From: homebrew@lupulus.ssc.gov
Subject: HOMEBREW Digest #1036
Organization: The Internet
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 09:18:43 GMT


HOMEBREW Digest #1036                        Fri 18 December 1992


        FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
                Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator


Contents:
  stike heat vs. mash heat (THOMASR)
  history from rob (THOMASR)
  Beer compatible solder? (Bill Fuhrmann)
  Gummed labels for laserwriters (Bill Fuhrmann)
  How does one begin? (Nir Navot)
  Storing Dried Malt (John Otten)
  Boston's Best Burton Bitter/ Richard (Roy Rudebusch)
  Duval sources (LEONH001)
  NO SUBJECT (PGM01)
  fetal tissue (Peter Karp)
  Flagstaff, AZ homebrewing suppliers (Mark J. Easter)
  Adjuncts, Acid (McHarry)
  Fullers ESB aftertaste  (parsons1)
  iodine (Ed Hitchcock)
  re:Mixing yeasts in one batch? (jim busch)
  please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! URGENT!!!!!!!! (Victor Reijs)
  Paralysis and homebrew ("John L. Isenhour")
  Brew pots ("Sadvary, Bill")
  Off flavors - gone but not forgotten (Kevin Krueger)
  Iodine test (Scott James.)
  Iodophor and plastics (korz)
  Acid sparge water; DCI (George J Fix)
  burning the wort (Peter Maxwell)
  sparge pH (Russ Gelinas)
  homebrew paralysis (MCKINNEY)
  Sparging/Cleansers and Plastics/Boiling and Oxidation (Dominic Ryan)
  UNSUBCRIBE TO HOMEBREW ("Craig A. Tanguay")
  Chicago Legacy Red Ale Yeast (John Stepp)
  Mashing Unmalted Wheat (Martin A. Lodahl)
  xmas beer/wierd floaters (CHAZ)
  All grain tips, yeast pitching amount (Jeff Benjamin)
  Sam Adams Wheat Beer? (Joseph Nathan Hall)


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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 10:13:50 MET
From: THOMASR@EZRZ1.vmsmail.ethz.ch
Subject: stike heat vs. mash heat

Hello all,
Here is a formula for calculating initial mash temperature
sorry about the strange units, but thats what I find
easiest:

I = (St + RT)/(S + R) +0.5H/(S+R) + F

where
I is the initial mash heat
S is the specific heat of the malt
t is the temperature of the malt
R is the number of grams of strike water per gram of malt ( ca. mils of H2O / g
malt)
T strike heat
H slaking heat
F fudge factor. This is a fudge factor for those of us with less than perfect
tuns which cool the strike water when it is put in. eg strike water = A
farenheit,
after being put in the tun = B farenheit, therefore F=B-A.
Here is a table of S and H:
malt moisture,%                                  S              H
0                                                          0.38          28
1                                                          0.38          24.7
2                                                          0.39          21.5
3                                                          0.40          18.2
4                                                          0.40          15.8
5                                                          0.41          13.5
6                                                          0.41          11.5
7                                                          0.42          10.0
8                                                          0.42          8.5

Usual % moisture for relatively fresh / well kept malt is 3-4 %.

tata   Rob.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 10:32:46 MET
From: THOMASR@EZRZ1.vmsmail.ethz.ch
Subject: history from rob

Hello all again,
Heres the info on the book I mentioned yesterday:
The London Practice of Brewing Porter, Brown Stout,
Ale, Table beer and various other kinds of malt liquor
by Fredrick Accum, Second Ed. 1821
Longman,Hurst,Rees,Orme & Brown,
Parernoster Row, London.
The book is available for viewing in the Courtold (sp)
Institute in London, but there is a copy on Fiche
 in the Management library (??!!) of UCLA.
Here is a Store (keeping ) Porter recipe:
3.3# Brown malt
3.3# amber malt
6.7# pale malt
7.9 oz hops
1st mash
2.5 gall at 156 for 1.75 hr
2nd mash
1.8 gall at 165 for 1.5  hr
3rd mash
1.2 gall at 175 for 0.75 hr
Sparge
3.6 gall at 180 for sparging
Boil 1st and 2nd with hops for 1.5hr
recycle hops and boil with 3rd and sparge for 1hr
gives 5 gall (all galls are UK) at 1058 -->1022 fg

p.s. brown malt can be approximated by baking
pale malt over an oak or beech fire (I'll try finding
more explicit instructions, but it's essentially a
darkish smoky malt)

I'll send more recipes as soon as I have time.
tata   Rob.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 22:26:37 CST
From: fiero@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Bill Fuhrmann)
Subject: Beer compatible solder?

|From: Ed Hitchcock <ECH@ac.dal.ca>

|

|I wanted to solder some copper pipes for shuffling wort around between

|mash, sparge, boil, chiller and primary.  Lead is a no-no, and I

|understand tin is not so hot for beer either.  Anyone know of a kind

|of solder that works on copper pipe that is not harmful to beer?



