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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  What could be better? (Scott and Cherie Stihler)
  RE: Making highly fermentable wort ("Flannery, Phil")
  re: Round two - Enzymes Next question ("Dennis Collins")


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Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 21:32:55 -0800
From: Scott and Cherie Stihler <stihlerunits at mosquitonet.com>
Subject: What could be better?

I posted this elsewhere so I apologize to those people that have 
already seen this.

- --------------------------------------
What could be better than coming to Alaska?

Coming to Alaska AND judging beer!

The E.T. Barnette Homebrew Competition will take place in Fox, Alaska 
(a small mining community ~11 miles north of Fairbanks) on July 16, 
2005.

The overall quality of the entries in the competition is exceptional. 
The somewhat  higher shipping costs and a $500 prize for Best of Show 
tend to bring out only the best beers.

We would love to have folks come up to visit and help with the judging.

Information about this competition may be found at the following URL:
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~stihlerunits/ScottsDen/Beer/Events/Events.html

We offer E.T. Barnette judges the option of preregisering their own 
entries andthan dropping off the entries the day of the competition. 
This allows them to save some money on shipping costs. Of course, one 
may not wish to travel across country with their entries but that is 
at least an option.

Also in Fairbanks, on July 23 there will be the Alaska Craft Beer 
Festival. This isn't a huge event but it is a good way to sample a 
number of beers from throughout Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

What could be better than visting Alaska and judging in one 
sanctioned homebrew competition? Visting Alaska and judging in TWO 
sanctioned competitions, of course!

There will be another homebrew competition in Seward, Alaska on 
either the weekend before (July 9) or the weekend following (July 23) 
the E.T. Barnette Homebrew Competition. The date of this compettion 
has yet to be set. Although this is the first such competition in 
Seward things should run smoothly since they have enlisted the Great 
Northern Brewers Club in Anchorage to handle the logistics and 
judging of this event.

Seward is a great place visit. It is an even better place to visit 
and drink beer.

With the U.S dollar has been taking quite a beating from the Euro 
this year perhaps one should consider going to Alaska this summer 
instead of Europe.

The Alaskan exchange rate is always quite good. ;-) You'd surprised 
that some tourist actually to ask about the non-existant U.S.-Alaska 
currency exchange rate. Of course, these are probably the same people 
that ask about taking a tram to the top of Denali.

Coming to Alaska can be an adventure. However, despite all the horror 
stories you've probably heard about the Alcan Highway it is really 
not all that bad.

You can also save a lot of driving by taking the Alaska Marine 
Highway (http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/) at least part of the way. 
The Alaska Marine Highway allows you to bring your car or RV along 
and it is, at least compared to
the cost of an airline ticket, not all that expensive.

Should you decide to drive the Alcan or drive anywhere in Alaska I 
would recommend purchasing "The Milepost" 
(http://www.themilepost.com). This book is very useful when traveling 
in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. "The Milepost" is a a great 
resource. In fact, we buy a new copy pretty much every other year and 
we live here.

Alaska during the summer is great. It is such a beautiful place.

There are some very good brewers here was well . What could be better 
than visiting Alaska and enjoying the wonderful beers we have to 
offer?

If you have any questions about Alaska or are interested in coming up 
and judging in the E.T. Barnette Homebrew Competition please feel 
free to contact me. My wife and I love Alaska and we like to share it 
with people.

Cheers,

Scott Stihler
Fairbanks, Alaska
[2874, 324.9] Apparent Rennerian


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Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 12:04:36 +0200 
From: "Flannery, Phil" <phil.flannery at eds.com>
Subject: RE: Making highly fermentable wort


> -S writes.......
> 
> **For pure-infusion brewing(insulated coolers) perhaps this would work
> well 
> enough 
> 1/ mash-in very thick(0.5qt/lb)   at  50C/122F (hydration) 0-5 minutes. 
> 2/ infusion step to 67C for full gelatinization rest for 10 minutes. 
> 3/ downward infusion step to 63C for long BA rest - 45+ min. 
> 4/ slow series of infusions to 68-72C over a 45min period.**
> 
> I'm having problems getting my beer to attenuate down.  
> I'm using vienner malt as my base malt.  
> I have been doing 100% vienner beers lately.
> I think part of my problem is that when I mash in, in my cooler, 
> I'm shooting for 65 to 67c.  
> I have to infuse 78c water to attain this.  
> So I'm probably doing damage before the temp levels out at 65.
> I like your idea of wetting the grains at a lower temp first, but don't
> want to go from 50 to 67
> and then back down to 63.  
> What would be a good compromise?  45 to 65?  
> It would be easy to mash in at 40 and
> just wait for the rest of the mash in water to heat up
> so that I could do the next infusion to attain 65 or so.
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Greetings from Germany.
> 
> Phil
> 


Return to table of contents


Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 11:08:45 -0400
From: "Dennis Collins" <dcollins at drain-all.com>
Subject: re: Round two - Enzymes Next question

I'd like to give -S kudos for pointing out, what I consider, to be a
fundamental flaw in many RIMS/HERMS designs.  That is, the systematic
over-heating of the recirculated wort, on purpose, beyond the desired mash
temperature.

I built my HERMS system for temperature control primarily (the wort clarity
is a great benefit as well).  I think step mashes are over-rated, and for 
the
most part, unnecessary.  If you can't make a good beer with a single step
infusion, you have bigger problems on your hands and shouldn't be fooling
with step mashes anyway.  For styles and ingredients that necessitate a step
mash, a recirculating system is not the best way to get there.  But that's
another post and I digress......

For a single step infusion mash, it is entirely possible, using proper
temperature probe placement and a well designed heat exchanger, to maintain
a constant (non-fluctuating) mash temperature for any length of time,
without ever over-heating the wort (limits of equipment precision
notwithstanding).  Putting the control thermocouple within the mash, and/or
using bypass loops do exactly what -S says:  they intentionally over-heat
the wort cyclically and tend to do all the things mentioned in -S's post
related to over-heating.  What's the point of a target mash temp of 150 if,
over the course of an hour's time, you systematically heat all the wort to
say, 155, even briefly?  This puts cyclical temperature fluctuations into
the mash.  Constant recirculation assures that 100% of the wort will
eventually go through the heater and potentially get over heated.  Yes, the
average temperature over the hour is 150 because the equipment will
compensate for over-heating by allowing the wort to "over-cool".  Therefore,
at  any particular time, different layers of the mash are at anywhere from 
say,
145  - 155.

I've had multiple discussions with folks regarding probe placement, so I
won't bring it up again (even though I'm right) : )  My point here is this:
If over heating the wort (or even over-cooling) beyond your target
temperature, by any means, gives you a result that is not desirable, why
would you intentionally design an over-heating mechanism into your brewery?

As I said before, you can eliminate these temp swings in a recirculating
system through probe placement and a good heat exchanger.  There is more
info at my website.

Dennis Collins
Knoxville, TN
http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com

"In theory, theory and practice are the same.  But not in practice."



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