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HOMEBREW Digest #2894
HOMEBREW Digest #2894 Mon 07 December 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:
re: 240V service, I need a neutral ("John Watts")
Woodruff (Eric.Fouch)
MCAB II QE & QS Announcements ("Louis K. Bonham")
re: P Mahoney/disapponitment (j miller)
air/ O2 (Rick Lassabe)
pronunciation web site (ensmingr)
Large Cooler Question ("Colin K.")
Beer & Homebrewing in Italy III (Rosalba e Massimo)
Pronounciation of Puyallup (Brad Miller)
In praise of bottle conditioning (was: Bottle conditioning as diacetyl rest) (MaltHound)
Re: slamming the AHA and anyone else (John Adsit)
Air in headspace (ThomasM923)
Need help with sight glass (Al Franciosi)
Help save my marriage!(Bob Fesmire Dgofus@aol.com) (DGofus)
CO2 levels dependent on amount of headspace ("George De Piro")
Parti-gyle v High gravity (Anderson)
RE: 240 Wiring (LaBorde, Ronald)
Hop utilization? (Bill Wible)
o2 in headspace (Kim Thomson)
Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!
//////
(This space free to a good competition)
//////
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JANITORS on duty: Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen (janitor@hbd.org)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 14:04:25 -0600
From: "John Watts" <watts@radiks.net>
Subject: re: 240V service, I need a neutral
> From: "Dana H. Edgell" <edgell@far-tech.com>
> Subject: re: 240V service, I need a neutral
<big snip>
> Yes, the water heater is kinda small and works poorly.
>
> I was planning on turning the hot water heater off while brewing (either
> manually or by a built in relay to prevent my forgetting) so I wouldn't
> overload the circuit.
Have you thought about replacing the electric water heater with NG? That way
you would have the circuit available all the time for brewing?
> Date: Thu, 03 Dec 1998 10:04:13 -0600
> From: ThE GrEaT BrEwHoLiO <skotrat@wwa.com>
> Subject: RE: A quiet milestone
>
<Snipped rant>
Scott, how are we going to know what you really think if you keep holding
back like this? :}
Rgds
John Watts
watts@radiks.net
------------------------------
Date: 4 Dec 1998 15:26:03 -0500
From: Eric.Fouch@steelcase.com
Subject: Woodruff
Greetings!
And especially to the guy who responded to me privately with all the info on
Woodruff spices.
Not you, Alan. Or you either, Ken.
I am having digital problems with my inbasket (happy fingers) and your note
got deleted. Could you get back to me again?
Sorry about the "bandwidth", but at least I didn't repost 20 lines just to
make an inane comment, only to get it rejected by the janitor because I used a
false name from an unfamiliar address (good catch, Pat!), but I digress.
Alan and Ken- I'll copy youse guys if I get the info back- it was good stuff.
Now, back to the CAP Appreciation society for some real AOB/AHA bashing
(Fasten your seat belts, it's gonna get bumpy)
Eric Fouch
Bent Dick YoctoBrewery
Kentwood, MI
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 16:53:54 -0600
From: "Louis K. Bonham" <lkbonham@phoenix.net>
Subject: MCAB II QE & QS Announcements
The Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing Steering
Committee is pleased to announce the list of Qualifying
Styles and an updated list of Qualifying Events for the
second MCAB, which will be held in 2000 in St. Louis and
hosted by the St. Louis Brews.
As detailed in the following list, there will again be 18
Qualifying Styles. Some of the styles are the same as for
MCAB I (usually the most popular or competitive styles);
others are "rotations" to other substyles within the same
BJCP category. In a few instances we have opted to go with
"broader" categories, especially in styles that have been
less competitive.
The BJCP has advised us that the numbering and descriptions
for these categories may change somewhat when the new BJCP
style guide is released later this year.
So, without further ado, the QS's for MCAB II are:
(1) Classic American / Pre-Prohibition (BJCP 1(D)).
(2) Czech / Bohemian Pilsner (BJCP 2(A)).
