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


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Contents:
  RE: Light absorption in beer ("May, Jeff")
  Music To Brew By ("Dave Larsen")
  Controlling flow (was Light absorption) ("Todd Snyder")
  mike's brewing inefficiency ("Dave Burley")
  Hoppy Halloween Challenge Announcement ("Susan Ruud")
  RE: stealing, er, ah, borrowing yeast (Donald Hellen)
  Suggestion to the HBD (Donald Hellen)


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Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 10:09:55 -0400
From: "May, Jeff" <Jeff.May at uscellular.com>
Subject: RE: Light absorption in beer

Another Uber techno geek idea would be to use an ultrasound sensor mounted
over your under back.  These bounce ultra high frequency sound waves off
things and calculate the distance by measuring the time for the reflection
to return.  This technology was used on some of the Polaroid cameras for
auto focusing. You could calibrate it for your low and high levels.  But an
added benefit would be knowing real time level info instead of just knowing
whether you have exceeded two different thresholds.  You could even set up a
variable rate for you pump to keep the level constant. Or, what if you pump
fails?  You could set an alarm indicating the level is too high and action
is required to prevent and overflow. You may be able to rig it up as a sonar
to check for floating particles indicating that you need to continue
recirculating...

Ok, I'm back.  Just kidding about the sonar.  Got a little too excited
there.  Of course this would require circuit skills and possibly the need to
interface with a micro controller or PC.  Also, I don't know how the sensor
would stand up to the warm moist environment over a pot of 76 degC wort.  We
used these on our robot car in college to avoid collisions. 
I cannot keep the geek side of me hidden.

Oh yeah I forgot, 'simpler is better!'

Jeff May
Wilmington, NC
AR[649.7,148.6]





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Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 07:12:08 +0000
From: "Dave Larsen" <hunahpumonkey at hotmail.com>
Subject: Music To Brew By

When I first started out brewing meads, me and my brewing buddies would 
usually throw on Vivaldi, Four Seasons, as background music.  In recent 
years, though, I have to admit that I don't put on music to brew.  I would 
like to change that.  Therefore, I pose the question: What is the best music 
to brew by?

Dave, the all-grain evangelist
Tucson, AZ
http://hunahpu.blogspot.com/




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Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:35:29 -0400
From: "Todd Snyder" <tmsnyder at buffalo.edu>
Subject: Controlling flow (was Light absorption)

>I am looking at several ways to control the rate at
>which wort is pumped from my under back back to the
mash tun and off to the boiler. The rate 
of pumping should depend on the level of wort in the
under back>>

Controlling flow from the sparge tank maybe?  What's a 'back back'?  

Try a simple float valve with a copper toilet float (a new one hopefully!).
I got a nice brass valve from mcmaster-carr and the float from the local
hardware store.  That way hot water goes onto the mash at the same rate as
you draw off the bottom!  It's a beautiful thing to not have to check that
level every few minutes.

Then you just need to control or set the flow coming out of the mash tun
going to the kettle.  For this, nothing works better than a peristaltic
pump.  Get a MasterFlex pump off ebay with a #17 or #18 pump head on it. It
should take tubing about 3/8" in diameter if you're looking at a photo of
the pump.  The last two digits of the pump head should be 17 or 18, or even
better if you can find one that clamps down on almost any size tubing. 

These pumps have many advantages over centrifugal pumps like the ones most
homebrewers use.  They are self-priming, constant flow, only the tubing
contacts the wort, and are infinitely adjustable. 

A side benefit for me was that after going to a float valve and peristaltic
pump my efficiency went from ~75% to ~91%.  Probably because the flow was
constant and steady-state, instead of variable. 

Todd in Buffalo





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Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 10:19:32 -0400
From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net>
Subject: mike's brewing inefficiency

Mike,

Most often, inefficiency in brewing is due to improper milling. Try passing
your grain through the mill twice.  Close down the nip completely and turn
on the mill drive (or begin cranking) . Open the nip until the mill just
feeds quickly.  Repeat with the milled grain, which will have a smaller nip
at which it starts to feed.  This will dramatically improve your efficiency.

Let us know.

