HOMEBREW Digest #4205 Wed 26 March 2003


[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:
  ANNOUNCING THE 2003 UPPER MISSISSIPPI MASH-OUT! ("Al Boyce")
  Beerjoilais Nouveau ("Dave Burley")
  RE: enzymes an overnight mashing ("Sven Pfitt")
  white film (Randy Ricchi)
  Near Beer ("Reddy, Pat")
  Re: Procon Pump???? (Demonick)
  sour mashing question (Steven S)
  Short Ferment of Commercial Beer ("Doug Hurst")
  Pun at another's expense... ("Doug Moyer")
  Mountain Creek Water in Brewing ("Andrew Moore")
  Stream Water (AJ)
  Water treatment ("Ed Dorn")
  RE: Yet more on PID controls ("Mike Sharp")
  RE: Procon Pumps ("Mike Sharp")
  re: Mountain Creek Water in Brewing ("robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com")
  White stuff... ("Jay Spies")
  Clogged boil kettle ("Jay Spies")
  AHA National Homebrew Competition ("Gary Glass")
  Belgian Reference Books ("Raj B. Apte")
  overnight mashing, enzymes ("greg man")

* * Show your HBD pride! Wear an HBD Badge! * http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/shopping * * The HBD Logo Store is now open! * http://www.cafeshops.com/hbdstore * * 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. HAVING TROUBLE posting, subscribing or unsusubscribing? See the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org. 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 or read the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org. JANITOR on duty: Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen (janitor@hbd.org)
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 00:15:29 -0600 From: "Al Boyce" <aboyce at mn.rr.com> Subject: ANNOUNCING THE 2003 UPPER MISSISSIPPI MASH-OUT! THE 2003 UPPER MISSISSIPPI MASH0OUT! FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT! The Minnesota Home Brewers Association and the St.Paul Homebrewers Club announce the second annual 2003 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out Homebrew Competition for all BJCP Categories (including Cider and Mead) in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota (A qualifier for the High Plains Homebrewer of the Year award!) April 11-20, 2003: Entries Accepted (All BJCP categories, including Cider and Mead) May 1-3, 2003: Judging (NEW! Beds for Judges program) May 2, 2003: Twin Cities Pub Crawl (9pm) starting from Radisson Metrodome May 3, 2003: Blessing of the Bock at Town Hall Brewery (6pm) May 3, 2003: Awards Ceremony at Summit Brewing (8pm) Information and Online registration for beers and judges available at: http://www.mnbrewers.com/mashout Judging will be held at the Radisson Metrodome: http://www.radisson.com/minneapolismn_metrodome Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 05:39:19 -0500 From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net> Subject: Beerjoilais Nouveau Brewsters: Jeff relates a tale of serving young beer and asks for related tales. In the late 60's I was living and brewing in Wales UK while post-docing. At that time it was still illegal to brew in the US, although I had had a pass or two {8^) at it with Blue Ribbon Malt extract and yeast of unknown origin in graduate school. Anyway, I was enthusiastically brewing all I could in this brewer's mecca, (typically 5 gals per week) and invited my new found friends to a party at my house to share in the bounty. No one showed up on time ( veddy Un-British), so I was sitting around having a bitter and some vinegar crisps and watching Up Pompeii on the telly, when I heard several car doors slam. Friends had been to a pub first and brought along some of their or friends. Apparently some were experienced but disappointed homebrew drinkers and wanted a good pint or two first. So what had been a relatively small party, ended up much larger. They were favorably impressed with my beer and needless to say they went through all my 10 or 15 gallons of cleared bitter in an instant and began working on and finished my bottles which were still clearing. When they began to eye my active fermenter, I had to draw the line! They finished off the evening by giving me a Welsh sing, which my neighbors also enjoyed (?) at 3 AM. Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 08:41:09 -0500 From: "Sven Pfitt" <the_gimp98 at hotmail.com> Subject: RE: enzymes an overnight mashing greg man brings up the subject of enzymes an overnight mashing >I tried overnight mashing last weekend on a belgian sasion. The whole >process cut 2 hours out of my brew day (well, cut it on one day an >added >it to another I guess). It seemed to work pretty good, but my >final >resting temp the next morning was a little low at 130F. Too close >to the >danger zone for me, so next time I'll try to find a better way >of >insulating the cooler. ....snip..... >I have only two questions for the collective chemistry majors out >there >about the process. First do coolers lose heat in a linier scale? ...snip... >The