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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org


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Contents:
  Dunklemumblemumble, metabisulfite as a water treatment ("Dave Burley")
  CARBOY Shamrock Open - March 27 ("Mike Dixon")
  Spam and the Digest: Restraint, please... (Pat Babcock)
  Bunratty Mead ("Al Boyce")
  spring training ("greg mcgann")
  RE: Gas Measurement ("Ronald La Borde")
  Email Address Harvesting (rickdude02)
  OT - SPAM harvesting (Mark Kempisty)
  Re: Bunratty Mead (Jeff Renner)
  A must read PID article ("Reddy, Pat")
  Bunratty Mead ("Mike Maag")
  plastics and temperature ("The Mad Brewer")


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Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 12:22:55 -0500
From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net>
Subject: Dunklemumblemumble, metabisulfite as a water treatment

Brewsters:

JonO is having a hard time deciding if his first all grain is fuinished
fermnenting or not as the hydrometer hasn't moved but it's still bubbling.

First, bubling is not a sign of fermentation just the CO2 leaving the solution
(off-gassing) , which can happen long after the fermentation has stopped.

Secondly, a hydrometer is not a good instrument to use for this, as the
clinging bubbles give a false high reading.

Using a hydrometer to determine the fermentatoin endpoint is especially
frustrating ( and uninformative)  when doing all grain as the FG is not always
easy to know unless you have made this particular brew a number of times and
have not made any temperature mistakes.

Wintertime is also a problem as the fermenter temperature may drop below the
desired temperature , esp with ales and a stuck fermentation is a possibility.

This is exactly why I use Clinitest to determine that the reducing sugars are
at 1/4% or below, then I know with confidence that the fermentation is at an
end, even though I may have a high final gravity which is dependent on the
mashing conditions and the fermenter is still off-gassing.
- ---------------
Rich asks if Kmetab'ite can be used to treat his water. This, used in the ppm
range, will remove any chlorine, but in a non-acid state Kmetab'bite will not
do anything else as it is the SO2 which is only available at below pH -around
3.3 that "kills" nasties

You will be boiling and cooling your water for beer so no need to treat it for
biological contaminants.  If that sounds like too much work use bottled water
from the supermarket that is ozonated.  No chlorine.

Keep on Brewin',

Dave Burley






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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 07:51:59 -0500
From: "Mike Dixon" <mpdixon at ipass.net>
Subject: CARBOY Shamrock Open - March 27

The CARBOY Shamrock Open Homebrewing Competition will be held on March 27,
2004 in Raleigh, NC at the BB&Y restaurant. Once again the competition is
registered with the BJCP and the AHA.

The fees are $6 first entry and $5 each additional entry.
Deadlines for mail in entries is March 19 and for drop off entries is March
21.

All the gory details can be viewed at http://hbd.org/carboy/shamrock.htm

Please use the online entry form for entries and to sign up to judge or
steward at competition http://hbd.org/carboy/shamrock_register.htm

If you need directions to the event they are on the Shamrock page or you can
link there off the main page http://hbd.org/carboy/


This is your chance to see how you measure up against some of the best North
and South Carolina Brewers as we begin the 2004 season for Carolinas Brewer
of the Year http://hbd.org/cboy/

Cheers,
Mike Dixon
Wake Forest, NC



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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 08:34:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Pat Babcock <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: Spam and the Digest: Restraint, please...

Greetings beerlings, take me to your lager...

Once again, a piece of SPAM has made it into the Digest. And,
once again, someone feels it necessary to voice their indignation
over it.

First, let me say that, even with the rare incidence that a piece of
detritus makes it onto the Digest, the HBD still has one of the highest
signal-to-noise ratios of any other list of its type.

For those that don't understand how the HBD is managed, please review the
FAQ at http://hbd.org. In it you'll find a discussion on "Low-Level
Moderation" -better described, I think, as "deadman moderation." Just as
the "deadman switch" on a train prevents runaway accidents, our method of
moderation ensures that, as long as the server and the internet are up,
and there are posts in the queue, you should never have to muddle through
your day without the HBD.

