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


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Contents:
  Re: (Signalbox Brewery)
  Digital Thermometers (Fred L Johnson)
  Re: traveling, adding DME, and mash run-off (Dylan tack)
  Re: Travelling with HB (Andrew Walsh)
  Re: Mash Run-off Issue ("Craig S. Cottingham")
  Hops Offshoots ("Dana Edgell")
  2006 BUZZ Off Results! ("Christopher Clair")


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Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 05:59:16 +0100
From: Signalbox Brewery <signalbox.brewery at ntlworld.com>
Subject: Re:

David, brewing somewhere where grain is measured in lbs
has a problem with mashing and wonders if it might be weight.

Sort answer no; there's a longish tract on mashing systems
on the UK Craft Brewing Association's website

www.craftbrewing.org.uk

under:

Our journal free downloads
	The draff

David Edge, Derby, UK



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Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 09:09:30 -0400
From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Digital Thermometers

Keith asks about a source for a reliable digital thermometer.

As I've posted before, I have had good success for many years with NIST 
traceable thermometers from Control Co., www.control3.com

The web site shows many styles, a large range of prices, and many 
dealors of their thermometers. I've always used the low-cost ones and 
have been very satisfied.

  I often use my thermometer in a rather abusive way (stirring my 
hydrometer with it, moving it around in the mash, etc.), which on 
occasion has gotten the electronic end wet. If you do, you'll soon 
notice whacky behavior. On several occasions, I've had to take it 
apart, dry it out--wipe it out if it has wort in it--and reassembling. 
Many folks tremble at the thought of this, but if you carefully study 
how it is put together as you take it apart, you can have it working 
again in minutes.

I have two. My first one has lasted at least 8 years and is still 
operating even though I've cracked the plastic housing to the point 
that I have to hold it together with electrical tape.

Fred L Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA



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Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 09:22:42 -0500
From: Dylan tack <dylan at io.com>
Subject: Re: traveling, adding DME, and mash run-off

> From: "Keith Christian" <kchristian at surfside.net>
> Subject: Traveling with HB
> I am flying to SF this week and I'd like to take some of my beer with
> me.  Will I have problems bringing it with me in my carry on baggage?

I  have carried HB on domestic flights several times, most recently  
in March.  I don't have a problem, either with baggage screeners or  
beer flavor.  Once the bottles were swabbed, and run through a gas  
chromatograph, but the screeners didn't object.  I always have them  
in carry-on, because I worry about breaking, freezing, and  
depressurizing in checked luggage.



> From: Aubrey Turner <arturner at mindspring.com>
> Subject: "late" adjustment of specific gravity
>
> stir in about 2.5 lbs of DME, bring to a boil for 15
> minutes, cover the pot, cool, then add back into the main
>  volume.
 ....
> Anything I'm overlooking here?

Your plan should work fine.  I've done this a few times when I  
encounter unexpectedly low starting gravity.



> From: gates at island.net
> Subject: Mash Run-off Issue
>
> I have searched the digest for stuck mash and most (did not read  
> all) posts
> suggested slowing run-off.  I am using a rubbermaid (Gott style)  
> cooler with a
> false bottom and was wondering if the weight of the grain bed has  
> anything to
> do with my troubles?

Some ideas:

- -- use a false bottom with smaller holes.  1/16" holes on 1/8"  
centers is often stated as the optimum dimensions.  A lot of homebrew  
gear has larger holes.

- -- stir less (I used to have this problem).

- -- run-off slowly, especially at first.  Try to stay below 1 pint /  
minute for the first half of the run-off / sparge.

- -- add some rice hulls to the mash

- -- reduce proportion of adjuncts, if you are using them

- -- experiment with mash thickness (not sure what affect this will  
have, perhaps someone else can comment)

- -- learn to deal with it, stuck mashes still happen to me  
occasionally after brewing for five years.  I underlet the mash by  
reversing the flow on my pump.  I used to just blow air into it (be  
careful not to burn yourself!).

 -Dylan





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Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 09:46:05 +1000 (EST)
From: Andrew Walsh <awalsh at phys.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Travelling with HB




> 
> I flew from Newark to SF a few years ago with a few bottles of homebrew in
> my backpack and had no problems.  The bottles weren't labeled either.

[...]

> 
> Keith in Red Bank, NJ
> 

I once asked a friend to take some homebrew from Boston to Germany. 
Apparently it was confiscated at Boston because there was no "proper" 
label on the bottles - only pieces of paper stuck on with rubber bands.
The airport guys said there was no guarantee of the contents from that 
(lack of) labelling.

Just goes to show it all depends on the whim of the security.

Other experience with travelling with homebrew suggests you should keep it 
in your carry on luggage. Sometimes it works in checked through, sometimes 
not.

On the specific case of bringing alcoholic drinks into Australia, I have 
had a bit of experience too. Nominally you're only allowed to bring in 
2.25 litres of any alcoholic drinks. Each time I have declared being over 
the limit and been waved through on 2 out of 3 occasions. The third time I 
had to pay because I had about 12 litres of beer with me. The other two 
occasions I got through with no penalty and had 16 litres of beer one 
time, and 15 litres of barleywine plus 20 litres of mead the other.

