Brew Hauler II

A while ago, I described a modification I made to a brew hauler to keep it from sagging. (I also explained what a brew hauler is...)

Now, I'm going to describe a modification to keep the brew hauler from getting tangled.

I tend to leave my brew hauler on the carboy throughout fermentation. This can result in stuff being spilled and general filth accumulating on the brew hauler. I typically run it through the washing machine after brewing a batch to clean it up.

This usually results in the straps becoming twisted, tangled, and slid out-of-place. This requires minutes (MINUTES!!) of tedious untangling. This post shows you how this can be eliminated with a few mere hours of work.  


Here you can see a tangled and discombobulated brew hauler after it has been washed.

Here is a closer view. You can see the ends of the straps bunched closely together. The handles and straps can be rotated around making it difficult to know which side should be up.

Step 1 is to sort out the brew hauler and place it on the carboy.

Step 2 is to arrange the straps so that they are evenly spaced and the handles are directly opposite from each other. The straps should form an even star pattern when viewed from above.

Step 3 is to mark the location of the straps using something that can be seen on the black webbing. In my case, I used a silver Sharpie.

Step 4 is to grab a needle and thread and sew the straps in place.

Here is the finished version. You can see the short line of stitching that holds the ends of the handles/straps to the center belt.

The thread is not required to be load-bearing. It serves only to keep the straps from wandering off. This modification makes it incredibly easy to straighten things out after washing, but means that the brew hauler can only be used on a single size of carboy. In my opinion it is very worth it.

Mash Starch Test

I homebrew beer. I haven't talked about it much since February 2012 where I described the chest freezer I use to control fermentation and lagering temperatures.

Today I'm going to describe an experiment Sabrina and I did testing the effectiveness of my mashing procedure.

Mashing is the first step in making beer from malted barley and other grains. During the mash, you heat a mixture of crushed grain and water up to certain temperatures. You hold the temperature constant at one or many different points to allow the naturally occurring enzymes in the malt to convert starches into simpler sugars. Mashing usually involves holding temperatures for up to 90 minutes.

One method of testing the progress of this conversion is to perform an iodine starch test. A good description of what is going on can be found here. In brief, when an iodine solution is exposed to starch, the iodine changes color from dark brown to intense purple/black. Once all the long-chain starches are broken down, the iodine test will be negative. There will be no color change when the iodine solution is mixed with the wort. (Wort is the liquid sugar solution produced in the mash, or unfermented beer.)

The first experiment we did was to perform the iodine test every 10 to 15 minutes during a 90 minute mash rest. We also measured pH using test strips. We recorded time and temperature on the end of each test strip.  Here you can see the results:

The test was done by placing several drops of wort on a piece of chalk. A medicine dropper makes this much easier, just be sure to rinse it well between samples. Next, a couple drops of iodine solution were placed on the same piece of chalk. If you are careful to ensure that the iodine drops cover both part of the chalk soaked in wort and part of the dry chalk, it is very easy to detect if a subtle color change occurs.  You can see this effect rather clearly in the 80 minute and 90 minute samples above.

One thing I was not expecting was that once the iodine and wort evaporated from the chalk, the color disappeared. You can see how the color from the earlier samples is fading away. The color of the pH test strips also faded away as they dried.


I still had questions after this first experiment. All samples had been taken from the drain at the bottom of the mash container immediately after the mash had been stirred up.

The next time I made beer, we continued the experiment and collected more detailed data. This time we took samples from various locations in the mash, both with and without stirring. The pH was written down at each step so this time I have an accurate record of pH changes. Samples were taken every 15 minutes during a 60 minute mash.

The sample at the start of the mash was taken immediately after stirring together the water and grain. There was a clear purple color. 15 minutes later, three samples were tested. One from the drain without mixing or stirring (N), one at the top of the mash where the grain and water are mixed together (T), and one from the drain after mixing (M).

Without mixing, there was no reaction. This leads me to believe that the enzymes rather quickly convert the starches that are dissolved in solution. The top and mixed samples showed varying degrees of reaction. My conclusion is that at the top, starches continue to dissolve into the wort from the grain, and after stirring, these starches are distributed throughout the mixture.