(3) Kolsch (BJCP 3(D)).
(4) Strong Bitter (BJCP 4(C)).
(5) Scotch & Scottish Ales (BJCP 5 (all substyles) &
11(B) (Strong Scotch Ale))
(6) APA (BJCP 6(B))
(7) California Common / Steam Beer (BJCP 6(C)).
(8) IPA (BJCP 7)
(9) Vienna (BJCP 9(B))
(10) American Brown (BJCP 10(D))
(11) Barleywine (BJCP 11(D))
(12) Imperial Stout (BJCP 11(C))
(13) European Dark Lager (BJCP 12 (all substyles))
(14) Hellesbock/Maibock (BJCP 13(B))
(15) Robust Porter (BJCP 14(A)
(16) Sweet Stout (BJCP 15(A))
(17) Strong Belgian & French Ales (BJCP 17 (all
substyles)).
(18) Lambic (BJCP 18(B))
So, start your brew kettles!!
Additionally, the following competitions are hereby invited
to be Qualifying Events for MCAB II. (Some of them (marked
with an "*") were announced previously and have accepted the
MCAB's invitation.) Some of these competitions are
repeating QE's, others are "rotations" between major
contests in an area. We are still considering inviting
another one or two QE's, and will announce any additions
later.
The QE's for MCAB II are:
(1) Kansas City Brewmeisters Competition (February 1999)*
(2) Boston Homebrew Competition (February 1999)*
(3) Reggale and Dredhop (Boulder, Colorado -- February
1999) *
(4) World Cup of Beer (California -- March 1999) *
(5) Sunshine Challenge (Orlando -- May 1999).
(6) BUZZ Boneyard Brewoff (Illinois - June 1999)
(7) BUZZ-Off (Philadelphia - June 1999).
(8) BURP Spirit of Free Beer (Virginia - June 1999).
(9) Dixie Cup (Houston -- October 1999).
(10) Oregon Homebrew Festival (Oregon -- date tba)
(11) Canadian Masters (location and date tba)
QE's wishing to formally accept this invitation should
contact me. As before, QE's must agree to accept all
legally-brewed entries, without regard to the brewer's place
of residence or club affiliation, and must agree to feature
all the MCAB QS's (preferably as stand-alone categories) and
agree to use the BJCP style guides for them. QE's must also
agree that the final round for each MCAB Qualifying Style
must consist of 12 beers or less, and be judged by a panel
consisting of at least two judges, at least one of which
must be BJCP-qualified (i.e., Certified or better, Master or
National preferred). (QE's are urged to try and have
similar qualifications for all preliminary rounds in QS's.)
QE's must agree to certify their results promptly to the
MCAB.
Details on these and other MCAB matters will be up soon on
the MCAB website:
hbd.org/mcab
Stay tuned for more exciting details regarding MCAB I in
Houston in February 1999.
Louis K. Bonham
MCAB Organizer
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 15:25:08 -0800
From: j miller <cblues@canada.com>
Subject: re: P Mahoney/disapponitment
What no mention of Canada?
That is disappointing, as we have been characterized as saying "have a
beer eh!" instead of "hey how you doing eh?"
- --
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Jim Miller
British Columbia
Canada
*
Radio Station
VE7JM
..._ . _ _... ._ _ _ _ _
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 18:47:06 -0600
From: Rick Lassabe <bayrat@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: air/ O2
I was at the same meeting that Ron was when we heard about the air
versus oxygen! I have seen all the post, now which one is better--pure
oxygen (from a welding or medical tank) or just plain old air that is
pumped through a filter????
Rick Lassabe
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 02:26:06 -0500
From: ensmingr@npac.syr.edu
Subject: pronunciation web site
A pronunciation guide for Belgian beer terms is available at:
http://belgianstyle.com/mmguide/pronounce/speak.html .
