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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  RE: Ya' know? You gotta love em' ("Bissell, Todd S")
  >>What do YOU have? Cheer 'em on! (Ray Kruse)
  PartyPig (leavitdg)
  dry hop and pig (leavitdg)
  Re: Travelling with kegs (Jeff Renner)
  Subject: Re: Temperature unevenness in mash ("2brewers4u")
  Titrating, acid etc. ("A.J. deLange")
  Re: Advanced Party Pig Questions ("Bill Riel")
  Budvar yeast ("Dave Howell")
  party pigs (carlos benitez)
  Re: (OT) World Homebrew Contest & Boston Beer Co. ("RJ")
  Extract color (Kim Thomson)


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Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 22:55:06 -0700
From: "Bissell, Todd S" <tbissell at spawar.navy.mil>
Subject: RE: Ya' know? You gotta love em'


I figured I chime in on this topic, only because.... that while I may be a
Grade-A Newbie in the Homebrewing game, I've been a die-hard micro/import
fan since my very first Newcastle in November 1991 (Fell's Point, Baltimore
MD, Horse You Came In On Saloon, to be precise).

Besides my excellent (if I do say so myself!) E.S.B., and a drinkable Porter
that I've been nursing, I have the following in my `fridge:

Gem Of The Sea Ale (yah Local Nanobrewery from Vista, CA!)
Brothers' Amber (Oakland, CA!)
Bridgeport Porter (Oregon, of course!)
Grant's Perfect Porter (Yakima, WA -- and yes, I am a porter junky....!)
Napa Ale Works Red Ale and Wheat Ale (excellent ales from the Wine Country!)
Big Daddy IPA (San Francisco, CA!)
Acme IPA (Fort Bragg, CA!)
and Alesmith Extra Pale Ale (San Diego, CA!)

(Of course, I also have Pilsner Urquell, St. Bednardus Triple, Chimay
Red-cap, Ayinger Brau-weisse, Orval, and the aforementioned Newcastle Brown
in my fridge, but those don't count -- those should be considered to be
"semi-mandatory", and thus excepted from the July American Homebrew Month
stats....!)

Cheers!

Todd S. Bissell



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Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 06:46:55 -0400
From: Ray Kruse <rkruse at krusecontrols.com>
Subject: >>What do YOU have? Cheer 'em on!

While browsing the craft brews at a local liquor store during a visit to
Houston last week, I stumbled across Mactarnahan's Blackwatch Cream
Porter.

Although I love Sierra Nevada Porter, and used to think that it was the
best example and THE ONE to emulate, I've been converted.  This stuff is
great.

Now, how do I get this by the keg, from Portland to Baltimore?

Ray Kruse
Glen Burnie, PRMd
rkruse at bigfoot.com



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Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 06:58:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu
Subject: PartyPig

  I own 11 PartyPigs.  Given that level of investment, I guess that a
good psychologist would either assume that I brew too much (compulsive
brewing anxiety disorder...or something of that sort...they are now
talking about compulsive shopping disorder...although it has not
yet made it into the DSM <Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of 
Mental Disorders...published by the Amer. Psychiatric Association, and
seen by some of us skeptics as a means for getting 3rd party payments
for shrinks and psych-counselors by giving every sort of behavior a
psychiatric label ...caffeinism, for another ex>

OR that, given the high level of investment, I HAVE  to like them (you
remember cognitive dissonance theory?)

So, my input may be taken with a "grain of salt" [0-150 ppm, less for Pilsen
water...more for Dublin]
 as they say, but with
that caveat I need to say that:

I am rather pleased with them, if:

1) you don't mind spending the money for the purchase, as well as for the bags

2) you don't have C02, which is clearly superior (if you have the fridge)

3) you are very careful when  openning it up after use...to loosen the screws
then to pop the inner bag with a clothes hanger or some other means before
taking the screws off...this can be dangerous...
4) you really like the freedom of being able to take a 2.25 gal keg to a
friend's house...and don't want to worry about ice,...etc..

That said, I will soon step up to C02...but will keep the bags for their
convenience (effectiveness) if not for thier cost (efficency).  

