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HOMEBREW Digest #2634
HOMEBREW Digest #2634 Wed 11 February 1998
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
Many thanks to the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers of
Livonia, Michigan for sponsoring the Homebrew Digest.
URL: http://www.oeonline.com
Contents:
Cellaring beer in Texas (Dean Fikar)
re: Kitchen Malting (GuyG4)
Capilliaries/Mates ("Rob Moline")
Grain Volume ("David Root")
Sparging, MCAB, and other stuff (Louis Bonham)
Joke,boiling wort aromas ("David R. Burley")
grain capacity/volume "Michael J. Beaudette" (Vachom)
New Orleans Beer Advice ("Jeffrey M. Kenton")
Washington, DC Beer Advice ("Jeffrey M. Kenton")
RE: kitchen maltings ("Mort O'Sullivan")
racking cane sanitizer (Greg Egle)
Re: Irish Moss additions ("phil sides")
RE: Irish moss additions ("Mort O'Sullivan")
Wort clarity test (George_De_Piro)
Protein rests and chill haze (George_De_Piro)
Easy Masher; Irish Moss ("Loomis, Jeff")
yeast starter ("Ellery.Samuels")
The beer diet ("Taber, Bruce")
AHA's Big Brew ("Brian Rezac")
RIMS Pumps (SBireley)
NY City Homebrew Competition (kbjohns)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 19:19:06 -0600
From: Spamless@flash.net (Dean Fikar)
Subject: Cellaring beer in Texas
I love Texas but it does get pretty warm here in the summer, to say the
least. I have a basement which ranges from about 63 degrees in January to
about 78 degrees in August. I like to brew "big" ales (Scotch ales,
barleywines, Belgian dubbels) which need long secondary fermentations. Can
you "cellar" ales at the higher end of this range?
I know that one of the primary considerations at higher temps is oxidation
but I do not filter my beers so there should be some protection against
this. Until now I have been storing my kegged ales in my lager fridge (32
degrees) after a few weeks or less at fermentation temps rather than
letting them mature for months in my basement during times that often
overlap the hot summer months when the temp gets up to nearly 80 degrees.
My feeling is that 3-6 months of maturation at traditional cellar temps
would be good for the mega-high gravity beers but I'm reluctant to expose
them to the higher temps that I have to deal with most of the year. Any
advice would be greatly appreciated.
- --
Dean Fikar
(Remove the 3 letters that don't look like they belong:
dfikarxyz@flash.net)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 22:13:34 EST
From: GuyG4@aol.com
Subject: re: Kitchen Malting
Clif moore asks some Kitchen malting questions.
"What is considered an acceptable germination rate and how
synchronous must it be?
I am playing with a few varieties of barley.
Ideally, all the grains would start germinating simultaneously,...While I have
at times gotten 75% germination, the stage is all over the place having
started over a range of maybe 24 hrs. So some seeds are over modified by a
great deal, while others have yet to reach full modification.
What might I try to induce the seeds to germinate at the same
time and rate?"
Welcome to the wierd world of home malting, by the way. How are you
germinating them? I germinated in my old zapap lautertun. I think you need
to blend the barley over a couple of days, stirring with your hand, and
rinsing with water. I then transfered to a screen box and allowed germination
to continue but air to circulate. I remember some level of difference in
germination rate, not that much, and it sure wasn't as fast as 24 hours.
Sounds like maybe you're artificially warming this?
"Also, after drying, is there a down side to putting off the
roasting phase? I would think that I could store the grain in the dry yet
pre-
roasted condition for some time."
I think so, too, but you have to get it dry, and it will ultimately go bad, as
long as the mice and squirrels don't eat it first. There's a real good
reference on home malting on the brewery server (Yes, Karl, it's great stuff)
and Brew Your Own Magazine did an article late last year on home malting. My
advice: Get a mill.
Good Luck
GuyG4@aol.com
Guy J. Gregory
Lightning Creek Home Brewery, Spokane WA
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 00:58:00 -0600
From: "Rob Moline" <brewer@ames.net>
Subject: Capilliaries/Mates
Grain Capilliaries....
Not to be qualitative, nor quantitative, nor argumentative, but analogies
of grain capiiliaries seems foreign to me after seeing the photo
micro-graphs (micro photo-graphs?) of starch attacked by enzymes, during my
recent schooling....there was nothing of a capiiliary nature obvious, the
starch 'packets' were balls of tissue, with distinct 'divots' in them,
courtesy of the enzymes (after malting) which we were told, anecdotally,
acted in a 'corkscrew' manner on the starch. What was more revealing were
the pic's of a burst starch granule, post mashing, essentially turned
inside out, with little if no 'substance' remaining, just a sort of 'skin.'
