HOMEBREW Digest #3076 Wed 07 July 1999

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	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:
  Berliner weiss--stories from the front ("Christine and Marc Sedam")
  measuring fermentation. ("Stephen Alexander")
  storing grain/oil + CO2 = ? ("Stephen Alexander")
  Answers For Anthony Divjak ("Phil and Jill Yates")
  8 Hour Brew Session Yields 1.125 OG BW (Charley Burns)
  Me Too! (Eric.Fouch)
  Who Cares; we should. ("Houseman, David L")
  3/8" vs 1/2" valves ("Stephen Alexander")
  Detroit/A2 AHA 2000 (Brew2K?), Canada & Lallemand (Ken Schramm)
  Re: What are Micrococci? ("Stephen Alexander")
  Only 8 hours?!? (Pat Babcock)
  benzene drums (David Whitman)
  Brewchicks (Eric.Fouch)
  Help me, Dr. Pivo! - More Lallemand success... ("Jeffrey M. Kenton")
  Labeling Bottles (Charles)" <Charles.Lunney at Intervet.akzonobel.nl>
  Re: rookie asks (Patrick McVey)
  re: scared brewer (Patrick McVey)
  AHA conference -- survey ("Spencer W. Thomas")
  soy ("glyn crossno")
  Berliner weiss, the morning after (Marc Sedam)
  mass reply:  freeware Tcl/Tk brewer's recipe program (Jim Graham)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 01:40:10 -0400 From: "Christine and Marc Sedam" <sedam at bellsouth.net> Subject: Berliner weiss--stories from the front The weather in NC was hot--too hot to be brewing. I however would not be denied as I had just read a post in the HBD about making a Berliner-style weissbier and how said beer needn't be boiled. Perfect, say I. As we all know, the best laid plans... Here are some of my tales and observations from brewing this beer. 1) For god sakes, dough in at 95F and hold for 15-20 minutes. I forgot this step and am currently paying the price. 2) Take heed of the protein rests. Eric Warner's "German Wheat Beer" suggests protein rests at 117F, 122F, and 126F. I chose a 15 minute rest at 117 and a 15 minute rest at 122F. Based on the excruciatingly long sparge, perhaps I needed more time here. 3) The only part of the day that worked was the 5 hour hold at 145F for saccharification and lactobaccili growth. Because it was 101F here today, I merely hit the temperature and put the mash-tun (aka boiling pot) outside. I lost ~2F per hour. 4) I pulled a small decoction for the bump from 145F to 155F for some alpha-amylase activity. Clearly I didn't pull enough as direct fire was still necessary. Even with a Berliner-style weiss, I'd do a single decoction (probably from the protein rest to beta-rest). 5) Posts on the HBD and elsewhere state that 2oz of hops are used in the mash. I'll make the suggestion that you should NOT use pellets for this step. Again, Warner's book states that the purpose of the hops (other than the obvious) is to help loosen the mash. Rest assured, pellets do not help loosen the mash. I would suggest that they do just the opposite. 6) The combination of the above (50% wheat grist, pellet hops, mash out at 160F) resulted in a 2.5 hour sparge for a five gallon batch. I used my old trusty Easymasher(tm) installed in a plastic bucket. Made years of great beer using this cheapie set up. Today just wasn't my day. 7) Because of #6, I found that cutting the mash to avoid channeling is critical to getting the sugars out of the mash. I wondered why the sparge was so clear until I saw a big channel down the side of my bucket. After cutting the mash, the runoff reached a more appropriate color. Grain bill: 4lbs DWC pils malt 4lbs DWC wheat malt 2oz Hallertauer [3.2% alpha] in the mash cultured yeast from a fresh litre of Weeping Radish Weizen (Manteo, NC) Since it's early in the am now, I don't know how sour the beer has become. I'll likely ferment it out and add lactic acid until pH=3.2 to get the proper acidity if the sour mash doesn't do the trick. I did get a decent extraction rate, though. Wound up with 6 gallons of 1.032 wort. I figured that since the rest of the posts here lacked depth, I'd try to save people some of the pain of my experiences. Cheers! Marc Sedam "Huisbrouwerij Zuytdam" Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 06:08:14 -0400 From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net> Subject: measuring fermentation. Joe Gibbens writes ... >The batch I have fermenting now seems to ferment in short bursts. >Imediately after shaking, CO2 bubbles out of the blow off tube almost >explosively [...] >. Any ideas? It is extremely unlikely that Joe's