HOMEBREW Digest #4375 Thu 16 October 2003


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Dr. Cone Comments-Aeration ("Rob Moline")
  Formaldahyde, Aspertame, heaadaches? ("Sven Pfitt")
  Re: Commercial additives... (Larry Bristol)
  Re: Brussels ("Peter Flint Jr.")
  Re: Bottling yeast for lambic (John Landreman)
  Sealing kegs for fermenting ("Michael O'Donnell")
  Formaldehyde, sulfites and additives, Florida Diet report ("Dave Burley")
  Keg Purging ("Mike Sharp")
  Off-topic: Aspartame and Diets (Robert Sandefer)
  National Call to Action on Flavored Malt Beverages ("Paul Gatza")
  RE: kegging question (again) (Bill Tobler)
  more calories for the homebrew diet ("-S")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:41:19 -0500 From: "Rob Moline" <jethrogump at mchsi.com> Subject: Dr. Cone Comments-Aeration Dr. Cone Comments-Aeration Rob, Here are a few comments regarding O2 and aeration of yeast that should give some guidance to O2 and aeration requirements. Sterols and Fatty Acids keep the yeast cell walls soft and fluid. This allows the yeast to bud during the growth phase of the fermentation. It also allows the transport systems to bring nutrients into the cell and by-products out of the cell. Near the end of the fermentation it protects the yeast from alcohol toxicity. Without adequate sterols and Fatty Acids the cell wall becomes leathery and slows down and even stops the transport in and out of the cell. Alcohol is produced faster that it can be transported out of the cell thus stressing and even killing the yeast. Yeast produces 'squalene', the precursor of sterols and Fatty Acids, with out O2. It must have oxygen to move the squalene to the next stage which is sterols and fatty acids. Lallemand produces the Active Dry Beer yeast under very aerobic conditions, lots of O2, and packs the maximum amount of sterols and Fatty Acids into each cell. When the yeast is pitched into the anaerobic wort, they will multiply and share the sterols and Fatty Acids with the daughter cells. They can multiply 3,4 and sometimes 5 times before they become deficient in sterol and Fatty Acids. The cell wall becomes leathery and the yeast cannot multiply any more. The cell becomes stressed as the alcohol level builds up. This should present no problem with brewing 3,4 and 5% alcohol beer. It could be a problem as you move up to 8,9 and 10+% alcohol beer. The larger the pitching rate of the dry yeast, the less of a problem it will be. The smaller the pitching rate the more of a problem it will be. Repitching a yeast that has not been aerated during the previous fermentation can be a problem unless the yeast receives O2. Clayton Cone - --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.522 / Virus Database: 320 - Release Date: 9/29/2003 Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 08:57:36 -0400 From: "Sven Pfitt" <the_gimp98 at hotmail.com> Subject: Formaldahyde, Aspertame, heaadaches? I've heard the Formaldahyde in beer legend for at least 30 years. The beer varries from time to time. The first time I heard it was in Columbia SC around 1969 while I was in HS. The claim was that PBR had formaldahyde in it and that is what made it taste nasty (when we drank it out of the trunk of a car in the May heat, without icing it down? duh). Over the years I've heard it was also in Rhingold Chug-a-Mug, Bush, Bud, beer from Viet-nam and others. I put this in the same ranking as Bock beer is made from the dredges of the fermenters when they clean them out once a year. I last heard this six months ago from someone who claimed their uncle worked for one of the major beer companies and this uncle assured said person that this was true. I didn't try to argue with him since it was obvious that it would get me nowhere with him. Some people are like that. The comment about aspertame breaking down into formaldahyde with similar results from methanol may explain why I get a nasty headache and feel like I have a hangover if I consume food/drinks with aspertame in them. From what I have found, about 3% of the population is sensitive to aspertame in this manner. By the way, there was a really interesting show on PBS many years ago about Aspertame. It was rejected by the FDA the first time it was submitted for approval. Probably not surprising since I suspect this is not unulual. However the comments by the rep for the company that was getting the approval was interesting. When they finally got it approved, the representative made a statement to the effect of : "We spent X-Million dollars proving that aspertame is safe for human consumption." No mention was made of how much money they spent trying to find any negative effects from it. Steven, -75 XLCH- Ironhead Nano-Brewery http://thegimp.8k.com Johnson City, TN [422.7, 169.2] Rennerian "There is no such thing as gravity, the earth sucks." Wings Whiplash - 1968 Return to table of contents
