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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  cleaners and sanitizers (Marc Sedam)
  cereal mash (Marc Sedam)
  St Pats Chiiller ("the freeman's")
  Cleaners ("Rick Theiner ")
  Re: PVC pipe as pressure vessel (Jeff Renner)
  PVC as a pressure vessel... (Pat Babcock)
  Re: lager virgin (Jeff Renner)
  Offering Stuff (KMDruey)
  "For Sale" and the HBD (Pat Babcock)
  re: SG & Alcohol -- oops! ("Steve Alexander")
  Re: PVC pipe as pressure vessel (Jay Pfaffman)
  FYI- Hops and Sperm??? (Steve Funk)
  Re: Electric Element (David Towson)
  Re: Electric element (Kent Fletcher)
  RE:  Electric Element (Bill Tobler)
  Re: RIMS heater threads (Dion Hollenbeck)


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----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 09:14:36 -0400
From: Marc Sedam <marc_sedam at unc.edu>
Subject: cleaners and sanitizers

Having used many, MANY, cleaners and sanitizers over the
years I can say without question that Five Star's PBW for
cleaning and StarSan for sanitizing are the best products
I've ever tried for these purposes.

There isn't a single bit of gunk that hot PBW can't take
care of in fewer than five minutes.  Once a year (or twice
if I'm brewing a lot) I take all of my equipment out and
create 10 gallons of hot PBW solution.  Every piece of
equipment gets a 20 minute bath in the PBW and a boiling
water rinse.  I am always *stunned* at how clean my "I
thought it was already clean" equipment is after this.  The
10 gallons of PBW is plenty to clean 6 cornies, 10 buckets
and carboys, and various and sundry pieces of small
equipment.  Running some hot PBW through beer lines really
can scare the hell out of you when you see how much gunk
builds up in a short amount of time.  On occasion I even use
some PBW in my dishwasher.  I've used it to wash beer
bottles, my beer glass collection, and even some dishes (if
we've had a particularly greasy BBQ or something).

As for StarSan, I also have not encountered an infected
batch since I started using this stuff five years ago.  I
make up a gallon at a time and use that to sanitize any
carboys, kegs, or other stuff.  Since even the foam
sanitizes, a gallon shook up in a carboy is plenty to
sanitize effectively.  Some people worry about the foam.
I've found that if you fill the carboy/keg from the bottom,
the StarSan foam will come out of the vessel by itself
(displaced by the liquid) and that I can scoop it off into
another bucket.  Whatever remains is too small for me to
worry about.  The best way I've found to employ StarSan is
to put some in a heavy-duty spray bottle.  I just spray it
on whatever I'm using and don't worry about it.  Open a
carboy?  Spray the lip.  Need to top up an airlock?  Spray
some in.

Once I found that Beer, Beer, and More Beer sells this stuff
in bulk, I was golden.  A four pound jar of PBW is $20 and a
32oz bottle of StarSan (which you dilute something like 1:50
with water) is $14.  I've never looked for anything else.  I
bought this stuff about two years ago.  I brew about once a
month and haven't come close to getting to the halfway point
of either chemical.

I'm not affiliated with BBMB [although I lust after their
True kegerator and would be happy to accept a free one :-) ]
or Five Star.  Just love both places and their products.

Cheers!
Marc

- --

Marc Sedam
Chapel Hill, NC



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Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 09:48:40 -0400
From: Marc Sedam <marc_sedam at unc.edu>
Subject: cereal mash

Time for my bi-annual description of starch gelatinization,
and why it's important to brewing.  Jeff writes..


***You've got the idea.  This pre-mashing isn't to convert
the starch in
the cornmeal for the yeast, it's for ease of handling the
cereal
mash.  For the most part, the starch isn't gelatinized -
that's the
purpose of boiling.  Most of the it is converted in the main
mash by
the balance of the malt.

