HOMEBREW Digest #5207 Fri 13 July 2007


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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 Return to table of contents
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 Return to table of contents
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 Return to table of contents
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! Return to table of contents
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