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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Re: Carboy on magnetic stirrer ("Craig S. Cottingham")
  T1 Upgrade Update ("Pat Babcock")
  Customer Service Kudo ("Richard Scotty")
  Sulfate contribution of sodium metabisulfate (AVO Analyst)" <scott@giseis.alaska.edu>
  Re: Carboy on magnetic stirrer (John Schnupp)


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Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:23:12 -0500
From: "Craig S. Cottingham" <craig.cottingham at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Carboy on magnetic stirrer

On Mar 28, 2007, at 10:09, "Doug Moyer" <shyzaboy at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Craig sez:
> - ----------------------------------------------
> You should see an eddy in the center of the liquid, like the kind  
> you see
> when water is going down a drain. How deep/pronounced it is is a
> function of (among other things) how fast the stir bar is spinning  
> (faster
> == deeper).
>
> Of course, if the beer is light enough and clear enough, you should  
> just be
> able to see it. :-)
> - ---------------------------------------------
>
> You'd see a whirlpool even with a full five gallon carboy? It must  
> not be
> working, then. Sigh.

It's all in your definition of "working". You'll see the whirlpool if  
you're getting good, vigorous stirring out of your bar and plate.

> (FYI, I have a stir bar like this one:
> http://www.cynmar.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=15023293)

Eep. 1 5/8" long, in the bottom of a 5 gallon carboy? I don't have  
any equipment or measurements handy, but I'm thinking that 5 gallons  
of beer in a carboy is very roughly 1 foot in diameter by 1 foot  
high. [1] That seems like a wide vessel and a large volume of liquid  
for that leetle bar to be stirring.

Between that, the woes you describe with getting the bar centered on  
the plate (not so much a problem when it's a 2000 ml Erlenmeyer), and  
the fact that you're just trying to degas your beer rather than  
aerate it, maybe something like one of these would work better:

<http://www.beer-wine.com/product_info.asp?productID=1040&sectionID=2>
<http://www.thehomebrewstore.com/HTMLCatalog/mix-stir-aerator.htm>

If you're in a hurry and have a short length of thin-wall copper  
tubing lying around, I suspect you could make your own whip degasser  
by giving it a slight bend, chucking it in a drill, and pulling the  
trigger. [2]

[1] Yes, I know. That's why I said "very roughly". My degree is in  
engineering, not math. :-)
[2] This suggestion is provided "AS-IS" and does not guarantee that  
you won't scratch your carboy or do something else equally or more  
catastrophic.

- --
Craig S. Cottingham
BJCP Certified judge from Olathe, KS ([621, 251.1deg] Apparent  
Rennerian)
craig.cottingham at gmail.com




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Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 09:48:50 -0500 (EST)
From: "Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: T1 Upgrade Update

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager, but do so s-l-o-w-l-y...

Well, folks, as a result of my plea for sponsors/donations in order to 
bump the HBD up to T1 connectivcity, the HBD has received a whopping $75 
and has had no response from last year's sponsor.

With the economy and job market as they are, my wife needing a 
replacement car, kids liking to eat, etc., I cannot justify the added 
expense - even if I drop our home internet service and move the family onto 
the T1, I cannot move between what we pay for connectivity today to the cost 
of the T1 without taking monies from my family.

So, since the current offer is up 31 March, the T1 project is scrapped until 
and unless they make the offer again AND we've captured a sponsor. I guess 
we're fast enough, for the time being.

And thanks to those who stepped up and pitched in. Your donations will still 
be put to good use keeping the HBD online.

See ya!
Pat Babcock
Chief of Janitorial Services
HBD.ORG


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Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:40:11 -0600
From: "Richard Scotty" <rscotty2 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Customer Service Kudo

I wanted to pass along a great customer service story about Williams Brewing 
(No affiliation, yadda, yadda).

Its wine related, but Williams sells brewing supplies and equipment, so I 
thought I'd pass the experience along.  I purchased one of their wine kits 
in January of '06 and never got around to making it because of other wine in 
progress, full fermenters, sun spots - a million reasons.

I finally got round to bottling a merlot and cleaned my fermenter and 
proceeded to start the wine kit.  I bought a Cabernet kit and the box was 
marked as a Cabernet, but when I opened the juice, it was obviously a white 
wine kit that had been mis-marked.

I wrote Williams' customer service and explained the situation and even 
though I'd had the kit for 15 months, they sent out a new Cabernet kit.  
That's what I call good customer service!

Now I just have to figure out:
1.  What kind of white wine I currently have under way.
2.  How to get rid of it since I'm not a white wine drinker :-)  I suppose I 
can find a neighbor or two to take it off my hands when the time comes.

Kudos again to Williams!

Rich Scotty
Head Sommelier and bottle washer
The Crapshoot Winery




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Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:08:31 -0800 (AKDT)
From: "Scott Stihler (AVO Analyst)" <scott at giseis.alaska.edu>
Subject: Sulfate contribution of sodium metabisulfate

I'm on a chloramine kick now but hopefully I will have my questions answered 
and then I can move on.

First I'd like to thank the folks that answered my last question.

I recently came across a posting from 1998 by A.J. deLange which notes:

"Each  tablet weighs about  695 mg of which about 45% is potassium and about
55% of which is sulfur dioxide so you can estimate the amounts of those which
will go into the water from the dose you use. The potassium stays through to 
the beer. Each mg/L of free chlorine will convert  0.85 mg of sulfur dioxide 
to 1.3 mg/L sulfate and each mg/L chloramine will convert 1.7 mg of SO2 to 
2.7 mg/L sulfate."

"...If all the SO2 in a Campden tablet is converted to sulfate 683 mg of 
sulfate are added."

1998 was a quite a while ago. Have these values been revised or is there any
reason to believe that they are no longer valid?

I assume that if the tablets are a different size that percentages should be
more of less the same. Correct?

I've seen Campden tablets composed of potassium as well as sodium 
metabisulfite.

Have similar values been determined for sodium metabisulfite?  If so, what 
are they? 


One final chloramine question and then hopefully we can move on in this 
regard.

In "An Analysis of Brewing Techniques" it was noted that deionization
largely leaves the chloramine levels unchanged.

Is this correct?

Or is this similar to RO filtration in that there is an inline activated 
carbon filter that removes the chlorine/chloramines first?

Thank you for all the water chemistry help!

Cheers, 

Scott Stihler
Fairbanks, Alaska
[2874, 324.9] Apparent Rennerian
http://www.mosquitobytes.com/Den/Beer/Beer.html



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Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:58:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Schnupp <john.schnupp at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Carboy on magnetic stirrer

>You'd see a whirlpool even with a full five gallon carboy? It must not be 
>working, then. Sigh. (FYI, I have a stir bar like this one: 
>http://www.cynmar.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=15023293)
<snip>
>I may transfer it again to a six gallon carboy if the bottom of that size is 
>flatter (the five is raised slightly in the middle).

I think you'll find that all the carboys have a decent curve in the bottom. 
Also, the glass is thicker on the bottom than on the sides.  Even if you bottom
was mostly flat you might have a problem coupling the stir bar.  You may need
to find a way to somehow move the motor/magnet closer to the bottom of the
carboy.  If you have a commercial stirrer it may require some disassembly.  

Back when I was activly brewing, I was using a 4L wine jug to grow starters and
it had a slight curve in the bottom that a flat stirrer could not couple to
stir bar very well.  I made my own stirrer and built in some adjustability
(vertical movement of the motor/magnet specifically to address the curved
bottoms on many carboys and other glass jugs.



John Schnupp, N3CNL
Georgia, VT
'95 XLH 1200 64,000


 


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