HOMEBREW Digest #4709 Thu 27 January 2005


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  RE: Need Help from anyone experienced with Plastic HLTs (Scott McAfee)
  Clinitest tests ("William Frazier")
  Health and Beer (leavitdg)
  RE: CFC cleaning summary (Steven Parfitt)
  Re:  CFC Cleaning (Dennis Collins)
  Counterflow Chillers ("HomeBrewUSA")
  Water Softener ("Noah A. Bolmer")
  CFC cleaning ("Travis Miller")
  Re: Beer in Los Angeles? (Kent Fletcher)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 23:27:37 -0500 From: Scott McAfee <scmcafee at cox.net> Subject: RE: Need Help from anyone experienced with Plastic HLTs Thanks to Ronald La Borde for the plastic HLT tips. I especially liked the idea of putting the element in directly without a bulkhead. One bit of advice that concerns me, though, is as follows: <snip> ...Advantages [of Polypropylene] are: Relatively cheap ($160/30g tank).... Cheap? Sounds expensive. You can get the blue HDPE tanks probably for free, or much cheaper, liquid malt extract comes in a 15 gallon tank, check with your homebrew shop and ask for one. </snip> I considered HDPE, but all info I've found on Polyethylene suggests that it's rated to a maximum 140-160 F. I'm sure this works fine for Ron (nice set-up!), and probably doesn't present any problems, but I'd like to be sure. Is it still FDA compliant at 170F for sparging? Is it just a plastic distortion issue, or is the potential there for dissolving more resins and plastic fuzz in the water? I haven't found any info on this and I'd like to be sure before I go to a cheaper HDPE option. -Scott Springfield, VA Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 00:32:48 -0600 From: "William Frazier" <billfrazier at worldnet.att.net> Subject: Clinitest tests Dave Burley writes "BTW glucometers will always be in error as will Clinistix and other test methods which have as their basis a test only for glucose determination....After fermentation all the sucrose added before fermentation is inverted by the yeast invertase and therefore responds to Clinitest." Dave - Am I correct that any residule sucrose after fermentation will be inverted and exist as glucose and fructose? If this is correct do you believe you could use a glucometer to test for the glucose portion and then calculate residule sugar by multiplying the test result by an appropriate factor? Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 06:51:41 -0500 From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu Subject: Health and Beer Health benefits of (moderate amt of) beer: http://enews.tufts.edu/stories/041204TheBuzzOnBeer.htm Happy Brewing! ..Darrell Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 06:12:25 -0800 (PST) From: Steven Parfitt <thegimp98 at yahoo.com> Subject: RE: CFC cleaning summary pacman replies: >It was good to hear from all the folks who have had >no problems with their CFC's and spoilage. I have >yet to have a bad batch, and I am comfortable with my >cleaning and sanitizing routine, so I feel equipped >to establish a good routine for the counterflow >chiller. Between the three cleaners/sanitizers I >like using, (Straight-A, Iodophor, Star-San) the >chances are good I will keep that bad-boy virtually >pristine. >I visualize something like backflush with Straigh-A >followed by a Straight-A soak, then hot rinse. Fill >with a Star-San mix and let sit until ready to use >next brew session. | .................................... I do not recomend leaving StarSan in the chiller for long term storage. I accidently left a section of copper tubing star san for a week and it appears to continue to attack the copper. If I were going to leave anything in my CFC, I'd be inclined towards a mild (<5%) caustic solution. ..................................... | >When brew time comes, drain and rinse the Star-San >well with hot water, fill with Iodophor, let sit >until ready to use. Man, I can't wait to brew! | ...................................... There is no need to rinse with hot water after soaking with StarSan since it is a no rinse sanitizer(unless your are removing it for long term storage). Since it is as-or-more effective than Iodophor, filling with Iodophor is pretty much overkill and just more work. In general I use one cleaner, and one stanitizer. The exception is my twice a year flush of everything with Quant-ammonia (Steramine Tablets http://www.sanitize.com/ ). Good luck. Steven Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:45:40 -0500 (GMT-05:00) From: Dennis Collins <dcollins at springmail.com> Subject: Re: CFC Cleaning I hadn't read the HBD for some time and when I finally did a day or so ago, I surprisingly found my name mentioned. Not in vain, but just mentioned by my fellow Tennesse Valley Homebrewer, John Peed. I thought I would expound on my "lazy" maintenance method for caring for my CFC. First off, I think CFC's are problematic because they can never fully dry out without some help. The tube is relatively small and there's just no circulation in a small tube of that length. John Peed's method of actually baking the CFC in an oven is a good one, and in fact, I think is the single most important aspect of his CFC maintenance. Moisture + air + time = mold. Period. Personally (meaning I could be wrong), I think this is 99% of all problems experienced with CFC's. You can tackle this dilemma in at least two ways: first you can make sure that sucker is bone dry. An oven would certainly do the job. The second way is to eliminate ALL the air. I do this by keeping the CFC completely filled with sanitizer between uses. I siphon sanitizer through the CFC, then when there is a good steady flow out the end, I use a plastic screw protector to slip over the end and cap it. Then I pull off the hose feeding the CFC and cap that one too with another screw protector. No air + sanitizer = no mold. I've kept it capped and full of sanitizer for a couple of months and used it without incident. To make matters worse, I am a very lazy brewer. Cleaning solutions like PBW, TSP, et. all, are a big pain to me and I prefer just to rinse things out really good. The CFC is no exception. Immediately after use, I put the garden hose nozzle right up to the end of the CFC coil and just force water through it for about 15 seconds or so. This flushes out most everything (at least to the naked eye), then I fill it with sanitizer, cap it and store it. I must admit, when I do go to use the CFC, I drain out the old sanitizer and fill it with new sanitizer for 20 minutes or so, then drain that out prior to use (no rinsing). I've had the CFC for 3-1/2 years now and have brewed about 50 times with it. About a year after I started using it, I flushed it with PBW. Why? I don't know. Made me feel better at the time. However, I haven't done it since. So far, so good. I'm not recommending that other brewers should abandon their cleaning regimens, this is just another data point on the opposite end of the scale (the lazy end). Prost, Dennis Collins Knoxville, TN http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:35:55 -0500 From: "HomeBrewUSA" <brewshop at homebrewusa.com> Subject: Counterflow Chillers I find it interesting that each person has thier own theory on cleaning these things. I expect it has the same reason that we all tend to brew a little differently. While I was brewing proffessionaly at Hilltop Brewing Company in Va Beach my typical cleaning process was as follows: Hot sanitize. Circulate 170+ degree water through the CFC and the fermenter spray ball for minumum of 15 minutes. Pump beer into the fermenter. Backflush CFC with 170+ degree water untill it runs clear. I stored it dry. No issues for the 2 years I brewed. I use the same sort of process in my home system but have only been using a CFC at home for a few batches. I have a friend (Pro brewer in St. Louis) who does the caustic:acid:flush:store full of Iodophor and he has a Pedio problem even after all of that. I guess I am of the KISS viewpoint and overthinking generally get one in trouble Happy Brewing... Mike Mike and Mellissa Pensinger Owners, HomeBrewUSA Norfolk, Virginia http://www.homebrewusa.com 757-459-2739 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 15:12:11 -0800 From: "Noah A. Bolmer" <noah at ocztechnology.com> Subject: Water Softener Hiyas- I recently moved into my new house (rental) and have obtained one of the last St. Pats 3-level system made, and I'll be attempting my first all-grain batch. I have read a bit on water chemistry - and have a couple of concerns. The house I live in has a water softener that uses salt, (although I have NO IDEA how to operate it). I don't know whether the outside hose water bypasses the softener or not- any easy way to check? I have a fishtank and a hardness test, but I have no