HOMEBREW Digest #3689 Sat 21 July 2001

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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Beer, Beer & More Beer ("Gary Smith")
  Yeast Harvesting and Krausen (Denis Bekaert)
  Malt storage...thanks for the insight ("Tom Jabas")
  Re: King Cooker ("RJ")
  Re: Mead across borders (Todd Goodman)
  Cider (Bob Pelletier)
  RE: separation anxiety ("Doug Hurst")
  Sodium Metabisulfite and Beer ("Eric R. Theiner")
  RIMS inventor controversy ("Alan Meeker")
  Re: dishwasher-free sanitizing (Alexander King)
  stir plates for yeast straters ("Alan Meeker")
  Fw: use of dishwashers ("Beerhunter01")
  Brewing with plums?  Make wine! (Jay Pfaffman)
  Re: Krausening (Jeff Renner)
  Water Filtration System ("Greenly, Jeff")
  Diacetyl Rest (Ant Hayes)

* * July is American Beer Month! Drink American Beer. * * Show your HBD pride! Wear an HBD Badge! * http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/shopping * * 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 cannot 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: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 23:19:55 -0500 From: "Gary Smith" <mandolinist at interlync.com> Subject: Beer, Beer & More Beer I've had a unique experience with them, I probably would be called the accidental customer from hell from most establishments. I called and after 10-15 min of conversation regarding my needs ordered about $150. worth of equipment using Visa to pay. I was pleased they had what I wanted and the free shipping was a real plus. I received an email that evening which caused me to rethink the direction I was about to take & realized I needed Items other than I ordered and that to compile a proper list would take another week's research. I called them the next day & someone else answered the call & was very nice & professional about cancelling the order. That's the end of the story, nothing grandiose except that I'd taken a lot of their time & ended up cancelling the order with no perceived resentment or triteness on their end at all. There were no negatives. Two thumbs up. I'd buy from them in a heartbeat. Cheers, Gary P.S. Another place with wonderful service & high integrity is MovingBrews. Bill, the owner makes sure you know what you're getting & he has a great wealth of information to help guide you. It's nice to see a place where the seller wants you to be sure you're making the right choice rather than just make the sale & go to the next caller ASAP. Gary Gary Smith http://www.geocities.com/dawgmando/ "I have more talent in my smallest fart than you have in your entire body" - Walter Matthau to Barbara Streisand (off camera while making "Hello Dolly") - Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 21:37:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Denis Bekaert <Denis-B at rocketmail.com> Subject: Yeast Harvesting and Krausen I've been experimenting with harvesting and storing yeast strains for later use by freezing, thanks to a method suggested by Pete Fantasia and have a question for the group. I have been harvesting the slurry at the bottom of the primary fermenting pail but it occurred to me that the krausen should be rich in yeast cells because in the case of ales, the action is on top. I wonder if I am selecting for early flocculation members of the population rather than harvesting a better, and more representative, population. Should I attempt to harvest some of this krausen, too? While that might lead to contamination if harvested from the primary during active fermentation, if I harvested it from a "starter" I could simply remove the liquid portion and stir the krausen into the flocculated yeast cells at the bottom of the starter and freeze that mixture in a sucrose syrup (3/8 cup sugar in one cup of water). Am I on the right track here, or am I complicating a simple process? Thanks for all the help... Denis in Beechgrove, Tennessee where Moonshine is our history, but brewing is our passion Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 21:34:21 -0500 From: "Tom Jabas" <tomjabas at sihope.com> Subject: Malt storage...thanks for the insight Glen (A. Pannicke), Thanks for your ideas on malt storage. As far as temperature, I too am storing the grains in the basement. It remains between 68 and 72 degrees and that seems reasonable. To keep insects out, I bought a few six gallon plastic buckets with those hideous snap on lids for the short term. I found the screw on lids you talked about at various sites throughout the internet. They are called Gamma Seals and sell for as little as $6.00. I will be ordering a few of those later. As far as silica gel, I hadn't even considered something like that. I checked a few resources and it seems this is a pretty common method of keeping moisture out of grains for long term storage. I picked up a 5 pound can of the stuff at Michael's craft store for about $9.00 (craft stores are a good silica gel source because people use it for drying flowers). Anyway, I put four to five ounces in a large coffee filter, tied it off, and dropped it on top of the grains before sealing the lid. It may be overkill, but we've been 'enjoying' 95F and 95% humidity the past few days! Are you fairing any better in NJ? Thanks again for the ideas... Tom Jabas tomjabas at sihope.