---

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


***************************************************************
       THIS YEAR'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY: 

          Northern  Brewer, Ltd. Home Brew Supplies
Visit http://www.northernbrewer.com  to show your appreciation!
               Or call them at 1-800-681-2739

    Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********


Contents:
  Re: plastic carboys (Alan Semok)
  Home Brewing in The Netherlands? (Bob Tower)
  Use of Sparkolloid and bottle conditioning (Fred L Johnson)
  RE: Metabisufite ("David Houseman")
  Metabite in the Mash ("A.J deLange")
  Plastic fermentors ("Dave Draper")
  Mash Mixing ("Jay Spies")


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*           The HBD Logo Store is now open!             *
*            http://www.hbd.org/store.html              *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*  Suppport this service: http://hbd.org/donate.shtml   *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*   Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!   *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org

If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!!

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word
  "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL
  ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!**
IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to
  the digest as we cannot reach you. We will not correct your address
  for the automation - that's your job.

HAVING TROUBLE posting, subscribing or unsusubscribing? See the HBD FAQ at
http://hbd.org.

LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL USED EQUIPMENT? Please do not post about it here. Go
instead to http://homebrewfleamarket.com and post a free ad there.

The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright 
  HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK 
  before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content 
  cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit.

More information is available by sending the word "info" to 
req@hbd.org or read the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org.

JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
                  and Spencer Thomas



----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 01:20:13 -0500
From: Alan Semok <asemok at mac.com>
Subject: Re: plastic carboys


On Nov 27, 2006, at 12:13 AM, Andrew Kligerman <homebre973 at  
yahoo.com>wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone
> has any problems with using the plastic clear
> carboys for secondary fermentation, as they are
> cheap and prevalent in water coolers now?  Do
> these sterilize well with diluted bleach well?
> Thanks,
> Andy from Hillsborough

No problems whatsoever...I have used both plastic and glass carboys  
for years and can safely say that there are no issues re sanitizing  
with bleach.
The plastic ones are indeed  a LOT lighter in handling.  Have ever  
secondaried in them for as long as 2 months with no issues whatsoever.

cheers,
AL


Return to table of contents


Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2006 22:39:36 -0800
From: Bob Tower <bob at constructotower.com>
Subject: Home Brewing in The Netherlands?

I have the opportunity to live and brew beer in The Netherlands (in  
Hoorn, which is about a 30 minute rail ride north of Amsterdam) for 4  
months next year in order to supply non-Heineken beer for several art  
exhibitions being put on by the University of Utrecht. Evidently, the  
Dutch REALLY like beer so I'm going to have to work hard! I was  
wondering if any of you know of any Dutch home brewers groups or  
organizations. Also, I will need a source for supplies (both  
ingredients and equipment). My Dutch contact says that she has heard  
of Dutch home brewing groups and will try to locate them for me, but  
I was just wondering if one of you out there already has some  
knowledge in this area. Any help, tips or ideas would be of great  
assistance to me. Thanks in advance!

Bob Tower / Los Angeles, CA


Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:17:26 -0500
From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Use of Sparkolloid and bottle conditioning

I have grown tired of having cloudy beers. I recently had another muddy 
beer after two weeks in the secondary with a respectable final gravity 
and with no activity.  I decided to use some gelatin and Sparkolloid to 
clear this batch.   Within only several hours of adding the fining 
agents, the beer had become crystal clear. (I hadn't seen such a 
beautiful sight in my brewery in years!) I bottled this beer a couple 
of days later, but I feared that it would take several weeks to 
carbonate, if at all, so I added 250 microliters of the lees from the 
secondary to each bottle. It has only been a few days since bottling 
and the bottles haven't fully carbonated yet (no surprise), but the 
lees have settled to the bottom in a VERY loose pellet above a very 
clear beer. I essentially now have two cases of amber snow globes!

I'm sure the beer will carbonate, but I have little hope of being able 
to decant off of this loose pellet without leaving behind more beer 
than I'd prefer to waste. I'm guessing that this is the way Sparkolloid 
is always going to behave and that I should have used unfined beer or a 
fresh yeast to carbonate the bottles. Any advice you'd like to offer?

I'm considering taking the next step to filtering my beers. Can I 
bottle condition a filtered beer by simply reserving some of the batch 
before fining and filtering it and then mixing in the unfined, 
unfiltered beer at bottling time?