Date: 15 Oct 2003 08:48:44 -0500 From: Larry Bristol <Larry at DoubleLuck.com> Subject: Re: Commercial additives... On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 23:42:26 -0500, Bev Blackwood II <bdb2 at bdb2.com> wrote: > I can't speak to the accuracy of that particular adjunct, but I can say > that I have seen the adjunct survey that was issued to commercial > breweries a few years back and among the 100+ things that *aren't* > malt, hops, yeast and water was urea! As my brewer friend likes to > joke... He thought that was just a story about how light beer was made! YAUL [Yet Another Urban Legend], Bev? Below is a reference containing an actual recipe for Budmillors, so you can clone this product for yourself. It contains the definitive answer to this puzzling question: http://www.doubleluck.com/things/brewery/recipes/Budmilloors.php - ---- Larry Bristol Bellville, TX http://www.doubleluck.com Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 10:27:51 -0400 From: "Peter Flint Jr." <peterflint at mindspring.com> Subject: Re: Brussels Others may be able to provide more details since it's been a while, but when I was there are few years ago I went to a brewer's guild brewing museum right in the center of town that had an enjoyable tour and included a glass of beer at the end of it. This may have been all the more enjoyable since it was about ten in the morning and I had just gotten off the plane and was waiting for my hotel room to be ready. Nothing like a bit of beer to shake off the jet lag. Also the cafe/bar Mort Subite was worth a visit too for their kriek. It was pretty sublime. I don't think they make it themselves, but I think they do blend it themselves which apparently is almost as much an art as the brewing process. Happy trails! Peter Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 09:17:04 -0600 (MDT) From: John Landreman <jlandrem at cso.atmel.com> Subject: Re: Bottling yeast for lambic Chad Stevens asks "So how do y'all bottle your lambics? Kraeusen at bottling?" I've bottled two lambics. Each time I simply primed with sugar like a normal beer. No added yeast. Even though both beers spent over 18 months in the fermenter they carbonated eventually, although they did take a little longer than usual. John Landreman Colorado Springs, CO Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 08:18:40 -0700 From: "Michael O'Donnell" <mooseo at stanford.edu> Subject: Sealing kegs for fermenting Jay's comment about sealing up kegs with a blast of pressure brought up a question that I have had: At 12:27 AM 10/15/2003 -0400, you wrote: >Side note - I >always initially pressurize my newly-full kegs to about 35 or 40 psi to seal >them up. You can hear the poppets and such go <pink!>. Then I hook up >normal carb pressure and wait a week. No leaks... How do those of you who ferment in corny's get them to seal? I have found that it is hit or miss whether I get any bubbling out my airlock or whether the CO2 from fermentation just leaks out through the unseated poppets or lid... thanks, Mike monterey, ca Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 11:20:43 -0400 From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net> Subject: Formaldehyde, sulfites and additives, Florida Diet report Brewsters, I recall that formaldehyde was used at least some decades ago in malting activites, but I suspect that is no longer the case with the "evidence" that it causes cancer. Dane Mosher, Papain is used to reduce cold haze in beer and isn't a stabilizer in the biological sense. I wonder about your assertion that Bud and others use sulfites in beer. Do you have a reference? I believe sulfites in beer is illegal in Britain and has been for decades. Can't imagine the US didn't follow suit. There is, of course, no evidence that sulfites cause headaches. Sulfites concentration in white wines are typically higher than in reds, yet people complaining of headaches when drinking red wine typically can drink white wines without a problem. The problem seems to be a protein in some red wines. The urban myth that sulfites causes headaches seems to have been a result of beverage labelling laws. Ascorbic acid used to prevent oxidation in a beer that is under CO2 pressure? Likewise, do you have a