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


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Contents:
  Thank for your help re: triacs ("Ben Dooley")
  Re: Gluten-Free Beer (Andrew Lavery)
  UV light sanitation (PRE-HOPS) (wilkreed)
  Recirculation (Glyn)
  Re: Safale K-97 ("John Mealey")
  Call for Entries--1st Round 2006 National Homebrew Competition ("Janis Gross")
  another water analysis (leavitdg)
  campden info/converting propane to nat gas/UV sanitation ("Brian Pic")
  Safale k-97 (Thomas Rohner)


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 00:10:17 -0400
From: "Ben Dooley" <bendooley at gmail.com>
Subject: Thank for your help re: triacs

Just wanted to thank everyone for your help with the triac question. A
lot of my questions about controllers in general have now been
answered. Unfortunately, someone outbid me on ebay. $110 seemed a lot
to pay for a controller that might or might not work. Looked pretty
good when it was at 99 cents, however. C'est la vie.

Anyway, thanks for sharing the collective wisdom.

Best,
Ben



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Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 21:12:49 +1000
From: Andrew Lavery <alavery at iprimus.com.au>
Subject: Re: Gluten-Free Beer

Steve Alexander wrote:

>Again, it may be possible to make a beer with only corn,
>rice, millet, sorghum, possibly oats and so on, but I
>don't think we'd recognize the result as an adequate
>replacement for conventional barley based beer.
>  
>
Steve,

I think you would be pleasantly surprised at how good a gluten free beer 
made from malted millet can be, even outscoring barley/wheat beers in 
competitions (no win yet but a couple of placings).  I will agree though 
that the gluten free beers made from rice or corn syrup and raw grains 
are more like cider than beer.

If you ever come to the gluten free craft brewing capital of the world 
you're welcome to come and have a taste.

Cheers, Andrew.

Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.




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Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 09:21:46 -0400
From: wilkreed at netscape.net
Subject: UV light sanitation (PRE-HOPS)



Andy expressed concerns about the light causing skunky beer, but if 
this is done immediately after the mash, before hops are added, I 
expect that it would have no skunking effect.

Mike added concerns about it having a effect on other sulfur compounds, 
but I would expect that those would be mitigated by a vigorous boil 
after application of the UV, which would drive off any undesired 
compounds.

In any event I would only recommend this as a pre-boil treatment.

If anyone has any particular knowledge on this, I am sure we would all 
appreciate it.

Wil Reed


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Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 06:47:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Glyn <graininfuser at yahoo.com>
Subject: Recirculation

Why is cloudy run off bad? If I get a quart of cloudy
run off in a 13 gallon batch does it ruin my beer?
Does 2 or 3 tiny chucks of barly ruin my batch? 

Since I moved to the keg mash tun with the rolled up
stainless mesh I have given up recirculation. Just
doesn't seem worth the effort, mess, and oxgen pick
up. Maybe if I had a pump.(hint Santa)

Glyn
S. Middle TN



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Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 10:45:17 -0600
From: "John Mealey" <mealey at gw.grand.k12.ut.us>
Subject: Re: Safale K-97

All these are in Australia, but you can get it online.
 
ESB Brewing has it
<http://www.esbeer.com.au/category3_1.htm>
 
Grumpy's Brewshop has it
<https://www.grumpys.com.au/>
 
and
 
Craft Brewers (AussieHomeBrewer.com)
<http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/>


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Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 09:51:49 -0600
From: "Janis Gross" <janis at brewersassociation.org>
Subject: Call for Entries--1st Round 2006 National Homebrew Competition

Hi everyone,
The 2006 National Homebrew Competition is upon us!!!!

It's time to enter those awesome beers, meads, and ciders in the First Round
of the 2006 NHC to see how your concoction stands up against other brews in
your region.  First, second, and third place finishers will receive ribbons;
complete details about the awards can be found in the NHC 2006 Rules and
Regulations.  If your entry does well enough in the first round of the
National Homebrew Competition, it will advance to the second round to see if
it is the best of the best.  Complete rules and regulations are in a PDF
document which you can download from this page:
http://www.beertown.org/events/nhc/rules.html

Entries for the first round consist of one bottle, and an entry fee of $8 for
AHA members, or $12 for non-members (make the check out to the AHA).  Those
of you renewing your membership at this time should include a separate $38
check made out to the AHA. 

The entries are due between Monday April 3rd, and Friday April 14th at the
shipping/drop-off location for the region in which you live.  To find your
region and shipping address, go to
http://www.beertown.org/events/nhc/site.html, and select the link for the
National Homebrew Competition Site map (a PDF file).  California residents
should also check out the National Homebrew Competition California Site Map
to verify whether they are in the West or Southwest region.

Note:  Entries sent to the wrong region will be disqualified.

