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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Re: Bleach + Water + Vinegar ("Craig S. Cottingham")
  Re: Star San ("Craig S. Cottingham")
  Cloudy beer problem (IT)" <stjones@eastman.com>
  Online supply with free shipping? (Richard Lynch)


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Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:41:00 -0500
From: "Craig S. Cottingham" <craig.cottingham at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Bleach + Water + Vinegar

On Jul 12, 2007, at 08:31, le Man <hbd at thebarnsleys.co.uk> wrote:

> Being a Septic....

Given the subject of this thread, I thought this was a particularly  
humorous typo. :-)

- --
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, 12 Jul 2007 23:58:35 -0500
From: "Craig S. Cottingham" <craig.cottingham at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Star San

On Jul 12, 2007, at 07:41, Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Craig says "I've been using Star-San almost as long as
> I've been brewing, and it was interesting to find out that I've been
> using it almost entirely incorrectly all this time."
>
> For those of us who for whatever reason cannot listen to the podcasts,
> is there a surprising or counterintuitive "correct" way to use Star
> San?

I should have taken notes while listening to that podcast, because  
now I can't remember why I wrote that. (And the ghost of George  
Santayana is poking me with a sharp stick.) Let's see what I *can*  
remember.

I've been known to mix up a 5-gallon bucket of Star-San to keep for  
months. I found some documentation somewhere that said that Star-San  
remains effective as long as its pH is 3.0 or below, which I confirm  
with pH strips. It turns out that this is true only if you're using  
demineralized water; otherwise, the minerals will eventually  
precipitate out as hard water soap (think bathtub ring). This is why  
my bucket of Star-San eventually turns cloudy. Now I know not to keep  
using it even if the indicator strips say the pH is still good.

I recently bought a filter to use for brewing liquor; from here on  
out I'll use it to mix up my Star-San as well. Another thing Charlie  
Talley mentioned was that Star-San is fully biodegradable, and roses  
*love* the spent sanitizer, so I'll not be so stingy about making a  
fresh batch in the future.

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




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Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:55:36 -0400
From: "Jones, Steve (IT)" <stjones at eastman.com>
Subject: Cloudy beer problem

I've been having serious problems with cloudy beer
for the past 8 months or so, and have not been able
to figure out the cause of the problem. I'm trying 
to include all the pertinent info in the hopes that
someone can help me answer the question.

Last October I made a pickup filter for my boiler 
from 30 mesh SS screen - a 12 x 24" piece folded in 
half, then cut in the shape of a whoopee cushion 
about 11" in diameter. I inserted a pickup tube with 
a tee on the end in between the two layers, then 
double folded the edges, hammering them flat. Finally 
an SS clamp around the pickup tube where it goes into 
the screen. The result was a copy of Dennis Collins' 
hop stopper. This filter works very well for 
preventing hop residue from passing into the 
fermenter, and even tho' it is totally covered with 
hops afterward, the wort flows very freely thru the 
screen.

BUT - ever since I did this my beers have been 
extremely cloudy - not just a chill haze, but darn 
near opaque - cloudier than a true hefeweizen. I'm not 
necessarily suggesting that the hop screen is the 
cause, but it is the one major change I made to my 
system/process that coincided with the beginning of 
this problem. I've made 8 batches since then - a 
porter, an old ale, 3 ordinary bitters, a mild, and 2 
IPAs - and they are the haziest beers I've ever made 
(out of about 135 AG batches). I even used gelatin 
finings in the secondary of two of the bitters - it 
took out some of the haziness but still left it very 
cloudy. And the last two batches I made before adding 
this screen were a schwartzbier and a rauchbier, 
marzen style. They were both very clear. And even tho 
these beers have been very cloudy, they still taste 
decent, and I haven't picked up any off flavors.

- ------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't use any kettle finings on these beers, but I 
haven't used them for several years now and have still 
had excellent clarity until now. One of the IPAs was 
made at another location using another water source, 
which seems to eliminate water as the cause. My last 
batch (a bitter) was made without using the hop screen - 
after the boil I siphoned to the fermenter, so this seems 
to eliminate the screen as the cause. I also used 2 packs 
of Nottingham yeast on this last batch, which seems to 
eliminate contaminated yeast as the cause. Yet it is just 
as cloudy as the others.

I have used the same activated carbon water filter since 
extract batch 1 - the water coming out tastes fine and 
still tests chlorine free using OTO as a detection agent. 
At a point earlier last year I switched from Iodophor to 
StarSan as my sanitizer of choice. After sanitizing a 
carboy there is a lot of starsan foam in it, which I just 
ignore as I rack into it from the boiler. And as a side 
note, my water is rather hard - 180 ppm HCO3. When I mix 
up a starsan solution it is very milky-cloudy looking, but 
this has always been the case with my brewing water.

I use mostly whole hops kept in a freezer (maybe 8 or 9 
months old); my base grains have been TF maris otter or 
golden promise (also a year or so old, kept in sealed bins 
in my walkin at 45F); my yeast has mostly been Wyeast 
activator packs, then reused in the next batch or two. My 
efficiency has been a bit lower than usual for the past 8 
months - around 65-70% instead of 75-80% - and I think that 
might be due to the grain picking up a bit of moisture, so 
weighing it out results in a bit less grain mass in the mash.

So does anyone have a clue as to what might be the cause 
of this problem?

Steve Jones
Johnson City, TN



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Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:48:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard Lynch <rlny7575 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Online supply with free shipping?

Does anyone know of an online brew supply with free
shipping?  I thought I saw one somewhere
with free shipping for orders over $50, but I don't
remember the site... Thinking I'll finally get that
fridge thermostat override.

Thanks.
P.S. I normally support my local hbs, but I'm super
busy school right now!


       


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