beer really ferments in bursts. The problem that he has (we all have) is in measuring fermentation rate. Accurately determining rate and extent of fermentation is a common problem in brewing. Shaking releases supersaturated CO2 from solution, much as shaking a can of Pepsi does - but it tells us little about the rate at which yeast are producing CO2 (fermenting). Observing CO2 production, as it passes through a fermentation lock is the most usual HB method of assessing fermentation progress. This method only determines 'evolved' or released CO2. CO2 in solution in the wort//beer is not determined. For 'typical' wort, about 17 volumes of CO2 is produced by the yeast but during fermentation the wort itself is supersaturated with 1 to 2 volumes of CO2. Absolute temperature, temperature variations, system leaks, the availability of nucleation cites in the wort and the rate of CO2 production and probably other factors impact this means of assessing fermentation. In the paper 'Monitoring the Production of Carbon Dioxide During Beer Fermentation' [MBAA TQv32, #3, pp126-131, 1995] measures both the evolved CO2 and the CO2 that remains in solution for several sizes of fermentation (from 11L to almost 1000L) and for several yeast and fermentation types. For both ale and lager fermentation virtually no evolved CO2 appeared for 4 to 10 hours after pitching, while the levels of CO2 in solution increased almost linearly during this time period from the very low initial level to approximately 1 volume of CO2. Only after the CO2 in solution exceeded the saturation level (1vol/vol) did CO2 start evolving. The CO2 in solution rose to supersaturation levels (up to 2vol/vol) during the peak of fermentation, and then declined toward the equilibrium value as fermentation slows and ceases. The equilibrium value was generally 1.0 to 1.2 vol/vol of CO2 where the increase (1.2vol) was due to low final fermentation temperature (10C) and the additional pressure (at depth) in large (1000L) fermentors. Overall there was extremely good agreement between the total CO2 produced (evolved plus dissolved) the level of alcohol, and the drop in specific gravity - as we should expect. It is fair to say that evolved CO2 (bubbling rate) is a "lagging" indicator of fermentation. Until the yeast *anaerobically* ferment about 2SG degrees (0.5P) of *apparent* attenuation (about 1vol of CO2 produced) there is no evolved CO2. This issue may be the source of much of the confusion about lag periods. Also after peak fermentation the supersaturated wort evolved (released) more CO2 than would be expected on the basis of fermentation alone since the level of dissolved CO2 declined toward 1vol releasing the excess. - -- >From the information that I previously posted on flocculation, it is fairly clear that flocculation is the effective end of any significant rate of fermentation and that yeast flocculate as a consequence of their environmental conditions and genetics. It is not likely therefore that simply mechanically rousing yeast (particularly lager yeast which go through a dramatic surface property changes during flocculation) can significantly impact fermentation. .Without attacking the root cause of the flocculation the fermentation cannot reasonably be continued. - -- All methods of fermentation evaluation *seem* to involve direct or indirect measurement of the conversion of sugars to CO2 and ethanol. The paper above measured CO2 directly using flowmeters and a dissolved CO2 instrument. Ethanol assays can be performed by gas chromatograph and less directly by distillation measurement. Fermentable sugars can be accurately assayed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Hydrometers (very) indirectly measure the fermentable sugars (and alcohol) along with all other extract matter in suspension and solution. Clinitest and other reducing sugar tests effectively measure the concentration of reducing sugar molecules (plus aldehydes) w/o respect to their size or fermentability while missing non-reducing sugars (like sucrose) entirely. Refractometers measure the index of refraction of the materials in solution, but the resolution (at a reasonable price) is limited and the refractive index is impacted by alcohol, protein unfermentable sugars and even starch in solution. Polarimetry is another possible tool for fermentation measure - with some similar limitations. - -- Guess all I'm really trying to say