Homebrew Law, Part II

Last time, I discussed issues around homebrew law that I felt was pertinent. It occurred to me that it would be nice to reproduce the federal laws around hombrewing. As a result, here are the complete federal laws around homebrewing for your reading pleasure:

Sec. 25.205
Production of Beer

(a) Any adult may produce beer, without payment of tax, for personal or family use and not for sale. An adult is any individual who is 18 years of age or older. If the locality in which the household is located requires a greater minimum age for the sale of beer to individuals, the adult shall be that age before commencing the production of beer. This exemption does not authorize the production of beer for use contrary to State or local law.
(b) The production of beer per household, without payment of tax, for personal or family use may not exceed:
(1) 200 gallons per calendar year if there are two or more adults residing in the household, or (2) 100 gallons per calendar year if there is only one adult residing in the household.
(c) Partnerships except as provided in Sec. 25.207, corporations or associations may not produce beer, without payment of tax, for personal or family use.
(Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1334, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5053))

Sec. 25.206
Removal of beer

Beer made under Sec. 25.205 may be removed from the premises where made for personal or family use including use at organized affairs, exhibitions or competitions such as homemaker's contests, tastings or judging. Beer removed under this section may not be sold or offered for sale.
(Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1334, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5053))

Sec. 25.207
Removal from brewery for personal or family use.

Any adult, as defined in Sec. 25.205, who operates a brewery under this part as an individual owner or in partnership with others, may remove beer from the brewery without payment of tax for personal or family use. The amount of beer removed for each household, without payment of tax, per calendar year may not exceed 100 gallons if there is one adult residing in the household or 200 gallons if there are two or more adults residing in the household. Beer removed in excess of the above limitations will be reported as a taxable removal.
(Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1334, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5053))

Sailing the Seven Seas, Again

Julie and I will be on vacation next week. We are taking a Carnival cruise from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, visiting our Mexican friends to the South: ¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! As a result, I've queued up a couple of posts until we get back. When we get back, I should have a post or two about our trip. See you all in about a week. Until then, bon voyage.

Drink Up, Me 'earties, Yo Ho

Avast, all ye ne'er-do-well cads. How arrrr ye doin'? It be international talk like a pirate day. So, drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Selling Homebrew (and Other Laws Around Homebrewing)

I can't tell you how many times, especially at SCA events, someone has said to me, "I'd like to buy a bottle of your beer." I always respond by saying, "I could go to jail for that. How about I just give you one -- no charge."

Signed into law in 1979, by Jimmy Carter, the laws around homebrew are both broad and specific. They can be quite complicated to understand.

One thing that is for sure is that you cannot sell it. That is specifically forbidden. The law states, "Any adult may produce beer,
without payment of tax, for personal or family use and not for sale." It goes on to say, "Beer made under Sec. 25.205 ... may not be sold or offered for sale." That is twice in the laws around homebrewing where selling is specifically called out as unlawful.

Where it gets more vague is the act of even giving it away. According to the law, home brewed beer may be removed from the premises of where it was brewed for "organized affairs, exhibitions or competitions such as homemaker's contests, tastings or judging."

The first question that comes to mind is this: Does giving a bottle of homebrew to someone at an SCA event fall under the premise of "tastings?" There are lots of bottles and kegs of homebrew sampled at SCA events. In fact, that is one of the reasons I go.

It also mentions "organized affairs." I have to then ask another question: Does a party at your house constitute an organized affair? What about just having a friend stay for dinner? The keyword here is "organized." What does that mean? I am no lawyer, so I'm just not sure.

It should be also noted that local homebrewing laws take precedent over federal law. In fact, the federal law states: "This exemption does not authorize the production of beer for use contrary to State or local law."

I've heard recently on the Brewing Network's Sunday Session podcast that the American Homebrew Association (AHA) is fighting a bill in California that could make brewing competitions and organized tastings illegal there. That is why organizations like the AHA are important. They fight to keep homebrewing legal.

