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


Contents:
  Re: low yield (Desmond Mottram)
  Dry yeast recommendations (Tom Maszerowski)
  brewpubs in Berzerkley??? ("Spencer W. Thomas")
  Looking for a recipe (sami)
  The Birmingham Brewery (Guy D. McConnell)
  WYEAST CA Common (JOHNREED)
  First Mash (Ruth Mazo Karras)
  chillers (korz)
  Re: DMS and counter flow chillers.  (Larry Barello)
  Re: More on hop backs. Mash effieciency. (Larry Barello)
  Ants on hops... (Dave Platt)
  Availability of acid carboys in California (No more?) (Matt Titus)
  McEwan's India Pale (PIERCE)
  Business sponsorship of brew clubs? (Stephen Russell)
  Hop plants and the wind! (Nick Zentena)
  Cleaning hop residue (BOB JONES)
  A series of questions on Sparging (oehler)
  trouble with a roto keg (John Williams)
  First All grain, Low Yield (Charles Anderson)


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

Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 10:06:12 BST
From: des at pandora.swindon.ingr.com (Desmond Mottram)
Subject: Re: low yield

I missed Gordon's original post, so these details are snarfed from Jack's 
reply. Gordon says:

> I posted here about 2 months ago complaining about low yield. The
> general concensus was to slow down my sparge, and that helped, but I am
> still not up to where I think I should be. Here are the details:
>  
>  8 lb klages
>  .5 lb munich
>  .5 lb crystal
>  
> I use a one step infusion mash at 155 for 45 minutes.
>  
> The starting gravity is 1.036 and finishing is 1.006. With 9 lb
> of grain I think I should be getting around 1.040.
>  

I'd expect to get still more than that. I mash in three gallons, sparge 
with three gallons, and with 9lb of grain usually get around 5.5 gallons at 
1042. Based on what the books say I would say I have room for yet further 
improvement.

I've also had problems with poor yield and was interested in the replies. 
All I'd agree with:

Jason says check the pH. Dead right. The enzymes will slow unless you get 
it right. Check what the correct figures should be because I'm going from 
memory here, but I think you need to be between 5.0 and 5.5. Lower pH 
favours one enzyme, alpha amylase I think. Higher pH favours the other.

Kinney says the temp is a mite too high. I agree, 155 is fine for starting 
but you might do well to drop it to 150 after starch conversion, to assist 
the beta amylase.

Then Kinney says 45 mins is not really long enough. I think he has put his 
finger right on your problem here. I find 45 mins nowhere near enough when 
mashes are being stubborn. The greatest amount of conversion happens early,
yes, but you need at least 30 mins more for dextrins to convert to maltose 
and to wring the rest of the starch from the grains. On occasions when I've
reluctantly had to make do with poorly crushed grain, the mash has taken 
over 4 hours. Dave Line even suggests mashing overnight! My next move in 
your situation Gordon would be to double the mash time to 1.5 hours. 
Furthermore, if your temp and pH are a bit off you will need more time 
still.

Lastly Kinney suggests a sparge bag. Yes again, I wouldn't be without mine.

Desmond Mottram.

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 08:45:47 EDT
From: tcm at moscom.com (Tom Maszerowski)
Subject: Dry yeast recommendations

  I was in my one of my local homebrew outlets (Maier's in Webster, NY) this
weekend looking for nothing in particular when I happened to notice that the
yeast selection was terrible. Maier's at one time was a distributor of MeV
(sp?) liquid cultures but since they have stopped production Maier's no longer
has any liquid yeast. I have used Whitbread dry yeast in the past with
excellent results but now I hear that it is no longer being produced. I prefer
to use dry yeasts because my brewing schedule is at best haphazard, I usually
can't plan more than a day ahead. My question is: is there a good, generally
clean ale yeast available in dry form or will I be forced to go to Wyeast?

Tom
- -----
Tom Maszerowski    tcm at moscom.com   
                   {rit,tropix,ur-valhalla}!moscom!tcm
                   DoD#1957 (1987 BMW K75s)


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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 09:44:13 EDT
From: "Spencer W. Thomas" <Spencer.W.Thomas at med.umich.edu>
Subject: brewpubs in Berzerkley???