But there is some available starch in the cornmeal from
starch bodies
that were damaged by the milling process, and this starch
can make
the whole thing set up like stiff porridge.  Mashing this
before
boiling keeps it liquid.  I've tried the process both with
and
without the premalt, and the difference is remarkable.  This
is more
important in commercial scale brewing where the cereal mash
has to be
pumped.  I suspect there is also some breakdown of protein
in the
premash, but I don't know.  When this process was developed
in the
1870s or 80s, it made a big difference in the handling of
corn and
rice in beer and in the quality of the final beer.***


All starches created in cereal grains are contained in
microscopic packets called "starch granules."  Think of a
starch granule as a tightly packed collection of long starch
molecules balled up.  In order to access the starch inside
the granule, you have to provide three things:  heat, water,
and shear (stirring).  Providing a combination of these
three things will rupture/burst the starch granule and allow
the starch molecules inside to be available for whatever you
have in store for them.  An analogy would be a water
balloon, where the starch is the water.  The balloon
(granule) explodes and the water (starch) goes everywhere.
Same same.

Different starches have different "gelatinization
temperatures."  Back in the day, I used to have all of these
different temps in my head.  Now I can only remember that
corn is in the mid-70s (Celsius), wheat is in the 50s (why
you don't need to do a cereal mash with wheat, even if it's
unmalted), and rice is in the 70-80s.  Barley starches are
already broken down during the malting process and are
available without having to do a cereal mash.  Unmalted
barley should be treated just like any other adjunct.  Do a
cereal mash unless it's in the flaked, rolled, or puffed
form.

OK.  So why do you care?  This all becomes important in the
cereal mash.  Assume that we're going to make a delicious
Classic American Pilsner (CAP).

I use yellow corn grits as I live in the South and they are
very readily available.  But the explanation will hold true
if you use polenta or even corn flour (if you had to).   Add
your grits to the cold water (I use a 1:5 ratio) and start
heating.  As you heat the grits/water mixture it will start
to thicken.  This is because the starch granules are
starting to swell up as they take on water.  The mixture
will get thicker and thicker.  If you do not stir the grits
mixture it will turn into some kind of corn cement and burn
like mad.  This would be bad.  Again, without shear
(stirring) the granules won't break.  So at some point with
regular stirring (usually around 70C) the mixture will all
the sudden get thinner.  This is the point when the starch
granules have started to break down.  They release the water
they took up and the starches, reducing the thickness
(viscosity) of the mixture.  After this happens, the mixture
will stay a reasonable thickness UNTIL you remove it from
the heat.

Once you remove the mix from heat, the starch molecules will
automatically start to "retrograde," or curl up on
themselves.  Starch is a long-chain polysaccharide, meaning
that it's made up of hundreds of sugar molecules connected
to each other.  When starch in solution starts to cool, the
long chains start to crystallize (last I knew they actually
formed helices).  They bind water and the mixture will be
akin to a corn brick.  An interesting side note is that some
of the starch will crystallize so well that it is no longer
available for fermentation or digestion.

OK...back to brewing.

The addition of some barley malt significantly changes the
dynamic in the cereal mash.  The barley malt has alpha- and
beta-amylases which are used to break down starches into
simple, fermentable sugars.  So a few unique things happen
in the corn/barley/water mixture, which are very beneficial
to brewing with cereal grains.

1)  There are proteases and some lipases in the barley malt
which will help break down fats and proteins in the corn
grits.  But this is pretty insignificant.
2)  As the grits are heated and the granules swell, they do
leach out some starch molecules.  The barley enzymes will
break down these starches as soon as they escape the
granule. This keeps the viscosity (thickness) down.
3)  The swollen granule is also susceptible to being
degraded via amylases.  So many of the granules are being
broken down before they have a chance to burst.  This
further decreases the viscosity of the mixture.
4)  Finally, when the starch granules start to break *en
masse*, the amylases are there to break them down into the
fermentable sugars.  Combined with #s 2 and 3, the overall
result is a very manageable cereal mash in terms of
thickness.
5)  Whatever starch granules the barley malt cannot degrade
before the heat denatures its enzymes is burst during the
long boiling of the cereal mash.
6)  Since the starches are well broken down they do not
retrograde when you add the boiling cereal mash back to the
much cooler main mash.  Had the starches not been broken
down, you would get tiny clumps of unfermentable corn starch
in the mash.  In one CAP I brewed, I didn't boil the cereals
long enough and wound up with lots of these clumps, as well
as a lot of starch haze in the ferment.


So I've taken several hundred words to come to this
conclusion:  Do what Jeff says.  It works great.

