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


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Contents:
  Mad (computer) scientist at work... ("Pat Babcock")
  Volunteers needed; LA Fair Beer tavern (Don)
  Polyclar Useage (Bob Tower)
  Re: That British Caramel Taste (Bob Tower)
  Re: ATC Refractometer from Northern Brewer ("Rob Dewhirst")
  Re: sankey spear removal (Tom Davidson)
  corn vs grape sugar correction ("Alan McKay")


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 23:23:34 -0400
From: "Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: Mad (computer) scientist at work...

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

Large leaps in my SPAM protection strategy tonight. Unfortunately, not so on
my virus protection strategy(CLAMAV and milter are not getting along at the
moment...)

If your digest has gone missing, there are two potentials: you or your
domain appear on one of the added blacklists or you had the misfortune of
being one of the "victims" of the virus filter failures during
experimentation this evening. In any case,you should find the Digest intact
on the website or in the archives - and my apologies for the inconvenience!


- --

See ya!

Pat Babcock in SE MI
pbabcock at hbd.org


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Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 23:24:57 -0700
From: Don <don at steinfillers.com>
Subject: Volunteers needed; LA Fair Beer tavern

Are you in the S. California area? 
If not skip to the next message.  But if you are and you like to talk 
beer and want to help spread the word about quality beer as well 
spending a day at the LA Fair on us, then sign-up to volunteer at the LA 
Fair's Tavern run by California Fermentation Society. There are still a 
few remaining time slots open, so don't delay, sign-up. The beers being 
served are those
entered in the Fair's official commercial beer competition and as a
volunteer, you may have a few on us (just don't over indulge).

Both award winning beers and Sign up can be found at: 
http://calferm.org/faircomp/index.html
Note: this sign-up page does not update in real-time. It is done
manually on a daily basis and even though you sign up for a given
time slot there is no guarantee that it is still open.

Cheers,
Don Van Valkenburg
Questions?  brewing at earthlink.net


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Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 23:43:55 -0700
From: Bob Tower <tower at cybermesa.com>
Subject: Polyclar Useage

I've started using Polyclar in an attempt to clear up some chill haze. 
Does anyone have any tips on adding it to the beer? My main concern is 
contamination. The form that I get it in are small zip lock bags enough 
to treat 10 gallons. I'm concerned that it's not likely sterile and 
don't feel comfortable just dumping it in and stirring. What I've tried 
is wetting it with some vodka (which turns it into a gooey paste) in an 
attempt to sterilize it. Since Polyclar is plastic dust I figured that 
boiling it was out of the question! Just did that tonight so I won't 
know the results, but I'm not too worried that what I did will hurt it. 
I'm just wondering if there's a better way or if people out there have 
been adding it directly to the beer without any problems with 
contamination.


Bob Tower
Los Angeles, CA



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Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 23:57:49 -0700
From: Bob Tower <tower at cybermesa.com>
Subject: Re: That British Caramel Taste

Fred Johnson is looking for a way to increase the caramel taste in his 
British-style ales.

I've noticed that an increase in caramel flavor and complexity can be 
achieved by using a blend of crystal malts rather than a single type. 
For example, rather than using just Crystal 60 in a recipe, substitute 
three or four different colors in decreasing amounts with increasing 
color (1 lb. of 15, 0.75 lb. of 35, 0.5 lb. of 60, 0.25 of 75, 0.125 
lb. of 120) to achieve the same color contribution as the single amount 
of crystal in the original recipe. You'll have to play around with the 
proportions to keep the color of the finished beer the same but if 
you're using Pro Mash it's a snap.

Another thing you can try is to remove a small portion of the wort from 
the kettle and boil it down to a syrup (be careful to not scorch it) 
and then add this back to the kettle. This will definitely take some 
trial and error as far as proportions but I've found it to be 
effective. Start with a small amount (maybe a quart or less in a five 
gallon batch) first and increase the amount you remove if you want more 
impact.

Bob Tower
Los Angeles, CA



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Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 10:28:04 -0500
From: "Rob Dewhirst" <rob at hairydogbrewery.com>
Subject: Re: ATC Refractometer from Northern Brewer



> Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 22:37:12 -0400
> From: "Charles Boyer" <cboyer at ausoleil.org>

> I use one, and get quite accurate results from mine.
>
> Rather than using a friend's refractometer, I would suggest using a 
> hydrometer instead, to see if specific gravity reading from it matches

> the specific gravity calculated from the Brix reading on your 
> hydrometer.

A couple of people suggested this.  When I am relying on my
refractometer, I generally don't have enough liquid for a hydro sample.
I took some readings last night and compared them with my hydrometer and
the refractometer is comparable -- THIS time.  In the past it has not
been.

> From: Christopher Farley <chris at northernbrewer.com>
> Subject: Re: ATC Refractometer from Northern Brewer

> If you have a good scale, you can put 10 grams of sugar in a large 
> cup. Add water until you have a total of 100 grams. Completely 
> dissolve the sugar, and then test this solution at 68 degrees -- it 
> should be 10 brix. (68 degrees is from memory, check the refractometer

> documentation to determine what the "standard" temperature is. It is 
> either 60 or 68
> degrees.)

I will do this as well. Thanks.

> After calibrating at a non-zero point, try distilled water again and 
> make sure that reads zero. If it doesn't, then something is definitely

> wrong with the instrument and you should return it for a replacement. 
> We have sold hundreds of these instruments, and have found very few
> (<<1%) defective units. If you suspect the unit is faulty and don't 
> want to go through the bother of testing it, just ship it back and we 
> can test it for you.

I don't think the unit is defective.  I think there is something
systematically wrong with either my calibration method, my sampling, or
reading.  I was hoping there might be something unique about this unit
that someone else figured out that would help me determine the problem.

> By the way, I find that refractometers (unlike, say, pH meters) are 
> very low-maintenance instruments. You shouldn't need to calibrate them

> often once they're set, unless you drop them or something...

that's good to know, thanks.






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Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 16:40:56 -0400
From: Tom Davidson <tj.davidson at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: sankey spear removal

I'm having trouble removing a threaded sanke spear and

MICAH MILLSPAW wrote:

>The cheap way to do this is to use a regular sankey
>tavern head and a nickel (US). Place the coin on the
>ball in the center of the sankey valve and the
>carefully place the tavern head over it and twist it
>to lock on. Then depress the lever on the head (this
>may require some extra effort) this will push the ball
>in far enough to depress the catch and release the
>probe.
>
Thank you very much Micah, this worked perfectly and took about 10 
seconds. Very simple.

Thanks to the other on and offline responders as well. Brian, this 
may be what you were trying to explain to me. Tony, I wonder if 
this might work for that Thwaites keg? An American nickel is about 
2cm wide.

In Digest #4597: I also asked about "Keg #2 is a Bass\Tennents keg 
and it has a completely different valve. It is triangular with 
rounded corners rather than circular."

I have since figured out that this is a type "G" Grundy keg but I 
still don't know how to open it. Actually, I traded it away 
yesterday to someone cutting for a kettle. I'd still like to know 
just for knowings sake.


Slainte,
Tom Davidson
Bawlmer, MD





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Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 20:33:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Alan McKay" <amckay at neap.net>
Subject: corn vs grape sugar correction

I was corrected in private email by Greg Lehey :

"Traubenzucker" is a semi-official name for laevulose (often called
fructose).  I thought "corn sugar" was a mix of laevulose and
dextrose, and I've seen reports on this list that it's dextrose.


- -- 
http://www.bodensatz.com/
The Beer Site





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