That's it for solder.  You could try using an Epoxy adhesive instead of

solder.  If you use one of the less viscous forms, you may be able to let

it "wick" into the joint like solder.



Have you considered PVC pipe?  The type rated for hot water, of course.




Bill Fuhrmann, aka fiero@pnet51.orb.mn.org

"You don't know what you've got till it's gone." - Joni Mitchell



------------------------------

Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 22:30:19 CST
From: fiero@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Bill Fuhrmann)
Subject: Gummed labels for laserwriters

|Lou Casagrande

|

|My co-brewer and I have been looking for the kind of gummed labels

|which must be wet in order to apply them (this is to make their

|removal easier) which are also arranged in sheets so that they can be

|fed through a laserwriter. Of course, we want to design our own



Neither of the Laser Printer specialty vendors that I know of (Paper

Direct 1-800-A-PAPERS, Queblo 1-800-523-9080) have anything other than

self stick ones, except that Paper Direct has some 3.5" x 4" mailing

labels that aren't specified.



Either Popular Electronics or Electronics Now has a discussion of a

paper with a water soluable adhesive on it.  The intent is to print on

the adhesive side and then use the adhesive to release the paper after

the print is transfered, but it might work backwards.  It was in one

of the last few issues.


Bill Fuhrmann, aka fiero@pnet51.orb.mn.org

"You don't know what you've got till it's gone." - Joni Mitchell



------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 17 Dec 92 14:01:50 +0200
From: Nir Navot <LCNAVOT@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL>
Subject:      How does one begin?

We are a couple of beer-loving molecular biologists who would like to try our
hands at brewing beer. We know nothing about the actual process, and just a bit
about theory behind it.
We would welcome any suggestion as to where and how to begin.

Thanks much
Nir and Barry
-
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nir Navot
Department of Cell Biology
The Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot, Israel. Tel 972-8-343225/ Fax 972-8-344125

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 08:03:15 EST
From: otten@CS.WM.EDU (John Otten)
Subject: Storing Dried Malt

John DeCarlo asked about storing Dried Malt. I keep my malt in the original
bag (usually a 3 pound bag). After using it I close it tightly with a twist
tie, put it in another plastic bag, and put one or two of those anhydrous
salt packets (the kind of thing you get with electronic components, and
sometimes found in dried food packages- the things that say DO NOT EAT!)
which absorb moisture, in with the bag of malt. It seems to work pretty
well. If the malt *DOES* become firm with this method, it has always been
easy to break into a powder with the fingers, or by kneading the bag. I
have not had a malt brick yet.

John
otten@icase.edu
or
otten@cs.wm.edu


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 07:01:00 -0500
From: roy.rudebusch@travel.com (Roy Rudebusch)
Subject: Boston's Best Burton Bitter/ Richard

From: roy.rudebusch@travel.com

R:>Commonwealth Brewing Company in Boston makes a terrific ale they call
R:>"Boston's Best Burton Bitter".  It's nice and thick and malty and I
R:>can't even find a description of the style anywhere.

R:>Can someone who's familiar with this beer
R:>give me some pointers on replicating it?

Can you give a more complete description of the beer?
Like maybe a full taste profile?

p.s. your email address didn't work.

 * OLX 2.2 * Hold a hard drive to your ear. Listen to the C:


------------------------------

Date: 17 Dec 1992 09:38:27 -0500 (EST)
From: LEONH001@mc.duke.edu
Subject: Duval sources

Hi All,
I'll be going North for Christmas and was wondering if some kind soul
would tell me of any good beer sources within a few miles of I-95.
We would prefer somewhere around Baltimore.  I'm looking for Duval to
bring back to NC for a few friends.  Thanks!  Dave Leonhard
                                              leonh001@mc.duke.edu

------------------------------

Date: 17 Dec 92 09:47:55 EST
From: PGM01%ALBNYDH2.bitnet@UACSC2.ALBANY.EDU
Subject: NO SUBJECT

In response to questions about the Troy Brew Pub (HBD-1035)
I called the Pub and spoke to the Manager and got the low down.

The new Pub will be open "in about a month".  Its called  Brown &
Moran Brewing (417 River Street, Troy, New York (518) 273-2337).
Although not open the owners are very proud of their establishment and
are willing to offer a tour (please call ahead). The place will seat 250
in the main bar area, which is in full view of the 2 story glass enclose
brewery. Additional space is provided on the multi-tiered outdoor deck
overlooking the Hudson River. They plan to offer  Golden and Amber Ale,
Porter and a wheat beer.

