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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  Swiss or French Supply House ("Albert J. Albano, DTN 821-4723")
  Bad Batch (Steve Anthony)
  heating and cooling bottles  (Carl West x4449)
  temperature after bottling? (rich)
  Re:  Homebrew Digest #565 (January 14, 1991) (Stuart Levine)
  distillation controversy (florianb)
  Lager Fermentation Control (Norm Hardy)


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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 91 02:12:37 PST
From: "Albert J. Albano, DTN 821-4723" <albano at gva01.enet.dec.com>
Subject: Swiss or French Supply House

It's been a while since I posted my inquiry asking if someone who follows 
this conference is aware of a Swiss or French based supply house or 
mail order store that I can purchase from.

I have bee dragging my supplies back from the states and the U.K. 
whenever I get the chance. This is less than an optimum solution and 
one that still hasn't permited me to pick up some much needed carboys.

Does someone out there have a suggestion on at least where I might be 
able to locate a local carboy supplier?

regards,
   Al
   Geneva

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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 91 09:35:53 EST
From: Steve Anthony <steveo at Think.COM>
Subject: Bad Batch

Well, I recently experienced my first bad batch of beer in 6 years of
brewing! Perhaps a post-mortem is inorder. I thought if perhaps I described
the taste/smell/apperance of the beer some kind souls out there in
brewnet-land could fill me in on what exactly the infecting agent was.

First off, I've recently started using Papazian's krausening method of
priming. I sanitize a 1g glass jug and rack about 1/2g of unpitched wort to
it. This gets stoppered and put in the fridge. I pitch (WYeast) and ferment
as usual. When it's bottling time, I add the appropriate amount of gyle to
my bottling bucket (note, right out of the 1g jug. Perhaps I should boil
this to pasturize?) and add the fermented wort. Bottle it up and wait. 

I noticed that the beer never cleared. About the top 1-2" of the champagne
bottles I use were clear, the rest was cloudy. This was after about 4
weeks. Secondly, there were flakes of something floating at the surface.
The beer was *very* overcarbonated. I tossed it in part because I didn't
want to run the risk of glass grenades in the basement!

The smell and taste I can only describe as *very* bitter. Kind of like a
overzealous IPA; boiled with 5oz of Bullion, or some such. The bittering
was overpowering. Couldn't get a hint of malt sweetness or anything.

That's about it. I have three new batches fermenting right now, and I don't
want them to turn out bad. The only idea I have right now is to either
prime with corn sugar boiled in water, or boil the gyle. I haven't changed
any other of my techniques; same bottles, jugs, carboys, etc.

Any ideas?

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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 91 11:37:16 EST
From: eisen at kopf.HQ.Ileaf.COM (Carl West x4449)
Subject: heating and cooling bottles 

Way back when I was an art student blowing glass
we cooled our work slowly (annealed it) to avoid 
breakage.
If the glass is cooled to quickly, the outside
and thin parts become fully rigid before the inside
and thick parts have finished contracting, when the 
thicker parts do begin to contract, the already rigid
parts of the piece have to give, something glass is 
not good at. Sometimes the breakage is immediate,
sometimes quite delayed. I had a goblet develop a 
spreading crack months after it was made because
it was incompletely annealed.
We cooled our work at the rate of 100 degrees/hour
starting at ~1100 degrees. If the glass pieces are 
relatively thin and of consistent thickness 
(like a beer bottle) you could probably cool them 
faster than this without seriously weakening them.

Note that the temp/time rule applies to heating glass too.

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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 91 12:45:51 EST
From: pluto!rich at trevor.att.com
Subject: temperature after bottling?


I'm now brewing my first batch of beer from a ``True Brew'' kit.  The
instructions say that after bottling the beer should be stored at
about 70 F for a week to ``condition'', and then after that it should
be stored at 50 F for another four weeks.

My problem is that I am unable to store the beer at the 50 F
temperature.  What will happen to the beer if I continue to keep 
it at 70 F.  Would it be better to keep it in the refrigerator
at ~ 40 F?

In general, can anyone explain to me what happens to the beer 
after it is bottled and what effect temperature has on this.

Thanks for your help.
/rich

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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 91 10:58:42 -0800
From: levin at CS.UCLA.EDU (Stuart Levine)
Subject: Re:  Homebrew Digest #565 (January 14, 1991)

Please remove my name from the list.
levin at cs.ucla.edu
thanks

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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 91 13:24:21 PST
From: florianb at chip.cna.tek.com
Subject: distillation controversy


First, I'd like to echo Karl Wolff 's plea to terminate discussion of
Arabic Law/military policy/illegality of distillation/liquor on aircraft
and so on.  It's neither here no there.

Second, I'd like to challenge anyone (here I go) to quote from any text
on distillation, a passage relevant to the presence of methanol in
alcoholic brews obtained from natural grains and brewer's yeast.
I admit that thermodynamic laws persist in that all the air in the 
room in which I sit could suddenly rush over into the corner and stay
there, and I will never finish this sentence due to asphyxiation.
But a sufficient concentration of methanol in fermented grains to 
produce poisoning would indeed seem remote.

Being from the Ozarks, I can say with certainty that it is possible for
people to distill superb vodka with quite primitive equipment and
straightforward process.  This is not a recommendation, since it is
illegal.  I don't do it, and wouldn't advise anyone else to without
a license.  But it is not necessarily a process which results in
something other than ethanol-rich liquor.

If anyone has any facts (and I mean quotable) to the contrary, please
feel free to speak up, and I will humbly bow out.

Florian


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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 91 17:44:32 PST
From: polstra!norm at uunet.UU.NET (Norm Hardy)
Subject: Lager Fermentation Control

Here is a quick update on the use of refrigeration control for getting
the proper temperatures for lager fermentation.

I purchased the "Hunter Energy Monitor AC  Model 42205", a $50 digital
device which allow accuracy to 
+2 -1f within the fridge.  The wort variance will be less due to the
volume of the fermenter relative to the fridge volume.

It is a snap to use, just plug in your fridge to the front of the
device and then plug it into an outlet (mine is at the 5 ft level).  Set
the day and date, and then set the temperature you want to hold the
fridge at.  A flexible probe goes into the fridge.  That's it.

It has a timer to prevent the fridge from cycling on more than once every
four minutes; but that's a safety feature you'll never need worry about
in most all cases anyway, unless you continually by the minute open the
fridge door to worry about your lager.

It apparently goes down to 40f, plenty cold enough for the primary ferment.
For lagering colder than that, simply turn the switch to manual and let the
fridge take control again for the colder temperature.  The monitor will
keep track of the temperature so that you could set your fridge control to
what you need.

Basically, it works.  The unit is designed for air conditioning and is
probably cheaper in areas where Hunter (look up FANS in the yellow pages)
is popular.

I'll let you know how the German Pils turns out (the grain was brought in
from Bamberg through a local supply shop).

Norm Hardy


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End of HOMEBREW Digest #569, 01/22/91
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