I'm going to be in Berkeley, CA in a couple of weeks.  My brewpub list
shows
(a message from Thode, 1990)
	Triple Rock on Shattuck near University
	Golden Gate Brewery "Near the waterfront"
	Bison Brewing Co. at 2598 Telegraph
The Institute of Brewing Studies list (posted July 1991) omits the
Golden Gate Brewery. Probably closed, I guess.  Any other
recommendations, or is that it?

=S

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 09:11:01 -0800
From: sami at scic.intel.com
Subject: Looking for a recipe

I have brewed a couple of weissen beers and they were great. recently I was
reading Dave Miller's book and he mentioned a hefeweissen. What's the
difference? Does anyone have recipe that I can use? Neither Miller nor
Papazian have one listed that I could find.

Also, John Otten asked about priming with DME: I use approximately 1-1/2
cups to prime and it seems to work fine.

Sam Israelit
Engineer, Businessman, . . . Brewer
Portland, OR


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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 9:51:31 CDT
From: guy at mspe5.b11.ingr.com (Guy D. McConnell)
Subject: The Birmingham Brewery

    The following AP article appeared in Sunday's Huntsville Times:

Birmingham Brewery has sellout debut

    Until last weekend, beer brewed in Birmingham went down the drain.  But 
Red Mountain Red Ale had a better fate.

    Birmingham Brewing Co. offered the beer for the first time at the City
Stages music festival, which began last Friday night in Birmingham.  By 9 p.m.
Saturday, the brewery had sold the last of its intitial production of 1,147
gallons.

    "It was a big deal for us, a big deal for Alabama," said John Zanteson,
head brewer.  "We worked until 3 a.m. Friday morining filling kegs."

    The brewery is the first in Birmingham since 1907, when politicians banned
alcohol and forced the original Birmingham Brewing Co. to pour 300 barrels of
beer into the street.

    The brewery is one of a growing number of microbreweries that each produce
a few thousand gallons a year.  Today, there are more than 200, many in 
California and the Pacific Northwest, Zanteson said.

    Officials at the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board said Birmingham
Brewing Co. is the first microbrewery in the state, although there has been 
talk of starting one in Mobile.

    Zanteson worked for a microbrewery in California (Hopland, ed.) before
joining the Birmingham firm.  It began building its brewery in February and
has been installing equipment to brew the ale and a lager.  The lager takes
longer to go through the fermentation, Zanteson said.

    The company is owned by Lee Nicholson, the brewmaster, and Ben Hogan, a
Birmingham attorney.

- -- 
Guy McConnell
guy at mspe5.b11.ingr.com

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 10:32:01 EDT
From: JOHNREED at BOSTON.VNET.IBM.COM
Subject: WYEAST CA Common

A couple of days ago, Russ posted a question about WYEAST California
Common Beer (aka Steam Beer yeast).  Well, I just brewed my second batch
using it, and I can say that it produces clean beer.  Probably my best batch
so far.

Here are a couple of items I noticed.  During primary fermentation at 65 F.
a sulphur-like odor emanated from the airlock.  This went away after a day or
two.  After secondary fermentation of 3 weeks, I bottled and noticed no
off flavors or odors.  But when I sampled a bottle (admittedly soon--after 6
days) I again noticed the sulphur smell.  Now, however, three weeks since
bottling, it's very clean with no suphur smell.  It's a light bodied beer
(too light for a steam beer, IMHO) based on Papazian's first "The Sun Has
Left Us On Time" recipe.  There is a citrus (grapefruit-like) flavor
which might be from the Cascade hops.  I'm not sure.  It could also be
from the 2 oz of loose K Goldings I used to dry hop.

My second batch is in the secondary now.  This time, however, I used
Papazian's second "The Sun Has...." recipe.  The difference is that it calls
for a lot more Alexander's Pale extract.  This recipe should be truer to
the Anchor Steam style with more body.

At any rate, the WYEAST seems to be a good strain.  The second batch, by the
way, did not produce that sulphur odor as a by-product.  Something I did or
maybe just more nutrients available for the yeast with a higher OG?

 -JR

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Date: 29 Jun 92 11:21:11 EST
From: Ruth Mazo Karras <RKARRAS at PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: First Mash

     Well I did my first mash yesterday.  It was surprisingly
easy, considering that I needed to fabricate my mash/lauter tun
and wort chiller.  Here is what I did.

