FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org *************************************************************** THIS YEAR'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Northern Brewer, Ltd. Home Brew Supplies http://www.northernbrewer.com 1-800-681-2739 Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site! ********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html ********* Contents: Florida Bottle Laws and the Florida Brewers List ("Mark Tumarkin") Checking in - again (Beaverplt) Amsterdam; what/ where to drink, (Smallaxe27) Don't do this: (darrell.leavitt) Wort Porridge (Smallaxe27) CO2 purging (Joe Yoder) RE: Calibrating thermometers ("Van Hove John Maj CADRE\\WGN") anyone else this unlucky? ("Benjy Edwards") RE: PVC braided tubing (Don Price) phil & jill's party ("Wilf Phoenix") plastic flavor ("Marc Hawley") New Refrigerator Question ("Ian Forbes") Chiller Wars - Thermodynamics skirmish ("Bob") RE: keg purging with CO2 (Bob Sheck) Brew questions (David Brandt) Re:Frig vs GFI--Bob Sutton ("J. KISH") re: ss welding (Chris) Oaken Barrels. (Dennis) RE: ss welding and Could it be a flamethrower? ("Steven Parfitt") Dave Burley (" Jim Bermingham") Florida Bottle Bill & Fl Brewers List ("Mark Tumarkin") RE: Subject: ss welding (LaBorde, Ronald) RE: My idea of a homebrewed chiller (LaBorde, Ronald) Re: Could it be a flamethrower? (Peter Torgrimson) The Cajun Jacketed Fermented (The Man From Plaid) flattery, mail-order, Gambrinus ESB ("Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies") Re: Jolly Ranchers (Brewboy1) Simple Chiller?? ("Tom Williams") GCHC 2001 - Toronto will be Centre of Homebrew Universe! ("Darryl Newbury") Local vs Mail Order ... and Big City Homebrew Clubs ("Darryl Newbury") RE: Brewing with Rye ("Steven Parfitt") Beer & flatulence (IndSys, SalemVA)" <Douglas.Moyer at indsys.ge.com> Dwarf Hops ("Doug Hurst")
* * Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! * Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!! To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!** IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to the digest as we canoot reach you. We will not correct your address for the automation - that's your job. The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit. More information is available by sending the word "info" to req at hbd.org. JANITOR on duty: Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen (janitor@hbd.org)
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 16:07:23 -0500 From: "Mark Tumarkin" <mark_t at ix.netcom.com> Subject: Florida Bottle Laws and the Florida Brewers List As you may already know, Florida has some very restrictive bottle laws. These laws limit the size containers in which beer can be sold to 8, 12, 16, and 32 oz. Thus, we don't have the opportunity to buy many imports in metric sizes or the 22oz bombers used by many domestic microbreweries. There have been several attempts to change the law in the past, last year we almost succeeded but the attempt was shot down at the last minute. There have been changes in the leadership of the legislature, and we have a better chance of succeeding this year. The bill in the Senate, SB202, is doing very well. It has passed most of the important committees and will be going to the Senate floor soon. It's companion bill in the House, HB 187, is a different matter. It contains the needed language to remove the bottle size restrictions, but unfortunately it has some other provisions that limit the alcohol content in bottles larger than 16oz to 3.2%. and puts some inane labeling requirements on foreign brewers who wish to sell in Florida. These provisions are clearly unacceptable. However, it has been determined that the best strategy is to ammend the bill in committee. Thus removing these additions while leaving the language removing the bottle size restrictions. Hopefully, this will be successful and both bills will pass. In order to pass these bills, the brewing community in Florida needs to write and call as many of our legislators as we can. We need to let them know how we feel and ask them to vote for SB202 and HB187. In order to coordinate this effort, and to get information out to as many Florida brewers as quickly as possible; we have set up the Florida Brewers List, an email list on the Home Brew Digest server. You can sign on to the list by sending an email to the address florida-request@hbd.org with the word subscribe as the message. You don't need anything in the subject field. You will recieve back an authentication message. Respond to this message according to the directions in the message and you will be subscribed to the list and will recieve all subsequent posts to the list. You can send postings to florida at hbd.org. We would like to get as many interested Florida brewers (both homebrewers and professionals) signed onto the list as quickly as possible. Once the bills reach the floor of the Senate and House for voting, this will be a very important time for us to get information out as quickly as possible to help mobilize the necessary call-in and write-in campaigns to the legislators. So please get this information out to any Florida brewers (or beer lovers) on your email lists. We need all the help we can get to make sure the legislation passes this time. This may be our last and best hope. Thank you, Mark Tumarkin Hogtown Brewers Gainesville, Fl Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 13:22:25 -0800 (PST) From: Beaverplt <beaverplt at yahoo.com> Subject: Checking in - again Hi again, Thanks to all that weighed in on some of my