Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
HOMEBREW Digest #4096
HOMEBREW Digest #4096 Mon 18 November 2002
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: janitor@hbd.org
***************************************************************
THIS YEAR'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Northern Brewer, Ltd. Home Brew Supplies
http://www.northernbrewer.com 1-800-681-2739
Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********
Contents:
New subscriber, Scottish Ale, peculiar cider ferment... (Max Hayes)
Subject: Business Assistance & All Grain Brewing ("Mark Tumarkin")
Re: Cleaning Aeration stone ("Jonathan Royce")
First all-grain batch (Road Frog)
Re: Aerobic Yeast Propagation (Demonick)
Re: Bleach ("Mike Sharp")
conical help ("stephen_weiss Weiss")
hypochlorite/chlorine dioxide (AJ)
Entering your own Competition (David Perez)
"dry" Stout (Teresa Knezek)
Re: priming? (Jeff Renner)
Re: Classic American Pilsner Recipe/Report/Ranting (Jeff Renner)
Bottling in Ball Canning Jars ("Jonathan Royce")
Mini kegs and other thoughts (Teresa Knezek)
Re: Cleaning Aeration stone ("Jim Dunlap")
Chlorine and Stainless Steel (Kevin White)
re: Decade old lagers ("Steve Alexander")
Yeast for priming (LJ Vitt)
*
* Show your HBD pride! Wear an HBD Badge!
* http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/shopping
*
* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy!
*
Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org
If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!!
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word
"subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL
ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!**
IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to
the digest as we cannot reach you. We will not correct your address
for the automation - that's your job.
HAVING TROUBLE posting, subscribing or unsusubscribing? See the HBD FAQ at
http://hbd.org.
The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright
HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK
before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content
cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit.
More information is available by sending the word "info" to
req@hbd.org or read the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org.
JANITOR on duty: Pat Babcock and Karl Lutzen (janitor@hbd.org)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 23:47:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Max Hayes <toxicbrewer@yahoo.com>
Subject: New subscriber, Scottish Ale, peculiar cider ferment...
'Lo,
This is my first post to the HBD, though I've been
browing the archives for a year or so. I just figured
I'd jump into the fray...
My first question is about a Scottish Ale (80
shilling Export) I have fermenting away at the moment.
I'm wondering if there's really a good chance that it
will come out true-to-style (per AHA guidelines and
such). I'm just paranoid, really. But any words of
reassurance or realization would help me out a lot.
Here's my ingredient list and procedure:
Ingreds:
one 3.3lb can John Bull amber extract
one 2lb bag of amber DME
8oz 60L Crystal Malt
4oz Chocolate Malt
1oz Roasted Barley
1oz Fuggles (bittering)
1/2oz Fuggles (finishing)
1/2oz Brewer's licorice root
Wyeast #1728 Scottish Ale
Procedure:
Popped smack pack about 12 hrs before brewtime. No
starter was made. At brewtime, boiled 3 gals of tap
water for 30 mins, cooled in ice bath, and added to 6
gal carboy. Re-filled brewpot with 2 gals of tap
water, added all grains, and steeped for 30 mins at
roughly 160F. Let grains drain, discarded. Brought
wort to boiling, took off heat, added all extracts.
Brought back to boiling while stirring vigorously (60
min boil time from here). At 60 mins, added licorice
root and bittering hops. At 30 mins, removed licorice
root. At 15 mins, added 1tsp Irish Moss. At 5 minutes,
added finishing hops. At end of boil, took off heat,
removed all hops, cooled wort in ice bath, and added
to 3 gals in carboy to top off at 5 gals. Let cool a
bit longer, and let trub settle. Took OG of 1.050
(seems to be at the top end of the AHA guidelines for
80 shilling). Opened Wyeast pack and pitched yeast...
Does this one sound like a winner? I'm predicting ABV
to be around 4 - 5%, and IBU's around 19 - 21.. It's
fermenting quite vigorously three days later, big
krausen, despite my worry about having no starter
ready...
