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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Steam Beer Yeast in Warm Weather ("William Frazier")
  Formula for estimating O.G. with refractometer & hydrometer ("Greg 'groggy' Lehey")
  A Handful of Hops (Jeff Luck)
  Hopbacks (FLJohnson)
  Re: Formula for estimating O.G. with refractometer & hydrometer (Jeff Renner)
  Fishing and beer,Candi sugar,Rowan's stuck Fermentation, tod's hops ("Dave Burley")


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 21:33:50 -0500
From: "William Frazier" <billfrazier at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Steam Beer Yeast in Warm Weather

Pacman asks "Has anyone brewed a California Common at warmer than room
temperature? I don't think anchor does, but, and nothing I can find on the
Internet suggest doing so but,of course, that doesn't mean it can't be
done!"

I'm doing it right now.  My basement brewery is about 70F at the moment.
I'm brewing a rye ale recipe (thanks Rob) with Wyeast 2112 California Lager
Yeast.  I added two Activator Packs to 6 gallons of wort so the fermentation
would take off fast (I need this beer pronto).  It seems to be very happy at
70F...lots of CO2 coming off the foam layer.  I report how the beer turns
out.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas USA







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Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 12:29:27 +0930
From: "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" <grog at lemis.com>
Subject: Formula for estimating O.G. with refractometer & hydrometer

On Tuesday, 21 September 2004 at  9:27:33 -0400, Jeff Renner wrote:
 For years I've used a high quality Japanese "protometer"
> refractometer that my wife's lab was tossing as surplus.  It doesn't
> have a Balling, Brix or Plato scale, only urine SG, blood serum
> protein, and Refractive Index.  I'd been using a chart that converts
> RI to per cent sucrose, and thought that was Plato, but ProMash
> shows that to be Brix (I think I've got that right), and Plato is
> slightly different.

I'd love to know what the difference is.  I've looked, but haven't
found any explanation.  Plato is based on pure saccharose solutions,
but I haven't found really good explanations for the others.

BTW, you don't need to spend lots of money to find this stuff.  I have
it on my web site (http://www.lemis.com/grog/brewing/Brix-to-SG.html),
and there's free software which calculates it too (thanks, BTW, to
Domenick Venezia, the author of ProMash).

Greg
- --
Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key.
See complete headers for address and phone numbers.


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Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 22:35:08 -0600
From: Jeff Luck <jeff at woods.net>
Subject: A Handful of Hops



Hi Gang,

I recently found myself the recipient of some fresh-grown
hops ("If you wanna pick em, you can have em!")  But I
don't own a scale that can measure ounces that well.  Can
anybody give me just a rule of thumb for volume to weight,
something like "1 cup of dried hop cones weighs 1 oz" or
the like?

I understand this is a seat-of-the-pants measure, and am
not expecting anything too precise.

Thanks
 -JL


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Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 08:32:28 -0400
From: FLJohnson at portbridge.com
Subject: Hopbacks

I've finally concluded that I can't control the bittering of my beers using my
old methods. I used to chill with an immersion chiller and added the finishing
hops at the very end, just before I turned on the cooling. The kettle dropped
its temperature in a relativley short time. Now, using a counterflow chiller, I
can't easily prevent or control the length of time the hops are in contact
witht the hot wort if I add the hops to the kettle at the end. I've made a
number of beers with finishing hops that are definitely contributing a lot of
bitterness to my beers, so I believe I MUST go to a hopback for adding these.
(I probably also need to start adjusting when I add the earlier hop additions
also.)

I would like the hopback to be sealed, i.e, flow in and out is controlled by a
pump, not gravity. I'd appreciate anyone pointing me to sealed hopbacks that I
could build or buy.

Fred Johnson
Apex, North Carolina
USA


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Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 11:07:20 -0400
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Formula for estimating O.G. with refractometer & hydrometer

At 12:29 PM +0930 9/22/04, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
>I'd love to know what the difference is.  I've looked, but haven't
>found any explanation.  Plato is based on pure saccharose solutions,
>but I haven't found really good explanations for the others.

