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HOMEBREW Digest #5152
HOMEBREW Digest #5152 Thu 01 March 2007
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
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Contents:
Re: Glue for bottle labels ("Terry Felton")
pH Tester? (John B McKissack)
Re: Glue for bottle labels (Dylan Tack)
Re: Glue for bottle labels ("Mike Sharp")
water report ("Mike Racette")
Call for Judges and Entries for Las Vegas Winterfest 2007 (Scott Alfter)
re: Wyeast Lacto Strain (Raj B Apte)
Re: Should I rack my IPA? (Mark Beck)
Re: label glue (Bob Brunjes)
Heineken clone ? (Kim Lux)
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Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 01:54:04 -0500
From: "Terry Felton" <tdfelton at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Glue for bottle labels
Rich,
I have used 2 techniques quite successfully.
If your label is water-proof (most Epson inkjets or a laser) then dip
the label in milk (yes - cow's milk!) and apply it. Smooth and blot
with a damp towel. After they dry in a few hours, they will be quite
secure and yet easy to wash off with a few minutes soaking. I've got
bottles in the cellar with milk glued labels from over 5 years ago
that are holding very well.
Recently, I have also just used a regular glue stick from the office
supply store. (Dennison, I think.) It can get a bit messy, but you
needn't cover the back of the label completely for them to stick.
These wash off pretty easily too. I'm less certain how long these
hold up, as I only started doing this last year.
Good luck,
Terry Felton
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 06:01:25 -0600
From: John B McKissack <JMcKissack at cbi.com>
Subject: pH Tester?
Has anybody ever tried to use one of those pH testers that have the long
metal probe and are designed to test the pH of soil. The reason I ask, is
because I saw on for sale at Harbor Freight for only $8 (US). Would that
work for testing my water? I am not sure how they work.
Brewin to the MAX!
Johnny Max
www.BrewCrAzY.com
P.S. If you are interested I just uploaded what I think is my best show
ever, with an interview with Charlie Papazian :^)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 09:21:28 -0600
From: Dylan Tack <dylan at io.com>
Subject: Re: Glue for bottle labels
I personally use 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. I like the aerosol, and
it's a decent compromise between permanence and washability. Still,
it usually requires a good soak and a little scrubbing.
-Dylan
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 08:26:09 -0800
From: "Mike Sharp" <rdcpro at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Glue for bottle labels
I'm with Spencer here; Skim milk is great glue. There's always a good
supply on hand, it's easy to apply and comes right off, and I can use plain
paper for the label, which gives me the option of creating large labels for
Champagne bottles and smaller labels for 12s.
I use a thin sponge or cloth sitting in the saucer of skim milk, gently
press the label onto the sponge, wetting it. Then I press the label on the
bottle with a dry cloth.
I figure that unless you're printing with a laser printer, if the label gets
wet it's going to run anyway, so the fact that the label comes off in an ice
chest doesn't matter to me.
I also mark the caps of the bottles with a code to indicate which one it is,
because I generally don't label *all* the bottles.
Regards,
Mike Sharp
Kent, WA
[1891.3, 294deg] AR
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 10:07:19 -0700
From: "Mike Racette" <mike.racette at hydro-gardens.com>
Subject: water report
Just happen to have my water report in front of me so thought I would post
it to get comments even though I've used this water successfully for a few
years now. I know it's nice water for brewing, but wondered if I should
optimize it for certain styles. I'm not listing everything on the report,
but think I've included the important items. All values are in ppm.
What changes would you make for what styles if you had my water?
I normally add a tsp. of gypsum to my mash (I brew 5 gallon batches) to
bring my pH to 5.4. I understand this might not be necessary for darker
malts. I was reading elsewhere that optimum Ca levels are around 50 ppm
(don't know if this is truly optimum or not) so will the CaSO4 I'm adding
raise Ca enough or should I consider adding more Ca? Also, is it necessary
to adjust sparge water pH as well as mash pH or not? I've read that gypsum
isn't very soluble in water and thus doesn't do much if added to sparge
water.
Thanks in advance.
pH - 8.07
Total dissolved solids - 68
Total Alkalinity (as CaCO3) - 42
Hardness as CaCO3 - 53
Chloride - 4.1
Chlorine residual - 0.75
Nitrate as Nitrogen - 0.13
Silica - 4.7
Sulfate - 13.2
Calcium - 11.2
Magnesium - 2.2
Sodium - 9.8
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 10:22:15 -0800
From: Scott Alfter <scott at alfter.us>
Subject: Call for Judges and Entries for Las Vegas Winterfest 2007
We've learned our lesson from last year...holding a competition the morning
after St. Patrick's Day wasn't such a hot idea. Las Vegas Winterfest 2007 is
coming up in a little more than a month, on 10 March 2007. We're looking to
grow the competition back to what it used to be, and we need your entries!
Two bottles and $6.00 is all it takes to get your beer, mead, or cider in.
Shipped entries are accepted 26 February to 9 March. If you're coming from out
of town to judge or steward, you can save a few bucks and bring your entries
with you.
This year's competition will be held at the Freakin' Frog, on Maryland Parkway
across from UNLV. We'll need all of the judges and stewards we can muster; if
you're interested, send me some mail.
For more detailed info, see our competition webpage:
http://www.nevadabrew.com/twiki/bin/view/Competitions/Winterfest07Announce
Thanks, and good luck to all entrants!
