---

	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:
  Alkalinity ("A. J. deLange")
  Shoes, ships and Sankey Kegs /was: Sankey Kegs ("\\-s@roadrunner.com")


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*   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 $3500
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.

Financial Projection As of 19 Jan 2011
       Projected 2011 Budget  $3271.04
 Expended against projection  $ 520.75
Projected Excess/(Shortfall) ($2226.61)

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,
                  Spencer Thomas, and Bill Pierce



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


Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2011 01:10:41 -0500
From: "A. J. deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Alkalinity

Bill Pierce please pass to John Palmer

Addition of calcium carbonate to water is simple in that adding 264.2 
mg/L CaCO3 to 1 L of water yields an alkalinity of 264.2 mg/L only if: 
1. Ideally dilute chemistry is assumed and 2. The end point pH of the 
titration defining alkalinity is 4.35. 3. The acid used to dissolve the 
chalk is carbonic. 4. Carbonic is added until pH 7 is reached.

  Including the effects of ionic strength and using the more usual pH 
(in brewing applications) of 4.3 to define alkalinity 264.2 mg/L 
dissolved in water with CO2 gives an alkalinity of 268.3. The difference 
is small enough that one can say that 100 mg/L chalk dissolved in 
imitation of the way in which natural limestone is dissolved is 100 mg/L 
as CaCO3 - hence the use of that unit of concentration.

Now if one dissolved 264 mg/L CaCO3 in 1L DI water with hydrochloric 
acid and brought the pH to 7 the alkalinity of that water would be 109.8 
and if using sulfuric acid 110.0. But if using phosphoric acid it would 
be 155.9. OTOH if the water is brought to pH 6 the alkalinity of that 
water using carbonic would be 276.3, using hydrochloric 42.8 and using 
phosphoric 57.4.

The numbers I gave for phosphoric are bogus. They would apply for a 
solution of sodium carbonate of equivalent strength but where calcium 
and phosphate are involves another effect, the extremely low solubility 
of hydroxyl appatite comes into play. When phosphoric acid is added to a 
suspension of calcium carbonate the the lowered pH allows CaCO3 to 
dissolve releasing CO3-- and Ca++ ions into the solution. Protons from 
the phosphoric acid are consumed by CO3-- + H+  --> HCO3- and the pH 
rises. When the pH rises the concentration of PO4--- increases and this 
immediately forms Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 which precipitates. This results in 
removal of PO4--- which causes HPO4-- to give up a proton to replace it. 
This causes depletion of HPO4-- so H2PO4- gives up a proton to replace 
it and so also with H3PO4. All the protons are available to convert 
HCO3- to CO2 gas which escapes and to lower the pH which shifts the 
various phosphate species back towards acid and these effects continue 
until equilibrium is reached. All this has a dramatic effect on the 
alkalinity. Note: things don't happen in order the way I've described 
them but thinking of them in this way helps me to get an idea of what to 
expect at equilibrium.

Malt doesn't contain H3PO4 but it does contain the acid H2PO4-  and 
similar things happen with malt when calcium carbonate is added to it. 
The chalk is basic and so the pH rises which causes a shift in the 
distribution of phosphate species towards PO4---. This coalesces with 
calcium to release protons by the mechanism of the last paragraph which 
limits the extent to which the pH can rise.  Thus much of the calcium 
carbonate added to a mash for the purpose of increasing pH is 
ineffective for that purpose - and a good thing it is too! Simple 
laboratory experiments with phosphate solutions of strength similar to 
that reported for malt seem to indicate that large chalk additions may 
be unable to carry the pH  above 7 but this is a tentative result.

All this can be modeled (or at least a phosphate model is possible - I'm 
working on it) but the point I want to make is that calculating the 
"alkalinity" of mash is certainly not a simple thing to do given 
uncertainties in actual phosphate concentration and the fact that the 
phosphate and carbonate systems aren't the only 2 buffers in grist, 
especially where dark malts are involved.

There is more on this in discussions with Colin and Martin at the tail 
end of the Version 2.0 of Palmer's Residual Alkalinity Spreadsheets 
<http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8762> thread 
at BN.

A.J.


Return to table of contents


Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2011 10:35:04 -0500
From: "\\-s at roadrunner.com" <"\\-s"@roadrunner.com>
Subject: Shoes, ships and Sankey Kegs /was: Sankey Kegs

A.J.deLange writes ....

> The rig I use is pictured and described at
>    http://www.pbase.com/agamid/image/109220058

OMG - I've understood for years that AJ is an advocate of "go big or go
home", but the graphic proof is stunning, and doesn't even show the
obviously missing lab and fridges and ...  So I'm assuming the blue and
black boxen with plumbing are the heat source and copper ?  Based on
the amount of wiring I suspect he gray box on top is a control panel.
IIRC correctly AJ wrote about using a home furnace as a heat source - is
your home furnace doing dual duty here AJ ?

So - and I'm half serious here AJ - wouldn't it make more sense, to
form a nominal business, offer services for test/development brewing,
or brewery lab services ? Even if you never made a nickel of revenue
you could buy your toys with pre-tax dollars for a few years at a cost
of filing a schedule C.

 -SteveA





Return to table of contents

---