HOMEBREW Digest #3642 Fri 25 May 2001

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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  A.H.A. conference roll call. (Steve De Rose)
  RE: Brown malt substitute ("George de Piro")
  easy starters ("George de Piro")
  Hop experiment ("Fred L. Johnson")
  More on Bazooka Screen (I'm getting tired) (james r layton)
  Re: Yellow powder in whole hops (Rob B)
  Re: AHA membership number ("Mark Tumarkin")
  Siphon induced contamination ("Steven Parfitt")
  THE DREAM MASH TUN ("Hill, Steve")
  FWH (Greg Remake)
  Re: Yellow powder in whole hops (Demonick)
  YAP-CAP Experiment (LaBorde, Ronald)
  Re: kill 'em ("patrick finerty jr.")
  CAP experiment -- controlling variables (Frank Tutzauer)
  hbd'ers / The cap exp (David Harsh)
  Yellow powder in whole hops (Dave Wills)
  Regulator woes (Jeff E)
  Re: substitute for brown malt ("RJ")
  Re: cider starter ("RJ")

* * 2001 AHA NHC - 2001: A Beer Odyssey, Los Angeles, CA * June 20th-23rd See http://www.beerodyssey.com for more * information. * * Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! * Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!! To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!** IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to the digest as we canoot reach you. We will not correct your address for the automation - that's your job. The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit. More information is available by sending the word "info" to req at hbd.org. JANITOR on duty: Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen (janitor@hbd.org)
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 01:31:36 -0500 From: Steve De Rose <peteyone at mail.netwave.net> Subject: A.H.A. conference roll call. Yes, who else here on HBD is going to Los Angeles for this year's American Homebrewers Association Conference? I reserved my hotel room in Los Angeles at the Sheraton Four Points LAX. I _definitely_ would prefer at least one other person in my room to divide this room cost. I'm staying from Wednesday (20 June) through Sunday (24 June). That's four nights. If you have made your reservation and requested the A.H.A. Room Rate, I have some bizarre news for you. The A.H.A. did not negotiate the best rate. I went to _Travelocity_ [http://www.travelocity.com/], logged-on, and looked up some LAX-area hotels. Travelocity is offering the Four Points Sheraton LAX for $69.95 - $75.95 | night. I know what you're saying: "Pudgy, you're not going to be able to get a room in there during the dates of the A.H.A. Conference for that rate." But this credit card Confirmation Code and Travelocity Trip ID {holds paper up to the monitor screen} will prove otherwise. I've just been nicked for $341.00 for the four nights of the A.H.A. Conference, with a change|cancellation penalty if I try to do so. The Four Points Sheraton LAX has been *_prepaid_*. And so far as I am concerned, I have a room there, and it had better not try to tell me I will have to pay more. Here's how the room nights actually break out = 20 June = $75.95 21 June = $69.95 22 June = $75.95 23 June = $75.95 Total before taxes = $297.80 Total = $341.00 If you are interested in sharing this room, please contact me. If you have not yet made your hotel reservation for the Four Points Sheraton LAX, and you want your own room, I think it would be a keen move on your part to bypass the A.H.A. rate, and reserve through Travelocity. Steve "Pudgy" De Rose 3=)> Seattle got Brian Davis. Chicago got Boeing. Seems like a good swap to me. http://207.112.132.14/members/peteyone/index.html Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 04:08:19 -0400 From: "George de Piro" <george at evansale.com> Subject: RE: Brown malt substitute Hi all, and especially Hubert! Hubert asks if any of the Weyermann products will be a good substitute for brown malt. I now use Weyermann malts almost exclusively, but I have used many other malts in my brewing experience. This includes Fawcett brown malt. Fawcett brown malt is a truly unique product, yielding a beer with a pronounced coffee aroma while not boosting the color tremendously. I know of no Weyermann malt that will do this (sorry Sabine!). If you are making a very dark beer, and therefore do not care about keeping the color light, than Weyermann Carafa II will yield a nice coffee and cocoa aroma, similar to many English and American chocolate malts. Otherwise, you have to get brown malt. By the way: Hubert, I still use the "Die Weisse" yeast that you gave me for my Weizen beer! Almost 3 years on slant, and still going strong! I thank you again! Have fun! George de Piro C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station (518)447-9000 www.EvansAle.com Malted Barley Appreciation Society Homebrew Club http://hbd.org/mbas Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 04:18:23 -0400 From: "George de Piro" <george at evansale.com> Subject: easy starters Hi all, I noticed two posts about "easy" yeast starter mediums. One suggest using apple cider, the other Malta. I strongly recommend against using these things as starters. Both are quite low in amino acids, and the sugar profiles are much different than typical brewer's wort. Remember that Malta is very high in adjuncts. While you can grow yeast in this way, it will very likely affect the yeast in a negative way , thus affecting your beer in a negative way. Of course, some yeast strains may deal with the drastic