My other question is about a cider I have
fermenting (I -think-).. It's an apple-strawberry-kiwi
cider, 1 gallon batch size. I have it fermenting in a
1.5 gallon bucket at the moment. The problem is, I'm
seeing -no- activity whatsoever in the airlock. I
figured I figured it was one of two things: leaky
seal, or I hadn't noticed a preservative in my juice.
I opened up the lid, and lo and behold, bubbling was
quite evident. Also a line of scum around the sides of
the bucket. I could also hear the bubbling action
(like when you put your ear to a just-poured glass of
Coke). Put the lid back on, made sure the seal was
tight. No airlock action for another day. Pushed down
on the bucket lid and the airlock bubbles.. What in
the world is going on here? Here's my recipe, at risk
of making this post -way- too long:
Ingreds:
16oz Minute Maid brand apple juice (concentrate and
filtered water)
48oz Dole brand Strawberry-Kiwi Juice (recognized all
ingredients except sodium citrate.. Googled it and
didn't come up with anything about it being a
preservative, though.)
Topped off with Juicy Juice brand apple juice (no
preservatives here, either).
Dried ale yeast slurry recultured from a previous
batch of sweet cider (started in 1/2 a cup of sugar
water).
OG was 1.110 (added 1/2lb of cane sugar)
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Max Hayes
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 07:52:41 -0500
From: "Mark Tumarkin" <mark_t@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Subject: Business Assistance & All Grain Brewing
Gosh, sounds like Creek Banjul is really in a jam. Maybe we could help him get
the money out Africa and put the money into the HBD Server Fund. Or we can go
into partnership with him. Possibly he'd be interested in investing in an HBD
Brewpub.... just think of all the cool brewing equipment we could get with
that money. But remember, absolute secrecy is required.... so don't tell
anyone. ;-)
On a more beery note, I too am ready to make the jump to all grain brewing.
I've been brewing now for 5+ years & have been doing partial mash beers with
pretty damn good results. I'm not sure why I haven't made the jump before....
mostly fear & laziness. Fear that I'll have to go through a learning curve
period where my beer won't be as good as I'm used to, and laziness needs no
explanation. But I've gradually gathered all the equipment I need. I've been
brewing outside with a burner & converted keg for several years. Anyhow, I'm
looking forward to the increased control over my beer, the reduced cost of all
grain, and all the fun that I've been missing with stuck mashes, incomplete
conversion, etc. So my next batch will be my first venture into all grain,
probably a fairly simply pale ale. As Kevin suggests, I want to keep it simple
so that I can more easily detect and understand the problems & issues I may
(will) encounter.
Mark Tumarkin
Hogtown Brewers
Gainesville, FL
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 10:29:02 -0500
From: "Jonathan Royce" <jtroyce@directvinternet.com>
Subject: Re: Cleaning Aeration stone
Dennis Collins wrote:
>Chlorine will corrode stainless steel(and most everything else). I'm not
>sure what the effect will be on a porous item like the stone, but it
>probably isn't desired.
and
Domenick Venezia wrote:
"If I recall correctly, the issue with bleach and stainless is mostly at the
air/liquid interface, and in letting drops of bleach evaporate on a
stainless surface. This raises the local solute concentration and can
cause pitting. I doubt that a 30 minute soak in weak bleach will hurt
a stainless aeration stone. Just make sure to get all the air out of the
stone."
I've never heard of the air/liquid interface issue (but that doesn't mean it
isn't true), but I know that pharmaceutical companies clean stainless with
bleach (and other chemicals) all the time. There are several things that
people need to be concerned with. First, what type of stainless are you
using? 304 is much more prone to pitting from bleach than 316. Second, have
you changed the pH of the bleach solution? A typical sanitizing solution of
bleach in water has a pH of about 10, IIRC. In this case, most of the bleach
is in the non-protonated form of OCl-. 316 stainless can withstand
reasonable exposure times (30-60 minutes) at elevated temperatures (like
50 degrees C), but the bleach should not be allowed to stand for prolonged
periods
(i.e. days). Corrosion of even 316 stainless is accelerated by bleach
solutions in which the pH has been lowered to neutral (7) or lower. This is
because the hypochlorite ions form hypochlorous acid, which is much more
aggressive. Even so, short exposure times (less than 1 hour) should be
acceptable. Finally, there is the issue of exposed welds, which are always
more prone to corrosion than the stainless steel itself. (Although I assume
that aeration stones do not have welds ;) )
Somone may have already posted this, but I thought this was a good, general
article on stainless steel care, although I would argue that the information
on bleach is too general and could include some of the details that I posted
above.
