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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Racking off of floating fruit ("Steve Smith")
  Hey, Pat....Relax and Have a Homebrew (Denis Bekaert)
  Drying green hops ("Craig S. Cottingham")
  Steam Injection Into Mash Tun -- Anyone Use This? ("Charles Boyer")
  Lysozyme (John Harvey)
  glueing a corny rubber rim ("Alan McKay")
  Cutting the top off of kegs (Doug Moyer)


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 21:22:28 -0600
From: "Steve Smith" <sasmith at in-tch.com>
Subject: Racking off of floating fruit

I am making my first fruit beer, charging along with limited knowledge but
lots of trust that all is well.  I pasturized ten pounds of choke cherries
(for a 6 gallon recipe) in the wort, and they went directly into a 7 gallon
plastic bucket closed fermenter along with 3.5 oz. of leaf hops, the wort,
and the yeast.  I did not bag the hops or fruit.  I imagine that with the
floating choke cherries (they have a large pit in the middle) and all of
those hops in the mix that I am likely to experience a plugged racking tube
when trying to rack the beer into the secondary from in between the sediment
and what is floating.  I was thinking that maybe some folks pour off the
beer down to the sediment, through a sanitized mash tun or a pillow case,
rather than racking.  I realize that could so easily infect the beer.  I
found little help in the HBD archives.  My hunch is to relax, rack off the
beer in the middle and get on with it, but I'm open to the voice of
experience.  Thanks.

gettin' pithy,
Steve Smith




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Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 14:55:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Denis Bekaert <Denis-B at rocketmail.com>
Subject: Hey, Pat....Relax and Have a Homebrew

Pat...relax my friend and have a homebrew!  Don't
worry if an occasional bit of spam gets through and
into the Digest.  We can handle it.  Besides, when it
does happen we can all concentrate our collective ill
will on the lowlife scum that sent it...perhaps ruin
their lives!

You guys do such a fantastic job for the rest of us
day after day.  We can't thank you enough for all that
work and dedication.  

So relax, my friend, don't let the bastards get you
down, and have a homebrew.

Denis in Beechgrove, TN.






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Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 22:46:31 -0500
From: "Craig S. Cottingham" <craig at cottingham.net>
Subject: Drying green hops

I just finished watching an episode of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" in 
which he dried fresh herbs using whole-house furnace filters and a box 
fan. The filters were similar to the one pictured at 
http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE-955516reg.jpg -- the 
important characteristic apparently being that it's pleated. You lay 
the fresh herbs in the valleys between the pleats, place another filter 
on top, and repeat as needed, ending with one more (empty) filter. The 
whole stack is bungee-corded to the outflow side of a box fan, which 
you then turn on and leave alone. Twelve hours later, you reverse the 
stack (so that the filter closest to the box fan is furthest away and 
vice versa) and give it another twelve hours of airflow. After 24 
hours, the herbs are dry to the point of being crisp without losing 
many of their volatiles. As a bonus, apparently your house now smells 
like fresh herbs.

As we're watching this, I turn to my wife and say: "This sounds like a 
great way to dry hops!"

Unfortunately, I don't grow my own hops, so I can't try this at home. 
If there's anyone on the list who's adventurous enough to try it, I'd 
be interested to hear how it turns out. In fact, if you live in the 
Johnson/Douglas County, KS area and have fresh hops, I'll provide the 
box fan. :-)

- --
Craig S. Cottingham
Olathe, KS
craig at cottingham.net
OpenPGP key available from:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x7977F79C



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Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 22:26:54 -0400
From: "Charles Boyer" <cboyer at ausoleil.org>
Subject: Steam Injection Into Mash Tun -- Anyone Use This?

Way back in HBD 1905, Charlie Scandrett proposed a system to inject steam
into the mash tun of a homebrew system in lieu of traditional methods for
addition of heat.  Brewing Techniques also featured an article back in the
day, albeit one slightly less technical and complete than was Charlie's.