idea what that would tell me in terms of this situation. Also, I have a reverse osmosis 2 stage system in the sink. Would I be better off using that water and adjusting the chemistry every time I brew beer? Seems that R/O filters could get expensive (I plan on 10 gallon batches). As an aside, anyone know how to operate an older water softener? Basicially the only thing you can set is the hardness which ranges from 1 to like 100 or something. You also set the cycle time (time of day, not length of the cycle). The previous owner had it set on 8, and the unit is filled with what looks and smells like salt, tho it's clumped together oddly. There is no manual, and no manual to be downloaded online. I live in San Jose, CA but I'm not sure what the local water chemistry is like. Thanks for any help!! Noah Noah A. Bolmer VP Operations OCZ Technology, Inc. www.ocztechnology.com 408.733.8400 x475 noah at ocztechnology.com Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 21:03:42 -0500 From: "Travis Miller" <travismiller at comcast.net> Subject: CFC cleaning Fred Asks: "How do the professionals do it?" That depends on who you ask because different breweries do it differently. We have a heat exchanger that is like the Therminator type of chiller as do most breweries. I've never heard of a brewery using a counter flow but stranger things have happened. I run our various cleaning solutions through the H.E. backwards utilizing our portable pump that we use to clean the fermentation vessels and bright tank. With the way our brew house is set up I'm able to perform the cycle on the lauter tun at the same time I clean the HE which saves time, water and chemical. The cleaning solution is run at a faster flow rate than we run wort through it on the way to the FV. We use a caustic solution (at 160 F) for 45 minutes, rinse clean, a phosphoric acid based cleaner for 30 minutes, rinse clean, and if we aren't brewing for a few days I pack it and the brewers hose full of paracetic acid sanitizer mixed at a no rinse concentration. It is also our SOP to take it apart once a quarter to inspect the plates. Some breweries use different chemicals such as PBW and Acid #5 (also by made by 5 Star), some use chlorinated caustic and not acid, some use just acid and no caustic, some alternate back and forth on some sort of rotation. By the condition of our heat exchanger when we got it I think that it might have been rinsed but is certainly had not been cleaned in a while by the previous owner. We also heat sanitize the transfer hose, hard pipe, valves, and the heat exchanger with hot liquor before sending finished wort from the whirlpool to the unitank. Travis Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:47:31 -0800 (PST) From: Kent Fletcher <fletcherhomebrew at yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Beer in Los Angeles? > I've been > warned that southern California is a beer wasteland, > but can anyone > recommend a good brewpub or good beer bar? I'll be > staying in Sherman Oaks > but will be mobile and will probably be in West > Hollywood at night. >From Sherman Oaks it's about a 20-30 minute drive (off peak) to Lucky Baldwins, one of the best pubs to be found on the West Coast, for certain. Located at 17 Raymond Av in Pasadena, just about a block from Colorado Blvd. Also in Pasadena is Craftsman Brewing Co, at 1270 Lincoln Avenue #800. A little further east in San Gabriel is the Stuffed Sandwich, which has a phenomenal selection. If you go to the Stuffed Sandwich, you will have to buy one first, a requirement of their license. Closer to your hotel is BJ's Brewhouse in Woodland Hills, about a 15 minute drive, just shoot west down the 101 to Canoga and go north 2 miles. Excellent APA, Stout, Irish Red, plus whatever they have on cask, and a very good selection of bottled Belgians. About the only place I know in the West Hollywood area that has a few decent micros on tap is Barney's Beanery, an institution for decades. Check out Beer Advocate's BeerFly reviews here: http://beeradvocate.com/beerfly/city/9/ Elsewhere, in the average restaurant, SNPA is fairly common, Anchor less so. Oh, one last thing, if you're here on the 5th, you're welcome to stop in at the Maltose Falcons meeting, 1:00 pm, email me for info. Hope that helps, Kent Fletcher Brewing in So Cal Return to table of contents
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