I cannot dispute any other assertion, just that enzymatic attack, even
within an 'embedded' starch particle, seems to me to be not subject to
capilliary action, as that particle is surrounded by other similar
particles, under a simultaneous enzymatic onslaught. Hence, converted
sugars surrounded by converted sugars, in a liquid........
Just how I imagine it......
Speaking of visualization, we saw a great video, done with an endoscope,
of much greater magnification than generally employed in such devices, of
yeast operant @ various stages in wort, such as reproduction, fermentation,
and floccing.....Great flick! Done by a Japanese researcher, with German
subtitles, the copy we saw was several generations of duplication old, but
even in it's poor state, was quite enlightening. I have a feeling that it
may be currently available as an MBAA library item, but am not sure.....
Remembering Who Your Mates Are.......
One of the Digests more reputable sources and contributors has recently
suffered a major medical event, and I would ask that the community would
raise a glass in his direction, and state a small prayer that no further
occurences ensue. No names are necessary, but be assured that this forum,
(and others,) would be a lesser place without him. Get well soon!
And stay that way, dammit!
Cheers!
Jethro (Praying For The Health Of Our Mates) Gump
Rob Moline
Brewer
Court Avenue Brewing Company
Des Moines, Iowa
brewer@ames.net
Ames, Iowa.
"The More I Know About Beer, The More I Realize I Need To Know More About
Beer!"
Rob Moline
Brewer
Court Avenue Brewing Company
Des Moines, Iowa
brewer@ames.net
Ames, Iowa.
"The More I Know About Beer, The More I Realize I Need To Know More About
Beer!"
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 07:10:43 -0500
From: "David Root" <droot@concentric.net>
Subject: Grain Volume
Michael J B. asks about grain capacity of a 7.8 gallon ss keg.
I mash in a 1/4 keg (7.5 gal) and can fit 20 lbs. of grain in. I have had
as much as
24 lbs., but it was a tight fit.
I am going to do the Alexperment.
David Root Droot@concentric.net Lockport NY
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 06:56:34 -0600
From: Louis Bonham <lkbonham@phoenix.net>
Subject: Sparging, MCAB, and other stuff
Hi folks:
Re: recent discussions on all the various mechanics and techniques of sparging.
Without revisiting the no-sparge issue entirely, I'll just I say I heartily
agree with Dominick that you can moot a lot of these issues (and make better
beer) by just adding a bit more grain and doing a no-sparge (or quick batch
sparge) mash.
Dave Burley quibbles with this suggestion, noting that it should be used:
>Only if you don't really care about controlling the variables
>in beer making so you can get batch to batch consistency.
I disagree. Frankly, you can control the variables better by doing a no-sparge
mash. The *only* thing you lose by not sparging is mash efficiency -- which, at
$0.60/lb for grain, is a small price to pay for an amateur brewer. (And if
you're really frugal, you can slow sparge the "spent" grains while you're
boiling the main mash, and boil up and use the second running for their highest
and best use -- yeast starter!)
BTW, I will be doing an article in my BT column on no-sparge brewing, including
an experiment on whether no-sparge beers have a qualitative difference (i.e., do
they really taste maltier). Assuming I can get the reagents, I'll also be
measuring the total polyphenol levels of sparged vs. no sparged beers. I'd also
like to measure the amount of silicates in each, but there's not an ASBC MoA on
this. Any of you chemists out there know of a way to assay the amount of
silicates in beer (that doesn't require a AA or GC)?
Dave also gives his methods of cleaning his cobra head. YMMV, but I find it
easier to just unscrew the top of the cobra head (mine's designed to be
disassembled for cleaning) and wash the thing each time I put it on a fresh keg.
MCAB: The first two QE's (Kansas City and Boston) are rapidly approaching. Get
those beers in now! And if you're a BJCP judge in one of those areas, PLEASE
help us advance amateur brewing by judging at them.
Also, check out the new, improved MCAB website:
hbd.org/mcab
The MCAB Steering Committee would like to thank Stan Richards of the Central
Florida Homebrewers for his generous assistance with the website. We're
currently investigating a number of ways we could use the net to bring the MCAB
competition and technical conference to those of you who can't join us in
Houston in early 1999, including the possibility of doing an audio webcast of
the technical presentations and awards program. Stay tuned . . . .
