HOMEBREW Digest #5375 Mon 21 July 2008


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  Re: Yeast slants versus suspension (Fred L Johnson)
  plastic bottles ... sign me up. ("steve.alexander")
  Re: Efficiency and Astringency (stencil)
  PET Bottles For My Draft Beer System (Pete Calinski)
  Re: Efficiency and Astringency ("Dave Larsen")
  glass carboys in Pigeon Forge (Neitzke Arnold)
  Common problem with commericial beers (Thomas Wilberding)
  Slants Vs Suspension......... ("Doug Lasanen")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:40:50 -0400 From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com> Subject: Re: Yeast slants versus suspension I failed to mention in my original post that the yeast have been propagated with constant aeration and stirring before storage as a liquid suspension. I think I store my yeast in a condition that is probably pretty close to what you receive from Wyeast or White Labs, so I'd like to know if slants would be better. Perhaps they last longer on slants? Fred L Johnson Apex, North Carolina, USA Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:49:13 -0400 From: "steve.alexander" <-s at roadrunner.com> Subject: plastic bottles ... sign me up. Plastic beer bottles ... http://www.plasticredesignproject.org/files/phasetworeport.html These are designed for 4month shelf life and some of these implemented around year 2000 by Miller had a pthalate layer (that I would personally stay away from). Yeah - a "subscribing" or supporting member arrangement for HBD is a is a great idea. Good thought Fred. -S Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:25:44 -0400 From: stencil <etcs.ret at verizon.net> Subject: Re: Efficiency and Astringency On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:59:20 -0400, in Homebrew Digest #5374 (July 20, 2008) Jason Gazeley wrote: > > >The mill is set to .039". [ ... ] > >Scince buying the mill all of my beers have an >astringency that although not over powering is >still noticeable and annoying. That's one millimeter, which seems awfully fine. The goal is to strip off the the whole husk and then crack the starch granules within; if the husk fragments too much - well, there it is. Do you set and gage this yourself, or is it not field-settable? If uou can adjust the nip yourself, offer it a scrap of bare 14AWG solid copper wire and if it grudgingly passes by the turning rollers, you're somewhere around .065". If the nip cannot be adjusted you may want to try a 1-hour cold soak and rinse of the grain before milling. FWIW I habitually use a double pass: 80 thou (12AWG) and then 65. Gotta love that Valley Mill. gds, stencil Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:02:01 -0400 From: Pete Calinski <petec.100 at gmail.com> Subject: PET Bottles For My Draft Beer System I have been bottling in PET bottles for 3 or 4 years. I use 3 liter soda bottles. They are part of my mini-draft system. I always wanted to have my beer on draft but I couldn't justify taking the whole fridge to do it. With what I put together, I can have 5 different beers on tap at the same time and it occupies only the bottom two shelves of my fridge. I fashioned a manifold from copper tubing that distributes the CO2 to the five PET bottles. The bottles I use have the larger diameter caps. I altered the caps to have CO2-In and Beer-Out fittings. The Beer-Out line ends in a "cobra" tap. Each CO2 line has a shutoff valve so I can swap bottles in and out. Each line also has a check valve to ensure the CO2 flows into the bottle and not out to other bottles. I carbonate the bottles with about half the normal amount of priming sugar. The system is a sort of "work in progress". I keep a list of refinements and when I get the urge I install one or two and see how they work. If I ever get it to the point that it doesn't need a lot of coddling I may add a description to the preserve....if there is enough interest. SIGN ME UP FOR CONTINUOUS FUNDING OF THE "SEVER FUND". Pete Calinski East Amherst NY Near Buffalo NY http://hbd.org/pcalinsk *********************************************************** *My goal: * Go through life and never drink the same beer twice. * (As long as it doesn't mean I have to skip a beer.) *********************************************************** Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:25:40 -0700 From: "Dave Larsen" <hunahpu at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Efficiency and Astringency > > Scince buying the mill all of my beers have an > astringency that although not over powering is > still noticeable and annoying. Is it possible that > my new higher efficiency my sparge water gravity > is dropping too low to maintain a good Ph range? > Or could it be something else? What solutions > would you recommend? > One thing that you did not mention is whether you check the gravity of your runoff near the end of your sparge. When I bought a grain mill and my efficiency jumped up to the mid-80s, it got to the point where I almost always had to end my sparge early because the gravity of my runoff droped below 1.010, unless it's a pretty big beer. There are other non-sparge related reasons you could be getting astringency as well, including over hopping or bacterial infections. Dave Tucson, AZ http://hunahpu.blogspot.com/ Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:35:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Neitzke Arnold <aneitzke at sbcglobal.net> Subject: glass carboys in Pigeon Forge I am camping in Pigeon Forge for the last few days doing a bunch of touristic stuff. I just got back from shopping with the wife, one of the places we went, was Old Time Pottery, where they have at least 20 5 gal glass carboys for $19.99 from Mexico. Since these are going to get rare and if you are in the area, you may want to pick up one or two, if you need them. Drinking beer from the Smokey Mountain brewery. Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:52:14 -0400 From: Thomas Wilberding <tom at wilberding.com> Subject: Common problem with commericial beers Hi, Recently, I have had beer (six packs from the local liquor store) from 3 different local breweries (names withheld for now) that all had a very similar set of problems. All three times the beer was nearly undrinkable and I don't think it tasted anywhere near what the brewer had intended. The beers were an irish red, an amber ale and a munich dunkel. Again, three different breweries. Here are the symptoms: 1) very sour (I love flanders reds and lambics, this was unpleasant lactic sourness). 2) sediment was little round pellets of yeast. They looked like miniature white peppercorns swirling around the bottom of my glass. When I choked down the sour beer, I pushed some with my finger half expecting them to be hard, but they just mushed into yeasty paste. I find it unlikely that all three breweries were trying for a sour beer and these are the only beers where I noticed the weird "peppercorn" style yeast sediment. And since it was three different breweries I thought maybe others would have seen this elsewhere in the country and perhaps be able to diagnose the problem. I want these local breweries to succeed and I plan to contact each of them to complain, but hope I could also offer them some advice on what might be happening to the beer. In the meantime, I'm gun-shy on plunking down another $10 for their beer because the off flavors dominate the beer and make it really unpleasant. Tom Wilberding Midland, MI Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:07:05 -0400 From: "Doug Lasanen" <Dlasanen at fuse.net> Subject: Slants Vs Suspension......... hbd #5374, Fred Johnson reports....... For years, I have kept my yeast cultures by merely putting 10 mL of a suspension a fully-fermentated starter culture into sterile 30 mL vials and keeping these at about 35 degrees F. When I'm ready to make a starter, I just pull out a vial and transfer the contents into the starter medium, and this can be several months later. Is there an advantage to using slants to store my yeast instead of the method I've been using? Hey Fred! I too, have been keeping yeast going as you speak.........ie, I make a starter. Then on brew day I "Sanitize" a "White labs" vial. After a good swirl of the yeast, I "pitch" and fill the vial for the next use......This can often times be 6 to 9 months, depending on yeast. I have done that for many years, with no problems. However, I have recently had an astringincy problem!!! I have dumped 5 or 6 carboys!! I have tried to blame sanitation and other reasons for the "foul", "tart", brews.......and perhaps it could still be, however, I think it may be yeast related. I have 15 or more vials of yeast in the fridge waiting to be used and I am thinking it is time to start over! I have other club members that do the same as I do.......at the price of hops and grain, today, I question whether or not it is worth saving $6.00 on the yeast?! Interested in your comments! Cheers! Doug Lasanen Bloatarian Brewing League CIncinnati, Ohio Return to table of contents
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