Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
HOMEBREW Digest #4110
HOMEBREW Digest #4110 Wed 04 December 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:
DME/Grain ("William Deiterman")
RE: Trouble with Sparge Arm! (Whirlygigs are Silly!) ("Wayne Holder")
American Fryers ("Val J. Lipscomb")
Re: Inadequate Carbonation in brew (Barney Wrightson)
Re: Turkey and other fowl topics... (Bob Devine)
Those darn turkeys ("Houseman, David L")
Re: gas on secondary (Jeff Renner)
Re:Inadequate Carbonation in brew ("Pete Calinski")
Trouble with Sparge Arm ("Lau, William T")
Re: Basement brewery planning (David Towson)
Inadequate Carbonation in brew (LJ Vitt)
German Faucet Parts - HELP! (grigg)
Support Toledo Metal Spinning ("Bruce Garner")
Please complete Homebrew Poll for Statistics Class ("Beerpoll")
Electric Wort Boilers ("Hastreiter")
*
* 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: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 22:15:23 -0600
From: "William Deiterman" <william.deiterman@verizon.net>
Subject: DME/Grain
I'm making a bock beer and the recipe calls for 7 lbs Amber DME
I wish to do it with all-grain. I know the conversion factor is .65 so I
would need (7/.65) or 10.76 lbs of grain (lets round to 11 lbs) OK, 11 lbs
of what type grain(s)?
I currently have a large bulk supply of Germany Pilsner and 2-row.
The recipe calls for these additional grains: 6-row, munich, black patent,
chocolate, and malt dextrine.
Any ideas?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 21:07:04 -0800
From: "Wayne Holder" <zymie@charter.net>
Subject: RE: Trouble with Sparge Arm! (Whirlygigs are Silly!)
John sez:
"Darn it, this thing has been more hassle that the $15 it cost me. It works
fine if I raise my HLT an extra six inches, but that means I cannot fill it
with the bucket! Has anyone a better design than Phils?"
John, take a deep breath and recite with me:
WHIRLYGIGS ARE SILLY!!!
WHIRLYGIGS ARE SILLY!!!
WHIRLYGIGS ARE SILLY!!!
There, now take the hose off the whirlygig and lay it on top of the
grainbed.
Isn't that much better?
Wayne Holder AKA Zymie
Long Beach CA
http://www.zymico.com
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 23:48:40 -0600
From: "Val J. Lipscomb" <valjay@netXpress.com>
Subject: American Fryers
Having read all the answers to our wierd habit
of frying every sort of food,I have one more food
to add to the list. There is actually someone who
deep fries Prime Rib. Actually sounds pretty good!
Now,if I can get enough contributions to buy the
beef I can really screw up my arteries. Check it out:
http://www.schwedhelm.net/diversions/prime_rib_fry.html
To not be too far off topic,the creator of the above site
mentions drinking a few pints of Christmas Stout with
his feast.
Val Lipscomb
Brewing in San Antonio,Texas
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2002 16:12:02 +1030
From: Barney Wrightson <barney.wrightson@dsto.defence.gov.au>
Subject: Re: Inadequate Carbonation in brew
> Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 15:32:10 -0500
> From: "Romanowsky, Paul" <paul.romanowsky@siemens.com>
> Subject: Inadequate Carbonation in brew
Paul I have had a strikingly similar problem with a Coopers Sparkling
clone I have just brewed - in almost identical steps to yours, and I
have come to a conclusion that may well apply to you;
Normally I use a priming spoon to add my priming sugar to the bottle. In
this case though the recipe asked for 1 cup total for the whole brew, so
I thought "what the hell - as long as I keep it mixed ok...".
At the time I noticed it fizz as soon as I added the corn sugar, but
thought little more of it at the time, and proceeded. In an attempt to
reduce water / chemical usage, and never having had an infection
problem, I was using only enough sanitizer to do 1/3 of the bottles at a
time and re-using as I bottled, i.e.. pour out of sanitized, fill next
batch, and finally bottling with the first lot while the second lot
sanitized. So It took 45 or so minutes to bottle.
2 or so weeks later an there was minimal carbonation (in all bottles as
far as I can tell), so I thought - do it scientifically, stick some
yeast in one bottle, some extra priming sugar in another and see if it
is a yeast or sugar issue. After adding the new additives, I was heading
for the capper when the extra-sugar bottle started to foam out of the
bottle! That's when I remembered the fizz at initial adding of the sugar
- and I have now assumed that the problem was that a lot of the sugar
had fermented even before I got the caps on!