Cheers!
Marc

- --

Marc Sedam
Chapel Hill, NC
"From the land of the free, yet home of a 6%abv limit on
beer."



Return to table of contents


Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 08:50:44 -0500
From: "the freeman's" <potsus at bellsouth.net>
Subject: St Pats Chiiller

RHAHB...  The St Pats counterflow appears to be the same as the old
Maxichiller from Precision Brewing.  That chiller was the forerunner of
the Chillzilla - where the outlet position was changed to avoid
conflict.  Convoluted tubing was used in both of these chillers -
probably because the same manufacturer is involved.  There is no more
difficulty in sanitizing  the St Pats unit than there is with the other
two.  Flush immediately after use and occasionally flush with PBW.
Store with iodophor solution inside.  Flush with 3-4 gallons of boiling
water just prior to using and you are good to go.  Air can be eliminated
by taking the obvious precaution of making sure the fittings are tight
in the first place.  Occasionally there will be bubbles in the line if
the wort is not allowed to cool a bit after the boil before starting the
flow through the chiller.  These are the bubbles that would ordinarily
rise to the top during a rolling boil, but are evident in the outflow
due to the reduced pressure low in the boiler during the chilling
process.

Hope this helps.

Bill Freeman aka Elder Rat
K P Brewing - home of "the perfesser"
Birmingham, AL




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Date: Fri,  5 Jul 2002 09:55:14 -0400
From: "Rick Theiner " <Logic at mail.skantech.com>
Subject: Cleaners

I'm hoping that this is not considered a commercial post because I'm
answering a question regarding what people are using.

I use Straight-A for cleaning.  (I also make the stuff and sell it through
distributors in the U.S. and Canada.)  Other than the obvious reason as
to why I use it, I'll also add that I formulated it myself in accords with
what I liked and didn't like about B-Brite (which was the only thing
available to me in '93).  Did I mention that I'm a cleaning formulations
chemist?
Rick Theiner


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Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 09:56:10 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: PVC pipe as pressure vessel

Richard T. Perry <perryrt at hotmail.com> wrote:

>Anyway, about a gazillion years ago when I was in college, I was working
>as
>
>a "lab assistant" in the Aviation Maintenance section (read: very low
>paid scum-sucking manual laborer)
>
>at the University I went to. One task I was given was building a system
>to allow a full class of 24 students
>
>to use air-tools (riveters, drills, etc) at several large tables. I put
>in a PVC pipe system as a manifold - ran
>
>a main 6" pipe down the center of each table, then sockets off each side
>with the standard air hoses attached.

I am impressed.  An informative answer would be enough for most 
people, but not not for Richard.  He formed it in free verse.  Neat! 
A first for HBD, I think.

Hope everyone had a great Fourth and drank lots of American beer 
(July is American Beer Month http://www.americanbeermonth.org/).

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


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Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 10:45:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pat Babcock <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: PVC as a pressure vessel...

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

I have installed a central compressor in my humble adobe to
serve my workroom and my garage. It is piped entirely of 1/2"
Schedule 40 PVC. The only airleak in the system is the plugged
passthrough port of the regulator in the garage - something you
would think to be air-tight. I keep the source pressure at a
nominal 110 psig and step it down at teh point of use, so the
PVC sees the entire 110. 

Anyway, PVC is typically joined by a chemical welding process
(they call it "cement", but we know better...). The idea is to
get a complete ring of cement on the female tube before joining
it with the male tube, and then give the pipe or fitting a 1/4
turn twist once seated. The twist helps to ensure you've left no
air paths through the joint.

- -- 
 -
God bless America!

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
[18, 92.1] Rennerian
"I don't want a pickle. I just wanna ride on my motorsickle"
                                   - Arlo Guthrie




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Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 10:49:44 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: lager virgin

Peter Collins <sarapete at sympatico.ca> writes:

>I am just in the midst of primary fermentation of my very first batch of
>pilsener and had some questions regarding the process etc.:
>
>1. It has been in the primary since June 26 but didn't start to really
>take off until the following day or more. It has sat at 50F for the
>whole time (in a spare fridge). High krauesen seems to have come and
>gone but the activity is still pretty active (about 1 bubble in the blow
>off tube every second or so, if this makes sense). I am going away on
>July 6th for two weeks and thought that I would have it in the secondary
>by then but am not sure if I should rack it now or not. Advice?


