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HOMEBREW Digest #3333
HOMEBREW Digest #3333 Wed 24 May 2000
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: Dorm Fridge (Graham Sanders)
fridge stuff (fridgeguy)
Brix, Balling, and Plato ("Pannicke, Glen A.")
SG (RCAYOT)
Mead and Honey (Bill.X.Wible)
Boneyard Brew-Off, Champaign IL, June 9-10 (Joel Plutchak)
Munich Helles Style Series book? (Bill.X.Wible)
SG at 68F -- new reference temp (Brian Pickerill)
freezing malt extract ("Al Beers")
Broken Fridge ("Eric R. Theiner")
brew/zymurgy (Jim Liddil)
Zymurgy - Honey Issue (Leo Vitt)
Re: Efficiency Percentage ("patrick finerty jr.")
aha mission statement (Jim Liddil)
Fixing bottle geysers ("Jim & Jeanine Steinbrunner")
* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:05:54 +1000
From: Graham Sanders <GrahamS@bsa.qld.gov.au>
Subject: RE: Dorm Fridge
G'day all
We Aussie's have a much better name for these things.
BAR FRIDGES
Now doesn't that sound much more appealing, and describes how we use them.
Shout
Graham Sanders
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:38:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: fridgeguy@voyager.net
Subject: fridge stuff
Greetings folks,
In HBD #3332, Dave Burley beat me to the keyboard to explain to the
rest of the world what dorm fridges are... Great post Dave! I realized
when I got email from other parts of the world wondering what I was
talking about that I'd better post an explanation of the term. Dave
did the job admirably.
In the same digest, Rich Sieben asks if his fridge, with a punctured
evaporator is worth repairing. I have to blush when I answer this
because I once stabbed a hole in my apartment fridge evaporator while
defrosting it with a steak knife (don't do this folks).
If the fridge hasn't run a long time with the puncture it is a simple
repair, normally done with a heat-set epoxy. The system is then
evacuated and recharged. The bad part is that with today's refrigerant
recovery regulations in the US, it's likely to be more expensive to
repair the fridge than to replace it.
Jim Booth has the nerve to blame me personally and my industry
collectively for the US perception that beer has to be as cold as you
can get it and still be liquid. I'll have you know, Jim, that without
me and "my industry" you'd be served Budweiser at cellar temperature
and would actually be able to taste it - that would be a baaad thing
:-P I actually prefer to see Bud and the rest of the megabrew stuff
stay in the cooler. I'll buy good stuff instead and let it warm to the
proper serving temperature, thank you. BIG Smileys!!!
George de Piro described his use of a small window air conditioner as
a cooling unit for a cold room and the moisture-related problems he
experienced.
Window AC units are high-temperature refrigeration units with an
evaporator design temperature of 35 degF. If sized correctly for a
given application - and undersizing is preferable to oversizing, these
units will properly dehumidify the space. Too large a unit will simply
drop the space temperature and shut off before much moisture is
removed from the air. The high evaporator temperature of a window AC
unit will have a limited ability to remove moisture at lower room
temperatures however - even if it is run continuously.
It is critical to have air-tight joints, vapor barrier and door
gasketing in any cold room, and even more so when using a window AC
unit. Improvements in any of these areas will help provide better
moisture control.
A better solution is to use a medium temperature refrigeration unit,
which will have a lower evaporator temperature (usually about 0 degF).
Most commercial cold rooms use such a system, as do domestic
refrigerator/freezers.
Again it is important not to oversize the unit for best
dehumidification performance. For example, a 6'x6' commercial walk-in
would likely use a unit with roughly 3000 BTU/HR capacity. This type
of unit will also require a periodic defrost cycle to clear the
evaporator of accumulated ice buildup.
Hope this helps!
- --------------------------------
Forrest Duddles - Fridgeguy in Kalamazoo
fridgeguy@voyager.net
- --
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:56:27 -0400
From: "Pannicke, Glen A." <glen_pannicke@merck.com>
Subject: Brix, Balling, and Plato
On Mon, 22 May 2000 Frank Tutzauer wrote:
>For our anniversary, my dear wife bought me a refractometer for
>taking gravities, so I need the low down on Brix, Balling, and
>Plato. My homebrew books are fairly sketchy on the topic.