is that measuring fermentation progress is not a trivial thing. Staring at your fermentation lock *after* rousing tells you little. Watching it before rousing tells you a bit more - but still not so very much. I'd be very interested in accurately measuring fermentation progress in fermentor, as a process control variable. Would be very interesting, and perhaps useful. Thoughts ? -S Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 07:08:58 -0400 From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net> Subject: storing grain/oil + CO2 = ? Greg Moore - asks ... >1) Will the CO2 environment slow any deterioration of the grains and extend > the shelf life? Might it introduce problems? > >2) Is there any advantage or disadvantage of storing the grains under > pressure (co2)? > >3) what's the standard shelf life of most malted grains? > >4) Are there any side affects of doing this that I might have missed? The primary flavor deterioration of grains (not necessarily malt, tho' probably so) is the oxidation of the oils present (Understanding Natural Flavors', Piggott & Paterson, Chapman&Hall, 1994). So one would think that removing the oxygen *might* have a positive effect. But see my question below. As far as CO2 pressure goes - a little overpressure will help ensure that the seals stay sealed. Pale malted grain can certainly last over a year in uncrushed form, and the useful practical life is probably more determined by the storage conditions (such as moisture and humidity) than on the malt. Dark malts and crystal lose flavor too fast to consider long term storage. OK - here's a weird one for you all. A few years back I had a metal 3L can of olive oil partially filled and I decided, on a lark, to top the can off with CO2 in order to hopefully prevent oxidation. I revisited the can a few weeks later only to find that the can was dramatically crushed and mangled. Clearly the CO2 had been absorbed or compounded with the oil and the can crushed from the resulting partial vacuum!! I've never found an adequate explanation of what happened here - but it may well effect the answer to question 1) above. -S Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 22:47:17 +1000 From: "Phil and Jill Yates" <yates at flexgate.infoflex.com.au> Subject: Answers For Anthony Divjak Anthony, Welcome to the HBD. You have certainly arrived in the right place for answers to your questions but just at the moment things are in a bit of disarray. Some of our experts are a little preoccupied with matters, some are out of town and at least one has departed the scene altogether! Things take a bit to get used to here. Some people have funny names and most like to tear each other to pieces. But we are really all just good buddies. Especially as we never have to have a beer together. You will find a Mr "S" who I am sure will have plenty of answers for you. But at this moment Mr "S" is very concerned about who is or isn't eating his higher level sugars! Mr Burley thinks he knows who the culprit is but Mr "S" doesn't agree. Mr "S" has spent three digests telling Mr Burley he is on the wrong track but Mr Burley just won't speak to him. This is because Mr Burley is out of town which he told everybody but Mr "S" must not have noticed. Never mind, Mr Burley will be back with us soon (maybe tonight) and no doubt he will have lots to say to the naughty Mr "S"! We did in fact have a Doctor with us but someone found out he wasn't really a Doctor and so of course he had to leave. Some people have a first name and only one letter for a surname, you will have to get used to this. One idiot thought swinging cats and brewing beer at the same time was a good idea but he was quickly dealt with. This is no forum for amateur humourists! So please bear with us, when everyone has gotten over their immediate gripe (this includes sexist photos) I am sure you will be swamped by responses Cheers Phil Yates Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 05:53:53 -0700 (PDT) From: cburns at jps.net (Charley Burns) Subject: 8 Hour Brew Session Yields 1.125 OG BW One of my longest brew days yet. And certainly the longest based on a single infusion mash. I decided to try an all malt 5 gallon barleywine with my little 54 qt mash tun. I only wanted first runnings but of course that's not possible with such a small mash tun (could have used Sapsis' tub on Sunday). 