http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.4/millspaw.html
HTH,
Jon
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 07:59:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Road Frog <road_frog_run@yahoo.com>
Subject: First all-grain batch
Guess I sort of agree/disagree with Kevin Crouch on
your first all-grain batch. Hope it is not to late,
or someone gets something out of this.
1. Brew something simple! We agree.
2. Brew something you like.
3. Brew something you have experience with.
My first all-grain was a tripel (I go with strength
argument on the name). All Belgian 2 row, some hops,
simple. I love Belgian beers, and had brewed some
partial mash batches. My thinking was if my
extraction was way low I'd end up with a SG of 1.060
instead of 1.080. I had plenty of yeast left from a
Wit.
I used the first batch to get a handle on time, what
to do when, and extract efficiency. After you are
comfortable with that then I would do a batch like
Kevin recommends.
Winter Warmer in the Tun,
Better run,
Glyn Crossno in Estill Springs, TN
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 08:14:40 -0800
From: Demonick <demonick@zgi.com>
Subject: Re: Aerobic Yeast Propagation
Fred and Steve both suggest that "ideally" aerated yeast propagation should
be accomplished without raising the glucose concentration above 0.4% to
avoid respiratory repression.
Respiratory repression will result in fermentation and the creation of
alcohol even in the presence of oxygen, however, once the glucose
concentration falls below the repression levels the yeast will use the
available oxygen to metabolize the alcohol they previously produced. This
is an evolutionary strategy of the yeast to quickly out-compete and poison
(or inhibit) their bacterial competitors. In a rich food source they
quickly convert the sugar to alcohol, which their competitors can not
utilize and may find poisonous, then they have free rein to consume the
alcohol. In a sense they put the rich food source in the alcohol bank
where only they can get to it.
My question is, what is the difference between the yeast going directly
from glucose to CO2 + H2O by avoiding respiratory repression, and, going
from glucose to ethanol to CO2 + H2O using respiratory repression?
What is the wort specific gravity repression limit? My rough calculation
based on 10% wort solids being monosaccharides yields about 1.016.
Cheers!
Domenick Venezia
Venezia & Company, LLC
Maker of PrimeTab
(206) 782-1152 phone
(206) 782-6766 fax
Seattle, WA
demonick at zgi dot com
http://www.primetab.com
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 10:11:30 -0800
From: "Mike Sharp" <rdcpro@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Bleach
Kevin Boyer talks about liquid chlorine...
"This is changing with the recent threats. Many municipalities and MUD
districts are converting over to bleach from liquid chlorine (gas) for
safety reasons. It's much more difficult to gas a huge population area
when you have to physically mix two chemicals (bleach and an acid) as
opposed to just opening one tank.
"I think the lead in chlorine gas releases may have changed a couple of
months ago when a rail tank car of cl gas escaped up in MO when a
loading hose broke. You should see the video."
I built and installed the controls for a 25 ton liquid chlorine tank
and another 25 ton sulfur dioxide tank that were side-by-side (you
could touch both tanks at the same time) and used for a
chlorination/dechlorination system at a wastewater plant. This was
around 1991 or so, IIRC. Even then, the possibility of intentional
destructive release was considered. One scenario was the crashing of
an aircraft into it. All I can say is I wouldn't want to be anywhere
near if both those tank blew up. The chlorine/sulfur dioxide reaction
is pretty fast, I think, and no matter which one was left over, it
wouldn't be healthy.
