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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Re: Sankey Kegs Again (John Schnupp)
  In Search of Beer Sounds ("Phil Yates")
  Re: Sankey Kegs Again ("David Houseman")
  controlling Alpha-amylase activity ("Steve Alexander")
  Topic Discussion: Malt Extracts and Gravity ("Adam Wead")
  Re: FG too high ("Chad Gould")
  Hop harvest & storage ("Mark Jacobs")


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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 02:46:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Schnupp <johnschnupp at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Sankey Kegs Again

From: Kent Fletcher <fletcherhomebrew at yahoo.com>
=If you want to serve kegged beer in quantities that
=are more appropriate for cask style serving, use
=cornies, any frat party that can't kill 5 gallons in 2
=days isn't worthy of the name!  Small house?  Get a
=three gallon cornie.

Hey Kent,

Are you sure you have the time unit correct?  Isn't
5 gallons about 2 cases?  I think a typical frat party
could put that much away in 2 hours.


=====
John Schnupp, N3CNL
??? Hombrewery
[560.2, 68.6] Rennerian
Georgia, VT
95 XLH 1200, Bumblebee



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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 22:53:38 +1000
From: "Phil Yates" <phil.yates at acenet.com.au>
Subject: In Search of Beer Sounds

Dr Pivo is to be commended for searching as far north as 71 degrees from the
equator to determine that odd "phhhht" sound as still being definitely what
he hears late at night after drinking beer. Even when face down at the bar.

Relax Doc, take a break and head on home.

I don't think there is any argument here.

Your problem is definitely flatulence!!


Cheers
Phil





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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 09:35:37 -0400
From: "David Houseman" <housemanfam at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Sankey Kegs Again

I have to disagree with Kent on his reply that it's difficult to use Sankey
kegs for homebrew.  I would agree, don't prime with sugar and don't use an
airpump.  I must admit that moving around something as heavy as 120+ lbs
makes working with Cornies much easier.  But it is easy to take out the
center pickup (see Jeff's post just the other day).  A long handled carboy
brush works to clean the inside.  Use some 5-star PBW and anything on the
sides will just drop off.   Rinse.  To sanitize, just put some water in it
and put in on your burner to boil.  The steam will sterilize the inside.
Fill.  Replace the center piece and the locking ring.  Prime with CO2.

David Houseman



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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 12:16:29 -0400
From: "Steve Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: controlling Alpha-amylase activity

Hans writes ....

>Steve tells that after heating up the mash to lautering temperature at
least
>alpha amylase is still working. Steve, will it be possible to avoid this by
>draining off the wort fast and maybe a fast sparge and then continue normal
>sparging to remove the sugars?

I'm not quite sure why you'd want to avoid the residual alpha-amylase
(AA) activity that occurs during the sparge&lauter; after all this converts
any small amounts of  starch that may be extracted late.

The enzymes are largely in solution so their concentration would roughly
match extract.   A fast runoff and sparge would extract most of the
enzymes into the boiler, but not immediately extinguish the enzymes in
this collected wort.

There are the common 'brewing factors' that are well known to
affect enzyme activity and life-span.  Increasing  temps above
conventional mashout temps will further limit final AA activity.
The amylases are less stable in thinner solutions.  The concentrated
maltose in wort both stabilizes and slows alpha-amylase.

If the point is experimentation (and not to produce drinkable beer) there
are  many means of controlling enzyme activity.    Some rather old
experimental methods to isolate AA and beta-amylase(BA) might
be applicable to amateur use.  BA can be selectively destroyed with
a 70C rest.  AA is more pH labile than BA and can be destroyed  by
decreasing the pH to 3.3 with hydrochloric acid at 0C.

Most modern experiments prevent further enzyme activity by either
decreasing the sample temps to around 0C and/or adding EDTA to
the sample.  EDTA(ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid)  binds with metallic
co-factor ions to prevent enzyme activity.    Mercury, silver and copper
salts are effective AA inhibitors too.

I suspect you are planning an experiment Hans.  Perhaps if you
described the reason for wanting to terminate the  AA activity
early I or someone else could make more specific suggestions.

 -S




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Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 19:44:26 -0600
From: "Adam Wead" <a_wead at hotmail.com>
Subject: Topic Discussion: Malt Extracts and Gravity

I thought I'd throw out a topic and see what experience any of you have had 
with this.  I assume a lot of you are all-grain brewers.  I'd like to go 
that route eventually, but for now, I'm just brewing with extracts.

After my last post about my IPA with the high FG, I got some advice that it 
might just be the extract that's giving me the problems.

In this case, it was Alexander's Pale, a pretty standard extract.  So I'm 
wondering if any of you all have had this same experience:

Does using extracts yield fewer fermentable sugars than mashing?

Related to that subject is yeast.  I brewed an earlier batch with dry yeast 
and got some great results.  The final gravity was lower, and the 
carbonation was much better than a batch I had made with Wyeast liquid.
When using extracts, does dry yeast give better results than liquid yeast in 
certain ciicumstances?

And lastly, are there yeast brands/stains that work better with extracts 
than others?

I look forward hearing from you all.


best,

adam

(Bloomington, IN)







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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 21:44:36 -0400
From: "Chad Gould" <cgould11 at tampabay.rr.com>
Subject: Re: FG too high

> My question is why isn't the FG lower?  How can I get it lower?  And will
it
> get any lower by leaving it in the secondary for a couple of weeks, so the
> yeast can tackle the diacetlys and esthers?

Have you posted the recipie? 62% may be a very reasonable attenuation
depending on how much less-fermentable grains you used (e.g. crystal malts).
It seems a bit low but I wouldn't rule out that a heavy crystal-malt batch
would have an attenuation like this...






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Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 22:09:08 -0400
From: "Mark Jacobs" <mjacobs312 at chartermi.net>
Subject: Hop harvest & storage

Question to hop growers in the crowd. I have a nice harvest of Cascade hops
this year and have been drying them for two days on window screens in the
garage. I then package in ziplock bags and store in the freezer.

I notice the wonder cascade aroma when I spread the hops out to dry but it
seems to have disappeared after the two days of drying. Is this typical? or
should I just be freezing the undried hops?

Mark
Cass River Homebrew Club
Mid Michigan



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