Finally, a bit of legal news for brewers in Texas and homebrew suppliers who
sell to Texas residents. As I've mentioned in the past, Texas law requires most
Texas residents to have a permit to purchase Erlenmeyer flasks and certain other
types of labware. (The permits are easy to get.) Out-of-state companies who
sell such items to Texas residents by mail order must also have a permit to sell
such items, and must report all such sales that they make to Texas residents to
the Texas Department of Public Safety. As of January 1, the penalty for
violating this law has been raised to a **felony** (read: go directly to jail,
do not pass go, pay much, much more than $200). Ergo, watch out.
Louis K. Bonham
lkbonham@phoenix.net
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 09:19:24 -0500
From: "David R. Burley" <Dave_Burley@compuserve.com>
Subject: Joke,boiling wort aromas
Brewsters:
Thought you might enjoy this one:
A couple of good ol' boys, Bubba and Earl, were driving
down the road drinking a couple of bottles of Bud.
The passenger, Bubba, said,
"look up thar ahead, Earl, it's a police roadblock!!
We're gonna get busted fer drinkin' these here beers!!"
"Don't worry, Bubba", Earl said. "We'll just pull over and
finish drinkin' these beers, peel off the label and stick it
on our foreheads,and throw the bottles under the seat".
"What fer?", asked Bubba.
"Just let me do the talkin', OK?", said Earl.
Well, they finished their beers, threw the empty bottles
under the seat, and each put a label on their forehead.
When they reached the roadblock, the sheriff said,
"You boys been drinkin'?"
"No, sir", said Earl. "We're on the patch".
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Phil Sides says:
> Do people REALLY =
>dislike the smell of boiling wort? I can think of nothing
>finer to smell... In fact, my pseudo-wife (it's a long story)
>and brew partner wants to make a wort air freshener ;-)
>We love for our house to smell like a fresh wort boil. =
Phil, marry the girl! {8^)
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shawn Andrews asks:> Is George Fix tuning in? =
I don't pretend to speak for George, but in a recent private
communication he told me he hasn't been active since
November. So I don't know if he is reading the HBD or not.
>I've got some questions on the first wort hopping.
Others here have been exploring this. Why not ask your questions?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Keep on brewin'
Dave Burley
Kinnelon, NJ 07405
103164.3202@compuserve.com
Dave_Burley@compuserve.com =
Voice e-mail OK =
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 08:31:26 -0600
From: Vachom <MVachow@newman.k12.la.us>
Subject: grain capacity/volume "Michael J. Beaudette"
This is by no means a scientific calculation, but I figure it this way.
7.8 gallons is about the size of my enamel mash/boiling pot in which I
can mash quite easily 5 gallon all grain batches, could probably even
mash most low-middle S.G. styles in 6 gallon batches. I once made a 5
gallon doppelbock at the lower end of S.G. for the style (1.078) that
had a 15# grain bill. That mash was at the outer limits of the pot, and
ended up being a bit messy what with the dipping out for decoctions,
etc. The boil may be the greater concern especially if you want to brew
6 gallon batches or if you favor long boils. Since you have 4 of these
kegs you definitely want to convert one to a mash/lauter tun. Most
commercially made parts for keg conversions are for bigger kegs so you
may have to have someone make you a stainless mash screen. The recipes
you might run across for homemade mash screens made out of heavy guage
window screen are not worth your time--nor are various configurations of
slit copper tubing. Pony up for the stainless screen.
Finally (and I apologize for going cosmic on you), ask yourself if you
really want to make this substantial investment so you can brew 5 or 6
gallon batches outdoors (winter in Ithaca!). I guess you could use the
kegs on the stove top (wife may put the kibash on this measure), but if
you're going to streamline the process, why not go all the way and
eliminate your time-consuming stove. With 4 vessels you'll defnitely
stream-line your procedures (I'm assuming here that you're a 5 gallon
stove-top brewer), but you won't brew an ounce more than you're brewing
now. You'll spend $40 for a Cajun Cooker (or the like) which will have
your 5 gallons to mash temp or boiling in an eye blink and $300 plus for
plumbing parts and for the welder to install them--unless, of course,
you're experience with TIG or MIG welding. Sorry to piss on your
Cheerios, but I'm guessing the laws of supply and demand were the
central force behind the bargain basement price of the kegs. You might
think instead about using the kegs as kegs for finished beer.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 09:13:20 -0600
From: "Jeffrey M. Kenton" <jkenton@iastate.edu>
Subject: New Orleans Beer Advice
HBD'ers:
I have reduced the many excellent responses to me regarding New Orleans
beer interest. This is not a commercial advertisement, just a report of the
private info I received.