(Does this sound plausible to anyone? I can't think of any other
solution other than 1 cup being too little to prime - I was intending to
double check that it was approx. the same as 30 priming spoon doses but
didn't end up doing so, it seems ok at a rough estimate)
You don't mention how you primed but maybe you had the same problem?
HTH,
Barney
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 23:02:03 -0700
From: Bob Devine <bob.devine@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Turkey and other fowl topics...
Steve Alexander asks:
> I've a question for this eclectic group. When I was at the 1999 Stuttgart
> O'fest (other places around S.Germany) I had some roast duck that was
> absolutely terrific.
> I've come to believe that these are Muscovy duck, an huge almost flightless
> S.American breed. I've had Muscovy duck in the US a couple times and tho'
> the preparation is different I think it's the same bird. The few
> ultra-gourmet yuppy shops in the US that carry these want $50+$20shipping
> for a bird frozen. Has anyone had any luck finding these at a more
> reasonable price ?
A muscovy duck is bigger than pekin ducks. Because muscovy
ducks are commonly raised for foie gras, their meat is much
more flavorful than standard duck meat. Muscovy are also
leaner than pekin ducks. As I've found out when roasting
common ducks, even after rendering a huge amount of fat, a
duck is greasy. Muscovy ducks take very well to braising
because of the lower fat levels. Males can be quite large.
However, a duck that could also be the one you had is a moulard
duck (not a mallard!) - basically a cross between muscovy and
pekin to produce a larger bird. This breed's breast meat is
larger but can cook out fattier.
More info at: http://www.duckling.org/breed_main.html
Places to shop for ducks:
http://www.frenchselections.com -- search for duck (excellent)
http://www.grimaud.com/fservice/duck.html -- great picture
http://www.mountroyal.com/ostrich.htm
http://www.ottomanelli.com/otto209.html
http://www.huntsmangame.com/docs/price_list.htm
Bob "viaduct?" Devine
Riverton UT
(Just keeping up my average of posting once every two years...)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 08:56:27 -0500
From: "Houseman, David L" <David.Houseman@unisys.com>
Subject: Those darn turkeys
I'll second the suggestion to brine your turkey. Maybe I've been watching
too much FoodTV but I used this technique this year on a 24lb bird and it
was the juiciest yet. Flavorful to the core. Overnight soak covered in a
mixture of 1 cup kosher salt, 1/2 brown sugar, 1 orange, 1 lemon and 1 beer
per gallon of water. This was baked, not fried, with the breast side down
for the first hour. Next year or this Christmas I'll try the frying.
The USDA recommendation of 160oF is one to follow. But when you take the
bird out of its cooking place, oven or fryer, it will continue to cook and
the internal temperature will rise by 5oF or more. Do use a meat
thermometer but take the bird out when it reaches 155oF so that the internal
temperature will rise to 160oF. If you take the bird out at 160oF or higher
then the internal temp will continue to rise and yes it will get drier and
chewier.
Dave Houseman
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2002 08:59:20 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <jeffrenner@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: gas on secondary
Marc Tiar <marc@tiar.reno.nv.us> writes from Reno NV:
>I don't really like the quick-carbonating method of higher pressure and
>rocking the keg for a couple hours on the day it's to be drunk.
If you don't want to go to the trouble, that's fine, but I don't
think there is any quality reason not to do this. And, of course, it
doesn't have to be done on the day it's going to be drunk. You can
do it ahead of time as well.
>I also
>don't really want to transfer it to another keg, exposing it to air again
>and reducing my volume a little more (can't get every last drop!), but I do
>know that I'm going to have some amount of sediment. Although a lot was
>left behind in primary, I did see a lot going through the siphon into
>secondary.
If you use the method discussed a couple of weeks ago, neither of
your concerns need be a problem.
Add a packet of gelatin hydrated in a cup of water or beer (heat
until it simmers in the microwave) at least a few cays before
transfer to will help it to settle much more quickly and completely.
I do it when racking to the secondary.
Fill a keg with water and push it out with CO2 to you get a
completely purged keg. Then draw a pint or two until you get clear
beer (takes me less than a pint if I've let it settle a while (and
you've got time before the holidays). Drink the beer.
Then once you have clear beer, hook up a jumper hose between the beer
out fittings, put the purged keg a few feet below the full one, start
flow with some pressure on the full keg. Make sure when you start
that there is slightly more pressure in the full keg than in the
empty one so you don't get backflow that would disturb the sediment.
Then remove CO2 and hook up another jumper hose between the gas in
fittings. Your beer will flow via siphon from the higher keg to the
lower, even though you have some pressure on each. Stop the flow as
soon as you hear or see bubbles start to flow and you shouldn't lose
any more beer than you leave behind in a keg anyhow - maybe a quarter
cup?