I don't think there are any hard and fast rules here.  I find that 
the first fermentation with new yeast, which is generally an 
underpitch, the beer isn't finished fermenting for about two weeks. 
When I repitch a lot of healthy yeast (~30cc or 1 fl. oz. of thick, 
pasty yeast solids per US gallon), I get a faster, more vigorous 
fermentation that is done in 7-10 days.

I used to rack my lagers when there was still a little fermentation 
going on, but I never have any trouble with diacetyl so I can get 
away with this.  If there is no diacetyl in your beer now, you should 
be safe racking it now.  If there is, I'd leave it until you return. 
You could even let the temperature rise to 65F (18C) today (Friday) 
and let it finish a little more and maybe reduce diacetyl, and rack 
it tomorrow before you leave.  But you probably don't have quite 
enough time for this.  Diacetyl is produced by the yeast, which then 
metabolize it later.

I've left a lager on the yeast for four weeks (~two weeks after it 
finished) at 50F/10C with no problem, even though it's probably not 
ideal.  I also just racked a lager after two weeks but don't have 
lagering space available yet, so it's in a sealed keg for waiting for 
cold lagering but at 50F.  When my CAP finishes, I'll rack it and 
drop the temperature of the chest freezer with both of them to 32F/0C.

>2. Suggested temperature for the secondary?
>
>3. Suggested duration for the secondary?
>
>4. Technically, is the secondary the lagering stage or once it is
>bottled is that the lagering stage?

It's lagering as far as I'm concerned.  The rule of thumb is a week 
at 32F/0C for every 8-10 degrees of OG.  In other words, about six 
weeks for a 1.048 OG beer.

I never bottle anymore, but when I did bottle lagers, I bulk lagered, 
then bottled.  You can also bottle green beer, let it sit at cellar 
temps for a week or ten days for carbonation, then later in bottles.

BTW, I found that even with yeast that had settled out in the 
lagering vessel and sat for eight weeks, it was always in good enough 
shape for bottle fermentation.  I always made sure to pick up just a 
little with the racking wand when racking to the priming vessel.

Hope you can get everything done before vacation.

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


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Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 01:15:52 EDT
From: KMDruey at aol.com
Subject: Offering Stuff

HBD,

I've got a few things I'm offering for sale including:  RIMS system, 10
gallon cornie, 10 gallon kettle, planispiral chiller, and a few other
itmes.
Go to the following URL to get more information and links to pictures.

http://members.aol.com/kmdruey/list2.html

Thanks,

Kyle   


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Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 11:29:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pat Babcock <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: "For Sale" and the HBD

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

A recent rash of "stuff for sale ads"  causes me to gently suggest to you
that the HBD is not the proper vehicle for this type of post. Typically,
they are seen as no less offensive than a commercial post. Though, to our
current policies, I will not refuse your post (my apologies to any I may
have - I need to reread the polices every once in a while - they tend to
mutate in the noggin over time...), you'd probably be better served to
post an ad on the Homebrew Fleamarket (http://www.homebrewfleamarket.com).
The Fleamarket is always free for non-commercial posting and allows you to
add PICTURES of the item(s) you wish to sell. You can also return and edit
or kill your ad when conditions change (not selling fast enough) or the
item is sold.


- -- 
 -
God bless America!

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
[18, 92.1] Rennerian
"I don't want a pickle. I just wanna ride on my motorsickle"
                                   - Arlo Guthrie




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Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 14:09:28 -0400
From: "Steve Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: re: SG & Alcohol -- oops!

Louis Bonham writes...

>Oops, just noticed a mistake in my post . .
>
>I gave an example of a Plato measurement as "equivalent to a 4% w/w
>solution of sucrose in pure water."  Wrongo.  I should have said
>"equivalent to 4 g of sucrose in 100ml of solution."
>
>Sorry for the error.

Wait a minute, Louis.   All the pro lit performs calculations as tho' Plato
is wt/wt extract.  If it's not then they have some 'splaining to do around
here.