changes in wort composition better than others, but way leave it to chance? I always (even as a homebrewer) make up extra wort during each brew session to set aside for future yeast propagations. In this way, there is no extra effort to make the starter media, and it is true brewer's wort. Have fun! George de Piro C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station (518)447-9000 www.EvansAle.com Malted Barley Appreciation Society Homebrew Club http://hbd.org/mbas Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 06:53:34 -0400 From: "Fred L. Johnson" <FLJohnson at worldnet.att.net> Subject: Hop experiment George DePiro presented an interesting experiment testing hop aroma following different hop additions, but I was confused by the methods. It is not clear when the measurements were made RELATIVE to the hop ADDITIONS. Or were these all different brews with a SINGLE hop addition at the various times cited? We need some TIMES to interpret the results. - -- Fred L. Johnson Apex, North Carolina USA Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 06:35:37 -0500 From: james r layton <blutick at juno.com> Subject: More on Bazooka Screen (I'm getting tired) Marshall George scorched me for my comments on the Bazooka screen and hop pellets. Hey, I never said that it wasn't a great product. I've heard nothing but praise for it from several satisfied users. >If you're so concerned with 4" of pellet hops in your 10 gallon BW batch then maybe >you should be looking for alternative sources for hops so you don't have to >use that much pellet hops. Please. I've been brewing for several years. I can buy hops in either form, and I have brewed quite a few beers with both kinds. I have decided that I prefer pellet hops for all kettle additions. I have also formed some opinions about what works and what doesn't (or might not under worst case conditions) for getting the liquid seperated from the solids. Jim Layton Howe, TX Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 21:46:40 +1000 From: Rob B <rbyrnes at ozemail.com.au> Subject: Re: Yellow powder in whole hops Most likely it is lupulin ... the part of the hop flower that contains most of the oils that brewers are interested in. As you said, male plants are only used to pollenate the female plants, so as to breed new varieties. Cheers, Rob In HOMEBREW Digest #3641, you wrote: >HOMEBREW Digest #3641 >Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:34:51 -0500 >From: "Tracy P. Hamilton" <chem013 at uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu> >Subject: Yellow powder in whole hops > >What is it? It looks like pollen to me, but... > >If pollen, I thought male plants were generally discouraged because >of unwanted cross hybrids that could result. > >Inquiring mind wants to know. > >Tracy P. Hamilton >Birmingham Brewmasters Mankind has been on a bad trip for a long time now. This is random quote 679 of a collection of 1125 . Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 07:51:49 -0400 From: "Mark Tumarkin" <mark_t at ix.netcom.com> Subject: Re: AHA membership number Frank asked: This is a lame question, but who can tell me the telephone number to call to find out my AHA membership number? call Gary Glass at 888-822-6273 Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 09:12:29 -0400 From: "Steven Parfitt" <the_gimp98 at hotmail.com> Subject: Siphon induced contamination Some of you may remember my previous posts concerning my Hefe-Weizen that went sour (kind of BerlinerWeizen i suppose). I finally admitted to myself (after many e-mail, thank all of you) that the most likely source is myself (I will therefore spare the dog and cat). My unsanitary habit of "mouth starting" the syphon is the suspected culprit. Last night I stopped by my local auto parts place and picked up a "MightyVac" type pump. They are used to create a partial pressure (no such thing as vacuum) to bleed break lines. The "Vacuum" pump came with a 24" section of rubber hose, and several adapters, including a "T". I used the hose and adapter that has a conical into the line to syphon from a 5gal carboy to a corny keg. The line was filled in three or four squeezes of the pump handle. The second test was racking a batch of Mild from the boil pot to primary. Again, about four pumps of the handle and the line was full. The only thing ackward is holding the vinyl tubing high enough for the air to be pulled out with the pump, otherwise you get bubbles in the line. For those who have problems with contamination and suspect their mouth starting the syphon, this device is for you. The high quality ones are a tad on the expensive side ($36). I considered what a spoiled batch of beer is worth in time and effort, and for me it was worth it. Steven, -75 XLCH- Ironhead Nano-Brewery http://thegimp.8k.com Johnson City, TN 5:47:38.9 S, 1:17:37.5 E Rennerian "Fools you are... who say you like to learn from your mistakes.... I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others and avoid the cost of my own." Otto von Bismarck Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 09:46:50 -0400 From: "Hill, Steve" <Steve.Hill at apfs.com> Subject: THE DREAM MASH TUN Hey you -- CAP/FERMENTER experimental people - get a life and brew MORE beer! Now that I got your attention - I need help! I need a stainless 55 gallon Drum or larger for my DREAM mash tun! Other than Mc Master - any suggestions? I want to mash 110 1lbs at a time to make the Almighty sami clause! - Now