HOMEBREW Digest #4461 Mon 26 January 2004


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  RE:  A Bad Day Kegging (Bill Tobler)
  honey in brewing (Dan)
  RE Propane cooker conversion to NG ("Pete Calinski")
  Link of the week - Jan 23, 2004 (Bob Devine)
  Burley Method of Keg Purging ("Dave Burley")
  Anyone know what happened to the Maltose Falcons website? (Scott Alfter)
  Re: fusels & esters ("Chad Stevens")
  10 gallon corny kegs ("Andy and Tina Bailey")

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 07:42:27 -0600 From: Bill Tobler <wctobler at sbcglobal.net> Subject: RE: A Bad Day Kegging Yesterday, Phil said, "Yesterday evening, whilst gassing up a keg, Jill announced it was cool enough to go horse riding. Jill scares me more than horses so reluctantly I shoved the keg in the fridge and prepared myself for a ride..."snip ...and then went on to tell us about the lousy day he had on a horse. Sounds like "Gassing the Keg" was the only thing that went right all day, Phil. Shame on you for blaming your bad day on your beer making. You're giving it a bad name. If you shared some of that beer with the horse, he probably would have behaved! ;-) Bill Tobler Lake Jackson, TX (1129.7, 219.9) Apparent Rennerian Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 10:11:11 -0500 From: Dan <dan at zlater.net> Subject: honey in brewing I have an extract recipe for a "honey wheat " that says to add honey to the boil. The guy at my local HB store told me that adding honey to the boil would not add any honey flavors to the final beer as the sugars would all ferment though it would increase alchol content. I was just wondering if this seems correct? Could I add the honey after the boil directly to the fermenter?add it to the secondary? use it for priming? or all or none of the above? Dan Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:25:20 -0500 From: "Pete Calinski" <pjcalinski at adelphia.net> Subject: RE Propane cooker conversion to NG Well, last summer I converted my propane grill to NG. I talked to the manufacturer. They said all I had to do (other than removing the regulator and plumbing in the NG) was drill out the orifice to the size of a #49 drill bit. Before I drilled, I measured the existing size and it just took a #51 bit. They also said to adjust the air vents to get the right color flame. Those vents have never had any effect. Neither before the conversion or after. No matter where they are set, the flame stays the same. My grill is a 12,000 BTU. I guess you could measure the size of your existing orifice and open it up two drill sizes. If that isn't enough, try another size up. I think I will try a #48 next just because I would like to have it a little hotter. Hope this helps. Pete Calinski East Amherst NY Near Buffalo NY http://hbd.org/pcalinsk *********************************************************** *My goal: * Go through life and never drink the same beer twice. * (As long as it doesn't mean I have to skip a beer.) *********************************************************** Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:53:21 -0700 From: Bob Devine <bob.devine at worldnet.att.net> Subject: Link of the week - Jan 23, 2004 You say you can't get enough to read on homebrewing? Try one of these blogs related to beer and/or brewing: http://blog.homebrew.com/blog.shtml http://hopbonkle.blogdrive.com/archive/cm-1_cy-2004_m-1_d-2_y-2004_o-10.html http://www.suckerfish.net/~matt/beer/blog/ http://www.beerdrinker.org/ http://www.tastybrew.com/journal/rob http://www.beerblog.com/ http://realbeer.com/library/beerlog/ http://www.beergeek.com Bob Devine Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 16:03:04 -0500 From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net> Subject: Burley Method of Keg Purging Brewsters: After a lot of time, I managed to get through all of my HB digests. Bin Bizzy with the holidays, visitors, brewin', answering all those p*nis enlagrement ads, etc. Many topics of interest, but one thing did catch my eye and that was comments on my recommendation for purging kegs to avoid oxidation. What I developed was a method for filling the keg with VERY hot water and then pushing it out with CO2 to guarantee no oxygen. It works great and has for a few decades. Other later modifications by other brewers added in the idea of using sanitizing agents instead of just plain hot water. There is no need to make up 5 gallons of sanitizer. I am fortunate that my hot water tank in my brewery can be kept so hot I can't even stand to put my hand in it and SWMBO claims I have asbestos hands! I wouldn't advise this for anyone with small kids or older folks around. As a good alternative you can consider pouring some boiling water in the keg and topping up with hot water to get the same effect. Get it to about 160F and you shouldn't have any trouble. If you don't fill through the "out" with lid on and vent open ( by far the preferable method) , cover the open top of the keg opening with plastic wrap to mimimize the mixing of CO2 and air as you fill. Then be sure to purge that little bit of space on top of