uses for Spent Grains/Radiation-Reinheitgebot vs Gauss' law.
Jim Layton writes ...
>. [...] I have never observed birds paying any attention
>to the spent grain.
I've seen doves, starlings & crows at spent grist tho' they are not avid
about it. I've got reports on another forum of wild turkeys and pheasants
going nuts for it. Several folks have noted their chickens love spent
grist. I don't see songbirds at it, but if you find ones that like it - you
are not doing them any favors. Wild birds are fricken picky eaters.
Deer since they'll be eating treebark & the bitter heads off my tulips by
Spring, grist is a given. Wouldn't surprise me if they went for the house
siding & shingles too. Jeff Renner adds ...
> Maybe Michigan wildlife
> is smarter than Ohio wildlife?
You Michigan deer xenophobes ! It's the human population Jeff. I live in
an urbanized county w/ a national and a lot of muni's. The urban
know-nothing-nature-nuts refuse to allow any herd control. The deer safely
remain inside the parks during hunting season, so you can find them starving
by late Winter. OTOH I know of only one MIchigander who doesn't hunt deer,
and he's a transplant. ? Oh yeah - loved the venison & veh mit pfifferling
I had several times in Germany, goes nicely with a pils and segues into
another use for spent grist ... Fungi. I've had a couple decent crops of
edible puffballs (Lycoperdon perlatum) after seeding some grist + tree
litter compost with spores.
Bob Devine chimes in ...
>Try a little in some bread.
If you love the way those husks scratch all the way down, try some peanut
hulls or sawdust or straw for a really fiberous loaf. I prefer some
cracked & soaked wheat , rye, malt or other grain better than spent grist.
Better to splurge the extra 5 cents for grain or malt in your bread IMO.
Made a racked rye+crystal malt loaf Saturday - great stuff.
==
Marc D says ...
>Also what would you call you first microwave RIMS brew? Three Mile
>Island Ale? China Syndrome Stout? Hanford Weizen? I should stop now...
This would be funny if there was a relationship between electromagnetic and
nuclear radiation. The major source of EM radiation is the Sun (it fluxes
1.3KW per sq.meter at the earth's surface). If you believe a microwave or
a sunny day is like Chernobyl you should wrap yourself in aluminum foil
before you go outside. It's not so much for protection as for easy
identification of the highly gullible.
Name for a microwaved brew - the Klystronator, Magnetron Marzen, or a
Helmholtz Ale ?
==
Very odd transition to the new millenia - suddenly Phil & Jill are post
about brewing and Jeff Renner is fixated on Burradoo and GPS apps.
BTW - for the many who wrote asking, the Enzyme Kinetics series will
continue. The deciding vote was Pat Babcock's as he threatened to festoon
my brewery in plaid if I stopped. The rate of production just slowed as my
original notes ran out and my available time decreased due to biz travel.
-Steve
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 11:47:33 -0500
From: "patrick finerty jr." <zinc at finerty.net>
Subject: Re: dumb questions for the group
howdy Richard (and Laura),
On January 7, 2001, Richard & Laura wrote:
> 1) Is there any reason NOT to "rinse" my carboys with a small amount of
> clear grain alcohol (vodka, rum) as a final step in the sanitizing process?
> The carboys have been thoroughly rinsed, but I want to negate anything bad
> in my tap water.
i would avoid rum as it may contribute some flavor to the brew. i'm
curious what the step before this is? you really shouldn't need to do
this if you sanitized properly for your penultimate step. also, i'm
doubtful that the alcohol rinse would be very effective if the actual
exposure time is short.
> 2) Should I try to aerate the beer when racking from the primary fermenter
> to the secondary fermenter? It seems to give the yeast new vigor.
no! you really want to avoid adding O2 at this point. i always purge
my secondaries and cornies with CO2 to minimize exposure of the virgin
beer to O2. it can lead to staling (kind of a cardboard like flavor)
and a shorter shelf life for the beer.
slainte,
-patrick, enjoyed too much porter yesterday...
- --
"There is only one aim in life and that is to live it."
Karl Shapiro,(1959) from an essay on Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer
finger pfinerty at nyx10.nyx.net for PGP key
http://finerty.net/pjf
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 13:47:28 -0500
From: "Schneider, Brett" <Brett_Schneider at bose.com>
Subject: Call for BHC7 Judges and Stewards
As you hopefully read in recent past HBdigests, the Boston Wort Processors
are hosting our 7th annual homebrew competition on Saturday Febrewary 10,
2001 at the Northeast Brewing Company (brewpub) in Alston MA, just outside
the walls from Boston. And, once again, we are an MCAB qualifying event as
well.
I am this years judge coordinator, and if any of you readers are able to
come and help judge and or steward we'll make sure to take good care of you.
Please visit www.wort.org for full details and forms for entering and for
helping the judging effort. I am looking for basic information on you, your
entries, and your preferences in judging and stewarding.
Send your registrations with the information requested, using the subject
line of BHC7 Judge (regardless of judge or steward aspirations) to me
at: BikeNBrew at hotmail.com
Thanks - we hope to see you there - Brett
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 11:34:54 -0800 (PST)
From: Steve <gravelse at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Brewater and Promash
Pete asked:
>I agree and I have used Brewater a lot in the past. My son got me
Promash
>for xmas and it looks like it uses Brewater for its water calculations.
>Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have the "tsp" option. It seems to be
>limited to "Grams Per Gallon". Is that correct? I took a quick look at
>the Helps and couldn't find any way to get the output in "tsp per total
>H2O" or per gallon.
I been using Promash for the last 9 months and I've asked Jeffrey Donovan
the "Promash guy" about that very subject. Here's the response I got:
>: Can you add a grams to teaspoon conversion chart or function to the
>water profiler?