Other comments about chlorine dioxide being used as a municipal
sanitizer are very interesting, though. I believe yeast are fairly
tolerant of it--someone correct me if I'm wrong. I believe the Sep/Oct
issue of the New Brewer described a yeast washing technique that
utilized chlorine dioxide, because it is effective against spoilage
bacteria, but not harmful to yeast. If that's the case, and if your
municipality used chlorine dioxide, perhaps it wouldn't be necessary
to dechlorinate at all. Of course the flavor interactions may still be
a problem--I don't know how stable or reactive it is.
I'm betting, however, that the municipalities that do use Chlorine
Dioxide get it from an acid reaction with sodium chlorite, the same
as we would if we used it for yeast washing. Star-Xene and DioxyChlor
are commercial sources.
Regards,
Mike Sharp
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 13:31:44 -0500
From: "stephen_weiss Weiss" <Stephen_Weiss@msn.com>
Subject: conical help
Go cheep!
Buy the hopper only, make a Plexiglas top at home, make a seal from silicone
aquarium tubing held on with silicone sealant, buy a step drill at home
depot and drill a hole for the dump valve, buy a conical dump valve from
zymeco. Use a nylon screw-on fitting over the valve that has a 1/2 OD hose
barb on the end. A stainless steel racking cane should fit snug inside.
For transfer sanitize all and have clamped tubing off a 6" piece of the ss
racking cane. Screw on the nylon adapter with the cane stuck in it. Open
the dump valve, slide in the cane 4". Open the valve and you have clean
beer. Better then a racking arm and an extra hole!.
Steve
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 19:06:51 +0000
From: AJ <ajdel@cox.net>
Subject: hypochlorite/chlorine dioxide
A couple of things on bleach. First, the drops aquarists use are
effective in combatting chlorine/chloramine (the aquarist must also deal
with the ammonia released in the case of chloramine but the brewer need
not worry about this) and are, to the best of my knowledge, usually
photographer's hypo (sodium thiosulfate). I don't recommend the use of
either photographer's hypo or aquarium products for the reason Don
mentions. They are not food grade. Why fiddle with them when food grade
Campden tablets are available at your homebrew suppliers (and why give
your money to the pet fish or photography industry when you homebrew
dealer needs your support)? An FDA approved source of a suitable
reducing agent would be campers' water purification kits that use
chlorine or iodine compounds to disinfect and then a reducing agent to
"neutralize" the iodine or chlorine.
Second on bleach, 15 trade percent is about the maximum the industry
produces (bad memory on the 50 number I threw out yesterday). The issue
is stability - stronger solutions throw sodium chloride, lose their
disinfection capability over time quicker, are more susceptible to
degradation by light and so on. On to chlorine dioxide. As was suggested
it is a gas and stays a gas in solution (i.e. doesn't react with wataer
the way chloine does) so that boiling should remove it. When it does its
job (i.e. oxidizing something) chlorite ion is produced. The water
treamement plant is supposed to remove this (which they can readily do
with the same group of reduced sulfer compounds we've been talking
about) but if you are nervous about these residuals or want to remove
chlorine dioxide without boiling Campden tablets (or metabite powder
from a wine making supply shop) should do the job. The results are
sulfate ion and chloride ion in concentrations so small that they
shouldn't appreciably change the character of you water's ion profile.
Note: I have no experience with chlorine dioxide dosed water so you may
want to consider that before accepting what I'm suggesting.
A.J.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 15:03:54 -0500
From: David Perez <perez@gator.net>
Subject: Entering your own Competition
As you have seen posted on a previous HBD, Hogtown Brewers is hosting
the AHA Club Only Fruit, Spice, Herb and Veggie competition next month.
Our dilemma is, we have several members who would like our club to
submit an entry into the competition. Do you think it is appropriate for
the organizing club to enter such a small competition? We of course will
follow all standards to assure anonymity and prevent someone from
judging their own beer. We know this is common practice in regular sized
competitions, but some of us (read me) have some concerns about such a
small competition.
