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HOMEBREW Digest #4919
HOMEBREW Digest #4919 Sun 25 December 2005
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
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Contents:
Adjusting Mineral Content (Fred Johnson)
email reply (zukoskyrobert)
Buwy cials-tabs Online For Less ("Sandy Archer")
OS X software (Mark Garthwaite)
re: brewing software (Bob Tower)
VERY URGENT ("Danie Cole")
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Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 08:29:20 -0500
From: Fred Johnson <FLJohnson at portbridge.com>
Subject: Adjusting Mineral Content
I have only played around with adjusting mineral content of my beers a
little because I've seen such divergent recommendations for doing this.
I'd like to ask a few questions of those of you in the community who
feel you have a good bit of experience with different styles and
adjusting your water accordingly.
Let's say that I'd like to brew typical London-style pub special
bitter, so I look up the mineral content of London water. There are
several sources for typical mineral profiles--some differ considerably
from others, but I don't want to get into that discussion, so I find
the following:
London My Water
Ion ppm ppm
- --- --- -------
Calcium 52 26
Magnesium 32 2
Bicarbonate 104 30 (carbonate)
Sulfate 32 28
Sodium 86 17
Chloride 34 12
So to get the magnesium level up to the target level, I'm going to
boost the sulfate level a lot if I use Epson salts (Magnesium sulfate).
To get the magnesium up to 32 ppm, I would use 11.5 g of Epson salts
for a 10 gallon volume which would boost the sulfate up to a whopping
146 ppm. But this isn't necessarily so bad, considering Burton-on-Trent
has a whopping 820 ppm!
Now to get the sodium up to 86 ppm, I would add 5.4 g sodium chloride.
And to bring up the carbonate, I'd add 4.7 g of calcium carbonate. Now
my 10 gallons will have 76 ppm calcium (high), 98 ppm chloride (high),
and I don't need to mention again the high sulfate level.
And another question I have is, "How important is it to account for the
concentration of minerals that occurs during the boil?" The
calculations above are actually assuming these final concentrations in
10 gallons AFTER the boil, so one would need to add even more salts to
achieve the final salt concentration of the beer in London.
In addition, I heard the head brewer at one microbrewery say that it
isn't good enough to put the salts into the boil kettle: "One must put
the additions into the mash liquor to get the same effect." i question
the necessity of this. Of course, some of the salts we use aren't
really very soluble in pure water, but will dissolve in wort. Anyone
care to comment on that?
Perhaps I can get closer to the targets using an essentially mineral
free water like RO water that I can get at my local grocery store.
I guess what I'm asking for is for someone who has a good bit of
experience with mineral additions and various styles to confirm that
I'm going about this generally correctly. I'm a little nervous about
adding so much salt to the kettle, especially since I suspect many/most
commercial breweries/brewpubs do little or nothing to their water in
brewing the various styles they do. Please correct me if I am wrong on
this.
Fred L Johnson
Apex, North Carolina, USA
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:23:04 -0500
From: <zukoskyrobert at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: email reply
This is a reply that came by email and I thought it would stimulate the
discussion about ph meters.
Just saw your home-brew digest post about ph meters. I've worked in a
homebrewshop for 6 years, and on a hydroponic farm before that. In
hydroponics, the Ph of the nutrient solution is critical for the plants'
health- the wrong Ph can kill a plant in an hour or so. We burned thru a
$100 Ph meter every 6 months- every Ph meter I sold at the homebrew shop had
troubles, and only my hydroponics experience allowed me to fix some of them-
most had to be returned to the manufacturer- all of them are made in
indonesia, and the quality has gone straight down for the last 10 years-
don't bother. Here's the lowdown on Ph meters; They cost about $100- the
electrodes are laser- drilled glass- leave it wet overnight and mold grows
on it- ruins it. touch it to dry it off, and fluff from the towel, or oil
from your skin will clog the pores, and that will ruin it. Stick it into
liquid that is only 2 degrees above it's max temp.- it's fried. Plus, it's
poorly made delicate electronics in a non-liquid-proof container, that you
will be working with around lots of liquids. Stick to the Ph papers, or go
to a hydroponics store, and they will have some stuff like you use for a
pool- but a lot more accurate, and just as cheap- little vials you half-fill
with liquid, and a developer chemical- usually $7 and usable at least 50
times- stick with those, and avoid Ph meters at all cost.
-bobz
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 04:55:52 +0100
From: "Sandy Archer" <archerlw at stangl.de>
Subject: Buwy cials-tabs Online For Less
Be ERECT in under 15 mins
PRlCE: $ 2 / use
check our megasite --> onlineclear.com
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 00:15:47 -0600
From: Mark Garthwaite <mgarth at primate.wisc.edu>
Subject: OS X software
Ken Pendergrass asks about brewing software for OS X :
You're in luck as very recently an OS X program called BeerAlchemy
was released.
http://www.kentplacesoftware.com/products/BeerAlchemy.html
I've been playing with the demo and so far it seems pretty
promising. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow entering % values for
grain bills as you seek and it's disappointing for me in that regard
as well. I plan to encourage the author to make this change if
possible and then I'll be happy to buy the software. Until then,
I'll stick with scratching it all out on paper.
Cheers,
Mark Garthwaite
Madison, WI
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 00:56:14 -0800
From: Bob Tower <bob at constructotower.com>
Subject: re: brewing software
Ken Pendergrass asks about brewing software, specifically for Mac.
Well, I am a Mac-person, and I haven't found anything better than
ProMash. Unfortunately, it is not ported for Mac. However, if you get
the Windows emulater Virtual PC, ProMash will run flawlessly on your
Mac (I've heard other apps don't work quite so well, but all I use
the Virtual PC for is to run ProMash so I don't mind). It's worth the
trouble.
Bob Tower / Los Angeles, CA
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 12:10:33 +0000
From: "Danie Cole" <danie_cole at msn.com>
Subject: VERY URGENT
Dear friend
Greetings to you in the name of our heavenly God.This mail might
come to you as a surprise and the temptation to ignore it
as unserious could come into your mind; but please, consider it a
divine wish and accept it with a deep sense of humility.
My name is Daniel Cole.I'm a 65 years old man. I am american
living in Dubai (UnitedArab Emirate). I was a merchant and
owned two businesses in Dubai. I was also married with two
children. My wife and two children died in a september 11 ,plane
bomb blast that happen in america four years ago.
Before this happened my business and concern for making money was
all I lived for. I never really cared about other values in life.
But since the loss of my family, I have found a new desire to
assist helpless families. I have been helping orphans in
orphanage/ motherless homes. I have donated some money to orphans
in Sudan, South Africa, Cameroon, Brazil,Spain,Austria,Germany
and some Asian countries.
Before I became ill, I kept $15 Million in a long-term deposit
account in a finance company.Presently, I'm in a hospital where
I have been undergoing treatment for oesophageal cancer. I have
since lost my ability to talk and my Doctors have told me that I
have only a few months to live.
It is my last wish to see this money distributed to charity
organizations.Because relatives and friends have plundered so much
of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of
entrusting this huge responsibility to any of them. Please, I beg
you in the name of God to help me collect the deposit and the
interest accrued from the company and distributes it amongst
Hurricane Katrina victims.
Use your judgement to distribute the money and feel free to
reimburse yourself when you have the money for any cost you incure
during the process of collecting and distributing the money to
Hurricane Katrina victims in america.I'm willing to offer
you a reward If you are willing to help; please reply as soon as
you can to my alternate email. mmr_daniel at k.ro
May the good Lord bless you and your family
Regards,
Daniel Cole.
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #4919, 12/25/05
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