>
>Yes we are considering this but are still unsure of the exact
>implementation.....I'll admit it's not the highest priority in the "todo"
>list at the present, but we will get to it!
Jeff is very good at providing service, answering questions about the
program, making changes recommended by the users and providing FREE
updates to the software. I HIGHLY recommend that everyone who likes using
a computer and enjoys homebrewing, surf to the site
http://www.promash.com/ and check out the FREE Promash evaluation
software. It's well worth the $25 (US) for the real thing and you can
even buy it over the internet with a credit card.
Okay, I'm done. No, I'm not affiliated with the product in any way. I'm
just a very satisfied customer who likes playing with software.
SteveG
Software/Hardware Test Engineer
"Homebrew, it's not just a hobby, it's an adventure!"
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 14:40:00 -0500
From: "Strom C. Thacker" <sthacker at bu.edu>
Subject: Blue camping pad as insulator
Hi all,
I stumbled across an old post of Alan McKay's from last Oct. that
mentioned that those blue camping pads make great insulators. Well,
I had a couple lying around, so this weekend I put together a
double-layered insulator for my sankey mash tun's sides and top. It
goes down to a few inches above the bottom of the keg.
Here's my question: does anyone out there know how heat resistant
these things are? I use direct fire to heat my mash tun. Will I be
melting this stuff? I can slide it off during temp boosts if
necessary, but I'd just as soon keep as much heat in as possible,
especially during the winter.
Thanks,
Strom
Newton, MA
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 13:53:47 -0600
From: "Richard Sieben" <sier1 at email.msn.com>
Subject: Alan Davies question
Alan, you are thinking maybe your malt has gone slack due to moisture
pickup? (I think) you would notice less extraction from a given quantity
of grain if that was the case. You also mention an off smell, what does it
smell like? Does the plastic drum the malt is stored in have a similar
smell?
Most likely we need to see what your mashing schedule is and you probably
have some kind of infection or some leftover cleaner and sanitizer in your
system someplace. To be of any real assistance, we would need more details:
please post your mashing schedule
recipe
how do you clean and sanitize
description of the flavor
hope we can all help.
Rich Sieben
Island Lake, IL
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 12:58:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Beaverplt <beaverplt at yahoo.com>
Subject: Old Stuff besdies myself
Howdy all,
I was getting ready to brew a batch yesterday when I
got myself sidetracked. My corner of the storage room
where all my brewing equipment is stored had turned
into a mess since I have a habit of not putting things
away properly. The bad news is I never got started
brewing. BUT, I found a couple of items that I'm
wondering if they are any good. One is a bag of
Halertau hops, not pellets, that I don't remember
buying. I'm guessing it's well over a year old. It was
not in the fridge. I've never used anything but hop
pellets so I don't know whether this would be usable
or not. The other is a smack pack of Irish ale yeat
with a date of October 2000 on it. It was
refridgerated. I didn't know yeast expired if you kept
it refridgerated. Should I toss this?
Thanks
Jerry "Beaver" Pelt
Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 14:58:50 -0800
From: John Palmer <jjpalmer at gte.net>
Subject: Re. "Bogus" Water Reports
Hi Group,
I just wanted to clarify AJ's comment yesterday that most city water
reports are bogus and physically impossible to produce.
His statement is true, but the reason may not be readily apparent, and that
is what I wanted to explain.
A water report is typically an annual report and thus is a list of
averages. In any single sampling, all the ions must (and do) electrically
add up to the measured pH. But once you start taking averages, you lose the
interrelationship between the equilibriums, and thus producing a batch of
water to average is often impossible.
This is yet another reason why Close Is Good Enough when it comes to trying
to match a particular cities water.
-John
- --
John Palmer
Palmer House Brewery and Smithy
http://www.realbeer.com/jjpalmer
How To Brew - the online book
http://www.howtobrew.com
Let there be Peace on Earth.
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 20:47:31 -0500
From: "Charles R. Stewart" <Charles at TheStewarts.com>
Subject: re: Reducing Cider Alcohol Level, Brewing Racks, & Kegs
I kept one continuous keg of cider all fall. When it became a little too
dry, I just added a little sweet cider. Worked quite well.
Also, I solved the problem of a rack for my home-rigged RIMS system. After
coming up with all kinds of plans, looking in junk yards for scrap steel,
checking into renting welding equipment, I found a much easier solution.
The local Costco store had commercial-quality restaurant racks on wheels for
$74.95. They're chrome-plated steel, rated for food service, sturdy (holds
600+ pounds), AND THEY HAVE WHEELS! I can keep it against the wall, and
when I'm ready to brew, just wheel it out to the center of the kitchen.
Also, it's very easy to run the wiring and plumbing. I've done three
batches on it and it works very well. If you want to see it in action, I'll
have pictures on http://Charles.TheStewarts.com.
Finally, I came across a whole bunch of 3 gallon kegs and I've put 'em up on
e-Bay. I hope this doesn't violate the HBD terms, but if any bidder
mentions HBD, I'll knock of 15%. The Digest has done a lot for me, and I'd
like to return the favor.
Chip Stewart
Charles at TheStewarts.com
http://Charles.TheStewarts.com
Pursuant to United States Code, Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Section
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Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 21:17:52 -0700
From: "Richard & Laura" <dromedary at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: trapped CO2
Greetings all,
Many replied to my question about aerating the beer when racking to the
secondary fermenter. Thanks! The unanimous answer: NO! Minimize air contact
when racking!
Now, I have another question: Is there any way to (or even a reason to) try
to release the CO2 that is dissolved in the beer? Does the trapped CO2 cause
any problems or offer any benefits?
Richard Dulany
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