second is this I wondered If the temp will fall that much over >night >then I will have to start at a higher final resting temp. ....snip... Will resting the mash over night at say 158F destroy all of the beta enzymes? >What I mean is by the time the mash reaches say 148F will there be >What >about if the mash stays too long at 130F? Will I have a headless >beer? Or >will it become very thin in body an mouth feel? The gist of greg's questions involves the enzimes during a reverse (negative) temp ramp, and the heat loss of themash tun. 1. The temp drop is non-linear because heat loss is linear, but is driven by the temperature differnce between the source(mash tun) and sink (surrounding environment). As the temperature of the mash drops, the difference drops and the amount of heat loss per unit time drops. It follows a classical time-constant driven function. Just add more insulation if you are concerned (see 2). 2. You will already have denurtured the 130F enzimes after hours above 145F, so don't worry about them. Your best bet is a single infusion mash, the negative ramp of 2F/Hr will get you finished in the initial one to two hours. I used to start two F higher than I would have for a normal mash since I don't add any corrections during the mash, but found it to be unnecessary. I've made a half dozen batches like this and never experienced any mouthfeel or head problems. Steven, -75 XLCH- Ironhead Nano-Brewery http://thegimp.8k.com Johnson City, TN [422.7, 169.2] 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: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 09:00:35 -0500 From: Randy Ricchi <rricchi at houghton.k12.mi.us> Subject: white film Buck Wilke is wondering about white film on his beer. Buck, I had the same kind of film on a weizen I brewed many years back. I racked out from under the film and the film still reappeared in the tertiary container. Since the beer tasted good, I crossed my fingers and bottled. The flavor never went off, so whatever that film was from, it was fairly benign flavor-wise. Can't say if yours is the same strain of infection, but at least there's hope. Randy Ricchi Hancock, MI Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 08:51:02 -0600 From: "Reddy, Pat" <Pat.Reddy at mavtech.cc> Subject: Near Beer My Dad would like me to brew him up a small batch of N.A. My next brew is going to be an American Pale to satisfy the mass of people whose services helped my brewery take shape over the last few months. I've read where it's possible to bake the alcohol right out of finished beer in the over at around 170* but that the majority of flavoring and aroma hops is lost. I plan on pulling out 2- 3 gallons from my batch for conversion to about 2% alcohol via baking. Does anyone know how well dry hopping immediately after the bake works? Thanks. Pat Reddy MAVERICK Technologies (618)281-9100 x134 pat.reddy at mavtech.cc Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 07:01:44 -0800 From: Demonick <demonick at zgi.com> Subject: Re: Procon Pump???? Procon pumps are commonly used in commercial grade espresso machines. You may want to post the same question to the newsgroup alt.coffee. The pump out of a coke machine may not withstand hot wort. The pump from a espresso machine can certainly withstand the heat. Domenick Venezia Venezia & Company, LLC Maker of PrimeTab (206) 782-1152 phone (206) 782-6766 fax Seattle, WA demonick at zgi dot com http://www.primetab.com Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 10:10:41 -0500 (EST) From: Steven S <steven at 403forbidden.net> Subject: sour mashing question I'm about to brew my raspberry wit again. My last couple of batches were given away to friends and critical comments requested. One common theme besides the typical "for free beer its great" was "its not quite what I expected". I dug further and it seems people expected more raspberry tart/sourness. I tend to agree and in my last batch I used an extract plus some citric acid but it just didnt taste quite right. Using real fruit adds a certain complexity that is just missing from extracts. I also didnt like the sourness of the citric acid. SO i want to try doing a sour mash to increase the acidity and wonder what the results from others have been. My reading indicates the following: Using uncrushed 2-row works well once the mash has cooled down One to two days of "festering" produces a slight acidic note A week produces a heidious stench but nice sourness The Questions: Is current 2-row that the average HBS carries going to contain enough bacteria to produce the necessary souring? Besides yogurt cultures and sourdough starters what other souring techniques have people tried? I've got raw wheat from the local whole foods store, suitable for using as the bacteria carrier? I want similar sourness as Berliner Weiss, let it fester a week or just a few days? Steven St.Laurent 403forbidden.net [580.2,181.4] Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 09:14:24 -0600 From: "Doug Hurst" <DougH at theshowdept.com> Subject: Short Ferment of Commercial Beer The discussion of short ferments reminded me of a bar I frequented when I lived in Rochester NY. The bar owner was approached by some enterprising MBA students, who convinced him it would be profitable to 'get-in' on this 'brewpub craze'. They had designed a small 1-2 bbl extract brewing system which was meant to be sold as a package and crammed into corners of bars, thus turning them into "brewpubs". I can only assume that this was their thesis project. I believe this bar had been sold their pilot system. I remember the system consisting of a small HLT, boiler, filter and one (1) fermenter. The system sat in the bar for a long time, seemingly under construction. When it was finally up and running I anxiously ordered an "amber". I couldn't believe how bad it was. It was cloudy (despite the filter), fruity/estery, and there was minimal carbonation. Moreover, it was very sweet. In fact it reminded my then inexperienced beer palate more of wort than beer. The next time I went to the bar I found the MBA student entrepreneurs crouched around Carl Strauss whom they had flown-in to evaluate their system. I went up and introduced myself as a beer enthusiast and began talking to Carl Strauss about the beer and how I perceived it's taste as "worty". He mentioned almost casually that he had given the MBA students some advice about their system, primarily that the beer needed to ferment and age for more than seventy two (72) hours before being served. I'm not sure if they heeded his advice or not. I never drank the beer again and soon moved to San Francisco (maybe this is why). Doug Hurst Chicago, IL [215, 264.5] Apparent Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 11:10:26 -0500 From: "Doug Moyer" <shyzaboy at yahoo.com> Subject: Pun at another's expense... Lonzo McLaughlin <lonkelm at yahoo.com> wrote: "I have a 3 tier converted keg system. I'm having trouble getting all of the work out of my kettle after I finish the boil." Hey, it's like most hobbies: you'll always put more work into it than you get out! <grin> Brew on! Doug Moyer Salem, VA Star City Brewers Guild: http://hbd.org/starcity "There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'" ~ Dave Barry "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." ~ Galileo Galilei Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 12:23:00 -0500 From: "Andrew Moore" <abmjunk at hotmail.com> Subject: Mountain Creek Water in Brewing Andrew Nix asks about using mountain stream water: Andrew, I have never used mountain stream water. However, every batch I make contains water from Wayside Spring, a potable water spring within the city limits of Richmond, Virginia. I use it without filtering or boiling. I have never had any problems (that I know of, anyway). I do not know the chemistry of the water, but I usually add gypsum to the wort. There may be some issues of contaminants in a mountain stream, i.e. runoff from farms or wild animal wastes. I would think that a spring would be a better bet than a stream. If I were you, I'd try a batch with your stream or spring water and see how it turns out. Andrew Moore Richmond, Virginia Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:47:02 -0500 From: Andrew Nix <anix at vt.edu> Subject: Mountain Creek Water in Brewing Hello all, I have been tossing around the idea of using the water from my favorite wild trout stream in the mountains here in SW VA and wanted to see if anyone has tried this before with their local streams. I know there is a large variation in the water from watershed to watershed depending on the soil and rock formations. Has anyone tried to make a beer from mountain stream water, and if so, what adjustments, if any, did you make to the water chemistry before brewing with it? I know I could send a sample off for chemical analysis, but I'm not going to go that far. I want to make an American pale with it, so I may not treat it at all and just see how the beer comes out. Andrew Nix Research Associate Transonic Turbine Cascade Heat Transfer Group Department of Mechanical Engineering Virginia Tech 100B Randolph Hall (540) 231-6939 Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 17:55:08 +0000 From: AJ <ajdel at cox.net> Subject: Stream Water For Andrew Nix - I used to have a place in W. Va with a spring (and stream) and thought of using the water for brewing. The first thing that made me think better of it was the prospect of trucking enough of it back home to make a batch of beer. The second thing was that the chemical composition was not appreciably different from the water from my well at home. The third, and most off-putting was that the coliforms situation was appalling. Not only were the indicator organisms there in multitude but there was plenty of E. coli