HOMEBREW Digest #5222 Thu 23 August 2007


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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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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---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Return to table of contents
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 Return to table of contents
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 Return to table of contents
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. Return to table of contents
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