the beer by opening the relief valve and blowing in CO2. Trying to purge the keg by displacing air with gaseous CO2 based on the idea that CO2 is heavier than air and will settle to the bottom of the keg just plain doesn't work. The reason? Any CO2 you add in mixes immediately with the air as it is supposed to, as gases are infinitely mixable per the gas laws definition. The vessel is just too small and the gas velocity too high for it to do otherwise. I once did a calculation and to reduce the oxygen content to 1% of its original value in air ( still a lot) it would take 100 kegsful of carbon dioxide. Now in the case of that lake in Africa a couple of decades ago in which huge quantities of CO2 erupted from a suspersaturated lake and killled villages and animals, well, that is an entirely different mattter. Still, I imagine mixing did occur but the oxygen content of the air was reduced to below the limit humans could breathe and not suffocate. Likewise in large industrial ( ESP WINERY AND BREWERY) accidents. These safety lectures have given the false impression that all of the oxygen is displaced. You don't have to replace all the O2 for it to be hazardous to human health, but that is a long way from getting oxygen content low enough that it will not affect your beer. And it doesn't take nine weeks, especially if the beer has been filtered or is active yeast free to be affected. Keep on Brewin' Dave Burley Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 14:04:40 -0800 From: Scott Alfter <scott at alfter.us> Subject: Anyone know what happened to the Maltose Falcons website? They're one of the hosting clubs for this year's AHA conference here in Las Vegas, but http://www.maltosefalcons.com/ is coming up 403 now. There appears to be another site at http://hbd.org/maltose/, but it appears to be a few months out of date. Does anyone have current information on the whereabouts of their website? I'd like to get my own page fixed. _/_ Scott Alfter ($firstname at $lastname.us) / v \ http://alfter.us/ (IIGS( Southern Nevada Ale Fermenters Union - http://snafu.alfter.us/ \_^_/ Beer and Loafing in Las Vegas - http://www.beerandloafing.org/ Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 19:46:03 -0800 From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net> Subject: Re: fusels & esters To add to Steven's pontification...I wrote this a while ago. The source material is the important contribution: - ------------------- Fats and Lipids are bad for foam; their derivatives can be major flavor and aroma contributors however. For ease of understanding in the brewing context, both fats and lipids are made up of fatty acids and are generally not soluble in water but are soluble in acids, alcohol, bile.and will be referred to simply as lipids. Lipids are hydrophobic, as are the large glycoproteins (molecules made of both protein and carbohydrate, albumin and globulin polypeptides combine with carbohydrates to form glycoproteins for example) that make up foam, and compete for position on the bubble surface reducing the ability of the proteins to entrain liquid (Bohnsack, David, Prasadi, Dannis, Reinig, Jeffrey and Wetzel, Lisa (2003) Beer, Wine and the Colloids Which Make it All Possible, www.eng.buffalo.edu/Courses/ce457_527/ce457_pro/g5_doc.htm). Lipase, the enzyme which hydrolyses fats and lipids, is most active during the fourth day of germination liberating free fatty acids. I was unable to find web friendly references regarding lipase thermal stability or activity during mashing. Three main lipid fractions find their way into beer: neutral lipids, free fatty acids, and phospholipids. The first two deteriorate foam stability proportional to the amount present. Phospholipids appear to have no foam destabilization effect however (Hollemans, M., Tonies, T.R.J.M., Bisperink, C.G.J. and Ronteltap, A.D. (1991) The Role of Malt in Beer Foam, Tech. Quarterly of the Master Brew. Assoc. of Am., 28(4), 168-173, www.mbaa.com/TechQuarterly/Abstracts/1991/tq91ab29.htm. ). >>>ESTERS and Amides are naturally occurring derivatives of lipids. Naturally occurring lipids contain even numbers of carbon atoms in straight chains (from 14 to 26 atoms) with fatty acids linked by an ester or amide, either of which may be liberated on hydrolysis. An amide is simply Ammonia + an -ide, an ion picked up from an acid or free radical. Some common Saturated Fatty Acids of animal and plant origin (adapted from W. Christie, 2002). Systematic name Common name Shorthand ethanoic acetic 2:0 butanoic butyric 4:0 hexanoic caproic 6:0 octanoic caprylic 8:0 decanoic capric 10:0 -The first digit before the colon indicating the number of carbon atoms in the chain and the second digit, after the colon, denoting the number of double bonds. The list goes on and on. Note the common names in the preceding table. This is where the terms acetic and butyric come from; acetic of course being associated with acetic acid, the fatty acid in vinegar, and butyric acid, which is found in animal fats and is most pronounced in rancid butter. Caproic, caprylic, and capric acids are all derived from the Latin