You could look up the post in the archives, but here's a quote from
Charlie's post:

"First, I'm a steam injection geek, I even boil (yes it can be done) with
the stuff and I've ordered an electronically controlled "parabolic plug
valve" to PID control it. Steam has its problems, it can be dangerous and
needs to be understood very well. 

Steam is a great carrier of heat and because it is at 100C to 200C in non
contained systems, it can heat quickly without scorching. When superheated,
it penetrates the fluid well beyond the boundary layer, and when a central
manifold is used, it gives great convection and gelatinisation. (You still
need to stir a grain mash for even temp, not to prevent scorching) It
isolates the very high temperatures of the burners from your wort, while
injecting heat without the usual boundary layer problems. "

What I am wondering is this -- granted, steam is a dangerous thing if
mishandled, but the payoff for this -- better heating, no scorching,
simplicity, etc., seem to make it a worthwhile project....especially for
someone like me that wants to do step mashing, or at least have the ability
to do so.  Problem is, I can find nary a bite on designs, practices, etc.,
other than the two articles I mentioned above.

In fact, an engineer on one of the boards offered this:

"anyone who works with steam, boilers, and pressure vessels on a regular
basis will tell you, that is not a feasible idea. Not even considering
safety, the amount of steam a pressure cooker could safely create would not
be enough to ramp at a decent rate."

Strong advice indeed.

So I ask -- besides Charlie's system, are there many people out there doing
this, or is the issue so complicated that it is a fool's errand?  

Your collective advice, as always, is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Charles


 




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Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 21:32:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Harvey <theharv0157 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lysozyme

There was an article on lysozyme in a recent magazine.
 I didn't read it, and I don't remember what magazine
it was, but in any case I'd like to hear opinions on
its use.

In the past I've experimented with reusing the yeast
sediment from bottle-conditioned beers with minimal
success.  A couple of times when trying to regrow a
yeast starter from the dregs of a previous homebrew
bottle, my cultures have been horribly contaminated. 
I think my sterile technique is good; the only thing I
didn't do was to flame the bottle neck before pouring
(which I should/will do next time).

Because of drug resistance I have a philosophical
problem with using things like ampicillin or
tetracycline.  But lysozyme, although similar, seems
like a safe alternative.

How well will it prevent contamination?  Should I be
worried about resistance if I only use it in my
starter?  Is there anything else I should know about
re-culturing from previous bottled homebrews?

Thanks everyone!

John Harvey

PS, side note... I want to thank the janitors for
their vigilance in eliminating spam from the digest. 
I know it pains them when ANY spam gets in, but I
really don't think a couple of occasional messages is
a big deal at all.  They do a great job and should be
thanked and congratulated for their work.  I'm sure
I'm not alone when I say thank you and good job!  We
appreciate your time and efforts.


		


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Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 10:03:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Alan McKay" <amckay at neap.net>
Subject: glueing a corny rubber rim


Folks,

The top rubber handle/rim came off one of my corny kegs.
Any tried-and-true glues that will hold it there again?
I'm thinking the new PL700 construction adhesive.

cheers,
 -Alan



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Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 16:50:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Moyer <shyzaboy at yahoo.com>
Subject: Cutting the top off of kegs

Well, I'm ready to impart upon that age old homebrewer
rite of passage: cutting the tops off of a couple of
kegs for a mash tun and boil kettle.
 
I spent the past few years ignoring posts debating
this topic, and am now left with a search engine that
isn't up to the task. As such, I am forced to re-stir
the pot...
 
For those who have tried both, which is easier:
reciprocating saw (i.e., Sawzall) or rotary cutter
(i.e., Dremel)?
 
Both seem to have a problem with the width of the
cutting edge not matching the target diameter. How do
you overcome that?
 
Brew on!
Doug Moyer
 
Star City Brewers Guild
http://www.starcitybrewers.org




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