     For a mash/lauter tun I used a five gallon cylindrical water
cooler, Rubbermaid Gott brand.  These are available at Sears and
home center stores and maybe K-Mart.  I got mine in New Jersey,
but they are available closer to Philadelphia.  About $20.  I did
not get the squarish Coleman brand, though, because it would not
work as well with my sparge system described below.  I also got a
plastic drum tap from Home Sweet Homebrew (HSH) in Philadelphia
for a couple of dollars.  Then I unscrewed the push button tap on
the Gott cooler, using a pencil soldering iron I melted a larger
opening in the outer wall of the cooler where the tap is inserted
and scraped away the insulation from between the walls.  I had to
enlarge the opening in the inner wall of the cooler, but much
less than the outer wall.  The drum tap then screws into position
with the two washers supplied and a bit of formable washer (a
thin strip of sealing compound used to pack leaky faucets).  The
washers may be enough, but my inner hole was not quite circular
and I feared a leak during the mash.  I may seal the whole thing
with silicone sealant if I ever get a leak, but for now the tap
is removable.

     To complete the mash/lauter tun setup, I set into the bottom
of the tun a vegetable steamer of the sort that opens like petals
of a flower.  It is designed to hold vegetables in a pot of
boiling water about 1/2" off the bottom of the pot.  It costs
about $10 at HSH, but got mine on a whim at Ikea in Plymouth
Meeting a while ago for about $2.  It is made of stainless steel.
Finally, I got a nylon grain bag at HSH for about $10 that fits
inside the tun.

     The wort chiller was really easy.  I got 20 feet of L 3/8"
O.D. refrigerator copper tubing at Hechingers in Narberth for
about $12 and, for about $2.50, a compression fitting that takes
the tubing to 1/2" threads and an adapter that then goes to 3/4"
garden hose size (which connects to the adapter on my kitchen
faucet that I got with my bottle washer).  Before installing the
fittings, I re-coiled the tubing around the outside of a pot that
was smaller than my brew kettle and then bent the ends up into an
inverted "J" so drips from any fittings fall outside the brew
kettle.  On the intake side I used a spare washing machine hose
and on the discharge side I stuck some old siphon hose over the
tubing (it was a tight fit).

     I then dumped 7-1/2 lbs. of my pre-crushed British 2-row
grain and 1/2 lb. of 40 L. pre-crushed British crystal malt into
the grain bag in the tun (which sits on top of the steamer),
turned the tap off, and put in two gallons of 170 F. water.  (I
used the water charts for a single step infusion mash from
Papazian's book.)  Stirred vigorously and checked that my mash
temperature was between 150 and 155 F. (I hit about 151 F.)  I
did an iodine test (it worked!), screwed the top of the tun on
and let it work for about 90 minutes.

     After mashing, I drained the first runnings from the tun and
added 4 gallons of boiling water, stirred again, and let sit for
30 minutes.  I then drained off the second runnings and proceeded
as I have with extract brews.  This simple "mash out and sparge"
technique seemed to work well, although I have not calculated
efficiency.  I will try to measure that next time when I have a
better idea what I am doing and do not need to make up the tun
and the like.  George at HSH suggested that to sparge in this
setup a colander could be set over the top of the tun to spread
out the sparge water as it is poured in.  I hope the easy
"sparge" will be sufficient, and not release too many tannins
from the hulls of the grain.  Since I read about this technique
in HBD, I would be interested to hear about your experiences with
it.º

Chris Karras  (RKarras at PennSAS.UPenn.edu)

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 11:37 CDT
From: korz at iepubj.att.com
Subject: chillers

The original poster, accidentally wrote "immersion" instead of "counterflow"
in his post, but that's it.  For the record, there are basically two major
types of wort chillers used by homebrewers:

1. Immersion -- run cool water (usually tapwater) through a coil of tubing
which is immersed in the kettle of hot wort.  A water-saving option is to
use a pump and recirculate icewater through the coil.  Some immersion chillers
have an pre-chilling stage in which the tapwater runs through an additional
coil first which is submerged in a tank of icewater.
Advantages are: lower cost, most cold break left in kettle, easier to hit
pitching temperature, and the surface that touches the wort is visible and
thus easily cleanable.
Disadvantages: entire volume of wort (simultaneoulsy) cools slowly, efficiency
dependent on tapwater temperature (i.e. not efficient in say, Florida, where
the tapwater is not cold), and there is a slightly higher risk of infection
since the wort spends more time between boiling and pitching temperatures.