Happy Brewing!
 ..Darrell


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Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 07:02:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu
Subject: dry hop and pig

I forgot to say: I have dry hopped the pigs...boiling a muslin bag/
small hop bag to sanitize, then puting the hops in the bag...so as
to not clog the spiggot mechanism.  For me, better results with
fresh leaves than with the pellets...although the pellets are 
easier to get in the orifice...

 .Darrell


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Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 09:05:03 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at mediaone.net>
Subject: Re: Travelling with kegs

Mike.Szwaya at co.clark.wa.us writes:

>I've got a question on travelling with kegs.  Has anyone had any experience
>with airplane travel with kegs?  Not so much corny kegs but 1/4 or 1/2 bbl
>sankey ones.  I'm wondering how breweries that go to festivals, etc. get
>their kegs there.
>
>I guess there would be issues with weight, like an additional weight
>surcharge.   And then there's the whole pressurized vessel issue.  Would
>there be any legal, transporting-alcohol problems with going from, say,
>Oregon to Maine?

I have had a bit of experience.  I wanted to take a keg of CAP to 
MCAB-II in St. Louis last year.  I keg in 1/4 bbl. Sankeys, but a 
full one weighs more than the 70 lbs that is the limit for many 
airlines without a substantial fee.  I was concerned that a Corny 
woulnd't be sturdy enough to hold up.  Fortunately, I have a 1/6 bbl 
(5-1/6 gallon) Sankey that seemed to fit the bill, although those 
thirsty brewers in St. Louis would have to do with less beer.

So I tried asking at the Southwest Airline 800 number, and go 
conflicting answers.  Some people thought it would be no problem, 
others weren't sure.  So I checked with the SWA manager at the 
Detroit airport when I was at the airport a few weeks before the 
flight.  He checked with a superior at headquarters, and agreed that 
if I released the pressure when I checked it in, it would be OK.  (I 
didn't bother to tell him that the CO2 would come out of the beer and 
nearly all of the pressure would return.)  The trip went fine.

Then a couple of months ago I wanted to take the keg full of CACA to 
the Sunshine Challenge in Orlando, and the Northwest people seemed a 
little less inclined to cooperate.  I asked on HBD, and someone said 
that Ray Daniels had had a keg refused.  So I asked his advice.  he 
said he just bags 'em now and checks them through.  So I did this. 
My son left a big, sturdy nylon canvas duffel bag that the keg just 
fit into.  I put a little padlock on the zipper and checked it 
though.  No problem.  If they had asked what was in it, I had my 
arguments ready as to why it would be OK (and took a tap so I could 
release the pressure if necessary).

The ironic thing is that the tap in my carry on bag got the full 
treatment.  The x-ray operator flagged it as suspicious, and it was 
pulled off the line and wiped with the nmr explosive detection 
sampler.

Jeff
- -- 
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at mediaone.net
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943


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Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 08:25:22 -0500
From: "2brewers4u" <2brewers4u at home.com>
Subject: Subject: Re: Temperature unevenness in mash

I agree, the mash can NEVER be the same temp throughout.  Unless you one
could tumble while the water and or steam run around the grain.  This is
impractical if you want clear run off.  Live with it. If your differs that
much from the varying temp, then you need to open a
microbrewery.....consistency on that that level for the homebrewer is not
only unnecessary but also not achievable. Relax....................you know
the rest.



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Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 15:28:15 +0000
From: "A.J. deLange" <ajdel at mindspring.com>
Subject: Titrating, acid etc.

Martin Brungard raises an interesting point - that it is very easy to
determine the alkalinity of your water. Rather than use an eyedropper,
use a syringe. They are also cheap and now legal in most places in the
US (though you may have to sign for them). Get some 0.1 N hydrochloric
acid. This is weak enough stuff that there is no problem handling or
shipping it. A chemist can make it up for you or, better yet, you can
buy it standardized for exactly the purpose we have in mind here from
companies like Hach (www. hach.com). Measure out 100 mL of water and
drop in 0.1 N acid from the syringe until pH 4.3 is reached  as
indicated by a pH meter or an indicator (methyl orange is the
traditional one but bromcresol greeen - methyl red is now usually used)
obtained from a source such as Hach. The number of milliliters of acid
required is the alkalinity in milliequivalents per liter and is one way
of describing the alkalinity (often used in European literature). In the
US the number of milliliters is usually multiplied by 50. The result is
the alkalinity in parts per million as calcium carbonate.

