HOMEBREW Digest #5409 Tue 02 September 2008


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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
  RE:  Potassium Pansy Water ("David Houseman")
  A Light Fizzing ("Josh Knarr")
  RO Installation ("A.J deLange")
  Re: Custom Glassware ("Dennis Lewis")
  re: color paper ("Chad Stevens")
  Re: AJ's color work, MCAB 4 (Paul Shick)

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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:42:19 -0400 From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman at verizon.net> Subject: RE: Potassium Pansy Water John, I too have a well and LOTS of iron, that turns laundry red, and very acidic. So a water softener was necessary, as well as balancing pH by injecting light soda ash solution. Softened well water has very little mineral content, some potassium ions (or sodium, depending on what salt you use) and chloride ions. So you are starting with very soft water and you just need to add back the minerals needed. First thing is I got a before and after water conditioning report from Ward Labs. Well worth the money. Then entered the report into ProMash as my water source and use that to compute the minerals to add back in order to match the water region for the style I'm brewing. I keep on hand various minerals (gypsum-calcium sulfate, chalk-calcium carbonate, Epson Salt-magnesium sulfate, calcium chloride, and sodium chloride) that can be added to create the water needed. Dave Houseman Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 09:00:48 -0400 From: "Josh Knarr" <josh.knarr at gmail.com> Subject: A Light Fizzing Dear Homebrew Digest, I have my Pumpkin Ale fermenting, and I'm using WLP565 (Saison 1) yeast. Also in there is a yeast I've cultured from a bottle of Saison Dupont. Normal fermentation kicked off about right, then subsided. What I'm left with is a very slowly bubbling carboy of beer with normal trub on the bottom, but it's been over a week and it's kept up with it's slow pace. It almost looks like a glass of beer after the head has subsided, there's small bubbles rising to the surface and the airlock chugs every once in awhile but it's awfully slow compared to the pace of the original fermentation. Should I be concerned? Is the saison dupont yeast possibly even slower than WLP565? - -- Princess Margaret - "I have as much privacy as a goldfish in a bowl." Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:13:54 -0400 From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net> Subject: RO Installation The ususal place to install an RO unit is last in line but I don't really see why this necessarily needs to be the case (but see next paragraph). The usual home softener does not remove anything - just replaces calcium and magnesium with sodium. Now RO units abilities to remove various ions depend to some extent on the ion (for example, they are not very good at removing bicarbonate) so depending on relative performance against sodium vs. calcium/magnesium you might get purer water in one location or the other. Another factor is deposition of lime in the membrane. If the water is near or above CaCO3 saturation (i.e. higher pH and high hardness) then it is true that membrane life can be extended if the unit is installed after the softener. The installation manual should have a chart (the manual for the GE units sold by Home Depot lists 170 ppm as CaCO3 as the limit above which a softener should be installed at pH 7 and 4 times that at pH 6 - note that most well water has a pH closer to 6 than 7). So provided that the incoming water is under saturated the decision can be made on the basis of relative effectiveness against sodium and calcium. Thinking about my previous post a bit I conclude it doesn't need the 'before the softener' bit. Probably my subconscious whispering "softener- bad" caused me to do it. Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 11:33:03 -0400 From: "Dennis Lewis" <dblewis at dblewis.com> Subject: Re: Custom Glassware >From Doug Moyer, who ponders into the ether: "For those of you that have ordered custom glassware, can you share your experiences? I'd like to order a dozen or two "tasting" glasses - something in the 4 oz. range, printed with a personal logo. Ideas? Comments?" I ran our family's former bar & grill for a year and ordered glassware and mugs from customglassware.com. They did a pretty nice job for the price. I ordered a large quantity, like 300+ of the pint glasses and 300+ mugs with the same screening so that my setup charges were minimal. Also, when our customers stole the glasses, at least we could chalk it up to advertising. What I found out is that the shipping charges are a huge add-on to the cost. Of course, when you're looking at shipping for glasses that weigh a pound each, you can understand the costs involved. CustomGlassware.com is basically the retailer who works with different imprinters all over the country and they found one that was close to me so that I could pick up my order. While driving for a two-hour round trip was not free either, I did get the glasses sooner and a little cheaper than they would have been otherwise. Also what you're going to find is that you can get 100+ of the glasses for the nearly same price as a couple dozen. The quantity discounts are huge. And getting more colors make it even more expensive. Just for an apples-apples comparison, I'm talking about logo imprints that are baked on, not some applique or sticker. They last the life of the glass. Get your wallet out, Dennis Lewis Warren, OH Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 13:17:12 -0700 From: "Chad Stevens" <zuvaruvi at cox.net> Subject: re: color paper >What I am doing here is completing (with, relative to 60 years ago, >incredibly powerful computing and measuring resources) that little extra >bit that they left undone i.e. quantifying and coding the deviation of >beers they would have rejected. And all this from a guy who's color blind. A.J., you're too much! Chad Stevens QUAFF San Diego Return to table of contents
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 22:35:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Paul Shick <shick at jcu.edu> Subject: Re: AJ's color work, MCAB 4 Hi everyone, It's been fun reading the discussion of A.J. deLange's work on beer color, some of which was first presented in Cleveland at the MCAB 4 Conference 6 years ago. I have fond memories from that gathering, despite the nightmares from organizing that along with a visit from Michael Jackson and Charlie Papazian. It was a hectic week for Cleveland homebrewers. The MCAB Conference really convinced me that homebrewers can be the driving force behind some important ideas in brewing. At that meeting, Steve Alexander presented his work on using sulfites to prevent oxidation, which seemed awfully novel at the time but looks to be gaining acceptance in the larger community. (It certainly seems to work in my system -- since I've started adding some potassium metabisulfite to my mash water, my pilsners have been much lighter in color. It's hard to assess oxidation at the homebrew level, but they sure "look" less oxidized.) A.J. showed his color work (originally titled something like "A 4 parameter model for beer color," wasn't it?). After these two hyper-technical talks, we were treated to an unnamed professional brewer who spent most of his time telling us that the most important device a homebrewer needed was a mason jar (for scrounging brewpub yeast). I think he was shocked at the level of sophistication of the presentations and the audience. These are just two examples of regular HBD contributors who make this forum such a great resource for the whole brewing community. Thanks again, Pat, for keeping it going. Paul Shick Still basement brewing in Cleveland Heights OH Return to table of contents
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