2. Counterflow -- tube-in-hose chiller.  Hot wort is siphoned or pumped through
a tube which is surrounded by a hose carrying cool water (usually tapwater).
Again, a water saving option is to recirculate icewater through the hose.
Another option, which is based upon the same principle, is to substitute a
bucket of icewater for the hose -- basically siphoning or pumping hot wort
through a coil submerged in a bucket of icewater.  The plate chiller which
many brewpubs and micros use is a version of this type (some also use glycol
for coolant).
Advantages: wort cools (serially) suddenly (better cold break), higher
efficiency even with warmer tapwaters, and slightly less chance of infection
since the wort immediately goes from boiling to pitching temperature.
Disadvantages: higher cost, cold break separation requires additional siphoning
or filtration, wort outlet temperature more difficult to predict and adjust,
and (unless you use a pump) requires you to siphon boiling wort.

For more information, see Zymurgy - "Brewer's and Thier Gadgets" and Jeff
Frane's paper in the 1992 AHA Conference Proceedings.  There was also an
article on Wort Chillers in one of the last two issues of Zymurgy.

I use an immersion chiller mostly because I, personally, don't like the idea
of siphoning 200F wort and feel its easier to use.

NOTE: From Jeff's session at the Conference I learned that cold break really
begins at 65F, which is a little colder than I would like for pitching temp.
What I plan to start doing, is to cool down to 60F and then turn on the
hot water to bring the wort back to 70F.  Try *that* with a counterflow chiller!

Al.

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 09:43:59 PDT
From: polstra!larryba at uunet.UU.NET (Larry Barello)
Subject: Re: DMS and counter flow chillers. 

Russ Gelinas writes:
>
>   I've got some question that pertain to chillers, hopping, and all
>this sort of stuff we've been talking about.  Isn't it a good idea to
>allow the steam from the hot wort to escape to disperse DMS (dimethtyl
>sulfide, the cooked vegetable smell)?  If so, do you counterflow-chiller 
>users wait a while before you start chillin'?  How long is "long enough"?
>
Per George Fix, in "The Principles of Brewing Science", DMS precursors
have a 45 minute half life at boiling temperatures.  DMS is volatile and
is quickly removed in the vapors of your boiling wort.  A typical American
2 row malt will have the precursors reduced below the sensory threshold
after 2 or three half lifes.  I guess that is why a 90 minute boil is
a good thing.  Anyway, the conversion of precursors to DMS halts when
the wort is chilled.  So all that is needed is to have the hot wort vented
until chilled.  

In my case, I put the lid on my wort until ready to chill (about 10 minutes
waiting for the swirling to stop) and I had a pretty consistent DMS 
problem.  Since leavign the top off my kettle, I have not had a problem.

 - Larry Barello

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 09:33:14 PDT
From: polstra!larryba at uunet.UU.NET (Larry Barello)
Subject: Re: More on hop backs. Mash effieciency.

Kinney Baughman writes:
>And Gordon worries about the low yield of his mashes:
>
>>I use a one step infusion mash at 155 for 45 minutes. 
>
>Mashing at 155 will not convert as many of the sugars as would mashing 
>at 150.  Mashing at 155 will promote a dextrinish wort.  You'll miss 
>the maltose since the enzymes for converting these are inactive if not 
>destroyed at the higher temps.
>
Many breweries mash around 156-160 and seem to get decent beers/conversion
times.  Regardless of the dextrine maltose balance, the OG should be pretty
consistent.  
>
>>Sparge now takes about 45 minutes to complete.  
>
>That's plenty of time.

As I posted, recently, I did a quick sparge of 20 minutes and achieved 
my target OG based upon the extract yields quoted by Dave Miller.  45 
minutes, indeed is plenty of time.

Cheers!

 - Larry Barello

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 10:14:29 PDT
From: dplatt at ntg.com (Dave Platt)
Subject: Ants on hops...

>                             It might be a good idea to look closely
> for aphids if ants are observed on the hop vines, and treat accordingly.
> Ladybugs are hell on aphids, if you can convince them to hang around.

The best way I've found to encourage ladybugs is to plant some cilentro
(coriander, Chinese parsley) in the garden.  Adult ladybugs feed on nectar,
and seem to prefer the small, compound flowers found on plants in the carrot
family.  They seem quite partial to cilentro flowers;  fennel, dill, and
other members of that clan should work out well, also.