questions. I'm glad to hear so many stories of sharing. It sort of reinforces the truth that homebrewers are not drunks. (Remember that thread?) Thanks to everybody's input I'm considering trying to reuse the yeast from my next batch. Regarding yeast, my experience and one of the things I read in the HBD seem contrary. I've read often about buiding up a starter even for a 5 gallon batch. I've never done that. I've pitched either a smack pack or prepared dry yeast per the package and pitched that directly into the carboy. I've never had a problem with fermentation. And I've never used more than one package to get the batch going. With few exceptions, my beers have always been full flavored and I get the readings I'm supposed to on my SG tests. Am I just lucky? I'm sure there is plenty of info in the archives on how to reuse yeast so I won't waste anybody's time with "how to" questions. CIPing my Zwickel. No wonder I need glasses now. Seriously, what does CIP mean? I think a list of pubs for travelers would be redundant considering how many people responded about Pubcrawler. I'm really torn now about my next beer. I've been wanting to do a Nut Brown ale, but after reading so much about CAP beers I'm intrigued. Maybe both. Graham. I'm sorry you've decided to play in your own sandbox without all your Yank friends. Keep the sand out of your shorts, it plays hell on your zwickel. ===== Jerry "Beaver" Pelt That's my story and I'm sticking to it Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 16:47:49 EST From: Smallaxe27 at aol.com Subject: Amsterdam; what/ where to drink, Greetings all, I thought I'd ask the collective if anyone has any suggestions on beers and beer destinations not-to-be-missed in Amsterdam. I'm happy to say I'll be there for a few days at the end of the month. As time and funds are not unlimited, I was need to make the most of my time and guilder. We're already considering a daytrip to Cologne as my buddy wants to visit the folks' hometown, and I want to visit with Kolsch. Sadly, we won't be there long enough for an excursion through Belgium. Thanks in advance, Steve G. Philadelphia, No idea Rennerian Smallaxe Brewery Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 17:15:34 -0500 (EST) From: darrell.leavitt at plattsburgh.edu Subject: Don't do this: ok, I am embarrased to report this .....but I feel compelled to do so, given its importance (if correct): Two times I have found hairline cracks on the bottom of my glass carboys in the last 2 months. The first time the carboy was filled with water and chlorine...so I didn't lose the batch. The second time (just a few minutes ago) there was a small leak....I siphoned into the secondary, and saved the batch...no glass fragments...no breakage...just a nasty crack on the bottom edge. Now I am not entirely certain, but am usually very careful to place them down gently when I move them...and I THINK that this MAY be ther //the// result of over-enthusiastic rousing of the yeasties at the end or near the end of the primary. I often will swirl the carboy....sometimes violently...and I think that this may be the error in my ways. So...please don't do as I do....rouse the yeast, but....do it gently! I know that this sounds very odd....but cannot think of any other way that they could get cracked....... Embarassed..... Feeling dumb....... ...Darrell Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 17:16:56 EST From: Smallaxe27 at aol.com Subject: Wort Porridge I'm wondering if I've screwed up somehow. My brewing buddy was using a recipe that called for, among other things, 1 lb. of flaked oats to be boiled for the full 60 min. I didn't have my reference materials handy, and I haven't made an Oatmeal Stout in several years, but undaunted by ready knowledge I suggested that he simply steep at 155 F for 30 min. with the rest of the specialty grains. He trusted me. He did so. After cooling, we started to rack and found the wort to be REALLY thick. OG (of what was rackable) was about 1.050, nothing exceptional. Between the spooge from the post-boil cooled wort, and what was left when we racked to secondary, there was at least 1 gallon of too-thick-to-rack sludge out of an original volume of 5 gallons. The SG when we racked was around 1.012 and tasted fine. So what's the concensus, did I give him bad advise and screw up his batch? Sheepishly, Steve G. Smallaxe Brewery Philadelphia Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 16:36:43 -0600 From: Joe Yoder <headduck at swbell.net> Subject: CO2 purging Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 11:43:12 -0500 From: "Czerpak, Pete" <Pete.Czerpak at siigroup.com> Subject: keg purging with CO2 If anybody purges their corny kegs after filling them with beer to get ride of some to all of the air in the headspace after closing them up here are some numbers to help you out. Pete wrote: I assume using CO2 at 10 psi since that is about the pressure that I normally have available in my manifold unless I disconnect all the other kegs first. Also assumed in no solubility of oxygen in beer. 1 purge takes you to 75% of original oxygen level. 2 purges takes you to 50% of original O2. 3 takes you to 25% ...... 5 takes you to 10% ........ 6 takes you to 4% ....... 9 takes you to 1% ....... 14 takes you to 0.1% ...... I reply: I have never understood why people purge with CO2 when simply transferring the sanitizing liquid out of the keg using CO2 will completely fill the keg with CO2. Simply fill the keg with iodophor solution (2.5ppm) and push it out into the next keg or vessel that you have to sanitize by pushing CO2 into the inlet of the keg. This way you have 100 percent CO2 in the keg and you can rack into it with no worry of oxygenation. 