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 06:36:25 -0400 From: "RJ" <wortsbrewing at cyberportal.net> Subject: Re: King Cooker "Brian M Dotlich" <BMDotlich at cs.com> wrote: "Recently I purchased a King Cooker (single jet "rocket engine" type LPG burner) used at a yard sale. I was wondering what the little plate that pivots over the flame is for. Should I swing it over the flame when I am doing my 5 gallon full wort boils or should I leave it off to the side." Well Brian, That little swing plate is your flame spreader... If you're going for a light colored beer such as a pils, it dramatically helps reduce the scortching / carmelizing of the wort... If you just looking to boil water fast, swing it out of the way... By the way, (I use the 200k Btu version), here's an easy clean up tip... When the job is done and you've cleaned and air-dried you're boiler for the next round yet to come, take a small amount of liquid dish detergent and rub it onto the bottom and up the sides of the pot (without water) and let it dry... Next cleanup will be a snap! As the carbon build ups from the flame will practically fall off by themselves. Also, "Wally World" is a good source for parts, should you need them down the road... I must add that I've had mine now for 6+ years, without having to replace anything. Pretty good for a $40 investment. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 07:54:53 -0400 From: Todd Goodman <tgoodman at bonedaddy.net> Subject: Re: Mead across borders In HBD #3688, bmurray <bmurray at merr.com> writes: >Traveling from northern Wisconsin to Maine via Canada and wish to carry >along a twelve pack of mead as a gift to friends... question: am I going >to have trouble getting this across any borders? Will I be better off >mailing it? I've never had any problems bringing homebrew into Canada (driving across the border in Maine). They ask if I have any alcohol and I just tell them "a case of beer" (or 2 cases of beer sometimes). I'd probably just tell them "a few bottles of mead" or something similar. My $.02 (Canadian). Todd Goodman Brewing in Westford, MA (And just returned from camping in Fundy National Park, NB) Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 08:40:30 -0400 From: Bob Pelletier <rp at ihrsa.org> Subject: Cider Looking for resources on cider making. Preferably web sites. Bob Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 09:00:09 -0500 From: "Doug Hurst" <DougH at theshowdept.com> Subject: RE: separation anxiety Bob Shotola writes: "...but am now wondering how to best recover the yeast from the primary without getting too much pellet hop gook with it." I just brewed a brown ale using the slurry from the bottom of a stout. Yeah, I know I should have brewed the brown ale first. Anyway, I always use hop pellets because I purchased a huge supply inexpensively. The hop gook from the pellets seems to mostly gather at the top of the fermenter with only a minimal amount falling to the bottom. I took an 800ml sample of slurry before racking to the secondary fermenter by jamming my racking cane (without one of those cup things on the end) directly down into the sediment. After collecting my slurry I then pulled the cane up out of the sediment and racked as normal. The 800ml of slurry seemed to be fairly clean and fermentation took off immediately in the brown ale. If I had let the slurry sample settle for a couple hours I could have poured the stout (and presumably a small amount of hops) off the top and produced a more concentrated/cleaner yeast slurry. Hope this helps, Doug Hurst Chicago, IL Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 09:51:05 -0400 From: "Eric R. Theiner" <logic at skantech.com> Subject: Sodium Metabisulfite and Beer I don't have the studies or numbers to back me up (and I'm not even going to crack my reaction kinetics book), but I don't think that SMBS is an effective sanitizer for beer. I recall with my foggy and jetlagged mind that acid is necessary to develop the sulfur dioxide which does the sanitizing, and although wine has this acid level, beer does not. I'd suggest one of the no-rinse sanitizers on the market instead of the Sodium Metabisulfite-- or if those aren't available, try the oven method (bake the bottles and let them cool (while still in the oven!!