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HOMEBREW Digest #4726
HOMEBREW Digest #4726 Fri 25 February 2005
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
Re: "No Hose Barb" site ("Rob Dewhirst")
Pale Ale in germany ("Dave Burley")
re: Subject: Help with Electric System (Baruch Mettler)
Irish kegging equipment (Peter Cox)
Pale malt in Germany ("-S")
Re: Help with Electric Systems (Kent Fletcher)
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Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 21:56:41 -0600
From: "Rob Dewhirst" <rob at hairydogbrewery.com>
Subject: Re: "No Hose Barb" site
> William Menzl asked about a website that preached the benefit of QDs
> versus hose barbs.
I was kind of anxious to see the responses to this, since I've been wanting
to replace my hose barbs with QD's some day. I always got hung up on price
though, especially to do all the connections.
> http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/
"I purchased my QD's from US Plastics (part #'s 60465 & 60467). They were
very inexpensive."
$5 for each connection + shipping, if I read this right. Hose barbs are
inexpensive. These QD's are not.
Will someone wake me up when quick disconnects get less than the 75 cent
nylon hose barbs I can buy at my local hardware store?
thanks.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 07:55:05 -0500
From: "Dave Burley" <Dave_Burley at charter.net>
Subject: Pale Ale in germany
Brewsters,
Florian Hirschmann asks how to make a British Ale using brewing materials
available in Germany.
Biggest difference in German Pale malt and Britain Pale Ale malts is the
British has been roasted to slightly higher temperature.
You can re-heat it up to a little higher temperature in your oven but you risk
enzyme damage if you are doing all grain. I suggest you add a little caramel
malt to the Pale German malt as a good simulation. I would start with 5% of a
light Caramel Malt.
Since many British ale recipes have Crystal ( approx equal to German Caramel
Malt - let Lovibond color rating be your guide) I'd just make up the recipe
as dictated and tune it up with a little more caramel malt, as needed. This
should be fine and you can use local supplies.
The big secret of British Ales is not so much the malts ( as there are many
malt mixtures "typical" of Britsh Ales) but the use of British yeasts and
hops and a relatively warm fermentation.
Keep on Brewin'
Dave Burley
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 09:57:17 -0800
From: Baruch Mettler <bmettler at HealthLineSystems.com>
Subject: re: Subject: Help with Electric System
>> On 24 Feb 2005 Rick Theiner asked for hot water tank element install
ideas as well as general hints.
Hey Rick,
I ran electric with my 15.5 gallon SS kettle for the first few dozen brews.
I had two 4500 watt water heater elements running 110v. Recently I've gone
to propane and prefer it over the electric quite a bit, but then again I do
not have bad winters here in southern California. If you have to go electric
here are some suggestions.
If you are doing 10 gallon batches:
Find a good fitting lid to keep in the heat
Think about insulating the boil kettle (dropped my time to boil by half)
Prepare to wait a long time for the boil to start
Get something bigger than my two 4500 watt elements
In general:
Two 4500 watt elements at 110v is fine for 5 gallons. You could probably get
by with one.
Make sure your electrical wiring is up for the load. A 15amp circuit breaker
is not enough - even in a brand new house with good wiring :)
An indicator light is nice. You can tell when your breaker blows because you
turn on a halogen light on the same circuit (oops).
Use a heavy duty power cord. I first used a 5$ Wal-Mart power cord that got
way to hot.
Test your system before brew day to make sure there are no leaks and you can
boil in a reasonable amount of time.
As far as installing the elements into the kettle I found that copper pipe
fittings, I think they are NPT, did work ok. Found them at home depot.
Something like this one (don't trust me on the size):
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp?xi=xi&ItemId=1611592728&c
citem=
I had to mash the threads by slowly threading and unthreading the element
into the copper fitting. Advance the element by maybe 1/2 a turn at a time
and then backing out. Do this outside of the kettle in a vice until you get
them to fit nicely. I've seen some people hack off the solder side of the
fitting to make a nice nut. I just bought one with the solder side big
enough to fit the element through. I do have to be careful to flush out the
cavity this makes when cleaning.
When installing I only used the rubber washer that came with the element and
the copper fitting. Copper fitting on the inside, butting against the SS,
then the rubber washer on the outside of the kettle, then the element. It
would have been handy to have some large washers but I did not find them
necessary. cutting through the SS was surprisingly easy. I used a bi-metal
hole saw, a pneumatic drill, and some wd-40 to cool the SS and drill bit as
it cut.