Some of the moderation is done through automation. Easily identifiable
patterns are put into the scripting to prevent many posts from even
getting into the queue. Same for certain formatting errors (for instance,
the HBD rejects 90% of the HTML mail it receives, thereby eliminating 99%
of the SPAM and viruses cast at its gate). Whatever is left is handled by
manual review and removal from the queue by the janitors - and here's the
key point: note that I said REMOVED from the queue. Most moderation
schemes depend on the moderator to ALLOW posts INTO the queue. Hence the
term "deadman moderation": unless the Janitors remove a message from the
queue, it will eventually publish.

The unfortunate side effect is that this method leaves the queue exposed
when it is low enough that any item posted prior to publication will make
it into the next Digest - which publishes at 12:00 am EST. So, if the
Janitors choose sleep over insomnia, and the Digest queue is not filled,
the occasional piece of detritus will make it in.

Trust me: I am painfully aware when something slips by. I don't need a
note from anyone telling me so, and I certainly don't need anyone
reposting the piece of SPAM with their comments added. This simply
multiplies the offense by repeating it in their quote! Note that I do edit
the Digests in the Archive and the HTML Digest to remove SPAM, preventing
the offender from gaining free advertisement there.

I have considered changing the publication time of the HBD to prevent the
timing disparity; however, this would impact the performance of the HBD
server since it would be processing the 3800 subscriber mailings during
times when folks are still using the Brewery and HBD web sites. With all
of the worms, viruses, and legitimate mail banging on the gates, I don't
think the Server will be very responsive to those using the web pages if I
do so.

In any case, just as I noodled out a solution to the email harvesting
issue, I am working on ways to implement an "automatic night lock" to
defer postings received after, say, 10:00 pm EST from entering the true
queue until after the Digest publishes the next day. This is preferred to
implementing a server-wide filter as there would be many pieces of
legitimate mail lost through such an implementation - I would not have
time to review, one by one, any mail quarantined by such a thing.  And,
with, perhaps, one piece of SPAM making it into the Digest per month, on a
conservative average (it's actually lower than that), this issue is not
top priority at the moment.

- -- 
 -
God bless America!

Pat Babcock in SE Michigan         pbabcock at hbd.org
Home Brew Digest Janitor           janitor at 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, 26 Feb 2004 08:15:27 -0600
From: "Al Boyce" <aboyce at mn.rr.com>
Subject: Bunratty Mead

Brian-

Bunratty Mead was the first mead I ever tried, when I was touring Ireland
back in 1981.  At the time, I thought it a marvelous elixir, and I
hand-carried several bottles back home from across the foam.  Recently I
found Bunratty mead here in the states.  For me, the import product is
nothing like what I remembered when I sampled it in Ireland.  Granted, many
more meads have passed my lips since then, and I admit to being spoiled.

The bottle claims it is "honey wine", and describes it as white wine with
honey added.  So there's your recipe, if you want to try to make it here -
make a white wine first, and then add honey to it later in the fermentation.

 - Al



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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 09:22:34 -0500
From: "greg mcgann" <mcganngreg at hotmail.com>
Subject: spring training

commrades:
next month i'm planning  a beer & baseball bike ride along the pinellas 
trail in s.w. florida.  i know dunedin pretty well, but does anyone have 
suggestions for places to get decent beer elsewhere along the trail-st. 
pete, clearwater, tarpon springs?  proximity--near enough to get there by 
foot or bike -is important.
thanx!



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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 08:34:59 -0600
From: "Ronald La Borde" <pivoron at cox.net>
Subject: RE: Gas Measurement

>From: "Martin Brungard" <mabrungard at hotmail.com>
>
>What I'm hoping to cultivate with this message are some ideas about
how a
>tipping device might be fashioned or if there are other approaches to
flow
>measurement that aren't going to cost an arm and a leg.