>
>As I've been investigating Brix, Balling, and Plato (see my
>refractometer questions)...
[many questions omitted here]
Frank, see, your wife is very smart. By buying you this toy she believes
that she has kept you busy and out of trouble (or out of her hair) for quite
some time. Wives are very cunning in this respect. Now, we husbands have
to be even smarter and use psychology to our advantage. Pretend to lose
interest in the device and soon she will see the need to get you a different
one! I've managed to weasel a new chest freezer, temperature controller and
draft serving tower in this manner. I'll be going for the refractometer
soon, bud! But alas, for me it will not last. In two months I'll have a
child to compete with - and you know who will win. But don't ya just love
new toys! ;-)
Carpe cerevisiae!
Glen Pannicke
http://www.pannicke.net
"He was a wise man who invented beer" - Plato
------------------------------
Date: 23 May 2000 07:42:03 -0400
From: RCAYOT@solutia.com
Subject: SG
Recently there have been questions regarding Specific Gravity:
Frank Tutzauer <comfrank@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Subject: SG at 68F -- new reference temp
Franks questions were right on. Here is the definition of Specific
Gravity from the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (52nd Ed.)
"Specific Gravity- The ratio of the mass of a body to the mass of
an equal volume of water at 4 degrees C or other specified
temperature."
Well what I gather form this is that the answer to the following
questions:
"Situation 1. Let's say I've got two hydrometers, an old one
calibrated to 60F and a new one calibrated to 68F. I've just
brewed a wort, the temp of which is exactly 60F. I put the old
hydrometer in it, and it reads 1.040. Under the old system, I
would have written in my log book, "OG = 1.040." Ok, good. Now
I warm the wort to exactly 68F. My old hydrometer of course now
reads something different. But if I put the new hydrometer in
the 68F wort, it reads 1.040, so again, I write in my log "OG =
1.040." This situation does not make sense to me because if
1.040 means "1.040 times the density of water at 60F" then the
wort would also be "1.040 times the density of water at 68F" --
and of course the wort can't be both."
Is that of course they can both have a SG of 1.040! The ratio of
the mass of wort to water is the same (or very very nearly so) at
BOTH TEMPERATURES! Because the DENSITY of both water and wort
changes with temperature in the same way (or nearly so).
The difference would be that the temperature correction would be
slightly different for the two hydrometers. I would imagine that
if you put the two hydrometers in water at 60F then the 60F
calibrated hydrometer would read zero, and the 68F calibrated
hydrometer would read slightly high, exactly as high as the
temperature correction, vice versa.
Regards,
Roger Ayotte
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 10:09:45 -0400
From: Bill.X.Wible@QuestDiagnostics.com
Subject: Mead and Honey
I keep reading everybody saying that 'Zymurgy refers to the art of
fermentation'. And eveybody takes this to mean that mead and honey
articles are fine in Zymurgy. Well, every bottle of commercial mead I
have ever seen says 'Honey Wine' on it. I could also argue that wine
is a fermented beverage, too. Now, does anybody out there want to
see half of each issue of Zymurgy taken up with wine articles, like
some of the issues of BYO used to? People do make wine at home,
so it is a 'homebrewed' beverage, too.
Personally, I think there has to be some seperation. I question why
either mead or cider (and any of their variants) are listed in the style
guidelines as categories of beer. They are not beer. They are much
closer to wine. I think the AHA and BJCP should remove these from
their style guidelines, since they are not beer.
But that is my opinion.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 10:09:44 -0500 (CDT)
From: Joel Plutchak <plutchak@ncsa.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Boneyard Brew-Off, Champaign IL, June 9-10
Entry period now open!!!
http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/BUZZ/contest6.html
The 6th Annual Boneyard Brew-Off will be held on June 10,
organized by the Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots,
Champaign Illinois. Entries will be accepted now through
June 6 in all 1999 BJCP categories (beer, mead, and cider).
We are also continuing our tradition of a No One Gets Out
Alive High-gravity category, with a hedonic judging of any
beer or mead with a starting gravity over 1.070.
Details are available on the World Wide Web at the site
above. Entry forms are available for download, and have
been snail-mailed to regional clubs and judges. Judges
can also sign up on the web, and are welcome at the Judge
Social on Friday, June 9 as well as the traditional BBQ
dinner after the competition.