The results from the rest of the mash were relatively unexciting. The reaction showed negative at 30, 45, and 60 minutes. This indicates that starch conversion finished rather early. A negative starch test doesn't necessarily mean that the mash was finished this early since the enzymes will continue to break down sugars. However, it is a good indication that the mash is progressing well.


A quick word on the iodine solution used for this. I bought 10% providone-iodine solution from the first aid section of my local pharmacy. I then diluted it 10 to 1 with rubbing alcohol. This lightens the color of the iodine so that the more subtle purple reaction can be seen. Otherwise the iodine is very dark and can mask a partially positive reaction.

I have heard that this test also works well using iodophor, a no-rinse sanitizer that is often used in homebrewing. Simply dilute the iodophor 10 to 1 with rubbing alcohol and it should work the same.

The Container Store sells some amber glass bottles with built-in medicine droppers that worked very well for storing and dispensing the iodine solution. It made it easier to avoid spills, which is important since iodine stains.


A couple months after I did my experiments, I ran across an episode of the Basic Brewing Radio podcast that goes into great detail on the subject. If you are interested, look for the March 3, 2011 episode.

Modified Brew Hauler

Beer is heavy.

Five gallons of beer in a glass carboy is very heavy. At about 8.3 pounds per gallon, plus 10 to 15 pounds for the carboy, the total comes out north of 50 pounds.

Dropping a glass carboy full of beer would not be a fun experience. First there is the mess. Then there is the expense of ingredients, carboy, and the wasted time you spent brewing. And finally, there is the risk of severe personal injury. There are numerous horror stories on the internet about people cutting themselves on broken glass carboys.

Given all of that, it seems prudent to take some precautions. This is especially true since these heavy glass containers are often wet and slippery at the times they need to be moved.

Luckily there is a good, commonly-available, and inexpensive solution:  the Brew Hauler. It is a carrying sling made of nylon webbing that gives you two perfect handles for securely lifting and carrying a full carboy. This is incredibly helpful when lifting it in and out of a chest freezer.

The only complaint I have with the design of the Brew Hauler is that it sags. (If you look closely at the picture from Austin Homebrew, they had to use tape to keep it in place.) I was never able to tighten the top strap enough so that it would stay on its own. Even if I were able to, I would have to redo it each time I moved it to a different size of carboy. I have to admit that this is a relatively minor complaint. However, when it sags, it makes it easier for the straps that support the bottom of the carboy to shift. This could result in the carboy slipping out from between those straps if care is not taken to realign them before lifting.

My solution was to add a bungee cord to the top strap. This keeps the brew hauler snugly in place around the carboy. The materials are simple. All you need is one 24" bungee cord and four hose clamps. Any style of hose clamp that is about the right size should work just fine.

I used Oetiker style clamps because I had them lying around. They are stainless steel, which means they won't rust if they get wet with spilled beer or condensation. They are rather permanent once crimped, and there are no sharp edges or protrusions that could get caught on something. One of the clamps and the crimping tool are pictured below.

Step 1: Cut the hooks off of the bungee cord. They are not necessary and would just be in the way. Then singe the ends of the nylon sheath around the bungee cord's core with a match or lighter. This is just to prevent the cut ends from fraying or unraveling.

Step 2: Clamp one end of the bungee cord to the non-adjustable side of the buckle on the top strap. See the picture below. I used two clamps, which may be overkill, but I am confident that the bungee cord isn't going anywhere.

Step 3: Pull the bungee cord through each of the loops on the handles and lower straps. This is just like putting a belt on through belt-loops.

Step 4: Clamp the other end of the bungee cord to the strap on the adjustable side of the buckle. The only semi-tricky part is to make sure that the bungee cord is placed correctly. With the bungee cord completely relaxed, there needs to be 3 to 4 inches of slack in the webbing between the two sets of clamps. This way, when the webbing is pulled tight, the bungee cord is forced to stretch and maintain tension.

