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


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       THIS YEAR'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY: 

                  Beer, Beer, and More Beer
      Visit http://morebeer.com to show your appreciation!

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Contents:
  5.2 ph Buffer/Stabilizer (Randy Ricchi)
  Vegas, NHC, X-Prize (Nathan J. Williams)
  Brewing with potatos (Chuck Mryglot)
  Way to go Pat and Madison's Great taste (Beaverplt)
  What happened to my lager? ("MikeW")
  Yaaaay!!! The HBD is back!! (eIS) - Eastman" <stjones@eastman.com>
  Anyone got some travel tips? ("Jason Pavento")
  The continued restoration of the HBD... (Mr Patrick Babcock)
  Freezer mods ("Kent Fletcher")
  Yay! ("Doug Hurst")


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Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 12:55:59 -0400
From: Randy Ricchi <rricchi at houghton.k12.mi.us>
Subject: 5.2 ph Buffer/Stabilizer

Boy, that was a long month without the Homebrew Digest!

Beer, Beer & Morebeer has a new product called 5.2ph Buffer/Stabilizer.
The description of the product is as follows:

"Never worry about pH again! One tablespoon of 5.2 per 5 gallons and
your water is instantly
  adjusted to the perfect pH of 5.2, no matter what your starting pH
was. It will not add any flavors to your mash water whatsoever. 5.2
optimizes the enzymatic activity of your malt, helps to clarify the
wort, and may even help to raise your starting gravities. Also, using
5.2 in the boil will give you more consistent hop usage, and will also
keep hard water salts in solution, which will result in less scaling in
your heat exchangers, fermenters, and kegs."

Does this seem realistic that one product can adjust ANY water to the
desired ph? How would something like this work?





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Date: 07 Jun 2004 14:27:42 -0400
From: nathanw at MIT.EDU (Nathan J. Williams)
Subject: Vegas, NHC, X-Prize


John Palmer asks who all is going to Vegas for the NHC. I'm excited to
go, for my first time; it sounds like it'll be an excellent event.

In planning the trip, I happened to notice that the Burt Rutan/Paul
Allen X-prize launch attempt (www.xprize.org, privately funded
space-launch competition) is scheduled nearby in time and location:
Monday the 21st at 6:30am in Mojave, CA. This also seems like an event
not to be missed. I'm currently planning to drive out Sunday afternoon
(I believe it's about a four-hour drive) and back to Vegas on Monday
once the launch is over. Anyone else planning to hit the launch from
NHC?

        - Nathan



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Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 15:04:47 -0400
From: Chuck Mryglot <cmryglot at cisco.com>
Subject: Brewing with potatos

A couple of months back one of the brewing mags had an article on 
brewing with potatos.   I've brewed CAPs with corn and rice (flakes) and 
am curious about a potato brew.    Has anyone out there tried 
this?...any words of wisdom?
Thanks
CHuckM



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Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 12:32:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Beaverplt <beaverplt at yahoo.com>
Subject: Way to go Pat and Madison's Great taste

I'm a very infrequent poster, but I read this e-rag
daily and really missed it. Thanks for getting it back
on line. 
I also need to know if anyone in the Madison's brewing
community knows what happened with ticket sales to the
Great Taste beer tasting event in August? I sent my
ticket request and check in exactly on the appointed
day, (Actually a day before to allow for mail time)
and was very surprised when my check was returned to
me with a note that tickets had been sold out and that
next year would see a change in ticket sale
procedures? What happened? Did a ticket broker buy out
the whole lot? Any info would be helpful.

Thanks

=====
Jerry "Beaver" Pelt


	
		


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Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 20:14:12 -0700
From: "MikeW" <mwesty at cableone.net>
Subject: What happened to my lager?