reference? - -------------------------- With regard to sulfites and wine making, above all don't skip sulfite additions ( 30 ppm ) at bottling and each time you rack a quiet wine. Oxygen will ruin your wine. - -------------------------- Pete Calinski reports on a Florida diet study in which low Carbers ate 300 cals more a day than low Fatters and still lost equivalent amounts of weight. It doesn't surprise me, as protein requires more energy to digest than carbohydrates, takes more time, so not as much is absorbed before elimination. ergo less <available> calories to the eater in the digestion of non-carbs than might be expected from the simple calorie tables. I do not subscribe to the hypothesis ( suggested by one of the participants) that a calorie is not a calorie. I do believe in Thermodynamics, just that the human digestion system and calorie utilization is not simple. Concerns about consuming artery clogging cholesterol on the Atkins diet seem to be dissipating with actual experiments being done in which blood lipids appear lower on the Atkins diet. Since calcium is a major part of the arterial placque, I wonder about all these high calcium pills people take?? Anyone know of a study which relates blood calcium levels and arterial placque? Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 10:15:31 -0700 From: "Mike Sharp" <rdcpro at hotmail.com> Subject: Keg Purging My advice on ridding kegs of O2, assuming you've not done the "fill with sanitized water and push it out with CO2" thing is to cycle purge the empty keg (or the headspace, if you simply cannot fill through the liquid tube. I usually secondary in a corny, so I transfer from the "liquid out" of the the secondary to the "liquid out" of the serving keg, having already purged the serving keg. Cycle purging involves pressurizing and venting the keg. I do it to the empty waiting keg. Pressurize as high as my regulator will go (about 50 psi), and vent to atmospheric. Repeat 5 or 6 times. This is easy to do if you have a manifold on your CO2 with valves on each line, and a main shutoff valve for the manifold, but you can do it simply with a single gas disconnect on the corny (a spare disconnect with no hose on it works to vent. Swap disconnects back and forth). Regards, Mike Sharp Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 13:52:26 -0400 From: Robert Sandefer <melamor at vzavenue.net> Subject: Off-topic: Aspartame and Diets I apologize for this off-topic post but I just can't stand it any longer: First, aspartame is a dipeptide (two amino acids bonded together). How exactly does a protein (at least in a basic sense of the word) "release" methanol? If aspartame can do so, then why don't steaks, eggs, and head-retention proteins? I have heard this rumor before and I have yet to see any evidence of its veracity. Second, the diet discussion (besides getting boring) is ill-named. No respected or respectable doctor or dietician would put someone on a "diet" in the common sense of the word as it implies a short-term change in food choice. I believe the preferred method is to alter permanently eating and exercise habits, which will lead to a healthy life over an extended time period. With this in mind, the major problem I have always heard with the high- protein, low-carbohydrate diets is the high ingestion of cholesterol and fats. Both of which have been linked to heart disease, which is a big enough problem as is. I think many doctors find it difficult to accept the ingestion of more cholesterol and fat will lead to less heart disease problems (although I seem to remember one study saying something along those lines). As to the study Pete Calinski wrote about, the findings (if properly reported by the Wall Street Journal) do not seem as inexplicable as the quotes make out when one realizes that amino acids are not stored by the body while glucose is. The body stores excess glucose in glycogen and fat. Amino acids on the other hand are used to build needed enzymes, structural proteins, etc, and extras are burned for energy, stored in fat, or excreted. The high-protein diets, by relying on amino acids for energy (instead of carbohydrates), are probably relying on the excretion of excess amino acids. This mechanism simply isn't open to glucose (at least from what I can find in my biology and biochemistry textbooks). Now can we please talk about beer? Robert Sandefer Arlington, VA Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 13:51:39 -0600 From: "Paul Gatza" <Paul at aob.org> Subject: National Call to Action on Flavored Malt Beverages Hi