This end also shouldn't be clamped too close to the buckle. There needs to be enough adjustment  to pull the webbing tight around the smallest diameter carboy on which it will be used. As you can see below, I left a couple extra inches just in case. There are two clamps on this end as well; one is covered by the loop on the nylon strap. You can also see the singed end of the bungee cord in this picture.

For me, this has made a good product even better. I ended up buying and modifying a second Brew Hauler  so that I have one for each carboy when doing two batches at the same time. It was annoying to remove the Brew Hauler from the carboy after it was in the chest freezer and then try to put it back on later when it was time to rack the beer. These are great things to have around, and I highly recommend getting a couple.

My Brewing Fridge

I recently got into the hobby of homebrewing beer, and I really like lagers.

One of the more important pieces of equipment for brewing lager beer is some type of refrigerator. To keep the yeast happy (and happy yeast makes better beer) it must ferment and condition at the correct temperatures. For ales, you can often get away with brewing at room temperature. Lagers on the other hand require temperatures in the 50s.

The choice faced by homebrewers is what type of beer fridge to use. The two standard options are either an upright fridge or a chest freezer. Either one will require an external temperature controller for best results. I went the chest freezer route, and here is how I came to that decision.

The Refrigerator

Pros:

• Easier to fill. You don't have to lift heavy items very high at all to get them in and out of the fridge.
• More durable. A fridge is designed to operate above freezing. It should last many years.  
• No condensation issues. A fridge is designed to collect and drain off condensation from the air instead of allowing it to collect inside the fridge. 

Cons: 

• Limited capacity. A normal fridge has less room for kegs and carboys than is available in most chest freezers. 
• No secondary containment. When you open the door, any liquid in the bottom of the fridge will drain out. Rapidly.
• Less efficient use of space. The freezer portion of the refrigerator is pretty much useless at this point. 

The Chest Freezer

Pros: 

• More usable space. I can easily fit two carboys or three 5-gallon kegs in my 7 cubic foot chest freezer. 
• More efficient. Chest freezers tend to have thicker insulation than refrigerators because they are designed to operate at lower temperatures. This means it should use less electricity.
• Secondary containment. Any liquid that leaks will collect in the bottom of the freezer, and it will stay there until you remove it. 
• Fits better in an apartment. A chest freezer is not nearly as imposing as a second fridge. It also doubles as extra counter space. 

Cons:

• Questionable durability. Chest freezers are designed to operate below freezing. The evaporator coils are usually made of mild steel. This is fine for something that will only be exposed to ice, but when operated above freezing, liquid water can cause corrosion. The expected lifespan for a chest freezer in this application is probably only a few years. (Some precautions, of unproven effectiveness, can be taken - like caulking any seams in the internal lining to prevent water from migrating in to the evaporator coils.) 
• Condensation. Every time you open the freezer, room-temperature air laden with humidity rushes in. When this air is cooled, the water condenses out and collects as puddles in the bottom of the chest freezer.  (This is mostly just an annoyance in my experience.) 
• Harder to fill. Anything holding 5 gallons of liquid is heavy. Kegs, carboys, and CO2 cylinders all have to be lifted up and into the chest freezer. 

To be fair, the value of secondary containment did not cross my mind until after I already had the chest freezer and had kegged my first batch of beer. A misbehaving CO2 pressure regulator slowly forced beer out through the faucet. I did not discover this until the next morning. I opened the lid on the chest freezer to discover two inches of beer sitting in the bottom. It was tragic and heartbreaking to lose two to three gallons of beer. It would have been so much worse to wake up to two to three gallons of beer on the floor of my apartment. 

I have rationalized away the shortcomings of the chest freezer. Condensation is easy to dry off periodically with a towel. Lifting items in and out is a good workout. If the evaporator coil fails eventually, it gives me an excuse to tinker and come up with a way to possibly eliminate the condensate issue.. But until then, I am very happy with my chest freezer. I was happy enough to buy a second one so I could ferment and condition different batches at the same time.