9 or 14 purges with CO2 sounds like a PITA to me. just my 2 cents. Joe Yoder Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 22:43:18 -0000 From: "Van Hove John Maj CADRE\\WGN" <John.VanHove at maxwell.af.mil> Subject: RE: Calibrating thermometers On 7 March, John Adsit talked about the calibration, or lack thereof, of his brewing thermometer. I'm way behind in my HBD reading, but after reading John's post, I wanted to share a story about my own experience with thermometer calibration problems last Summer. I'll put the punch-line right up front. A friend was using one of those bi- metal thermometers with a dial face and a 12-inch probe. He must have cleaned it too vigorously and blown the calibration all out of whack because it was reading normal+40. He was new to all-grain brewing and asked me to come over and see if I could help him out. His first batch had given him all kinds of problems, the two biggest of which were an impossibly stuck sparge and an extremely high terminal gravity. Maybe some of you gray-beards in the audience could diagnose the problem immediately, but I didn't know what his problem was and wanted to see his procedures first-hand. I had seen his Gott cooler with copper manifold setup before and couldn't understand why he was having such awful problems with his sparge. I got to his house on a Sunday afternoon and he had already started his mash and was just about ready to sparge. He had the water and grain for a Guinness-clone stout in an insulated 10-gallon SS brewpot and was applying direct heat to maintain a mash temperature of about 156 F. I normally do infusion mashing, not direct heat, so I couldn't be sure, but the bubbling black tar in his pot looked nothing like any mash I had ever seen. It smelled good, but had the consistency of road tar (only a slight exaggeration). He dumped it into his Gott cooler setup and opened the valve to re-circulate a bit and didn't get a pint before he got a stuck sparge. I was at a loss. There was nothing wrong with his copper manifold. It should work. The only thing it could be was the tar-like consistency of his mash. He told me the quantity of grain and the volume of water and the temperature of his rest. It all sounded OK, but I'd never seen a mash that looked anything like the gunk in his cooler. I mentioned that raising the mash temperature for a mash out is supposed to reduce the viscosity of the mash and make sparging easier so he dumped the gunk back into his pot and raised the temperature to 170 F for 15 minutes. After this the tar went back into his Gott with the same results. Well, it was a hot Summer day in Montgomery Alabama so we sat back to drink a homebrew and scratch our heads some more. I commented that I had a hard time chilling my own brew the day before because it was over 100 degrees in my garage. I grabbed his brew thermometer to check the current temperature on his back porch and saw that it was a brisk 50 degrees. At that point the light bulb finally went on over my head. He had been mashing at ~196 F and did a mash out at damn near boiling. The brew was lost, but we learned the importance of an equipment check at the start of the brew day. I'm still looking for a good brew thermometer at an affordable price, but I always give the one I have a good sanity check before I brew. When it's 50 F on a summer afternoon in Alabama, you know something is not right! VH Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 17:58:08 -0500 From: "Benjy Edwards" <rdbedwards at hotmail.com> Subject: anyone else this unlucky? Ok, so maybe I wasn't unlucky, just stupid. After drilling two holes in my GE chest freezer 8 months ago to install a cask breather, yesterday I tried drilling 4 holes to install a co2 distribution manifold, and . . . you know the rest. I hit a coolant line and my sobs of pain were drowned out by the endless hissing noise of all of the R134a leaking out. Has anyone else been through this? Right now I'm trying to ascertain from GE and repair guys whether it's worth repairing or if I'm better off junking it and buying a new one. Sadly, the freezer is only 1 year old, but I've been told that fixing the new sealed units isn't worth it. What's the opinion of the group on whether to repair/replace? If I should replace it, does anyone have any ingenious homebrewing applications for a non-functional chest freezer? Any input appreciated, Benjy rdbedwards at hotmail.com Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 18:47:35 -0500 From: Don Price <dprice1 at tampabay.rr.com> Subject: RE: PVC braided tubing Try www.mcmaster.com or www.coleparmer.com for a wide selection of tubing including "food grade" types. Home Depot tubing may stock some "food grade" tubing....check to see how it is marked. Your local brewshop may be able to help. No clue on getting rid of the taste other than rinse, rinse, and rinse some more. I use PVC food grade suction hose (rated for full vacuum) at work though I've never tried to drink from it. Don Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 00:16:23 -0000 From: "Wilf Phoenix" <wilf.phoenix at btinternet.com> Subject: phil & jill's party SO! All the boring parents wanted the HOMEBREW... Can't blame 'em can we.. Phil should offer a course to the parent and teachers - Could really weld that school together Phil! ...Keep on with the good stuff.. - - Cheers - Wilf Phoenix MANCHESTER UK Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 18:23:35 -0600 From: "Marc Hawley" <Marc_Hawley at email.msn.com> Subject: plastic flavor I had a similar experience with polypropylene tanks. I bought some nice Nalgene tanks for mashing and boiling. The first batch went down the drain because of an awful overpowering plastic flavor. I contacted Nalgene. They sent me the standard "protocol" for removing the flavor. You are supposed to autoclave the tanks in water at 250 degrees. Well, I just didn't happen to have a four foot tall autoclave handy, so I skipped to plan B. Soak overnight in hot water with detergent. I did this several times with very hot water and Dawn dishwashing detergent. Then rinsed and soaked several nights with plain water to get rid of the detergent and its fragrances. This worked. No more plastic flavor. