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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  RE: igloo mash tun ("Rick Gordon")
  Rennerian coordinates, etc. (Travis Dahl KE4VYZ)
  Berliner weiss update, recipe, details (Marc Sedam)
  BJCP guidelines ("Greg R")
  Food Grade Quick Disconnects (Caryl Hornberger Slone)
  Water Chemistry ("Patrick Hughes")


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Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 00:35:34 -0400
From: "Rick Gordon" <regordon at bellsouth.net>
Subject: RE: igloo mash tun

I  use a 5 gal cylindrical cooler, the brown barrel shaped one not the newer
orange ones, as a hot liquor tun for my sparge water. I don't like using
plastic for the mash because sometimes I want to do step infusions or need
to bump the heat back up. Nothing beats my 30 liter ss Bitburger keg/mash
tun for that.

I had to take out the spigot and use a #2 rubber stopper with a piece of
tubing jammed in the hole as an outlet. A pinch valve regulates the sparge
flow. I have used it for almost ten years and the only problem is some
deformation of the sides due to the heat. I usually heat the sparge water
while the mash is working and acidify it with a dollop of lactic acid.

Different thread:  I switched from my homemade "Easy Masher" type system to
an ss false bottom. (I had been wanting one for years!) It is really cool,
but I get a lot more junk in the first runnings and tend to get a little
more scorching if I use heat during the mash. I've already had to adjust the
crush a bit courser. Not sure it was worth the switch - no noticable
increase in efficiency etc."If it ain't broke..." Anyone else have this
experience?

Rick Gordon
[580.2, 181.4] Rennerian




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Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 08:08:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Travis Dahl KE4VYZ <dahlt at umich.edu>
Subject: Rennerian coordinates, etc.

Oooh, ooh, ooh!  A question on the digest I can answer!

In Steve Dale-Johnson's post he says:
"Brewing at (1918, 298) Miles Apparent Rennerian (I'm west of Jeff ...
shouldn't the degrees be negative???)
Vancouver, BC, Canada"
Well, it would be if these were Lat. Long. coordinates, but Rennerian
coordinates are polar (does the term vector ring a bell?).  This means a
distance and a direction from "The Center of the Homebrewing Universe".
And, of course the direction is just a number between 1 and 360.  Although
I suppose instead of 298 degrees, you could say -62 degrees.

Being from the Pacific NorthWET originally, I understand how a waterlogged
brain can alter your thought processes.

I suppose, though, that I should actally figure out what my coordinates
are now that I've gone on about them...

Travis
[1.8, 98.3] Apparent Rennerian
(No, being close to the center, doesn't automatically make you a good
brewer!)




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Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 08:48:10 -0400
From: Marc Sedam <marc_sedam at unc.edu>
Subject: Berliner weiss update, recipe, details

I'm about to brew up my annual Berliner weiss and have been
doing some more reading and reviewing of my previous posts
to the HBD. I think I've summarized things appropriately here,
and this will be my procedure for Monday's upcoming brew.
For the record, I used Eric Warner's "German Wheat Beers",
Ray Daniels' "Designing Great Beers", and a BT "Brewing in
Styles" article [Jan/Feb] by Florian Kuplent, and my own
experience as sources. Since this is such a wacky style, I thought
I'd go for more details rather than fewer.

Grist--50/50 mix of barley and wheat. I used 2-row DWC pilsner
malt and DWC wheat malt. Start off with 3lbs of each for 5
gallons. If your extraction is too good, you just wind up with
more beer. That would be too bad. <grin>

Brewing liquor--I used my very soft tap [40ppm] water as-is.
The literature suggests that you boil WHOLE hops (at 1.3-1.5oz/5
gallons of finished beer) in the mash water for an hour, then
cool. Pellets are not an acceptable alternative and will only
cause more problems in the lauter/sparge. The whole hops
help in lautering. It is also acceptable to add a small amount of
calcium carbonate at mash-in. Not necessary, but it won't hurt
either.

Mash--It is suggested that the mash ratio be
3-3.5qt/lb. One-third of the total mash liquor (sans hops) is
added at dough in. For god sakes, dough in at 95F and hold for
15-20 minutes (or 5-24 hours if you want 'natural' sourness).
I have made a Berliner without this step and my
mash took 5 hours. The next one I made used this rest and took
50 minutes. Next, add remaining 2/3 of the water (with hops) to
reach the protein rests of 117F (15min), 122F (15min), and 128F
(15min). I fully, wholly, and unequivocally recommend a
decoction for the temperature rise from 128F to 148F to help
break down the highly viscous components in the mash and improve
lautering. Pull a thick decoction and boil for 40 minutes (if
you do a double decoction you only need to boil each decoction
for 20 minutes). Add back and hold for 20 minutes. Raise the
temperature to 156F (via heat or decoction, your choice) and hold
for between 30 minutes and five hours. [Explanation: If you have
held the mash for 5 hours at dough-in, hold for 30 minutes. IF
you plan to inoculate the wort with lactobacilli, hold for 30
minutes.] There is no raise to mash-out temps.

Sparge--You can use one of two methods: (1) sparge with water
at 170F to bring the temperature of the mash up slightly; (2)
sparge with boiling water [yes, you read right] to help stop
lactobacilli growth. Be sure to cut the mash frequently to
avoid channeling. The decoction and hops should help loosen
the mash some, but begin runoff very slowly. The OG of the
wort should be between 1.028-1.032. Mash efficiency will be
low (65-75%), but the decoctions should help some. I have
sparged with boiling water for all but one Berliner and the final
flavor is fine.