See aforementioned comment about whimsical authorities.


Later. Andrew xxx



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Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 19:09:20 -0500
From: "Craig S. Cottingham" <craig.cottingham at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Mash Run-off Issue

On Jun 2, 2006, at 13:21, gates at island.net wrote:

> I am fairly new to all grain brewing.  I have brewed a pale ale  
> twice in order
> to refine my brewing process.  The first two batches I missed my  
> mark for
> original gravity and, subsequently, increased my grain bill.  The  
> last batch I
> brewed had a total of 12 lbs of grain and I had considerable  
> trouble lautering.
>  The liquid flowed for a few seconds and then completely stopped.
>
> I have searched the digest for stuck mash and most (did not read  
> all) posts
> suggested slowing run-off.  I am using a rubbermaid (Gott style)  
> cooler with a
> false bottom and was wondering if the weight of the grain bed has  
> anything to
> do with my troubles?

I had similar problems when I first started brewing all-grain. My  
setup was a similar cylindrical cooler (I forget which brand), a  
Phil's Phalse Bottom resting on the bottom of the cooler, a nylon  
elbow screwed into the center of the false bottom on the top side,  
and a short length of vinyl tubing leading from the elbow to a  
bulkhead fitting where the cooler's spigot used to be. With this  
arrangement, there was nothing under the false bottom but a little  
bit of dead space.

I started experiencing slow lauters almost immediately. My first  
suspicion was that the vinyl tubing, softening at mash temperatures,  
was collapsing, cutting off the flow of wort. I replaced it and the  
nylon elbow with brass and copper and had brief success before slow  
lauters set in again.

At that point I think I had assumed that I was seeing a compacted  
grain bed, because I started slowly stirring the mash with my long  
spoon while lautering. I accidentally hooked the copper tubing,  
lifting the false bottom just a bit, and the wort runoff increased  
dramatically.

A couple of homebrews later, I'd figured out the problem. Phil's  
Phalse Bottom is made of rigid plastic, but it's not perfectly rigid.  
Warm it up to mash temperatures, and put 12+ lbs of grain on top of  
it, and it will deform slightly. The brass elbow threaded through the  
center of the false bottom protruded through about 1/8" or so, and  
the false bottom was deforming enough that the elbow was bottoming  
out in the cooler -- effectively sealing it off. I fixed it by  
getting a few small stainless steel bolts, nuts, and lock washers and  
building little legs for the false bottom that transfer the weight of  
the grain bed directly to the bottom of the cooler. No more false  
bottom deformation, and no more stuck mashes.

I don't know how much of this applies to your mash tun, but hopefully  
there's something in it useful to you, at least as a source of  
amusement. :-)

> If the weight is the problem, how can I increase the OG without a  
> large grain
> bill?

Liquid or dried malt extract.

- --
Craig S. Cottingham
craig at cottingham.net
OpenPGP key available from:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x7977F79C




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Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:05:25 -0400
From: "Dana Edgell" <dedg at lle.rochester.edu>
Subject: Hops Offshoots


HBD,

I have a question about hop growing. My hops are growing 
like mad this year (2nd year) and are already up on my 2nd 
story deck.  From my readings I have limited each plant to 
2 or 3 strong shoots growing from the ground. However, I 
now have several small off-shoots growing from the 
half-way up to the top of vines. Should I trim these upper 
off-shoots or are they okay? I don't recall these from 
previous hop growing but I have never had such fast early 
growth before.

I tried to search the HTML archives but got zero hits even 
for only searching for the single word "hops". Is the 
search working ? is there a problem with using firefox?

Thanks,

Dana Edgell
Fairport, NY, USA


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Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:50:59 -0400
From: "Christopher Clair" <buzzclub at verizon.net>
Subject: 2006 BUZZ Off Results!

It is with great pleasure that I can announce the results of the 13th Annual
BUZZ Off homebrew competition!  The BUZZ Off was held on June 3rd at Iron
Hill Brewery & Restaurant in West Chester, PA.  We had 284 entries from
around the country competing in 24 judging categories.  Congratulations to
Patrick Payne for his Best of Show winning Munich Helles!  For complete
results, please visit our website http://hbd.org/buzz.  Please allow me a
few days to compile MCAB qualifiers.  Score sheets, ribbons and prizes
should go out within the next week and a half.

I also want to thank all the judges and stewards for giving their time on
Sat. and our generous prize sponsors.  Without these people, the BUZZ Off
would not be possible.

Finally, I want to give a special thank you to Chris LaPierre and the entire
staff at Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant for hosting us (both the BUZZ Off
and our monthly meetings).  Their generosity towards home brewers is
unmatched and greatly appreciated.

Christopher Clair,
2006 BUZZ Organizer
buzzclub at verizon.net
http://hbd.org/buzz




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