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 21:00:24 -0500 From: "Ian Forbes" <ian.forbes at snet.net> Subject: New Refrigerator Question Hail to the Fridgeguy! Long live the Fridgeguy! Mr. Duddles, I have a refrigerator in the cellar that belonged to the PO. It has been down there for 5 years and run maybe 3 or 4 times. In anticipation of purchasing some kegging equipment, I fired'r up yesterday to make sure everything was a-ok...and now I'm posting questions to the HBD. The freezer seems to work great (well below 32F) but the refrigerator is only getting down to around 50F at its coldest setting. 1. Any ideas on what might be causing this and how to fix it? 2. If I can't fix it, are there any freon lines between the freezer (top) and refrigerator (bottom) compartments? If not I could open up the top and bottom so that the cold air from the freezer does the cooling...no? Thanks for the help, Ian in Hamden, CT Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 21:40:27 -0800 From: "Bob" <bsmntbrewr at home.com> Subject: Chiller Wars - Thermodynamics skirmish "Tom Williams" <williams2353 at hotmail.com> wrote in his post- Subject: Chiller Wars - Thermodynamics skirmish <snip> For cooling wort, I don't believe the cost of the cooling medium flow is an issue. Pump as much through your cooler as you can, and I challenge you to detect the incremental cost of the higher flow. </snip Oh, but Tom, efficiency of cooling medium flow is an issue for some brewers. Although it is probably a minority, some brewers may find their supply of H2O limited due to their wells. I know of one such brewer in our community who suffers from this affliction. I wouldn't be surprised to see him posting on this subject. Another issue that has been common recently in many communities is water restrictions imposed by local authorities during droughts. One of our local municipalities had such restrictions in effect a summer or two ago. Many of our club members were forced to seek conserving measures for cooling. Me, I'm fortunate enough to reside across the city line where our county planned ahead and we were not restricted in such a fashion. I can't defy your challenge though, I agree, the cost under normal conditions is not noticeable on my water bill. Brew On! Bob Bratcher Roanoke, VA Star City Brewers Guild http://hbd.org/starcity Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 01:26:19 -0500 From: Bob Sheck <bsheck at skantech.net> Subject: RE: keg purging with CO2 I fill my kegs with Iodophor, sanitize for an hour, then use CO2 to push out the sanitizer. Then I invert for awhile (generally the day before I fill). Crack the hatch and let the few drops that have drained down trickle out, reseal, and fill with beer through the OUT connection. Works for me. Bob Sheck / DEA / Greenville, NC Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 22:42:09 -0800 From: David Brandt <jdlcr at flash.netdex.com> Subject: Brew questions I've got a few questions for the mashing minions out there. 1. I usually direct pitch my yeast but lately I've been making starters. Since trub and krausen krud aren't considered virtues in a fermenter-is the flavor affected when I pitch everything that's in my starter flask? 2. Some brews taste great early on, while with others aging greatly improves the flavor. Is there a guideline for aging by variety -other than let the darks or high alcohols age longer? 3. Anyone got a Westmalle Trippel clone recipe out there? David Brandt Cloverdale, CA Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 22:46:33 +0000 From: "J. KISH" <jjkish at att.net> Subject: Re:Frig vs GFI--Bob Sutton When you have a GFI mounted in a room, all of the 120 volt outlets in that room are protected by that GFI. You don't need to use an extention cord to find another GFI. Leakage to ground from other outlets will trip that GFI. Joe Kish Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 23:56:05 -0800 From: Chris <smithchr at mindspring.com> Subject: re: ss welding Slow down now. You do not want to weld the copper to the keg. You just need the best contact in order to conduct the heat away. On welding, no way copper to stainless. With normal hand gear that is. You can use laser or EB but that would be a waste of money. If you really want to put a chiller on the outside of a keg this is how I went about it. This is the cheapest part. The big bucks come into the glycol ( or other refrigerant) recirculator, pump reservoirs and plumbing. Plain water will probably not carry enough heat away to be efficient. You need a pretty good temperature delta as well as a coolant that can carry many BTU's out to the heat exchanger. My garage is beginning to resemble something out of a bad sci-fi movie due to this type of affair. Have some small ss clips welded to the can at 90 intervals at top and