   0000000
   |. . .|==)     HAPPY HOLIDAYS
   |.P  .| ||
   | .G..| ||        Paul
   |. .M |==)
   |_____|
  0=======0


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 10:02:17 EST
From: karp@ground.cs.columbia.edu (Peter Karp)
Subject: fetal tissue



Jed writes:
>>... her daughter had heard of some case in California where seven people
>>had suffered paralysis because they drank someone's (obviously not too pure)
>>homebrew.  Sounds pretty exciting - it get's better: they weren't cured
>>of this until some smart person injected fetal tissue into their brains!

Your prof's daughter is confusing her recreational drugs. There was a case a
few years ago of two heroin addicts suffering complete paralysis after using
some 'homebrewed' designer heroin. They self-induced a case of Parkinson's and
became the immediate object of interest of many researchers in this brain
disease. I read recently that they were subjected to fetal tissue injections in
the hope of restoring the part of their brain that produces l-dopa.

PK

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 07:05:15 PST
From: Mark J. Easter <easterm@ccmail.orst.edu>
Subject: Flagstaff, AZ homebrewing suppliers

I'll be moving to Flagstaff after the first of the year and I'm wondering
if anybody out there knows of a local supplier there for homebrewing
supplies.  I would prefer to purchase my stuff locally rather than mail
order.  Please reply to me directly at the EMAIL address below... and
thanks for any information anybody can provide.

Thanks!

Mark Easter
Corvallis, Oregon
easter@fsl.orst.edu
 -or-
easterm@ccmail.orst.edu


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 9:12:49 EST
From: mcharry@freedom.otra.com (McHarry)
Subject: Adjuncts, Acid

My last batch contained 1/3 rice, precooked with part of the mash water.  I
used a 3# bag of rice and 7# of American 2-row.  Conversion was complete in
two hours at 150-155 (I mash in a warm oven that tends to inrease the
temperature slowly.)  It seemed to work fine, but that much rice is a real
gunky mess to handle.  I did a similar batch with 2 pounds of rice a while
back that was a more pleasant project.  BTW, with this much malt it doesn't
taste light, more of a bigger bitter.

My other current sin is in acidifying the sparge water.  The water here is
about 8.5 out of the tap.  I got a bottle of 1N HCL and found that a
tablespoon of this toothsome delight will take five gallons to about
neutral.  After that, watch out!  It looks like the tablespoon knocks out
all the buffers and after that you are adding straight hydronium ions.
Maybe half a teaspoon more will send it to 5.5.  The moral is that you
probably have to play with your water to see how much it takes to acidfy
it--I don't think you can tell from a simple pH measurement.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 10:23:50 -0500
From: parsons1@husc.harvard.edu
Subject: Fullers ESB aftertaste


Hi all.  I am interested in the aftertaste of Fullers ESB.  It seems to me
very malty, with a pronounced caramel flavor and some licorice.  I think,
though, that the aftertaste of Fullers is much more robust than the taste
of the beer, which needs perhaps more alcohol or more bitterness or some-
thing else.  I'd like to try and rework the ESB, and would appreciate the
help of anyone who knows how to effect these flavors.  Dave Line talks about
it, but I think he adds saccharin tablets for sweetness, which is something
I will not do.  Does anyone know what grains, adjuncts, not-very-attenuative
yeast strain etc. are responsible for the aftertaste?

Thanks in advance

Jed                                     parsons1@husc.harvard.edu


------------------------------

Date: 17 Dec 1992 10:51:09 -0400
From: Ed Hitchcock <ECH@ac.dal.ca>
Subject: iodine

Just a quick comment on Norm's thorough discussion on iodine in today's
HBD:  Iodine WILL stain paper black.  Try it sometime.

        Ed


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 11:18:37 EST
From: jim busch <busch@daacdev1.stx.com>
Subject: re:Mixing yeasts in one batch?

In the last digest:

<From: rush@xanadu.llnl.gov (Alan Edwards)
<Subject: Re: Mixing yeasts in one batch?

<DONT add a new strain of yeast at bottling time!  You will run the risk
<of exploding bottles.  The yeast you add might have a higher attenuation
<and start working on sugars that the previous yeast left behind.  If you
<want to try multiple strains, you should let it ferment out with the new
<yeast in a carboy and then bottle as normal.