AJ DeLange has explained the difference between Plato and Brix, but I 
always forget.  I think that one is x grams of sugar in 100 ml 
solution, the other is x grams of sugar in 100 grams of solution. 
Obviously, these would diverge as x increases.

I believe that Brix merely refined Balling's work, so they are the 
same definition, Brix is simply more accurate in the decimals.

Until I got ProMash, I didn't worry about the differences, and now I 
let it take care of them.  I just make sure I ultimately use SG, with 
which I am most comfortable.

Interestingly, in making a quick run through my disorganized library 
to try to get a better handle on this, I find that Charlie Bamforth 
ignores the differences in his "Standards of Brewing: A Practical 
Approach to Consistency and Excellence" (Brewers Publications, 2002). 
In his units appendix, p. 152, he simply states:

"Specific Gravity
*Plato = * Brix = %w/w cane sugar
10 *Plato = specific gravity of 1.040"

I guess that's where the "practical" in the title comes in.  Probably 
not a bad idea.  But I can get off on a tangent of decimal places 
beyond the accuracy of my instruments.

There is a difference, of course, between the R.I of sucrose and that 
of the mix of maltose and other sugars in wort.  ProMash includes a 
correction factor that can be changed for brewhouse variables.  I 
have found the default correction to work for me.  My refractometer 
results agree with my hydrometer.

>BTW, you don't need to spend lots of money to find this stuff.

Well, of course, ProMash is pretty cheap.  Less than US $25, and it 
has a whole lot of other neat, useful stuff.

>I have
>it on my web site (http://www.lemis.com/grog/brewing/Brix-to-SG.html),

The Brix vs. R.I. columns are what I had been using from the CRC 
Handbook before I got ProMash, although yours has an extra decimal 
place.   But your chart does not have the correction for R.I. vs Brix 
or Plato after fermentation has begun.  That is the key to the 
discussion for determining the OG of an unknown beer using actual FG 
and apparent FG as determined by a refractometer.

That is apparently what you are referring to

>and there's free software which calculates it too

Back before I had ProMash, I was looking for a two axis chart that 
would give the actual SG for the apparent SG vs. OG.  Such a chart 
could be developed from the formula.  I never found one, and 
producing it was beyond me.  I don't need it now, of course.

>(thanks, BTW, to
>Domenick Venezia, the author of ProMash).

Jeff Donovan is the author of ProMash.  Domenick is is the PrimeTabs 
guy.  I think he may have been involved in the discussions on HBD 
back in the 90s with Louis Bonham and others which led to the 
refinement of the corrections formulae for the R.I. of beer, and 
which Jeff Donovan incorporated into ProMash.

Jeff
- -- 
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: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 18:16:18 -0400
From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net>
Subject: Fishing and beer,Candi sugar,Rowan's stuck Fermentation, tod's hops

Brewsters:

Been busy picking and fermenting my grapes, so just catching up.
- ---------------
John Palmer laments that his wife's attitude towards fishing changed when she
discovered no fish were caught.

John, tell her tha's why they call it "fishing"
and not "catching".

Many years ago a beloved midwestern boss of mine was about to get married to
an Alabaman. After a full day of fishing and drinking two cases of beer, and
catching nothing, he suggested to his future father in law that it was time to
quit.  His father in law said."Whatsamatter?  We're fishin' ain't we?"

- ---------------
I had the same thought and I agree with raj, candi sugar was likely used since
it was purer at time.

Sucrose is in beet sugar as in cane sugar.

I suggest light brown sugar as a starting point versus caramelizing your own
sugar as far as reproducibility goes.
- ------------------
Rowan the only way I know to properly determine if a fermentation is finished
is to determine if there is any more fermentable sugar left. Refractometers
ain't no good.  Hydrometers ain't no good.

I have two words to help you "Clinitest" and "Archives."

If that doesn't do it send me a note  Dave_Burley at charter.net

- --------------------
Tod in Idaho  To prevent oxidation and other bad stuff see if you can figure
out a way to treat
your hops with some burning sulfur fumes outside your house.  This will help
them keep color and prevent mildew. Sulfur matxhes are available from the wine
hobby store. Sulfur usually from the pharmacy.

Keep on Brewin'

Dave Burley




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