---

	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
		Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of 
		Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
				URL: http://www.oeonline.com


Contents:
  re: Oxygenation/Rye ("Timmons, Frank")
  Alts and Munich malt (Al Korzonas)
  Re: floating phil ("Andrew Avis")
  Pronunciations ad nauseum ("Brad McMahon")
  I feel your pain... (Eric.Fouch)
  Blue Ridge Brewing (Eric.Fouch)
  A quiet milestone (Charlie Papazian)
  Creating a standard recipe exchange format ("Tim Dallmann")
  Step Infusion Mash vs. RIMS type system Temperature Ramp Rate (CRHammond)
  Christmas Cards (BrwrOfBeer)
  "Pure brewed, double brewed..." (Donald Beistle)
  malted rice (JohanNico)" <JohanNico.Aikema at akzonobel.com>
  Re: prounoucing SAAZ ("Chuck Mryglot")
  RE: Air Stones ("David Root")
  Re:  Lambics on side or upright ("J. Matthew Saunders")
  limit repeated text in reply ("Paul E. Lyon")
  RE: Does Oxygenation with O2 increase lag time? (Matt Comstock)
  Re: Pa Brewpubs ("Jim Busch")
  Pocket Beer Engine, was: Light beer fix? (Jeff Renner)
  ALUMINUM ("Dave Olson")
  Yeast do NOT fix nitrogen. (Domenick Venezia)
  Yeast utilizing N2 ("George De Piro")
  Re: ld? (fwd) (Jim Liddil)
  Electrical wiring 101 (Jeremy Bergsman)
  Oxygen, nitrogen, and yeast... (ALAN KEITH MEEKER)
  plambic hops (Matthew Arnold)
  Labels --- the solution (Danny Breidenbach)
  Re: Phil's Phalse Bottom (Mark E. Lubben)


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


Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 13:45:00 -0700 
From: "Timmons, Frank" <Frank.Timmons at alliedsignal.com>
Subject: re: Oxygenation/Rye

In HBD 2889, William W. Macher wrote asking about O2 oxygenation of wort
increasing his lag times. I'm no expert on the subject either, but I think
that you may be overdoing the O2 a little. My el cheapo system with the
disposable bottle says to run the O2 for 2 bursts of 20 to 30 seconds each.
I have heard that excessive oxygen can greatly increase lag times, and may
be toxic to the yeast.

On another subject, I brewed my rye beer last week, with 50% rye malt. Used
a 108/122/150/168 schedule with 1 lb of rice hulls and had no problems with
stuck runoff. It was no worse, or slower than any wheat beer I have brewed.

Frank Timmons
Richmond, Va


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Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 13:11:16 -0600 (CST)
From: Al Korzonas <korz at xnet.com>
Subject: Alts and Munich malt

Jeff writes:
>Troy Hager <thager at bsd.k12.ca.us
> 
>>I too have been rereading all the great posts about alt brewing and am
>>getting ready to brew one soon. I have decided to do a single decoction and
>>use 100% Weyermanns Dark Munich malt.
><snip>
> 
>That will be too dark by a good bit.  Alts are dark copper to light brown
>(excepting Sticke).  Dornbusch's book (despite its shortcomings pointed out
>here) gives only one all-Munich recipe - one that uses an unusually light
>Munich at 6.5L.  I'm not sure how dark Weyermann's dark Munich is, but I
>think it's at least double that.  Durst's is16L.  I used 100% Durst dark
>Munich for a Dunkel and it is a deep brown (and very good).  Decoction will
>make it even darker.
> 
>I'd suggest regular Munich (~8L)  and some Vienna (~3.5L) or Pils (~1.4L),
>but I hasten to admit that I've had only one authentic Alt (swingtop hand
>carried from D'dorf).  Save the dark Munich for Dunkels or Bocks.

Hmmm... I used between 8 and 8.5 pounds of Weyermann Dark Munich and
1 pound of DeWolf-Cosyns Aromatic (25L) in an infusion mash and got
a very nice Duesseldorfer Altbier whose colour was in range for the style.
I even compared it to Zum Uerige side-by-side and the colour was very
close.  Dusseldorfer Altbiers really can get as dark as "brown."  I don't
recall how dark the Weyermann Dark Munich is in Lovibond or EBC.  I have
it on paper at home.

I agree with Jeff, however, that the decoction would darken the beer and
if I were doing a decoction, I'd use between 9 and 9.5# of the Dark
Munich and leave out the Aromatic.

Al.

Al Korzonas, Palos Hills, IL
korz at xnet.com
http://www.brewinfo.com/brewinfo/


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Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 11:49:10 -0500
From: "Andrew Avis" <Andrew.Avis.aavis at nt.com>
Subject: Re: floating phil

Several people have offered solutions to the phloating phalse bottom
syndrome (PPBS).  I haven't seen this one yet, which I have used with much
success.  Obtain about 35-40" of high pressure food grade hose (this is
semi-clear, re-enforced with nylon braiding - available bulk at Home Depot
etc).  You'll have to measure the circumference of the false bottom, I can't
remember what it is exactly.  Cut the hose to this length, soften it in hot
water, and then slit it length-wise.  Wrap the hose around the edge of the
phalse bottom, and voila, you've got a "gasket" that fits the Gott cooler
bottom perfectly.