bottom Put nut plates on the clips for straps to connect the clips at top and bottom. Wrap the copper tube as tight as possible around the keg without kinking. you can loosen and tighten the straps as you work the copper tightly against the cans and adjust the gap between loops. Then hose that puppy with a non water absorbing spray foam over the copper coils. Sounds like way to much work for something the size of a corn can. Mine is set up for 15 gallon batches and the only way I justify the expense and effort put out is that I am addicted to making excellent beer. I wanto to use a cornelius keg as a Lager fermentor. My idea is to weld a 3/8 inch copper tube around it (here I just found SS tubes limited to 10 inches long pieces and they are too hard to work). I have made a cold water generator (from an old water through equip.)and I plan to recirculate this cold water through this copper tube. The question is: is possible to weld copper and SS ? I heard that is impossible due to totally different fusion temps of these elements. I was wondering about use of lead wire soldering ... Comments, please Alexandre Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 09:29:54 +0100 From: Dennis <io185467 at student.io.tudelft.nl> Subject: Oaken Barrels. Hi, I'm planning to try aging my brews in small oaken barrels for while. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also roast barley is near impossible to obtain where i live, so I roasted it myself. But the only barley i can just buy is dehusked, is this a problem? Thank you, Dennis. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 08:33:29 -0500 From: "Steven Parfitt" <the_gimp98 at hotmail.com> Subject: RE: ss welding and Could it be a flamethrower? Alexandre Carminati <carminat at email.com> asks about welding >I wanto to use a cornelius keg as a Lager fermentor. My idea is to >weld a >3/8 inch copper tube around it..... ....snip >The question is: is possible to weld copper and SS ? I heard that is >impossible due to totally different fusion temps of these elements. I >was >wondering about use of lead wire soldering ...Comments, >pleaseAlexandre Try Silver Solder, but watch the temp on the SS. The SS is real thin and difficult to do without overheating it and causing embrittlement. Or if your in an experiemnting mood, use metal filled epoxy such as JB Weld. You don't need to epoxy all of the tubing, just several spots around it. Make sure it is good and tight for optimal thermal transfer and secure the start and finish ends by soldering them to the adjacent turn. Gene Collins <GCollins at cranecarrier.com> is looking for burners. I'm at the same point with my system. (Check Photopint for pix) However I plan on making my own burners after the design used by Steve Jones. Photos at : http://users.chartertn.net/franklinbrew/gadgets.htm under 3-Tier and 2-Tier systems. These are Jet Type burners. I have seen tehm in action, and they work quite well. Construction is 1/4" iron pipe, with a section of 2"diameter iron pipe as the venturi/mixing chamber. Cost should be minimal, and if you are building several (I'm planning on three) the work should be minimal as well. Steven, -75 XLCH- Ironhead Nano-Brewery, under construction. Johnson City, TN - 5:47:38.9 S, 1:17:37.5 E Rennerian http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=241124&a=1791925 "Fools you are... who say you like to learn from your mistakes.... I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others and avoid the cost of my own." Otto von Bismarck Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 07:46:34 -0600 From: " Jim Bermingham" <bermingham at antennaproducts.com> Subject: Dave Burley Welcome back Dave, On the 14th of this month Dave Burley shared a post on secondary fermentation with us. I would like to welcome Dave back home. Jim Bermingham Millsap, TX Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 09:04:55 -0500 From: "Mark Tumarkin" <mark_t at ix.netcom.com> Subject: Florida Bottle Bill & Fl Brewers List Since I wrote the other day on the Florida Bottle Bill and the Fl Brewers List, there has been a big, positive step forward. Here is the latest post to the Florida Brewers List from John Larsen, past president of the North Florida Brewers Guild - "Here's what happened today at the committee meeting concerning HB187. The bill was introduced by its sponsor. A member of the committee (Clark?) then proposed to amend the bill in the following manner: a) remove the 3.2% alcohol limit; b) remove the language pertaining to the documentation of the exporting country's units of measure; and c) allow cider to be sold in kegs (evidently, it is currently treated as wine and cannot be sold in kegs?) There was no discussion and the bill's sponsor said, sure that's OK, so the amendment was accepted. Then the bill was passed by unanimous vote. The whole process took maybe ten minutes. In short, it appears that the bill not only sailed through the committee, but it also has been amended to remove the undesirable parts! (It appears that some folks have been working hard behind the scenes, because this was a done deal. I suspect that Sen. Tom Lee deserves the bulk of the credit.) When I last checked the House web site, it didn't mention the amendment, but I assure you it happened. In committee, the chair asked the sponsor about something called a "committee substitute". I don't know what that means, but I'll try to find out. What appears to be next for the House bill is to go to the Council for Smarter Government. I think a vote will be required there as well before it can go to the House