Crescent City Brewing (French Quarter off Jackson Square on Decatur Street)
- 8 responses, generally saying this place is the best place to go.
Abita Brewpub (located in Abita Springs) - 5 responses
Cooter Brown's (Riverbend area near Tulane University) and Acadia (North
Carrollton in Mid CIty) tied with 4 responses
Lagers (in Metairie) and Bulldog Brewpub (on Magazine Street) tied with 3
responses
Laughing Pines Brewery (in Slidell) - 2 responses
Capitol City Brewing (in Baton Rouge), Vic's Kangaroo Cafe (across Canal
Street from French Quarter), O'Flaherty's (around the corner from Crescent
City Brewing), and Rhythms (In French Quarter on Bourbon Street) - all tied
with 1 response.
I also received several personal recommendations for restaurants (or
eateries), which I will not share on this forum. If you wish to know about
these, I will respond to private email.
For other information, I was given the following URL to find brewpubs:
http://www.pubcrawler.com/Template/
Jeff
- -------------------
Jeff Kenton brewer@iastate.edu
Ames, Iowa jkenton@iastate.edu (515) 294 9997
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 09:13:46 -0600
From: "Jeffrey M. Kenton" <jkenton@iastate.edu>
Subject: Washington, DC Beer Advice
HBD'ers:
I have reduced the many excellent responses to me regarding Washington, DC
beer interest. This is not a commercial advertisement, just a report of the
private info I received.
Capitol City Brewing Company (Next to convention center) - 5 responses,
most of which said it was quite a trendy place, with high prices and
average beers. YMMV.
Bardo Rodeo (Wilson BLVD in Arlington) - 4 responses, GABF medal winner,
plus a car (66 Plymouth Fury) crashed through one wall, wild decoration
inside, etc. I'm going here!!
Brickskeller (Off Dupont Circle @ 20th and P) and Old Dominion Brewery
(Ashburn, VA who has a pub 15 minutes north of Dulles Airport) - tied with
three responses.
These places each received one response:
Baltimore Brewing Company (Baltimore, MD, also includes other bars with
names Wharf Rat, Sissons, Globe, and Brewer's Art)
Blue and Gold (in Clearndon), Virginia Beverage Company (Old Town
Alexandria, VA), Potomac River Brewing Company (in Chantilly, VA), Dubliner
or Irish Times (on Capitol Hill by Union Station), and the Rathskeller (no
address given)
For other information, I was given the following URL to find brewpubs:
http://www.pubcrawler.com/Template/
Jeff
- -------------------
Jeff Kenton brewer@iastate.edu
Ames, Iowa jkenton@iastate.edu (515) 294 9997
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 14:26:44 -0000
From: "Mort O'Sullivan" <tarwater@brew-master.com>
Subject: RE: kitchen maltings
In Homebrew Digest #2633, Dave Burley writes:
> Cliff Moore asks how to get a more uniform germination
> in his kitchen malting experiments.
>
> Try Gibberellic Acid from your plant/garden supplier and
> don't get the barley too warm. Keep it in the 50s.
> - --------------------------------
This advice, while basically sound, deserves some qualification. Gibberel=
lic
Acid (GA) is a growth hormone ubiquitous in the plant kingdom and it come=
s
in several varieties (nature is funny that way...). As not all species o=
f
GA work the same, you need to make sure you get the correct one from any
supplier. For purposes of malting barley, GA3 is most commonly used (if y=
ou
wanted to grow apples, you would use GA2 or GA4). GA3 is naturally presen=
t
in barley (how much depends on the variety) and as it diffuses from the
embryo through the aleurone layer, it promotes enzyme development, and th=
us
modification of the endosperm. If you want to add more GA3 to kick-start =
any
sluggish corns, I would recommend adding no more than 0.25 ppm to the fin=
al
steep water (alternatively, you may spray the barley with a .25 ppm solut=
ion
after the final steep). Any GA3 you purchase is likely to have come from =
an
extract of the fungus _Gibberella fujikuroi_ and will probably be availab=
le
in 10 g tablets (9g calcium carbonate + 1g GA3), so dilute as necessary.