I have digital pictures of my PPBS solution, but no web site to put them on.
Does anyone want them?

Regards,
Drew in Calgary (2000 km? NW of Jeff Renner)

Andrew Avis
Technical Writer, Nortel Terminals Documentation
ESN 775-7393


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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 07:24:12 +0930
From: "Brad McMahon" <brad at sa.apana.org.au>
Subject: Pronunciations ad nauseum

>>Otherwise! I've not it heard pronounced either way.
>>In German the double a is pronounced like a long a in English,
>>as in car, far, and guitar. The s is pronounced as a z
>>so the the word sounds like: zarz.

>The "ar" pronounciation of broad a is a peculiarity of
>Australian English. Most others pronounce it as "ah".
>(Dialectical differences used to drive me nuts...)

Dialectical differences continue to drive me nuts :-)
I would argue that it is not a peculiarity of Australian English per 
se, rather that it is a peculiarity of most U.S. accents to vocalise 
the "r" for much longer than in UK/Aus English.
But yes I stand corrected (for US audiences at least :-)  )

>In German, "a" is pronounced "ah", and double a is similar, but
>a bit broader.  English lost lengthened vowels soon after the
>Norman Conquest.

Damned Frogs! Actually there are quite a few lengthened vowels in 
English, but I guess that depends on accent again. The a in "Father"
springs to mind.

>The Germans would pronounce "Saaz" as "zahtz", but I doubt that
>the word is German.

Yes, that's probably more correct. Spencer Thomas also corrected me 
on this privately. the z is a tz sound in High German. However, my 
accent is largely Bavarian, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
The word Saaz is German though. In western Bohemia, there are many 
ethnic Germans (part of the excuse for German invasion in '38), so 
there are many place names which have both German  and Czech names.
eg. Plzen/Pilsen, Karlovy Vary/Karlsbad, Cesky Budejovicky/Budweis, 
and Zatec/Saaz.

>BTW, the Germans call Australia "OWZ-trahl-ee-en" (or sometimes
>"owz-TRAHL-ee-en").

Actually, both are fairly close to the mark :-)
It is of course, Ah-STRAY-lya(n)
One thing we hate  though is some Americans' pronunciation of Aussie.
It is Ozzie not Oss-sea.. but I digress...

>So, is "FAWS-tahs" *really* "aws-TRAYL-yin for bee-uh"?

Actually no, unless you go overseas where the ads tell you that.
In any case the Fosters avail. in the U.S. is brewed for that market, 
same as the Asian version is different and the U.K. version is as 
well from the domestic version.
Fosters is only drunk in New South Wales. Unlike the U.S. where 
big breweries are popular nationally, Australians are still very 
pariochial about their beer and drink their local state beer.

All the best,

Brad


Brad McMahon
brad at sa.apana.org.au


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Date: 1 Dec 1998 16:17:41 -0500
From: Eric.Fouch at steelcase.com
Subject: I feel your pain...



From: Redholling at aol.com
Subject: I think I can...I think I can...

Brewrus (that would be brewing gurus),
  I apalogize for bothering the masses again with my cider with preservatives
= crappy fermentation problem again, but while my local brew shops are very
curtious in their attempts to help me I find they know two things about making
cider; jack and sh*#. To bring you up-to-date: I'm making a cider with 4
gallons of apple cider (w/ potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and malic acid),
4 lbs of brown sugar boiled in 1.5 G water, and 1 pk wine yeast. O.G.=1.052.
After 4 days of no airlock action I repitched same brand wine yeast. For next
7 days I got airlock bubbles anywhere from once a minute to once per 20
seconds. So after 11 days total in primary I racked over to secondary on top
of another wine yeast pack boiled in a cup of water (as nutrient). The gravity
was still 1.052!?!

Hey Red-
I did pretty much the same thing last year:  I accidently bought preserved
cider, and to four gallons added 5 pounds of honey and a couple of cans of AJ
concentrate.  Innoculated with Widmere Hefe yeast. Nothing.  A few days later,
threw in a different yeast.   A little activity.  About 20 pts. worth, then
nothing.  A month or so later, I racked off a gallon, and added back a gallon
of AJ.  Not much happened.  Another month later, I bottled a gallon of it and
added another gallon of AJ.  It finally took off, but by then, it had such a
funky taste due to the two months of sitting around.....I could only dump it.
The only thing I HAVE EVER DUMPED.  It was that bad.  I tried flavoring
aliquots of it with different combinations of spices and acids and juices to
cover up or play off the funky taste, and made my buddies try it during the
intermissions of last years Stanley Cup Playoffs.   No Go.  Dumped.

My advice to you would be to rack off two gallons now, and replace it with two
new gallons of fresh unpreserved cider and honey or brown sugar, whatever and
it should take off.  You might be able to dilute the two gallons with ten
pounds of honey diluted up to two gallons with water and make a cyser.  The
problem is definitely the preservative concentration.  Overpowering with
massive doses of yeast won't do it, as previously suggested.  Sorry I didn't
answer sooner, but I've been gone.

I currently did the same recipe as last years dumpfest using FRESH cider from
a guy who squeezed it himself: adding the honey, AJ concentrate and Widmere
Hefe yeast, and It's been going great guns.  I did a half gallon spontaneous
also (after bringing it back from deer camp, the jug was swelled, so I put an
airlock on it) just for funsies.

