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


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Contents:
  Sight tube ("A.J deLange")
  Re: Duvel Clone incremented feeding (Kevin Brown)
  Re: Stuck fermentation vs. incomplete conversion? (Joe Walts)
  Questions About Siebel Courses During the Holidays ("Lemcke, Keith")
  CO2 MFM ("Mike Sharp")
  Load Cells in the Brewery (Rick) Theiner <rickdude@tds.net>
  Beer engine and cask conditioned ale ("Bill Kunka")


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 13:14:59 +0000
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Sight tube

Mike,

You're making me feel like a grammar school teacher! Anyway I don't see 
much wrong with what you are saying. In fact I think the idea of using a 
Magnahelic (or better yet a Photohelic for automatic level adjustment) 
is a great one. Presumably you want to hook it up to the vessel through 
a length of tubing because you don't want wort or water in it so you 
could use a couple of feet of clear tubing going up the side of the 
kettle and put the meter in a convenient location. When you fill the 
vessel water enters the tube compressing the air in it and this will 
rise a couple of inches into the tube. Measure this and subtract from 
the inches of water reading on the instrument. This correction will vary 
with the amount of liquid in the vessel (as the pressure at the bottom 
varies) but you should be able to come up with a correction table or 
curve pretty easily. Another approach would be to put a pressure sensor 
which can withstand heat and wetting at the bottom of the vessel. All 
this is sort of klugey but let's face it, that's half the fun.

A.J.


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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 10:35:01 -0400
From: Kevin Brown <kbrown at uvi.edu>
Subject: Re: Duvel Clone incremented feeding

Mark Tomusiak stated:

I made such a beer last year, using WLP570 (Belgian Golden Ale) and
closely following the reported Duvel brewing methods (started with a 
lower gravity wort, fed sugars during fermentation, etc.), including 
lagering at close to 32 F for an extended period of time.  The resulting 
beer was outstanding, with a flavor and appearance profile very close to 
the original.

I would like to hear a detailed description of your brewing process. I 
am gearing up to brew a Duvel clone and several other Belgians during my 
Holiday recess. I interested in what type/quantity of sugar you used for 
the incremental feeding and the time line. I have visited the Duvel 
website and gleaned some from there but if someone here wants to share 
their experience then that would be great.

Happy Holiday!

Kevin Brown
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands


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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:58:54 -0600
From: Joe Walts <jwalts at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Stuck fermentation vs. incomplete conversion?

I agree that it's probably your mash, because it almost certainly
isn't your yeast.  Repitching almost guarantees high cell counts.  It
may lead to mutated yeast or infected beer if you aren't careful, but
incomplete fermentation is really unlikely.

Joe

>Hi All
>
>I haven't posted in a long time, but I recently was hired as the assistant
>brewer at a new craft brewery in my city and I have an opinion I would like
>confirmed or countered by the membership.  The owner and I brewed a batch on
>the 9th of December and for the last 4 days the sg has been 1.018.  In  the
>past the beer SHOULD have been, by this time, in the 1.010 to 1.008 range.
>The boss's opinion is that the yeast is to blame, since we harvest and
>re-pitch the yeast from previous batches.  I think the reason is incomplete
>conversion:  On brewing day, after a mere 35 minutes of mashing, we mashed
>out, after I though I saw some signs in the iodine test of incomplete
>conversion.  So I say that the reason the sg is at 1.018 is that there are
>still starches in the beer keeping the sg at that level.  What do you all
>think?  Thank you either way you vote :)
>
>Ian



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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 11:20:35 -0500
From: "Lemcke, Keith" <klemcke at siebelinstitute.com>
Subject: Questions About Siebel Courses During the Holidays

While our Chicago offices will be closed for the holidays from Friday,
Dec. 23rd ,2005 through Monday, January 2nd , 2006, I will be monitoring
e-mails during that time for any questions from brewers regarding our
early 2006 Siebel Institute & World Brewing Academy courses. If you have
any questions about our upcoming programs (including our January
web-based Concise Course and Executive Overview Course), please drop me
a line at klemcke at siebelinstitute.com.

Hoppy Holidays to all!

Keith Lemcke
Vice-President
Siebel Institute of Technology
www.siebelinstitute.com   



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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 11:23:58 -0800
From: "Mike Sharp" <rdcpro at hotmail.com>
Subject: CO2 MFM

Ken Anderson took the time to post his rig on the web, and I have a couple
questions.

Nice rig, Ken.  What's the maximum range of your meter?  

Also, 100 feet is a long way to take a 0-5 VDC signal.  If one were buying
one from scratch, the 4-20 mA signal model would be best.  A current-based
signal can go the distance without worrying about the resistance of the
signal wiring.  Then if your data acquistion needs a voltage, you use a
precision resistor of the appropriate size across the terminals to translate
the current back to a voltage.  Some instruments will do either voltage or
current (they sometimes have their own internal resistor), but it looks like
Sierra wants you to buy a different model.

When I saw your setup, I thought it might be useful to take a Mason jar and
put it inline between the fermenter and the meter, with the hoses
penetrating the lid.  This would give you a larger volume to catch
condensate and krausen.  If you were tricky, you could put a "blowoff" hole
in the lid with a weighted seal (like a pressure cooker uses), and put a
float ball in a small cage in the outlet hole, so that if you did have a
large amount of blowoff and you didn't catch it in time, the float would
seal the outlet, and the pressure would blow out the blowoff hole.

I was also interested in how you sealed your keg fermenter.  Could you
explain that in a bit more detail?  It looks like a piece of lexan, with a
rubber gasket sandwiched between it and the keg top.  Is that right?


Regards,
Mike Sharp



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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:32:23 -0600
From: Eric (Rick) Theiner <rickdude at tds.net>
Subject: Load Cells in the Brewery

AJ mentioned using load cells as feet for his rack, 
and that has got to be one of the most ingenious 
things I never thought of first!<g>

So now I'm all ready to start looking for load cells 
to put under the feet of my system, but I don't know 
where to start... can anyone provide any guidance?  
I'd rather go simple, since I remain a notebook brewer, 
and an interface akin to regular top-loading balance 
would be ideal.  Anyone have any ideas for starting 
points?

Thanks!

Rick




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Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 20:03:20 -0500
From: "Bill Kunka" <wkunka at vianet.ca>
Subject: Beer engine and cask conditioned ale

Hello all,

I was hoping some of you could tell me a good book or website that would 
help me craft a cask conditioned ale. Also anyone have a site that has plans 
to build a beer engine? Or know of a source to get casks (or how to make 
one) to condition the ale in?

Thanks
Bill Kunka 



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