-Peter A. Ensminger
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 04 Dec 1998 23:50:09 -0800
From: "Colin K." <colink@wenet.net>
Subject: Large Cooler Question
I am new to this list. I am wondering if anyone knows where to find
large round coolers. Right now I am using a 5 gallon cooler to make a 5
gallon brew. I find I can only comfortably use 12 pounds of grain. I am
currently upgrading to a 10 gallon brew. I would like to be able to make
10 gallon brews of high gravity ales. Are there any 15 gallon coolers
available? I have heard two promising leads that I have been unable to
follow up. One is that there 15 gallon stainless coolers in the catering
industry. The other is that on oil rigs in Texas they commonly have 15
to 20 gallon coolers. Can anyone offer a lead to these or any other
large coolers?
Thank you in advance,
Colin
colink@wenet.net
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 15:10:01 -0800
From: Rosalba e Massimo <rosamax@split.it>
Subject: Beer & Homebrewing in Italy III
Hi all!
Welcome to my third annual report about homebrewing in Italy.
But first a great CIAO to everybody. It's quite a time since I last
posted in this forum, I've just been lurking for a while, catching up
with the last 3 months of issues, and I am happy to see that the list is
in good health and Jeff is still the centre of the homebrewing universe
:-)
Just a few lines about personal brewing: after the big improvements in
my technique of the 1996-97 season (mainly achieved thanks to the help
of HBD!) in the last year I just tried something new, like brewing lager
and culturing yeasts from bottle-conditioned beer.
Let's talk about the homebrewing situation here in Italy: 2 years ago I
wrote in HBD that it was almost non-existent compared to US and UK, one
year later I told you that "something is moving". Now things are
steadily going better.
Kits are now widely available. For other ingredients (grains, hops,
yeasts) we still have one main local source, whose catalog keeps
improving, e.g. they store specialty grains, hops in every form
(pellets, flowers, plugs) and also a good range of Wyeasts. There are
probably another handful of shops ditributing some of their products.
The owner estimates the italian homebrewing market in 20000 people now.
Of them, the great, great majority are brewing with Kits (i.e. hopped
extracts) with a very marginal share of extracts+specialty or all-grain
brewers.
>From the legal point of view, I finally could find that since 1995
homebrewing is perfectly legal, with no taxation nor any quantity limit
as long as the beer is not sold and "is consumed only by the producer,
his/her relatives and his/her guests".
Now a subject that could be interesting if you are planning a trip to my
country: microbreweries. There were a couple 2 years ago, maybe a
handful last year. Now my site lists 20 of them, but I have a dozen more
to check and put online. I only had the chance to try one of them and
found good quality beers. Generally Italian micro's does not seem so
adventurous in their range and offer mainly lagers of different styles.
Most are actually brewpubs, with just a few true microbreweries.
Internet beer life also had quite an improvement. Thanks to my Italian
Beer Site I had contacts with many people during a year or so, and in
last June/July I proposed the creation of an italian Usenet newsgroup on
beer, which was voted and created and is now available (probably also in
US servers, if any reader would like to practice his Italian...). The
group is about beer in general (sort of mix of rec.crafts.brewing and
rec.food.drink.beer) but needless to say 80% of posts are
homebrew-related. It's called it.hobby.birra.
Thanks to the discussion and advices in the group, many people who
partecipate started brewing and/or moved to extract/specialty or even
all grain; and the level of discussion is improving as more brewers
(sometimes more experienced than me) are joining in.
We are already had a "real life" meeting and, with the help of other
brew people (HB retailers, University) we are also planning something
more... why not, for example, a small competition? In this case I'll ask
here for advices on organization!
Hope this was interesting at least to some people... anyway at 1
report/year it is not a great waste of bandwith ;-)
Cheers
Max - Genova, ITALY
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 07:39:42 -0800
From: Brad Miller <millerb@targen.com>
Subject: Pronounciation of Puyallup
For all who care (god knows why), Puyallup IS pronounced PEW-ALL-UP
or even PEW-ALL-IP and not PULL Yall up. Also as a side note, why would
you want to make Zima? While whe're at it let's make some Old English 800
too.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 13:07:14 EST
From: MaltHound@aol.com
Subject: In praise of bottle conditioning (was: Bottle conditioning as diacetyl rest)
In HBD 2892 Dan Cole <dcole@roanoke.infi.net> perhaps inadvertently gives
bottle conditioning a bum rap:
"This may go hand in hand with the level of advancement of homebrewers; those
with kegs are more advanced and more well-read so they will include (and
need?) a D-rest, while those that are still bottling are less-read (than the
1st group) and don't include (or need?) a D-rest."
