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


Contents:
  blowoff backflow (Donald P Perley)
  Re: Head Retention (Eric Pepke)
  Re:  Homebrew Digest #490 (September 06, 1990) (sandven)
  brew comp/sacto HBD oktoberfest (JEEPSRUS)
  Backwash (Mark E. Freeman)
  Where is Volume 6? (GARY  06-Sep-1990 2102)


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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 10:09:16 EDT
From: perley at glacier.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley)
Subject: blowoff backflow



The beer shouldn't contract enough in cooling to suck sterilant 
through the blowoff tube, but the soluability of air in the wort goes
way up.  As air in the headspace gets sucked into solution, it gets replaced
with air from the blowoff tube.

 -don perley

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Date:    Thu, 6 Sep 1990 10:29:51 EDT
From: PEPKE at scri1.scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke)
Subject: Re: Head Retention

Mike Charlton writes about problems with head retention.  I have three
questions:

1) With what did you prime the beer?
2) How long has it been in the bottle?
3) How big are the bubbles in the head?

I don't want to start a flame war about which method is "best," but I find that
priming with light powdered malt extract gives a stiffer head with smaller
bubbles faster than priming with sucrose or dextrose.  The best head I ever got
on a beer was from a mostly grain beer I krausened with light malt extract and
ale yeast.  There were no adjuncts (this was strictly Reinheitsgebot).

Eric Pepke                                     INTERNET: pepke at gw.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute  MFENET:   pepke at fsu
Florida State University                       SPAN:     scri::pepke
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052                     BITNET:   pepke at fsu

Disclaimer: My employers seldom even LISTEN to my opinions.
Meta-disclaimer: Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers.

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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 10:26:31 MDT
From: sandven at hooey.unm.edu
Subject: Re:  Homebrew Digest #490 (September 06, 1990)

Ahhhh my first posting, and it's not good news ...

I brewed a brown ale, and the fermentation went without a glitch. As this was
my second batch I guess I'm still somewhat of a novice, but after three
weeks of aging I decided to test some and found it to be very good.  It has 
a nice head, isn't over-carbonated or anything like that.  The beer is now
5 weeks old and is developing a cloudy "growth" over the sediments on the
bottom of the glasses.  I tasted a beer last night and there were no strange
tastes or smells, and I'm wondering if this is a classic development of mold 
or something strange.  I've refrigerated the rest of the batch to slow any 
growths, and am prepared to do some heavy drinking if I decide that the batch
is going bad.

I fermented in a plastic food grade pail with an air lock ( I have since
replaced this with two glass carbouys) and did the entire fermentation in that
bucket.  My house has no a/c or cooler and the closet in which the beer was
brewed stayed a fairly constant 83-85 degrees.  I used sodium bisulfate (?)
to clean the plastic stuff, and bleached the bottles to clean them.  
Albuquerque has a fairly dry climate, so I think that yeasts would not be that
much of a problem (??).  Anyhow, any comments would be appreciated.

Another question I have concerns primary/secondary fermentation.  I have the
impression that it is good to ferment in one carbouy until most of the initial
activity is gone, and then go to a secondary fermenter. In my last batch
which has taken over 5 weeks to ferment (O.G. .72, and now approx. .12)
I've done this every week and a half to isolate the beer from the sediments
on the bottom.  I know I risk infection every time I do this, but it seems
like a good idea as I've found that it stimulates the fermentation process.


		Thanks for any suggestions -

			Steve
l

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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 11:30:13 PDT
From: robertn at fm1.intel.com (JEEPSRUS)
Subject: brew comp/sacto HBD oktoberfest


Hello to all!

For the information of those in northern Calif, there is going to be
a homebrew competition at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. The date
is saturday, September 22nd. The Ren Faire is located in the Black
Point Forest at Novato, Marin County. Registration can be obtianed
by calling 1(415)892-0937. The registration must be in by Sept 17th.
There's no fee to enter, and admission to the faire is free to 
registered entries.

I am entering my "Mayple Syrup Stout". It'll be interesting to see
what happens...  I sent my registration in this morning.

I am trying to organize a a HBD Oktoberfest/tasting party in Sacramento.
If you are near Sacramento, let me know. I havent set a date yet(except
sometime in October :-) ). I'm just trying to see how much interest there
is. So far, I have four brewers who are interested. It will be fun!

Robert Nielsen
robertn at fm1.intel.com
916/725-7311 (H)


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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 10:56:35 PDT
From: freeman at idaho.Inference.Com (Mark E. Freeman)
Subject: Backwash

I have experienced the same phenomenon when using a simple fermentation
lock.  A few hours after pitching the yeast, the water level
inside the cap is higher than outside and the cap is pulled down
firmly onto the tube leading into the carboy.  I have also observed
this to happen at the end of the fermentation.  I had thought that
it was partly due to changes in atmospheric pressure since the 
device is similar to a primitive barometer, but I don't think the
difference in pressures would be enough to suck water up a blowoff
hose.  (unless it was elevated to nearly the same level at both ends
as Feinstein suggests)

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Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 18:07:33 PDT
From: GARY 06-Sep-1990 2102 <mason at habs11.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Where is Volume 6?

Having just purchased what I thought to be all of the transcripts from the AHA
conferences, I discovered that there is a hole in the offering.  The "Best of"
book is 1-5, and the individuals start with 7 and go through 9.  Does anyone
know what happened to 6?  Just curious.

Also...does anyone know of a source for the Hunter Energy Monitor AC in the
Southern NH area?  I have only found one Hunter dealer so far, and they don't 
handle that piece.  The Hunter numbers don't answer  (in Tennessee) either.

Cheers...Gary

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #491, 09/07/90
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