floor. The Senate bill should be on the floor of the full Senate soon." John is our 'man on the spot'; living in Tallahassee, he has put in a tremendous amount of time and effort in attending meetings and keeping the rest of us aware of the latest developements. You can find out more info (or keep up with developements) at the NFBL web site - http://www.nfbl.org/BottleBill2001/default.htm Another important site is the Florida government site, Online Sunshine - http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Welcome/index.cfm this site has the text of the bills, the voting schedules, etc - but most importantly, it has the phone numbers, email addresses and other contact info for all the state legislators, in both the House and the Senate. I think the fact that the House bill had the objectionable clauses removed and passed the committee so easily is a tremendous positive sign. The background work by Sen. Tom Lee (and others), as well as the lower level of opposition from the distributor and manufacturer's lobbyists, sets the stage for the bills' success once they actually reach the floors for voting. This means the critical time for contacting our legislators and telling them how to vote on this issue will be coming very soon. We set up the Florida Brewers List to help get out this sort of information and to help mobilize as many people as possible to contact the legislators to get this repressive law changed. Looks like we're on our way to success, Mark Tumarkin Gainesville, Fl Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 09:12:19 -0600 From: rlabor at lsuhsc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald) Subject: RE: Subject: ss welding >From: Alexandre Carminati <carminat at email.com> > >..I wanto to use a cornelius keg as a Lager fermentor. My idea is to weld a 3/8 >inch copper tube around it ... I hope the welders can contribute more here, but if it cannot be done easily I think you can consider placing the keg into a container of water. Circulate your cooling water in this container and the keg temp will be controlled nicely. Ron La Borde Ronald La Borde - Metairie, Louisiana - rlabor at lsuhsc.edu http://hbd.org/rlaborde Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 09:22:30 -0600 From: rlabor at lsuhsc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald) Subject: RE: My idea of a homebrewed chiller >From: Steven <stevensl at mindspring.net> >...It will pump into a coil submerged in a >ice bath, then through a second coil immersed in the wort... Here's the problem, the wort will act as it's own insulator sort of. No matter how cold you get the coil, without any wort motion, the insulating effect will limit the rate of wort cooling. If you can build the coil to cause thermal circulation effects it would work much better. The counterflow chiller has as it's primary design advantage the principle of wort and coolant motion at all times. Ron La Borde Ronald La Borde - Metairie, Louisiana - rlabor at lsuhsc.edu http://hbd.org/rlaborde Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 07:38:33 -0800 From: Peter Torgrimson <petertorgrimson at prodigy.net> Subject: Re: Could it be a flamethrower? Gene Collins <GCollins at cranecarrier.com> "Subject: Could it be a flamethrower?" writes: >> Being web active, I have looked around some different websites and the best >> deal I have come across is a 160,000 BTU burner from the Brinkmann company >> (www.thebrinkmannco.com) that makes grills, cookers, flashlights, etc... >> Twenty bucks each and they are all mine. Is this a good deal or overkill? 160,000, 170,000, or even 200,000 BTU is not overkill. I would not use anything less than 160,000, and maybe hold out for the 200,000. Another source for burners is Metal Fusion down in Louisiana, telephone 800-783-3885. Their prices sound similar to Brinkmann, but their burners may be a little larger. I would not use a jet burner because of the noise. Peter Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 10:46:30 -0500 (EST) From: The Man From Plaid <pbabcock at hbd.org> Subject: The Cajun Jacketed Fermented Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager... I have just this minute designed a jacketed fermenter based off of a cornelius keg. I call it "The Cajun Jacketed Fermenter" to go along with the "Cajun RIMS" I never finished building. Here's what I did: o Get coil of copper tubing. 1/4" ID is fine. o Wrap tubing around keg. If you want to conserve copper, make sure the coils are denser (more of them) on the top half of the keg than at the bottom. o Wrap insulation around the whole works. o Wrap duct tape around insulation. (This part is optional, but duct tape should be part of any well thought-out project.) o Add appropriate fittings to interface to your coolant supply. o Make an insulating "lid" to cover the top. Control of this beast is up to the user. You can use a thermocouple installed through one of the fitting holes (or make your own hole) and have a PID temperature controller turn on the cold supply based on internal temperature of the fermenter. Or, you can simply run a constant stream of coolant at your desire temperature. - -- - See ya! Pat Babcock in SE Michigan pbabcock at hbd.org Home Brew Digest Janitor janitor@hbd.org HBD Web Site http://hbd.org The Home Brew Page http://hbd.org/pbabcock "The monster's back, isn't it?" - Kim Babcock after I emerged from my yeast lab Saturday Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 09:53:05 -0600 From: "Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies" <orders at paddockwood.com> Subject: flattery, mail-order, Gambrinus ESB Why, Mr Lundeen! We're ever so flattered.... Brian professes his devotion to Paddock Wood in Homebrew Digest #3586 (March 21, 2001). It's nice to know we're loved. As Brian points out, North of the Border the home brewing situation is very different from most US cities. Two or three Canadian stores, run by all-grainers, offer a limited selection of malts in stock, Calgary and Halifax I know have a good local shop. But all of Canada is only equivalent to a single US state in population, and we are rather spread about. It makes it hard for a local store to justify stocking bulky, low return items. In fact, it's hard for us to justify it too. We're just obsessed. Maybe one day we'll actually turn a profit, but in the meantime we get to make good beer, and help others make good beer. And the requests from our customers help us make better beer too! Keeps us on our toes. Brian also pesters: "If I can't get what I want there, I probably don't need it (with the exception of Gambrinus' ESB and Munich 100" Hey! We've had Gambrinus ESB for a while, but I see it's not listed. That could be why there hasn't been much interest! Oops. I shall rectify that. And Gambrinus' Munich 100 (actually 25-30 Lov) we still don't have but it is on order for early May. cheers, Stephen Ross -- "Vitae sine cerevisiae sugant." Paddock Wood Brewing Supplies, Saskatoon, SK orders at paddockwood.com www.paddockwood.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 10:53:17 EST From: Brewboy1 at aol.com Subject: Re: Jolly Ranchers Stephen, I am probably not the first to admit this but I have actually tried using Jolly Ranchers as an adjunct in one of my homebrews. My good friend Tom Gardner and I tried this back in college when we were attempting to brew a most refreshing summer quenching Watermelon Ale. The theory was and remains that the Watermelon Jolly Ranchers are sugar and can be liquified on the stove top, cooled down and pitched into the beer. It sorta worked...I think that if we had used the Sugar as a priming agent for bottling, it would have worked better. Adding the sugar to the secondary kick started the fermentation and the beer lacked a pronounced Watermelon Character. Now that I make beer 7bbls at a time, I have thought about trying this again...but I think that we'd spend too much time peeling away all those wrappers. Good Luck, I am anxious to see if I am the only one who has foolishly tried this. Tomme Arthur Head Brewer Pizza Port Solana Beach Brewery Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 10:57:03 -0500 From: "Tom Williams" <williams2353 at hotmail.com> Subject: Simple Chiller?? Steven contemplates building a simple chiller: >a) small/compact >b) makes cleanup simple/quick/easy >c) works >d) fits into the KISS rule - keep it simple stupid! " Then proceeds to make it less simple: >a line comes out of a condensate pump used for a home AC unit, this >might >need to be stronger if need be. It will pump into a coil >submerged in a >ice bath, then through a second coil immersed in the >wort, connected by a >length of rubber line. The return will dump into >the tank built into the >pump. I am thinking of using Propelene Glycol >and Water mix for good heat >transfer with limited toxic effects. I can >pump all liquid into a sealed >container after use and pump liquid from >the container into the pump to >prime it when i start the cooling >process. " The issue I think you may have missed is what happens to the heat removed from the wort? You will be collecting it in your closed loop system, requiring a much bigger ice bath than would be necessary just to lower the approach temperature. The ice bath coil will probably need to be bigger as well. Also, the flowrate from an A/C condensate pump may not be high enough. Why not skip the pump and tank arrangement, and just use once-through tap water? Plenty of pressure, rejected heat goes down the drain, no worries about the glycol, and the cooling medium temperature will be much lower entering the ice bath. (In fact, you can probably keep the first coil out of the ice until the wort temperature gets fairly low, then drop it in to lower it further). An interesting exercise would be to calculate the cost of the tap water used for cooling one batch, and compare it to the cost of the glycol necessary for this system. I'm guessing it would take quite a few batches of once-through tap water to equal the cost of the glycol charge. All that said, your closed loop cooling system sounds like fun. Let us know how it turns out. Cheers, Tom Williams Dunwoody, Gerogia Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 11:01:59 -0500 From: "Darryl Newbury" <darryl at sagedesign.com> Subject: GCHC 2001 - Toronto will be Centre of Homebrew Universe! For two days only, May 4th and 5th, the Centre of the Homebrew Universe will be in Toronto. This year's Great Canadian Homebrew Conference, with a theme of Brewing Through the Ages, promises to be an great event. Cost for the entire event is only $100 Canadian (less if you book early). This price includes a historic homebrew reception on Friday May 4th, the full day conference on the Saturday May 5th to be followed by a brewers banquet at the Granite Brewpub in which a 3 course meal will be cooked and served with the Granite's fine ales. Declaring the event to be the centre of the homebrew universe may seem somewhat arrogent, but in this case it is not as CABA is pleased to announce that none other than Jeff Renner will be featured amongst our fine lineup of speakers (Rennerian 0,0). For more information and to download a