-- don't open the oven until you're ready to use them) overnight. Rick Theiner LOGIC, Inc. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 10:37:51 -0400 From: "Alan Meeker" <ameeker at mail.jhmi.edu> Subject: RIMS inventor controversy David Sweeney recently posted the following: "In the spirit of Jethro Gump, I have obtained a direct line of communication with the inventor of the RIMS, Rodney Morris." Rodney Morris?? But I though Al Gore invented RIMS. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 07:58:26 -0700 (PDT) From: Alexander King <ralexanderking at yahoo.com> Subject: Re: dishwasher-free sanitizing Ricardo wrote: <Snip> Has anyone tried the old winemaker's method of rinsing your visually clean bottles with a 10% potassium metabisulfite solution immediately before bottling? Will it adversely affect the taste or head of beer? It works great on white wines, but then I usually want to raise the free SO2 level of the wines slightly at bottling anyway. Just wondering if this is a bad idea for beer. Not everyone has a dishwasher. <Snip> Ricardo, I'm not sure about the sulfite wash, I'm not a big wine person, and my girlfriend is allergic to sulphides, so when I do the occasional mead, I use other sanitizing methods. But I have had great success with a device made by the same company that makes those big red bottle drying trees. It is a small bowl with a spring loaded "Squirter" in the center. I mix up some iodofor solution (Follow the directions on the side because you don't want it to flavor your beer, I use a medical syringe to measure), rinse the bottles with hot water and then spray one squirt of it into the bottle and then put it on the drying tree. 5-10 mins later the bottles are mostly dry and the iodofor has evaporated off. Then I bottle as usual. I have a kegging system, so I only use this on things that need to sit a while...such as mead, big beers, or when I counter pressure for competition. Anyone else have any ideas? Alex King Note: If you spam me I will make sure you pay the fines for, it so do it to someone else. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 11:14:48 -0400 From: "Alan Meeker" <ameeker at mail.jhmi.edu> Subject: stir plates for yeast straters Rob Barrett asks about using a stir plate for making yeast starters: "Can someone explain how to use the stir plate from the time the yeast is added to the starter to the time the starter is pitched into the wort. I am concerned about when to start the stir plate after adding the yeast to the starter and how long the stir plate should run while the starter is growing and how fast should it run?" Rob, I use a stir plate when growing my yeast starters and it works great. There are 3 main reasons for using the stir plate: Reason 1) Aeration. In order to get the maximum benefit you want good mixing, a decent surface area at the liquid/air interface, and decent airflow into the flask. Mixing is sufficiently good when a vortex (looks like a small tornado) is formed in the liquid and you're getting air bubble formation within the liquid. Surface area: volume ratios should be as large as possible, within the constraints of the system. For your 2000 ml flask I wouldn't go much above 1000 ml for your total volume. To allow air into the flask (and CO2 to leave) during growth, use an enclosure that will let air pass as freely as possible. Sterile cotton or cloth batting plugs work, as does a square of aluminum foil loosely covering the flask opening. As far as when to stir - do so throughout, even before the yeast are added, so the starter wort is maximally aerated right from the start (otherwise it may start off poorly oxygenated if it has very recently been heat-sterilized). Stirring after the starter appears to have stopped growing may even prove beneficial since even non-dividing yeast cells still make use of the oxygen for sterol synthesis. Reason 2) Promote CO2 off-gassing The starter solution quickly becomes saturated with CO2 that is given off by the yeast. Dissolved CO2 is inhibitory to yeast metabolism (and therefore yeast growth) so anything you can do to help remove this CO2 will help the yeast out. I'm sure you've noticed what happens when you swirl an actively fermenting beer or shake a can of soda! As with aeration, vigorous mixing and access to the outside air helps the CO2 escape. Reason 3) Keep yeast exposed to nutrients There is a lot of strain-to-strain variability in terms of their propensity to flocculate and settle out to the bottom of the container. Some yeasts are notorious for doing this relatively early in the fermentation. Once again, thorough mixing is our friend, keeping the yeast well exposed to the starter nutrients throughout the growth phase. Hope this Helps -Alan Meeker Baltimore, MD Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 13:32:34 -0400 From: "Beerhunter01" <Beerhunter01 at email.msn.com> Subject: Fw: use of dishwashers > > > > The use of dish washer to sanitize bottles is not generally a safe practice, the high temps cause the distraction in strength of the glass and with prolonged use on the same bottles will make for glass bombs. Also wheather or not the bottles fully are cleaned is debatable also. If washing in bulk a large tupperware bin and soak bottles overnight is a safer way to go especially if its a prize winning beer. Sla'inte! > > Dave Miller > > owner A Brew Haus inc. > > www.ubrewit.com > > www.homebrewwholesale.