---

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


***************************************************************
        TODAY'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY: 

                 Sponsor The Home Brew Digest!
     Visit http://www.hbd.org/sponsorhbd.shtml to learn how
			 
    Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********

DONATE to the Home Brew Digest. Home Brew Digest, Inc. is a 
501(c)3 not-for-profit organization under IRS rules (see the
FAQ at http://hbd.org for details of this status). Donations
can be made by check to Home Brew Digest mailed to:

HBD Server Fund
PO Box 871309
Canton Township, MI 48187-6309

or by paypal to address serverfund@hbd.org. DONATIONS of $250 
or more will be provided with receipts. SPONSORSHIPS of any 
amount are considered paid advertisement, and may be deductible
under IRS rules as a business expense. Please consult with your 
tax professional, then see http://hbd.org for available 
sponsorship opportunities.
***************************************************************


Contents:
  Hop Support (Glyn and Mary)
  Excess CaCO3 / Mineral loss during mash (Matt)
  Mineral Loss ("A.J deLange")
  Flag poles for hops (David Harsh)
  MBAA Global Emerging Issues (Fred Scheer)


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*           The HBD Logo Store is now open!             *
*            http://www.hbd.org/store.html              *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*   Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!   *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NOTE: With the economy as it is, the HBD is struggling to 
meet its meager operating expenses of approximately $3400
per year. If less than half of those currently directly
subscribed to the HBD sent in a mere $5.00, the HBD would
be able to easily meet its annual expenses, with room to 
spare for next year. Please consider it.

As always, donors and donations are publicly acknowledged
and accounted for on the HBD web page. THank you

 
Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org

If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!!

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word
  "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL
  ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!**
IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to
  the digest as we cannot reach you. We will not correct your address
  for the automation - that's your job.

HAVING TROUBLE posting, subscribing or unsusubscribing? See the HBD FAQ at
http://hbd.org.

LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL USED EQUIPMENT? Please do not post about it here. Go
instead to http://homebrewfleamarket.com and post a free ad there.

The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright 
  HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK 
  before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content 
  cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit.

More information is available by sending the word "info" to 
req@hbd.org or read the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org.

JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
                  and Spencer Thomas



----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 05:36:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Glyn and Mary <graininfuser at yahoo.com>
Subject: Hop Support


I can't not tell you for sure that it will not 
work. But I don't think that two flag poles 
will support 6 mounds of hops. There will
be a lot of weight pulling those poles 
sideways. Add to that some wind loading,
and I don't think it will work.

I have always supported mine with telephone
poles. Not esthetically please perhaps, but
very effective. 

Glyn
So. Middle TN
(under water at the moment)



Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 07:01:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Excess CaCO3 / Mineral loss during mash


Wow, what an incredible answer.  Thank you AJ.  I'll play
with the spreadsheet and see what the effects of major acid
production might be (say a few hundred ppm each of lactic
and acetic acids--in the worst case with a pure CO2
atmosphere).

- ---

Regarding mineral loss during the mash... aside from
chemical reaction, there's the simple fact that you leave
behind whatever water remains locked in the spent grain,
and some minerals that were dissolved in that water.

Matt


      


Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 10:15:51 -0400
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Mineral Loss

Interesting that there are 2 posts on mineral loss in the mash tun on  
the same day.

There are a couple of mechanisms at play. The first is that if you  
have liquor that is super saturated with respect to calcium carbonate,  
calcium carbonate is going to precipitate when that liquor is heated  
which is, of course, one of the most popular ways of decarbonating  
water:   Ca++  + 2HCO3--   ---> CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O.   As this reaction  
is facilitated at higher pH (because bicarbonate converts to carbonate  
at higher pH) and we all take care to keep pH low this is not likely  
to be a major contributor to stripping calcium. You will have already  
done this when you treated your highly carbonate water by boiling or  
with lime. It has been my experience in brewing with synthetic waters  
with high temporary hardness (e.g. Burton waters) that much of the  
carbonate (and accompanying calcium) is left in the HLT i.e. it never  
makes it into the mash (but remember that Burton water has lots and  
lots of permanent hardness as well - this calcium does make it into  
the mash).