as well. Little forrest creatures were pooping in my spring house - that was for sure! As brewing is a time honored way of disinfecting questionable water perhaps I shouldn't have been so squeamish but given that I have fine well water with approximately the same chemistry, why bother? I think you must learn something about the water if only by brewing with it. You can buy test kits for hardness and alkalinity (the most important water parameters) on the internet, in hardware stores and at pet stores that sell fish. As you are associated with a university, you should be able to arrange to have the simple tests required to quantify other minerals as well. Absent knowledge of what's in the water it is impossible to recommend treatment or predict the beer styles that it will make well. Assuming that it is like most Virginia surface water you should find it suitable for many styles of beer without any treatment at all. It will probably be too alkaline and contain too much sulfate for the German/Bohemian beers that use quantities of noble hops. It will probably benefit from some gypsum when making Burton style ales. A.J. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 13:37:15 -0500 From: "Ed Dorn" <edorn at dukes-stein.com> Subject: Water treatment I've noted with interest a number of posts regarding water treatment recently, and I'm getting more and more confused. Before I get into my questions, let me set the context. I've been brewing for almost six years, all grain for about five years. When I first attended the all-grain class at the local hb shop, the owner talked briefly about our local water, and recommended that, for 5 gallons, I add two tsp gypsum to the mash, and two "capfuls" of lactic acid (based on the container size he sold) to the sparge water. I dutifully followed his instructions and for several years brewed terrific beer, mostly American pale ale, American wheat, and German hefeweizen. I should add that I also use a water filter, a Pur model attached to the faucet. As an aside, the hb shop is no longer in business, so I can't address my questions to the owner. I guess I've gotten a little bored and want to move into more challenging areas, so I've gotten interested in the idea of matching water to various beers. In the literature that is readily available, I find very little information about how to add treatments, specifically at what point in the brewing process. The authors do mention certain types of water adjustments, frequently in parts per million, but little attention seems to be paid to when or how the adjustment should be made. Noonan does refer to treating "brewing water" which implies to me that all water should be treated. I think that most treatment is done to make the mash more efficient, but I'm not sure if that's the only thing. I'm also not sure if pH is important beyond facilitating enzyme activity and preventing leaching of tannins. You can probably tell that I'm not a chemist, so long texts with formulae, symbols, and equations cause my eyes to glaze over. So here are the questions. The most commonly used (in my limited experience) water treatments seem to be gypsum, lactic acid, salt, Epsom salt, and calcium chloride. At what point in the brewing process should these be added? When an amount is given for 5 gallons, should it be adjusted upward if added early in the process when the total brewing water used will be much higher (i.e., does the stuff evaporate)? What do I really need to know about pH? I know that detailed knowledge is not crucial, because I've made fine beer without ever testing pH. But ignorance is no longer bliss. I know that books are written on this subject, and I'd love to find one that addresses these questions in simple how-to form for the home brewer. I've read Palmer, Papazian, Daniels, Noonan, Miller, Mosher, and perhaps the answers are there and I missed them. If anyone has another good reference, please let me know. I have ProMash, and I can't find answers there either. BTW, I'm in Virginia Beach, VA and blessed with soft water. The profile is as follows: Calcium - 7 ppm, Magnesium - 4 ppm, Sodium - 18 ppm, Sulfate - 28 ppm, Bicarbonate alkalinity - 20 ppm, Chloride - 17 ppm and a pH of 7.0. Private replies are welcome, but I suspect that if I'm confused, others are also. Then again, maybe I'm just part of the proverbial 10% that didn't get the word. Thanks, Ed Dorn Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 10:40:33 -0800 From: "Mike Sharp" <rdcpro at hotmail.com> Subject: RE: Yet more on PID controls Michael O'Donnell talks more about PID Controls Previously I said: >Set the time constant to a value somewhere around 2 seconds, and you >should be ok with the relays. You'll need to set up some sort of >control voltage for the SSR--but that will depend on the SSR. Then Michael O'Donnell said: "Before you go about doing anything like this, I'd highly recommend taking Pat Reddy's suggestion from last week and just buying an SSR controller on Ebay. You can probably get one for around $50, then turn around and sell your relay one for the same amount. Much better to start with the right part than to try and kluge it together, especially if there is no cost savings." Your SSR controller will *still* need an SSR to power the heater. An Omron SSR output is rated for something like 1 amp, typically non-inductive, and is intended for control output, not driving the load. The Omron SSR voltage output controllers are something on the order of 40 mA, enough to drive a few SSRs, but not enough to drive a load. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using relay output, especially if it's only driving the control of a load rated SSR. Applications that require solid state outputs are when the cycle time is much less than 2 seconds. A mechanical relay will do fine in a heating application in this situation, where the duty cycle is 2 seconds or greater. What causes relays to fail are inductive loads. If the relay is operating a solenoid, or some other inductive load, without any protection (ie diode clamp for DC control, or MOV and capacitor for AC), it will fail sooner--But so will the SSR. However, for a non-inductive load (like we're talking about here), you're probably talking on the order of 800,000 mean cycles between failure. So a 60 minute mash, assuming the whole time the RIMS is cycling at 2 seconds, will result in about 1800 cycles. If you mash each and every week, in about 9 years you might need to plug in a new relay. But most likely it won't fail for years after that. I would say that if you're buying a controller for a cycle-controlled heater application, and you have a choice between SSR outputs and relay outputs, go for the SSR output. That way you can choose a cycle time of around 0.2 seconds. If you already *have* a controller with relay outputs--use it with a cycle time of 2.0 seconds or more. It's not like it's going to be in continuous operation for years. Mike went on to say: "I bought 2 of them last week and got great deals.IIn a bit of shameless self-promotion, one of them is about to go back up for sale because I forgot I wanted to use a thermocouple and got a controller that needs an RTD probe... if you have a use for an 0mron E5CX-RP, let me know." Better double check your output...I think that's an analog voltage output controller...I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but I don't think you can drive a power SSR with it. In my Omron SSR manual, it specifically excludes the E5CX from driving SSR loads...Its a very uncommon controller, and I'm assuming that means analog output. Regards, Mike Sharp Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 10:53:00 -0800 From: "Mike Sharp" <rdcpro at hotmail.com> Subject: RE: Procon Pumps Guillermo asks about Procon Pumps "So, I could take a "REDHEAD PROCON PUMP" from a Coke dispenser machine. I want to know if someone have experience whit this pump. Im thinking use it for my Herms System." A procon is a rotary vane positive displacement pump. Some have overpressure bypasses built in (if it does, there will be a small cap on the side of the pump), but some do not. This pump can easily produce 250psi (17 bar), so it needs some sort of over pressure protection. It's also not suited for liquids with large particles, so I'm afraid it wouldn't be suitable for a HERMS. Sorry! One thing they're very handy for is if you have a remote beer tap faucet, and you need to run glycol chilling lines a long way to keep the beer lines and faucet cold. The pump can produce enough pressure to force the glycol a long ways through a pretty small line. I've used them for water purification systems (RO needs pretty high pressure to get good recovery), and they'll run fine even continously for a long long time. (Just talked to a buddy Sunday night about a ultra pure water system we built about 7 years ago, that finally had it's first failure--the procon pump wore out. I figure there's probably at least 10,000 hours on it). Regards, Mike Sharp Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 12:07:55 -0800 From: "robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com" <robertjm at hockeyhockeyhockey.com> Subject: re: Mountain Creek Water in Brewing Hi Andrew!! In 1982 a backpacking buddy and I went up to Hetch Hetchy Res, which is better known out west as the "other" Yosemite Valley. It was drowned by the City of San Francisco in the early 20th Century and serves as their primary water supply. A couple miles back there are two water falls, Tueeulala Falls and Wapama Falls. The first one is a small ribbon in good years, but dries up by the end of summer. Wapama Falls is another story, being pretty big. There are two wooden bridges that cross the pan of the water fall. When I was there the bridges were shaking from all the