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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  Lead-free solders (H.W.) Troup <HWT at BNR.CA>
  Good sources for homebrew kegging setup? (Chris Shenton)
  malt bricks (Marty Albini)
  wheat,honey,&stuff (RUSSG)
  Beer Hunter (Ken Johnson)
  Chilling Ales ("J.L. Palladino, Trinity College")
  Re:  Homebrew Digest #465 (July 23, 1990) (Michael Rosen)
  wort chiller (Todd Koumrian)
  Tidbits... ("Gary F. Mason - Image Systems - MKO2-2/K03 - 603884[DTN264]-1503  23-Jul-1990 2222")


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Date: 	Mon, 23 Jul 90 11:19:00 EDT
From: Henry (H.W.) Troup <HWT at BNR.CA>
Subject:  Lead-free solders

I checked out the lead-free solders recently (at Canadian Tire, a hardware)
and found two types - 95% tin, 5% antimony, and solver solder, 96% tin,
4% silver.  Being a coward, and since I was patching a brass pot, I opted for
the silver solder.  Does anyone know much about the antimony stuff?  I have
two worries - 1) working with it 2) solubility in anythin other than water -
like beer, f'r instance.

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Date: Mon, 23 Jul 90 11:53:06 EDT
From: Chris Shenton <chris at asylum.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Good sources for homebrew kegging setup?

I've decided to go to kegging, and have acquired 4 Coke/pin style kegs, and
want to get a setup with the 5# CO2 tank, regulator, hoses, connectors, etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations for sources? I've got the Foxx
catalog, and their system costs $186 (up from $150) plus an extra $6 for a
second gauge on the regulator; this includes a new 5 gallon keg of my
choice which I don't mind -- I can ferment in one, while the other 4 chill
in the fridge.

Are there places with better prices?

TIA.

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Date: Mon, 23 Jul 90 9:05:13 PDT
From: Marty Albini <martya at hpsdl39.sdd.hp.com>
Subject: malt bricks

zentner at cn.ecn.purdue.edu (Mike Zentner) writes
> 
> Brick Malt:  Does anybody else have problems with the amazing
> hygroscopic properties of dried malt extract?  Seems like if
> I don't use the whole bag and close some of it up, it solidifies.
> This must be due to moisture it collects while the bag is open, 
> becuase I tried double bagging it and still got solids.  Sure,
> you can brew with it, but it becomes difficult to measure out.
> I'm not ready to convert my cabinet into a dessicator, any ideas
> or other experiences?

	I don't have problems with it anymore--I put dry malt
into two gallon Tupperware (or equivalent) containers the
minute I open the bag. Since I use dry malt extract for
cooking as well as brewing, I have to be real careful about
leaving the lid open, and when I brew, I measure out what I
need as far from the boiling kettle as I can. It helps to 
measure into an intermediate container, so the little malt 
stalactites don't form in the bin when you hold the thing over 
the boiling pot to add the malt.

	BTW solidified malt extract will be much denser than in 
powder form and neither volume nor mass will give consistent 
measurements. I suppose you could dessicate it somehow and use
weight, but it's simpler to just keep it dry in the first
place. As my wife found out, when it gets solid (which happened
when she tried making malt candy) it is much more prone to 
bacterial infection.
- --
________________________________________________Marty Albini___________
"We are, after all, professionals." --Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
phone    : (619) 592-4177
UUCP     : {hplabs|nosc|hpfcla|ucsd}!hp-sdd!martya
Internet : martya at sdd.hp.com (or  at nosc.mil,  at ucsd.edu)
CSNET    : martya%hp-sdd at hplabs.csnet
US mail  : Hewlett-Packard Co., 16399 W. Bernardo Drive, San Diego CA 92127-1899 USA

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Date:     Mon, 23 Jul 90 11:41 EST
From: <R_GELINA%UNHH.BITNET at mitvma.mit.edu> (RUSSG)
Subject:  wheat,honey,&stuff

I have a wheat beer made from extract (%66 wheat, %33 barley) and DME that is
hazy, has little head, and is delicious. I only used ale yeast (not liquid
wheat beer yeast), so that may explain the lack of head (all my other beers
that had liquid yeast have BIG heads).

I've also got a brown ale of sorts that has been bottle for 10 days or so, and
it is not clearing at all (unlike all my other batches). I also has a sharply
"homebrew" taste (sour, bitter, off, but not particularly bad). It is my first
batch using honey (2 lbs. of bargain stuff). Is the honey responsible? Is is
the dreaded "I" word?  I'm letting it sit for a couple of weeks.....

Finally, I got to try a couple of odd beers: Xingu and Moretti. The Xingu has
been discussed already, I found it VERY malty and a little too sweet, but still
good. Hard to belive it is a lager.  The Moretti is an Italian Pilsner, and it
was very good, much like a Pilsner Urquell, believe it or not.  Anyone else
know of any Italian beer?