Note that most maltsters use GA3 not to promote more uniform germination =
(it
is not believed that GA has much effect on dormancy--for a host of quite
complicated reasons), but rather to speed up the germination process (and
enhance their potential to make money). Since GA3 will lead to greater
malting loss, they counteract this effect with the addition of bromate
(~100ppm) to inhibit proteolysis and stunt acrospire growth--this is one
reason that acrospire length is not always a good indication of degree of
modification).
Without knowing anything about your particular setup, I would guess that
your problem of unevenness is due to (i)having a mixture of barley variet=
ies
with different patterns of growth/enzyme development (in which case
application of GA3 may help); or (ii)a proportion of the grains may be
dormant or water-sensitive (in which case GA3 is not likely to help). In =
the
latter case, I would recommend altering your steeping patterns to help
prevent dormancy. It has been found that an air rest during the steep can
virtually eliminate uneven germination in many cases. I would recommend a
schedule of 10 hrs wet + 16 hrs dry + 8 hrs wet. The water content after =
the
steep should ideally be 46% but should definitely not be below 42%. If th=
is
doesn't seem to help, you may want to try lightly abrading the malt befor=
e
steeping to allow greater exposure of the aleurone layer to H2O (and GA i=
f
you use it).
Regarding the issue of temperature, I wonder if the "50's" referred to by
Dave Burley refers to the steep temperature, which is generally
10-15C/50-59F. If this is the case, then I agree. Germination temperature=
s
are another matter altogether. As with most things in brewing, the
temperature of germination is largely a compromise: a higher temperature
(20-22C/68-71F) will reduce proteolysis and accelerate B-glucan breakdown=
,
while a lower temperature (16C/61F) will accelerate proteolysis and reduc=
e
B-glucan breakdown. Take your pick, but to maximize evenness of
germination, I would suggest that the most important factor is to keep th=
e
temperature differential between the top and bottom of the bed to an
absolute minimum (<1-1.5=BAC) by aeration and turning. This shouldn't be =
too
much of a problem in a kitchen maltings since the bed depth won't be very
deep and you can easily turn the grains.
Sorry for such a long post ...
- ----------------------------
Cheers,
Mort O'Sullivan
ICBD (Edinburgh, Scotland)
tarwater@brew-master.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 06:57:21 -0900
From: Greg Egle <rsgje@aurora.alaska.edu>
Subject: racking cane sanitizer
I've always tried to be very careful with my sanitation techniques. The
one area that always bugged me was sanitizing my racking cane. I was at
the hardware store yesterday and found a plastic tray.( like the kind
they use for sheetrock mud or wallpaper) It was about 2 inches longer
and four inches wider than the racking cane. Now I just sanitize as
usual and then put the racking cane in the tray and cover with boiling
water. Another thing that works well for me is to use my co2 tank to
move the beer from carboy to carboy or keg. I use one of those orange
musting caps and stick the racking cane through the big hole, (get it
hot first) put the tip on the tube, put my hose into the empty container
and open the valve on the co2 tank keeping the pressure very low.
(approx. 2 lbs)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 08:13:23 PST
From: "phil sides" <hopsock@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Irish Moss additions
Brad McMahon <brad@sa.apana.org.au> wrote:
>However they even went so far as to suggest the adding
>of the Irish Moss at T-60 minutes, i.e. along side the
>bittering hops.
I never thought rish moss did anything until it was
suggested to me that I rehydrate it as you describe and
add it 40 minutes into the boil. I was amazed how much
clearer my beers were.
Phil
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 16:32:39 -0000
From: "Mort O'Sullivan" <tarwater@brew-master.com>
Subject: RE: Irish moss additions
- ------------------------------
Brad McMahon writes in HBD #2633
>Recently I received a catalog from a HB supplier
>who suggested that Irish Moss should be rehydrated
>30 minutes before addition to the kettle at the usual
>T-15 min mark. I had heard of this, and even tried it,
>with good results.
>However they even went so far as to suggest the adding
>of the Irish Moss at T-60 minutes, i.e. along side the
>bittering hops.
>What do others think of this procedure?
- --------------------------------
The effectiveness of Irish moss is dependent on a number of factors
including but not limited to: dosage, pH, wort makeup (esp. distribution of
various nitrogenous materials and polyphenol levels), wort gravity, salt
concentration (esp. Ca++), and time of addition. I've never come across any
immutable rule about when to add Irish moss, but as a rule of thumb, many
brewers add it as the kettle comes to a boil.