registration form see CABA's website at www.realbeer.com/caba Cheers Darryl Newbury CABA Vice-President Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 11:03:07 -0500 From: "Darryl Newbury" <darryl at sagedesign.com> Subject: Local vs Mail Order ... and Big City Homebrew Clubs Brian Lundeen says: > On to the main point of the rant. As an all-grain brewer, I feel that >Stephen is being far too generous toward the local shops. Sadly, Brian's comments do seem accurate with few exceptions. Here in Toronto we have one store Brew-Your-Own which caters to all grain brewers. Although their selection is not as great as places that do mail order like Paddockwood which I occasionally rely on (incidentially Stephen I too would be interested in a bag of Gambrinius ESB), Brew-Your-Own does have most of the needs for homebrewers (a good selection of malt: Canadian Malting, Hugh Baird and DWC; a good selection of yeast: most Wyeast, Whitelabs and dry strains and a good variety of hops). That said, the owner says that he makes little profit from all-grain brewers and selling kits and extracts is a greater part of his business. Another shop I've been too out in the suburbs has products available for grain brewers but no understanding of our needs... ie. you can buy a 25kg bag of ground roasted barley there that has undoubtable gone unsold for many months, not years. I suspect that high rents and too specialized a hobby make it difficult for quality homebrew shops to make a go in large urban settings. On Brain's other comment, that is his attempt to bring me into a debate about thriving homebrew clubs makes me wonder ... are there thriving clubs in other large cities our efforts in Toronto have thus far be futile at organizing a clubs (well, not entirely 5 or 6 of us have had a great time getting together for pints over the past few months). Maybe its because there's too much to do here or CABA organizes a couple of events a year in Toronto - but it seems to me that there should be more interest for a club than there currently is. Cheers Darryl in Toronto. Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 13:06:14 -0500 From: "Steven Parfitt" <the_gimp98 at hotmail.com> Subject: RE: Brewing with Rye I already ditched the dighst today, but remembered someone asking about brewing with rye. Check out: http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue1.3/index.html It has an article on rye brewing. You can get to a list of the back issues by searching from : http://www.brewingtechniques.com/ Lots of good stuf. I'm only on issue 3. Steven, -75 XLCH- Ironhead Nano-Brewery, Under construction. Johnson City, TN 5:47:38.9 S, 1:17:37.5 E Rennerian http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=241124&a=1791925 "Fools you are... who say you like to learn from your mistakes.... I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others and avoid the cost of my own." Otto von Bismarck Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 13:23:39 -0500 From: "Moyer, Douglas (IndSys, SalemVA)" <Douglas.Moyer at indsys.ge.com> Subject: Beer & flatulence "Mark Tumarkin" <mark_t at ix.netcom.com> writes (in response to Nils): - --------- >4) Any way to reduce the undesirable flatulent affects of beer? why would you want to? just kidding. possibly try some of the less carbonated styles - the higher the carbonation, the more gas, etc etc - --------- Dr. Dean Edell writes: "Does increased gas wind up in your large intestine to increase flatulence? It is actually a big question. Some doctors say yes, and some doctors say no" But, the question is not so much the gas, but the smell! He also writes: "When excess gases are produced and passed from the body, most of them are virtually odorless, which brings us to another question -- where does the smelly gas come from? Well, it turns out that sulfur compounds are the culprit. A flatulence containing only .001 percent of hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol or dimethylsufide are the main gases responsible for the odors we find offensive. The odorous gases can be caused by nonabsorbable sulfur-containing compounds such as broccoli and other cruciferious vegetables, as well as beer. Activated charcoal is sometimes used to fight flatulence, but it's fairly ineffective in preventing odors. One thing that does work is bismuth, which binds to sulfides and offers a solution to feces or flatus odors. In fact, four tablets of Pepto Bismol a day results in eliminating the release of methane." Back to me: Now how do we reduce the sulfur compounds in our beer? Brew on! Doug Moyer Salem, VA Star City Brewers Guild: http://hbd.org/starcity Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 12:28:58 -0600 From: "Doug Hurst" <DougH at theshowdept.com> Subject: Dwarf Hops I have begun to research Dwarf Hops. They were developed in 1996 at Wye college in Kent England in a effort to create a hop which would be less costly and easier to manage. They grow to a height of approximately 8' instead of the normal 15' or more. I am wondering if anyone has used these and if they are available in the U.S.? I did find a post in the archives from someone asking the same question a couple years ago but no responses. It seems to me that Dwarf Hops make growing in limited space or even indoors a possibility. Any further information or leads on rhizomes in the U.S. would be greatly appreciated. http://www.breworld.com/the_brewer/9601/br4.html - Article about the development of Dwarf Hops TIA, Doug Hurst Chicago, IL Return to table of contents
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