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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Re: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer (Fred L Johnson)
  re: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer (RI_homebrewer)
  TRAFFIC (Joe Katchever)
  Wee heavy carbonation ("Steve Dale-Johnson")
  Mash pH (FLJohnson52)
  Biscuit/Special Roast Malt (neil)


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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 07:10:43 -0400
From: Fred L Johnson <FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer 

Scott has a bottled wee heavy that won't carbonate in the bottle after 
priming and adding some dry yeast. He wants to consider transferring 
the bottled beer into a CO2 flushed cornelius keg and force carbonating 
the beer.

Scott, don't count on no oxygen getting into this beer. It is simply 
myth that the CO2 blanket will remain intact with all of that 
transferring. Also, I would recommend putting all the bottles in a 
bucket of iodophor, bring a bottle out, allow to drain off most of the 
iodophor, pop the cap, flame the mouth, and pour into your cornelius 
keg. Otherwise, there is a high risk of contamination.

Even if this works without spoiling from contamination or oxygen, your 
priming sugar is going to cause the beer to be pretty sweet.

My recommendation is to put the bottles at room temperature (pretty 
warm in most parts of the US right now)  if it is not already and wait 
another month before doing anything.

Fred L Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA



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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 05:55:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: RI_homebrewer <ri_homebrewer at yahoo.com>
Subject: re: Fixing carbonation in a bottled beer

Hi All,

  In HBD #5030 Scott Alfter asked about carbonating a flat bottle
conditioned beer by pouring it into a corny keg and force carbonating
and then counter pressure bottling.

  I've never done this, but it does carry some risk of oxidation and
contamination.

  Another thing that you can do is not pour the beer out of the bottles
into the keg, but simply uncap the bottles and put the open bottles in
the keg and force carbonate right in the bottles.  Once they are force
carbonated simply open up the keg, take them out, and recap quickly.

  I would suggest rinsing the outside of the bottles with a sanitizer
like idophor before uncapping and placing them in the keg.

  You can probably force carbonate 6 to 8 bottles at a time this way by
carefully placing/stacking them into the keg.


Jeff McNally
Tiverton, RI
(652.2 miles, 90.0 deg) A.R.
South Shore Brew Club



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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 10:11:28 -0500
From: Joe Katchever <joe at pearlstreetbrewery.com>
Subject: TRAFFIC

I rarely post to this site but I have to agree with John Peed. HBD is 
far from obsolete. There are many other sites out there that will come 
and go but HBD is still the biggest and the baddest! I read this digest 
every day. It inspires and educates.
Cheers,

- -- 
Joe Katchever





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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 10:53:30 -0700
From: "Steve Dale-Johnson" <sdalejohnson at hotmail.com>
Subject: Wee heavy carbonation

Scott (or is that Scot with the wee heavy?), I'm not sure of whether you 
will be happy with a force carbonated wee heavy, especially if you intend to 
keep it long term.

My experiece with kegging and force carbonating has been mixed, the only way 
I have been successful keeping the beer from oxidation has been to fill a 
keg with iodophor solution to sanitize, and then push it out with C02.  You 
can make an "out to out" corny jumper to chain kegs together to minimize 
wasted iodophor and C02 and do all your clean empty kegs at once.

I then have a racking cane connected to another corny "out" fitting which I 
rack into the corny keg with, and a "gas in" fitting on a piece of hose that 
goes in a container of iodophor to bubble/vent without allowing air back in.

As an easier solution, I now keg carbonate (cheaper than C02 fills too) by 
just using the hatch, adding boiled sugar syrup, filling to the very top, 
and then sealing the lid with a quick blast of C02.  Two to four weeks and 
voila.  The yeast seems to keep the beer from oxidation.

You will be successful yeast carbonating the nastiest and gnarliest heavies 
and barleywines by using EC1118, a couple packs properly rehydrated first 
and mixed into the bottling vessel before bottling.  Dry yeast added to a 
big beer without rehydration will not live.  As a tip, it's always wise to 
let the beer finish in the carboy on 1118 before adding fresh 1118 again at 
bottling to ensure that you don't have any bottle bombs from differential 
sugar uptake of the 1118 strain over your Scottish ale yeast.


Steve Dale-Johnson
Brewing at 1918 miles, 298 degrees Rennerian
Delta (Vancouver), BC, Canada.




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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:16:01 -0400
From: FLJohnson52 at nc.rr.com
Subject: Mash pH

I have read in many places that a desirable mash pH is in the range of 
5.2-5.5. However, in John Palmer's web publication, How to Brew, 
Palmer provides some really nice nomograms for calculating adjustments 
to one's brewing liquor which target the range of pH 5.6-6.0. 

Can someone straighten me out on this? (Perhaps John is listening.)

Fred L Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA


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Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 18:54:34 -0500
From: <neil at scottishbrewing.com>
Subject: Biscuit/Special Roast Malt

I'm looking for experience/opinion on the need for and use of Biscuit and/or
Special Roast malts. I've never used either myself but have long had a
lingering question about them.

>From what I can gather, these malts are designed to emulate English style
ales to contribute that 'earthy' or 'biscuit' aroma/flavor. The simple fact
is no British brewer does or has ever used these malts to my knowledge. So,
what is in the basic combination of base malt, maybe some crystal, the water
and the yeast used by British brewers that these malts are attempting to
reproduce? British malts are readily available in the US and, if any of the
liquid yeast producers are to be believed, so are British ale yeasts. That
only leaves water and production techniques (including scale). So, what is
it and why would one use these malts to mimic the style? Also, any feedback
on perosonal experience and results, grist percentages, etc. greatly
appreciated.

Cheers!
Neil Spake
Author and Webmaster,
www.ScottishBrewing.com




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