HOMEBREW Digest #3775 Wed 31 October 2001


[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]


	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org


***************************************************************
       THIS YEAR'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY: 

          Northern  Brewer, Ltd. Home Brew Supplies
        http://www.northernbrewer.com  1-800-681-2739

    Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********


Contents:
  Looking for Guam Brewers ("Rick Wood")
  Draining fermenters through the tap ("Edge, David")
  A report back on Soda and German Soft Pretzels ("Arnold Neitzke")
  Re:hydrometer measurements ("Jean-Philippe Caniou")
  Filters/Vegemite/Lager Yeast (AJ)
  re: Lost fermentables, no break ("Kensler, Paul")
  Spent Grain Dog Biscuits (grayling)
  jb-weld = broken keg stout ("Hornberger, Brent")
  [Fwd: Re: hydrometer measurements] ("Sedam, Marc")
  RE: lager yeast (Brian Lundeen)
  London pubs (John Wilkinson)
  ABS vs. PVC hopback? ("Neil K")
  dry malt v. malt syrup ("dag's")
  Specifying burner output (Sam Taylor)
  Alcohol Content (jvoosen)
  Re: Life =? Dream (Was Airlocks) (Jeff Renner)
  re:Pumpkin barleywine (susan woodall)
  Can you ship beer? ("Tim")