Easier than fiddling with standard acids are the little kits (Hach,
Lamotte, Chemetrics, Cole Parmer ...) which measure alkalinity using the
same principal though drop counting is usually employed and the results
are thus somewhat less accurate. While at it get one of the hardness
kits and you'll now be able to test for both the parameters needed to
compute residual alkalinity from which base malt mash pH can be
estimated.

In the same number Mike Karnowski asked if acidity and pH are the same
thing. They are not. The acidity is the amount of alkalai which must be
added to a mash to bring the pH to a particular value. It is measured in
exactly the same way as alkalinity described earlier in this post except
that in the case of acidity one adds standardized sodium hydroxide (or
another strong base) and monitors the amount required to raise the pH to
some specified value (it's 8.3 if the acidity of water is being
measured). As an illustration consider taking 100 mL of water and adding
the contents of one of the little capsules used to make up pH 4 buffer
for calibtration of a pH meter. The pH of the resulting solution will be
4. It will take a certain amount of sodium hydroxide to raise the pH of
this solution to say, pH 7. Now repeat the experiment using 2 capsules
of pH 4 buffer. The pH of the resulting solution will still be 4 (or
darn close to it) but it will now take twice as much sodium hydroxide to
raise the pH to 7. The "buffering capacity" of the solution which is
another way of describing the acidity will have doubled though the pH
before alkalai addition is the same.

That said, enzymes respond to the pH of their environment being largely
indifferent to how that pH was established. Thus it doesn't matter if a
lot of acid malt was added to very alkaline water or very little acid
malt to only moderately alkaline water so long as the pH is what it is
supposed to be for a particular enzyme. This is not to say that the
beers will be the same though. The amount of stuff "neutralized" in
setting the pH does effect the way the beer tastes.



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Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 09:40:09 -0700
From: "Bill Riel" <bill.riel at home.com>
Subject: Re: Advanced Party Pig Questions

Todd Bissel has some questions about the Party Pig:

>	Cons: The inflation bag and hand-pump can be tricky/annoying/PITA to use,
>same goes for the gasket mechanism, 2-4$ per inflation bag not
>cost-efficient, unable to use the dishwasher to sanitize, etc.

One suggestion regarding the gasket - you can purchase standard mason
jar rubber sealing rings, and they are exactly the same size as the
flimsy gasket supplied by Quoin. They're very cheap, and there's no
risk of them slipping out of place when you use them. From experience I
can say that they seal well.


>(1): Anybody try out the Pig Snout, from www.steinfillers.com...? It does
>away with the cheap looking hand-pump and inflation pouch, and allows a
>standard ball lock CO2 connection. Good/bad experience, or just a PITA for
>"only" 2.5 gallons....?

I've never used it - I've considered it, but it looks to me that for
the same amount of money (by the time I convert currencies and get it
across the border) I could buy another corni keg locally. So, I haven't
pursued it. Not a bad idea, but (for me) one of the cool advantages of
the pig is that I can take it camping, etc. and not worry about
bringing my C02 along.

I bit the bullet and bought a package of 10 pouches from Quoin a while
ago to keep me going.

>
>And (2): Anybody dry-hop in a Party Pig...? Good/bad results...?

This I haven't tried - It should work, but I think you'd want to put
your hops in a mesh bag or something like that to keep from clogging
(or getting a ton of hops in your beer). 

One thing though, if you do dry hop, there's no way to pull the hops
out if you figure you've got enough effect. I have pulled dry hops out
of cornies before, but unless you are using something like the 'Snout',
you can't open the pig till it's done.

Another possible future development: Dan Listermann was working on a
replacement top to use mini-C02 cartridges. I don't know how that
project is coming along (Hi Dan, if you're reading, any word on this?)

>Like I said, I know this thread has been hashed out *many* times before, but
>need to get a feel for what the current public opinion of these things are
>before making any decisions. Thanks!

