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HOMEBREW Digest #4052
HOMEBREW Digest #4052 Fri 27 September 2002
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
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Contents:
RE: Chillin da wort ("Parker Dutro")
Re: GFI - electrical safety (robertjm)
Re: Picnic faucet (Kent Fletcher)
re : Chillin' da wort (Alan McKay)
RE: Chillin da wort ("David Houseman")
Re: Decoction (Martin_Brungard)
RE: Chillin da wort ("Todd Bissell")
Re: New Orlean brewpubs ("Ed Dorn")
conical building. ("Joe ,just-Joe")
low cal beer ("steve lane")
Brakspear Special Bitter ("Byron's Yahoo Account")
Re: GFI - electrical safety (Tony Verhulst)
Re: Chillin da wort (Roy Roberts)
overnight mashing ("Tom & Dana Karnowski")
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Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:13:53 -0700
From: "Parker Dutro" <ezekiel128@edwardwadsworth.com>
Subject: RE: Chillin da wort
All you can do is keep the lid on to prevent stuff from falling in. It
doesn't matter if it won't seal. Realistically even if you left the lid
off during the whole chill phase the beer will be free of infection. I
just hold the lid over the kettle and pull it off to check the temp.
frequently, no problems yet! Just don't spit in the wort, and try not
to touch it with your fingers (or any part of your body.)
Cheers!
Parker
"Excuse me doctor, but I think I know a little something about
medicine!"
-Homer Simpson
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:24:31 -0700
From: robertjm@hockeyhockeyhockey.com
Subject: Re: GFI - electrical safety
Just to chime in on this.
Some communities actually
REQUIRE new or remodeled
installations of bathrooms and
kitchens to install GFI, especially
anything that will be within a couple
feet of any water source.
Robert
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:28:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kent Fletcher <fletcherhomebrew@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Picnic faucet
Rueben was getting a lot of foam from his new picnic
faucet setup.
Rueben, at 6 feet your 3/16" hose might be a tad long.
Presuming that your keg is cold, and that your
regulator is not set too high, try cutting 6" (15 cm)
off the hose. If you still get foam, whack another
6". Typically 4 to 5 feet of 3/16" hose is about
right. The longer the hose, the greater the pressure
drop, which in turn leads to foaming. You can either
increase the regulator pressure to compensate or
shorten the hose. When you're not dealing with a
mandatory length (like reaching a bar from a remote
fridge) it's better to shorten the hose, as increasing
CO2 pressure will force more gas into solution,
causing overcarbonation. Hope that helps.
Kent Fletcher
Brewing in So Cal
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 07:25:03 -0400
From: Alan McKay <amckay@neap.net>
Subject: re : Chillin' da wort
> how does one keep infection OUT of the wort during the
> cooling phase since the lid is off the boiler? Even
> if I set it on top it isn't going to "seal" out everything.
Being concerned about infection is a very good thing, however
I think you are a bit too concerned. Just take the lid off
and do what comes natural ;-)
cheers,
-Alan
- --
http://www.bodensatz.com/
The Beer Site (tm)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 07:30:12 -0400
From: "David Houseman" <housemanfam@earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: Chillin da wort
In my immersion chiller days I had the same concerns. I kept the lid on as
much as possible and did my best to seal with some aluminum foil. Others
have a separate lid with a small cutout for the water in/out tubing. But
since I brew in my garage where dust is winning the battle, a counter-flow
chiller became my chiller of choice to protect the wort. You're right, you
won't seal this your kettle completely but try some aluminum foil to keep
airborne dust out of the kettle when chillin'.
Dave Houseman
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 08:28:42 -0400
From: Martin_Brungard@URSCorp.com
Subject: Re: Decoction
AJ enlightened us with:
Con - coct: to bring together and cook.
De - coct: to take away and cook.