Keep me posted!

Eric Fouch
Bent Dick YoctoBrewery
Kentwood MI


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Date: 1 Dec 1998 16:36:47 -0500
From: Eric.Fouch at steelcase.com
Subject: Blue Ridge Brewing


HBD-
Kudos to Blue Ridge Brewing in Greenville SC.
On a family trip to SC for Thanksgiving, I snuck my "joe six- pack" brother in
law out to this fine brewpub for a few pints.
After educating his palate on the sampler at BRB, and a few of my homebrews, I
left him with a desire to start homebrewing.

BRB's had all the typical offerings, an American Wheat, pale ale, bitter,
porter and stout.  All pretty darn good.
They use Wyeast 1968.  My favorite was the APA.  The first time we got the
sampler, the second time a few pints of our favorites.  The samplers all had
good head.  The follow-up pints were relatively headless.  Could have been the
glassware.

The Cajun style Crawdads were wonderfull!

Carry on.

Eric Fouch
Bent Dick YoctoBrewery
Kentwood MI


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Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 16:03:36 -0700
From: Charlie Papazian <charlie at aob.org>
Subject: A quiet milestone

This Saturday, December 5 is the 20th birthday of the American
Homebrewers Association and the first issue of Zymurgy.  

I think I'll have a beer - not just any beer but a homebrew and
personally toast the thousands of homebrewers, clubs, beer enthusiasts
and especially staff and staff volunteers who throughout the years have
put us where we are.  ... And have turned the world onto craft made
beer.
- -- 
Charlie Papazian
President
Association of Brewers            (303) 447-0816 x 111        (voice)
736 Pearl Street                  (303) 447-2825              (fax)
PO Box 1679                       charlie at aob.org             (e-mail)
Boulder, CO  80306-1679           72210.2754 at compuserve.com   (e-mail)
U.S.A.                            http://beertown.org	      (web)


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Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 17:57:02 -0700
From: "Tim Dallmann" <tdallmann at gr.com>
Subject: Creating a standard recipe exchange format

Hi All,

You may recall a while ago I posted a note about trying to come up
with a standard format for exchanging recipes between the various
recipe programs out there.

I have created a mailing list and related web site to handle the
discussion, which has already been joined by about 11 people,
including several who have written their own recipe programs (Mark
Riley's Recipator, Jeffrey Donovan's ProMash, and others who have
written spreadsheet applications).

If you are interested in joining in the discussions, or just watching
to see what happens, go to the following web site to sign up for the
list:

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Facility/8388/

Looking forward to sharing recipes with you all...

Tim Dallmann
Denver, CO




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Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 21:48:19 EST
From: CRHammond at aol.com
Subject: Step Infusion Mash vs. RIMS type system Temperature Ramp Rate

In discussions of RIMS type systems I keep seeing statements that mash
temperature ramp rates should be less than 1 (or 2) degrees F/min or the mash
enzymes will be destroyed.  I have been doing step infusion mashes for several
years where I dump boiling water into my mash to raise its temperature tens of
degrees very quickly.  This corresponds to ramp rates of 10 degrees F/min or
greater.  The Fix's do this in their test mashes in their book "An Analysis of
Brewing Techniques."  Why does this not destroy the enzymes?  I get complete
conversions (iodine test).  What am I missing in my understanding?  Is it that
at the higher ramp rates, RIMS type systems get the recirculating wort too hot
(>170) and thus destroy the enzymes -- in other words, are the high ramp rates
a symptom of something else that also causes enzyme destruction?

On a related note, I used to heat my domestic hot water with a tankless coil
in my oil furnace.  Due to the high mineral content of my water (my tea kettle
furs up), I went with a different system to heat my hot water before the
tankless coil completely scunged up.  I am eyeing this coil as a heat source
to heat my sparge water -- the furnace typically runs between 170 and 190
degrees F.  This could also be the basis for a RIMS type system.  Has anyone
tried anything like this?  I will probably rinse the coil out with an acid
solution (Lactic or Phosphoric) before use to clean out the minerals (CaCO3).

Reif Hammond
Durham, NH


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Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 22:22:10 EST
From: BrwrOfBeer at aol.com
Subject: Christmas Cards

Since it's getting close to chirstmas does anyone know if anyone makes any
christmas cards based on brewing. If so where.
Cheers
BrewerOfBeer


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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 00:44:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Donald Beistle <dbeistle at arches.uga.edu>
Subject: "Pure brewed, double brewed..."

All the talk lately about references to krauesening in beer ads from the
greater Great Lakes region has me reminiscing about my own dissolute
youth. I have to add my voice to fray, affirming that it indeed was
the House of Heileman that touted the benefits of krauesening for its Old
Style brand. Anybody else remember when Old Style was "Pure brewed, double
brewed in the late '70s and early '80s?

By the way, has anyone else noticed a correlation between early exposure
to krauesening-related beer advertising and an interest in the Classic
American Pilsner movement? I know I've got the bug and everyone else
associated with recreating this style seems to hail from Wisconsin or
Michigan.Is there some Proustian compulsion to recapture the Old Styles
and Hubers and Hammeses and Lithias from out of our childhoods driving us
to brew with corn and domestic hops?