You can do this with flat or carbonated beer. With carbonated beer,
it won't foam because you have it under pressure and it is flowing
into the keg via the beer out tube.
> So, this situation is calling for CO2 being applied pretty soon
>to give it time to carbonate before the party. But it's still
>fermenting. Is this a problem? Obviously the airlock comes off and poppet
>goes into place. If I turn the CO2 up to 10-12lbs, should I have concerns
>about how much more pressure the continuing fermentation will create? How
>will my regulator handle this? What's the effect on the process? Do yeast
>perform well under pressure or will it cause bad effects?
Assuming that it is only fermenting slowly, you may have your
carbonation concern taken care of. It may just ferment to the point
you want. I'd suggest hooking up gas as you suggest if it seems to
be too flat. Some pressure doesn't hurt the yeast. You can transfer
your beer after the carbonation is where you want it. If the beer
seems to want to keep fermenting (some do), then vent occasionally if
the pressure gets too high.
By keeping the gas hooked up you can monitor the pressure on the
gauge whether it comes from the CO2 tank or continuing fermentation.
Of course, if you have a one-way valve in the gas line (you should to
keep beer out of the regulator), you will have to increase the gas
pressure until you hear gas flow to determine the pressure in the keg
because higher pressure in the keg won't register on the gauge.
I typically rack my beers from the primary just before they finish
and end up with just about perfect carbonation. Then I rack to a
purged keg and adjust with CO2, either by the quick or slow method.
>Oh yeah, I'm a bad lazy brewer and haven't taken any hydrometer
>readings from this batch. :-(
Bad brewer, bad brewer. No beer for you!
Hydrometers are a simple way of learning more about your beer. As
pioneer homebrewer Fred Eckhart said years ago, "Listen to your
beer." It has lots to tell you.
Jeff
- --
Jeff Renner in Ann Arbor, Michigan USA, JeffRenner@comcast.net
"One never knows, do one?" Fats Waller, American Musician, 1904-1943
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 09:10:48 -0500
From: "Pete Calinski" <pjcalinski@adelphia.net>
Subject: Re:Inadequate Carbonation in brew
Romanowsky, Paul asks about his low carbonation, "Can anyone tell me how to
salvage this brew??? "
Give it some time. Maybe shake each bottle a little to help it along.
I have a high OG (1.097) beer that I brewed 5/28/02 and bottled 10-02-02 (I
know, but I had a busy summer) with a FG of 1.025. It is my attempt to clone
the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot.
On 11-16-02 I opened a bottle. Flat as a pancake. Not even a "phitt" when
I popped the top. I shook every bottle. When I opened a second bottle on
11-25-02. Just a slight "phitt". I'll try another tonight.
I know this recipe takes a long time to carbonate. The last time I brewed
it, the OG was 1.088 and it took 5 weeks to bottle condition to any level at
all. Then another 3 weeks to get to a level I liked. The good thing about
it was after a year, it was just mildly carbonated, the way I like it. As
good as the Bigfoot IMHO.
Pete Calinski
East Amherst NY
Near Buffalo NY
***********************************************************
*My goal:
* Go through life and never drink the same beer twice.
* (As long as it doesn't mean I have to skip a beer.)
***********************************************************
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 09:41:34 -0500
From: "Lau, William T" <william.lau@astrazeneca.com>
Subject: Trouble with Sparge Arm
Regarding John Fraser's problems with the sparge arm: I have been been using
a spare corny keg to push my sparge water for years. I put the hot water
into the corny (temp. adjusted to delivery temp. depending on ambient and
such) and hook up the sparge arm to the output and pressurize to deliver.
Needs very little pressure and I make sure the regulatory is set to zero
when I start then raise it to get the right sparge action.
Works fine for me and there is no issues with head pressure.
Bill Lau
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP
587 Old Baltimore Pike
Newark, DE 19702-1307
Phone 302-286-4948
Fax 302-286-3126
william.lau@astrazeneca.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2002 10:37:24 -0500
From: David Towson <dtowson@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Basement brewery planning
In HBD 4108, Bob Hall asked, "If you could start a new
basement brewery from scratch, what would you plan?"
1. deep janitorial or laundry sink with hot and cold water
2. natural gas or propane connection for burners
3. forced-draft vent hood
4. makeup-air intake for above
5. floor drain, with floor properly contoured to feed it
6. adequate electrical service with plenty of outlets for
pumps, refrigerators, aerators, heaters, radios, etc.