RussG.


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Date: Mon, 23 Jul 90 12:36:24 PDT
From: kjohnson%palladium.Berkeley.EDU at jade.berkeley.edu (Ken Johnson)
Subject: Beer Hunter

Yes.  Please let us know about the dates and titles of the upcoming Beer
Hunter shows.

Also, I was wondering how I can be more efficient with my sparging.  For a 
five gal. batch with 10 lb of grain (8 pale and 2 crystal or munich) I was
getting an IG of around 1046.  It seems that this should be higher. I'm
using the five gallon plastic bucket style lauter tun.  I fill it with sparge
water up to the false bottom, add the mash, and then shiphon the 180 degree
sparge water into the top of the lauter tun, keeping the water level about
that of the grain.  I use about five gallons of sparge water.  Yesterday,
I brewed a batch with 10 lb of pale malt using the same technique and got
an IG of 1055.  What up?

At lastly, does anyone have any experience with the German technique of boiling
about 40% of the protein rest mash and putting it back with the rest in order
to get everything up to the proper mash temperature?

Kenneth

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Date: Mon, 23 Jul 90 16:52 EST
From: "J.L. Palladino, Trinity College" <PALLADIN at vax1.trincoll.edu>
Subject: Chilling Ales

Greetings:

Has anyone tried chilling an ale down to 55 deg F while it was
in secondary (glass) in order to get suspended yeast to settle faster?
It seems to be working but I'm *concerned* (not worried) that when I 
bottle at room temp the yeast will not reactivate and carbonate, leaving
flat beer.  Any suggestions?  

I seem to recall a recent posting to this effect - and that the poster
uses this procedure without problems on all his/her ales.
In this particular example I am using the dreaded EDME ale yeast :).

Thanks in advance,

Joe P.

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Date: Mon, 23 Jul 90 13:47:02 -0500
From: Michael Rosen <mirrosen at silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re:  Homebrew Digest #465 (July 23, 1990)

Greetings,
I am new to the idea of homebrew, and everything attached to
it, but it is a subject that intrigues me a lot.  I was wondering
if there were any standard texts,  or advice that all of you
vets out there can give me.  
Also, I was curious about the economic realaties of homebrewing.
Is it the type of thing where beer/mead/whatnot is produced cheaper
commercially?  I acknowledge that making it is half the fun, but
was curious if it was also cheaper monetarily.  (Or on what scale
would it be profitable?)  I'm also curious as to the timescales
that are involved.  (How long does it take to make a "good" beer)
What kind of capital is needed?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

mirrosen at silver.ucs.indiana.edu    | "Life's been good
mirrosen at graph.cs.indiana.edu      |  to me so far"
mirrosen at luap.cs.indiana.edu       |  <import guitar solo>
mirrosen at rose.ucs.indiana.edu      |  -Joe Walsh

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Date: Mon, 23 Jul 1990 16:41:10 PDT
From: todd at NISC.SRI.COM (Todd Koumrian)
Subject: wort chiller

I've just assembled a wort chiller.  There is some residual crud on
the copper tubing that was there when I got it.  Assuming it doesn't
come off with soap and water (which I haven't done yet), how should
I clean it off?

I've seen the previous wort-chiller cleaning discussion and am likewise
not interested in finding out what TSP or bleach will do to copper.  I
feel that dumping the thing in a boiling pot of wort ought to sanitize
it, so I'll stick to soap and water until I hear of something better.

Anyway, what about the initial crud on the tubing (from storage, machining,
tarnish, what)?

Todd Koumrian

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Date: Mon, 23 Jul 90 19:35:16 PDT
From: "Gary F. Mason - Image Systems - MKO2-2/K03 - 603884[DTN264]-1503 23-Jul-1990 2222" <mason at habs11.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Tidbits...

Wort cooler complete.  No leaks!  Considering that there are 21 solder joints,
that's not bad, if I do say so myself 8')

I made up some yeast starter tonight.  One cup of M&F amber DME per quart 
of starter.  I used amber because I didn't have spare light.  Since I'll 
be doing dark stuff anyway, I didn't think that would matter much.  Though 
I added extra water, I still ended up with about 2" headroom in each quart 
jar.  I followed good canning practices throughout.  Will the large space 
cause me problems?  I hope not, but at least I got to smell boiling DME 
(only one tiny boilover - I see now why that's not such a good idea).  In 
response to some earlier questions about odor, I'd say that it isn't my 
favorite, but certainly not objectionable.  I suppose it really changes 
when hops are added, but that can only make it better as I see it.  I also 
found out that the electric stove will not hack it.  Next (last) thing is to
hook up my single propane burner for the real thing.  It can't be any slower,
and probably will be much faster.

BTW - can anyone tell me why some starters have a bit of hops added?  To tailor
the pH a tad, perhaps?  I left it out as some others indicate.

Closer and closer...

Cheers...Gary

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #466, 07/24/90
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