HOMEBREW Digest #4656 Sun 21 November 2004


[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]


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


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

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

    Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********


Contents:
  Re: ISFET pH Meters ("Greg 'groggy' Lehey")
  Re: pH for homebrewers ("Greg 'groggy' Lehey")
  pH Meter Electrodes (Bob Tower)
  Re: Roasting Barley - thanks everyone! ("Rowan Williams")
  Vienna (leavitdg)
  BS and Football ("Dave Burley")
  Predicting IBUs: Immersion vs counterflow chillers vs laboratory conditions (Fred Johnson)
  link of the week - beer and health (Bob Devine)
  Distilling Barley Wine. ("Alan & Ondina Colton")

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The HBD Logo Store is now open! * * http://www.hbd.org/store.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Suppport this service: http://hbd.org/donate.shtml * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!! To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!** IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to the digest as we cannot reach you. We will not correct your address for the automation - that's your job. HAVING TROUBLE posting, subscribing or unsusubscribing? See the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org. LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL USED EQUIPMENT? Please do not post about it here. Go instead to http://homebrewfleamarket.com and post a free ad there. The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit. More information is available by sending the word "info" to req@hbd.org or read the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org. JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning, and Spencer Thomas
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 15:21:02 +1030 From: "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" <grog at lemis.com> Subject: Re: ISFET pH Meters On Friday, 19 November 2004 at 0:16:44 -0800, Kruska, Russ (ILRI) wrote: > Dear all, > > I appreciate A.J. deLange's recent email about pH meters. I was a frustrated > (and broke) pH meter user for years but was fed up with having to buy a new > electrode every 10-12 months! A.J. advised me through personal email that I > should check out the new ISFET meters. I bought one 15 months ago and am > very happy with it. Is this a brand or a technology? I'd certainly be interested to hear about it, in particular where to get them, especially since it seems that my pH meter has only 3 months to live :-) Greg - -- Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 15:32:23 +1030 From: "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" <grog at lemis.com> Subject: Re: pH for homebrewers On Friday, 19 November 2004 at 21:43:51 +0200, Antony Hayes wrote: > pH meters are finicky and expensive to maintain. It seems that our mileage varies. > I bought a cheap meter (about $100) which was less accurate than my > granny. I was given a more expensive meter (about $500) which is > more temperamental than an Alfa Romeo. I bought a cheap thing on eBay for about $40 US. I didn't try to calibrate it until I had it a few months, at which point I found it was out of adjustment by about 0.4 pH (reading too alkaline/high). I adjusted it using a pH 4.0 buffer solution, since when (about 8 months) it has maintained its accuracy within 0.1 pH. > I now use the council pH specs and fixed acid additions according to > time of year and ingredients. This sounds even less accurate. Greg - -- Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 22:47:08 -0800 From: Bob Tower <tower at cybermesa.com> Subject: pH Meter Electrodes There's been much discussion lately about pH meters. One thing everybody seems to agree on is that the electrodes need replacing often, once a year or more. I've had my cheapy Hanna Checker meter for a few months now. How do you know when the electrode needs replacing? Bob Tower Los Angeles, California Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:56:06 -0800 From: "Rowan Williams" <rowan at canberrabrewers.org> Subject: Re: Roasting Barley - thanks everyone! Many thanks for the sage advice via the digest and PM's - I've learnt two important things with this thread; 1. Bairds Stout Malt is a fancy name of English Pale Ale malt, and 2. If I want to make some roasted barley for my Irish Stouts, then I should use UNMALTED barley grains (uncracked) and chuck them in the oven, rather than Malted Barley grains. The unmalted barley will add some flavour, gravity and colour, but it won't possess any fermentables or diastatic power. That is done by the base malt (in this case the "Bairds Stout Malt") and the roasted unmalted barley will give it the flavour and colour that I need to achieve that desired Guinness style. I suppose I should keep the 1028 London Ale starters in the fridge and buy some Irish Ale yeast! The good news is that the local HBS gave me some unmalted "Gardner" barley (?name?)some time ago and I just put it away, not knowing what to do with the stuff - I now have a cunning plan...! Thanks again everyone. ;-) Rowan Williams Canberra Brewers Club Australia [9588.6, 261.5] Apparent Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 06:08:25 -0500 From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu Subject: Vienna I just brewed my first real Vienna Lager, and it seems to have come out well...10 lb Vienna malt, 19 IBU's of Saaz hops,.a single rest at 148F, then added hot water to boost to mashout (thanks