Second time I've brewed this light lager, first batch with White labs German
lager, specifics below:

4 lbs. light DME
1 lb. flaked corn
1 lb. rice solids

1.5 oz. saaz hops, 60 min boil
 .25 oz. saaz hops, 40 min boil
 .25 oz. saaz hops, 20 min boil

48 oz. white labs WLP 840 starter.  First time I've used this yeast, starter
was pretty active so I added most of contents of starter.

Steeped corn, dissolved rice solids and extract, 60 minute boil. Wort was
counterflow chilled. Pitched yeast at 68-70 degrees and at first signs of
fermentation (3 hrs) cooled to fermentation temp. of 50F for 10 days. This
included 2 days for diacetyl rest.  OG of 1.038.  Gravity on racking to
secondary 1.020.  Flavor profile on racking includes bubble-gummy esters
beneath typical light lager mellowness.  By day 7 of primary krausen head had
completely fallen and gas evolution through airlock virtually nonexistent.  So
why the high OG and esters? Any help appreciated. Mike.



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Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 08:31:36 -0400
From: "Jones, Steve (eIS) - Eastman" <stjones at eastman.com>
Subject: Yaaaay!!! The HBD is back!!

Wow, talk about withdrawal symptoms ... it's been a tough go, but I
managed to make it thru this last month of mornings without my digest.
Hooray for Pat - I'm sure that he and his family have sacrificed greatly
to get the HBD back up and running, and we appreciate it greatly. I will
definitely follow Jeff's lead and send a sixer to Pat via YBC, and I
encourage everyone else to do so as well. Pat - I didn't receive the HBD
via email, but saw it in HTML. Do we need to re-subscribe?

In the meantime, I decided to tackle a project that I've long wanted to
do - I built a walk-in cooler in my garage. I decided that I needed to
build it so that I could disassemble and move it if the occasion arises,
so I made it in 6 panels that fasten together with 4" deck screws. The
panels were constructed of 2" Extruded polystyrene (R10) inside a frame
of 2 x 3s planed & jointed down to 1 1/4 x 2 1/8, then sandwiched
between two layers of 1/8" tileboard using foamboard adhesive. It is 4'
D x 8' W x 6' H. I used 3/16" x 1 1/2" foam tape weatherstrip on the
edges before assembly, and then caulked all the inside joints with
silicone caulk. It will be cooled by a 11K BTU window air conditioner,
which is installed but not yet turned on. My last task is to make a
catch for the door and check the seal for leaks.

According to SkotRat's walk-in cooler page there is usually a small
adjustment knob on the built-in controller for the AC unit. This one
does not have that knob, but does have an adjustment knob on the
outside. If I can't get it as low as I'd like it, I will bypass the
built-in controller with a Johnson external controller. I've already
hard-wired the fan to a second power cord so that I can run it
continuously. I'll be putting up a web page in the next few weeks (after
the NHC) with more details and further learnings for anyone who is
interested.

See you in Vegas!

Steve Jones, Johnson City, TN
State of Franklin Homebrewers (http://hbd.org/franklin)
[421.8 mi, 168.5 deg] AR








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Date: Tue, 08 Jun 2004 06:26:03 -0700
From: "Jason Pavento" <jpavento at entravision.com>
Subject: Anyone got some travel tips?

Hello all, Good to have the HBD back online. I was starting
to have withdrawal symptoms. You know: asking random people
on the street how to set up a draft system and yelling at
unsuspecting family and friends about the dangers of HSA.

Anyway, on to my question: I am off on a "Scandinavian
Capitals" cruise with Norwegian Cruise lines after my
funeral, er... I mean Wedding. We will be docking for about
a day each in Berlin (Warnemunde), Germany; Tallinn,
Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland;
Stockholm, Sweden; and Copenhagen, Denmark. Seems weird
that we don't visit Oslo on a Scandinavian Capitals cruise
with Norwegian Cruise lines but, oh well. 

I am looking for any info you all might have on where I
should go for beer related activities (such as drinking it)
in each of these cities. I am most interested in indigenous
beer styles that 'just aren't as good here', especially
Berliner Weisse and Sahti in Finland. But also anywhere I
should visit just for some great beer.