Dan,
I would hesitate to make such a broad generalization about a bottler's or
kegger's level of brewing knowledge and experience. I, for one, have been
brewing for quite some time now, have read many brewing texts and am
knowledgeable enough about brewing to know that I don't know everything. My
discussion to NOT keg beer has been a conscious one related more to my
consumption habits than my production capabilities. You see, I prefer to
sample a variety of beer styles rather than a single style throughout a
particular "session." This is particularly true if/when I am entertaining
friends. A kegger is somewhat limited in the number of styles on hand by the
number of kegs and taps that one has. With kegs, there is an incentive to
drink up a particular batch in order to free up that keg for future batches.
While it is probably marginally less labor intensive to keg, there is no
intrinsic increase in beer quality that I am aware of. Since homebrewing is a
hobby for me, I consider time spent on mindless tasks such as bottling part
of the enjoyment.
I tend to brew mostly during the cooler seasons and stockpile these brews to
last through my usual summer brewing hiatus. At one point last brew season I
counted 17 cases of various homebrew in my cellar with representatives from
~20 different batches. Some of these brews were well over a year old and were
aging quite gracefully, due in some part no doubt to their bottle
conditioning.
Finally, from a financial standpoint, bottling wins hands down. All of my
bottles have been acquired for free. Since I live in a non-bottle-bill state
(New Hampshire - We're Livin' free or dying) once beer drinking friends
learned that I could make use of their empties I was deluged with cases of
recyclable. My only expense in bottling is purchasing caps and a tiny amount
of sugar for priming. Being a native Yankee, I can appreciate such frugality.
Regards,
Fred Wills
(*still* bottling in) Londonderry, New Hampshire
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 11:17:09 -0700
From: John Adsit <jadsit@jeffco.k12.co.us>
Subject: Re: slamming the AHA and anyone else
A few years ago my wife thought I needed a hobby, so she bought me a
beginner's home brew kit. I was wary, because nearly all the homebrews
I had ever had were pretty bad. I did not want the pursuit of a hobby
to prevent me from enjoying quality beer.
The beer I made with that first kit was better than I expected, so I
decided to try some more. I made my first intimidating visit to the
local home brew store. The clerk there, Paul, was very helpful. He
spoke to me in language I could understand, and he made my beginner's
questions seem reasonable and important. In subsequent visits, I grew to
know Brian, the other clerk, as well, and I was always thankful for
their advice. I noticed that they had the remarkable ability to move
from the highly technical needs of the all-grainers to the beginner's
groping for words without ever making either uncomfortable.
I began to see home brewer's as a loosely knit family united by a single
interest. It was really fun to participate in that atmosphere. Paul
and Brian slowly helped me slowly graduate to all grain. I am drinking
the best beers of my life, and I just have to go into my basement to get
them.
But they don't work at the store any more. I saw Brian the other day,
but Paul (Gatza) is too busy with his work with AHA. I still get
excellent help, but it's from someone else.
It's really painful for me to read the really vicious attacks on these
people in the HBD. It's not so much because I am so grateful for the
wonderful help they gave me throughout my growth as a brewer. It's more
because it is so different from the wonderfully friendly attitudes I saw
in them and which I naively saw as an integral part of the home brewing
culture. It's like a child realizing there's no Santa Claus. I am not
just referring to AHA topics, either. I have seen some pretty
antagonistic comments about a variety of topics.
There are some nasty people contributing to this list. Nasty.
I don't know the other side, of course. I don't know what experiences
made them so full of hate and bitterness. I hope they can get help for
it.