Well, yes and no.  This is another case where a little knowledge
or lack of, can get you into problems.  The risk of exploding bottles can be
significant, but in most cases is overemphasized.  The important points
are: FG of still beer to be krausened, amount of fermentables added at
bottling/kegging time, and the quantity of krausen yeast added.  If most
of the fermentation is complete, and you are adding a brewing yeast, the
amount of fermentation in the vessal will be due to the fermentables
aded at bottling/kegging time and not from the still beer itself.   Just
calculate the correct amount of sugars to add, add a very small amount of
healthy viable brewers yeast (were not talking litres here) and relax.  The
real problems arise if a non brewers strain is used and then you will be
fermenting the residuals that brewers yeast cannot metabolize.  In fact,
krausening in this fashion (or with active krausen/wort) is the preferred
method when brewing Weizens and high gravity belgium ales/barley wines.
With weizens, we often want a lager strain to be in the vessal, with high
gravity beers, the fermenting yeast can be in dismal shape to referment in
the bottle, and new yeast high in glycogyn reserves is called for.

Jim Busch


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 17:19:37 +0100
From: Victor Reijs <Victor.Reijs@SURFnet.nl>
Subject: please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! URGENT!!!!!!!!


I receive the last hbd some 10 times!!! (concerning 1034 and 1035). COuld you do
something on this!!!


All the best,


Victor

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 10:37:25 CST
From: "John L. Isenhour" <isenhour@lambic.fnal.gov>
Subject: Paralysis and homebrew

parsons1@husc.harvard.edu writes:

>I have a sort of related question on nasties in beer.  Recently, I gave
>some homebrew to a professor of mine who is eager to try it, but told me
>that her daughter had heard of some case in California where seven people
>had suffered paralysis because they drank someone's (obviously not too pure)
>homebrew.  Sounds pretty exciting - it get's better: they weren't cured
>of this until some smart person injected fetal tissue into their brains!

This is totally incorrect.  There are no known pathogens that can exist in
beer.  The incident you are refering to concerned homebrewed synthetic
narcotics which contained a chemical byproduct which fries dopamine receptors
and mimics parkinsons disease.  No reason to go into details here, there was a
good summary article in "The Sciences" w/i the last year if anyone is
interested.


- --
John L. Isenhour

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 11:50:07 est
From: "Sadvary, Bill" <SADVARY@DICKINSON.EDU>
Subject: Brew pots


I tried submitting this about a week ago, it must've gotten lost. (?)
Anyways...

I am about to be a homebrewer, as soon as I get all the supplies that I need.

I have a enamelware pot, about 5 gal., that would be perfect for brewing.
Several years ago I got desperate for container to store used motor oil.  Yup,
motor oil, probably 5w30, hehe. (Not funny!)

The pot is still slimy with the oil and I'm wondering if it's possible to
remove all traces of the oil to make this safe for brewing.  I don't expect a
postive response being that the oil has been soaking into the pores for years
now, but I thought I would ask anyways.   Has anybody got any ideas?

Or, does anybody know of a good, cheap mail order shop for a good brew pot
(stainless steel or enamelware)?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 -Bill Sadvary
 sadvary@dickinson.edu                          If it doesn't work, plug it in!


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 11:09:48 CST
From: krueger@comm.mot.com (Kevin Krueger)
Subject: Off flavors - gone but not forgotten

A while back I had posted that I had this weird flavor with all
my brews.  Many people suggested that I purify my water or boil it
because it may be the chlorine content.  I have since tried boiling
the  water used foro brewing and I believe it has helped to eliminate
most, if not all, of that flavor I had before.  Thanks for the tip.

HOWEVER, I was wondering if a "burnt" smell in a beer will pass with
time?  It is not strong, but it is evident.  It is very dark stout
and I had heard that (1) stouts are forgiving and (2) errors in beer and
greasy Mexican food pass with time.

Ciao,
Kevin

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 09:44:58 MST
From: scojam@scojam.Auto-trol.COM (Scott James.)
Subject: Iodine test


Many people are saying to test a sample of water WITHOUT grains in it.

My question is: Will starch disolve in water?  I didn't think it would,
that is why I test an interior (endosperm?) part of a grain.  I guess it
must though, if so many people rely on that method of testing...and it works!

scott

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 11:41 CST
From: korz@iepubj.att.com
Subject: Iodophor and plastics

Steve writes:
>The lesson: iodophor is great for glass and stainless, but not suitable
>for most plastics.

I have a notable exception to report.  I used Iodophor in my Italian-made
red-white-and-clear plastic bottle rinser.  It's the type of device in
which you pour the sanitizing solution into the clear bowl, submerge the
red part of the red-and-white pump, put a bottle over the white nozzle
and pump down on the bottle to squirt solution into the bottle.  I used
it for a year with Bleach solution and then did a part of ta batch with
Iodophor.  No staining.  I would really prefer to use Peracetic acid
because I know that both Chlorine and Iodine are not the best things to
dump down the drain.  Peracetic acid is made from acetic acid and hydrogen
peroxide both of which are much more friendly to mother nature than
Cl and I.  I'm still in the process of finding a suitable supplier.