The 'Brewing Calculations' chapter of Hardwick's "HB of
Brewing" states that .....
"The Plato unit is defined as the as the extract in percent weight of the
wort, beer or other solution." and refer to Plato as "weight percentage".
They do note that fiction about sucrose vs wort&beer differences and so call
this apparent extract at several points.

Most telling the calculation given is ...

Extract weight = wort_SG * weight_of_same_volume_of_water * Plato / 100

The water weight times the wort SG is clearly the weight of the wort so they
are calculating ....
Extract weight  = (weight_of_wort) * P/100.
as tho Plato a was a wt/wt %.
- --------
A 100 Plato solution has (by Lincoln Eqn) an SG of 1.586 and this is almost
exactly the density(SG) of sucrose.  That is 100P 'solution' has the same SG
as pure sucrose.   This is a much higher calculated SG than if you took
100gm of  sugar and added the (~37ml) water necessary to make 100ml volume
solution.   It shows that 100P SG is the same as a 100% wt/wt block of sugar
and much heavier than a 100% wt/vol [100gm of sugar in a 100ml]  solution.
- --------

It sure looks like your first definition was correct (Plato is %weight/wt)
but I must admit your second definition (Plato is wt/vol) rings familiar
too.    Can you shed any light on this discrepancy, Louis ?

I believe that Plato represents weight/weight % [kg of extract per kg of
wort as %]
and that (Plato * SG) represents wt/vol % [kg of extract per liter of wort
as %].

Nicht wahr ?


 -Steve




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Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 11:19:16 -0700
From: Jay Pfaffman <pfaffman at relaxpc.com>
Subject: Re: PVC pipe as pressure vessel

On Thu, 4 Jul 2002 21:23:56 +1200, "perryrt" <perryrt at hotmail.com> said:

>> Does anyone have experience using run of the mill Schedule 40 PVC
>> Pipe (~4inch dia) as a pressure vessel?  I'm having a vision of
>> using it as > a low-pressure (20-40PSI) reservoir of CO2 to
>> dispense (at regulated pressure) the two cornies in my
>> brand-spankin' new undercounter fridge (Sanyo 4.9ft^3, thanks for
>> all of the input!)  Any caveats - cycle > life, catastrophic
>> failure reports, decreased virility, etc.?

I've been scheming for a while to use 2 or 3 liter PET soda bottles
for a CO2 reservoir.  My idea was just to find something more portable
than a 20 pound CO2 tank.  I regularly pump these things up to 70
pounds, although that's with liquid in them.  One person told me
authoritatively that they were rated at 40 pounds, but another told me
that soda was pressurized at 80 pounds.  I know that even at 70 pounds
the bottle isn't as hard as it is with soda in it.  I found some info
about how much pressure it takes to make PET bottles, but not to break
them; apparently they hold enough for soda and that's all that most
people really care about.  This guy did an informal pressure test &
got a 3 liter PET bottle to 125 pounds before it exploded.

    http://users.telerama.com/~mcguire/burst/Burst.htm

This guy did a couple tests too.  A .5 liter Sprite bottle took 200
psi before breaking.  Another soda bottle went to 138.

    http://home.t-online.de/home/u.hornstein/wr_lr010101.htm

When I've over-pressurized PET bottles (carbonating a single 16oz beer
with the 12g CO2 cartridge that came with my PhilTap) the bottles
would expand before they broke (I never broke one).  If you can work
out the fittings, a 2 or 3 liter bottle seems cheaper, easier, and
safer than PVC.  As someone else suggested, using another keg seems
easier, but you could easily fit a couple 2Liter bottles in the door.
You'll want to use all the keg space for kegs of beer.

- -- 
Jay Pfaffman                           pfaffman at relaxpc.com
+1-415-821-7507 (H)                    +1-415-810-2238 (M)
http://relax.ltc.vanderbilt.edu/~pfaffman/


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Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 12:14:31 -0700
From: Steve Funk <steve at hheco.com>
Subject: FYI- Hops and Sperm???

Hops make the news again, this time in not such a good light.

ENVIRONMENTAL ESTROGENS MAKE SPERM PEAK TOO FAST

VIENNA, Austria, July 3, 2002 (ENS) - An estrogen found in synthetic
cleaners, paints,
herbicides, and pesticides, as well as other estrogens found in soy and
hops, may reduce the
fertilizing ability of sperm, a British research team has found.