7. storage shelves/cabinets for equipment/ingredients
8. adequate lighting
Dave Towson
Bel Air, MD
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 09:35:22 -0800 (PST)
From: LJ Vitt <lvitt4@yahoo.com>
Subject: Inadequate Carbonation in brew
Paul described a beer that did not carbonate in HBD#4109.
He had 1.068 OG, used a wyeast Irish ale yeast and had 1.022
FG.
That gravity doesn't sound so high. I don't know the alcohol
tolerance of this yeast. If Paul had reached it, then it's
possible the yeast is too stressed to ferment the priming surgar.
If this is the problem, new yeast can resolve it.
Now that the beer is in the bottle, it is easier to get some
dry ale yeast. Open all of your bottles and add a few grains
of dry directly to each bottle and recap.
I have done this a few times for strong scottish ale and lagers
with long delays before bottling. The dry yeast did the trick.
=====
Leo Vitt
Rochester MN
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2002 18:21:22 +0000
From: grigg@att.net
Subject: German Faucet Parts - HELP!
I recently purchase a German beer tower with three faucets. Unfortunately the
front part of the faucets are missing a part that directs the beer into the
glass/mug. The manufacturer appears to be "SK". Does anyone know of a source to
get parts for these type faucets? A picture is available if it would help.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 13:50:09 -0600
From: "Bruce Garner" <bpgarner@charter.net>
Subject: Support Toledo Metal Spinning
Tuesday before Thanksgiving I dropped into Toledo Metal Spinning. I had left
Wisconsin at 4:30 AM for a long drive to New Jersey and hit the front door
at about noon local time. VP Eric Fankhauser was extremely welcoming and
took time to show me around their facility. He asked one of their operators
to spin out a cone for me during his lunch hour. The conicals are spun in
two stages by outside rollers that squeeze the steel against interior forms.
The process is interesting - starting with a disk of stainless they first
spin it into a straight sided beaker. Then the piece is chucked into another
station and the cone section is rolled. After the piece is centered two
rollers track up the sloped side of the form and the cone emerges out of the
bottom of the beaker. The process finishes with a few passes back and forth
to smooth the transition between the straight side and the cone. The model
numbers give the diameter, straight side and metal gauge. TMS16914 (my 12.2
gallon) is 16 inches in diameter, 9 inches in the straight side and is spun
from 14 gauge stainless.
Eric is happy to be selling to home brewers. He asked if I had seen their ad
in Zymurgy. I told him we have many in the HBD using and discussing their
hoppers. TMS is considering developing their own fermenter design. They were
out of the 12.2 gallon hoppers in part because so many of us brewers have
been buying them. Luckily I noticed a bin of the model I wanted in the wash
room on my way in and Eric had one cleaned for me while we toured.
As I drove away I realized that if I ever had TMS modify a hopper with
welding or drilling it might be worth the extra set up cost because they
would be able to grab another hopper at no cost to me if anything went
wrong. They also seem like a place with a lot of experience modifying their
products. I see TMS as an enthusiastic and fair vendor to the homebrew
community that deserves our support.
Oh, right, beer. I had a very nice sampler of beers at Triumph in Princeton,
NJ. When I parked to see Stomp in New York I walked toward the theater and
found that totally by chance I was right by McSorley's (I was last there in
1968) and as I continued along, the Burp Castle. I stopped at the latter for
a nice, but expensive, round of Belgian's.
Bruce Garner
Madison, WI
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 13:35:45 -0800
From: "Beerpoll" <beerpoll@attbi.com>
Subject: Please complete Homebrew Poll for Statistics Class
Hello.
I am in need of data for a Statistics project that I have to do.
Will you please take the survey on the following web page.
http://home.attbi.com/cgi-bin/PBEntry?owner=beerpoll
The information is needed for the class only and will not be used in any
other way. Also no personal identifiable information is collected or stored.
Also I will not need any surveys after Friday 12/6/2002.(in other words, I
need the data before Friday)
Thank you very much for your help.
Travis
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 18:34:00 -0600
From: "Hastreiter" <jchastreiter@lsol.net>
Subject: Electric Wort Boilers
I am new to the homebrew forum and homebrewing, but I have a question that I
would like addressed.
After spending an hour boiling my wort in a below freezing garage yesterday,
I am curious if there are any electric burners on the market that have
enough watts to do a proper boil? I would like to move to the basement to
do my boiling during the winter months and save myself the trouble of either
frostbitten extremities or burns on my thighs from snuggling up to my kettle
and cooker.
If such a burner exists, does anyone see a reason why it couldn't be used
with a Brewer's Edge Controller II to regulate temperatures?
Jeff Hastreiter
"Novice brewer"
Manitowoc, WI
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #4110, 12/04/02
*************************************
-------