Al.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 11:59:15 CST
From: gjfix@utamat.uta.edu (George J Fix)
Subject: Acid sparge water; DCI

Russ Wiggleswort is right on target IMHO about the need for care in
acidifying sparge water. I have had very unsatisfactory results with both
ales and lagers when the pH of the finished wort was below 5.0. My preferred
values are 5.3-5.4 for the mash, and 5.1-5.2 for finished wort. The low pHs
will increase yield, and hence make us more efficient. Nevertheless, in brewing
efficiency and quality are not always in harmony.

It is my belief that the drop in pH during the boil is primarily due to the
interaction of inorganic minerals (most notably calcium) and malt materials.
I have checked this a couple of times by boiling worts with and without hops.

I have a very high regard for the AHA and for the really great people on their
staff. They are very serious about the recruitment of articles for
Zymurgy from a diverse group of homebrewers. I hope everyone on this network
will give serious consideration to submitting one. Having said this I must
also say that doing volunteer work for them (via articles or books) can at
times be a bit frustrating because of their sloppy way of handling publications.
Nevertheless, they are a low budget nonprofit organization that is run on
a shoestring. For example, I think most people on this network (except possibly
for the grad. students among us!) would be astonished about Charlie P.'s
very low salary. Thus, for me, tolerance for the AHA's weak points comes
easy.

In any case, anyone who wants my HSA article in its original unbutchered form,
let me know and I will send it by e-mail.

Dennis> I get DCI from one of the chem. labs at my university. Be sure to
check out Vol. 2 of deClerck for an alternate version of the ITT anlysis.
My version is a "homebrew version" of his, and is based on materials available
to me.

George Fix




------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 11:09:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Peter Maxwell <peterm@aoraki.dtc.hp.com>
Subject: burning the wort

Further to my earlier note about off flavors I'm wondering if I managed to
burn the wort.  I use my 10 quart stock pot on an electric element and stir
almost constantly while bringing to the boil.  However, I heat the water up
to almost boiling before taking the pot off the element and putting in the malt
extract.  Is this likely to cause any caramelization?  There's no black
stuff anywhere but the pot bottom does have darker stuff on it in the
pattern of the element.

When one makes REAL caramel it doesn't go black, just brown so now I'm
wondering.  At what temperature does caramelization start to occur?

        Peter

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 17 Dec 1992 14:17:28 -0500 (EST)
From: R_GELINAS@UNHH.UNH.EDU (Russ Gelinas)
Subject: sparge pH

  So, it looks like we've now got sparging options.  The "normal" sparging
technique of adding water/draining/adding water/draining/etc. has a higher
efficiency than the technique of adding all the sparge water at once and
then draining.  BUT, the first ("step") technique leads to a more acidic
sparge, which will extract more tannins from the grains, a bad thing.  The
second ("batch") technique, while less efficient, should be less acidic.

   As I use the batch technique, I may have found an explanation for the
lack of any sort of tannins in my brews, even when I want them there.
Obviously the water plays a large part, but I wonder if certain brews
would benefit from different sparging styles.  Perhaps a stout should be
sparged in steps, but a pilsner should be batch sparged?

Russ

------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 17 Dec 92 14:11:47 EDT
From: MCKINNEY@gwuvm.gwu.edu
Subject:      homebrew paralysis

In HBD #1035 "parsons1@husc.harvard.edu" wrote about a friends concern over
7 people in Calif. getting paralysis after drinking someone's "homebrew". I
can assure you that your friend's daughter only got part of the story. the
PBS program NOVA recently did a story about seven people who developed a
parkinsons-like paralysis after using what they thought was heroin. It turns
out that the stuff was created in a home lab, hence the "homebrew" connotation.
Several of these people were treated with human fetal tissue because unlike
normal parkinsons patients their disease was not degenerative. The fetel tissue
was used to produce dopamine and I belive they had a certain amount of success.
All of this happened in the late 80s as I recall. But beer was definitely not
involved.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 14:55:02 -0500
From: ryan%phmms0.mms.smithkline.com@smithkline.com (Dominic Ryan)
Subject: Sparging/Cleansers and Plastics/Boiling and Oxidation

I have some comments from the chemist's perspective that may be of help
in a couple of the on-going discussions.  This is another long post.  I have
not posted very frequently but I have had longish ones.  If this is a
problem for the list I will break up any futur ones.

The topics are:
Sparging/ Cleansers and Plastics/ Boiling and Oxidation/
a line like the following begins each one.