Drawing the shades and lining my bedroom with cork in Athens, Georgia

Don Beistle
(20 hours SSE of the land of sky blue waters)



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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 07:08:04 +0100 
From: "Aikema, J.N. (JohanNico)" <JohanNico.Aikema at akzonobel.com>
Subject: malted rice

Hi,

I'm looking for information about (and if possible a supplier of) malted
rice. Does anyone know if malted rice exist? If so, where can I look for
info?
TIA, Hans
http://www.cybercomm.nl/~aikema/index.html      (my homebrewing is
better than my webediting)

Greetings from Holland, Hans Aikema




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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 07:15:37 -0500
From: "Chuck Mryglot" <cmryglot at Progress.com>
Subject: Re: prounoucing SAAZ

Alan Edwards <ale at cisco.com> writes :
>Subject: prounoucing SAAZ
>
>Michael Jackson, in his "BeerHunter" video series pronounced it something
>like ZAHT-zuh, much to my surprise.

That is the correct pronunciation. It is a German word and that is how it is
prounced in German.  The 'S' at the beginning of a word is pronounced as 'Z'
and the 'Z' at the end of a word is pronounced as 'TS'.   So, in English
think "ZAHTS"

Prosit und Zum Wohl

ChuckM





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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 07:28:23 -0500
From: "David Root" <droot at concentric.net>
Subject: RE: Air Stones

Kirk Harralson has a problem with his air stone phloating.  I have had 
bad exp with air stones also.  I've tried to hold them down with a 
spoon, and other ways. Now I just put the O2 in the drain line of my 
Fermenter.  I a m putting in nothing but clean, pure 02.  I used to put 
the O2 into the drain line of my brew kettle, but the action of all the 
bubbles breaks up the hot break and makes cloudy wort.  Now i
wait until the yeast is pitched and then hit it with about 2-3 minutes 
of welding oxyegen.  If too much O2 is used, it seems like lag time is
a little longer, esp with the starter.  O2 Definatly helps get the ferment 
going.  I open ferment in a 1/2 sanky, 11 gallons at a time.  I use a 
gallon starter and O2.  I do not have an infection problem that I can tell.

droot at concentric.net Lockoport NY



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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 08:12:37 -0500
From: "J. Matthew Saunders" <saunderm at vt.edu>
Subject: Re:  Lambics on side or upright

Rob writes:

>While in a lambic frame of mind, what's the general opinion on storage of
>commercial, corked lambics? On their side or upright?

You'll want to keep the cork moist, so on its side is better than upright.
If the bottle is caged, this is pretty much essential if you want to cellar
it for any period of time.  If the bottle is corked then capped (like
Lindemans framboise, kriek, and peche) it probably doesn't matter, but why
take the chance?  Besides, a bunch of lambics on a wine rack looks pretty
cool.

Speaking in the Lambic mode.  I got my mitts on a few bottles of Hanssens
Oude Gueze bottled in 1991.  To my surprise there was no cage on the
bottle, and the neck was chipped like someone took a hammer to it.  Despite
all that, it was probably the best bottle of Gueze I have EVER had.  A pal
of mine and I sat sniffing the stuff for at least 10 minutes before even
sipping.  Not too sour, full of barnyard, fruit esters, leather, moss, and
the list goes on.  Probably the most complex beer I've tasted.  If any you
get a chance to have some (assuming you like lambics), don't hesitate.

Cheers!
Matthew.

===========================================================
The Arts in Technology--Creative Consulting and Contracting

J. Matthew Saunders (540)951-3090
saunderm at vt.edu   http://www.dogstar.org

"We have to work in the theatre of our own time,
with the tools of our own time" --Robert Edmond Jones
===========================================================




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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 08:58:50 -0500
From: "Paul E. Lyon" <lyon at osb1.wff.nasa.gov>
Subject: limit repeated text in reply

Fellow brewers,

    We should try to limit the amount of text copied from the hbd post that
we are replying to so that the same text is not posted over and over.  The
page down key doesn't always solve the problem either.  I have a text reader
that reads the hbd to me while I get other work done, so I have to suffer
through repeated questions hidden in responses to those questions.  Also, we
have that 50K limit for each digest to worry about.  A little cutting will
go a long way :)


Thanks,

 P.E.L.
- -----------------------------------
 - Paul E. Lyon EG&G Services Inc. -
 - Ocean Color Research            -
 - lyon at osb.wff.nasa.gov           -
- -----------------------------------





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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 09:33:43 -0500 
From: Matt Comstock <MComstock at shepherdcolor.com>
Subject: RE: Does Oxygenation with O2 increase lag time?

Ronald La Borde said:

Recently our club had a guest speaker, Henryck Orlick, Brewmaster; Abita
Brewing C0, who gave us some tips on yeast in brewing.  He suggested that
air was better than pure O2 because air contains nitrogen, and it was his
advice that the nitrogen is used by the yeast to some degree as nutrient,
thus air is better, in his opinion, than pure 02.
- ---

Do yeast fix N2?  This paragraph is confusing to me.  What nitrogen source
does the noble yeast use in its life cycle?  Organic amines, NR3, ammonium
ions, NH4+, amino acids,  molecular nitrogen, N2...?