1.00 lb. Crystal 20L 2.50 lb. Cara-Vienne (22L) 2.50 lb. Munich Light 18.00 lb. GW 2-Row 1.00 lb. Malted Wheat I mashed in with .9 qts per pound of grain, just trying to keep the total volume inside the mashtun. I made it with about 1.5" of freeboard so I know that I can use even more water next time. The mash was so thick that it took a good 10 minutes to completely dough in. Even at that there were widely varying temperatures in the tun, all the way from 135F to 156F. Amazing. I let it sit for 10 minutes and stirred it up. Still had variations but they were from 145F to 152F. My target was 152F, so I figured this was as close as I'd get. After an hour I ran out about a gallon of first runnings to set the grain bed. I didn't want to recirculate that much sugar so I ran it through a fine mesh nylon cloth instead and dumped it directly into the kettle. Dropped in 2 gallons of boiling water to stabilize mash at 158F. I wanted 165F but there wasn't enough room left in the tun. Then sparged for about 1.5 hours, mash temp never exceeding 172f.. Ended up with 9 gallons of 1.068 wort. Since my target was anything above 1.110, I knew I had a lot of boiling to do. It took about 30 minutes to get up to boiling (and boil over of course). Then I boiled it for 90 minutes before taking a gravity reading. I had about 7.5 gallons at that point somewhere around 1.085. Popped in the bittering hops and boiled for another 70 minutes. Dropped in the finishing hops and IM and boiled for 10 more minutes. After chilling it came out at 1.125, almost exactly 5 gallons. The question I have is, will that extended boiling time screw up the barleywine. I boiled it very hard and it got much darker from when it started. I'm not sure if that's due to condensing it or carmelization (probably some from both). I'm just wondering if such an extended boil time will be a problem. I had a TON of break material in the primary. Charley Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 09:02:00 -0400 From: Eric.Fouch at steelcase.com Subject: Me Too! >Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1999 21:53:19 +1000 >From: "Phil and Jill Yates" <yates at flexgate.infoflex.com.au> >Subject: Dr Pivo Returns To Say Goodbye > >To All Who Read The HBD, > It would seem that Dr Pivo has decided to give this forum a miss >and say farewell. I personally am sad to see this happen. Me Too! Dr. Pivo- tell the truth: You're impending absence doesn't have anything to do with some personal e-mails recieved from one Kyle Druey, does it? He's been looking to notch his keyboard again! But seriously- stick around. Eric Fouch, PDTL "..but you never know, until you know." -Dr. Pivo Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 09:30:17 -0400 From: "Houseman, David L" <David.Houseman at unisys.com> Subject: Who Cares; we should. Aleman says "...Homebrewing is about practical brewing, and who cares what the Commercial brewers do, the biggest one doesn't even make decent beer. What works in our setups, works for us, and thats [sic] the bottom line, even if the theory says that it shouldn't...." While I may not want to brew clones of the largest breweries (excluding Guinness of course), these companies do us a service, though perhaps not highly appreciated. Products developed for the large breweries find there way to the micro and homebrew markets (e.g. I believe PBW was first developed for Coors). Research such as Labatts Ice Brewing has very practical applications, as pointed out by George Fix, in stabilizing homebrewed beers. Homebrewers can learn from the major breweries lessons in quality control and consistency. We're all part of a continuum from homebrewer, brewpub, micro, regional and major breweries. Dave Houseman Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 10:17:43 -0400 From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net> Subject: 3/8" vs 1/2" valves St.Pat's asks about 3/8" vs 1/2" valves on kettles, I've just been through this recently after adding a pump and two new kettles I now live with a mix of 3/8" and 1/2" fittings. I think it's a myth that 1/2" is technically preferable. The pump vendors suggest using the 1/2" in order to preserve orifice size - but the plastic mag drive pump heads don't have anything like a 1/2" ID size - in fact the two I've measured are closer to 3/8" ID. Also they suggest throttling back flow with an outlet side valve anyway. IMO 3/8" (full orifice) is perfectly adequate for a 15gal kettle size. 55gal