Fred L Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA



Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:45:08 -0500
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman at verizon.net>
Subject: RE: Metabisufite

Fred,

While someone may come up with a measurement of oxidation, probably the best
is your senses.  And there is a way to objectively measure this.  The
triangle test is what I'd suggest.   Make one batch of beer but oxidize 1/2
of it.  At bottling this is much easier.  Since you are looking for effects
in the mash you may just have to make two batches trying to control all
other variables.   That's going to be the most difficult part, IMHO.   Once
you have your two beers (one with metabisulfite and one without) have these
tasted blind.  The triangle test involves tasting three beers (items), two
are identical and one is different.  The objective is to pick out the one
that is different.  This can be repeated several times, in different
combinations, to eliminate chance.  While the test is not numerical, it is
objective.  Can you sense the difference between a beer treated with
metabisulfite and one that hasn't been, when all the other variables are
kept the same.

Good luck,

David Houseman



Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 12:59:02 +0000
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Metabite in the Mash

One could, and apparently brewers formerly did (see DeClerck), measure 
the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) of their worts and beers. This 
is a relatively simple measurement in which an ORP electrode (a 
relatively simple affair with a platinum band and a reference junction) 
is calibrated against quinhydrone at a couple of pH's. The electrode 
produces a voltage which is proportional to the redox potential of the 
beer and the pH after the reference voltage is accounted for. The 
typical pH meter has a millivolts scale which can be used to make the 
measurements. The catch is that the sample must be protected from air 
and that pH and ORP electodes must be simultaneously immersed. If you 
try to do this in an open beaker the ORP just soars as oxygen is 
dissolved from the air and that in itself, I suppose, tells us something 
about the efficacy of adding reducing agents to the mash in view of the 
fact that we are going to pump oxygen into the wort to at least 100% 
saturation and probably more. So what one would probably want to do is 
measure finished beer as it is possible to draw it from fermenter or keg 
into a air-purged measurement chamber. The investigator would be looking 
for lower ORP in beers brewed with metabite as opposed to those which 
were not.

A.J.


Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 06:21:50 -0700
From: "Dave Draper" <david at draper.name>
Subject: Plastic fermentors

Dear Friends,

Andy from Hillsborough asks in #5099 about using plastic fermentors 
after having broken a glass carboy.  This is exactly why I never use 
glass, combined with all the hard surfaces in my brewing environment, 
just not worth the risk to me when the results are every bit as good 
when using the *proper* kind of plastic (PET).  I've ridden that 
hobby horse here for years and won't repeat it now.

However, ordinary water-cooler plastic is NOT the correct kind, it's 
way too permeable to oxygen, will probably impart plastic-like off 
flavors, and is difficult to sanitize.  Recently, a firm called 
BetterBottle has come out with what look just like plastic water-
cooler carboys, but which are in fact made specifically for 
homebrewing out of high density PET.  They come in 3, 5, and 6-gallon 
sizes and have an option to be fitted with a nifty spigot down at the 
bottom that has an ingenious method for drawing the beer off right 
down to just above the sediment.  No more siphoning, everything is 
gravity driven.  I have two of the 6-gal models and I absolutely love 
them, they're totally unbreakable, very easy indeed to clean and 
sanitize, and are the best of both worlds IMO.

Check out their site at http://www.better-bottle.com/ for the 
details, and they can be ordered from such online vendors as Midwest 
and Beer, Beer, and More Beer.  Usual disclaimer, just a satisfied 
customer, etc etc.

Cheers, Dave in ABQ
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
David S. Draper, Institute of Meteoritics, Univ New Mexico
David at Draper dot Name
Beer page: http://www.unm.edu/~draper/beer.html
 ...yeast contain the mechanism of their own destruction.
    ---Charlie Scandrett






Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:32:59 -0500
From: "Jay Spies" <jayspies at citywidehomeloans.com>
Subject: Mash Mixing

All -

Been a while since I've posted here....probably a few years, but Doug
Moyer's post intriugued me...

Doug says he's concerned about mash bed compaction crushing his twin bazooka
screen setup.  Man, Doug, you must be running that pump full throttle or
have a ten foot high mash tun to deform two bazooka screens.  I have exactly
that setup in my MT - 2 bazooka screens connected to a T so that the whole
thing looks kinda like an "H".  I recirc the whole mash (I have an
all-electric CFC heat exchanged 10 gallon single-tier HERMS system running
dual pumps) and I have yet to even have a slow runoff.  What I do is flood
all the lines with water the night before, and then when I recirc I throttle
the flow on the MT pump back to what would normally just come out of the
spigot naturally.  I have never run the pump wide open for more than a few
seconds, and then only to clear air bubbles.  My mash has never compacted.

Bazooka screens are tough little buggers, so if you're deforming them it
sounds like you're running waaay too much flow.  As an aside, I see a grant
as a useless introduction of air (at least in my system).  Just throttle the
flow back and see if that helps.

Cheers,

Jay Spies
Head Mashtun Scraper
Asinine Aleworks
York, PA



Return to table of contents

---