You mention you are patterning your system off Ron LaBorde's system. He used
a HDPE kettle but if you use SS Make sure your hole has no burrs. I had some
trouble mashing out and tearing up the rubber washer on one of my elements
when putting mine together. I think I was twisting and the washer was
catching on a burr.
Good luck!
Baruch Mettler
Temecula, Ca
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:10:48 -0600
From: Peter Cox <pcox at southbull.com>
Subject: Irish kegging equipment
Hi folks -
I've been homebrewing in the US for a few years now and have
a corny keg setup with a 5lb cylinder. I'll be moving back
to Ireland soon, and am not sure if the standards are the
same there.
If I take my kegs and cylinder/regulator back with me, will
I be able to get refills/replacement parts? Or am I better
off leaving the gear here and getting new stuff in Ireland?
Thanks,
Peter
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 15:08:46 -0500
From: "-S" <-s at adelphia.net>
Subject: Pale malt in Germany
Florian Hirschmann wrote ...
> As I cannot get my hands on (British) pale ale malt here in Germany,
In past decades lager malts were made from higher protein barley, and
were less modified as compared to PA malts. PA malts were made from
somewhat different barley varieties, crops were specifically selected for
low protein content, these were malted till far more modified, then kilned
at a higher temp to develop a *slightly* darker color. Because of the
kilning PA malts had somewhat less enzymes (some like phytase are
entirely missing).
The reasons for the difference had to do with the fact that the traditional
UK single temperature infusion mash offered few opportunities for acid
rest, protein rest etc, as compared to a multi-step extensive decoction.
The idea is that in the UK the maltster does more of the job and the
masher does relatively less, and much faster.
The differences in the modification level and protein levels are now (the
past decade) insignificant. Continental Europe uses many Triumph(Trumf)
barley crosses for barley malting. These barleys modify to PA type levels
rapidly and evenly. The UK and Scotland still use a different selection of
'maritime' barley cultivars, but I suspect the main differences are disease
resistance in the more humid Autumn climate. The kilning temperature
still differs.
Part of the reason for the selection of lower protein level and higher
modification malts (everywhere) is economic. Decoction or any multistep
mash is very expensive wrt energy, and the equipment usage cost difference
between a 25-45 minute infusion versus a 5 hour abbreviated decoction
is huge.
IMO you want a dry roasted pils, not a Munich malt. You must
remember that PA malt produces the most well attenuated beer
styles; bone dry in some cases. Munich and crystal/caramel are the
wrong direction I think. Pils malts have a color around 3 EBC, most PA
malts run 5-8EBC [Munich is abt 22EBC].
You could just use a lager/pils malt and you can still make good English
style ales. Real PA malt adds a toasted dry background note and to
emulate this with additions you should try to add just a small amount of the
lightest *roast* malt you can find. DWC used to make a fine "biscuit" malt
at 65EBC and adding about 5% of this to the grist should match the
color(darkness) as my first guess for flavor too. I also think you could
make some PA colored malt from lager malt but judging the color is
difficult.
I would suggest you try spreading pils malt in a wide pan in a 100C to 110C
oven for 45 minutes up to 1.5 hours (roughly). The color of PA malt is
just slightly darker than pils malt. These can easily be distinguished
when
compared side-by-side, but not so easily identified separately. If it helps
for
color comparison Weyermann Vienna malt(Wiener Malz) is 6-9EBC and
slightly darker than most PA malts.
Groggy Greg says ...,
>why can't you get them via mail order?
The cheapest UPS rate for a sack from London to Munich is about
115Eur($152usd) which is pretty steep for a sack that would cost around
$20usd at wholesale. You can ship the same sack from LA to NewYork(4 times
farther) for under 40Eur. Now you know why mail_order/web_commerce is not
the same in EUland.
-S(teveA)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 14:14:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Kent Fletcher <fletcherhomebrew at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Help with Electric Systems
Eric wants to make a Harry Potter brewery, with
electric HLT and BK.
Most water heater elements are either bolt-on or
screw-in, and the majority of the screw-in have 1"
NPSM threads. That is National Pipe Straight - Male.
As opposed to the more familiar NPT taper threads. It
can be quite difficult to make up a bulkead
arrangement that will work because the normal pipe
coupling has Taper threads. So, you either need to
find a source for a National Pipe Straght coupling
(sometimes called a Merchant coupling), or get some 1"
Pipe Locknuts, which are available from McMaster-Carr
at http://www.mcmaster.com
Hope that helps,
Kent Fletcher
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #4726, 02/25/05
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