I used to have aphids in my garden every summer, and I rarely saw any
ladybugs.  Since I started planting some cilentro around the edges of
the garden, I've had ladybugs, and no aphid problems.  My experience
seems to match that of other gardeners... if you plant annuals which
attract beneficial insects, you'll have fewer pest problems.

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 10:42:09 PDT
From: dcdwest!titus at UCSD.EDU (Matt Titus)
Subject: Availability of acid carboys in California (No more?)



	Has anyone had difficulty getting hold of 7 gallon sulphuric acid carboys?
The proprietor of the local brew shop claimed that none had been available
for four months.  He said that a new law has been passed that requires users
of such carboys to recycle them.  Apparently acid carboys were used once and
then thrown away, which accounts for their wide availablity.  Note that this
(possibly inaccurate) data point comes from San Diego.  What's the scoop?
Have the reagent distributors changed the material used to make carboys?
Are there still glass carboys available for purchase by homebrewers, and if
so, is the price still reasonable?  Was this guy full of it?

	Not worrying,

	Matt Titus

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 10:53 PDT
From: PIERCE%GONZAGA.BITNET at CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu
Subject: McEwan's India Pale

Our favorite local establishment has been serving McEwan's India Pale Ale
on tap and it is simply fantastic!  If anyone out there has tried it and
come up with a recipe that even comes close I would love to get it so we
can try our hand at it.  Thanks
Linda Pierce


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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 13:51:59 EDT
From: srussell at msc.cornell.edu (Stephen Russell)
Subject: Business sponsorship of brew clubs?

Homebrew club members,

Does your club solicit local businesses as sponsors?

I am seeking to boost our own club's revenue (the Ithaca Brewers' Union,
or IBU) by getting local businesses to become club sponsors.  I would
like to get advice from other clubs in order to avoid reinventing the wheel.

Among the ways I envision this being done:


1) Providing club meeting space.

	Our club meets at the local brewpub, which saves us $ we might need
	to pay at another place, so this is a form of sponsorship we have
	at the present time.

2) Donation of merchandise (or cash) for raffles or competition winners.

	We did this at our spring competition; the local homebrew shop 
	donated merchandise and two local retailers -- one a restaurant, 
	the other the brewpub mentioned earlier -- donated cash for ribbons.

3) Donation of beer for tastings.

	I don't know about the legality of this one, but I am considering
	it for future IBU tastings.  Basically, if a local retailer
	donates 3 or 4 six-packs to the club, we turn around and hold
	a tasting of 3-4 commercial and 3-5 homebrews and charge a nominal
	fee.  The club keeps the proceeds.  The quid pro quo for the 
	retailer is that the club members are informed of who provided
	the beer (and therefore know where to get more of the same).
	Anyone do something like this?  Is it legal?
	
	By the way, right now we hold tastings like this and charge a
	nominal fee, but we go out and buy the beer from a retailer
	instead of getting it donated.  I realize that the tasting itself
	is probably illegal, but what about the retalier's donation?

4) Direct, unspecified sponsorship.

	Give the club $ (I'd like to hear what is reasonable) outright
	and get listed as a sponsor in the club newsletter.  Annual basis.

5) Newsletter advertisement.

	I've seen this in certain club newsletters but also know of
	many clubs that have a stated policy of not taking ads.  Does
	your club do this?  If not, why not?  If so, how much/page?


Obviously, some of these our club has tried, but I would like to hear
what your club does.  Please send me e-mail directly (srussell at msc.cornell.edu
or srussell at crnlmsc2.bitnet) and I will collect, edit and post if there
seems to be sufficient interest.

Thanks very much,

STEVE




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Date: 	Mon, 29 Jun 1992 14:41:31 -0400
From: Nick Zentena <zen%hophead at canrem.com>
Subject: Hop plants and the wind!

Hi,
        My hops seem to take a beating every time the wind
        kicks up. I've had laterals broken and even on one
        day the leader snapped off one vine-(. So is there
        anything I can do to minimize this? Do you tie the
        laterals? Should I just learn to live with it?
        Nick

*****************************************************************************
I drink Beer I don't collect cute bottles!
zen%hophead at canrem.com
*****************************************************************************

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1992 11:04 PDT
From: BOB JONES <BJONES at NOVAX.llnl.gov>
Subject: Cleaning hop residue

Does anyone know of a chemical that will cut the hop residue inside a
blowoff tube. The residue is very sticky hop oils and I just usually
soak it in bleach solution over night. The stuff is still there but
I figure nothing would grow on it anyway. Sure would be nice to really
clean it occasionally.

