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


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Contents:
  Re: Lamarck ("steve.alexander")
  Did I re-invent Real Ale? ("Brian McGovney")
  yeast cell division?/budding (Nathaniel Lansing)
  Homebrew Conference Speakers ("Tumarkin ")
  Re: question (Dylan tack)
  Thirst Fursday ("Lemcke, Keith")
  re: Mini kegs ("Paul Deniston")
  Thermometers (tpunk)
  Oxycaps - The Final Word (Bob Tower)


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Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 23:01:15 -0500
From: "steve.alexander" <-s at adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: Lamarck

Kurt Thorn wrote:
 ...
Sincere thanks for the clarifications Kurt.   It's quite easy to get or 
give the wrong impression via this media.   This clarification is much 
appreciated.

 -Steve



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Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:03:47 -0800
From: "Brian McGovney" <brian.mcgovney at gmail.com>
Subject: Did I re-invent Real Ale?

An interesting experience with a keg: I made a batch of Alewife Brown (see
Brewers' Publications book Brown Ale -- this is one of my favorite recipes)
and kegged it. Weeks later I tapped it only to find that the keg had a leak
on the main seal and the CO2 had never really pressurized properly. I had an
empty CO2 tank to prove it.

Well, I refilled the tank and occasionally use it to push out the beer. The
pressure doesn't stay, so the beer is mostly flat, with a little liveliness
(hardly what I'd call fizz) and it's still delicious. Two points come to
mind:

 - A mild leak didn't kill my beer! Yay!
 - Did I just "re-invent" real ale? Is this how I should go about things if I
were to create a real ale deliberately?

I'll fix the leak after this keg is empty, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying
the unusual flat Alewife Brown. Since it's a 17th century "re-creation"
recipe, I imagine it's all the more authentic for lacking effervescence.

Cheers,
Brian McGovney
Strand Brewers' Club



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Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:44:34 -0500
From: Nathaniel Lansing <delbrew at compuserve.com>
Subject: yeast cell division?/budding

On the equal or unequal sharing of cell contents during
budding, SA had said, 
>>They get UNequal shares of course.<<

Thinking back to discussions of pitching rates and cell
viability. I thought it was that the 1/10 brew length pitching
rate came from the need for sterol content after 3 cell 
buddings. Starting with 1% sterol content and sharing that
with daughter cells that division will stop when content
drops to/below 0.1% sterol.
from a prior digest...
>>the most 
>>growth you want for ales and lager, regardless of scale (5 gallons or 900

>>barrels) is a ~3X. A yeast cell in ideal condition hits the fermenter
with 1% 
>>sterols, each division reduces this by half. 

Does the sterol share differently than other cell components?

Just trying to resolve the dissonance. NPL



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Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:03:58 -0500
From: "Tumarkin " <Tumarkin at HogtownBrewers.org>
Subject: Homebrew Conference Speakers

Hey y'all, 

There's a new addition to the National Homebrew Conference website. 
Now, if you go to the Speakers page and click on one of the 
presentation Topics, you will get a window with a description of the talk.
We've got a great group of speakers and now you'll be able to get a better 
sense of the many great presentations on tap for June. This should give
you even more reasons to attend the Conference in Orlando. 

Check out the talk descriptions at 
http://www.beertown.org/events/hbc/speakers.html 

While you're there on the Beertown website, pop over to 
http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/election.html 
and vote for the AHA Governing Committee candidates of your choice. 
Just over a week till deadline! 

thanks, 
Mark Tumarkin
Hogtown Brewers 
Gainesville, FL 

 


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Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:55:48 -0600
From: Dylan tack <dylan at io.com>
Subject: Re: question

> Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 14:59:03 -0500
> From: "steve.alexander" <steve-alexander at adelphia.net>
>
> Is it just me or does the constant factor of 2
> or 50 that all numbers inter-relate in the "as Chalk"
> system seem absurd and distracting ?