word caper, meaning goat. Caproic acid reportedly smells like wet goat, caprylic like rancid goat, and capric like fresh goat (is that possible?). These are the group of esters associated with aerobic and anaerobic Dekkera/Brettanomyces fermentations. Horse blanket, horse sweat, foxy, feral, goaty, musky: these are all descriptors of glandular odors. This is most appropriate because all of the listed fatty acids are also products of bacterial and fungal enzymatic action on human glandular excretions. A lambic or gueuze is most accurately described in fatty acid or glandular odor terms rather than as being "estery" in odor. While fully formed esters may be liberated as a result of enzymatic activity on various grain fractions (e.g. ethyl ester in amylopectin), the ester products we are more commonly concerned with from a fermentation standpoint are those formed from an alcohol and a grain derived fatty acid as part of a dehydration process. The alcohol and fatty acid react, often in the presence of a catalyst such as an esterase, to form the ester and a water molecule. Isoamyl acetate, the characteristic banana odor so closely associated with Weizenbiers, occurs when isoamyl alcohol reacts with acetic acid. Two other esters common to various beers are isoamyl butyrate, from the reaction of isoamyl alcohol and butyric acid which smells like pear, and ethyl acetate, made from ethyl alcohol and acetic acid, which smells like juicy fruit. Typically, to make an ester all you need is an alcohol and a fatty acid. The number of possibilities is a function of the number of fatty acids available and the number of alcohols available. All of the even numbered C2 to C30 common saturated fatty acids are found in nature; that's 15 fatty acids. The primary alcohol in beer is ethanol. Congeners, or by-products of ethanol production, may include: Pentanol, also known as isoamyl alcohol, Butanol or butyl alcohol, and Propanol. As a group, these higher alcohols, predominantly comprised of isoamyl alcohol, are known as fusel oil or more incorrectly as fusel alcohols. So 15 fatty acids multiplied by 4 alcohols are 60 ester possibilities. There are actually many more possibilities; this is simply for illustrative purposes. Note that fusel alcohol production increases with fermentation temperature. This is one reason why the warmer the fermentation, the greater the complexity of the ester profile. As an aside, isoamyl alcohol in particular is affected by pitching rates. A four-fold increase in yeast results in an 80% increase in isoamyl alcohol (Van Gheluwe, G., Chen, E., and Valyi, Z. (1975) Factors Affecting the Formation of Fusel Alcohols During Fermentation, Tech. Quarterly of the Master Brew. Assoc. of the Am., www.mbaa.com/TechQuarterly/Abstracts/1975/tq75ab03.htm ). If you are fond of strong isoamyl acetate banana, don't be shy about pitching a large volume of your favorite German Wheat Beer yeast and keeping the fermentation on the warm side. >From the catalyst side of the ester equation, the same effect seen in isoamyl acetate production should hold true for the production of just about any ester. The underlying protein responsible for this is Acetyl-Coenzyme A. Acetyl-CoA is used by yeast for growth as well as for ester production. If a small volume of yeast is pitched, Acetyl-CoA is tied up in yeast growth. If a larger volume of yeast is pitched from the start, little Acetyl-CoA is tied up in a growth phase and as a result, is free to be used by the yeast for ester production. (Cone, Clayton (2003) in Homebrew Digest, http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/4329.html ). As an example, the amino acid Choline alone is responsible for 36 aromatic esters, 13 of which are naturally occurring in plants. They include: anisic acid, isovanillic acid, vanillic acid, cinnamic acid, coumaric acid, and cafeic acid ( Wathelet, Jean-Paul, Mabon, Nicolas, and Marlier, Michel (1999) Synthesis and Purification of 36 Aromatic Choline Esters as Standards, Proceedings of the 10th International Rapeseed Congress, Canberra, Australia. www.regional.org.au/au/gcirc/1/186.htm ).The associated odors are self-explanatory. Choline is of course, yet another amino acid found in grain. - ------------------- Hope this further illuminates rather than obfuscates (Palmer's favorite word). Chad Stevens QUAFF San Diego America's Finest City Homebrew Competition now open for entries and judge registration: www.quaff.org/afc2004/AFCHBC.html Return to table of contents
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 20:15:34 -0800 From: "Andy and Tina Bailey" <atmlobailey at cox.net> Subject: 10 gallon corny kegs I am looking for a source of 10 gallon corny kegs...so: 1) if anyone has any for sale, let me know 2) What industry uses them? (so I know where to look) For instance, does (did) the soft drink industry use them (so I could hit up my local pepsi bottler), or are they used in the medical profession, or elsewhere? If you can help me locate any, I would appreciate it! Andy in Las Vegas Return to table of contents
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