I thought that decoct was what a eunuch is. ;-o
Martin Brungard
Tallahassee, FL
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 07:07:10 -0700
From: "Todd Bissell" <bis9170@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Chillin da wort
Aluminium (sp.) foil works fine. I lay one sheet flat over 80% of the the
top of the pot, and then wrap another sheet to cover up the area remaining
(where the intake and output tubes are). I then poke my long thermometer
through the foil and into the wort, and start up the chiller.
Cheers,
Todd Bissell
Eyechart Brewing Company
San Diego, CA
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 11:32:26 -0400
From: "Ed Dorn" <edorn@dukes-stein.com>
Subject: Re: New Orlean brewpubs
Calvin asked about the brewpub at Beau Rivage in Biloxi, mentioning his
frustration that they're not open for lunch. I, too, was surprised that
they didn't open until 5:00 PM. I was in there a couple of times during
a brief vacation there this summer. The beer is OK, and I can remember
very little about it. Maybe four or five varieties, strictly OK,
nothing noteworthy at all. IMHO, management at Beau Rivage promotes the
place much more as a restaurant and night club than a micro-brewery.
Hence the "safe" beers and late openings.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:48:28 -0500
From: "Joe ,just-Joe" <pester_joe@hotmail.com>
Subject: conical building.
I'm building a unitank fermenter, and want to make sure that it will be able
to remove sediment for extended aging.
What is the best diameter for the drain at the bottom of a conical
fermenter? (12.2 gallon)I'll be using a conical hopper from Toledo Metal
Spinning. Anyone with a pre-fabricated one (fermenator or similar) want to
comment on how well yours works on sediment removal?
Joe
Hopedale IL
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 11:45:30 -0500
From: "steve lane" <tbirdusa@hotmail.com>
Subject: low cal beer
So I see an ad for Michelob coming out with a low calorie beer. What's the
deal and what are they doing different than watering down their already
watered down beer? Are they merely thinning out the already thin?
On this subject, how could one calculate the "theorectical" caloric content
of a homebrew and what exactly determines the caloric content? I would
assume that a high final gravity would increase the calories in a beer but
how does a change in mash temp. figure into all of this with the beta vs.
alpha amalyse issue?
Thanks
Stephen
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:51:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Byron's Yahoo Account" <btowles@yahoo.com>
Subject: Brakspear Special Bitter
Sorry for the length of following email.
In HBD #4044, "Penn, Thomas (MED)" <Thomas.Penn@med.ge.com> inquired about a
recipe for the Brakspear Special Bitter. I've found a recipe but am not sure
as to it's authenticity or quality (it looks very old to me, but take it for
what it's worth). It's from the book "Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy" by
Dave Line. The Recipe Follows ver batum:
BRAKSPEAR Henley-on-Thames
SPECIAL BITTER
Delicious residual sweetness balances this hoppy strong brew.
stage 5 gallons original gravity 1044 25 litres
1 7 lb. crushed pale malt 3500 gm.
1 5 oz. crushed crystal malt 150 gm.
1 8 oz. Flaked Maize 250 gm.
1 3 gallons water for "bitter" brewing 15 litres
3 2 oz. Molasses 60 gm.
3 1 oz. Fuggles hops 30 gm.
3,4,5 2+1/2+1/4 oz. Goldings Hops 60+15+10 gm.
3 8 oz. soft dark brown sugar 250 gm.
3 1 tsp. Irish moss 5 ml.
5 2 oz. brewers yeast 60 gm.
5 1/2 oz. gelatine 15 gm.
6 2 oz. brown sugar 60 gm.
Brewing Stages
1. Raise the temperature of the water up to 60C and stir in the crushed malts
and flakes. Stirring continuously, raise the mash temp up to 66C. Leave for
1-1/2 hrs occasionally returning the temperature back to this value.
2. Contain the mashed grain in a large grain bag to retrieve the sweet wort.
Using slightly hotter water than the mash, rinse the grains to collect 4
gallons (20 litres) of extract.