Matt


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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 10:05:18 +0000
From: "Jim Busch" <jim at victorybeer.com>
Subject: Re: Pa Brewpubs

Bob inquires:

<Here in Pennsylvania we are seeing a number of small breweries 
<falling by the wayside. Why? Whats happening? I have been hearing 
<about the "fallout and shakeup" of the breweries for some time now. 
<Is it a matter of getting taps in barrooms and too much competition? 

Each market is a little different but overall we have some common 
factors facing the craft brewing industry.  Right now we see supply 
exceeding demand by a good bit with demand growing but in single 
digit levels per year versus the double digit growth of years past.  
So part of the story is simple business 101 economics.  The other 
part is to distinguish brewpubs from micros/brewery-restaurants or 
just shipping micros.  A pure brewpub has all the same problems as a 
regular restaurant and the failure rate for restaurants is very high, 
in fact much higher than the failure rate for brewpubs.  
Additionally, any brewery is a capital intensive endeavor so you 
have to have a good business sense to properly scale your operation 
to have a large enough brewhouse to meet demand and be profitable but 
not too large that you are forced to service debt greater than the 
cash flow can support.  Too many successful brewers ran out and did 
vast expansions thinking that the lower unit costs will make them 
viable only to find the market share/demand is not there.  Another 
factor is in the current highly competitve marketplace you need all 
three pillars to be fundementally sound, beer formulation/stability, 
artwork/packaging and marketing/distribution.  Add to that a healthy 
dose of business sense and 60+ hour workweeks and you can make a go 
at it.  Dont kid yourself that this is a romantic fun industry 
anymore, it can be but its tons of hard work and sweat equity and you 
have to be very patient to see a return on investment.  In general 
one can do much better in the stock market, at least in the short 
term.  Last year Pa had one of the highest rates of new breweries 
opened and also one of the highest failure rates.  And Pa is somewhat 
unique in that there are strong regional brands competing at an 
attractive price point. 

< Is it the general public tired of paying$3-$4 for a glass of 
<beer?

If its an average or infected beer then yes. 

< Are we to fear the that the great Stoudts or the wonderful 
<Victory (both in PA) will follow the lead of these other brew 

Victory is alive and well and growing, albeit at a deliberate 
sustainable pace.  We place the value/integrity of the brands first 
and foremost over the bottom line and believe that with distinctive 
brands that differentiate us we will do well and prosper for the long 
term.  We want to build a foundation that can be passed on to the 
next generation as a thriving sustainable privately owned business.  
Its the beer, stupid, but its much more too.

Prost!

Jim Busch


"A Victory for your Taste!"


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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 09:45:47 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: Pocket Beer Engine, was: Light beer fix?

"Ratkiewich, Peter" <PRATKIEWICH at ci.westport.ct.us> wrote:

>On my first attempt at using a Munton's kit I apparently made a pretty
>stupid error.  I added too much water to the extract and ended up with
>too much volume for the batch size....the
>OG was supposed to be around 1042-1044.   ... the OG ended up at 1034
> ...  Can I add some additional extract at this
>point?  Or is this beer simply destined for unwanted guests and
>Ne'er-do-wells?

I don't see a problem with boiling up some additional extract in a thick
1/2 gallon or so and adding it while it's still fermenting, or you could
blend it with another stronger beer.  But don't disparage low gravity beer
 - 1.034 is typical of English ordinary bitter.  The nice thing about this
strength "session beer" is that you can drink more of it - a whole evening
of darts at the pub with everyone standing his obligatory round.  It will
probably be fine as long as you don't overchill or overcarbonate it, which
will make it taste thin.

If it is too gassy, you can duplicate the low CO2 smoothness of a hand
pulled pint using my "Pocket Beer Engine" posted here several years ago and
published in Zymurgy under the less imaginative original name of "30 cent
beer engine" (thanks to whoever on HBD who suggested the new and improved
name).  This is simply a 5 cc or 10 cc syringe (no needle).  You can
probably get one cheap or even free from your local pharmacy - ask for an
oral syringe - the kind used for giving liquid medicine to little children.
Lately I've been using a dental irrigator - a 10 cc syringe with a curved
plastic tip and a very small opening.  This gives really good velocity to
the squirt.

To use it, pour yourself a beer (cellar temp., or 55F) and allow some
freeboard.  If it's very fizzy, it'll really foam up.  Better to use less
priming sugar or turn down the pressure on the keg.  Then suck some of the
beer up in the syringe and squirt it forcefully back in the glass.  You'll
degas it and get a great tight head.  With practice you'll learn how you
like it.

You might do this over the sink first time.  There is an element of danger
in it.  After I posted this originally, many brewers wrote to say how much
they liked it, but one guy chipped his tooth!  It seems that it foamed up
over the top.  Not wanting to lose good beer, he lunged forward to drink
the foam and hit his tooth on the top of the mug.

Jeff

 -=-=-=-=-
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan c/o nerenner at umich.edu
"One never knows, do one?"  Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943. 




