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


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Contents:
  Re: A question Re: question ("steve.alexander")
  Las Vegas Winterfest 2006 Results (Scott Alfter)
  re: Lamarck ("steve.alexander")
  George Fix ("John Kennedy")
  Falconer Foundation Brewing Scholarship Deadlines Approaching ("Lemcke, Keith")
  RE: Lamarck (Kurt Thorn)
  re:mini-kegs (Leo Vitt)
  OxyCap(r) ("Steve Dale-Johnson")


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Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:47:11 -0500
From: "steve.alexander" <steve-alexander at adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: A question Re: question

A.J deLange wrote:

> For my money I'll take equivalence (normality) where it applies and 
> molarity where it doesn't.

Which is why you'll have my full support in any run for water czar.

BTW the x100 (vs x50) alkalinity & hardness unit as CaCo3 are still 
apparently
alive and well in some aquarium test kits ! Yack !

 -S





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Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:37:48 -0800
From: Scott Alfter <scott at alfter.us>
Subject: Las Vegas Winterfest 2006 Results

Thanks to all of the brewers, judges, and stewards who participated, Winterfest
turned out to be a nice little competition.  14 judges evaluated 70 beers,
meads, and ciders from three states.  12 beers advanced to the Best of Show
round.  The following are the beers which, to steal a phrase from Iron Chef,
reigned supreme:

    BoS: Jim Rossi from Oakley, CA, with a Munich Helles
2nd BoS: John Garbett from Las Vegas, NV, with a Saison
3rd BoS: Matt Stinchfield from Boulder City, NV, with a Doppelbock

More detailed results are up on the SNAFU website:

http://snafu.alfter.us/hof-files/winterfest06.shtml

Scott Alfter
scott at alfter.us



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Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 23:52:48 -0500
From: "steve.alexander" <-s at adelphia.net>
Subject: re: Lamarck

Kurt Thorn writes ....

>Steve gives a nice history lesson about Lamarck and Darwin
>but he's somewhat incorrect in ruling out Lamarckian
>inheritance:

Not a history, just a time-line. Please re-read my post,
Kurt. I did not 'rule out Lamarckism' as you claim except
to state that Lamarck's generalizations, that traits
acquired from use/disuse are passed on to the point of
species differentiation as one general mechanism of
evolution are in error.   Max Delbruck (the nobel winner
not the earlier brewing scientist) put a fork in that
one in the 1940s.  If you really mean to imply the
Arnold Schwarzenegger's kids will have bigger biceps
as a result of the time the Governor spent in the gym
then we disagree on a different level.

If one examines Lamarck's laws
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarck
then clearly the use of "all" in the second law is
egregiously in error and the word 'seldom' or 'rarely'
would make more sense here.

Kurt certainly has credentials on the genetics issue but
I can't really follow his comments on brewing yeasts.

>When a yeast cell divides, the mother and daughter
>cell split the cellular contents equally.

I've got some bad news for you, sunshine.  Brewing yeast
cells bud; they are not fission yeasts. Brewing yeast
division is asymmetric with daughters about 1/6th the
volume of mature/senescent cells in anaerobic fermentation.
The mother cell is much larger, has more of the total
lipids, many other differences and will divide again
more rapidly.  Brewing yeast cell size increases
with age, yet daughter cell size is constant  (K.Smart,
'Brewing Yeast Fermentation Performance', 2000 Blackwell
Sci.). This isn't the norm for eukaryotes, but applies
to brewing yeasts.

>This means that they get equal shares of not only the DNA
>but also of all the enzymes and so on.

They get UNequal shares of course.

>So if your parent is adapted for
>high gravity or cold and has expressed certain proteins
>to enable that adaptation, the daughter cell will get
>them as well.

Oh come now - most of these are enzymes which have a
very limited lifespan.  Unless the environmental trigger
persists the daughter is unlikely to express many traits.
I'm certain there are exceptions, but it's very misleading
to use such language Kurt.  Consider the sugar permease
proteins which facilitate maltose or M3 induction.  These
are ineffective in tens of minutes after the trigger is
removed.   The expression persists in the parent for only
minutes after - so it's rather unlikely to cause expression
in later daughter cells.

I'm certain there are exceptions, certain stress prions
which are inheritable for example, but that's not a case
for such generalized misleading language.

If you really believe your generalization Kurt,
that if parental expression appears, then daughter and
grand-daughter cells generally will generally express too,
then you'll need to explain to me why so many cases show the
opposite result .... permeases, flocculation, dormancy,
crabtree ... such expressions are triggered by  transient
environmental conditions and disappear rapidly.

 -S





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Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 15:50:38 +1000
From: "John Kennedy" <johnk at readybake.com.au>
Subject: George Fix

Hi Jeff,
 
That was a nice thing you did for George on the HBD, you are very
thoughtful, as you can guess I'm a fan as well.
 