___Sparging:

The process of extracting residual sugars from the grain-bed is closely
analogous to a laboratory technique known as column chromatography.  In
this latter method a mixture of products is separated by running them down
a column of solid support materiel.  This involves adding such materiel
(often silica gel) to a long glass tube with a porous false bottom in it.
Under this is a spigot to control the flow.  First the column is filled
with a solvent and the solvent is allowed to run out until it is at the
top of the silica.  Then the materiel is added and more solvent allowed to
run out until the bolus of materiel is 'loaded' onto the column.  This is
followed by a little more solvent added in such a way as to minimize
disturbing the top of the column.  This is run in and and more solvent
added until the sample is in the column.  After that solvent is added up
to the top of the column in order to make it easier to to manage and
increase the hydrostatic pressure.

The column can also be filled with a slurry of silica and solvent much
as sparging involved transfering a thick mash to the lauter tun.

Often clean sea-sand is added to the top of the column to prevent
disturbing the bed.  This would be a possibility in sparging to, although
I have never tried this, and would substitute for the bowl or lid used now
to prevent this problem.

Another detail from running a column that I follow is to add the water
very slowly until no more color from the grain is leeched up into the
sparging water that I add to the top.  Once that is reached I fill up the
bucket I use with as much water as it will hold.  This keeps the sparging
at a more constant temperature and eliminates the cooling that results
from spraying the sparge water onto the grain bed.  If you only maintain
an inch or so of water above the grain bed initially there is no
disturbing of the bed if you pour it onto a spoon, bowl, lid etc. and the
water does not cool, and you are assured much more even distribution that
you could get by spraying it on.  No matter what you do the liquid will
follow whatever channels exist in the bed, so if you spray directly on top
of the bed in an effort to distribute the sparge more effectively it will
still flow as it would if you had poured in onto a 1" layer of water above
the bed.  If you have a very wide and short bed this will be aggravated.
I have found the most important things for sparging to be (in roughly this
order):

minimum 12-18" high bed      get a narrow enough bucket if required, and a
                             round bucket makes a better column than a
                             square one.
175F sparge water            insulate the sparge bucket
set bed well                 don't drain lauter too fast at first, let the
                             grain-bed set uniformly
good crush                   pick your mill...


___Cleansers and Plastics

Cleansers fall basically into three categories:

caustic: sodium carbonate, (tri-)sodium phosphate, lye (which is sodium
         hydroxide) and sodium silicate.
         very good at digesting organic matter like fermentation residues
         works well on glass, steel, some plastics like HDPE

soap:    Pure Ivory, which is a sodium salt of a 'fatty acid' an examples
         of which are lard and vegetable shortening.  Both of these latter
         materiels are converted to soap by treating with lye until you
         have a non-caustic mix.
         Very good at removing greasy residues
         Can be used on pretty much anything

oxidizer:  Chlorine, Iodine, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide and other
           organic peroxides (ozone).
           Best used as a disinfectant on already clean surfaces in the
           strengths commonly available to the public.
         **Strong oxidizing agents are quite dangerous,
           concentrated peroxides can be explosive!**
           Keep away from rubber and plastics as most will be degraded.
           Works well on glass and (stainless) steel.

Organic matter -fermentation residue for eg.- is cleaned most effectively
by caustics, or caustics mixed with some soap.   Oxidizers are usually
much slower to act unless you can get them very hot as well.  This is
partly how sulfuric acid works as a drain cleaner.  Large amounts of heat
are generated when mixed with water and then this will chew up the clog.

B-Brite is a mix of sodium carbonate and sodium silicate, which is likely
there initially as sodium meta-silicate since that form is more soluble.
You could likely formulate your own easily.  This is basically dish-washer
detergent without the added phosphates and ingredients to improve water
condition and sheeting etc.  Take a look at a box of dish-washer detergent
next time.  B-Brite is very caustic as a result and if you use too much it
needs to be rinsed a lot, but it is very effective as a cleanser for
brewers, and seems to dissolve and rinse better than dish-washer detergent
which relies in part upon greater temperature and volume of water.

In case you have not tried, B-Bright is also very good at cleaning up the
baked on wort on the stove-top.

None of the above classes of cleaner will remove residual solvent and
plasticisers very well from a bucket that might have contained them.  Most
plastics are reasonably porous and they will 'dissolve' oils, terpentine,
gasoline,  you name it, into the plastic only to have it very slowly leech
back out over time.

When treating a plastic bucket with iodine (or to a lesser extent
iodophors, which combine iodine with a surface-active agent and detergent)
there will be some iodine deposited in the plastic and some will react
with it, staining it permanently.  Iodine reacts in this way much more
easily that chlorine does (free radical for you chemists) and for this
reason there will be less residual chlorine (from a bleach for example)
that iodine.  Still, it is best to keep them away from most plastics,
although I think chlorine is ok on HDPE, which stands for High Density
PolyEthylene.  This is a very stable crosslinked polymer that does not
swell, absorb much of anything, or deform easily with heat.  Nor is it
supposed to be soft or pliable and therefore never has plasticisers added to
it.  For that reason it is a very good substance for food grade plastic.


