Sunday, April 19, 2009

Homebrew Digest #5537 (April 19, 2009)

HOMEBREW Digest #5537 Sun 19 April 2009


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


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Contents:
Fermentation/Lagering Chamber (Dana Edgell)
Mill gap (Jason Gazeley)
Water Spreadsheet ("A.J deLange")


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Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:11:41 -0400
From: Dana Edgell <dedg at lle.rochester.edu>
Subject: Fermentation/Lagering Chamber

I would like to have a fermentation/lagering chamber built into a bar or
a bar back so I could also use it to serve beer (depending on the
temperature setting). I could design and build one myself but it would
save time (& probably mistakes) if I could adapt existing plans to my space.

Does anyone have any existing woodworking plans for such a bar or bar
back that they could send me?

I would also appreciate plans for a small portable bar that could be
broken down and taken to homebrew club events.

Thanks
Dana Edgell
Fairport, NY


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Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:31:08 -0600
From: Jason Gazeley <jason.gazeley at gmail.com>
Subject: Mill gap

I am looking for advice from people who grind their own grain and
fly sparge. Since I purchased a 2 roller mill my efficiency has gone
from 70% to 80%. This new higher efficiency has created more
room in my mash tun but it has also created some new problem for
me.

Now when I sparge I have to drain off the last 1.25 gallons of wort
into a separate container for beers under the low 1.060s due to the
very low gravity of that run off. Once I see how much wort has
gone into the separate container I then add R.O. water back to the
boil kettle to cover the loss. This system is very inefficient as I
waste water and minerals.

I use John Palmer's RA spreadsheet to build my entire water profile
(not just balance pH) and when I make my additions I add minerals
to both the mash and the sparge. I do this because I don't know how
to add minerals to the boil kettle in order to recreate the mineral profile
I built for the beer using the spreadsheet. The mineral profiles that I
create are based on a variety of sources, such as How to Brew, the
calculations from John's RA spreadsheet, advice from pro brewers
and recipes written by others.

So my question is, what is a good gap setting for a two roller mill. I am
looking to go back to my old 70% efficiency so my runoff on normal
gravity beers is not so low. this would solve my problem of wasted water
and waster minerals.

If anyone can think of other solutions to this problem I would be happy
to read them. I really don't want to batch sparge though.

Cheers,

Jason


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Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:46:16 -0400
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: Water Spreadsheet

For those of you that may have downloaded my water spreadsheet in the
past: It is now substantially expanded and improved. Errors (that have
surfaced) have been corrected and some new capabilities have been
added. It will now, for example, allow you to add the following acids
and their salts: phosphoric, citric, tartaric, lactic and any other
acid for which you know the pK's. You can use it to design buffers and
it now computes what happens when dilution water which is not DI is
added to source water. In fact as it does all the brewing water
calculations I can think of at this point I've named it the Nearly
Universal Brewing Water Spreadsheet.

As significant as the changes to the spreadsheet itself is
availability of a Users Manual for it which it really needed as the
instructions incorporated in the spreadsheet itself were, of
necessity, pretty sketchy. Both the spreadsheet and the manual are
available at www.wetnewf.org. If you have any questions or comments
about either drop me a line.

The caveats that go with this are that the spreadsheet has not been
completely tested by any means (it's too versatile) and the manual is
a first draft. So if you find problems in either I'd like to hear
about it.

A.J.


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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5537, 04/19/09
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