If you think about it this seems to make more sense than adding it nearer
the end of the boil for the following reasons: the active ingredient in
Irish moss (K-carageenan) is a negatively-charged polymer containing
sulfated glucose and galactose units that forms complexes with
positively-charged higher-MW proteins and precipitates out of solution. At a
higher pH many of the proteins in wort will have a net charge that is more
positive than at a lower pH, but the charge of carageenan is largely
unaffected. Therefore the attraction between Irish moss and most proteins
will be slightly greater at a higher pH. As wort pH generally drops from
~5.9 to ~5.5 during the boil due to the precipitation of calcium phosphate
(from water) and phytate (from malt), it makes sense that you would want to
add Irish moss at the beginning of the boil, when the pH is slightly higher.
I've never done any experiments to confirm this, and I suspect it may not
make a huge difference anyway since all the Irish moss you add will probably
form complexes with proteins even at the lower pH (but it may be the case
that proteins more liable to form hazes down the road are removed best at
the higher pH). For best protein precipitation in the boil, I still think
the best advice is a very vigorous boil for at least 1 hr, regardless of
whether or when you add Irish moss.
- ----------------------------
Cheers,
Mort O'Sullivan
ICBD (Edinburgh, Scotland)
tarwater@brew-master.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 11:42:43 -0800
From: George_De_Piro@berlex.com
Subject: Wort clarity test
Hi all,
In a conversation with Louis Bonham I mentioned an easy test to
determine if wort is suitably clear after vorlauf. He thought that it
would be useful for home and craft brewers to know it, so here it is:
Equipment: One Imhoff cone (cost <$20 if you buy one; you may be able
to use a PET bottle instead)
An Imhoff cone is simply a clear, graduated cone with a 1 liter
capacity. It can be made out of plastic or glass.
Procedure: Fill the cone with one liter of wort from your lauter tun.
Allow it to settle a few minutes. The "big" brewers consider the
wort acceptably clear if there is < 5 mL of debris in 1 L of wort.
Boy, that was easy!
The hard part is going to be achieving that spec...
I wouldn't lose sleep over not achieving that spec, but it would be
nice to know how I'm doing as far as wort clarity is concerned. It's
just another simple test that can be used to quickly and cheaply
monitor the brewing process and help produce the best possible beer.
Too much husk material in the kettle will lead to increased tannin
extraction, and that in turn can lead to increased chill haze and
astringency in the final beer.
If anybody is interested in buying an Imhoff cone, they are available
from Cole Parmer, Thomas, VWR, etc. for under $20 US. Of course, the
wooden stand for it is $70, but you could easily fabricate your own
stand for MUCH less.
At first I thought that we could save money buy organizing a mass
purchase, but it turns out there is only a 10% discount on a case of
4. The shipping costs from a central HBD point would negate the $1.80
saved.
Have fun!
George De Piro (Nyack, NY)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 12:02:26 -0800
From: George_De_Piro@berlex.com
Subject: Protein rests and chill haze
Hi all,
OK, so I have more to say about protein rests and chill haze. All of
the following info is gleaned from the Kunze text, _Technology Malting
and Brewing_. For those of you who don't know, this is a standard
brewing text used at German brewing schools. It is quite German in its
perspective. Keep that in mind as you read...
High molecular weight protein degradation products (i.e., medium
molecular weight proteins) are responsible for head retention, palate
fullness, and chill haze. These are formed during the malting process
and during the mash if there is a rest at ~130F (55C).
These same degradation products can be further reduced to amino acids
and small peptides. Because the peptidases that do this are not
completely inactive at 130F (55C) this will occur to some degree at
that temperature. If a rest at 122 (50C) is performed, then there
will be excessive breakdown of the foam stabilizing
protein-degradation products that were produced in the malthouse.
Kunze, from Germany (where supposedly the malt might still be
undermodified), goes as far as saying "A long rest at 50C (122F)
always therefore results in poor foam." (p. 199)
So, like I said yesterday, in trying to eliminate chill haze, it is
very easy to eliminate head and body. Not too good a thing. There's
more:
Chill haze, which most of us know as a temporary clouding of the beer
that disappears upon warming, will become a permanent haze in time.
Several factors can speed this up:
1. Increased temperature (speeds up the haze forming reactions)
2. Oxidation: can speed the appearance of haze 5 fold!!! Keep air
out of your fermented beer!!!
3. Heavy metal ions (so stop dosing your beer with cadmium!)
4. Movement of the beer: In still beer, Brownian motion will bring the
reactants together (slow). Moving the beer will accelerate the
reactions simply by allowing the precursors to come into contact with
each other in less time.