water going through, and one of the bridges was even partially engulfed with water, which made crossing pretty precarious. Here are some photos someone took of the falls and posted on the Internet: http://community.webshots.com/photo/182 8023/1828030pbctYJJfUj http://community.webshots.com/photo/182 8023/1828079lGYXUlCBLH http://community.webshots.com/photo/182 8023/1828144joKzzUYbzE http://community.webshots.com/photo/182 8023/1828096WthbVtZrHX Anyways, enough of the travelog!! I brought several bota bags, as well as other water containers back to Wapama Falls, and filled them. When I got back to the vehicle, I had a 5 gallon carboy waiting and transferred the water. Only after getting back did I realize that my pack weighed nearly 100 lbs with all that water and my gear. Boy, did I feel light as a feather once I took that pack off! (anyone that's ever been backpacking knows that wonderful feeling once you take your pack off <grin!>). Once I got home my father and I figured out a dark ale recipe. Alas, but that recipe is lost and the beer is long time gone, but I still remember it fondly. He wanted to call it Backpacker Ale, but I called it Wapama Falls Ale after the place where it began life. Being that the water was from Hetch Hetchy it is very doubtful that we added any type of water treatment. Thanks for stiring up some fond memories. I may just have to make another trip up there again this Spring. Later, Robert - ------------------------------- > Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:47:02 -0500 > From: Andrew Nix <anix at vt.edu> > Subject: Mountain Creek Water in > Brewing > > Hello all, > > I have been tossing around the idea of > using the water from my > favorite wild trout stream in the > mountains here in SW VA and wanted > to see if anyone has tried this before > with their local streams. I > know there is a large variation in the > water from watershed to > watershed depending on the soil and > rock formations. Has anyone > tried to make a beer from mountain > stream water, and if so, what > adjustments, if any, did you make to the > water chemistry before > brewing with it?... Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 16:32:45 -0500 From: "Jay Spies" <jayspies at citywidehomeloans.com> Subject: White stuff... All - Buck Wilke relates his problems with a white film on his newly-fermented beer and asks what to do with it.... Buck, my advice is, as little as possible. If the beer tastes fine, close your eyes and keg that puppy. repeatedly mucking about with it (straining it through a cheesecloth, packing it full with campden tablets, and generally putting your sticky little fingers in it) will do more harm than good. When you do this kind of thing, you're opening the beer up to sources of possible infection, which will take your fine-tasting beer and turn it into a sour, infected mess if the right nasties find their way in. I've found several weird things have happened to batches of mine over the years, some of which look truly funky. Take the recent post about the beer-stalactites, for instance. Protiens and other coagulates in beer (often referred to in scientific circles as "thingys") sometimes clump or layer in weird formations. This could be due to density or temperature stratifications, hop oils or residues, trub, or just the particular music that the beer was exposed to upon fermentation (country music played during fermentation tends to make my yeast very angry)... If it tastes fine, just keg it and drink it. If it has things floating in it, put it in a ceramic stein. Just kidding on the last thing, but don't drive yourself batty over floaties in a beer that otherwise tastes fine. my .00002 Jay Spies Charm City Altobrewery Baltimore, MD Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 16:37:25 -0500 From: "Jay Spies" <jayspies at citywidehomeloans.com> Subject: Clogged boil kettle All - Lonzo is having trouble with clogging of his kettle scrubbie with pellet hops during draining.... I got two words for you, my man....... whole hops Jay Spies Charm City Altobrewery Baltimore, MD Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 15:53:21 -0700 From: "Gary Glass" <gary at aob.org> Subject: AHA National Homebrew Competition It's Good To Be Royalty! Will you be crowned Homebrewer of the Year this year? Not if you don't enter the AHA's 25th Annual National Homebrew Competition this April. Show us what you've got against more than 3000 of the best homebrews from around the globe! Are you in a homebrew club? Club members earn points towards the Homebrew Club of the Year with every ribbon and medal they take in the National Homebrew Competition. Just think how great it will feel when you and your fellow club members are standing at the podium to accept the Homebrew Club of the Year trophy this year. The competition has been fierce the last few years. Now is your chance to show the rest of the