Thanks in advance, any help you can offer is much
appreciated. Private emails will probably be best and I
will post a compilation for the archives.


Jay,
Brewin' Rehab Homebrews at
The Boilover Brauhaus
Walpole MA 02081
http://rehabhomebrew.servebeer.com


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Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 06:26:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mr Patrick Babcock <pgbabcock at yahoo.com>
Subject: The continued restoration of the HBD...

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

The continued restoration of the HBD is going very
well! This should be the last "hand triggered" Digest
 - the rest should be generated at 10:00 pm Eastern
each night, until such time as I have confidence in
the newly-installed spam and virus filters. At that
time, the Digest will return to its traditional 12:00
am delivery.

Many clubs have contacted me, and I've restored their
sites and access. If your club is not restored, have
your webmaster contact me at pbabcock at hbd.org - even
if s/he already has. (Hint: if your site is not up,
either there are other problems, or I did not get an
email from your webmaster for whatever reason.)

Most of the Preserve sites are back up. TO those who
maintain them: this does not mean your old password
will still work! It just means people can see your
site. Please contact me for your login information, if
you still require it. Otherwise, your site will simply
remain static (the intent of the preserve :^). Again,
if you cannot log into your site, email me at
pbabcock at hbd.org - even if you already have.

Next, I will be taking a "swing" at the messaging
system for the clubs. I appreciate your patience. 

After that, I need to resolve some Apache 2.0 virtual
hosting issues to bring homebrewfleamarket, mazercup,
and selected other virtual domains back into being.

Restoration of the Recipator and completion of the
Brews & Views changes are in the queue as well.

I appreciate all of the kind words I have received
over this outage. On the plus side, these "trials by
fire" provide one hell of an education, and increase
my aptitude in Linux. The benefit of that *should* be
less downtime, and more efficient hosting for the HBD,
clubs, etc.

If you come across something that isn't working,
please drop me a line. 

Thanks!

See ya!
=-


	
		


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Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 09:04:48 -0700
From: "Kent Fletcher" <kfletcher at socal.rr.com>
Subject: Freezer mods

le Man ( The Brewer Formerly Known As Aleman ) wants to stand a chest
freezer on one end to have room for a 60L fermentor.

Sorry, even if you could bend the tubing without fracturing it (not at all a
safe bet, tubing near the compressor is heavy walled, could easily fracture
trying to bend 90 degrees), the compressor would still die a horrible death,
and do so in very little time.

In a hermetic refrigeration circuit some of the oil is always discharged
from the comressor into the condensor.  The flow of the refrigerant
eventually carries the oil over to the evaporator, and thence to the suction
side of the compressor, but it requires an assist from gravity.  With the
whole freezer tipped on one end you will trap oil on the low side, where the
u-bends are, and the compressor will soon run out of oil and seize up.

Build a collar, it doesn't *have* to look like a couple of 2x4's sitting on
top of it.
Kent




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Date: Tue, 08 Jun 2004 11:23:13 -0500
From: "Doug Hurst" <dougbeer2000 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Yay!


It's so nice to be reading the HBD again!  When it disappeared I went 
through withdrawl symptoms like I usually do when it's down for a day or 
two.  After a couple weeks I started getting the shakes and eventually began 
reading the Oz Craftbrewer list in an attempt to get the monkey off my back.

This was little help as most of the discussions there seem to be about 
Salties and Graham Sanders.
;-)  The benefit of the Oz list is that Jeff Renner slums there and I saw 
his very informative post about the status of the HBD.  That may be the only 
reason I didn't end it all during the outage and upgrade.  It also 
demonstrates the power of the internet.

You don't know what you've got until it's gone.  Here's to Pat.


Doug Hurst
Chicago, IL
[197.5, 264.8] Apparent Rennerian



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