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Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 09:37:52 -0600
From: "Dave Olson" <Dolson at metrosales.com>
Subject: ALUMINUM

I have constructed a gravity flow tower configuration out of some free 1"
aluminum stock tubing I got.  We TIG welded it together and everything looks
good.  I plan to use King Cooker burners.  They will be placed right under
the aluminum stand top.  The flame will come in direct contact with the
aluminum tubing.  This is the root of my concern.  Does anyone know of a way
to insulate the tubing as the temp will likely be passing melt temps?  There
are refractory mortars out there but I don't know how to use it best.  Has
any one tried to build a stand from aluminum?  I hate to scrap the whole
thing but it may be the only choice I have.  Thanks!

dave



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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 07:53:09 -0800
From: Domenick Venezia <demonick at zgi.com>
Subject: Yeast do NOT fix nitrogen.

From: rlabor at lsumc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald) #2890
> Recently our club had a guest speaker, Henryck Orlick, Brewmaster;
> Abita Brewing C0, who gave us some tips on yeast in brewing.  He
> suggested that air was better than pure O2 because air contains
> nitrogen, and it was his advice that the nitrogen is used by the yeast
> to some degree as nutrient, thus air is better, in his opinion, than
> pure 02.

Yeast, in fact all fungi, can NOT use molecular nitrogen as a nutrient.

This magic is restricted to nitrogen-fixing bacteria.  There are lots of
genera of bacteria that can reduce atmospheric nitrogen to ammonium, but
the most important are members of the genus Rhizobium.  These bacteria
symbiotically join with plant root cells of legumes to form root nodules
in which the bacteria live.  The bacteria absorb molecular atmospheric
nitrogen (N2) and reduce it to ammonium which is then available to the
plant as a nitrogen source.

If the lag time increase that was observed with aeration with pure O2 was
a real effect and not caused by some other variable in the brewing
process, then I would suspect O2 toxicity.  Remember high concentrations
of O2 are toxic to living things.  A human being breathing pure O2 will
die rather quickly, due to oxidative damage - they rust!  That's why it's
important to take your anti-oxidants.  Hydrogen peroxide and ozone are
other toxic oxidizers used as microbicides.

Cheers!

Domenick Venezia   
demonick at zgi dot com

Pursuant to US Code, Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, '227, any and all
nonsolicited commercial E-mail sent to this address is subject to a download
and archival fee of US$ 500.  E-mailing denotes acceptance of these terms.



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Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 10:54 -0800
From: "George De Piro" <George_De_Piro at berlex.com>
Subject: Yeast utilizing N2

     Hi all,
     
     Ron wrote:
     
     "Recently our club had a guest speaker, Henryck Orlick, Brewmaster; 
     Abita Brewing C0, who gave us some tips on yeast in brewing.  He 
     suggested that air was better than pure O2 because air contains 
     nitrogen, and it was his advice that the nitrogen is used by the yeast 
     to some degree as nutrient, thus air is better, in his opinion, than 
     pure 02."
     
     Back to me:
     
     Somebody recently posted this to the IBS Forum.  It's amazing how 
     quickly misinformation can be spread with the power of modern 
     technology!  Yeast *cannot* use N2 (atmospheric nitrogen) as a 
     nitrogen source, just as some plants cannot (without the aid of 
     nitrogen fixing bacteria).
     
     The whole thing about yeast nutrients is confusing to me:  if you are 
     making an all-malt, all-grain beer, there is PLENTY of amino nitrogen 
     (and other nutrients) for the yeast to be happy.  If you find that you 
     need yeast nutrients in your production wort you are doing something 
     wrong.
     
     I have met brewers who prefer to use air rather than pure O2 because 
     they believe that their yeast perform poorly if given too much O2.  
     While this is arguable, it is not ridiculous.
     
     Have fun!
     
     George de Piro  (Nyack, NY)


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Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 09:12:21 +0000
From: Jim Liddil <jliddil at azcc.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: ld? (fwd)

Due to an extreme lack of interest, as indicated by no postings
or significant inquirories since sometime last year, or perhaps because we
said all there was to say, the digest is either in long term hibernation or 
its 6 feet under (dead).

Should anyone be interested in reviving the digest, they can 
contact me at msharp at netcom.com.  All of the necessary software,
archives, accounts and mailing list are in place still on realbeer.com.
It just needs to be turned on again.

	 --Mike
	   (the LD founder)


- ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------






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Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 08:40:27 -0800
From: Jeremy Bergsman <jeremybb at leland.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Electrical wiring 101

Rod Prather <rodpr at iquest.net> wrote:

> 1.    Evidently someone cheated.  I would check local code but I don't think
> it is legal to use 2 wire + neutral for 230 2 phase incoming power.  The
> builder may be outside of code and may be responsible for rewiring  the
> incoming wiring to your condo.   Check local code before calling the dogs.

There is nothing wrong with this.  This is standard practice for circuits
offering only 240V without 120V.  Maybe because you believe that the bare
wire is neutral, in which case it would be illegal because there would be
no ground.

> 2.    In spite of this you already have 2  120 VAC lines in your home.
> Black to bare and white to bare.  The bare wire is your neutral not your
> ground.  Ground is "GROUND" as in DIRT and is attached to the breaker box
> itself from the grounding stake outside your home.  There should be a
> grounding strap or a copper wire running to the electrical box, the
> grounding buss, on one end and a steel post outside on the other.  This is
> usually not inside the service conduit.

