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


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Contents:
  Dry yeast data point / bottle priming / chlorophenols (Matt)
  tun (leavitdg)
  Frozen Beer ("Kevin Kowalczyk")
  False Bottom Problem ("LANCE HARBISON")


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Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 11:01:27 -0800 (PST)
From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Dry yeast data point / bottle priming / chlorophenols

Many experienced brewers have no problems just pitching a pack or two
of dry yeast into their wort.  I generally have no problems either when
pitching 20 grams of US-05 into 5 gallons of average strength pale ale
or psuedo-pils.

However, two recent experiences suggest that the margin is pretty thin.
 First, I pitched just one pack of US-05 into 5 G of pale ale as an
experiment (but admittedly one that I thought would work); fermentation
was not very "strong" (i.e. poor flocculation, extended airlock
bubbling even after 12 days, etc).  I pitched another pack, and
fortunately the resulting beer was quite excellent (maybe the weak
fermentation didn't drive off as much hop aroma as it normally
would...)

The more troubling experience was my most recent batch, where I pitched
*30 grams* of Nottingham into 5.5 gallons of old ale at 1.067.  The
0.75B cells/L/P guideline would suggest 260B cells, or 13 grams of dry
yeast if you believe as I do that Nottingham is close to 20B cells/gm
(though indeed their spec on viable cells is lower).  Since I was
worried about the number of viable cells (esp. after the US-05
experience described above) I used about twice that much yeast.  The
resulting beer is quite solventy with ethyl acetate, for which I think
by far the most likely explanation is underpitching (of viable cells).

Maybe if I send it to England it will win a major homebrewing award --
ha ha just kidding, David Edge.  But seriously, now I'm even more
perplexed about that single pack of S-04 in 10 gallons of 16P porter.

Fortunately this beer is meant for long-term brett claussenii aging
where I expect this ester to diminish to some extent.

Anyway just a couple data points contrary to the many you often hear in
the other direction.

- ---

Bob Hall asks whether it must be the prime tabs infecting his bottles. 
Not sure if this is what you're asking... but of course it could also
be any equipment you're using to move the beer into the bottle, the
bottle itself, the caps, grain dust in your bottling room air, or
whatever else.  But yeah it could be the prime tabs.

Alternate Strategy: put a heaping half teaspoon of table sugar into
each clean but not necessarily sanitized bottle.  (For ~2.5 atm.  If
you want, calculate and measure more accurately.)  Empty your oven of
everything but the lower rack.  Put a layer of foil on that rack.  (And
put a little sqare of foil over the top of each bottle if your oven has
an upper heat element.)  Set oven to 284 degrees.  Wait 4 hours for dry
heat sterilization (3 hrs, per John Palmer chart, plus an hour for the
oven to heat everything up).  Turn off oven without opening door.  When
bottles are cool (next day) you are good to go.

I do this for every ale, bottling directly out of my primary.  Works
great, reduces number of rackings, and the sugar is much easier and
faster to measure than you would think.

- ---

Ant Hayes asks for proof that infection bugs can create chlorophenols. 
I believe brettanomyces can do so.  I believe this because I have
tasted beers aged with brettanomyces, that had what I believe to be
chlorophenolic off-flavors, in a brewery where chlorine cleaners are
never used.  The highly trained head brewer also believed the
off-flavor to be a chlorophenol.  Sorry that's all I have, but my guess
is that someone will have more definitive proof.  The articles on
phenolics in beer available on ProBrewer.com are also of interest.

Matt



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Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2007 13:21:47 -0500
From: leavitdg at plattsburgh.edu
Subject: tun

I use a 10 gallon Polarware mashtun, with false bottom, and valve and spiggot. 
After the conversion, I collect about 7 gallons, then clean out the tun and use
it for a kettle.

The only downside that I see is that the area under the false bottom holds about
1 gallon, so there can be some efficiency issues here.  What I sometimes do is
to use a little less sparge water (4.5 instead of 5 full gallons), then I drain
a good deal of the underlet wort.

The most grain that I had in it once, with a 2.32 quarts to a pound of grain,
was 24 lbs of malt.  This was a double batch.

I like the fact that one can apply heat to the tun, and therby do a step
infusion.  I know one can add boiled water to the other setup, but prefer to be
able to apply heat.

Darrell



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Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 12:05:45 -0600
From: "Kevin Kowalczyk" <kevinkowalczyk at gmail.com>
Subject: Frozen Beer

Thank you to everyone who gave me advice regarding my frozen Xmas
beer.  There was a bit of a difference of opinion among the emails as
to what I should do, so I took the most simple course of action, which
turned out to be inaction.  I figured if doing nothing didn't work, I
could always take  the steps you some of you suggested.

The yeast recovered from freezing, so I didn't add any additional.  I
took a density reading yesterday, it's down to 1.023 (from an OG of
1.072).  I was going to rack it to secondary, but it appears to be
still fermenting, so I'm going to let it go for another week.  It
tasted fine, still too sweet of course, and the spices were a little
over the top, but I figure they will mellow with lagering.  Thanks
again guys, I was in a bit of a panic when the freeze happened, and
your calm advice really helped.

Kevin Kowalczyk

Chicago


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Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:20:11 -0500
From: "LANCE HARBISON" <harbison65 at verizon.net>
Subject: False Bottom Problem

On Friday I suffered through a 5 hour sparge (during a batch sparge) to
collect 10 gallons of wort.  I mashed 50 lbs of grain in a 1/2 barrel keg.
I used rice hulls first into the keg and the last six pounds were flaked
grains.  The depth of the grain bed was 17".  The tun would release about 1
gallon every 30 minutes.  After the exit flow would stop I could hear wort
trickling in the keg.  My false bottom is 14 ga. perforated stainless, 1/8"
dia. holes on 3/16" centers.  I also run a 1/8" ID tube from below the false
bottom to open air to prevent a vacuum.  When I unloaded the keg there
appeared to be a 1 inch depth of grain on the false bottom which seemed
compacted (perhaps just a result of all of the sparge water having drained
out).

Has anybody had success using the same size false bottom on large batches?
Could I benefit from a larger vacuum tube?  Is a false bottom such as sold
by Williams or Northern Brewer the answer?

Lance Harbison




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