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


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Contents:
  Burtonizing Water ("A.J deLange")
  55 Gal Drums/Chlorine ("A.J deLange")
  CAP (leavitdg)
  re fermentation temps (sperfect)
  Lifting kettles for transfer (Calvin Perilloux)
  Valhalla mead only competition ("David Houseman")
  55 gal. ss barrels (Ralph Link)
  Re: Yeast for Secondary, Tertiary (Matt)
  re:pilsner malt and CAP ("Steve Dale-Johnson")


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JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
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Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:52:07 +0000
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Burtonizing Water

"Say for what are hop yards meant and why was Burton built on Trent?" 
That was the past. Today it is quite possible that a brewery in this 
part of the country would derive its water from municipal mains. The 
water treatment plant would have softened the water appreciably to 
protect its piping.  That's my guess.

If, however, very hard well water is the source note that no brewery 
wanting to soften it's water would boil it as that requires too much 
energy. Decarbonation (and softening) would be accomplished by treatment 
with lime.

Anyone contemplating brewing with a water source of unknown compposition 
should either test it himself (not difficult) or have it tested.


Return to table of contents


Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:41:33 +0000
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: 55 Gal Drums/Chlorine

I brew with success in 55 gal. drums of which I have 4. The heat source 
is steam: 3 of the drums are equipped with coils. All transfers are done 
with pumps. Mash transfer to and from decoctions and to lauter is done 
with a winery solids pump. Wort and water transfers are done with the 
usual fractional horsepower centrifugal pumps. The trickiest part is 
getting spent grain and hops out. The former is done by manual scooping 
with a 2 quart stainless steel pitcher, the latter by "washing" the 
spent hops out of the kettle using the solids pump. Tipping of the 
barrels on their stands is required during cleaning but they are never 
lifted. Loops in steam, condensate and RTD lines allow this tipping. 
There are things which could be improved (like an automated mixing 
scheme adequate to keep temperature uniform) but it isn't a bad way to 
go and it produces a lot of beer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Another parameter seldom mentioned with respect to chlorine sanitizers 
is the ORP. This is the ultimate determinant of the effectiveness of 
chlorine as a sanitizer. At potentials of 650 - 700 mV it is effective 
against most bacteria and viruses in a matter of seconds. The ORP does, 
of course, depend upon the concentration of the sanitizer but also the 
pH of the solution. Swimming pools, hot tubs, dishwashers in restaurants 
etc. have elaborate control systems to dose hypochlorite and acid to set 
pH and ORP. No matter. Plain old household bleach is easily rinsed off 
with water which has been boiled. The late Dr. Fix declared that he had 
found a use for megabrew as a sterile solution for rinsing brewing 
equipment.

A.J.


Return to table of contents


Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:09:10 -0400
From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu
Subject: CAP

Jeff Renner is our resident expert on CAPs, but I have made several over the
last 10 years, and personally, I prefer flaked maize/ corn to rice.  I am not
sure what it is, but the corn has, for me, a nicer flavor than the rice.

If you do use rice flour, please make sure that you add a lot of rice hulls, in
that you could very likely have a stuck spage otherwise.

Happy Brewing!


Darrell
Plattsburgh,NY 44 42 32 N Latitude
                   73 24 16 W Longitude

 [544.9 miles, 68.9]Apparent Rennerian




Return to table of contents


Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:47:49 +0000
From: sperfect at comcast.net
Subject: re fermentation temps

Steve says in 5218:

"Every experienced HBers has his personal tale
woe about the day the fermenter had an explosive release and
made a huge mess.  SWMBO will never forget either."

I sometimes try to imagine the book that Mrs. -S might write...
:-)

Scott Perfect
San Ramon, CA


Return to table of contents


Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:19:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Calvin Perilloux <calvinperilloux at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lifting kettles for transfer

Ron LaBorde notes:

> When I first started brewing, I had fantasies about 
> lifting with pulleys, winches, etc., but then I finally 
> came to my senses and realized that it was a bit 
> overzealous.

I once toured a German homebrewer's basement (this 
was in Wolfersdorf, Bavaria, I think).  This bloke 
was an engineer who was of firm opinion that pumps 
"destroy the beer" (!) yet he had only a 7-foot 
basement ceiling, so a tiered system wasn't quite
feasible, and lifting seemed to him the only way.

Not only was he wary of hot liquids, but he also 
knew he didn't want to lift all those tuns/kettles
himself, so he set up a motorised pulley system, 
managed via a control center in the middle of the 
room!  When he was done with the boil, for example, 
he'd flip a switch, and the pulley system would lift 
the kettle slowly off the burner, towards the ceiling, 
and then he could transfer the wort.  