NO!  THIS IS NOT CORRECT!  Sorry for shouting but I think it's pretty
important.  The bare wire is ground, the white is neutral.  It is true that
there are 2 120V lines in most US houses, but conventionally these are both
black (never rely on wire colors!).  You can check for yourself by using a
voltage tester to test for voltage between white and bare either in a box
or in the panel.  There shouldn't be any.  In the panel itself you won't
actually need to check since you will see all the whites and grounds on a
common bus.

> 
> 3.    Check at the switches and outlets in the house and check the breaker
> box.  Are the standard 120 VAC breakers wired with 2 wire + ground.  The
> bare ground wires from these should go to a grounding buss in the box.  If
> this is the case then you have neutrals and  grounds.

Since there seems to be a bit of confusion, let me attempt a brief primer. 
If I make a mistake I'm sure I'll be corrected.  I'm not an electrician,
but I've rewired my entire house including the service entrance with city
inspections of my work.

Note that this is for current wiring and there may be exceptions.  I'm sure
it is US-specific.  Older wiring should be similar but without grounds.  If
you have knob and tube wiring you're on your own!

***********************************************************************
You have 3 wires entering your house from the street.  One of these is
called "neutral" and is electrically equivalent to the ground, i.e. it has
the actual potential of the dirt outside your house, when compared to the
other wires.  The other wires are each ~110-120V different from the
neutral, but at any given time, in opposite dirctions, so that they are
240V different from each other.  (These are of course the max voltages in
the 60 Hz AC cycle.)  

When the wires come into your panel, after passing through the $ meter, the
2 hots are hooked to 2 busses onto which breakers can be mounted.  Each
breaker therefore taps one of 2 hot busses.  240V breakers tap both
busses.  One black wire should come out of a 120V breaker, two out of a 240
V breaker.  These are the hot wires of a circuit.

The incoming neutral wire bypasses the breakers and goes to another bus. 
This bus should be locally grounded at your house by a metal rod driven
into the ground (those are fun to bang in!).  I believe it also needs to be
attached to your plumbing system.  From this bus run neutral (white) wires
if needed and ground (bare or green) wires (always needed).

>From this you can see that white and bare are electrically the same, but
they serve different purposes.  Current should never be deliberately run on
a bare wire.  The insulation is there for a purpose!  Even though it is
mostly in the romex, unarmored cable is legal in metal conduit, and it will
be out of the romex in junction/outlet boxes.  In fact it should be
attached to the outlet boxes.  Therefore if there is voltage applied to the
bare it will be applied to the screws on your switches and plugs, the metal
surfaces of any grounded appliances on that circuit, and any exposed metal
electrical boxes.  Granted under normal conditions the path through the
bare wire to the panel will be very low compared to other paths, but there
would be a lot of leak in this set up and if there were a fault somewhere
you would now have exposed 120V all over your house.  The ground wire is
there to provide easy protection for exposed surfaces should a fault
occur.  The neutral wire is there to provide a return path for "used"
current.

A typical lighting or outlet circuit will have 1 black, 1 white, and 1
ground.  You should see 120V or so betwen the black and the 2 other wires
if you test it.  A 240 V circuit has 2 blacks (alternate hot wires are
often red) and a ground.  A 120/240V circuit has 2 blacks, a white, and a
ground.  My oven is like this.  I imagine it uses the 2 hots to make 240 V
for the elements and one of the hots and the neutral to make 120V for the
electronic controls or maybe the convection fan.

Regular circuit breakers test the outgoing current on the black wire.  They
really only try to protect from fire and melting your wiring by putting too
much current through them.  Safety-wise they assume that the current is
returning properly.  GFCI devices have been well described here recently. 
Note that they can only work downstream of themselves.  You can buy a GFCI
breaker for your service panel, in which case the white wire to the circuit
will also come from the breaker, which has a white "pigtail" going to the
white/neutral bus.  This protects the entire circuit.  One can more cheaply
and easily buy a GFCI outlet.  These protect the power supplied through the
outlet.  Some (all?) can be wired so that the rest of the circuit (i.e.
that that is farther from the panel than that outlet) is attached to the
output side of the GFCI, protecting other, regular plugs.  If attached to
the first plug, these are almost as good as a GFCI breaker.

Be safe folks.  If you've never done this stuff get some help from a good
book or someone who knows what he/she is doing.
- -- 
Jeremy Bergsman
jeremybb at leland.stanford.edu
http://www.stanford.edu/~jeremybb


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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 11:39:59 -0500 (EST)
From: ALAN KEITH MEEKER <ameeker at welchlink.welch.jhu.edu>
Subject: Oxygen, nitrogen, and yeast...


In response to the query about aerating with pure oxygen Ron La Borde
wrote,

"Recently our club had a guest speaker, Henryck Orlick, Brewmaster; Abita
Brewing C0, who gave us some tips on yeast in brewing.  He suggested that
air was better than pure O2 because air contains nitrogen, and it was his
advice that the nitrogen is used by the yeast to some degree as nutrient,
thus air is better, in his opinion, than pure 02." 

