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


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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")


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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.


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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.


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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



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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




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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



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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






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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



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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


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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.



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