In the meantime, I hope that the HBD can become a place where people can
ask questions or share ideas in a friendly, communal way. Why is
necessary to slam people and drive them away? Those of you who are
experienced brewers may ask this questions: do you think new readers of
this list will feel as welcome as Paul and Brian made this beginner
feel? Do you see in this list the same communal friendliness that
invited me to commit myself to home brewing?
OK--go ahead and attack. I've put on my armor.
- --
John Adsit
Boulder, CO
jadsit@jeffco.k12.co.us
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 20:46:54 EST
From: ThomasM923@aol.com
Subject: Air in headspace
Mark A. Bayer stated in his Dec. 4th post:
"Dave Miller has suggested in at least one of his books that you
leave absolute minimal headspace by filling the bottle to nearly full. I've
done this accidentally (and on purpose), and it seems like the carbonation
of those bottles takes a really long time, and the final level of
carbonation doesn't get as high as other bottles from the same batch that
had 1/2 to 3/4 inch of headspace."
Really? I feel that a minimum amount of headspace wouldn't have any
relationship with this at all, especially with the amount of time it takes for
a bottle to fully carbonate. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that a bottle
with more headspace would have a bit less CO2 dissolved into the beer, due to
the fact that there is more of the total CO2 in the headspace. The only thing
that I can think of is that the bottles with minimal headspace make less of a
spfffffft (sp?) when you open them, so maybe you perceive them as being less
carbonated.
Mark continues:
"One other method that gets suggested is to rest the bottlecaps on the
bottles for an hour, without crimping them, and during this time the yeast
will create CO2..."
I doubt that the yeast produces much CO2 in that amount of time, but a
substantial amount of CO2 will leave the beer as the beer warms (enough to
purge some or most of the air from the headspace). After a while, the bottle
caps will begin to pop up and down as the air escapes. Of course, the smaller
the headspace the better.
If you are bottling ale, there usually isn't a great difference between the
beer and the room temperature. You can coax some of the CO2 out of the
solution by rapping on the bottle with a plastic mallet or a piece of
hardwood. This always works for me. Once again, the smaller the headspace, the
better. Also, the bottom edge of the bottle is probably a bit more durable (to
tap on) than any other place.
Thomas Murray
Maplewood, NJ
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 02:04:15 -0600
From: Al Franciosi <alnpaige@flash.net>
Subject: Need help with sight glass
Dear HBD'ers
I have recently aquired a 15.5 gal keg that I would like to convert into
a Hot Liquor Tank. I would like to have a sight glass. I have a few
ideas of my own, but would really like some input from other brewers.
Any help would be grealy appreciated. Either post or private e-mail is
cool.
TIA
Al Franciosi
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 06:11:25 EST
From: DGofus@aol.com
Subject: Help save my marriage!(Bob Fesmire Dgofus@aol.com)
I have made a near fatal lapse in reason. My friend and I decided to purchase
6 cases of beer and split the cost and beer down the middle. We got great
prices on some wonderful beers, but........my dear wife did not think that the
idea was so great. So, to appease her and keep in her good graces;^), I need
to get rid of these case. This would allow one to try a variety of beers
without blowing a wad of dough for individual cases as I did. The beers are as
follows
1. Westmalle Triple
2. Westmalle Dupel
3. LaTrappe Triple
4. La Trappe Quaddrupel
5. Duvel
I do not want to make money, just recoup my loses so that my understanding
spouse does not decide to rid the house of all my homebrew equipment and me
along with it! Price would be like $60
I live in the Pottstown Pennsylvania area. And am willing to delivery/meet in
the area for any interested parties. Please e-mail if interested. Sorry for
this departure from homebrew, but very important. Thanks!