Chad),then 90 minute boil, og was 1.043 and fg was 1.013 . Used Czech Pils yeast (4th use). My problem has been not getting the brews dry enough....but I suppose that if I wanted it to retain more stuff I'd add some Munich or even some crystal malt? Happy Brewing! ..Darrell Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:53:49 -0500 From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net> Subject: BS and Football Brewsters: Brian Lundeen says: " Dave, thanks for sharing that. I have long wondered where your BS came from. ;-)" As I told John Palmer privately: Well, the whole US got to watch the OSU/UM game for free except in the area where I live! I had to buy PPV-TV for $20 and suffer the same commercials. SWMBO is an avid Michigan fan (Season long discussion, hat, sweatshirt, UM flag hanging from the TV on gameday ). Watching this game has become a family tradition from the early days of our dating and marriage, despite ( or because of? ) the potential for conflict. This Saturday's ending was about the most diplomatic ( and marriage saving) ending I could imagine. OSU's Bucks beat UM's Wolverines butt soundly at Ohio State's horseshoe shaped home stadium, yet UM still got to go to the Rose bowl because Iowa beat WI. Son Dan is a graduate of U Cal Berkeley, and as fate would have it, Michigan is to play them in the Rose Bowl. Being a graduate of UCal, also, as is my wife, I voluntered to cheer for UCal on New Year's Day against Michigan in support of our son and to reduce SWMBO's internal conflict. Watching football can be complicated. Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 19:40:54 -0500 From: Fred Johnson <FLJohnson at portbridge.com> Subject: Predicting IBUs: Immersion vs counterflow chillers vs laboratory conditions I have brewed using an immersion chiller for many years and have recently switched to a counter flow chiller. I have noticed that my beers are more bitter than in the past since the switch, and this is undoubtedly due to the fact that the wort remains at a high temperature-- a temperature at which the alpha acids isomerize--for a longer period of time during the counterflow cooling than when an immersion chiller is used. I've read a lot of brewing texts, but none ever publish different hopping rates depending upon the method of chilling. Has anyone dealt with this issue in the literature? Of course, the large commercial brewers have worked out their hop additions empirically, but as a homebrewer I don't usually have the time or luxury of experimenting with the hop additions to achieve the desired IBUs, nor do I have the means of measuring the IBUs in my beers. I believe we all depend upon the recipe to a large degree to deliver what it says, but there seems to be a significant difference in IBUs achieved depending upon the time to chill. This is especially significant for very late hop additions. Consider the addition that is made at "kockout" or "flameout". The wort isn't chilled instantly, so the time the hops spends at isomerization temperatures and the IBU additions from that addition is highly dependent on the cooling system I suppose I can push my kettle drain pump to the max to minimize the chilling time, but it would be nice to know that published recipes are based on a standardized time to chill to a certain temperature. Of course, they are not, at least in the homebrewing literature. Does anyone out there make adjustments to recipes on the basis of their cooling system? I find it interesting that we have some elaborate calculators for determining IBUs based upon time in the boil, and the formulas for calculating this are entirely empirically determined under some standard condition, but what were the standard conditions? Were the formulas produced in the laboratory in which 1 liter of wort is the batch and cooling can be close to instantaneous? Or were the formulas produced in a real brewing setting? If the latter, how long did it take to cool the wort? Fred L Johnson Apex, North Carolina, USA Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 18:40:50 -0700 From: Bob Devine <bob.devine at worldnet.att.net> Subject: link of the week - beer and health Here's a Belgian site dealing with drinking beer and how it affect health. http://www.bierengezondheid.be/index_eng.jsp?Page=actueel&Doc=actueel Bob Devine Riverton, Utah Return to table of contents
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 20:32:33 -0600 From: "Alan & Ondina Colton" <coltonhse at btl.net> Subject: Distilling Barley Wine. My Christmas barley wine is not carbonating. It was brewed early January and kept in secondary in a fridge for 6 months at approx. 40 degrees and bottled in late June. Late July I opened a bottle to taste and it tasted great but was flat. I opened all bottles and added a sugar syrup and champagne yeast starter. In September it was still flat but tasted sweeter and there was a thin layer of dark crud at the bottom of the bottle. I was using some hootch printed overrun caps that could possibly be the culprit as I think the crud signifies that fermentaion took place. I think it is going to be too much effort to save this batch and rather than pouring it the drain I am contemplating distilling it using a pressure cooker, it is already 14% abv. Has anybody tried this? Any ideas on what results to expect? Could I possibly end up with a malt whiskey for Christmas? Alan Colton Swamp Water Brewery of Belize, Consejo Shores, Belize. Return to table of contents
[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]
HTML-ized on 11/21/04, by HBD2HTML v1.2 by KFL
webmaster@hbd.org, KFL, 10/9/96