Keep on Brewin'

Dave Burley



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Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:25:00 -0500
From: "Susan Ruud" <susan.ruud at ndsu.nodak.edu>
Subject: Hoppy Halloween Challenge Announcement

The Prairie Homebrewing Companions wish to announce the 8th Annual Hoppy
Halloween Challenge which will be held this year on October 29th.  This year 
our Awards Banquet will have as a featured speaker - Ken Schramm, author of 
"The Compleat Meadmaker."  Entries will be accepted from September 26th thru 
October 8th and the Best of Show on October 29th.  We are again having a 
special Halloween Theme Category. All of the information can be found on our 
web page at www.prairiehomebrewers.org  The Hoppy Halloween Challenge is 
part of the High Plains Brewer of the year: 
http://www.kcbiermeisters.org/NewHighplains.htm and the Midwest Homebrewer 
of the Year Award http://sphbc.truthbrew.com/mwhboy/ so get those 
brewkettles going!!



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Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:17:29 -0400
From: Donald Hellen <donhellen at horizonview.net>
Subject: RE: stealing, er, ah, borrowing yeast

There was a brief explanation of how to do this in the
current Brew Your Own magazine (it may not be on the
magazine racks in your homebrew shop yet; I get it mailed to
my home).  It was in the special retro "Mr. Wizard" column
(the best of the last 10 years of the column). 

For readers of the magazine who haven't figured it out yet,
the identity of Mr. Wizard is made known in this issue. 

If I remember correctly, you take a petri dish, butane
lighter, and a test tube with a swab and be as secretive
(while looking casual) as you can be. The rest is basic
yeast culturing techniques. 

Donald Hellen
Made of only the finest electrons and the purest 
ascii text to bring you the utmost email pleasure.



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Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:26:16 -0400
From: Donald Hellen <donhellen at horizonview.net>
Subject: Suggestion to the HBD

I'm sure that the last thing the HBD people would like to
see is something that would tax the server even more--and
this is not a criticism--but I have a suggestion that I
would like to make.

There is a LOT of interest in home winemaking. While there
is some overlap in the two hobbies, it may or may not be
good to have a list that serves both communities (in my
case, as a home winemaker, I think of it as one, but that's
my viewpoint). 

So, my suggestion: Create a winemaking list that works like
this web site. The newsgroup rec.crafts.winemaking is nice,
but I can't post to the group through my local ISP's news
server or else my email address is harvested by many "bots"
and I get spam galore for a few months. 

The HBD hides email addresses in an intelligent way so that
automated systems cannot easily figure out our email
addresses anymore. 

If we had a winemaker's list like the HBD, it would make it
easy to keep up with the list through email instead of the
Usenet newsgroups, and it would be "safer" also.

Just a suggestion. If the HBD people aren't interested,
that's OK, and yo are not bad people for not implementing my
idea. It's just an idea.

I already have a winemaking group on Yahoo (Zymurgy-Wine, as
well as a beermaking group, Zymurgy), but it doesn't see the
activity that the HBD does. More activity benefits everyone,
with more ideas discussed. 

Donald Hellen

Donald Hellen
Made of only the finest electrons and the purest 
ascii text to bring you the utmost email pleasure.



-=>*<=-O-=>*<=-O-=>*<=-O-=>*<=-O-=>*<=-O-=>*<=-O-=>*<=-O-=>*<=-

(Editor's Note: Remember the HVD? The Home Vintners' Digest? Upon 
Donald's request above, it has been resurrected. To subscribe, send
the word "subscribe" to hvd-request at hbd.org. Posts are to be sent to 
hvd at hbd.org. The hvd, though formerly a Majordomo list, is instantiated
in Mailman this time 'round. We've done other lists in the same soft-
ware as the HBD (last one was the BJD - Beer Judge Digest - created
to supplant the JudgeNet when it was down in '98. Since the HBD is a 
non-modular, custom written app, it would be just too hard to actually
stuff another list through it. I have been working on making it more 
modular - but life interferes...)

I've also created the Handyman's How-To, since I'm in the middle of a
major home remodel and thought it would be neat to share tips and tech-
niwues with those wimilarly afflicted. Subscribe at 
handyman-request at hbd.org, post at handyman@hbd.org.

These lists keep your email address safe as well, but will allow both
digested and undigested formats.

-p


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