homebrewing world just what your club is made of! April 9-18 is the entry deadline for the First Round of the National Homebrew Competition, so get ready to send in those entries! AHA members receive a $4 discount off the fees for each entry. Last year we had 3,074 entries, once again making the NHC by far the world's largest and most prestigious homebrew competition! We expect even more entries this year. Due to the growing number of entries, we've added a new "East" region based in Cleveland, OH, bringing the total number of regional competitions to nine. Judging will be held April 25-27, May 2-4. See http://www.beertown.org/events/nhc/index.html for details, entry forms, site map, etc. We Need Judges and Stewards! If you are interested in judging, contact the judge coordinators listed at http://www.beertown.org/events/nhc/judging.html. This competition is AHA Sanctioned and BJCP registered, so all judges and stewards earn BJCP points for participating. For entries advancing to the Second Round of the competition, judging and awards ceremony will take place at the AHA National Homebrewers Conference in Chicago, June 19-21, 2003. For details on the conference, see http://www.beertown.org/events/hbc/index.html. The NHC's Ninkasi Award winner (for the winningest brewer in the Second Round of the competition) will be taking home a stainless steel conical fermenter, compliments of Beer, Beer, & More Beer. Also don't forget to vote in the AHA Board of Advisors election! Ballots will be accepted from AHA members through Tuesday, April 1. We have an excellent line up of candidates this year. By voting you can earn an additional entry into the AHA's Lallemand Scholarship drawing, see below for more on the contest. Go to http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/election.html to vote online, or send in the ballot found on page 13 of the March/April 2003 Zymurgy. Once again, Lallemand, makers of Danstar yeast, is offering one lucky AHA member a full-paid scholarship to attend the Siebel Institute of Technology's Concise Course in Brewing Technology. See http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/scholarship.html for contest details. Cheers & Good Luck in the Competition! Gary Glass, Project Coordinator American Homebrewers Association 888-U-CAN-BREW (303) 447-0816 x 121 gary at aob.org www.beertown.org - --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/2003 Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 16:22:26 -0800 (PST) From: "Raj B. Apte" <raj_apte at yahoo.com> Subject: Belgian Reference Books I for one have been happy to see brewing book recommendations in this thread. We have seen good books with a German and English slant. Is there a good reference from the Belgian perspective? I, for one, am looking for a book that treats Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces as ingredients, not impurities. thanks, raj Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 22:42:32 -0500 From: "greg man" <dropthebeer at hotmail.com> Subject: overnight mashing, enzymes Thanks for all the great responses guys. I did'nt realize there were that many people out there using this method. A lot of the answers I got were very helpful. One in particular that mentioned not only covering the cooler with something but also putting it in a closed space like a closet instead of the middle of the room like I did. The question about the loss of heat seemed to center on the temp outside the cooler as well as possible insulation problems, things like these. However I wondered if the loss in heat is more due to the amount of head space left in the cooler? For example if you mash in a 5 gallon tun an the water plus grain only takes up 3.7 gallons of space? Also I would think that the water to grist ratio would also affect the temp loss? Like most people I mash with about 1.2-1.25 quarts per lb. Does this also influence the possible loss of heat? What If I perform a thin mash for decoction? More on enzymes as well, I just recently came across some info on the sac. rest that suggested conversion would take place faster an more efficiently if it's preformed at a higher water to grain ratio, any comments as to if this is true? It was in Horst Dornbush's book on helles in the style series, in the appendix. He mentions water to grain ratios of like 4 to 1? How would that convert to lbs an qts though? He mentions a thick protein rest is more efficient and a thin sac. rest will convert faster, for beta or alpha. He even provides what looks like a test with different times for different thickness ratios of water to grain. I buy more books too add to my collection but still can only get my questions answered on the HBD, and always for free........... thanks HBD'ers, gregman Return to table of contents
[Prev HBD] [Index] [Next HBD] [Back]
HTML-ized on 03/26/03, by HBD2HTML v1.2 by KFL
webmaster at hbd.org, KFL, 10/9/96
/n