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


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Contents:
  Re: Recycle bottles and labels - tip and question! ("Craig S. Cottingham")
  Last Call- 2004 BONES Bash Competition (Bruce Millington)
  Missing the boat on yeast ranching (Francisco Jones)
  RE: Recirculation Experiments (Lou King)
  RE:  FOY Response -- Yeast "Energizer" (Bill Velek)
  re: Electric Kettle ("C.D. Pritchard")


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Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 21:53:03 -0500
From: "Craig S. Cottingham" <craig at cottingham.net>
Subject: Re: Recycle bottles and labels - tip and question!

On Oct 29, 2004, at 17:10:59, Derek Sheehan <w7rex at comcast.net>  
wrote:

> Now for my question: Who/how can I purchase a volume amount of bottles?
> I am interested in finding a bulk supply to share with some of my
> homebrewing friends. Who sells bottles in bulk amounts? What is a bulk
> amount (50 cases? 100 cases? a pallet?)??
>
> I have searched all over the net and can't seem to find any bottle
> wholesalers.

Huh. I Googled on "glass beer bottles wholesale" and got about 77K  
results:

	http://www.google.com/search?q=glass+beer+bottles+wholesale&ie=UTF 
 -8&oe=UTF-8

A little more than half of the hits on the first page appear to be  
noise, but that still leaves at least three that look promising. Not to  
mention the sponsored links.

Finally, and I'm just speculating here, if you go to your LHBS and  
offer to buy a whole bunch of bottles at one go, I bet you'll get a  
steep discount. It may not be *quite* as low as wholesale, but it may  
be substantially under normal retail.

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



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Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 23:20:30 -0400
From: Bruce Millington <bmillington at verizon.net>
Subject: Last Call- 2004 BONES Bash Competition

The Brewers of the Northeast Section proudly announces the return of the 
BONES Bash, to be held Saturday, November 6, 2004, at the Nodding Head 
Brewery & Restaurant in downtown Philadelphia, PA.  This will be the 
first leg of the Delaware Valley Homebrewer of the Year.  Entries will 
be accepted from October 10th thru November 1st, 2004.  First place 
winners will receive prizes.  For full details, please go to:
www.hbd.org/bones/

We will be using the 1999 BJCP guidelines.  We are in desparate need of 
judges  All interested judges and stewards please contact Bruce 
Millington at bmillington at verizon.net.  Judges and stewards are to 
report by 8:30AM, and begin at 9:00AM.  See you at the Bash!

Bruce Millington
Judge Coordinator


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Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 06:51:07 -0500
From: Francisco Jones <frandog at earthlink.net>
Subject: Missing the boat on yeast ranching

 From HBD #4639

>Under your circumstances you did the right thing. You can store yeast
>under water for longer period of time. But it is critical, as Dave
>pointed out, that you wash your yeast thoroughly and remove all residual
>sugars and that you store the yeast as cold as possible without freezing
>them.

Uh oh.  Suddenly I feel like I have missed about 5 years worth of yeast 
ranching
techniques advancement.  I am still under the impression that is it best to 
store
yeast under wort/beer.  Is this not the case?  Can I get longer/healtier home
storage by storing under sterile water?  How much did I miss?

Francisco Jones
Kankakee, IL



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Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 09:04:08 -0400
From: Lou King <lking at pobox.com>
Subject: RE: Recirculation Experiments

> From: Joshua Meekhof <jmeekhof at gmail.com>
>
> I started manually approximating a RIMS system.
> :
> What I am attempting to determine is do these systems create 
> a better beer? Are beers brewed with this method more 
> consistent? It the cost worthwhile for _ME_ if the only 
> advantage that I find is the automation?

Joshua -

If I were to amortize the cost of the RIMS system I built against any
possible improvement in the quality of my beer, I would say that it is
not worth the expense.   

However, I am happy I built this because, a) I am able to do a step mash
without having to consider the amount of space needed in my mash tun for
the infusions, b) I get crystal clear wort without a vorlauf
recirculation, c) it was fun to build, and, d) I learned a lot about
plumbing, electronics and the mechanics involved.

I think I consistently make pretty good beer using my system, but since
I have had great beers which were made using a zapap lauter tun (by
brewers who consistently made good beer using such "low tech" systems),
I don't think the system matters all that much.

Of course, you would have to decide yourself if it is worth the expense
for _you_ ;^)

See http://www.lousbrews.info/rims.htm if you are interested in seeing
my RIMS.

Lou King
Ijamsville, MD
http://www.lousbrews.info





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Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 21:10:14 -0500
From: Bill Velek <billvelek at alltel.net>
Subject: RE:  FOY Response -- Yeast "Energizer"

In HBD #4639 (FOY-2004-Response-Last One/Yeast Nutrient/Energizer ...
Forbes & Tobias indicated: "... we have never come across the term
'yeast energizer'.  It is probably just another name for yeast nutrient.
It is most likely to be DAP or MAP because vitamins rarely have that
'energizing' effect on yeast."

The reason I had asked was because I happened upon both terms being used
in the same post/thread in rec.crafts.winemaking, as follows:

http://tinyurl.com/669sp

Cheers.

Bill Velek




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Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 16:27:55
From: "C.D. Pritchard" <cdp at chattanooga.net>
Subject: re: Electric Kettle

Richard (long ago..) asked about making a electric kettle and HLT using
plastic pails.  Two very helpful web pages on electric kettles:
Ken Schwartz's: http://brewery.org/brewery/library/ElectBrKS0396.html
Ron Laborde's: http://hbd.org/rlaborde/controll.htm

My first electric boiler was a 6.5 gal. plastic pail with two 120 VAC, 1.5
kW elements (http://chattanooga.net/boilold/boiler.htm).  It worked well
considering its low cost, but I recommend using a bigger container with a
longer/higher wattage heating element if it is not too much of a stretch.    

The control from a range which a couple of folks posted about works very
well for throttling a low wattage element at 120 VAC, costs only about $15
(or $0 if liberated from a junked range) and is a snap to wire up.  For
larger elements, the DIY electronic controller on Ron's page works great
but it does require a bit of skill with electronics to construct.  A layout
for a printed circuit board of his design is at
http://chattanooga.net/boilnew/boilnew.htm.  

Someone posted that one shouldn't mount heating elements in the pot because
they needed to be removed for cleaning after each use.  The element mounted
in my current boiler has only been cleaned-in-place by spraying it with
water.  The only crud on the element after around 20 boils is a thin dusty
white layer which appears only after the element dries.  I think it's
minerals from the spraying water and don't worry about it since it's never
grown in thickness and appears to disolve when wetted. YMMV with boiling
wort with a post boil sg of > 1.07 (my highest sg so far).  


c.d. pritchard     cdp at chattanooga.net 
http://chattanooga.net/~cdp/



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