For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-03-04.asp


- --
Steve Funk
Brewing in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge




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Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 15:51:20 -0400
From: David Towson <dtowson at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Electric Element

In HBD 3981, Mark Ellis asked whether a 2400 watt element would be 
sufficient to boil 40 liters of wort.  The English "Electrim Bin" holds 20 
liters and has a 2400 watt heater.  It will get a full charge of water up 
to a good rolling boil in a little less than an hour.  I will not try to 
predict what such a heater will do with twice that volume, but I would like 
to warn you to be prepared for a lot of burned-on crud to form on the 
element.  After one attempt to use my Electrim Bin with wort, I decided it 
was not a good idea.  I use the thing now only to pre-boil water for making 
beer and coffee.

Dave in Bel Air, Maryland



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Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 16:24:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kent Fletcher <fletcherhomebrew at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Electric element

In HBD #3981, Mark Ellis asked:

>I bought a element today to fit to my lauter tun to
>hopefully be used as a efficient heat source for
>boiling the wort. My lauter tun is a converted 50
>litre ss keg. 

You want to boil in your lauter tun?

>Do you think that a 2400watt element will be
>sufficient for boiling temp on 40 litre batches?

Not really, or at least not very quickly. Your 2400
watt element is good for about 7,400 btu/hr. With a 40
liter batch, it will take at least 45 minutes to get
from 70 C. to 100 C. If you're going to use electric
heat for a kettle, you'd be better off using a 4500
watt element, and plenty of insulation.

Kent Fletcher
brewing in So Cal 




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Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 19:14:22 -0500
From: Bill Tobler <wctobler at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: RE:  Electric Element

Mark from the land of OZ wants to know about electric elements.

    My brewery is all electric and I have experimented with all types of
elements.  I also make 10 gallon batches (I think that is what 40 L is all
about) and have found that 4500 watts will bring the wort up to a boil in a
reasonable time, but is too much heat to maintain the boil without boil
overs.  My first electric kettle had two elements, one 4500 watt element and
one 3500 watt element.  I would use the 4500 watt to bring the wort up to a
boil, and then the 3500 watt element to maintain the boil.  Both had just an
on/off switch.  Everything is 240 volts.  I've gotten better in my old age.
Copying Ron LaBoarde's design on a 555 timer circuit, I am able to control
the boil using only the 4500 watt element with no problems.  The timer works
like a stove-top controller, only better.  I tried a stove top controller
and it just didn't get it.

http://hbd.org/rlaborde/controll.htm

I can send you some pictures and drawings of my electric brewery if you
would like.  Cheers...

Bill Tobler
Lake Jackson, TX
(1129.7, 219.9) Apparent Rennerian




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Date: 05 Jul 2002 19:18:57 -0700
From: Dion Hollenbeck <hollen at woodsprite.com>
Subject: Re: RIMS heater threads

>> C D Pritchard writes:

CDP> Putting teflon tape on the element threads before assembly also
CDP> helps with later disassembly.  

I don't do this, mainly because I take my heater element out of the
chamber after every brew.  I found out the hard way many years ago
that there is a biege fuzz that accumulates on the heater element
during a mash.  If you leave it on there and in your heater chamber
and it also stays damp, it can actually rot.  Believe me, I would have
rather found this out theoretically.  Went to brew one day and I could
smell the stench as I picked up the heater chamber and removed the
protective caps.  That is when I bought my first replacement element.
B-{ 

I strongly suggest to everyone to remove the heater element after
every brew and scrub it thoroughly with a scotchbrite pad or short
stiff bristle brush while it is still hot.  Then set it in a dish
drainer to dry.  If you also brush out the chamber with a straightened
out carboy brush, and rinse with hot water while it is still hot from
the mash, they will both dry very quickly and thoroughly.  After they
have dried and cooled down, usually the next day for me, then I put
them back together and have airtight caps that go on the quick
disconnect fittings.  This keeps creepy crawlies out of the heater
chamber.  Never did really care for the idea of scrumpy, much less
spider scrumpy.  B-}

dion
- -- 
Dion Hollenbeck  Email:  hollen at woodsprite.com
Home Page:       http://www.woodsprite.com
Brewing Page:    http://hbd.org/hollen


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