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 20:14:44 -0500 From: Jay Pfaffman <pfaffman at relaxpc.com> Subject: Brewing with plums? Make wine! If I lived somewhere that getting rid of good fruit was a problem, I'd be making lots of fruit wines. I have a great book called The Joy of Home Winemaking by Terry Garey. It reads a lot like Papazian's, The New Complete Joy. It's full of delightful stories and uses 1 gallon recipes to entice beginners with no equipment to feel like they should give it a try. The only real bummer with wine (like mead) is that you need to plan on tying up a carboy for 3-12 months and then wait another 6-12 for it to age in the bottle. Of course, if you make enough, you can taste it more along the way. Garey describes Plum wine as mild and thin, but still worthwhile. For a gallon use 2lbs of sugar or honey, 4 pounds plums, 1.5 tsp tanning. 1 spp. acid blend, .5 tsp pectic enzyme. She recommends using a campden tablet to kill any wild beasties. Pit and cut the plums a bit & crush them with your hands or a potato masher. Boil the water & honey/sugar and pour it over the fruit. If I were going to try them in a beer, I'd brew a fairly mild pale ale, with a bit of wheat and add 3-6 pounds of fruit and maybe a bit of pectic enzyme in secondary. Easy on the hops our you'll never taste the fruit. I think that for most fruits 3 pounds would be enough, but it sounds like plums don't contribute much flavor. There was an article and recipe about apricot beers in a recent Brew Your Own (or was it Zymurgy?). I'd use that as a guide. My great depths of wisdom come from three fruit beers. One's still in secondary. The other two are quite good (one earned a third place in a recent competition), but I might just be lucky. - -- Jay Pfaffman pfaffman at relaxpc.com +1-615-343-1720 (office) +1-615-460-9299 (home) http://relax.ltc.vanderbilt.edu/~pfaffman/ Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 21:45:26 -0400 From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at mediaone.net> Subject: Re: Krausening Hubert Hanghofer <hhanghof at netbeer.co.at> >Jeff Renner wrote in HBD#3687: >> Kraeusening is traditionally done to beer that has finished lagering. > >This is new to me ...but one never knows, do one? ;-) >I can see that this could work but actually (at least today - in Bavarian >breweries that I'm familiar with) krausening is done before lagering - right >after the beer is close to final gravity in the primary. What is probably more likely is that I have misunderstood. I defer to your greater familiarity with the procedure. I'll have to check my resources. I did always wonder about that 10-15% unlagered portion. Thanks for the additional details. Jeff - -- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at mediaone.net "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 01:08:48 -0400 From: "Greenly, Jeff" <greenlyj at rcbhsc.wvu.edu> Subject: Water Filtration System Dear Friends, After a lot of tinkering and 'sperimenting, I have ascertained that I have a problem with the local water supply. It seems they pump a LOT of chlorine into the (rather hard) water. Stands and boils don't seem to be cutting it with regards to removal of this vile taint. Can anyone recommend a commercially available filtration system that can help with this? Jeff Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 08:31:47 +0200 From: Ant Hayes <Ant.Hayes at FifthQuadrant.co.za> Subject: Diacetyl Rest I am looking for confirmation regarding the diacetyl rest procedure as set out in Brewing Lager Beer. As I understand it, when you are at 1/3rd gravity or about 1P away from target gravity, you raise your wort temperature to 16C, at no faster rate than 3C per 24 hours. Once fermented out, you lower temperature to 0C, again no faster than 3C per day. I am trying this schedule for the third time. Each time though, the beer seems to reach terminal gravity before I get to 16C. I am also nervous that I am exposed to autolysis, if I don't draw my yeast off before I get down to 0C. Ant Hayes Gauteng African Union Return to table of contents
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