5. Light (yes, it does more harm than just skunking.)
So how do we minimize chill haze? Read on (this is an incomplete
list; only the stuff that small brewers can readily do is included):
The first 4 factors can be summed up by saying, "Use the best quality
malts."
1. Use of low-protein malt (<11%) with a fine husk
2. Use anthocyanogen-free barleys with low oxalate content
(anthocyanogens bind with the protein degradation products to form
haze.) I have no idea what varieties meet this criteria. Somebody
else jump in here!
3. Long, cold germination and good modification during malting (like they
do at Crisp Maltings).
4. Intensive final kilning.
5. Separation of husks during mashing (the Kubessa process; not
really an option at home, but you should know that it can be done.)
In short, the husks are separated from the rest of the grist and
only added to the mash at the end, thus minimizing polyphenol
extraction from them.
6. NO LONG PROTEIN REST: it will only serve to increase the protein
degradation products. The high molecular weight proteins will be
removed during the boil; there is no great need to degrade them in the
mash. This will only increase haze potential.
7. Don't sparge or mash too extensively (increases extraction of
polyphenols).
8. Long and intensive wort boiling. 60 minutes should be the minimum
time. This will lead to #9:
9. Achieve good break formation.
10. pH of wort 5.2-5.3 (maximizes protein removal).
11. "Hop addition not too early-malt polyphenols should react"
I think this means that you want the polyphenols from the malt to
react with the proteins in the kettle to form break material before a
hop addition. This will remove more haze precursors than if the hops
are added too soon. The translation is a bit odd; if anybody has
another view, let's hear it.
12. KEEP OXYGEN AWAY!!!
13. Complete separation of hot break, and even remove the cold break
if you can (although he mentions that few breweries bother with this.)
14. Quick, vigorous fermentation. In other words, pitch a lot of
healthy yeast!
15. Cold lagering for at least 7 days prior to filtering (to form
insoluble haze that can be filtered out). Alternatively, the beer can
be cold lagered and the haze can be allowed to settle out on its own
(like I said yesterday).
16. Fining agents
So, as you can see, we already knew many of these things. I think the
real kicker here is Kunze's emphatic statement that protein rests are
generally bad. The other message here is that Al K's criteria for
whether or not a malt needs a protein rest should be reexamined.
Al says that if he gets a lot of break material without a protein
rest, the next time he mashes this malt he will use a protein rest to
minimize the break material.
Kunze seems to disagree with this. Break material is a good thing,
because it means that you have removed the larger proteins without
breaking them down into haze-forming middle weight proteins. Of
course, you should remove the break material...
So anyway, that is ONE author's view of protein rests and chill haze.
If anybody out there has some other documentable opinions, please
share them with the collective.
Just to reiterate what I said yesterday, I have made headless wheat
beers when using a 122F (50C) rest. I have made beers with good
heading ability but much haze when using a 130-135F (55-57C) rest.
This is agrees with Kunze. I guess my next move is to try my Classic
American Pils recipe with no protein rest at all and see what happens.
Have fun!
George De Piro (Nyack, NY)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:14:46 -0800
From: "Loomis, Jeff" <JLoomis@filenet.com>
Subject: Easy Masher; Irish Moss
Danny Breidenbach wrote about slow sparges with his EasyMasher, among
other things.
I've used an EasyMasher for about 10 batches and have never had a slow
sparge. I use it in a 5 gal SS pot, which is a bit small but OK for all
but the biggest beers. I don't know what you meant by "trickle". If I
fill my pot with water (5 gals) and open the EM full, it will drain in
less than 10 minutes. This isn't fast, but faster than I want to
sparge. I need to turn my EM to about 1/3 - 1/2 of the maximum flow to
get a 45min sparge collecting about 6 gallons. Maybe your spigot has a
blockage? The main problem I've had with the EM is attaching a hose to
the spigot to prevent aeration. The spigot had a ridge which caused air
to be sucked in. I filed it off as suggested by another poster. I also
have had problems with the hose slipping off the tapered spout. A
straight spout outlet or hose barb would be a lot more useful.
One thing to watch out for is pressure building up on the outlet if you
use a hose with a tight seal. I've never seen anyone mention this, but
it seems it would apply to false bottom systems as well as the EM. When
a trickle of wort is flowing through the hose and the end of the hose is
submerged, a small back pressure can build up as the level of wort
collected rises. This can slow the sparge. You can get the reverse
effect if you drain fast enough to fill the hose with liquid. Then
you've got a powerful siphon that can make the sparge too fast. When I
wasn't looking out for this I got channeling around the edge of the pot
with a 50% wheat mash.