Regards John Kennedy 





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Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 10:09:57 -0500
From: "Lemcke, Keith" <klemcke at siebelinstitute.com>
Subject: Falconer Foundation Brewing Scholarship Deadlines Approaching 

Just a reminder about an approaching deadline for two very generous
scholarships. 
 
The Glen Hay Falconer Foundation Brewing Scholarships are two
full-tuition scholarships for the 2006 World Brewing Academy Concise
Course in Brewing Technology held at the Siebel Institute of Technology
in Chicago this fall. The Scholarships are open to professional brewers
as well as homebrewers from the Pacific Northwest (including Alaska and
Hawaii) and Northern California regions (San Francisco Bay/Monterey Bay
areas and north).  Each Scholarship includes a $500 stipend to help
offset travel and lodging expenses. The full application must be
received no later than April 20, 2006.  For complete information on how
to apply for these scholarships, visit the Siebel Institute website at
http://siebelinstitute.com/registration/falconer_scholarship.html. 
 
 
Keith Lemcke
 
Vice-President
Siebel Institute of Technology
World Brewing Academy








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Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:30:09 -0500
From: Kurt Thorn <Kthorn at CGR.Harvard.edu>
Subject: RE: Lamarck

> Kurt. I did not 'rule out Lamarckism' as you claim except
> to state that Lamarck's generalizations, that traits
> acquired from use/disuse are passed on to the point of
> species differentiation as one general mechanism of
> evolution are in error.   Max Delbruck (the nobel winner

I agree with you here.  I meant to say only that there are possible
mechanisms for Lamarckian inheritance to influence traits in brewing.

>When a yeast cell divides, the mother and daughter
>cell split the cellular contents equally.

> I've got some bad news for you, sunshine.  Brewing yeast
> cells bud; they are not fission yeasts. Brewing yeast

I should have said that the concentration of proteins will be the same in
mother and daughter cells immediately after division.  Of course the
absolute amounts will change because the cell size is different, but in
general the relevant quantity is the concentration of the protein, not its
absolute abundance.  

> Oh come now - most of these are enzymes which have a
> very limited lifespan.  Unless the environmental trigger

This is true for some proteins and untrue for others.  However, the time
scales that this is occurring on (one or two cell cycles, so a few hours),
while exciting biologically may not be as relevant for brewing.  The cases
I'm most aware of involve temperature shocks, where it seems that
pre-stressing the organism can certainly confer tolerance to a stress that
occurs later.

> I'm certain there are exceptions, certain stress prions
> which are inheritable for example, but that's not a case
> for such generalized misleading language.

I certainly didn't mean to say that this was generally true, just to suggest
that there are mechanisms for transfer of information between generations
which may be relevant, just as there are mechanisms for responding to
environmental conditions (which certainly are relevant).

Kurt


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Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:05:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Leo Vitt <leo_vitt at yahoo.com>
Subject: re:mini-kegs



Michael asked about re-using minikegs:

>I have a friend who has been drinking beer from
>Heineken mini-kegs, and I was wondering if anyone knew
>whether these kegs were re-usable for homebrewing. He
>has 3 or four, which would certainly save on bottling
>time! Thanks...

I have reused minikegs that were from comercial German imported beer,
but not the Heineken kegs.  The ones I reused did not have the put at
tap near the bottom, but relied on inserting a tap on top.

I don't know the the Heineken kegs have that little tap on the side or
not.  My question if they do... Has someone kegged in minikegs that
have that tap.

Use less priming surgar than you use in bottles.  Maybe 10 years ago, I
found the recommendations in HBD how much to use.  If my memory is
correct, it is 1/2 cup instead of the tradition 3/4 cup for the 5 gal
batch, and till 4 5-liter minikegs.  That same submission also covered
kegging part of the batch, then adding more surgar to bottle the
remainder.  

I filled the mini-kegs using my bottle filler.  Insert the center bung
into the rubber bung. If the rubber bung is wet, it will go in with a
small tap with a hammer. 

Hang on the the little plastic bung that gets pushed into the keg.

If your friend did not rinse the kegs out, I would be afraid to re-use them.

Leo Vitt
Sidney, NE



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Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:30:43 -0800
From: "Steve Dale-Johnson" <sdalejohnson at hotmail.com>
Subject: OxyCap(r)

Fred, the caps I got from Paddock Wood have (in all caps) OXYCAP (R) on the 
flutes, and most certainly have something reactive in them that goes from 
translucent to opaque white in the liner of the cap as they spend longer on 
the bottle.

Just one more divergent data point to screw up the math ;)'


<snip>The caps offered by Paddock Wood Brewing
apparently are NOT oxygen scavenging caps <snip>

Like I said, I'm pretty sure mine are, and at least *were* available from 
Paddock Wood....



Steve Dale-Johnson
Brewing at 1918 miles, 298 degrees Rennerian
Delta (Vancouver), BC, Canada.




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