all. The U.S. Treasury Department's Tax and Trade Bureau is nearing the October 21st comment deadline on proposed regulations for flavored malt beverages. The current standard allows for a "beer" to be made with 99 percent of the source of alcohol to come from spirits addition, with a minimum of alcohol coming from malt fermentation. The proposed standard would limit the addition of spirits to be 10 percent of the alcohol in the final product. The Association of Brewers is participating in a coalition with three industry groups to help generate comments to support the proposed regulations. We need your help to send an email, fax or letter to the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Please visit http://www.beertown.org/fmb.html for the full information on the issue, positions and a sample letter. Your email to the TTB does not have be as lengthy as the sample. The email address for your comments is mailto:nprm at ttb.gov. The last time beer was defined by the federal government, the Confederacy had the upper hand in the Civil War, so the stakes are pretty big. Thanks to everyone who shoots off a quick email. Paul Gatza Director Association of Brewers 736 Pearl St. Boulder, CO 80302 paul at aob.org ph: +1.303.447.0816 ext. 122 fax: +1.303.447.2825 www.beertown.org - --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 16:25:58 -0500 From: Bill Tobler <wctobler at sbcglobal.net> Subject: RE: kegging question (again) Greg said, "Quick question: Say I brewed a batch of beer, that after racking/etc came out to be around 3.5-4 gallons. I want to keg it in a 5 gallon keg. I know there is a problem with having too much oxygen on top of the beer. What I'd like to know is, would it be ok to blow CO2 through the liquid valve on my ball-lock keg, and let air out of the gas valve? Would this work?" Then I said, "Greg, sense the vapor space on top of the beer is air, bubbling CO2 up from the bottom of the keg would just aerate the wort, IMO. A better way would be Dave Burley's method of filling a clean keg up with boiled and cooled water, then pushing it out with CO2 and racking your beer to the keg through the liquid out tap." I'm not sure what I was thinking at the moment, but I'm sure Greg is not bubbling CO2 up through his beer. He is just trying to purge the tank of air. I'd claim too much homebrew, but I wrote it at 5AM, and was getting ready for work. What the heck, I'll blame it on too much homebrew anyway. I think, and others will back me up, that just purging your keg with CO2 does not do a very good job of removing the air. The CO2 mixes up too good. Even a very small O2 PPM number could cause problems. If you drink up your beer quickly, it's probably not an issue. We have our homebrew club meeting tonight. Octoberfest night. Good German beer, music, brats and sauerkraut. (I made Jeff's German soft pretzels last year, and they were a hit.) Looking forward to a good time. See ya!! Bill Tobler Lake Jackson, TX (1129.7, 219.9) Apparent Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 18:26:07 -0400 From: "-S" <-s at adelphia.net> Subject: more calories for the homebrew diet Pete Calinski writes, >Study Upsets Idea That All Calories---WSJ Article I'm not casting aspersions on the research which determined a low carb dieter could eat more calories and still lose weight, but the WSJ article failed to note that Ms.Greene's research was funded by the Atkins organization. That certainly doesn't mean the result is wrong or biased, but it should give extra incentive to withhold judgement till this very unusual result on a very small number of subjects has been replicated independently. At the very least till the result is published in a peer reviewed journal, not a press release. === If you are looking for a caloric loophole with a little more data behind it how about this one. It seems that alcohol is not producing the expected number of calories in test subjects ! The shortfall is considerable - 15-20%. The current theory is that the impact of alcohol on the liver drives fat catabolism to a very inefficient state. It also appears that this calorie deficit does not occur in folks on a low fat diet ! If you want to save a (a very few) calories lose the low-fat diet and have a beer. Unfortunately a long term large sample size study in the UK shows that alcohol consumption in any form >30gm/day leads to overweight. Apparently the body does not reduce calories from other sources in response to alcohol calorie consumption. -S Return to table of contents
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