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


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Contents:
  "BeerFest" ("peter ensminger")
  Re: A&E "American Brew" TV special ("Dan Jeska")
  root beer aroma ! (-s)
  food grade epoxy recommendations for DIY mash-tun ("Tim McMahon")


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Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 14:48:57 -0400
From: "peter ensminger" <ensmingr at gmail.com>
Subject: "BeerFest"

Greetings!

SWMBO is out of town ... so I picked up a DVD of "BeerFest". See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beerfest

So, What's your favorite beer movie? I have always liked "The Lost
Weekend" with Ray Milland (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Weekend ), although it is not
especially about beer.

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


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Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 09:57:59 -0400
From: "Dan Jeska" <dan.jeska at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: A&E "American Brew" TV special

Scott missed the airing of the A&E broadcast of "American Brew" last
week. Me too, Scott. I checked the website www.herestobeer.com, the
DVD is available for under six bucks! I am going to place an order
today.

Dan near Kalamazoo


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Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 15:11:46 -0400
From: -s <-s at adelphia.net>
Subject: root beer aroma !

Aaron mentions root beer aroma in a used keg he purchased.
         x         x         x         x         x         x         
x         x
Many years ago I too bought a used keg that had been reasonably cleaned but
still had a strong residual root beer aroma.   I tried several things at the
time including repeated soaks in caustics, but the aroma was always 
present -
and yes it will taint beer.  My hunch is that the root-beer flavor component
isn't very polar - so far more soluble in ethanol than water.   The only
solution was to replace *all* the rubber components.   Also the metal
components required a good caustic cleaning at the RB flavor seems to stick
to everything.  As a related item - I used to get really inexpensive used
food grade plastic buckets that were leftovers from the artificial food
flavoring business.  I quickly determined that flavors like vanilla,
custard-creme and even citrus fruit flavors can be removed from the plastic
with a good caustic soak (oxi-clean or whatever).   OTOH raspberry's raspy
edge and that persistent and heavy root-beer flavor cannot be removed in
this way.

If want want to experiment you could soak the offending parts in vodka, but
new rubbers might be a cheaper & surer method.

I know a lot of HBers also make root-beer.  What do they do to avoid flavor
contamination ?

 -S



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Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:41:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Tim McMahon" <tpunk at riseup.net>
Subject: food grade epoxy recommendations for DIY mash-tun

Hi all,
I'm building my first mash-tun from a rubbermaid cooler and trying to
source the final few materials I need- most notably, a suitable
epoxy/adhesive/anything to permanently set the stainless steel nipple I'm
putting in the cooler wall.  This will also ideally accomplish a
watertight seal (but having to use two materials isn't a problem, as long
as they aren't super expensive).  I'm using 1/2" CPVC for the manifold,
connecting it to a stainless steel nipple in the wall of the cooler, which
will be connected to a 1/2" stainless steel ball valve, a SS elbow and a
CPVC hose barb to my tubing.  Initially, I bought plumber's epoxy because
it was suggested in some plans I saw for converting a cooler over to a
mash-tun (and it supposedly hardens to the strength of steel once it's
cured).  I started having second thoughts because the plumber's epoxy
isn't labelled 'food grade' and now I'm thinking I should use something
else.  However, the plumber's epoxy I have is labelled ANSI/NSF 61, which
"ensures that components used to deliver drinking water are safe, and
don't contribute contaminants that might cause adverse human health
effects by setting minimum requirements through testing and evaluating
products/materials. These contaminants include those regulated by the
USEPA and Health Canada."  Now, that sounds pretty good to me, but since
it doesn't say 'food grade' I'm still a bit nervous.

>From the archives and some other message boards, I've seen recommendations
for a couple different expoxies/adhesives, such as 1-part adhesive sealant
RTV112 (RTV silicones by Momentive, formerly a GE product) and "Plastic
Welding System" by a company called VersaChem, part # 47809 (described as:
      "a two component mix - like an epoxy, especially formulated to join
       plastics, (including reinforced plastic pump bodies) to metal. It
       rapidly cures to a hard off-white inert gap-filling stuff that I
       can't peal off a test spot on the pump. I note that its basic
       material is (poly)methylmethacrylate - essentially the same stuff as
       bone cement in surgery, and plexyglas, so it should be chemically
       inert once cured.")

The RTV112 stuff is definately labelled food grade, but I'm not sure about
the second stuff. I *AM* connecting plastics to metal, though, so I need
to know it will create a seal.

Does anyone have any suggestions based on what they have used and what
they know works?  Anyone used either of these two products?  Or has anyone
gone with regular plumber's epoxy?  I'm considering using the plumber's
epoxy to get the nipple set into the cooler and then putting some food
grade silicone adhesive/sealant over it to make sure my wort won't be
touching anything it shouldn't be.  I know silicone sealants are used in
aquariums a lot, but not sure if those are considered food grade.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, especially if you can
suggest specific types or brands of epoxy/adhesive/sealant that are
definately labelled for food-grade usage.

Thanks!
Tim McMahon
Philadelphia, PA




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