I think this is a case study in not believing everything the "experts"
tell you! To my knowledge brewers yeast CANNOT directly utilize elemental
nitrogen which is in the form of diatomic (N2) gas. In fact, few organisms
can. Nitrogen is however a key element in the molecules of life as we know
it (on this planet anyway), being a prime constituent of all proteins and
nucleic acids just to name a couple. Most organisms cannot use
elemental gasseous nitrogen from the air (air is approximately 80%
nitrogen) as a source of cellular nitrogen. Instead, they use various nitrogen
containing compounds such as urea or ammonium salts (check the ingredients
list on your plant fertilizers or yeast energizers) or they import the
smaller building blocks of large cellular macromolecules directly (amino
acids to make proteins, nucleotides to make the nucleic acids DNA and
RNA). Atmospheric nitrogen can be converted to such useable forms by
specialized bacteria that "fix" the nitrogen thus making it available to
us "higher" life forms but I doubt that we have (or want!) such bacteria
active in our growing fermentations, though I suppose they may be doing
things differently down there in Louisianna! Our yeast get their nitrogen
from compounds in the wort itself not from the dissolved N2 gas present.
This is one of the reasons that sack meads are so slow to ferment -
there's precious little nitrogen available in honey.


As to why the original poster saw a protracted lag time after aerating
with pure O2, my guess is that you may have put TOO MUCH oxygen into the
wort. The old adage about "too much of a good thing..." is certainly true
for oxygen which is in fact toxic at elevated concentrations. It seems
likely that by using *pure O2* rather than air (about 20% O2) one could
reach an oxygen concentration in the wort that would inhibit the growth of
the yeast, at least initially. In addition, given all the effort expended
in trying to avoid wort oxidation I tend to shudder at the thought of
pumping pure O2 into the wort. Does anyone have any references on the
effects of this practice on either yeast growth or possible negative
flavor outcomes?? I sure would like to see the results of some actual
studies...

Keep breathing

 -Alan

       




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Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 16:43:44 GMT
From: marnold at ez-net.com (Matthew Arnold)
Subject: plambic hops

Greetings all,

Seeing as the Lambic Digest doesn't seem to currently exist, I'll post this
here. I know that at some point in the future, I'm going to want to try to brew
a plambic. So, I thought it would be best if I start aging some hops now. I
know that the hops are added more for preservative reasons than bittering,
flavor, or aroma. I've got some extremely low alpha Hersbrucker pellets (1.3%)
that I thought would be ideal for this situation. I was going to just put them
in a paper bag and let them sit.

Sound like a plan, you plambic brewers out there?
  Matt
- -----
Webmaster, Green Bay Rackers Homebrewers' Club
http://www.rackers.org        info at rackers.org


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Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 11:58:46 -0500
From: Danny Breidenbach <DBreidenbach at nctm.org>
Subject: Labels --- the solution

Here's what I do for labels:  I shell out a few extra cents 
for plain gold crown caps, then I shell out a bit for a 
Sharpie, and then I write the number of the batch on 
the cap.  "Hey Danny, got anymore of 26?"

Works well in and out of ice.  

For folks who really want labels --- I recommend you use 
the labels on presentation bottles --- i.e., as gifts.  At 
parties ..... well it's homebrew ... it you wanted a snazzy 
label you'd buy a micro-brew.

- --Danny
Brewing in Ashburn, VA.  Quite a hike south and east 
of Jeff Renner.
 


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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 12:24:29 -0500
From: mel at genrad.com (Mark E. Lubben)
Subject: Re: Phil's Phalse Bottom


I have heard of lots of ways to keep a Phil's Phalse Bottom(tm) down,
but no one mentioned my favorite.  I initially considered a copper
tube to hold it down by weight.  Unfortunately it is soft and out in
the middle so vigorous stirring once can kink it forever.
A nice piece of stainless was unavailable and probably too expen$ive!

The way I found to keep a Phalse Bottom down uses a piece of racking
cane.  Since I had an old one that broke at the bend, it cost me 
nothing.  If you decide to buy a new cane or piece of hard plastic 
tubing from the hardware store it might cost a couple bucks. 
Heat it with nearly boiling water and check for cracking before use...

I clamped a 2 or 3 inch piece of the original siphon hose from the
cane to the elbow on the Phalse bottom.  After inserting the bottom in
the cooler, I inserted the end of the broken cane which used to have 
the red/black plastic tip thingie though the hole where the tap was 
removed from the Gott cooler.  Without a stopper I could play around
verify lengths.  I marked it so with 1 inch gap from elbow I would 
have about two inches of cane outside the cooler when it was coupled.  
After sawing the cane to length with a hacksaw and sanding, I put the
stopper on the cane so the small end would be toward the valve.
I mated it via the short hose and hose clamps to the Phalse bottom.  
Insert it all into the cooler, feeding the cane out the tap hole.
The short hose and rubber stopper make it flexible enough to work with.
The stopper is slid as needed to center it when tight in the tap hole.

The end result is that the Phalse Bottom can be lifted a bit to clean,
but it no longer WANTS to float or stay up if bumped while stirring.
The bit of internal hose is short enough to forget about heat collapse.
The hard tube would even take a fair impact if I drop my paddle on it.

I picked the extra length outside the cooler to avoid problems where
my external hose would dettach from the short stub I used to use.
This caused scrambling to reclamp and stop the precious flood.
I can now dettach the hosing and valve when I want compact storage,
since I have plenty of the cane to securely re-attach with hose clamp.
In fact if I get a bit of seepage around the stopper I am confident
enough to tug (gently) on that exterior hose-clamp.


Mark Lubben
Pepperell MA - about 20 minutes NW of the '98 NE regional NHC site


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---