Bob Jones



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Date:  Mon, 29 Jun 92 09:50:36 EDT
From: oehler at smpvax.dnet.ge.com
Subject: A series of questions on Sparging

Good Morning All,

I have a question regarding sparging.  I've been brewing extract for four
years now and recently attempted my first all grain.  Everything went fine,
and the stout was excellent, but I'm not sure we sparged correctly.  Here's
what we did:

After the conversion we added about about 2 gallons of 170 F water to a Zap-
Ap (Bucket w/ holes in a bucket type) lauter tun.  We spooned in the mash
from the Brew Kettle being certain that the water was always above the grain.
When all of the mash was in the lauter tun, we sprinkled the remaining sparge
water on top.  We opened up the spigot on the bottom bucket and let the wort
flow out.  When all of the wort was filtered through the grains we had about
5 1/2 gallons. The mash used 10 lbs grain, and the wort had a 1.048 SG.  We 
placed this on the stove and boiled.

I have recently aquired a 48 qt cooler to use as a mash and lauter tun, so
I will no longer need transfer the mash.  Also, I've heard a lot about sparging
slowly lately, so I'll go slower next time.

I'm soon to brew again, but would like more info on sparge techniques.  Does
the above procedure sound reasonable?  Does the wort get run through the lauter
tun a second (or third) time to extract more of the sugar?   Does all
of the sparge water get added to the grain at once?  Do I need to try to keep 
the sparge water hot throughout the process to stop conversion or ease 
extraction of the sugars? Am I missing anything?  


Better Living through Brewing,

Pete Oehler
GE CR&D

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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 20:57:42 EDT
From: jwilliam at uhasun.hartford.edu (John Williams)
Subject: trouble with a roto keg

Hi

	I have a question for anyone with experience with Roto kegs.  I
got a spherical one for my birthday.  It had a strong plastic smell like
it had been closed up for a long time.  I followed the directions for
sterilizing and getting rid of the odor; 24 hour soak in a strong TSP solution.
I did not smell the plastic odor when I rinsed it out; so I put 5
gallons of I.P.A. in to ferment.  I just tasted it tonight and the beer
tastes fine except for a pronounced plastic taste.

	So I have two questions.  Is there any hope for the beer now in
the keg?  Will the taste go away or get stronge?  If not, I'll just
pitch it to experience.  Secondly, how do you get the smell out of the
keg?  It will work great for me once it stops ruining the beer.

	Thanks in advance for the ade.


					John


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Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 17:49:27 CDT
From: caa at com2serv.c2s.mn.org (Charles Anderson)
Subject: First All grain, Low Yield

I made my first attempt at an All-Grain brew yesterday using a simple
recipe from Cat's Meow 2, which was 8lbs of British Pale, 1lb of British
Crystal, 3oz Fuggles, and 1oz of Willamette.  I mashed for 90mins w/2.25 gals
in my electrim-bin, and I had a hell of a time getting the temp to stay constant
at 150.  This was a single step infusion mash, I think my temps varied from
about 145 to 160, with various hot spots around the heating element.  I'm
not sure how long the sparge ran, about an hour maybe with 4.5 gals, of
water that I started with at about 170, but by the time I was done had
probably cooled to 140 or so.  After boiling 60mins I had about 4-4.5 gallons
(should I have sparged more?) and a SG of 1.040.  After sparging the grains
at the top of the grain bed were still pretty sweet while the ones in the
middle were not.  My questions are how do you keep the temp consistant, 
and is it really important to keep it exactly on target?  I stirred every
10 mins or so, and for a while it stayed at around 150 maybe the first 1/2
hour, then it cooled off, and I cranked up the temp some to try to get it
to recover.  Should my sparge water be boiling when I start, TCJOHB says
170, does it matter?  When it was all done it looked kind of cloudy, but
smelled great.  I'm not worrying, just wondering, trying to make my next
batch better.

 -Charlie
- -- 
/-Charles-Anderson-\   | caa at c2s.mn.org
\------------------/   | Com Squared Systems,          voice (612) 452-9522
The rose goes in front | 1285 Corporate Center Drive    fax  (612) 452-3607
big guy -Crash Davis   | Suite 170 | Eagan,  MN 55121  (I speak for myself)



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End of HOMEBREW Digest #913, 06/30/92