* * Show your HBD pride! Wear an HBD Badge! * http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/shopping * * 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 cannot 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: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:41:24 +1000 From: "Rick Wood" <thewoods at netpci.com> Subject: Looking for Guam Brewers Hello All, I am looking for homebrewers on Guam. I have been here for the past 20 years and have rarely come across homebrewers here. I am interested in opening a small brewpub and would like to have contact with homebrewers. I can be reached at the above email and at 735-2688 (w) and 565-2727 (h). Cheers, Rick Wood Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 08:09:50 +0000 From: "Edge, David" <davidedge at hsbc.com> Subject: Draining fermenters through the tap A long time ago: (19 Apr 2000) Phil, the Reigning Baron of Buradoo said... > have a better solution for you but one possibility is to ferment in a plastic > fermenter with a tap at bottom (spigot - I believe is the Yankee term). This > removes the necessity for syphoning completely. It is a simple matter to > gravity feed via plastic tubing for all racking purposes. We aereate our wort by running it from fermenter to a bucket through the tap and throwing it back in the top a few times. This leaves some stickyness in the tap so I'm wondering if I dare drain the permenter through the tap a few days later. How could I sanitize the tap (spigot) without affecting the beer? David Edge Burton-on-Trent ******************************************************************** This message and any attachments are confidential to the ordinary user of the e-mail address to which it was addressed and may also be privileged. If you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or use any part of the message or its attachments and if you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete it from your system. Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, arrive late or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the context of this message which arise as a result of Internet transmission. Any opinions contained in this message are those of the author and are not given or endorsed by the HSBC Group company or office through which this message is sent unless otherwise clearly indicated in this message and the authority of the author to so bind the HSBC entity referred to is duly verified. ******************************************************************** Return to table of contents
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 17:14:29 -0500 From: "Arnold Neitzke" <arnold_neitzke at ameritech.net> Subject: A report back on Soda and German Soft Pretzels Earlier this year Jeff Renner posted a recipe for soda that was a modified version of Mike O'Brien's and just recently for the German soft pretzels I tried it a week ago and wanted to warn about the coriander. You see I was making only a 2 liter bottle of it and my kids were helping, my daughter wanted to put in the "pinch" and I said go ahead. Well her pinch was quite large but I was thinking that it wouldn't have that big of an impact (for a gallon anyway!). The result? It was pretty good, only it had a burning in the back of the throat that turned you off after the first swallow. I'll do it again but I'll be in charge of the "pinch" next time. As for the German soft pretzels recipe? Very very good and was much easier than I thought it would be (I only had one child helping me this time :) I need to improve my pretzel twisting technique but other than that it was easy and the directions were right on. I know Jeff's gonna bop me one but I used my bread machine to make the dough, it's great to set and forget it for two hours and go do something else. Hint if your looking for the lye, I found it in the drain cleaning section of a chain super store (Meier's) that right it's a drain cleaner but it says 100% lye. Arnold Neitzke Brighton Mi. 20 miles North North East of the center of the brewing universe. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 23:14:07 +1030 From: "Jean-Philippe Caniou" <jphc at picknowl.com.au> Subject: Re:hydrometer measurements - ----- Original Message ----- Homebrew Digest #3774 (October 30, 2001) > Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 10:31:14 -0500 > "Sedam, Marc" <marc_sedam at unc.edu> wrote: > Subject: hydrometer measurements > > Hey all, > > Having a brain cramp. When the hydrometer reads 1.046 (or any number...) for unfermented wort, that means that there are 46g of sugar per liter of water...right? If not, what does it mean? I need to calculate for speise. > > -Marc The hydrometer should show 1000 for water. It measure the density of a liquid compare to the density of pure water. The reading indicates the potential of fermentable in the liquid or should I say soluble solids in the liquid. This is why the final gravity is not 1000 but higher. Remember that unfermentable sugars (as we commonly say are in fact soluble solids) help to develop the body and the head of the beer. We use the reading to calculate the % of Alcohol By Volume. (OG - FG) / 7.36 = % ABV. If the hydrometer reads 1046 and you expect a finish gravity of 1012 (it's not uncommon), you will have: (1046-1012) / 7.36 = 4.62 % Alcohol By Volume. or say you expect 1000 (it will never happen in beer), you have then 6.25% ABV Knowing that to increase the alcohol content of 1% you need 20g of sugar per litre. If we apply that to 46g of sugar per litre you think there is, you have 1.15 % ABV. !!!!! DOESN'T SOUND RIGHT TO ME... For further explanation, find out the differences with Baume, Balling, Brix and Oechsle who develop the hydrometers. They are all related, different scales and calculate the soluble solids in a liquid compare to pure water. Cheers. JPh. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 14:26:28 +0100 From: AJ <ajdel at mindspring.com> Subject: Filters/Vegemite/Lager Yeast There was a question about a single stage water filter with odor removal a day or to ago. These devices come in a variety of forms the simplest of which are just some kind of paper or wound consruction with granulated, activated carbon (GAC) incorporated. The GAC will react with chlorine (converting it to chloride ion) and chloramine (producing chloride and ammonium ions) as well as adsorbing many organic substances such as those responsible for stale or musty odors and they'll also get hydrogen sulfide (rotton eggs smell). That's about it though. They don't produce any change in the ion composition of the underlying water (with the exception of the small changes in chloride ion concentration). Hard, alkaline water will still be hard and alkaline. There are other filters which largely deionize the water. The Brita pitcher is the best known of these but there are some counter top and under the counter models available. These contain ion exchange resins and usually include GAC as well for odor removal. These filters dramatically change the chemistry of the water rendering hard water soft though these units are usually sold to consumers who buy them to remove metals such as copper, iron and lead. They sometimes introduce small amounts of silver into the water to keep it bacteria free after the chlorine is removed. Thus it is important to understand which type you have. Generally speaking unless your water is heavily chloraminated or stinky filtration is not required. Chlorine can be removed by heating or allowing the water to stand over night. Chloramine can be removed by tossing a couple of Campden tablets into the water and dissolving them. Medthods for removing carbonate are well documented in the archives here and in many brewing texts. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The principal ingredients in Vegemite are yeast and salt. I expect there may be some hypoid oil in there as well but I'm not sure how much. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I'm sure there are as many temperature profiles for operating lager yeasts as there are brewers. In the US industry the yeast are usually pitched at around 41F and left to themselves to get started. As fermentation begins heat is evolved raising the temperature. When it reachs 46 - 48F they cut the refrigeration in and hold at that temperature for the reamainder of the fermentation. A diacetyl rest may be tossed in when the gravity is within a point (Plato) or so of terminal. I've always done essentially this with lager yeast and had good results but it would be foolish to claim that this is the best way. A.J. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 08:39:01 -0500 From: "Kensler, Paul" <PKensler at cyberstar.com> Subject: re: Lost fermentables, no break Greg, I wonder if your extraction and break problems might be related to pH... what I'm thinking (and I'm sure those that know a lot more about water chemistry can correct and expand on this) is that the combination of the gypsum and roasted barley might have dropped your mash pH down below the preferred range, and it didn't rise up until you'd diluted the mash with sparge water... instead of starting at 5.2 and rising to 5.6 - 5.8, it started maybe around 4.9 or 5.0 and rose to 5.3. Perhaps next time you can add some calcium carbonate instead of gypsum - the chalk will have the opposite effect, and will work to raise the pH (which in this type of beer is fine because you've got a lot of roasted barley working to drop it). Hope this helps, Paul Kensler Gaithersburg, MD [412, 123] Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 09:55:06 -0500 From: grayling at provide.net Subject: Spent Grain Dog Biscuits Someone asked for a spent grain dog biscuit recipe. This is the one we use at home for our four legged children. It came to us originally from Bob and Kim Barrett (AABG and FORD) ... where they got it I have no clue. My dogs go nuts for these biscuits. Cheers! Jim Suchy Ann Arbor Brewers Guild Westland, MI (21, 90 Rennerian) Dog biscuits 4 cups spent grain 4 cups flour 1 cup peanut butter 1 egg Mix together (works well with hands) and roll onto cookie sheet. Score (almost through) into shapes you want, or use a cookie cutter as you would for cookies. They don't spread out and they pretty much end up the thickness you start with. This recipe made one cookie sheet but they are pretty thick so you could adjust that if you want them thinner. They end up very crisp after they've been baked and dried. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Let cool enough to break them up then place back in the oven to dry for 8-10 hours at 225. You want to make sure they dry adequately, if they look like a fig newton when you break one they're not dry. If they don't dry enough they will mold. Dried thoroughly they will store well in an airtight container. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 09:11:32 -0600 From: "Hornberger, Brent" <Brent.Hornberger at wcg.com> Subject: jb-weld = broken keg stout While Paul Harvey "good day" says that JB Weld will bond to anything, it didn't bond when I needed it the most. It's rock solid till heated up for about 45 minutes on an outdoor propane burner. A image is here http://www.bcbrewery.com/images/101799/MVC-080F.JPG on JB-weld's web page it says that it can withstand heat up to 300 celcius. http://www.jbweld.co.uk/files/prodb.html I found no data that will tell me if I will grow and extra eye in my lifetime though. brent - www.mullet-times.com got mullet? Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 10:18:55 -0500 From: "Sedam, Marc" <marc_sedam at unc.edu> Subject: [Fwd: Re: hydrometer measurements] Got the answer from Jeff Renner, of course. Use degrees Plato. In my example, a beer of 1.046 OG is 11.5 deg. Plato, which equals 115g/kg (I agree with Jeff and think 115g/L would be close enough). Of course it would be more accurate if you weighed your speisse, obviously. So there's the answer. I think 3/4c of corn sugar is about 4oz. Since there are 28g/oz you'd need 112g to prime 5 gallons...or basically a liter. This matches my English approach of adding a quart of speisse to prime my beers. You'd have to adjust a bit for high gravity beers, but it's close enough. I'll stick with just adding a quart from now on. - ---- Marc Sedam Chapel Hill, NC (148 deg, 510 miles) Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:41:19 -0600 From: Brian Lundeen <blundeen at rrc.mb.ca> Subject: RE: lager yeast Gene Collins expresses some confusion over conflicting advice: > The directions on the White Labs yeast vial label says > to reduce the > temperature when fermentation starts. In the summer issue of > Zymurgy, in > "Ask Dr. White" (White Labs Advertisement) Chris says to > allow to ferment > for two or three days at 70-75 degrees, then start lowering > the temperature. > Which one should I believe and does this mean at high krausen? There really is no conflict, as both answers are wrong, IMHO. Of course, you must remember Chris White is coming from a perspective of someone with a financial interest in mass sales of his product, and therefore wants to slant his advice in the direction of preventing his customers from totally screwing up, as opposed to producing the best possible product. IOW, either recommendation is safe, but not optimal. I believe ANY yeast, but especially lagers, should