___Boiling and oxidation

On a final note, some have questioned why hot wort is not oxidized when
boiling.  When you boil any liquid you are by definition bringing the liquid
into equilibrium with its gaseous phase.  This will drive off all dissolved
gasses in the liquid and then provide an atmosphere of steam above the work.
This blanket of steam seems to be enough to protect the wort from such
oxidation.  The degassing of the wort during the boil is the reason air
needs to be redissolved in order for yeast to undergo the aerobic
reproductive phase.  If you deliberately introduced oxygen into the boiling
wort with a bubbler then you would definitely get more oxidation than with
hot wort sitting around later.


M. Dominic Ryan                         SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals
(215)-270-6529              internet:   ryan%phmms0.mms@smithkline.com


------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 17 Dec 1992 3:52 pm EST (20:52:12 UT)
From: "Craig A. Tanguay" <TANG5781%FREDONIA.bitnet@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject:      UNSUBCRIBE TO HOMEBREW

UNSUBCRIBE TO HOMEBREW ASAP CRAIG A. TANGUAY

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 16:43:14 -0500
From: jxs58@po.CWRU.Edu (John Stepp)
Subject: Chicago Legacy Red Ale Yeast



T'sup?

        I cultured the yeast from a bottle of Chicago Legacy Red Ale
and used it in my latest extract batch of red ale (OG: 1.044).  I
pitched 10 days ago, and it's been fermenting steadily ever since at
~65-70 F, with no sign of slowing down.  It's now at @ a bubble/10 sec.
I took a gravity reading this morning:  1.033.  My question is has anyone
out there ever used this yeast, and if so, does it take longer to ferment
out than other yeasts?  I brewed a porter with Anchor Porter yeast the
same day and that is ready to bottle.  The smell out of the fermenter
lock is yeasty (that's good).  Wadda-ya-think?


DS

- --
Dave Stepp
Dept. of Molecular Biology and Microbiology
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 15:00:26 PST
From: Martin A. Lodahl <pbmoss!malodah@PacBell.COM>
Subject: Mashing Unmalted Wheat

In HOMEBREW Digest #1034, Markku Koivula asked:

> I have one question concerning belgian beers that use wheat
> in addition to barley malt.  Michael Jackson says that they
> use (if I remember right) 40 or 50 % unmalted wheat.  Now I
> wonder how do they mash it.  Papazian recommends not to use
> more than 20 % unmalted grain, because otherwise there are not
> enough enzymes.  Do they add enzymes, or do they have malts
> that have very much enzymes?  Or is there some other explanation?
> Looong mashing time or something like that?

I can only address what the lambik brewers do, as those are the only
Belgian breweries I've personally visited.  By Royal decree, a
lambik grain bill must contain at least 30% unmalted wheat, and 35%
to 40% is a more common figure.  The malt used is a well-modified
2-row, but I have no reason to believe that its enzyme content is at
all extraordinary.  Though at least one producer uses an infusion
mash, most do either one or two decoctions, and as these decoctions
are the only actual cooking that the wheat gets, I really doubt that
much of the starch is soluble.  I know that in my experiments with
unmalted wheat the actual value of the extract has always been quite
low.  A pretty standard mash time is about 2.5 hours, and the
resulting wort contains quite a bit of unconverted starch, but in a
lambik this really isn't much of a problem, as _something_ in that
microbiological witches' brew will eat it up in the year or two it
sits in the barrel.

Hope this helps.

= Martin A. Lodahl                      Pacific*Bell Systems Analyst =
= malodah@pbmoss.Pacbell.COM       Sacramento, CA       916.972.4821 =
= If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, =
= Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me!  8-)   =


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 18:47:27 -0500
From: andrecp@esvax.dnet.dupont.com (CHAZ)
Subject: xmas beer/wierd floaters

Just another data point on this thread (sorry, I forgot who
asked the question originally).  I too brewed a brown xmas
ale, with about the same spices as listed.  I also had a strange
whitish material floating at the top of the bottle, and sort
of sticking to the neck.  In adition, there were little chunky
things floating around everywhere!  This brew had another problem,
which was that I primed with honey, and I used way too much (like
about 1.5-2 cups) so that I was a little worried about explosion.
I ended up putting all the bottles in the fridge about 3 weeks after
bottling (it was at this time that the floaters were at their peak).
Anyway, the good news is that a after a few days in the fridge, this
brew cleared nicely, and it tastes fine (except for being a bit
over carbonated!).   So, Don't...(oh, you know).

c

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 19:58:04 MST
From: Jeff Benjamin <benji@hpfcbug.fc.hp.com>
Subject: All grain tips, yeast pitching amount

Frank Tutzauer <COMFRANK@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu> asks:

> 1.  I've pretty much decided to go Gott-cooler-with-slotted-pipes.  My
> question is:  Do I need a false bottom and/or grain bag?  My brain says,
> "No, man, that's what the pipes are for," but my gut feeling is it would be
> pretty wierd to dump the mash straight on the pipes, plus a grain bag would
> help in clean up.  So do I listen to my brain or my guts?

