Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
HOMEBREW Digest #5115
HOMEBREW Digest #5115 Thu 28 December 2006
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
***************************************************************
THIS YEAR'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Northern Brewer, Ltd. Home Brew Supplies
Visit http://www.northernbrewer.com to show your appreciation!
Or call them at 1-800-681-2739
Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********
Contents:
peltier chips and fermentation temps ("David Lewinnek")
Young's Bottle Culture (Matt)
BJCP Regional Elections (Ed Westemeier)
WOI Radio's Semi-Annual Beer Show! ("Rob Moline")
To HERMS or not to HERMS... (Michael Eyre)
Barrels.... (rick)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* The HBD Logo Store is now open! *
* http://www.hbd.org/store.html *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Suppport this service: http://hbd.org/donate.shtml *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* 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.
LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL USED EQUIPMENT? Please do not post about it here. Go
instead to http://homebrewfleamarket.com and post a free ad there.
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.
JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
and Spencer Thomas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 09:18:13 -0500
From: "David Lewinnek" <davelew at gmail.com>
Subject: peltier chips and fermentation temps
In HBD #5114, Jeff Dieterle asks about peltier chips to control
fermentation temperatures:
> I'm wondering about anyone's experience with peltier devices because that's
> how I'm going to construct my next fermenting fridge.
Within the strange breed known as "homebrewers", there is an even
stranger subgroup of individuals who insist on using peltier chips
with their beer,
despite recommendations to the contrary. Using peltier chips to cool beer is
a horrible idea. Really, a converted fridge is a much better tool for
the job. I
know of only three people who combined the stupidity of selecting a peltier
chip with the stubborn pigheadedness and technical skill to make the
setup work. I am one of those three, and you can see my setup here:
http://hbd.org/discus/messages/26895/29631.html
My Beer Technology Unit (BTU) has a water bath that the carboy sits in, a
heat exchanger, a spearate reservoir, and two small aquarium pumps.
One pump circulates the the water from around the carboy over the
peltier assembly and back. The second pump circulates a different
reservoir of
water over the other side of the peltier and through a water-air heat
exchanger. I have a temperature probe sitting in the water next to the
carboy which controls the peltier to heat or cool. If there were a
temperature difference between the beer and the coolant, the huge surface
area and liquid contact areas should cause the heat to flow to balance
out the temperatures.
The main problem with my setup is that it's underpowered. It has trouble
cooling a beer adequately in the most vigorous stage of fermentation,
when temperature control is the most important. To make peltier solution
with the power of a typical refrigerator woul take a lot of peltier chips
(which are fairly cheap from NWCA.com), and a lot of DC current (which
isn't quite so cheap, although I have some crazy ideas about doing it
cheaply with a high power SCR and some high ripple 120VDC).
Dave Lewinnek
Somerville, Massachusetts
[647.4, 85.1deg] Apparent Rennerian
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 10:51:34 -0800 (PST)
From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Young's Bottle Culture
Anyone ever had success culturing from Young's Special London Ale (or
any other Young's product)? Anyone know if the primary strain is used
for bottle conditioning?
Thanks,
Matt
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:37:00 -0500
From: Ed Westemeier <hopfen at malz.com>
Subject: BJCP Regional Elections
Taking advantage of the quiet period during the end of year holidays,
I'd like to invite all BJCP judges in the Mountain/Northwest, North,
and Northeast regions to consider tossing your hat into the ring for
Regional Representative. Elections in these regions for the BJCP
Board of Directors are coming up very shortly, and it would be a
wonderful thing if we could have two or more candidates for each office.
More detail is available on the BJCP Forums:
http://www.bjcp.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=943#943
Ed Westemeier
BJCP Communication Director
communication_director at bjcp.org
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 21:51:52 -0600
From: "Rob Moline" <jethrogump at mchsi.com>
Subject: WOI Radio's Semi-Annual Beer Show!
WOI Radio's Semi-Annual Beer Show
You are invited to tune in to WOI Radio's Semi-Annual Beer Show on Talk of
Iowa!