as for the EXPERIMENT you (the masses) are going to attempt. Sounds like a great Idea, but the results, are they REALLY going to matter for 99% of the home brewers? Now that I got you hot and bothered - GO BREW! Steve Hill Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 08:51:10 -0500 From: Greg Remake <gremake at gsbpop.uchicago.edu> Subject: FWH Hello all, Nice to hear from George DP again, and he shares with us the first quantified results for first wort hopping that I have seen. The results confirm my own empirical observations regarding FWH and hop aroma, namely that there is very little. I'm wondering if the referenced paper provided any insights about FWH's bitterness and flavor contributions. I've found that FWH's most noticeable contribution is flavor, although perceived bitterness is only slightly less than a beginning of boil addition. I'd love to see some quantified data in this regard. Now I'll sit back and wait to hear why this experiment was flawed, and how the results are inconclusive, etc. ... Cheers! Greg Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 07:25:42 -0700 From: Demonick <demonick at zgi.com> Subject: Re: Yellow powder in whole hops The yellow powder is the plant resins that contain the alpha and beta bittering acids. It is an exudate of the lupulin glands. For a truely bitter experience, pick up a bit of the powder on your finger and lick it off. Domenick Venezia Venezia & Company, LLC Maker of PrimeTab (206) 782-1152 phone (206) 782-6766 fax orders demonick at zgi dot com http://www.primetab.com FREE PrimeTab SAMPLES! Enough for three 5 gallon batches. Fax, phone, or email: name, shipping address (no P.O.B.) and phone number. (I won't call. It's for UPS in case of delivery problems). Sorry, lower 48 only. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 09:24:31 -0500 From: rlabor at lsuhsc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald) Subject: YAP-CAP Experiment Yet Another Post on the CAP experiment. Sometimes I brew a 10 gallon wort and split it into 2 5 gallon glass fermenters. Funny thing, the ensuing action and results in each fermenter is different. Now why would this be? * Maybe the wort is not mixed enough and had a uneven specific gravity. I do not think so because I rock my immersion chiller and whirlpool. This should pretty well have the wort mixed. * Well, could the temps be different, I guess so, but in the same room, in the same fridge, maybe so. * How about the yeast, I just eyeball half and half, this could be it. So what I am getting at is I wonder just what will we learn from the experiments. How about a version of the triangle taste test - a triangle fermentation test. Ron La Borde Ronald La Borde - Metairie, Louisiana - rlabor at lsuhsc.edu http://hbd.org/rlaborde Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 10:33:57 -0400 From: "patrick finerty jr." <zinc at finerty.net> Subject: Re: kill 'em howdy, i read about this a couple of days ago in the paper. it's an interesting and possibly useful coating for us (brewers). it would be useful for killing off anything that landed on our clean, mostly dry brewing equipment. however, it should be noted that this coating will not be useful in a fermenter filled with wort or simply water for that matter. the high dielectric constant of water (remember it's 55 M!) will shield the vast majority of the solution (and therefore contaminating bacteria) from interactions with the surface. it will also fail us when there is a small amount of 'food' left in some crevice of your equipment due to poor cleaning practices. the bugs will just grow on top of that, away from the coating... -patrick in Toronto On Wednesday 23 May, 2001, Jeremy Bergsman wrote: > In the better living through chemistry department, here is an article that > describes modifying glass surfaces to make them kill bacteria on contact: > http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/11/5981 > Since they target human rather than beer pathogens (fools) I'm not sure how > useful this would be for lining your fermenter, or what effect it might have > on your yeast, but it's food for thought. Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 12:02:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Frank Tutzauer <comfrank at acsu.buffalo.edu> Subject: CAP experiment -- controlling variables Regarding the CAP experiment, I teach statistics, and my suggestion is to not stress too much over trying to control every variable. To the extent that the uncontrolled variables do exert an influence, then they'll increase your error variance making it harder to see any effect of geometry, but they won't lead to you concluding there is an effect when in fact there isn't, assuming that the variables are random between the two (or how ever many) groups. Note, though, the assumption of randomness is important. If all the Cornelius keg fermentations were done in, say, the heat of the Australian desert, and the CC fermentations were all done during a Buffalo winter, then obviously fermentation temperature would be a confounding variable and you wouldn't know if differences were due to vessel or temperature. But if the fermentation temperatures were random among the groups (a reasonable assumption, I feel), then differences will not be due to temps. Heck, we don't even have to brew the same beer. If we were interested in a claim like "The FG's will be different in a CC versus a Cornelius keg" I could take a hundred