Bob Fesmire
Madman Brewery( almost defunct ;^( )
Pottstown, PA
Dgofus@aol.com
(610)970-1241
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 06 Dec 98 13:24:25 PST
From: "George De Piro" <gdepiro@fcc.net>
Subject: CO2 levels dependent on amount of headspace
Hi all,
Mark writes:
'dave miller has suggested in at least one of his books that you
leave absolute minimal headspace by filling the bottle to nearly full.
i've
done this accidentally (and on purpose), and it seems like the
carbonation
of those bottles takes a really long time, and the final level of
carbonation doesn't get as high as other bottles from the same batch that
had 1/2 to 3/4 inch of headspace.'
back to me:
I did a very small experiment with Louis Bonham in which I intentionally
over- and under-filled bottles of Hefeweizen (a damn good beer, too).
2 bottles were filled as high as I could (almost to brim), two were
filled
to "normal" levels (~1 inch of headspace) and 2 were ridiculously
underfilled.
The primings were well mixed into the beer and minimal air was introduced
into the beer at bottling by using a CO2-purged keg as the bottling
bucket.
I Fed-Ex'd the beers to Louis and he tested them for CO2 and air content
using a Z & N device.
While I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, the overfilled
bottle
contained much less CO2 then the other two bottles (almost HALF). Of
course, it also had the least amount of air. The other two were slightly
different in CO2 content, and of course the severe underfill (only filled
up to the bottle's shoulder) had the most air (25 mL or so; yum!).
While this was a VERY limited study (how much of an award-winning
Weizen could I expect to sacrifice to science?), it suggests that the
amount of headspace does indeed effect the final carbonation level
of bottle-conditioned beer; pretty severely, in fact!
Keep in mind that using a bottling bucket will encourage a lot of
cold-side
aeration, no matter how careful you are. I have had great success using
a keg as a bottling vessel (thanks to Bill Coleman for that idea). In
this way
I can bottle half of a batch then fill the keg with the rest of the beer
and
force carbonate. It is always fun to compare the bottle-conditioned vs.
mega-brew style of conditioning and serving.
Have fun!
George de Piro (Nyack, NY)
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 11:46:48 -0800
From: Anderson <rsda@istar.ca>
Subject: Parti-gyle v High gravity
I have done a couple of parti-gyle brews loosely following Randy Mosher's
guidelines from Brewing Techniques. Although I have been reasonably
satisfied with the results there is certainly quite an additional bit of
work involved - 2 brew kettles and the extra clean-up for one.
As I started planning for my next parti-gyle, A Russian Imperial/Oatmeal
stout, it occurred to me that I could do a single boil and adjust the final
gravites for the same end result. I had planned for a 10 gallon batch at
1.075 to be split 50/50 for 5 gallons @ 1.100 and 5 gallons @ 1.050. But by
reducing to 8 gallons and only one boil I would realize 1.095 which I could
split into 5 gallons and 3 gallons. The 5 gallons would remain the Russian
Imperial Stout and the 3 gallons would be diluted to 5 gallons resulting in
around 1.055. IBU's would be accordingly diluted.
Does this sound reasonable?
Stuart (Brewing in Beautiful (but wet) British Columbia)
Brewing in Beautiful British Columbia
Stuart Anderson
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 14:44:27 -0600
From: rlabor@lsumc.edu (LaBorde, Ronald)
Subject: RE: 240 Wiring
>>>>
From: "Dana H. Edgell" <edgell@far-tech.com>
One suggestion (sorry I don't have the name at work) was to use one hot
line from the 240V water heater supply and the neutral from the wall plug
(connected trough a GFCI of course). This would put double the current on
that neutral (up to 30 amp). As the neutral doesn't go through the breaker
(only the hot does) this wouldn't trip the 15 amp breaker.
*IF* the gauge of the return wire is sufficient to handle 30 amps (12
gauge? I will look it up and check the wire) does this sound safe?
<<<<
Not safe, not code, and not recommended.
The 2 wire plus grounding wire 240 circuit is indeed correct, as several
posters have told us. As far as the white wire being painted black - this
from "Wiring Simplified" by H.P. Richter and W.C. Schwan:
"When you use a 2-wire cable to connect a 240-volt load, the cable
contains one black wire and one white wire, but the white wire may not be
used. What can be done? Follow code Sec. 200-7, Exception 1. Paint each
end of the white wire black, or wrap black tape around the ends, and the
cable will be considered as having two black wires."
