---

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


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

        Logic, Inc. - Makers of Straight A Cleanser
		   www.ecologiccleansers.com

    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:
  Monthly HBD Probe ("Pat Babcock")
  Re: Brew water tools (stencil)


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*   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 28 Mar 2011
***      Condition:  Green & Healthy      ***
              501(c)3 at risk
       Projected 2011 Budget  $3671.04
 Expended against projection  $1180.53
Projected Excess/(Shortfall)  $1899.30

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: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 07:09:21 -0500 (EST)
From: "Pat Babcock" <pbabcock at hbd.org>
Subject: Monthly HBD Probe

Greetings, beerlings! Take me to your lager...

I was reading through this month's probe message, and it dawned on me that
those who have filtering software may never have seen the instructions
contained therein. Not good, if you tried to subscribe but seem to be
unsuccessful with no server responses, or keep having to resubscribe (once
a month...). To this end, I am posting this month's probe message. Doing
so will get it onto the HTML version and, hopefully, some who are having
difficulty getting it into their email will see it there.

Here goes:

	Monthly HBD Subscription Validation Probe For April 2011
		Digest Janitor: janitor at hbd.org


GREETINGS, BEERLINGS!!!


WARNING: DO _NOT_ REPLY to this message if you wish to continue
receiving the daily Home Brew Digest!!!


NOTE: This message was generated by a program

In an effort to help chip away at all of the dead addresses
in the HBD subscription list, and as a means to ease the
burden on those who just can't figure out how to unsubscribe
from the Home Brew Digest, I've augmented the usual "debouncifier"
with this probe message.


If you NO LONGER WISH TO RECEIVE THE HBD daily mailing, simply
reply to this message and your subscription will be removed.
PLEASE BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE IN YOUR REPLY
OR YOUR ADDRESS MAY NOT BE REMOVED!!!
Note that you can always read the hbd on the web at:
		 http://hbd.org/hbd/


If you receive multiple copies of this letter, you will need
to reply to EACH ONE in order to remove those subscriptions.
(Hint: If you receive more than one Digest mailing per day,
 reply to as many Probe messages as necessary to reduce your
subscription to one!)


IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE TO RECEIVE THE HBD, simply delete this message.



WARNING: DO _NOT_ REPLY to this message if you wish to continue
receiving the HBD. YOUR REPLY WILL CAUSE YOUR ADDRESS TO BE
AUTOMATICALLY REMOVED FROM THE SUBSCRIPTION LIST  -
*NO MATTER WHAT YOU MAY WRITE IN THE MESSAGE*

PLEASE NOTE:
IF YOU ARE USING a spam filter, such as that on Earthlink, which
identifies your email address when telling the PROBE processor that you
are filtering mail, the PROBE processor will not be able to differentiate
this from a simple reply. The automation will identify your address, and
will remove you from the list. If this sounds like you, add probe at hbd.org
to your "approved" list, and resubscribe to the HBD.


Also, be sure that you have the Digest's address
(homebrew-request at hbd.org) in your whitelist as well, or being subscribed
would be rather pointless...


If you still have access to the account you subscribed through,
as indicated at the bottom of the this message, you can always send the
word "unsubscribe" to req at hbd.org using that account, and avoid further
mailings; otherwise, replying to this message is the only way in which to
cut off the HBDmailings to this address.

Cheers!
The HBD Janitorial Staff

Hope that helps someone out there!



- -- 
See ya!

Pat Babcock in SE Michigan
Chief of HBD Janitorial Services
http://hbd.org
pbabcock at hbd.org




Return to table of contents


Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:57:40 -0400
From: stencil <etcs.ret at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Brew water tools

On Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:57:15 -0500, 
in Homebrew Digest #5816 (March 31, 2011)
Mike Patient wrote:

>I've read some great things about brew water profiling here on the HBD.
>I am wondering what tools home brewers have access to for this.
>What will I need? (Other than knowledge)
>What is cost effective?
>What is the best out there?
>I could just research options, but I want to know what is practical and
>accessable.

Knowing the hardness and alkalinity of your feedwater and
your actual brewing water is pretty much fundamental.  I'm
not an enthusiast of attempts to duplicate foreign brew-water
profiles, but I do like to bring down the residual
alkalinity, to improve extract yield.

The LaMotte test kits - 4824-DR for Hardness and 4491-DR for
Alkalinity - that I get from <pollardwater.con> seem to offer
the best balance of economy and precision.  You can get much
cheaper stuff in the aquarium supply section of WalMart
(Seachem, RedSea, and the like), but precision is reduced.  

My American Marine "Pinpoint" pH meter is entering its second
decade and still calibrates ok - though the current electrode
(the third) is getting very slow and will probably get the
boot soon.  I got it from a now-defunct pet store here in
Berkshire County.

The only additives needed for my purposes are slaked lime
(Mrs Wages' Pickling Lime) and calcium chloride (from ESV
Aquarium Products, <esvco.com>.)  I strongly suspect that the
DowFlake CaCl I spread on my porch steps is perfectly safe to
brew with, but what the hell.

For brew-water casks the Gamma Plastics <gamma2.net> Vittles
Vault line is hard to beat.  The original VV's have a better
form factor, but the VVII's are translucent and their regular
shape makes it easier to mark their fill levels.  The VVII's
nest-stack for storage, but their material is a little more
brittle than the older models.  I use two 1-gallon VVII's for
brew water casks and regular VV's for fermenters.

As to the "I could brew a perfect Sammagoo clone if only I
could duplicate Pasig River water" trope, I think the real
goal is to learn what actually goes into the target brewer's
tun, not what comes out of the municipal tap - a difficult
task.


hth,  stencil



Return to table of contents

---