As for using the EM to strain hops from the boil, I've never done it.
In my experience, pellet hops will clog any straining device almost
instantly. I use pellet hops, drain hops, trub, and all through my
counterflow chiller, then settle in a bucket for an hour or two before
racking to my fermenter. This makes a lot of people uneasy about
contamination, but I haven't had a problem yet. If you want to get a
clear wort by straining, I think you really need to use only whole hops.
Brad McMahon asked about boiling Irish moss for 60 minutes instead of
rehydrating first. I've done this since my first brew because it was
the recommended procedure with the starter kit I got (maybe from the
same supplier as Brad). It has worked fine for me. I have thought that
maybe the extended moss boil could pull out too many proteins causing a
lack of body, but I haven't noticed it. I've made both low and high
body beers with the same procedure.
Jeff Loomis
Seattle
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Beb 98 14:08:57 EDT
From: "Ellery.Samuels" <esamuel@mvsb.nycenet.edu>
Subject: yeast starter
Hi,
I have access to some liquid malt which I would like to use in my yeast
starter. How much malt should be used? I usually use 2 cups H20 to .5 cup DME
in a half-gallon apple juice bottle.
Mr. Sammy
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 15:31:00 -0500
From: "Taber, Bruce" <Bruce.Taber@nrc.ca>
Subject: The beer diet
I just read an article in the Financial Post (Feb. 7). It talks
about a report by Dr. David Williams, professor of Chemistry at The
University of Wales, published in Chemistry in Britain. The report he
states that a pint of beer can be part of a weight-loss program.
Now to me this is a no-brainer. I can't think of any program,
except maybe AA, that beer shouldn't be a part of. Anyway, I thought
I'd paraphrase the article for the collective.
Dr. Williams states:
Beer is 93% water, contains no sugar, no fat, and very little
sodium. It does contain vital carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins
including liberal amounts of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and
potassium, as well as folic acid, niacin, pantothenic acid (B3),
riboflavin (B2), and pyridoxine (B6). It sounds like my kid's breakfast
cereal.
He goes on to describe beer as *the complete food*.
He states that beer has much more nutritional value than other
carbonated drinks and that it can help fight heart disease. A pint of
beer helps to lubricate the circulation, decreasing the chances of blood
clots forming. Beer not only has a relaxing effect on the mind, but
also on the blood vessels. Dilated arteries are less likely to develop
a clot.
When I read this article I knew I had to share it with my
friends on the digest. I'm going home now to brew myself a nutritional
Porter. I may just give up hard food altogether.
Bruce Taber
Almont, Ont. Canada
Beer.... it's not just for breakfast anymore.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 14:03:38 -0700
From: "Brian Rezac" <brian@aob.org>
Subject: AHA's Big Brew
There's a current thread in HBD entitled, "The HBD Pale Ale Experiment".
It's a good idea. Actually, the AHA is just about to release information
on a similar, but bigger event. I have been coordinating all the details
and I wanted to get the sponsors on board before we announce anything.
However, all of you deserve a little "heads up". So here are a few hints:
Big Brew, Rob Moline, Guinness Book of Records and National Homebrew Day.
There will be more information in the very near future. But it's going to
be big and it's going to include any and all homebrewers regardless of
brewing level or affiliation.
E Pluribus (Br)Unum!
- Brian
Brian Rezac
Administrator
American Homebrewers Association (303) 447-0816 x 121 (voice)
736 Pearl Street (303) 447-2825 (fax)
Boulder, CO 80302 brian@aob.org
U.S.A. http://beertown.org
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 98 15:58:27 EST
From: SBireley@renex.com
Subject: RIMS Pumps
I have seen references to preferred pump type for RIMS systems. Can
anyone elaborate on the pros and cons of centrifugal, rotary gear,
rotary vane, and rotary screw, as they relate to the mash
recirculating process? What is the preferred pump type?
Steve Bireley
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 21:05:49 -0500
From: kbjohns@peakaccess.net
Subject: NY City Homebrew Competition
On March Sunday, March 22 HOSI will sponsor the 7th ann Spring Regional
Homebrew Comp.
BOS prize is a 10 gal SS brew kettle with drain and thermometer (or credit
toward a larger kettle)from PBS. Well over a thousand dollars in other
prizes have been lined up.
Complete information, entry forms & judge forms can be found on the clubs
homepage URL http://www.wp.com/hosi/ or by email.
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #2634, 02/11/98
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