Thanks,
Dave Perez
Hogtown Brewers
Gainesville, FL
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 11:11:44 -0900
From: Teresa Knezek <teresa@mivox.com>
Subject: "dry" Stout
OK... I tried my first batch last night. It was in the primary
fermenter for 5 days, the secondary for a week, and sitting in the
bottles for 12 days. An irish stout kit, with espresso added, and
primed with molasses. :-) I opened a bottle, and it went "FSST" when
the seal broke, just like it should. It smelled great when I poured
it into a glass, and had a nice, dark, thick head... strong flavor
(could probably do with a bit more mellowing time), but good! Very
tasty beer. I immediately sat down and designed a label for it, and
congratulated myself heartily.
However, as the evening wore on, I began to notice something... my
boyfriend was the first to mention it, and after 14 beers between the
two of us, it was indisputable. It looked like beer, it tasted like
beer, it smelled like beer, but you could tote a case of this stuff
into a dry county anywhere in the US, and probably legally sell it to
children. ;-) I'm thinking of changing the name from Seismic Stout to
Sharp's Stout. hehehe. No noticeable alcohol content.
I'm assuming the only possible cause of this is that the fermentation
did not complete properly? I know it bubbled like mad the first day,
to the point of overflowing and partially clogging the airlock. I
rinsed the airlock and re-sanitized it, put it back on the fermenter,
and saw that it was still bubbling slowly. It continued to bubble a
bit through the second day... and then just sort of sat there for
three days before I racked it to secondary. (This was using Muntons
dry yeast... 1 packet, rehydrated before pitching. I looked for info
online, and found a couple of mentions of this yeast being a
notorious fast fermenter, so I didn't think anything of it.)
Unless I totally screwed up the hydrometer readings, the OG was
around 050, and the FG (after a week in secondary, just before
bottling) was around 021-022. However, I say "around" those readings,
because it seems if those readings were correct, there would be some
alcohol in those bottles. ;-)
I'm doing an amber ale this weekend, and I'm hoping if I'm more
careful to lower the pitching temperature (it was around 80degF last
time), and try to keep the fermenter a little cooler this time (the
sticky thermometer on the bucket read 76-78degF during the first two
days of fermentation last time, and dropped to a steady 68degF for
the rest of the time), my yeast may do a bit more work on this batch?
Also, what does everyone think about priming with honey for the
amber? The molasses/espresso mix on the stout worked great for
carbonation & flavor, and I like the idea of using different priming
solutions for different flavors...
- --
:: Teresa ::
http://www.mivox.com/
"Men are not prisoners of fate,
but only prisoners of their own minds."
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 15:17:49 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: priming?
"greg man" <dropthebeer@hotmail.com> asks:
>How fermentable is belgin dark candy sugar? I can usually prime my beers
>with 2 quarts of 1.040 starters. That seems to work good!
>
>Now am I wrong in assuming that 1 lb of sugar will give a 1.040 gravity in
>one gallon? Then if that's true I could use 1/2 to 3/4 candy sugar in say
>1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon of water.
>
>If its 70-75% fermentable than that would give me the desired result,
>plus I will be adding a quart of fully fermented beer(for a little more
>active yeast)
Although John Palmer says that candy sugar is invert sugar (How to
Brew, glossary p.27), I believe it it simply crystallized sucrose.
Pierre Rajotte (Belgian Ale. p. 65) confirms, writing "Candi sugar is
made up of 99 percent dry matter, and it contains 99 percent sucrose."
That would make it virtually 100% fermentable (well, maybe 99%), and
a pound of anhydrous sugar (no water molecules attached to the sugar
molecules) in a gallon of solution should be 1.046.
So you can prime with candy/candi sugar the same as with dextrose.
Hope this helps.
Jeff
- --
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner@comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 15:43:35 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <JeffRenner@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Classic American Pilsner Recipe/Report/Ranting
"Tidmarsh Major" <tidmarsh@bellsouth.net> writes
>As a variation on this method, place the full keg on a counter,
>table, or somewhere else higher than the receiving keg. Add just
>enough gas to get the flow started, and then connect a line between
>the two gas in fittings. The beer will siphon under pressure without
>the need to intermittently relieve pressure and without the need to
>add additional gas.