Your post came just a day too late!  I just wasted a perfectly good
Sunday afternoon trying to understand my water report, and some water
chem. basics, until it dawned on my that the "ppm as CaCO3" is just an
archaic way of expressing molarity.   My interest is this subject has
grown, after having been nailed by the judges in a recent contest for
water problems.  I have moved recently, and my new water supply (well
water) has way too much iron.  It's a shame, really, because I rather
like the water otherwise - and I believe the iron actually comes from
old cast iron plumbing, and not the groundwater itself.

Does anyone have ideas on a cost-effective (cheap) way to remove iron
from my brewing water?  I have seen some treatment systems for sale, but
they are many hundreds of dollars, and seem to require quite a bit of
maintenance.

thanks, Dylan




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Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:54:12 -0500
From: "Lemcke, Keith" <klemcke at siebelinstitute.com>
Subject: Thirst Fursday

On the first Thursday of every month, the guys & gals at Chicago Beer
Society meet for an evening at Goose Island Brewpub in Chicago, which
has come to be known as "Thirst Fursday". They sample each others'
homebrewed beer and interesting commercial beers, some bring in
hand-made smoked meat & sausage, and Goose Island has been amazingly
generous in letting the event have a home each month for many years now.
Does anyone else do a "Thirst Fursday" night in the same fashion (always
the first Thursday of each month)? I just wanna see if this is becoming
a trend. 
 
Keith



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Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:41:14 -0500
From: "Paul Deniston" <pdeniston at gmail.com>
Subject: re: Mini kegs

>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 don't believe you can use Heineken mini-kegs again.  The Heineken
mini kegs have a press fitted metal cap instead of a rubber bung on
top.  You'll destroy the opening trying to remove the cap.  If you
manage to get the cap off, the next thing you'll probably notice is
that there is a plastic "cone" like thing inside of the keg.

Just about any other type of mini-keg can be reused.  Some
manufacturers are considerate enough to use the same bung that you get
from your lhbs to use w/ a tap. Others use a simple disposable plastic
valve that you turn in order to allow the pour to be easier.  In
either case, the opening is the same size.

put 1/4 cup of bleach into the minikeg, fill to brim w/ water and let
sit for a couple of days.  Rinse well to get the cholorine out.  After
draining the water, I roll up a piece of paper towel and insert into
the keg (keep part to hold onto!!!).  Then I shake the hell out of the
keg.  This causes most of the water still in the can to get soaked up
by the paper towel. Pull out towel, store minikeg in dry place,
sanitize when ready to use.



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Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:24:20 -0800 (PST)
From: tpunk at riseup.net
Subject: Thermometers

Hello all,
I've recently started doing partial mashes and I need a dependable
thermometer.  I unfortunately bought a crappy thermometer and I'd like to
hear if anyone has recommendations for non-crappy thermometers.  The one I
bought is digital, which I figure is what I'm looking for, but after using
it twice it is telling me my tap water is 175 F and there's no way to
recalibrate it.  It's a 'probe' variety thermometer which is supposed to
be able to stand up to 400 F in the oven, which made me think it would be
ok for brewing.  Apparently not.  Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated!

The model I bought is made by Pyrex... a picture can be found at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/
B00004RC4R/103-5279994-0654200?v=glance&n=284507.
(URL on two lines because it was making HBD reject my post)
 I wouldn't recommend it, if anyone else is looking for a thermometer.

Thanks,
Tim McMahon





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Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 18:32:23 -0800
From: Bob Tower <roberttower at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Oxycaps - The Final Word

There has been a discussion regarding what activates Oxycaps (someone  
was wondering how they avoid absorbing the oxygen that's in the air  
thus negating the effect). Some said that crimping the caps activated  
them while others said that wetting did it. I contacted Charles  
McCarthy, Research Lab Manager at Crown Cork, the manufacturer of  
Oxycaps, and he said "Wetting the liner activates the scavenger."

Bob Tower / Los Angeles, CA


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