One possible way to calibrate the bubble counter might be thus:

  * First I would think that the airlock solution must be at the same
volume and contain the same liquid to have any meaningful
repeatability.

  * So how about measuring the amount of water to completely fill a
corny keg, then empty the keg and put on airlock at gas out port. Now
start your bubble counter and slowly fill keg with water through the
liquid in port until full. This should give the exact volume of air
pushed out. This is your measurement and use this for calibration.

  * Someone had posted earlier about using an audio pickup to hear the
bubbling. This may work, but another method might be to have a small
magnet in the bubbler to pulse a reed switch, or perhaps a piece of
foil that would lift with the bubble and break a light beam
counter........

Ron
=====
Ronald J. La Borde -- Metairie, LA
New Orleans is the suburb of Metairie, LA
www.hbd.org/rlaborde





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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 09:48:59 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
From: rickdude02 at earthlink.net
Subject: Email Address Harvesting

Patrick states that his address has been harvested from this list.

Could be-- I dunno.  Patrick, did you use the "at" instead of " at "
when you posted?  I'm just thinking that someone must have 
a lot of time on their hands to manually enter email addresses
off of the HBD.  And could it be that someone got you in a 
random string search or something (i.e. sending to
guy1 at hotmail... guy2@hotmail... etc.)?

I don't mean to discount what you're saying, and I know that
harvesters are working out there... I'm just wondering
about the details of it.

Rick


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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 10:29:52 -0500
From: Mark Kempisty <mskhbd at yahoo.com>
Subject: OT - SPAM harvesting

I get a ton of SPAM at my work address which I'm pretty sure came  as a 
result of HBD :-(.  As a result I didn't post for months.  I finally 
created a mule account at Yahoo.  I check it about once every two weeks 
and its Bulk mail folder is packed with SPAM. 

The SPAMMERS probably have their SPAM-bots programmed to look for 
<space>at<space> and insert a  at .  Maybe  our digest hosts can randomize 
what gets inserted.

Brew on,
Mark
Richboro, PA

P.S.  Another piece of SPAM just came in!  UGH!


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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 10:32:04 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Bunratty Mead

"Brian Dougan" <dougan_b at hotmail.com> wrote:

>While travelling around Ireland last spring I happened upon "Bunratty Mead"
>produced at the Bunratty Winery, Bunratty, Co. Clare.  Has anyone else
>sipped this mead and have opinions on it?  I was hoping perhaps someone
>would be able to help me figure out a recipe that would be close to it. 
>Having yet to make a mead, I thought this would be a good one to try and get
>close to having enjoyed it.

Below is all you need to know about this product from Dick Dunn, 
Mead-Lover's Digest janitor (subscribe at mead-request at talisman.com). 
He posted this on Mead Lover's Digest two years ago.

You might do a Google search for "site:aboutmead.com Bunratty" for 
more information.

I suggest that you might like to a lightly spiced sweet pyment (grape 
and honey mead).  You could use a white wine concentrate with honey. 
To keep the alcohol down, you could make if of moderate gravity and 
add honey when it was done fermenting along with spice or a spice 
tea, and sorbate to keep it from fermenting again.

For more information on this I highly recommend Ken Schramm's new 
book _Compleat Meadmaker_ and MeadLover's Digest.

Jeff


Subject: Bunratty, again ("Meade" is NOT mead)
From: rcd at talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: Mon,  7 Jan 2002 15:24:00 -0700 (MST)

Short summary - Bunratty "Meade" is not mead.

NLSteve at aol.com wrote a while back:
>  I don't know of any true Irish meads available around these parts, but wanted
>  to warn you about at least one "meade" imported to the US from Ireland. Brand
>  name is "Bunratty."  The extra "e" on the word "mead" is a tipoff that  it
>  isn't really mead as we know it, but grape wine with honey added or 
>some such.

Lynhbrew at aol.com responded in the last digest:

>  ...I don't believe that the labeling on the Meade you consumed was incorect
>  but it may have been incomplete. You were probably expecting a traditional
>  or varietal honey mead and instead there was a surprise grape flavor present.
>  The category of beverages known as Meads actually includes a broad array of
>  honey wines and has been further broken down into several subcategories...

