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


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Contents:
  beer and Beer's Law ("Peter A. Ensminger")
  RE: yeast starter step sizes and gravity (Philip Denlinger)
  Fermenting on trub: hot and cold break ("Mike Racette")
  Pocono home brew competition (hazan)


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Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:32:46 -0400
From: "Peter A. Ensminger" <ensmingr at twcny.rr.com>
Subject: beer and Beer's Law

Many thanks to Fred Johnson (for the discussion) and AJ (for the data) 
which shows that beer *does* obey Beer's Law.

AJ was careful to make measurements within the linear range of his 
spectrophotometer by using cuvettes with different path lengths. Others 
have claimed that beer *does not* obey Beer's law. Undoubtedly, this 
claim was based on spectrophotometer measurements taken outside the 
linear range (OD >> 1.0) of the instrument.

Related link: http://brewingtechniques.com/brewingtechniques/beerslaw/ .

Cheers!
Peter A. Ensminger
Syracuse, NY
Apparent Rennerian: [394, 79.9]



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Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 15:50:02 -0400
From: Philip Denlinger <philipl at mindbet.com>
Subject: RE: yeast starter step sizes and gravity

I have been thinking about the post below for several months,
and have a question.

 ..........................................

At 11:16 PM -0500 3/2/06, Dr. Alan Meeker wrote:

>The common advice to expand starter volume in stages, with
>each step being no more than about a 10-fold dilution stems
>more from worries about allowing bacterial contamination to
>multiply to levels that will have detrimental effects in the final
>fermentation. The idea here is that bacteria can multiply much
>faster than yeast (bacterial generation times can be as fast as
>15-20 minutes, while yeast take a couple of hours to multiply),
>Thus, if allowed to grow unchecked, a bacterial contamination
>could grow to high enough density in the starter to produce
>negative flavor effects in the finished beer. The key here is the
>bit about bacteria growing /unchecked/. What hapens is that
>if you have significant yeast growth they will quickly make the
>environment inhospitable for the growth of most bacteria.
>They accomplish this in a number of ways including
>acidification, nutrient/oxygen depletion, and ethanol production.

Full post
<http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/4965.html#4965-5>



Given the last sentence from the excerpt, why don't we acidify
starters to a pH of 4 or so?


Philip Denlinger
[507.6, 95.7] Apparent Rennerian


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Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:34:23 -0600
From: "Mike Racette" <mike.racette at hydro-gardens.com>
Subject: Fermenting on trub: hot and cold break


Steve A. posted the following the other day in response to the staling
thread and I wanted to discuss this more:

"The break & trub contain oils that can be readily oxidized and can produce
bad flavor by-products.  The trub is nice for yeast growth, but you
want to separate it out early (secondary fermenter) - while the yeast are
still active."

I've never noticed a difference if I rack off of cold break when yeast are
still active or not, but have always used an immersion chiller and left most
cold break behind. Now that I have finally converted an old keg that I've
had sitting around for years to a boil kettle and bought a plate chiller I
will be sending all cold break to fermenter as many people do.

I have always heard that hot break is something you definitely don't want
beneath your beer and so have never experimented with it. However, there has
been quite a bit of discussion elsewhere from experienced brewers that
ferment in boil kettle leaving fermenting beer on top of both hot and cold
break (not sure how long until secondary) with no reported ill effects. Just
wanting to hear the opinions (both scientific references and experiential
results) on this subject, esp. exactly what are the "bad flavor by-products"
of both cold and hot break?

Mike






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Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:44:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: hazan at ptd.net
Subject: Pocono home brew competition

 

This is the first announcement for the homebrew competition to be held on 
Saturday, November 18th, at the Split Rock Resort in Pennsylvania's Pocono 
Mountains, which is held in conjunction with their annual Micro Brew 
Festival. 

This is a sanctioned competition judging all beer, mead and cider styles.  
Entries should be shipped to the Resort at Split Rock, One Lake Drive, Lake 
Harmony, PA 18624, Attention: Shelly Kalins Lutz, for receipt from November 6 
to November 17.

Entry fees of $5 per entry, will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  
By simply entering, you will be helping this charitable organization help 
others.  Checks should be made out to The Resort At Split Rock.  

Two (2) brown or green bottles with no markings are required. Please use 
rubber bands to attach bottle labels.  No tape please.  Any standard entry 
forms identifying the brewer and the appropriate entry category/subcategory 
are acceptable.  The 2004 BJCP Style Guidelines will be used for this 
competition.  Get this from the BJCP web site at www.bjcp.org.

Judges are needed and they should contact me to secure a position.
Judges and Stewards can hand carry their entries if they pre-register with 
payment.  All judges and stewards are required to be present by 8:30 so we 
can get started promptly at 9am.  Judges will receive an entry to the beer 
festival or entry to the beer dinner for their efforts and need to indicate 
which they wish when they commit to participate.  

The BOS winner will receive a complementary weekend for two at next year's 
Split Rock Beer Fest as well.  

More information will be available at the Split Rock web site: 
http://www.splitrockresort.com/beerfest/.   Or contact them at: spevents at 
splitrockresort.com.

Al Hazan
Competition Organizer
hazan at ptd.net




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