Hosted by Katherine Perkins, the Semi Annual Beer Show airs on 640 AM from
9:00AM - 10:00AM CST, on 12.28.06 and the stream can be found at
http://www.iowapublicradio.org/woistream/woi-am.ram
and is accessible through Real Audio.
Guests on this Semi-Annual Beer Show on Talk of Iowa include Aaron Taubman,
Head Brewer of Millstream Brewing in Amana, Iowa; Jeff Irvin, Head Brewer,
Olde Main Brewing, Ames, Iowa; John Runyon, Brewer, Olde Main Brewing,
Ames; and Rob Moline, Internet Technical Consultant to Lallemand, makers of
the Danstar line of brewing yeast, and member of the Governing Committee for
the American Homebrewers Association.
Join us as Katherine leads the discussion of beer, brewing, and brewers,
both in Iowa, and where ever the keg lands; call in on (800) 262-0640 to ask
any beer related question, and be ready to win fabulous prizes in our Beer
Trivia contest!
That's Talk of Iowa on WOI!
Cheers!
Rob Moline
Lallemand
- --
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.28/604 - Release Date: 12/26/2006
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:05:56 -0800
From: Michael Eyre <meyre at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: To HERMS or not to HERMS...
Hello all,
My question is this: Should I buy a pump and build a HERMs into my
existing setup or not?
I have a three tier gravity feed converted keg rig that I use right now
to make mostly 10 gallon batches. It's all uninsulated except for a
blanket I throw over the Mashtun when I'm doing a rest. I'm virtually
always doing single infusion mashes and usually drop a few degrees
during the rest period. My premise from the beginning was that I always
wanted to have gravity work for me and not have to rely on a pump, which
*could* fail, and leave me stranded. And I wanna stick with that. Now
that I have a couple bucks saved up, in the form of gift certificates,
burning a hole in my pocket, I'm thinking about making some
improvements. I think I'd like to get a little better consistency in my
mash temps. whether it be single infusion or steps, I'm wondering if it
would make my beer better to have more precise control over the temps.
i'm also wondering if, in this day and age of malts (as good as they
are..), if steps are going to really benefit me or not. I'm thinking of
getting a pump and a couple of SS false bottoms so that I can heat my
mash... right now I've got a copper manifold going on that I *can*
direct fire, but I always run the risk of scorching the grain if I fall
asleep at the wheel for too long. Honestly, I never do temp steps, not
even a mashout, and the beer I make, I feel, is damn good. I guess I'm
just concerned that that the rate of return from the money I spend on
parts and equipment would be better spent on more grain to just make
some more damn beer. But hey, I like toys... but I just don't know. So,
I'm thinking of the false bottoms and running a pump to pump the wort
from under the false bottom up into the HLT where I'd run it through a
copper or SS coil and then back to the mash, heat exchanging the wort
via water temp in the HLT. Is this feasible? I've heard it works OK, but
does anyone here run one like this? Should I just stick to RIMs? Any
thoughts on this, collective?
Mike
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:05:23 -0700
From: rick at salvagebeer.com
Subject: Barrels....
Hi folks! A friend and I have been looking at brewing using some
historical methods. One method we found involved heating and
maintaining the mash and boil in a wooden vessel through the addition
of hot stones directly into the mash/wort. The stones were heated in a
wood fire and moved with tongs. In looking for an appropriate vessel,
we happened upon the wooden barrel bottoms often used in landscaping.
They're relatively cheap, about $35 each, and all of those I've been
able to find locally indicate that they are oak. My research online
indicates that many of these landscaping-type barrels are, in fact,
reclaimed wine and whiskey barrels. I have two questions.
1) Do you think these barrel bottoms would be safe for the use I intend
them for? Is there a way to find out if they have been treated with
chemicals?
2) If they're safe for this use, why not use them for longer
conditioning? Might this be a cheap alternative to buying barrels
specifically for wine/beer? They're often available in both half and
full-size barrels...Thoughts?
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #5115, 12/28/06
*************************************
-------