Anyway, is his system overkill, overzealous?  Surely!
But it does show that it is feasible.

(On a side note, this, I believe, was the same fellow 
who sent a sample of his Weissbier to Weihanstephan 
along with his 200 DM payment for testing.  He received 
back, and now displays proudly, a certificate that says 
nothing more than "Passed".)

Calvin Perilloux
Middletown, Maryland, USA



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Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:26:58 -0400
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman at verizon.net>
Subject: Valhalla mead only competition

Got Mead?

Prepare to enter and judge the Third Annual Valhalla - The Meading of Life
mead-only competition, October 20, 2007, at the Iron Hill Restaurant and
Brewery in West Chester, PA.   All mead styles from the BJCP 2004 Style
Guidelines will be judged.   Entries are due by October 13th.  Mail entries
(2-12oz bottles or 1-750ml bottle or the equivalent) can be sent to Home
Sweet Homebrew (www.homesweethomebrew.com).  Drop off locations locally at
Home Sweet Homebrew, Keystone Homebrew Supply, Iron Hill West Chester, Brew
Your Own Beer-Winemaking Too!, and Wine, Barley & Hops Homebrew Supply.
Additional information can be found at www.valhalla-mead.com.  Contact
Suzanne McMurphy (mcmurphy at sas.upenn.edu) or Tim Ackerson 
(Theimann at verizon.net) for
answers to questions about this competition.

Judges are also sought and should contact David Houseman
(david.houseman at verizon.net) to judge this event.  Judges should be at Iron
Hill West Chester by 9:00 am.  Directions can be found at
www.ironhillbrewery.com.

Dave Houseman 



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Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:47:50 -0500
From: Ralph Link <ralphl at shaw.ca>
Subject: 55 gal. ss barrels

I just noticed the post re the 55 gal. SS barrels. My question is where 
does one obtain these barrels??
Private email is appreciated but not necessary.
Thanks
Ralph


Return to table of contents


Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:38:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Yeast for Secondary, Tertiary

Lee has questions about making a "Belgian Special."  To me the term
"Belgian Special" is pretty broad, as I think few people would bat an
eye if you used that term to describe almost any beer fermented with
Belgian style yeast.

Anyway, both questions asked seem to assume that multiple yeast strains
are used.  But in fact, not many Belgian ales are produced with
multiple strains of saccharomyces yeast.  This is not to say that using
multiple strains has no effect, or that some great beers are not
produced with mixed cultures--but a great many of the best beers in
Belgium use a single pure culture.

Is there a Belgian beer that you'd like yours to be similar to?

Even when multiple saccharomyces strains are used, they are generally
used together in the primary.  Saccharomyces strains added after the
primary will have very little to "feed" on and are unlikely to impart a
lot of their own character.  (This is assuming that the primary
fermentation was healthy enough to be complete.)

However, there are some beers in which a saccharomyces primary is
followed by a brettanomyces secondary, and in this case the secondary
fermentation can be pretty dramatic because the brettanomyces is
capable of doing a lot with what's left behind by the saccharomyces. 
Orval is the best known commercial example--though the brettanomyces is
now only added at bottling.

As for "alcohol tolerance," don't worry about it because it would be
hard to find a Belgian yeast available to homebrewers that can't hit 8%
(or much higher) if it's treated right (big starter, good aeration,
etc).  You do not need multiple strains to hit high gravities.

Hope this helps.  I'm not discouraging using multiple strains--but for
a first beer a single strain is simpler and sufficient to get plenty of
"Belgiany" taste.

Matt


       


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Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:58:50 -0700
From: "Steve Dale-Johnson" <sdalejohnson at hotmail.com>
Subject: re:pilsner malt and CAP

Paul Kerchefske asked about pilsner malt and CAP's.

I have used Weyermann for numerous beers and have only good experiences to 
share. Their pils is my favourite base malt for lagers.

<snip>Next question is I am planning on making a CAP with
rice. Has anyone used rice flour, or is it too fine
for brewing?<snip>

I'm sure Jeff Renner will chime in, but unless you mean Classic Asian 
Pilsner, you'd want to use corn for your adjunct.  Regardless, flour will 
give you cloudy runoff and depending on the amount, a stuck sparge.  It's 
also expensive.


Steve Dale-Johnson
Brewing at 1918 miles, 298 degrees Rennerian
Delta (Vancouver), BC, Canada.



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