That leaves malt phosphate which occurs as up to 2% of the grain  
weight (as P2O5). It is in the form of phytin, a mixed salt of  
myoinositol hexa phosphate. If the malt is low kilned the enzyme  
phytase will decompose phytin into myoinositol and inorganic phosphate  
which, given the pH, will be mostly in the monobasic form, H2PO4-.  
This enters into the reaction   10Ca++     +    6H2PO4-   + 2(OH-)    
- --->    Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 + 12H+    thus releasing lots of hydrogen ions  
and it is these that get mash tun pH into the right range if enough  
calcium is supplied. Phytase is destroyed in all but the lightest  
malts an so it is fortunate that phytin itself has a high affinity for  
calcium ions. Through a similar mechanism phytin releases protons  
whose place on the molecule is taken by calcium and those protons are  
available for pH lowering at the expense of the calcium being removed  
from the solution. This is far from the quantitative answer you are  
asking for but I can't make any statement more specific than a soft  
water is likely to be stripped of most or all of its calcium whereas a  
hard water (permanent hardness) isn't. This is why some brewers  
supplement calcium poor water with some gypsum or calcium chloride.  
Calcium has lots of benefits in the mash, the boil, the fermenter and  
even the bottle (it precipitates calcium oxalate for clearer beer and  
less liklihood of kidney stones for the drinker). Other than actually  
measuring calcium content of wort going into the kettle I can't  
imagine how one would calculate the deficit. This is not something I  
have ever done.

Magnesium can be expected to take part in similar reactions but to a  
lesser extent (Kohlbach found that it takes twice as much magnesium as  
calcium to neutralize a given amount of alkalinity). Other ions  
(sodium, chloride, sulfate, potassium and trace metals) should be  
unaffected by the phosphate.

A.J.



Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 18:46:44 -0400
From: David Harsh <dharsh at fuse.net>
Subject: Flag poles for hops

Doug Moyer <shyzaboy at yahoo.com> asked about using flag poles for
hops:

I am currently using a 24' collapsible flagpole to support my hops,
strings hanging down to the old trellis.  I previously used that
flagpole for a martin house, but ditched the martin house when I
decided I didn't care enough about having a martin colony to do the
work to get one established.

That being said....   I installed the pole about halfway through last
summer and it was fine until Hurricane Ike blew through one Sunday
afternoon - two hours of 80  mph winds shook the pole back and forth
a lot and the bines were severely battered as well.  The pole was
undamaged - and realize many areas of Cincinnati were without power
for a week, so the storm was pretty severe.

During the prior two months, there was no problem in any of the
routine summer thunderstorms.  I plan on setting the mounting sleeve
into concrete, but  other projects have seemed to jump in front of
that task.

So yes, it will work - but if the trellis hadn't been built in a
shape to keep the pole from falling over, I bet it would have bit the
dust during Ike without a concrete anchor.

Dave Harsh				Ja-eep!
Bloatarian Brewing League		Cincinnati, OH



Return to table of contents


Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 23:55:35 +0000 (UTC)
From: Fred Scheer <fredscheer07 at comcast.net>
Subject: MBAA Global Emerging Issues

HI Brewers:

With permission from Bradley Latham from the BA we have 
published the MBAA Global Emerging Issues presentation
from the CBC in Boston, MA.
In that presentation we discussed in short the Bisphenol A issue,
Ray Klimovitz, Technical Director MBAA discussed the 
Occupational Exposure to Diacetyl issue
and the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Changes.
Ray shows in the presentation examples of 
Single serving size and servings per container.
Amie Gianino, Corporate Affairs ABInBev,
discussed World Health Organization Issues and The Brewing Industry.
Please visit www.MBAA.com, than on the leftsite you see GEI.

Thanks,
Fred M. Scheer


Return to table of contents

---