Most of us already know the categories.  But Bunratty "Meade" is NOT a honey
wine.  Specifically, the honey that is put into it is NOT fermented.

>  While I am not familiar with Bunratty (unfortunately) I can only guess
>  that it is most likely a Pyment; which is a mead made with with the
>  addition of grapes or grape juice.

I (unfortunately!) AM familiar with Bunratty "Meade", and I can tell 
you that although your guess is what a reasonable person would 
expect, it is quite wrong.

I'm going to be more blunt than in the past.  "Meade" is a 
poor-quality white wine (a grape wine, to be clear), with honey and 
spices added to make it (barely) drinkable.  It's a disgrace to the 
tradition of mead, particularly because anyone who tries it out of 
interest in mead is likely to be put off mead as a result.

The name "Meade" is their trademark for this product.  It is a 
deliberate deception:  the text on the bottle, and occasionally on a 
hang-tag on the neck, discusses the lore of mead, in order to 
encourage you to believe that "Meade" is mead.  It is not.

In the US, the BATF (federal agency that regulates alcoholic 
beverages, among other things) has a history or at least a reputation 
of being strict about labeling.  I wonder why Bunratty "Meade" hasn't 
come under scrutiny for its deceptive label.  (Maybe it's because the 
people who understand the issue and are bothered by it are all like 
me--sit around complaining but don't do anything?:-)

Dick
- -- 
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: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 13:51:36 -0600
From: "Reddy, Pat" <Pat.Reddy at mavtech.cc>
Subject: A must read PID article

I'm not here to start up the PID/Temp probe placement debate, AGAIN!
Rather, here's a great article on how to control a difficult heating
system, i.e. one in which there is a long "thermal lag", as in when you
have your temp probe at your mash tun outlet.

http://www.essproducts.com/download/PIDprimer.PDF


Pat Reddy
River Bound Brewing
 



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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 19:13:38 -0500
From: "Mike Maag" <maagm at rica.net>
Subject: Bunratty Mead

Brian Dougan wants to clone Bunratty Mead.

The bottle lists white wine, honey, and herbs as the ingredients.  It tastes
like a semi sweet mead recipe with 1/3 of the honey replaced with white grape
juice.  (or mix white wine with your mead if you are not a purest).
This is actually a pyment, which is a mead made from honey & grape juice.  I
believe the major herb used is sweet gale (Use sparingly), available at home
brew supply shops.  Be sure to add yeast nutrients so the fermentation isn't
too slow.

Hope this helps,
Mike Maag, in the Shenandoah Valley





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Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 21:02:56 -0600
From: "The Mad Brewer" <seansgroups at mts.net>
Subject: plastics and temperature

Regarding Aaron's post on coolers, I've been wondering about similar things
too.  I would believe that HDPE is OK at mash temperatures.  One of
Rubbermaid's problems is that if they are selling plastic items as "food
grade" they are complying with regulations enforced by the FDA, and known as
"21 CFR 170 through 179".  I think plastics come under 21 CFR 177.  If you
go to www.fda.gov and hunt around you should find a link to the site that
actually has all the US government regs on-line.

These regulations state what limits apply to the composition of plastics
etc. in contact with food as "indirect food additives".  The issue here is
they also state what uses the compliant plastics may be put to - some things
are OK for dry foods, but not for wet, or only for foods low in fats, etc.
So if they tell you it's OK to mash in a cooler, they could be in trouble if
the regs only apply to "storage".  The issue would be plasticizers - if you
can find polyethylene in the regs I expect they don't allow anything
particularly exotic, and HDPE doesn't normally require plasticizers.

What about those brown rectangular thermal containers that caterers use for
coffee?  I haven't found them on the web yet.  I wonder if anyone makes one
big enough for mashing.  You'd think the US army would have big thermoses.

Sean




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