Scott Alfter
scott at beerandloafing.org
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 11:03:18 -0800 (PST)
From: Raj B Apte <raj_apte at yahoo.com>
Subject: re: Wyeast Lacto Strain
> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:04:24 -0800 (PST)
> From: Matt <baumssl27 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Wyeast Lacto Strain
>
> I mentioned in HBD 5136 that in messing around with the
> Wyeast
> "Lactobacillus Delbrueckii" strain it looked like it was
> producing
> quite a bit of CO2. But lactobacillus delbrueckii is
Hi Matt,
I have a comment to put this in perspective. Food science
has progressed tremendously in the past hundred years,
almost catching up with eighteenth century practice
(*sardonic comment alert*). In the process, a number of
binomials have changed completely (both genus and species
changing), some several times. Now that DNA-based typing is
done, some major changes are happening. The cheese world
has recently been rocked by the switch of washed-rind
cheese bacteria from (Brevibacterium linens to
Corynebacterium casei). In this case, both binomials refer
to real species, but the causative agent was misunderstood
for decades. More commonly, families, genera, and species
are revised and re-organized by biologists in ways that are
inconvenient for food science--common things are simply
renamed.
The above arguements refer to scientific (journal-based)
literature. In addition, technical trade manuals may follow
older nomenclature until forced to change by specialists.
Hobbyists may follow much later in correcting their
terminology. What makes this fun is that the phase delay
can be long enough that the scientists are already moving
to a new name. This happened commonly during the switch
from phenotypic identification (identifying species by
metabolic or other properties) to genotypic identification.
This shift is now mostly complete, but has left a number of
genera confused. In the phenotypic days, one might use
homofermentation, eg, to make a classification. Now you
might more commonly find both homo- and hetero-fermentative
strains within one species, or a species that can shift
from one to another in a series of gradual shifts based on
changing environmental variables. Lactobacillus brevis, for
example, can go from slime-producing (ropiness) to
non-slime producing and back in 20-60 generations depending
on changing food supplies. I don't think we know yet if
plasmids are involved, or some other control mechanism.
In my personal experience, Lactobacillus is quite a mess.
This long note is not a defense of mis-labelling, but I
hope it helps everyone understand why many things are
mis-labelled and will be so for some time to come. Relax,
don't worry, have a malt-based fermentation based on S.
carlsbergensis.... Old timers will recall the
reclassification of lager yeast.
raj (not a food-scientist, but a foody scientist)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:07:39 -0800
From: Mark Beck <beckmk at whitman.edu>
Subject: Re: Should I rack my IPA?
I typically rack my IPA's twice--primary to secondary, secondary to
corny, at about the same intervals you describe here. I usually
leave a fair amount of yeast behind in the secondary, so I would
advise you to rack again.
Also, if you're going to keep this awhile, and you want to maintain
the hop flavor, I would recommend that you do it in your fridge.
However, I would argue that you don't want to keep this beer for
awhile, and that you want to drink it now. Hop flavor is notoriously
fickle. The bitterness will remain, but the hop flavor will
fade. IPA's are not meant to age, they're meant to be drunk
fresh. Also, while 1.070 is toward the top of the IPA scale, it's
still not a particularly big beer (compared to many Belgians or
barley wines.) If you want to age a beer I suggest you make a barley
wine in the 1.090 or higher range, and then let it sit for at least a year.
Mark
Walla Walla, WA
At 09:07 PM 2/28/2007, you wrote:
>Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 12:45:57 -0000
>From: "Mark McGee" <mark at mcgee-family.com>
>Subject: Should I rack my IPA?
>
>Hi
>
>I'm a first-time poster here, but I've been lurking for about 3 years. I
>have a question about my IPA - this is the biggest beer I've ever brewed.
>
>I brewed a 1.070 gravity, 200 IBU IPA about 3 weeks ago, I'm expecting to
>have to leave this to mellow for a good 6 months at least.
>
>It's had one week primary, and two weeks in a corny for secondary. Seeing
>as I'm going to be storing this for a long time (never made a beer for
>keeping before), should I rack this over to another keg for long term
>storage? I'm worrying about yeast autolysis, but I'm sure I'd need some
>yeast for the aging process.
>
>Also, I have a chest freezer, sitting at about 2C (~36F), should I leave the
>IPA in there the whole time or just leave it at ambient (UK temps, so can be
>anywhere from freezing to 75-80F in the summer)?
>
>Cheers,
>Mark
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:13:07 -0800
From: Bob Brunjes <bob at tgfoitwoods.com>
Subject: Re: label glue
Rich Lynch,
A mixture of clear unflavored gelatin completely dissolved
in hot water makes a fantastic label glue. I don't go by
exact concentrations, but if it feels a little bit slippery
between your fingers, it's about right.
I dunk my labels in it hot/warm (is your ink waterproof?),
slap it on the bottle, and smooth with my fingers. If your
label ink can run in water, lay the bottles down on a towel
and use a 1" brush to paint the glue on the bottle, and
then put the label on THAT, and smooth.
This stuff keeps the labels on for maybe 2 or 3 hours
in ice water, but 20 seconds of hot water and it slips right
off, with no residue.
I really like my label glue, and I bet you will too.
- --
Bob Brunjes Asterisk
Whidbey Island, WA Engineering
bob at tgfoitwoods.com Communications
- --
Bob Brunjes Asterisk
Whidbey Island, WA Engineering
bob at tgfoitwoods.com Communications
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:52:03 -0700
From: Kim Lux <lux at diesel-research.com>
Subject: Heineken clone ?
I'm looking for an AG recipe and tips for brewing a clone of the Dutch
brewed Heineken lager beer.
I'd also love to hear from anyone who has successfully brewed a clone of
this beer.
Thanks.
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #5152, 03/01/07
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