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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Young's Bottle Culture (Randy Ricchi)
  RE: To HERMS or not to HERMS... (Bill Tobler)
  On stupidity ("Brian Lundeen")


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Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 06:52:23 -0500
From: Randy Ricchi <rricchi at houghton.k12.mi.us>
Subject: Young's Bottle Culture

Matt asked:
 >Anyone ever had success culturing from Young's Special London Ale (or
 >any other Young's product)?  Anyone know if the primary strain is used
 >for bottle conditioning?

I tried once, with no luck. The bottle was pretty fresh, too, so I was 
wondering if they pasteurized it after bottle conditioning. Who knows?
Anyway, I decided to use Wyeast 1318 London ale III, which is reputedly the 
Young's yeast.

Years ago,  I used to get Youngs yeast from the Yeast Culture Kit Co. of 
Ann Arbor when it was still operating, and I have to say, the Wyeast 1318 
sure seems to taste the same as Young's, although it's hard to tell for 
sure going by memory. 




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Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:28:50 -0600
From: Bill Tobler <brewbetter1 at houston.rr.com>
Subject: RE: To HERMS or not to HERMS...

Hey Mike, Happy New Year.  I have a all electric HERMS in my  
brewery.  Attached is a PDF file with drawings, pictures and arrows  
of my system.  If the pdf file doesn't work for you, I have a MS Word  
file of the same.   I'm glad you asked before leaping in, as there  
may be more to it than you think.  A pump and HERMS coil are the very  
bare bones.  But how do you heat the HLT liquor?  You have to control  
the temperature in the HLT also. If you are using gas, this would  
mean paying close attention to the HLT temp and warming up as  
needed.  Then, to control the temp of the mash, you will need to  
control the flow of the wort through the HERMS coil and into the  
mash.  When the mash temperature gets up to setpoint, you will have  
to either shut off the pump or bypass the HERMS Coil.  This can be  
done using temperature controllers or by you, manually.  Is the HERMS  
coil going to be welded into the tank? Or maybe just stick out the  
top like an immersion chiller?

False  bottoms work good.  I have both a false bottom and a Bazooka  
Screen in the bottom of my mash tun, which is a 10 gallon Polarware  
Pot.    You don't need both, mine just turned out that way.  (I also  
have a 15 gallon Polarware Pot for larger batches)  You may not even  
need a false bottom if your copper manifold works pretty good.  You  
will have to circulate or move the water in the HLT around for good  
temperature transfer between the coil and liquid.  I have a pump that  
I circulate the HLT with, but some kind of fan or stir motor would  
work just as good.

I think that if you had to stand in front of your system and do all  
this manually, with no temperature controllers, thermocouples and the  
like, it may be more work that what you are doing now, without a  
significant improvement in you beer.  You said "Honestly, I never do  
temp steps, not
even a mashout, and the beer I make, I feel, is damn good."    Well,  
that says a lot.  A  HERMS is not going to make your beer better,  
IMO.  For me, it's just more fun with all the equipment and stuff to  
play with.  Heck, I got 3 temperature controllers, a 3-way valve and  
3 mag drive pumps to play with.  In real life, I run a chemical plant  
for Dow and this is just second nature for me.

For me, I would not have a HERMS unless I could automate it  
completely.  That being said, you could run a HERMS in manual, if you  
had a good reason, like doing step mashes or a mashout.  It doesn't  
sound like you have a good reason to spend the money, unless you just  
"Want to".  (Which is a good enough reason for me!)  Maybe if you  
insulate your mash tun really well, you could stabilize the mash temp  
a little better.  I insulate mine just so the 3-way valve doesn't  
cycle so much.  Wetsuit material would work very good, and it could  
have velcro closures for easy on/off and cleaning. I'm looking for a  
wetsuit dealer now to make me one.  As always, feel free to ask for  
more pictures or ideas if you need to.

Bill Tobler
Lake Jackson, TX
(1129.2, 219.9) Apparent Rennerian
Brewing Great Beer in South Texas



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Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:35:13 -0600
From: "Brian Lundeen" <blundeen at mts.net>
Subject: On stupidity

> Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 09:18:13 -0500
> From: "David Lewinnek" <davelew at gmail.com>
> Subject: peltier chips and fermentation temps
> 
> 
> Within the strange breed known as "homebrewers", there is an 
> even stranger subgroup of individuals who insist on using 
> peltier chips with their beer, despite recommendations to the 
> contrary.  Using peltier chips to cool beer is a horrible 
> idea.  Really, a converted fridge is a much better tool for 
> the job.  I know of only three people who combined the 
> stupidity of selecting a peltier chip with the stubborn 
> pigheadedness and technical skill to make the setup work.  I 
> am one of those three, and you can see my setup here:
> 

David, there is surely a place for you in the Homebrewer Hall of Fame in Ann
Arbor Michigan. Anyone can make a good idea work. To take a really bad idea
and create a setup that almost works makes you a world class bodger in my
books. However, I don't think you will make the Hallowed Hall of Stupid
(which if course is right beside the Hallowed Hall of Clever because there
is such a fine line between them).

As stupid as a Peltier cooler is, it can't hold a candle to conducting a
boil by tossing hot rocks into a wooden barrel in the misguided belief that
the old ways are always worth revisiting. Perhaps that beer could be served
up in some lead cups, with a mercury chaser. 

Well, that should stir the mash a bit. ;-)

Cheers
Bwian (Brian's evil twin)



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