or HERMS may be another story. One advantage of the 1/2" fittings is availability. The DIY/Lowe's/Home_Depot/Ace type mega-hardware stores carry fewer and fewer 3/8" MIP/FIP fittings, barbs and other necessities as time goes on. Also some places charge a premium for 3/8" fittings and valves making them as expensive as 1/2". >In Austin, there is no way you can open a 3/8" valve for any counterflow >using tap water as coolant. then again, our tap water runs as high as 75F >and is over 60F all year. I'm curious about the water temp and associated >cooling rates for you michiganders and other yankees. In Northern Ohio my muni water runs from a seasonal peak very close to your 75F down to very near the freezing point (at most 34F) in mid-winter. They attempt to bury the tap pipes from the water mains deep enough to avoid freezing, but every now and then ... I could CFC several times the wort flow rate in January than in August, but saving 5 or 10 minutes off a brew day for 6 or 8 months of the year isn't worth very much, particularly since CFC chilling requires virtually no attention once started. If both sizes of fittings were equally available I'd opt for the 3/8" - the valves have more useful range particularly in the lauter tun. As it is, I think 1/2" has an edge on availability that is becoming harder to ignore. nice to help St.Pat's instead of the other way around for a change, -S Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 10:45:51 -0400 From: Ken Schramm <Ken.Schramm at oakland.k12.mi.us> Subject: Detroit/A2 AHA 2000 (Brew2K?), Canada & Lallemand Robin, et al; The issue of the Lallemand Scholarship has an intersting sidebar. The Scholarship will be awarded at the 2000 AHA conference in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area. One of the selling points making Detroit attractive to the AHA was that Detroit would be closer to Canadian brewers, perhaps close enough to attend, especially for those who live along the 401 Windsor/Toronto corridor,as pointed out by a CABA officer. Attending the conference is cheaper for AHA members by an amount greater than annual dues, making it more attractive to be a member than not. Join the AHA, attend a great event, and be eligible for the scholarship. Such a deal. As with KC, the goal will be to keep costs down, to provide as much valuable information as possible, and to honor the magnificent social heritage of beer making in North America and around the world. Here in Detroit, we love Canadians. Any country that lends us Stevie Y, Brendan Shanahan, Chris Draper and Lord Stanley for a couple of years is OK with us. Plus, we can get Don Cherry and Hockey Night in Canada. And maple leaf creams and MacIntosh's toffee. We're lucky. The reception of the membership to the event put on by Alberta Rager and the KC brewing community has been very favorable. The AABG, FORD club and other Detroit area clubs, however, are not amenable to being outdone by mere Kansas Citians, no matter how much we respect and like them (that is a friendly poke, Alberta). I guarantee that the Ann Arbor smokers will be pumping out smoked salmon and pheasants, and the brew kettles will be steaming in anticipation of a serious conclave. The AABG is throwing down the gaunlet to the CBS, the Maltose Falcons, the Boston Wort Processors, Hop Barley and the Aler's. And every other club out there worth their salt. Come to MoTown and show us how it's done. I'll bet the CABA could teach us a thing or two. We can host an educational party with the best of 'em, and I hope that the brewing proletariat will give serious thought to attending. Or risk missing the best beer celebration of the new millennium. Dan McConnell and I might even be convinced to do a presentation on mead. Ken Schramm Troy, Michigan Close enough to Jeff Renner to meet him for a beer (preferably his) Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 10:45:38 -0400 From: "Stephen Alexander" <steve-alexander at worldnet.att.net> Subject: Re: What are Micrococci? Micrococci are gram positive cocci which appear in groups (pairs, tetrads etc), they are non-motile, non-sporulant, non-encapsulating, bacteria which can also ferment carbohydrates and some are anaerobic! One member of the genus is staphylococcus which can cause wound infections. Another is 'Sarcina' which does NOT include pediococcus, but instead is a rather large (3u) aerobic cocci. They should not be welcome inhabitants of your beer bottles, but they are also not the worst you have to fear either. -S Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 10:54:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Pat Babcock <pbabcock at mail.oeonline.com> Subject: Only 8 hours?!? Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager... cburns at jps.net (Charley Burns) sez... > Subject: 8 Hour Brew Session Yields 1.125 OG BW > > One of my longest brew days yet. And certainly the longest based on a single > infusion mash. Crimony! My TYPICAL brew day is eight hours! And that's not even for a barley wine. I guess I can use the term "slow brewed", huh? :-) - See ya! Pat Babcock in SE Michigan pbabcock at oeonline.com Home Brew Digest Janitor janitor@hbd.org HBD Web Site http://hbd.org The Home Brew Page http://oeonline.com/~pbabcock/brew.html "Just a cyber-shadow of his former brewing self..." Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 10:51:19 -0500 From: David Whitman <dwhitman at rohmhaas.com> Subject: benzene drums Randy Kinsman is worried about residual benzene in used SS drums: >I saw the 50U.S. gal drums and was instantly in >love. As you have probably guessed, there is a catch. They originally >contained benzene. As soon as I found that out I became very >concerned. Their rep.(RCB's) assured me that they were completely >usable because the stainless would not be etched by the solvent and that >they had sold many of them for brew kettles. I spent hours reading >about the health dangers of benzene and worked myself into quite a >lather. Can any of the highly educated brewers out there convince me >that this drum can indeed be made safe for use in the brewing process? Benzene IS nasty stuff, and nothing I say here should be construed as a guarantee of safety. If you get cancer 10 years from now, don't send your lawyers...if you try this, you're on your own. With that disclaimer, I think you can substantially reduce the amount of residual benzene in the drum by just boiling some water in it. (!) It turns out there is a binary azeotrope in the benzene-water system, so that if you fill the drum with water and boil it off, the vapor is substantially enriched in benzene relative to the composition of what's in the drum. You can use this to scrub out benzene in the drum which is accessable to the water. Presumably any benzene in there that ISN'T accessable to the water isn't going to get in your beer, either. I suggest fill the drum as high as practical, get a good rolling boil and evaporate it down to half the original volume. Discard the remaining water. Repeat this fill/boil/discard twice more, and the drum should be substantially benzene-free. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 10:55:00 -0400 From: Eric.Fouch at steelcase.com Subject: Brewchicks HBD- >Here are a sampling of the responses I received for my comment on the >housewife photo in the new Zymurgy. I think they are very >dissapointing. How can we expect to get women interested in homebrewing >if they are met with sexist photos in the leading magazine and sexist >comments on-line? Fred's comment somehow got a no-show. He still wants that picture. For his.....archives. What constitutes a sexist photo? Actually if you look at things historically, all us brew guys should be commended for brewing in the face of tradition. Outside of the occasional sexist jab by our beloved Dr. Burley calling us "brewsters" indescriminatley, basically referring to the historically correct gender of brewers, that being female, we guys are allowed a little latitude in our attitude, since we are comfortable enough with our gender and sexuality to undertake the hobby of homebrewing. I mean, If I were the size of Rosie Grier, I could comfortably take up crosstitch without fear of manly ridicule, casue I could pound anyone who made fun of me. Being of small stature but stout heart, I choose to chance the ridicule of those familiar with the tradition of brewing when they call me a brewster, insulting my manhood. Do I cry "FOUL!" and put on a skirt? NO! I refuse to let a "Politically Correct" society suggest that I can be a brewer, but I can't look at a picture of a woman in a stereotypically domestic setting, and am I less of a sensitive human being because I am not offended? I Think Not! Eric Fouch Bent Dick YoctoBrewery Kentwood, MI "..but you never know, until you know." -Dr. Pivo P.S. Chicks who brew are cool! Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 10:43:09 -0500 From: "Jeffrey M. Kenton" <jkenton at iastate.edu> Subject: Help me, Dr. Pivo! - More Lallemand success... Dr. Pivo, I would like you to email me personally at this address to answer a few quick questions about making "true-to-style" czech pilseners. I am just now after nearly six years of brewing getting the proper lagering equipment, and want to get some more opinions on how to do pilseners on the homebrew scale. Here's the address, and don't be shy. jkenton at iastate.edu Thanks in advance. - -------------------------- An all extract barleywine pitched with two packets of london danstar yeast at 2:30 sounded off at 8pm (shooting airlock seven feet to the ceiling of my basement, covering a short piece of ductwork with "spooge." Very explosive ferment, and a further testimonial to using the Lallemand products according to the instructions on the packet. Jeff Kenton Return to table of contents
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 15:39:45 -0400 From: "Lunney, C (Charles)" <Charles.Lunney at Intervet.akzonobel.nl> Subject: Labeling Bottles Something that's come up between me and some other homebrewers around here (central Iowa) is the subject of labeling bottles. Some of the people I know use the paper and milk method, others use sticky labels, and some just write directly on the cap. A friend of mine had been using 1" round Avery labels that he bought at an office supply store. He would write the name of the beer on each label, then stick it on the cap after bottling. This seemed to be a pretty good way to do it. You don't have to worry about cleaning the label off the bottle, because it gets thrown away when you open the bottle! I came up with an improvement on this method. I use my PC and HP inkjet printer to print them out. The labels come on a small (1/4 sheet) page, 15 labels per sheet. I've got an MS Excel spreadsheet formated to print to this. This allows me to (neatly!) get the beer's name, date of bottling and my own homebrewery name on each label. I just slip the sheet into the printer's built in envelope slot, and print it! Repeat as often as needed to label the batch (3-4 sheets for a 5 gal batch). It's been a big hit with the other brewers I know. If anyone wants a copy of the Excel spreadsheet, I'd be happy to e-mail it to them. Just a little something I thought might help out! Chuck Lunney Looney Bin Nanobrewery lunneys at earthlink.net Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 12:14:12 -0400 From: Patrick McVey <mcveyp at kingman.com> Subject: Re: rookie asks 1) Your aftertaste is the 21 days sitting on sedimentation. Get a siphon hose and move your primary to a secondary fermentation vessel. Cleanliness is the key to consistent results. 2) I get more consistent results when I bottle by boil & cool the priming sugar in a pint of water and add it to the bottling bucket first. The sugar in each bottle can get too much in one bottle and not enough in another. Some bottles won't carbonate properly, others will overflow in dramatic fashion (gushers). 3) Use quality ingredients which you can obtain from mailorder brew suppliers of which there are many. Hmmm, can a U.S. brew supplier mail to Canada? 4) Make it your mission to clone a recipe for your favorite beer. Keep notes, be scientific. Control the process. Good luck - stick with it! Patrick in Arizona Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 12:26:43 -0400 From: Patrick McVey <mcveyp at kingman.com> Subject: re: scared brewer Randy, Look at any steel drum construction, the only place the benzene could hide would be in the rolled edge at the seam. Once that's cleaned, the benzene is out. You might do a sacrificial water boil in there after a thorough cleaning. Benzene is aromatic and it will boil out if it hasn't soaked into foreign material not cleaned from the drum. I had a similar dillema as to how to clean all the cutting torch slag from my SS beer keg brewery. I had great results with a cleaner called "Barkeeper's Friend." Its like Ajax-BonAmi cleaner without the chlorine chemicals. Its a good abrasive cleaner. I also use Trisodium phosphate (TSP) on cornelius syrup kegs. However, I would be very careful with any cleaner until I knew the benzene concentration had been sufficiently diluted out, then I would go for a thorough, high ration scrubbing. Many years ago I made a Texas BBQ (cut lengthwise 55gal petroleum drum). I used a whole bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid on that drum to get it clean. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 14:51:39 -0400 From: "Spencer W. Thomas" <spencer at umich.edu> Subject: AHA conference -- survey For those who attended the KC conference: was it a significant negative that the hotel was not near anything else? Or did you never leave the hotel nor want to leave the hotel, anyway? If you did not attend the conference this year, but might attend next year in Michigan, I'm also interested in your response. Please respond to me, not the HBD. This info will help us in planning the year 2000 conference. Please put the word "survey" in the subject line, to aid me in sorting out the responses from the rest of my e-mail. Thank you. =Spencer Thomas (spencer at umich.edu), Ann Arbor MI (-6,0,0 Rennerian) Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 14:40:21 -0500 From: "glyn crossno" <crossno at tnns.net> Subject: soy Having acquired 3 lb. of flaked soy, I am wondering if anybody has any experience brewing with soy? Thoughts? Glyn Crossno Estill Springs, TN Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 16:22:34 -0400 From: Marc Sedam <marc_sedam at unc.edu> Subject: Berliner weiss, the morning after So I woke up this morning to check on the weiss. When I put it to bed last night I didn't bother chilling it down (I know, DMS a-plenty) thinking that the extra time through the "lactobacillus temps" would be better for the not-to-sour wort. I put the 135F wort in the chest freezer set at 60F and, at the same time, put 2 gallons of water in the freezer. The next morning...OK, it was five hours later...I mixed the 2 gallons of 32F water in with the 4 gallons of 1.052 wort. Bingo! 6 gallons at 1.033--my target gravity and batch size. The cold water also brought the temp of the wort down to 66F. A healthy starter was pitched and the batch was aerated with the dregs of a bottle of pure O2. For good measure I rocked the bucket vigorously for 10 minutes as well. The wort was pleasingly tart, but with room to spare for continued souring. It was moderately clear, but looked as if that might disappear with aging. I'm fermenting at 62F to maximize yeast performance while minimizing continued lactobacilli activity, an idea (again) gleaned from Warner's "German Wheat Beer" book. Once reaching terminal gravity I'll crash cool the ferment to stop both yeast and "lacto" activity. It seems important to store this beer cold or it will continue to sour. I have lots of gadgets in my closet, but a flash pasteurizer isn't one of them. In the end I think this will be a worthy summer brew. If the southern US continues to reach triple digit temperatures I may only be able to wait a week. :-) BTW, Warner claims that this beer will store indefinitely (at cooler temps, I presume) and improves measurably with age as the acidity and wheat yeast flavors mellow and meld together. I'm sure the keg won't last that long, but we shall see. Cheers! Marc Sedam "Huisbrouwerij Zuytdam" P.S. For those who want a summary of the "best" Berliner-style weiss practices I discovered during this endeavor, e-mail me privately and I'll respond. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 17:29:33 -0500 From: Jim Graham <jim at n5ial.gnt.com> Subject: mass reply: freeware Tcl/Tk brewer's recipe program Thanks for all of the replies.... Based on the shape of my incoming e-mail since Saturday, it seems there is definitely a lot of interest in this beastie. If the HBD moderators don't mind, I'll send a quick announcement here when I have something more substantial. If nothing else, check back at my web page (http://www.gnt.net/~n5ial) every now and then. It will probably start out with only a small subset of the desired features, and grow from there (exactly the way JStrack worked out). For all of those who have offered to test on various platforms, thanks for that, too! I'll keep your e-mail addresses handy and let you know by e-mail when there's something to test..... Later, --jim - -- 73 DE N5IAL (/4) | DMR: So fsck was originally called something else. jim at n5ial.gnt.net | Q: What was it called? ICBM / Hurricane: | DMR: Well, the second letter was different. 30.39735N 86.60439W | -- Dennis M. Ritchie, Usenix, June 18, 1998. Return to table of contents
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