be pitched at fermentation temperature, so that the growth phase can occur at those temperatures. To do that, you will need a very large starter, or a starter that has been acclimated to the colder temps through slow drops of around 4 deg F per day, and ideally both. You will also need scrupulous sanitation so that your unpitched wort can sit safely for a day in your fridge or freezer to get down to the desired temp (unless you have a kick-ass chiller that can do the job quickly). Personally, I innoculate all my worts with lysozyme to protect it from lactobacillus and pediococcus which might be floating around. Of course, you wouldn't want to do that if you were making a lambic. Cheers Brian Lundeen Brewing at [314,829] aka Winnipeg Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 12:50:46 -0600 From: John Wilkinson <jwilkinson at goquest.com> Subject: London pubs I always liked The Clarence, on Whitehall I think. There are two by that name, apparently, but the one I went to was on or near Whitehall near the Royal Horseguards barracks and the Royal Horseguards hotel. I used to stay there when I could and it was an easy walk to The Clarence. I can't vouch for it today since I haven't been to London in ten years or so, but it was good the last time I was there. John Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 12:50:58 -0500 From: "Neil K" <neilk27 at hotmail.com> Subject: ABS vs. PVC hopback? When I recently joined the AHA I got a free bonus book of tips and gadgets collected from back issues of Zymurgy. One of the projects is for a neat little hopback made from a length of 2" plastic pipe with end caps and appropriate in and out copper tubing. The instructions call for 2" PVC schedule 40 pipe, which I am having trouble finding. I HAVE found 2" ABS (black, schedule 40) at my local home depot place, along with all the fittings I need. As well, these pieces are dirt cheap--the whole project will cost less than $7.00 Canadian. Question: can I substitute ABS for PVC? The ABS fittings are all stamped "NSF-dw" which I believe stands for drinking water. According to several charts ABS and PVC are both food grade and support the same maximum temperature. Schedule 40 is schedule 40...so why couldn't I substitute? Any ideas? Private e-mail is fine at neilk27 at hotmail.com While on the subject of hopbacks, I presume the final hop addition in the kettle is rendered redundant by a hopback. What about dry-hopping? And can I use hop plugs instead of whole flowers in the hopback? Neil (in Montreal) Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:20:00 -0800 From: "dag's" <dagsbait at adelphia.net> Subject: dry malt v. malt syrup I have recently tried my hand at beer brewing much to the shagrin of my wife who could barely stand my wine making activities. She has taken to calling me a lush and a drunken bootleger to witch I usualy reply "So, what's your point?" this doesn't seam to help for some odd reason. ;-) Well, my question for the day. I have been doing alot of reading on the subject of brewing and I've noticed that some recipies call for both malt syrup and dry malt. One that comes to mind called for 6.6# plain lite malt syrup un- hopped and 1# lite dry malt. What is the purpose of this? would the beer be diferent if I use only dry or only syrup? Or is it only because syrup comes in 3.3# cans? Return to table of contents
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 09:30:13 +1300 From: Sam Taylor <sam.taylor at peace.com> Subject: Specifying burner output Hi HBD, I'm looking to upsize and do 30 litre (8 gallon) boils and I don't know how big a burner I need. I'm also confused about how burners are rated. Why are burners specified in BTU (ie units of energy, not power)? I found one in a shop here that looked quite powerful, about 15cm in diameter, and it was (from memory) rated at 18.5kJ, which converts to 17.5 BTU. The BTU rated burners I've seen in catalogs, etc. seem to be rated much higher, like thousands of BTU. So are BTU ratings in BTU per hour and metric ones in kJ per minute or something? It's no wonder that NASA lost that Mars probe in all this confusion. What's a BTU anyway? Should I buy this 18.5kJ burner or does it sound a bit small? Thanks Sam T Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 14:25:06 -0600 From: jvoosen at usfamily.net Subject: Alcohol Content I brew several of the Coopers products which usually turn out around 5% alcohol content. Looking for any ideas in the brewing process to be able to cut this back a little. Thanks! Jim Stillwater, Minnesota - ------ http://USFamily.Net/info - Unlimited Internet - From $8.99/mo! ------ Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 16:01:06 -0500 From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner at mediaone.net> Subject: Re: Life =? Dream (Was Airlocks) Oh Seekers of Wisdom: You can hear a 1954 recording of "Sh - Boom" (Real Audio Streaming) at http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Sands/5757/record/ or at http://www.history-of-rock.com/covers.htm. It is sung by four young men who allowed their hair to be shorn in the ritualistic manner of the ancient Vedic priests in the illustration I mentioned in yesterday's HBD. Check it out - it's fun and reveals more of the wisdom of the ages I mentioned. Tomorrow I will reveal all. Jeff - -- Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner at mediaone.net "One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943 Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:35:14 -0700 From: susan woodall <woodsusa at moscow.com> Subject: re:Pumpkin barleywine To me that sounds like an oxy-moron. The complexity of the barly wine probably will over power the flavor of any amount of pumpkin that you may add Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 18:22:04 -0600 From: "Tim" <tim at thehitz.net> Subject: Can you ship beer? Hello all! I have a friend who lives in the Seattle area who I talk to every now and again. I live in Tulsa, Ok. I have mentioned to him my new hobby (have done 5 batches extract with my first all-grain planned for this weekend) and he was interested in trying some of it. He doesn't get back here very often and I have never made it up there (want to though). My question is....Is there a way to ship him a couple of bottle of beer? Besides probably being illegal, what other problems might arise from trying to ship some to him (Special packaging, ect.). Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Tim Tulsa, Oklahoma Return to table of contents
[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]
HTML-ized on 10/31/01, by HBD2HTML v1.2 by KFL
webmaster at hbd.org, KFL, 10/9/96
/n