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Messages - zimaclone

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1
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: not all RO water created equally
« on: May 15, 2013, 12:06:13 PM »
My ro system came with a tds meter. The water going in is over 300 ppm and pH is high 8s. The filtered water is 10-15 ppm and pH is mid 5s. The 1 year prefilters are 10 months old and the 10 year ro membrane is 6 years old.

2
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: British Yeast Recommendation
« on: May 14, 2013, 07:48:24 AM »
Wlp023 has a really nice ester profile and is a strong fermenter. Great for malty styles. Hop flavors are muted.

3
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Bottling prep
« on: May 12, 2013, 06:30:22 PM »
I have 2 cases of 22 oz bottles (new) that I'll need to clean and sanitize by next weekend. Please share your best practices and can I clean ahead of time? I don't have a bottle tree so drying is a concern. Do I need to fully submerge all of the bottles in star san or just spray with a bottle?


Don't use all 22 oz. bottles. Put at least a 6 pack or three in 12 oz. bottles for the few beers that you'll inevitably want to sample before it's fully conditioned. At the very least, have one 12 oz. (Or smaller)bottle for the end of bottling which will inevitably end up short of 22 oz.
I use an old dishwasher rack to dry bottles. Clean ahead of time, sanitize right before bottling. A little star san residue is no problem. I would skip the cleaning on the new bottles and just sanitize, but that's just me.
Don't forget the priming sugar like I did on my first batch! Well, I didn't forget it. I added it, boiled the caps, got distracted, boiled off all the water and burned the caps, had to wait til the next day to get new caps by which time the yeast consumed the priming sugar, and then bottled unprimed beer. Then I drank 2 cases of flat stout and loved it!

4
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: IPA daydream
« on: May 10, 2013, 12:26:53 PM »
Deal! All I have is pilsner, Irish stout, cherry wheat, honey blonde ale, and Janet's brown. No IPA.   :(

5
General Homebrew Discussion / IPA daydream
« on: May 10, 2013, 11:34:28 AM »
Just ran over a Douglas fir branch with the mower and suddenly I'm hankerin' for a citra-simcoe IPA!

6
One website requires a login. The other doesn't really answer any brewing-specific questions. 
So too much oxygen kills yeast. But how much is too much? Is there a threshold ppm? Or is it the physical act of pure o2 bubbling thru the yeasty wort?
I don't remember for sure, but I want to say it is something like 15 ppm.  I would not be surprised if it is strain and temperature dependent.  It's not really a concern because even if you can get that much in your wort, it will drop when you add the yeast.  It is only a constant high level that is toxic IIRC.  It is not a physical thing, it is a buildup of reactive oxygen species like superoxide and peroxide.


Aha. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

7
Kegging and Bottling / Re: Looking for experience
« on: May 10, 2013, 07:55:28 AM »
My lhbs sells a 20 oz paintball tank-to-regulator adapter.

8
I brewed a 1.052 pale ale 4 days ago and pitched wlp008. Activity slowed to a crawl but it still had a thick, meringue-like krausen. A gravity reading showed 1.012 and it tasted great- although it won't see the inside of a keg for at least another week. Because I sample the grain, the wort, and the beer throughout the brewing, fermentation and conditioning process, I can understand the whole process much better than if I just waited 2 weeks. A 3 ounce sample is not a waste as long as you can learn from it and grow as a brewer.

9
Go ahead! You don't need to at this point but why not? Be sure to spin your hydrometer to dislodge any air bubbles. Note the measurement. Calculate you abv. Good practice! Then taste it, or course! Enjoy!

10
Equipment and Software / Re: Upgrade
« on: May 09, 2013, 04:41:34 AM »
Don't buy a chiller. If you're the least bit handy you can make one for far cheaper in under an hour. Buy a book. "How to brew" if you don't already have it or maybe "brewing better beer " by Gordon Strong. Beyond that I'd say a 2 liter flask for making starters and a 6 gallon glass carboy.

11
So adding pure O2 before pitching is good. And adding excessive o2 before pitching will negatively affect the flavor. And aerating after pitching can be ok in certain situations like starters and high gravity beer or mead. But pure o2 after pitching is always bad. Is that right?
Adding pure O2 before pitching is good.

You can't add excessive O2 before pitching, it is not possible due to saturation.

Adding O2 to beer (not wort) negatively affects flavor.

Aerating after pitching in starters is fine because although that can affect the flavor stability in a negative way, you are not drinking your starter.

Pure O2 after pitching is not always bad, as long as it is done in a controlled, measured manner and you don't add so much that it is toxic to the yeast, and as long as it is done before fermentation has progressed too far (because then it can affect the flavor and stability).

Essentially, oxygen toxicity can be caused by oxygen radicals like superoxide (O2-) that are generated in and can damage the cell.  Superoxide is grabbed by superoxide dismutase, which alternately converts it to either hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or molecular oxygen (O2).  Since the H2O2 can also damage the cell it is further degraded to water and oxygen (2 H2O2 -> 2 H2O + 2 O2).  This is the same reaction that happens during respiration in our bodies all of the time, and dealing with it is important enough that we have superoxide dismutase all over our bodies, circulating and in every cell.

Your google search may not have led to anything that the authors directly relate to brewing, but the yeast strains that are used in labs are derived from beer/bread strains and share nearly all of their genetics with our brewing strains.

You should at least be able to read the abstracts of some papers here:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/doi/10.1002/yea.320070203/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3380282/


One website requires a login. The other doesn't really answer any brewing-specific questions. 
So too much oxygen kills yeast. But how much is too much? Is there a threshold ppm? Or is it the physical act of pure o2 bubbling thru the yeasty wort?

12
General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Drinking while brewing
« on: May 06, 2013, 11:35:08 AM »
My father in law used to make wine. He used bread yeast but he never, ever drank. Not a sip. He just made it for everyone else to "enjoy". It tasted like bread (among other things not resembling wine).

13
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Starter Boil Duration
« on: May 01, 2013, 06:31:58 AM »
This will likely ruffle some feathers but, for sanitation it is only necessary to bring it to a boil.

14
Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Mangrove Jack's Dry Yeast
« on: April 30, 2013, 06:48:54 AM »
Who wants to be the first to ferment the Workhorse yeast at 90f?!

15
All Grain Brewing / Re: observation of dissolved oxygen loss in wort
« on: April 29, 2013, 04:16:19 PM »
Wouldn't that be considered "continually adding oxygen"? It's still oxygen molecules, just less ppm than pure O2?

If you are adding pure o2 you can super saturate the liquid with o2. particularly right where the o2 is going in. if you are adding o2 from the atmosphere you are never going to achieve anything like the ppm of DO that you can with pure o2. it's the ppm that makes for a toxic situation.

So adding pure O2 before pitching is good. And adding excessive o2 before pitching will negatively affect the flavor. And aerating after pitching can be ok in certain situations like starters and high gravity beer or mead. But pure o2 after pitching is always bad. Is that right?

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