Friday, September 24, 2010

Homebrew Digest #5741 (September 24, 2010)

HOMEBREW Digest #5741 Fri 24 September 2010


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


***************************************************************
TODAY'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Sponsor The Home Brew Digest!
Visit http://www.hbd.org/sponsorhbd.shtml to learn how

Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********

DONATE to the Home Brew Digest. Home Brew Digest, Inc. is a
501(c)3 not-for-profit organization under IRS rules (see the
FAQ at http://hbd.org for details of this status). Donations
can be made by check to Home Brew Digest mailed to:

HBD Server Fund
PO Box 871309
Canton Township, MI 48187-6309

or by paypal to address serverfund@hbd.org. DONATIONS of $250
or more will be provided with receipts. SPONSORSHIPS of any
amount are considered paid advertisement, and may be deductible
under IRS rules as a business expense. Please consult with your
tax professional, then see http://hbd.org for available
sponsorship opportunities.
***************************************************************


Contents:
Re: IIPA IBUs (Joe Walts)
IBUs ("A.J deLange")
10 gallon stainless press wanted (Joe Katchever)


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NOTE: With the economy as it is, the HBD is struggling to
meet its meager operating expenses of approximately $3500
per year. If less than half of those currently directly
subscribed to the HBD sent in a mere $5.00, the HBD would
be able to easily meet its annual expenses, with room to
spare for next year. Please consider it.

Financial Projection As of 13 Jun 2010
Projected 2010 Budget $3305.65
Expended against projection $2500.06
Projected Excess/(Shortfall) $ 422.01

As always, donors and donations are publicly acknowledged
and accounted for on the HBD web page. Thank you


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: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 04:32:16 -0500
From: Joe Walts <jwalts at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: IIPA IBUs

Nick brings up a good point about the measurement of iso-alpha acids.
The differences between calculated and measured IBUs in this article
by Deschutes Brewery are stunning (although I don't know the formula
they use for calculated IBUs...):

http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/blog/2009/02/13/lies-damn-lies-and-statistics/

Well, I hope it's the correct article. I'm in a hospital right now
and can't view websites with the word 'alcohol' in them. Anyway, late
and dry hopping with high-alpha varieties are great ways to build
massive hop flavor and aroma. Adding the majority of your late hops
at flameout and waiting a half hour before cooling your wort will help
a lot too; DMS isn't really a concern at the boiling rates of most
home breweries (I lose 15-20% of my wort in a 1-hour boil compared
with 5-10% seen by small craft breweries, who typically leave their
worts hot for a half hour to whirlpool). Last year, I was lucky
enough to attend a presentation on hopping methods by the quality
director of Rock Bottom. They performed a hop experiment across their
entire organization, and I found it hugely informative. Here's my
take on their results:

http://republicbrewpub.blogspot.com/2009/06/hopping-methods.html

Joe


------------------------------

Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:06:54 -0400
From: "A.J deLange" <ajdel at cox.net>
Subject: IBUs

It might be well to recall the introduction to the ASBC MOA for
determining beer bitterness by the international (IBU) method (the
method most accessible to home and craft brewers):
"Reports of the Subcommittee on Determination of Isohumulones in
Beer... indicate that bitterness units (BU), as determined in Method
A below, express the bitter flavor of beer satisfactorily..."
I doubt very much that the committee studies beers of over 100 IBU in
coming to that conclusion. Whether they did or didn't note that no
claim is made that the measurement accurately represents perceived
bitterness.

The method itself involves extraction of the beer with gasoline and
measurement of the absorption in 1 cm at 275 nm. The result is
multiplied by 50. Assuming the instrument is linear up to A = 3.0 the
maximum it could measure would be 150 IBU. Most analysts would
probably prefer to keep readings to no more than A= 2 for an
instrument rated to A = 3 so that would imply that perhaps 100 IBU
would be the upper limit.

The instrument does not have to be the limiting factor, of course. One
could simply dilute the beer 1:1 with DI water before doing the
extraction. In such a case a reading of A=2 would correspond to 200 IBU.

I'd have some questions about the solubility limits of isohumulones
but I really don't know what it takes to saturate a solution with
them. Nor do I have any feel for what it would take to saturate one's
palate. I know I wouldn't like a beer that bitter!

A.J.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:27:42 -0500
From: Joe Katchever <joe at pearlstreetbrewery.com>
Subject: 10 gallon stainless press wanted

I know, I know. I should be posting this on the flea
market but I just thought I'd stick it in here quick. Content's been
slim lately anyways. (ED: No, you should be posting it in plain text
so that I don't have to edit it... ;o)

I'm looking for an all-stainless 5-10 gallon wine press, or other
method of pressing about that quantity. I've seen commercial ones that
use belts and rollers to do the squeezing, but I don't know that a
small version of that exists. I've seen the bladder wine presses - they
are cool but too big. I want to sanitarily remove the liquid from about
10 gallons of mash quick and easy. Any comments or suggestions on where
to find such a gizmo will be welcome.

Cheers,
Joe Karlin


------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #5741, 09/24/10
*************************************
-------