Hey - that's clever. You are just siphoning. No matter that the
contents of both kegs may be under 10 psi or whatever. I like that.
Elegant. It's easier and it saves gas, too.
There is a practical problem for me. I let my beer settle clear on
the floor of a cellar closet or in a deep freeze, so if I lifted the
keg to a counter, I suspect I'd roil the sediment and would not have
clear beer. I might be able to let it settle for an hour or two
without much warming, though.
Thanks for the tip. Hope the CACA turns out great.
Jeff
- --
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner@comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 18:15:49 -0500
From: "Jonathan Royce" <jtroyce@directvinternet.com>
Subject: Bottling in Ball Canning Jars
Hi all:
So, I was at my local hardware store today and they were having a sale on
canning supplies, including 1 pt Ball canning jars. What they also had on
sale was decorative holiday lids with holly berries, etc. This got me to
thinking that it would be neat to bottle some of my next batch in these
jars, seal them with the decorative lids and then label them as "Ready to
drink pints of homebrew", complete with pint glass! (Just refrigerate,
remove lid and drink.)
OK, so my question is: do you think a canning jar can withstand the internal
pressure of the CO2 that would be generated by the priming sugar? I am
assuming that they can, since I remember from my childhood that my mother
put these things in a pressure cooker, but I just want to be sure before I
start giving away "homebrew grenades" as Xmas gifts.
TIA,
Jon
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 16:15:46 -0900
From: Teresa Knezek <teresa@mivox.com>
Subject: Mini kegs and other thoughts
I've been giving some thought to kegging my beer. Now, I'm very
interested in the whole UK real ale/hand pump/sparkler sort of set
up... but there'a no way my boyfriend and I could go through a
regular keg fast enough to prevent the beer from going stale. I've
been looking into 5liter mini kegs instead... as it seems we could
easily empty one in a weekend, without worrying about air
'contamination'.
However, the mini-keg hand-pump market seems pretty limited... I've
only actually seen one model. (German-made, I believe, apparently
designed only for use with an upright keg) Would there be any way to
attach a sparkler tap to these beasts? I've got a dremel tool handy,
and am not averse to making custom modifications...
Another thought I had was to get both the hand pump and a CO2 minikeg
tap, and see which one I like best... if there's a noticeable
difference at all with a keg-conditioned beer. However, buying two
taps brand new with the idea that I may end up only using one or the
other after one try seems a bit expensive... so if anyone has either
a CO2 or hand pump mini-keg tap they've outgrown, please let me know!
:-)
My amber wort is cooling in the bathtub as I type... I had a bit of
trouble getting it boiling after removing the grain bag, and keeping
it boiling after adding the malt extract and hops, but the last 40
minutes in the pot were a non-stop rolling boil, so I hope it'll be
none the worse for wear. (And maybe even end up with a bit of alcohol
in the finished product!)
I'm currently talking myself into appreciating my Sober Stout as a
fine, tasty beverage that can be enjoyed under circumstances where an
alcoholic beverage might not be suitable... maybe I can bring one to
work to drink with my lunches! lol
- --
:: Teresa ::
http://www.mivox.com/
"Men are not prisoners of fate,
but only prisoners of their own minds."
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 07:17:58 -0800
From: "Jim Dunlap" <jdpils@attbi.com>
Subject: Re: Cleaning Aeration stone
Greetings Beerlings,
I have had a Gulfstream ss aeration stone for at least 7 years (~70
batches). For what its worth below is what I do. Am I missing something?
Is there a life expectancy for these stones? Chlorine will corrode
stainless steel. What about a PBW and boiling water rinse to clean on
occassion?
I place it into my sparge vessel at the beginning of the brewing session.