Homebrewing law is complex, there is no doubt about it. One thing is for sure, however, as of now, nobody is banging down your door to take your homebrew away. Let's hope it stays that way.

Inlet Temperature Probe For My HERMS

The first piece that I wanted to build for my HERMS system was the thermowell for the inlet temperature probe. With that, I wanted to measure the temperature of the liquid returning to the mash tun. I tried to model mine after this one I found in the blogosphere. He had his custom built.

See the figure below for the basic idea of what I wanted to build:

This shows the basic idea. The liquid flows through the thing as the temperature is measured through the thermowell.

Trying to assemble the parts, MoreBeer sold a shielded 1/2 inch NPT thermowell for mash tuns, for like 45 bucks. That seemed like a lot for something that may or may not work. It is like 5 inches long, and I'd still have surround it with some piping to pass the liquid around it. That did not seem cost effective and did not seem like it would work very well.

Then I got a bug up my butt. A corny keg dip tube fits a temperature probe perfectly. If I could just hack off a piece and solder it inside some copper tubing, that would be perfect. It just so happened that I had a dead keg that I could sacrifice the dip tube on.

So, I set out to do just that. I headed off to Home Depot to buy some copper tubing and some solder. My thought was that I if could fit the flattened end of the dip tube -- the part that holds the o-ring -- so that it was flush with copper tubing, I could solder it on. I needed 1/2 inch piping and tee joint to divert that liquid around the thermowell. I bought some pieces, brought them home. Much to my dismay, the flattened end of the dip tube was too small. It was too late to go back to Home Depot, so I'd have to wait another day.

The next day, I headed off the Naughtons, a local plumbing store. This time, I brought the dip tube with me. I told them about my project, and I bought all the pieces I needed, including an end cap that I planned to drill a hole in, to attach the dip tube.

I came home, cut up all my tubing, drilled a hole in the end cap, broke out the soldering torch, and went to town. As much as I tried, however, I could not get the end cap and the dip tube to solder together. I wasted almost an entire roll of solder, and then gave up. Was my project dead in the water? What I didn't realize is my dip tube was made of aluminum. No solder was ever going to stick to that. My wife suggest that I use a different kind of pipe for the thermowell.

Copper, I thought, copper would do the trick. So, I set off the to the store for the third time.

This time I bought 3/8 copper tubing for my thermowell, and all the fittings to attach it to my copper piping. Unfortunately, the shortest length they had was was five feet, and I needed about six inches, so I had a lot of 3/8 inch copper tubing left over.

See the figure below for all the pieces:

This shows an exploded view before I soldered all the parts together.

There was another problem as well. My temperature probe did not fit tightly inside the 3/8 tubing. The thermowell was 3/8 inch and the temperature probe was 1/4 inch, leaving a 1/8 inch gap. Out of ideas, however, I soldered it all together. It would just have to do.

Let me just tell you, it is a good thing that I'm not a plumber, because I was cursing up a storm trying to solder all the pieces together. The end product had solder globs all over the place. It was water tight though, so I was happy.

That night, I did not sleep well. I kept thinking about how much wider the thermowell was than the temperature probe. (You know your are a homebrewer, when thoughts of equipment keep you up at night).

If I could only make it fit better...

I kept thinking that maybe I could wrap it up in tin foil, but then I thought, what if the tin foil comes off in the thermowell.

What to do? What to do?

The next morning, I woke up and it dawned on me. What if I could fit the dip tube inside my copper thermowell? Both copper and aluminum conduct heat well. At the kitchen table, as my wife and I were eating breakfast, I tried a fit test (much to my wife's dismay; I mean, we were supposed to be having breakfast together. It always seems like I'm working on brewing shit). I had trouble because my soldering job left globs of solder everywhere. Suddenly it slipped in part way. This was going to work. After breakfest, I cut off a chunk of dip tube and hammering in past the solder. It fit perfectly.

