Friday, February 6, 2009

Homebrew Digest #5497 (February 06, 2009)

HOMEBREW Digest #5497 Fri 06 February 2009


FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
Thermometer calibration (Jason Gazeley)
Vittles Vault Size ("A. J. deLange")
Leftovers beer ("Jerry \"Beaver\" Pelt")
Diatomaceous Earth (Greg Brewer)


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Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2009 21:28:52 -0700
From: Jason Gazeley <jason.gazeley at gmail.com>
Subject: Thermometer calibration

How should I calibrate my mash thermometers. I use two. One in the tun and
one on the return of my HERMS. I was using a 12" glass thermometer that
I got from MoreBeer! to calibrate all of my thermometers until I checked it
last week and discovered it was right on in ice water but 8 deg f low
at boiling.
I scaled this error to my 150f mash temp and realized I was mashing at 156f.
No wonder my beers always finish high. So what methods and devices does
the rest of the HBD community use?

Cheers,

Jason


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Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:05:06 +0000
From: "A. J. deLange" <ajdel at mac.com>
Subject: Vittles Vault Size

Vittles Vaults come in several sizes. I'm across the pond right now so
I can't go look at the things but according to the website of a
retailer I looked at it's the second largest which they call "50
pounds" (the largest is 80) which holds 55 pounds of malt with
appreciable (perhaps 1/3) head room. From this we conclude that malt
is denser than dog food and that the 80 pounder would probably hold 2
sacks of malt.

A.J.


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Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 07:13:05 -0800 (PST)
From: "Jerry \"Beaver\" Pelt" <beaverplt at yahoo.com>
Subject: Leftovers beer

I'm sure we've all been there. Over the course of few
batches, we've collected a few surplus ingredients.
Maybe a couple pounds of 3 or four different grains.
A couple different types of hops in the fridge. Has anyone
ever cleaned out their beer cupboard by just using all your
leftovers to make a brew? If so, what was the result? I'm in that
situation where I have a little of a lot of ingredients.
This seems like a fun thing to try.



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Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 17:26:15 -0600
From: Greg Brewer <gbrewer1 at gmail.com>
Subject: Diatomaceous Earth

Any thoughts about using diatomaceous earth for controlling spider
mites on hops? Since they don't fly, I was thinking I could apply DE
to the ground surrounding my hops, and maybe it would be an effective
control. Mites have absolutely destroyed my harvests for the past few
years, and I have yet to find anything that will control them
effectively. Once established, it is too late, they hide in their
webbing on the underside of the leaves, and only a few need to survive
to re-establish themselves. I will probably try DE in any case, but
wondered if anyone else has had success.

Cheers,

Greg in Chicago


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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5497, 02/06/09
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