To receive a hard copy of the materials, send us your
mailing address.
Contacts:
Competition Organizer: Brian Paszkiet <bpaszkie@uiuc.edu>
Judge Director: Joel Plutchak <plutchak@uiuc.edu>
Registrar: Brian Beyer <brianb@soltec.net>
- --
"I would say it's virtually impossible not to gain an appreciation
for goodbeer through homebrewing." - T. Davie
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 12:02:28 -0400
From: Bill.X.Wible@QuestDiagnostics.com
Subject: Munich Helles Style Series book?
I saw an ad awhile ago that said a new Style Series book was supposed to
be coming out for Munich Helles in May. This is near the end of May, and so
far, I can't find it anywhere. Has anybody heard or read anything?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 12:33:13 -0500
From: Brian Pickerill <bpickerill@mac.com>
Subject: SG at 68F -- new reference temp
>This situation does not make sense to me because if
>1.040 means "1.040 times the density of water at 60F" then the
>wort would also be "1.040 times the density of water at 68F" --
>and of course the wort can't be both.
Actually, it can. Both the temp of the water AND the wort are moved from
60F to 68F in your example. The ratio remains the same.
- --Brian Pickerill
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:00:26 EDT
From: "Al Beers" <albeers@hotmail.com>
Subject: freezing malt extract
Re: As far as freezing malt extract goes, the high sugar content ( at least
the ones I used) keeps these from molding or fermenting, in my experience,
and no reason to freeze them, just chill in the fridge in a covered plastic
or glass container - not the can. But do keep them in the fridge to slow
down the browning reaction, even unopened, if you keep them for a long time.
I used to keep a cube( 33 lb.) of extract in the fridge, but alas one
brewday as I went to add some to the pot, there was a layer of mold !!
In a panic I called my local Homebrew supply guy and he suggested I simply
remove the mold,and continue, seeing as it would be boiled anyway.
I scraped off the mold, boiled it an extra 15 minutes (am I paranoid, or
what?) Everything turned out fine, it was a good batch. I have kept a thin
layer of vodka on the extract to eliminate this from happening again.
Al
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 14:53:36 -0700
From: "Eric R. Theiner" <logic@skantech.com>
Subject: Broken Fridge
It just occured to me that someone here might be able to help me out
with my problem.
I have a side-by-side fridge/freezer which has served me well for about
2 years. It came with the house, so I don't know how old it is. (A tip
for these models: put the probe for your external thermostat in the
freezer and set it for 32. Perfect temp for that keg that's lagering or
for serving the pilsner, and the fridge side will maintain around 55 as
a side effect-- great for cellaring and serving English ales.)
Anyway, we recently moved it from one wall of the brewhouse to the
other. We walked it, so there shouldn't have been a tipping problem.
But when we plugged it back up, it wouldn't work. The freezer side
cools a little (maintains a 20-30 F drop), but the fridge side doesn't
work at all. And there's no compressor noise (have no idea how the
freezer side is cooling).
An additional wrinkle that might have something to do with it-- we had
to plug it in through an outdoor extension cord (electrical problems
with some of the outlets that I haven't gotten around to fixing).
Any thoughts? Thanks,
Rick Theiner
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 12:53:56 -0700 (MST)
From: Jim Liddil <jliddil@VMS.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: brew/zymurgy
>From the OED:
brew
a. trans. Properly: To make (ale, beer, and the like) by infusion,
boiling, and fermentation.
mead
a. An alcoholic liquor made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water:
also called metheglin.
zymurgy
The practice or art of
fermentation, as in wine-making, brewing, distilling, etc
and FWIW and extensive search of various quotation databases has yet to
turn up the often cited ben franklin quita about god and beer. This
involved using known quotation sites and various sites about ben franklin
Jim Liddil
North Haven, CT
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 17:47:58 -0500 (CDT)
From: Leo Vitt <vitt@rchland.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: Zymurgy - Honey Issue
There are a lot of comments about the Honey Issue of Zymurgy.
Opinion:
I actually thought this was a decent issue. I think better than those of the
last year at least. This is probably because I am interested in mead.