3. Boil the extract with the fuggles hops and the first quota of goldings hops
for 1.5 hrs. Dissolve the main batch of sugar and Molasses in a little hot
water and add this during the boil. Also pitch in the Irish Moss as
directed on the instructions.
4. Switch off the heat, stir in the second batch of goldings and allow them
to soak for 15 minutes. Strain off the clear wort into a fermenting bin and
top up to the final quantity with cold water.
5. When cool to room temperature add the yeast. Ferment 4-5 days until the
specific gravity falls to 1012 and rack into gallon jars or a 25 litre
polythene cube. Apportion gelatine finings and the rest of the dry hops
before fittings airlocks.
6. Leave for 7 days before racking the beer from the sediment into a primed
pressure barrel or polythene cube. Allow 7 days conditioning before
sampling.
=====
- ---------------------------------------------
The two most common elements in the
universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
- ---------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 14:14:41 -0400
From: Tony Verhulst <tony.verhulst@hp.com>
Subject: Re: GFI - electrical safety
From: Kent Fletcher <fletcherhomebrew@yahoo.com>
> The other day I had a ground fault with a submersible pump. The pump
> was NOT plugged into a GFI. The pump was running normally, by all
> appearances. When I came into contact with the flow of water from the hose I
> got a healthy 120 volt, 60 hertz jolt, as I completed the path to ground.
> I can repair the old pump (compression fitting on power cord leaked), but I
> bought a new one and postponed my brew for a day to install a GFI at
> my brew stand.
The advice to install a GFI is sound but the example cited is not,
IMHO. A GFI is a device that can fail and you should never bet your
life on it. A motor (or whatever) should be propperly wired and
insulated and THEN be protected by a GFI. The reason that you got a jolt
is that the pump was not properly grounded, I suspect. Try this site for
some good GFI advice http://www.zymico.com/gfi.shtml.
Tony V.
http://home.attbi.com/~verhulst/RIMS.rims.htm
- --
Wine is a bad thing. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor, it
makes you shoot at your landlord, it makes you miss him.
Mark Twain
- --
Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any.
Mark Twain
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 18:21:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Roy Roberts <psilosome@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Chillin da wort
> Nathan Hoskins writes:
>
> I have just gotten a wort chiller and was wondering
> how does one keep
> infection OUT of the wort during the cooling phase
> since the lid is off the
> boiler? Even if I set it on top it isn't going to
> "seal" out everything.
A valid concern, but you probably don't have a lot of
"bugs" floating around in the air, and you certainly
won't have large colonies of bacteria flying around
looking to splash into your wort. Anyway in a homebrew
environment it is practically impossible to keep out
every single unwanted microorganism. That said, it is
vital to keep your brewing equipment clean and
sanitized, and to pitch a large amount of yeast.
Dr. Roy
Washington DC
Taxation Without Representation
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 21:59:06 -0400
From: "Tom & Dana Karnowski" <karnowsk@esper.com>
Subject: overnight mashing
To make more efficient use of my time I recently made a batch of all-grain
by letting my mash sit overnight. I single-step infusion mashed at a low
temp, about 148F, with the grist comprised of 20+ lbs of pale ale malt. I
let the grain sit for about 7 hours and in the morning I collected my wort
and made the brew. I used Wyeast 1214. The grain temperature was pretty
constant, down only 4 degrees to 144F in the morning.
I know my mash temperature was on the low side-and I mashed a long time- but
this is the most attenuated beer I've ever made. It started around 1.070
and finished just above 1.000!! I racked it last night and it tasted OK
albeit much drier than desired. the 1214 is not a very dry yeast as far as
I know.
Is this consistent with the experience of anyone else, particularly the
folks who do overnight mashes (actually does anyone do an overnight or long
mash?) I wanted to save time by makeing more efficient use of my brew day
(and night) but unfortunately I'm not convinced this method is going to work
out for me.
thanks
Tom Karnowski
Knoxville TN
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #4052, 09/27/02
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