brewers, assign half to each group, and randomly assign them beers to brew out of the BJCP guide. Any differences will be due to vessel (or other non-equivalencies between groups, if any); they will not be due to style. Now, I am *not* saying we should be brewing different beers. Nor am I saying that we shouldn't control variables that are easy to control. For example, I think the suggestion to use a given brand of bottled water is a good one, so as to eliminate variation due to water. The better we control variables, the better our chances of spotting other differences. I'm just saying don't go crazy trying to experimentally control things you can't. Keep data on it, so we can see after the fact if it varied between the groups, or perhaps statistically control it (as opposed to controlling it by design), but don't stress. - --------------------- On a different topic, thanks to everyone who gave me numbers and addresses to get my AHA number. And thanks especially to Paul Gatza who spotted my request and sent me my number directly! --frank Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 12:28:53 -0400 From: David Harsh <dharsh at fuse.net> Subject: hbd'ers / The cap exp Pannicke, Glen A. <glen_pannicke at merck.com> wrote: > Anal retentive? Well maybe... I have been found to retain my head up my > a$$ on occasion ;-) You left out the hyphen ;) - ------------ Joel Plutchak <plutchak at ncsa.uiuc.edu> pointed out: > Wouldn't a smaller fermenter be more > prone to stay closer to the ambient temperature, and a larger > perhaps retain more heat due to the temperature of the fermentation > process? I agree. Surface to volume ratio is certainly a factor here. Anybody ever stick thermometers into their fermenters? I've heard the 5-10 F rule of thumb for difference between fermenter and ambient but figured it was sort of a wild guess. > I'd just be cautious about > drawing firm conclusions from the results. Agreed. I guess the question is whether we want to determine *if* there is an effect or *why* there is an effect. Most people agree there is an effect; the real question (to me, at least) is why. Finally, I've changed my opinion and am willing to participate as a brewer of CAP. Jeff Renner pointed out to me in private e-mail that it isn't possible to have too much CAP on hand. Our club has a member that can do 100 or so gallons at a time and if there is interest I can see if we can get enough BBL members to do split ferments of a single wort. Dave Harsh Cincinnati, OH Bloatarian Brewing League Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 09:17:52 -0700 From: Dave Wills <dave at freshops.com> Subject: Yellow powder in whole hops The yellow powder in your hops is lupulin not pollen. They are tiny resin glands that are tucked at the base of the cones petals, some falls out in handling. The gland is covered with a waxy skin within which lies all of the hops unique bittering (alpha acids) and aromatic (oil) compounds. Males hops do not produce cones. If a female hop is pollinated by a male hop then you get seeds along with the lupulin in the cones. Dave Wills Freshops Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 09:41:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff E <megajh73 at excite.com> Subject: Regulator woes Last night I was gassing up my cornie keg and my regulator broke. I'm in the process of sending it back to where I bought it, but I just want to make sure I didn't do anything bad to cause it to break. I had the gas on and was turning the adjustment screw to increase the pressure and the adjustment screw popped out. Has anyone had this happen. Now it won't screw back in. I took it apart and the only thing I can figure is that the screw base stripped out. Any ideas or comments?? Jeff Hertz Glen Ellyn, IL Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 12:40:50 -0400 From: "RJ" <wortsbrewing at cyberportal.net> Subject: Re: substitute for brown malt "Hubert Hanghofer writes: I hope this question isn't too silly to stay unanswered, but I'd like to find substitute for brown malt to brew some porter..." Well Hubert, why don't you just make your own brown malt? Here's a simple way to do it... Put some pale ale malt on a foil lined baking sheet to about a 1/2" deep... (Stir grains every 15-20 min) Cook 45 min at 230F; then 20 to 60 min at 300F checking every 15 min or so until the inside of the kernels have a light tan color (cut some kernels in half before heating as a reference point) at this point you'd have what would be considered Amber Malt... Once the color is there, bump up the heat to 350F and continue until the inside color is about the same as a brown paper bag... There you have it, your own brown malt! Return to table of contents
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 12:50:18 -0400 From: "RJ" <wortsbrewing at cyberportal.net> Subject: Re: cider starter Dan S. wrote: "... why not use simple pastuerized apple cider (that you buy in the grocery store in the gallon jugs) along with a little yeast nutrient for starter material? " The problem is the word "pastuerized"... Generally, pastuerized apple cider has chemicals added that prevent further "natural" fermantation of the cider, which would eventually become hard-cider, without these chemicals. Plain, fresh, untreated & sweet apple cider would probably work quite well, with an addition of some DME. Ciao Return to table of contents
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