Yes, I already knew a fair portion of what is covered. But I think the
articles are
better than the mead articles I read in previous Zymurgys. They actually gave
specifics instead of just covering the topic in a broad since.
Someone questioned covering mead in Zymurgy. I am interested in beer, mead,
wine and cider. Many brewers I know make a least 2 of these.
Leo Vitt (vitt@rchland.vnet.ibm.com)
Rochester, Minnesota (507)253-6903 t/l 553-6903
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 19:51:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: "patrick finerty jr." <zinc@finerty.net>
Subject: Re: Efficiency Percentage
hi folks,
Dryw asked about his poor extraction efficiency...
first of all, how are you calculating your extraction efficiency? it
would be good to describe this. i've seen several different methods
posted to the list since i've been reading.
what are you using to filter the sweet liquor from the grain? that is,
are you using a false bottom, EZ-masher or some other type of
manifold?
frequently, low extraction rates are related to the formation of
channels in the grain. when this happens, much of the grain is never
rinsed with the hot sparge water and the sugars in that area remain
there. additionally, water can flow easily between the grain and the
wall of your mash tun also avoiding the grain.
another problem might be poor conversion. how confident are you about
the temperature in the mash? i've found this to be *very* forgiving
(i've mashed from 150-158 F) but if you're too low or too high you
will have problems.
finally, be sure that your grain isn't old. enzymatic activity in old
grain, or grain that wasn't stored properly, can decrease to the point
where conversion is poor.
hope this helps!
-patrick in toronto
(i have brew photos online now:
http://www.finerty.net/pjf/interests/brewing)
On May 22, 2000, Dryw Blanchard wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have just finished my second all grain batch and
> both have had an extraction efficiency of about 57%.
> I tried sparging longer and a little hotter on the
> second batch (dead on 170F for 90 minutes). Can
> anyone give me any suggestions for boosting my
> efficiency rates. Private e-mails are fine. Thanks.
>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 20:01:33 -0400
From: Jim Liddil <jliddil@vms.arizona.edu>
Subject: aha mission statement
To promote public awareness and appreciation of the quality and variety of
BEER through education, research and the collection and dissemination of
information; to serve as a forum for the technological and cross cultural
aspects of the art of brewing; and encourage responsible use of BEER as an
alcohol-containing beverage.
Having said that I would say that at least the technical and typographical
errors seem to have been reduced in recent issues
Jim Liddil
North Haven, CT
My Echelon Triggers:
Security, Warfare, Terrorism, Defense, National Information
Infrastructure, Reno, Compsec, Passwords, Espionage, USDOJ, NSA, CIA,
Counterterrorism, spies, eavesdropping, interception, 2600 Magazine,
top secret, Mossad, 50BMG, Cypherpunks, Nuclear, counterintelligence,
fraud, assassin, virus, anarchy, rogue, mailbomb, BATF, OSS, Bill of
Rights, Freedom of thought, Unalienable rights, Big Brother, Privacy,
Repressive government, McCarthyism letterbomb carbomb detonator ANFO
fuse altimeter Hillary PGP
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 21:47:16 -0400
From: "Jim & Jeanine Steinbrunner" <steinbrunner@tm.net>
Subject: Fixing bottle geysers
First-time post after lurking for awhile...
My latest of several dumb newbie beer tricks... After a late-evening
bottling of
an extract nut brown ale clone, I awoke with a nagging fear: how much
priming
sugar did I add? I used all of the pre-bagged corn sugar from the homebrew
shop without measuring, thinking the store bagged for 5-gallon batches
(apparently not). Oh well, I thought, not much I can do for now.
Now, after 2+ weeks in the bottle, I lose a third of the beer to foam before
I can
pour, or I have to repeatedly "burp" the cap to let off some pressure. I'm
really
pleased with the head longevity, but in this case it makes my problem worse,
as the head won't settle after gushing out of the bottle.
I'm not patient enough to work for a half hour or more, burping my beer
before I
can drink it - that should come after drinking! I searched the archives for
suggestions, but burping the caps was the best I found. Any other ideas?
TIA - private email is fine.
Jim Steinbrunner
Midland, MI (about 100 miles north of Rennerian 0,0,0)
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #3333, 05/24/00
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