Well, as someone who owns 2 pigs as well as a standard kegging setup, I
can say that I'm glad I own the party pig. I wouldn't replace my
standard kegging setup with it, but there are some real conveniences
with the pig. I don't know if it's my imagination, but it seems to me
that beer ages more gracefully in the Pig than in the keg, too.

Good luck!

Bill



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Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 12:34:08 -0700
From: "Dave Howell" <djhowell at qwest.net>
Subject: Budvar yeast

Anyone used the Wyeast Budvar yeast yet?  I just used it for a boh pils,
made with Weyermann malt, and WOW, I want more of it.  I tasted it during
racking to secondary, and already this one is something special.

I hope Wyeast keeps producing it:  my yeast ranch is at full capacity, and I
couldn't add this one to the farm.



Dave Howell

Today, right now, at 12 noon on 4 July, in Mesa, AZ, my thernometer says 110
deg F (43.33 deg C).  And, it's shaded.

"The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things: Of shoes,
of ships, of sealing wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is
boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."
         --- Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)



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Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 16:47:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: carlos benitez <greenmonsterbrewing at yahoo.com>
Subject: party pigs

 HI All !
   Todd asks about the party pig as a convenient way
to take beer to parties but mentions the drawbacks
associated with the pumps/CO2 bags - I've never used a
pig but I do have a mini-keg system with a CO2 tap
from party-star which works well - I usually bottle
beer for myself (helps ME keep track of my
consumption) I use the mini-kegs for parties - no need
to decant bottles or rinse after use - and they always
seem to be conversation starters - For a tap system
and 5 kegs was about $80 U.S. and was a nice way to
get away from bottling (CO2 cartridges are about $10
for a pack of 10 ) good luck either way !

=====
BIBIDI !
        Brew It Bottle It Drink It 
       Carlos Benitez - Green Monster Brewing



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Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 20:11:19 -0400
From: "RJ" <wortsbrewing at cyberportal.net>
Subject: Re: (OT) World Homebrew Contest & Boston Beer Co.

"Bissell, Todd S" <tbissell at spawar.navy.mil> wrote:

"I was going through some older issues of Brew Your Own (circa `96), and
came across an advertisement for Longshot Hazelnut Brown Ale, winner of
"The World Homebrew Contest" of 1996. This contest was apparently sponsored
by The Boston Beer Company, and produced and marketed a certain number of
cases of the winner's homebrew, for distribution nation-wide.

Anyone know the details of this...? I'm just curious how long it lasted,
and when/why Boston Beer did away with the program....."

The program lasted just two years, everyone who participated got a t-shirt &
some hops (I think I got a half pound of E.Kent Goldings, if memory serves
me)...

Although, they had a pretty good turn out both years, I don't think that
made much of a return on their investment...



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Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 10:25:48 -0500
From: Kim Thomson <alabrew at mindspring.com>
Subject: Extract color

I agree with "Peter Fantasia", the liquid extracts tend to be darker
than the spray extracts.

I recently did a side-by-side experiment where I boiled my bittering
hops in several gallons of water. I split the bittered water equally
between two fermenters and added dry extract to one, liquid to the other
for equal gravities. No, I didn't boil the extracts because I wanted
things as equal as possible - the only thing I would note from this was
that the beer was hazy. I used 1 15g Coopers Yeast per fermenter. The
dry extract batch was lighter in color and had a lower final gravity
than the liquid extract batch.

While we are on the subject of extracts, I don't think anyone has
mentioned that Weyermann Malting has some new liquid extracts in 15 lb.
jugs:

Bavarian Wheat 10-14 lovibond
Bavarian Pilsner 6-8 lovibond
Bavarian Amber 16-19 lovibond
All made with Weyermann grains, 76% fermentability

and Coopers has added dry extracts to their line (I don't have the specs
handy)

I have yet to try either but look forward to.

- --
Kim and Sun Ae Thomson
ALABREW Homebrewing Supplies
8916 A Parkway East
Birmingham, AL 35206
(205) 833-1716
http://www.mindspring.com/~alabrew
mailto:alabrew at mindspring.com
Beer and Wine Making Ingredients and Supplies






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