Boil--More appropriately, don't. If you plan to inoculate with
lactobacilli, cool the wort down and pitch the culture when it
hits 95F. Let cool naturally and sour over the next 24-48
hours. When the desired sourness is reached (requires daily
tastings...sorry), bring the wort to a boil for 10 minutes, or
hold at 190F for an hour. Chill back to pitching temps and pitch
a VERY healthy starter (cell counts akin to a lager).

Yeast--Neutral ale yeast, preferably German. This is one place
where I think dry yeast would work great, provided it has a
neutral flavor profile. If you skim the yeast off the top during
kraeusen it will help limit continued souring of the beer as much
of the lactobacilli will rise to the top (so sayeth the
literature...I haven't experienced this yet).

'Bugs'--Pure lactobacillus culture can be obtained through a special
order from Wyeast (#4335). I'm no expert in culturing bacteria,
but I pitched it in a quart of wort and pretty well ignored it other
than a good shake every once in a while, out of fear I'd
contaminate my yeast ranching equipment. As with all other
non-yeast buggers in your brewery, cleaning and sanitation
post-Berliner weiss are of the utmost importance.

Fermentation--This year, I'm brewing up 15 gallons and will
ferment using a slightly different method. Ten gallons of wort
will go in my Mini-Brew fermenter to be fermented with WhiteLabs
WLP003 (German Ale II). Five gallons of wort will go in a carboy,
pitched with the lactobacillus culture, and moved to my attic.

Carbonation: When both fermentations are complete I'll move them
to a Sankey keg with three cups of corn sugar for priming. As part
of it's nature the finished beer is served with between 3-4 volumes
of CO2. Yep, that's a lot.

Aging: Age for three weeks (or until the sourness is acceptable)
in warm temps (60-75F), then store at 40-45F for extended
periods.

Hope everyone gets to try this style at least once. It's a very
refreshing beer and perfect for the North Carolina summers.
Things have been pretty mild here so far and I'm hopeful this
will be finished and ready to drink by the time the heat starts
to get oppressive.

Cheers!
Marc

- -- 

Marc Sedam
Chapel Hill, NC




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Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 09:50:18 -0500
From: "Greg R" <gmrbrewer at hotmail.com>
Subject: BJCP guidelines

This question is for certified judges and how they interpret the BJCP 
guidelines when evaluating a beer.  The BJCP guidelines suggest a range of 
original gravities and IBUs for every style, e.g. for APAs the OG range is 
1.045 - 1.056, and the IBU range is 20 to 40.  Does this imply that a beer 
of 1.045 OG and 40 IBUs is equally in style as a beer of 1.056 OG and 20 
IBUs?  Using the BU/GU ratio, this suggests a range from 0.36 to 0.89, which 
covers a very wide spectrum of flavor balances.  Or is the correct 
application of the guidelines to pair the low end of the gravity range with 
the low end of bittering and high gravities with high bitterness, suggesting 
a BU/GU range from 0.44 to 0.71?  The latter interpretation seems to make 
more sense, but becomes limiting for other styles such as IPAs, where 
incorporating this interpretation results in a BU/GU range of 0.80 to 0.80 
(compared to 0.53 to 1.20 using the former interpretation).

Obviously, original gravity and bitterness alone do not completely describe 
a beer, and many other factors are evaluated when judging.  I do not enter 
competitions, but I like to use the guidelines to assist me when formulating 
new recipes, particularly styles I have not brewed or even tasted 
previously.  Understanding how judges have been trained to evaluate recipes 
will help me to better interpret unfamiliar styles.

Cheers!

Greg in Chicago



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Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 11:14:25 -0500
From: Caryl Hornberger Slone <chornberger10 at comcast.net>
Subject: Food Grade Quick Disconnects

Hello,

    I'm trying to find a good cheap source of some no-frills quick
disconnects for my home brewery.  I've found some at grainger that are a
good price, but they're steel bodied and zinc/gold dichromate plated.  I
can't find out anywhere if this is a safe material or not.  Does anyone out
there know of this material's health properties (aka fda certifications?) or
know of a good, cheap source for brew-grade quick disconnects?

Thanks,
Caryl Hornberger Slone
Ft. Wayne, IN



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Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 23:11:28 -0500
From: "Patrick Hughes" <pjhinc at eriecoast.com>
Subject: Water Chemistry

Brewed last weekend armed with a PH meter after deciding that the
harshness/astringency problems I have been experiencing for several years,
was coming from the sparge. I looked at every other angle before delving
into water chemistry[trust me] believing that good beer can be made while
knowing little about your municipal water. But since I moved I can't get
away from this bitterness problem. I started out by figuring out how much
acid is needed to bring my 7.5 ph water into recommended ranges for
sparging.
I conducted the mash with almost all pilsner malt. I heard many times on
this forum and other sources the mash PH will usually take care of itself.
and it did, with the ph at 5.7  - 5.8 not optimal but I thought this was
acceptable. While mashing; my HLT was heating the sparge water to 170 - 180.
The mash took a longer then usual as I went ahead and added minerals to
achieve a Dortmund type water profile. This was after mashing for 45 minutes
at 148. I wanted to see what happened to the ph of the mash with these
minerals . The ph went down slightly but not much. The ph meter was new,
calibrated to manufacturers recomendations and I used the double dipping
method for testing. Any readings that I was unsure of I let the sample cool
to roomtemp and tried again. The ATC feature of the meter worked fine as I
got the same readings consistently at different temps. When i was ready to
add acid to the sparge water, which is sitting at 180, I took a sample let
it cool and tested to find the PH at 8.2. Ther were no minerals added to the
sparge water. Did the PH rise from something precipitating out? Is there a
solution to this or should I plan on this happening every time?

Patrick Hughes




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