Much confusion exists over the purpose and use of the ground wires because
both wires actually connect to the same spot on your entrance panel. The
distinction exists at the other end, that is where the purpose and use for
each wire are specific and definite.
The groundING wire is green, green with one or more yellow stripes, or bare.
This wire also connects to any metal parts, including the cabinet, box or
motor. This wire never carries current - it's purpose is protection only.
The groundED wire is usually white and is the one which carries current.
>>>>
I was planning on turning the hot water heater off while brewing (either
manually or by a built in relay to prevent my forgetting) so I wouldn't
overload the circuit.
<<<<
I am not going to actually tell you to do this, but what I would do myself
in your situation, and which I believe is perfectly safe, would be to
install a 240 volt 50 amp. receptacle and plug for the water heater. Then
you unplug the heater (full of hot water), and now you have the entire 240
volt circuit available for brewing use. You could possibly be injured by
your wife if you ever forget to plug the heater back in before her next
shower!
If you have no regular 120 circuit in your garage, and only need a few amps
to run a small pump, or controls, you can get a transformer 240 to 120 volt
step down, and use the 120 output for that purpose. Here you can connect
the groundING wire to the case and it will not carry current.
The easiest safe way to get 120 for brewing would be to simply use an
outdoor extension cord plugged inside the condo somewhere.
Good wiring, and good luck,
Ron
Ronald La Borde - Metairie, Louisiana - rlabor@lsumc.edu
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 18:51:23 -0400
From: bwible@wanda.vf.pond.com (Bill Wible)
Subject: Hop utilization?
Question for the experienced and learned all-grain brewers out there...
Anybody know how to correct hop figures for concentrated wort boils?
I switched to all-grain brewing early this year. Even though I'm brewing
from all-grain, I'm still using a 20-quart stockpot to boil in. I know
they say you need to do a full wort boil for all grain, but I just haven't
bothered to get a bigger pot. I looked around for a 7 gallon pot for
awhile, but couldn't find one. Maybe after Christmas.
Anyway....In my 20 qt. pot, I can boil a little more than 4 gallons, and
still leave enough room for the immersion chiller. I usually collect 5 and
a half gallons of wort from the mash, then start with boiling about 4 and a
half. I use the remaining gallon to replace evaporation during the boil.
I almost always boil for 60 minutes, and I usually do end up putting the
whole extra gallon into the pot. Then I always end up adding about a
gallon of water to the fermenter at the end.
To measure gravity before the boil, I formulate recipies based on 5
gallons, and then figure out the GU's and convert to 4 gallons so I can
accurately measure what the gravity of the wort in the pot would be if it
were 5 gallons. I do correct for temperature in my gravity measurements.
Example:
Gravity Target: 1.055
5 gallons at 1.055 = 5 * 55 = 275GU
275GU/4gallons = 68.7 = 1.069
This means 4 gallons at 1.069 will become 5 gallons at 1.055 when you add a
gallon of water, right?
My question is about hop utilization for this setup. It seems that my last
several batches have been lacking in hop bitterness. I am aware that hop
utilization is affected by concentrated wort boils. How does one account
for this? I ususally use BrewWizard to plan recipies. I'm not sure if
Brew Wizard has any built-in feature for this or not. I'm guessing it
doesn't.
Thanks in advance.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 13:18:29 -0600
From: Kim Thomson <alabrew@mindspring.com>
Subject: o2 in headspace
Andrew J Milder <amilder@flash.net>writes:
is there any way for me to cap on foam withoutaerating the beer?
Andrew, you might try "rapping" on the neck of a filled bottle with a
knife. This would cause disolved CO2 to come out of solution and push
the O2 present out.
- --
ALA-BREW
Homebrewing Supplies
Birmingham, AL
http://www.mindspring.com/~alabrew/
Full Service Home Beer And Wine Brewing Supply
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #2894, 12/07/98
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