Your brain wins.  I've been using a copper manifold in a ten-gallon
stock pot for some time, and I just dump the grains in right on top of
it.  The sparge has never stuck.  Just make sure that the slots in the
tubing aren't too wide (I cut my slots with a hacksaw) and that they
face downward.  It's amazing, it sucks up every last drop of wort.

> 2.  Instead of a copper manifold, what about PVC?  Somebody in the
> latest-minus-one Zymurgy mentioned using PVC, but gave no details.  I've
> never heard of anyone else doing it either, but it seems it would be
> easier to put together and take care of.  Whaddya think?

Probably would work the same as copper, assuming it's food-grade PVC
(is there more than one kind?) and that any sealant you use is also
food-grade.

There's also been some discussion lately on how much yeast to pitch
(someone specifically asked about the amount in WYeast packages).  I
thought I'd post (without permission) some information I got from Jeff
Lebesch, the man behind New Belgium Brewing here in Fort Collins,
Colorado.

"Most references recommend a minimum pitching rate of 10 million yeast
cells per milli-liter of wort, plus another 1 million cells/ml for every
0.004 gravity increase above 1.040.  ...The 10...15 million cells/ml
rate is easily achieved by adding 5 ml of thick yeast slurry per liter
of wort.  For ales, sometimes you can go as low as 3 ml/l, and for low
temperature lager fermentations 10 ml/l is suggested.

"During a healthy fermentation, the yeast cell count increases to a peak
of approximately 60 million cells/ml.  Then it seems to me, that given
the 10M cells/ml minimum pitching rate, the maximum wort volume increase
should be six-fold....  However, many references suggest that a 10-fold
increase is acceptable.

"...If 600 ml of starter culture is pitched into 18 l of wort (about 5
gallons), that is a 30-fold wort volume increase.  In most situations,
this is drastic underpitching.  The only way it will work is if the
yeast is at its peak activity and viability...  plus wort conditions are
optimal.

"OK, let's culture another generation, by adding the 600ml culture to 3
liters of wort, and adding that to the 18 liters.  Now each generation
has had a wort volume increase of less than 6....  But, adding 15% of a
cheap culture wort to your prized wort will ruin it.  One solution is
that the culture wort must be of the same composition as the beer....
This is common in breweries where the same beer is brewed every day....
The other solution is to let the 3 liter culture ferment to completion,
then refrigerate...  then pour off the top beer, and collect the yeast
slurry."

So to summarize, most homebrewers probably underpitch to some
extent.  The amount of yeast in a WYeast package is ridiculously
small, but with careful sanitation and technique, you *can* start a
beer with the yeast straight out of a single package.  The downside
will be a long lag time, since it will take the yeast quite a while
to build up a sufficient population.

The best method I've found to get sufficient pitching rates is to simply
save the yeast slurry from the bottom of my secondaries.  I just put it
in a sanitized bottle in the fridge, with an airlock.  Not only is it
cost effective, but there's almost no lag time.  With that much yeast,
it doesn't really matter how well you've aerated; it goes nuts right
away.

Gentlemen (and ladies), start your yeasties!

- --
Jeff Benjamin                               benji@hpfcla.fc.hp.com
Hewlett Packard Co.                         Fort Collins, Colorado
"Midnight shakes the memory as a madman shakes a dead geranium."
                                            - T.S. Eliot

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 23:09:41 EDT
From: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us (Joseph Nathan Hall)
Subject: Sam Adams Wheat Beer?


)    Recommendation seconded, but you forgot to mention the weak-insipid-no-
) detectable-phenolic-character-wheat-beer, the way-too-hoppy-for-the-style-
) Octoberfest, and the altbierNOT!-Boston ale.

I'll have to try another Sam Adams Wheat Beer.  The last one I had
was quite a while ago, just after they introduced the brew.  It was
*very* clovey and phenolic, to the point where I thought it was basically
undrinkable.  What gives?

Meanwhile, is it true that BBC brews from liquid Breiss extract?

=======================================================================
uunet!joebloe!joseph   (609) 273-8200 day   joseph%joebloe@uunet.uu.net
2102 Ryan's Run East        Rt 38 & 41             Maple Shade NJ 08052
Copyright 1992 by Joseph N. Hall.   Permission granted to copy and
redistribute freely over USENET and by email.  Commercial use prohibited.

------------------------------


End of HOMEBREW Digest #1036, 12/18/92
*************************************
-------