The best news this year is that most regions have online registration!!!!
This enables you to enter your personal information once for one or for many
entries, and provides printed bottle labels for you to attach to your
entries.  Please use this printed label as your bottle label.  The regions
are listed below, and those using online registration include the link to use
for that competition site.

Canada (the last day for entries to this competition was 3/31/06) --
www.alesclub.com 

East Region (DC, DE, IN, KY, MD, OH, TN, VA, WV) -- https://www.regwizard.net

Great Lakes Region (IL, MI) -- no online entry

Midwest Region (IA, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, OK, SD, WI) -- no online entry

Northeast Region (CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT) --
https://www.regwizard.net

Northwest Region (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY) -- https://www.regwizard.net

South Region (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TX) --
https://www.regwizard.net

Southwest Region (AZ, Southern CA, HI, NM, International (not Canada)
entries) -- https://www.regwizard.net

West Region (Northern CA, CO, NV, UT) --
http://www.brewingcompetition.com/2006NHC1/entry.php

Cider Entries (All cider entries go to Poughkeepsie, NY) --
https://www.regwizard.net

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the final round awards ceremony on
June 24th at the National Homebrewers Conference in Orlando, FL!

Good luck in the competition!
Cheers,
	Janis


 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Janis Gross, Project Coordinator
American Homebrewers Association
736 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 447-0816 x134
<janis at brewersassociation.org>
www.beertown.org 




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Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 16:04:05 -0400
From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu
Subject: another water analysis

I too recently had my water tested (by Ward Labs) and here are the results:

- ----

pH  8.1
Total Disolved solids   210
Electrical Conductivity 0.35
Cations/Anions          3.7 / 3.6

- ---                     ppm

Sodium, Na               4
Potassium, K            <1

Calcium, Ca             41
Magnesium, Mg           18
Total Hardness, CaCO3  178

Nitrate, NO3-N          <0.1
Sulfate, SO4-S           6
Chloride, Cl            13

Carbonate, CO3            <1
Bicarbonate, HCO3        174
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3  143

Now, since I was making a pilsner, I knew that I should drop the pH in the mash
with Calcium Chloride (or Gypsum), as I have done in the past, but I have never
before known what my water had in it, so I just guessed, and put in a teaspoon,
or so.

But this time, armed with the water analysis, and John Palmer's chapter on
"Understanding the mash pH" I decided to attempt to calculate just how much I
should add.

Using the chart, with my values, I calculated that I needed 3.1 grams per gallon
times 3.5 gallons, so 10.88, this divided by 4 to get approx teaspoons and I
came up with 2.72 tsp calcium chloride, to get a resultant pH of around 5.6  .

I now think that I should have used some distilled water, in that may not the
contribution of 127 ppm Cl- (chloride) take that value too high?  My water has
only 13 ppm, but adding 127 x 3.5 gal takes the chloride up too high does it
not?


I have made some decent beers without this chemistry, but think that it is time
that I get started.

Any advice would be very welcome, but please keep it at the pre-Chem 101 level,
as my chemistry is decades old, and very primitive, as you can see.


Happy Brewing!
Darrell



















































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Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 16:31:30 -0400
From: "Brian Pic" <bpicke at gmail.com>
Subject: campden info/converting propane to nat gas/UV sanitation

Thanks again for all the information about campden tablets and how
they are used in wine making.   Some of the posts were very
illuminating.

As far as my comment about drilling propane stoves for use with
natural gas, I got a question offline about that and found in my own
personal 'archives' that one must drill the hole where the gas mixes
with the air (inside the fixture) and not the holes where the flames
exit the burner.    Also, some earlier posts (10 years or so old now!)
caution that you must talk to the gas company about it as the pressure
in the lines, though obviously less than propane, varies from system
to system and that they would in any case be the experts and would be
willing to help one convert from propane to natural gas since that is
what they are selling.   I once asked about this myself, but I never
followed through on it, I am still using propane, 10 years later...

About UV sanitation, I probably wouldn't use it with wort for fear of
skunking, but it might be handy to use it for water, especially top-up
water that you are using to hit a particular gravity target.    Doubt
I would spend $100 on a fixture though (too many other things compete
for my limited funds).   Strictly out of curiosity though, would a
standard florescent blacklight (from my teenager's room) work with
enough exposure time, or would it have to be 'short wave'?



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Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 23:22:05 +0200
From: Thomas Rohner <t.rohner at bluewin.ch>
Subject: Safale k-97

Hi Dave

i order it from brouwland in Belgium. A very nice yeast, clean when 
fermented on the cooler side of temp. range, great for Alt's.
I also use S-04 for english style ales and S-23 for munich helles and 
oktoberfests. I take the 500g bricks, because i need around 40g for ales 
and 80g for my lager batches. I'd ask fermentis, where they sell their 
11g packs in the U.S. or Canada.

Cheers  Thomas



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