My sparge water is brought to a boil. When sparging is complete I refill my
sparge vessel with 12+ gallons of water and boil. Half is used to clean the
counterflow chiller prior to use and half after. Once my wort is flowing
into the fermentors, I get the stone and oxygenate. After chilling is
complete I rinse the stone and throw it back into the sparge vessel and
bring to a boil. After about 20 minutes I hook up the chiller and clean it.
I stop flowing boiling water in the chiller when it is about to run out and
the stone sits in water until it cools to RT. I take it out and let it air
dry. most of this takes place while I am doing something else. Perhaps
purging gas and rinsing with water at the same time is something I can do
but I think any organic matter is rinsed or dissolved in the water. Only
once or twice have I ever seen a white fluffy mold growing out after the
sone had been dried for several days.
.
Cheers,
Jim Dunlap
Woodinville WA
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 12:12:33 -0500
From: Kevin White <kwhite@bcpl.net>
Subject: Chlorine and Stainless Steel
There's been some banter back and forth about cleaning stainless
steel air stones, and whether it is OK to use chlorine.
Chlorine should never be applied to stainless steel. In the
presence of oxygen, chlorine causes intergranular attack and
stress corrosion cracking in stainless steels. The corrosion is
accelerated by alternate wetting and drying, and it occurs at low
temperatures and low concentrations of chlorine, oxygen, or both.
The oxygen dissolved in tap water is more than enough for this
corrosion.
For an example of what chlorine can do to stainless steel and how
quickly it can work, soak the metal tightener from a swing-top
bottle in a chlorine sanitizing solution for about thirty
minutes, then allow it to air dry. Compare it to another, and
you'll see that the metal surface has lost its sheen and has a
rougher texture.
To clean my air stone, I boil it in clean water before use. I
drop it in an iodophor sanitizing solution immediately after I
remove it from the carboy and then send about a five second blast
of oxygen through it. I dry the surface with a paper towel, allow
it to more completely air dry and then store it in a zip-lock
plastic bag.
Chlorine is a great sanitizer and it does a great job of
dissolving the crusted muck at the bottom of aged unclean beer
bottles, but keep it away from your stainless steel gear.
Kevin White
Columbia, MD
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 13:31:06 -0500
From: "Steve Alexander" <steve-alexander@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: re: Decade old lagers
JeffR writes ....
>I had two all grain 12P pilsners from 1990 and 1991.[...]
>The hops aroma was gone entirely, and the hops bitterness was in the
>range of a helles. But the amazing thing was the huge, fresh MALT
>aroma! They didn't have this when they were fresh.
Your comments on malt flavor/aroma are reminiscent of my description
of a several years old jar of canned wort starter I opened and tasted and
posted about a while back.
Funny thing happened to me recently. I made a rather large batch of
unhopped wort for vinegar as I was running out. I used a grist bill
which is identical to one I often use for marzen/ofests but no hops at all.
After fermentation the malty aroma of this unhopped beer was just stunning -
much bigger than in a hopped beer. Aside from maltiness tho' the flavor of
this unhopped vinegar starter was sweet and insipid and not very nice as
beer.
Is it that hops interferes with our perception of maltiness ?
-S
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 11:11:52 -0800 (PST)
From: LJ Vitt <lvitt4@yahoo.com>
Subject: Yeast for priming
Bob Gordon asked about adding yeast before bottling high alcohol
beers:
>Now I was wondering what to do the next time I suspect this is happening.
>Could I re-hydrate some dry yeast and pitch that ?
>Or would it better to get another pitchable tube and use it instead ?
>If using a tube is the preferred method do I, or should I, make a starter ?
I suggest rehydrating the dry yeast. It does the job, is easier and
lower cost. I have started doing this for lagers too, because of the
long cond storage sometimes hurts the yeast.
I visited a handful of Belgian breweries last year. The bottle conditioned
beers usually had fresh yeast added during the bottling process.
They put the pallets of beer into a warm room (around 70F) for 7 days,
were ready to distribute. I presume the yeast came from skimming
fermenters. I should have asked about that.
=====
Leo Vitt
Rochester MN
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #4096, 11/18/02
*************************************
-------