The figures below shows the assembled piece:

This shows the piece with me holding the temperature probe next to it.

This shows the piece with the temperature probe inserted.

So, after three days, and three trips to the store, I had the first part for my HERMS. I wonder if it will even work since the thermowell takes up too much space inside the pipe, not leaving much for liquid. Not only that, but the wall of the thermowell is too thick, since it has two layers of metal: copper and aluminum. The whole thing was a series of compromises. Sometimes, it goes that way when you are a homebrewer.

Types of HERMS

Last time, I discussed my reasons for wanting to build a Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash Systems (HERMS). This time, I'd like to discuss the types of HERMS. They seem to boil down to two types: automated and manual. Both are outlined below.

The automated HERMS has a temperature probe in the mash tun's inlet hose that controls the heat to the hot liquor tank (HLT). The flame is controlled by a pilot lit, propane burner with a solenoid to turn on and off the gas. With that, some systems use an elaborate temperature controller called a PID, which performs calculus on the fly to correctly control the temperature.

The advantage to this type of HERMS is that you have exact control over the temperature of the liquid reentering the mash. Well made systems can keep the mash to within one degree of accuracy. The drawback to these types of systems is that they are complicated to build. It requires knowledge of propane gas plumbing, electrical wiring, and so on. This is all in addition to the plumbing required to have the mash liquid to recirculate properly.

The manual system is a lot simpler. All you have to do is hook up the hoses, copper coil, ball valves, and pump. However, the accuracy is not as good. When adding heat to HLT, you have to know the temperature differential between that and the mash tun. The temperature of the HLT needs to be several degrees higher than the mash tun, as the mash liquid will cool off when it is pumped out of the copper coil and returned to the mash tun. This can be a delicate balance that is easily screwed up, causing you to overheat or underheat the mash. You have to watch the temperature gages on both the mash tun and HLT and turn on and off the heat to the HLT by hand. Even doing that, there is often a latency between turning off the heat, and having the temperature of the mash still rise a couple of degrees. In fact, the mash can have a gradation of temperature where the top is warmer than the bottom.

I found examples of both types of systems out of the web. First, this blog outlines in great details his automated HERMS. I was extremely impressed. On the other hand, this YouTube video shows a manual system:



While the video is a little too rednecky for me, it does show someone measuring the temperature, and turning on and off the heat by hand. I was impressed on how simple his equipment was.

I am opting for the manual system for now. The reason for this is that I brew on the stove top in the kitchen, rather than outside on propane. I do not have the option of automatically turning on and off the heat. I do have plans to eventually move outside, which I blogged about previously.

I actually have given serious thought about a hybrid system, that basically has the temperature probe on the inlet hose, but instead of turning on and off the heat, it would simply turn on and off a light, indicating when I should turn on and off the heat by hand. It would be a very hands on operation, but still give me greater control.

In my next HERMS post, I plan to discuss the first pieces of equipment for my system.

Why I want to build a Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System (HERMS)

This is a new series of posts on the subject of building a Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System (HERMS). What exactly is a HERMS, you might ask? Well, to answer that, let's start with the mash. Mashing is the process of bringing a malt and water mixture to various temperature rests, to activate enzymes, to break down things like proteins, and convert starches into to sugars, and so on.

The simplest mash is something called a single infusion mash, where the water and malt mixture is brought to one temperature rest, typically around 153 degrees F. The temperature sits between two ideal temperatures for two enzymes: beta amylase and alpha amylase. These convert starches into more fermentable or less fermentable sugars respectively, and mashing at a slightly lower or higher temperature allows you to control the balance between dry and sweet. It is called a single infusion mash because you heat up water and mix it with the grain once, and let it sit at one temperature in an insulated mash tun.

There is nothing wrong with a single infusion mash. In fact, I've done this sort of mash for years. The problem that I've had is that the temperature does not stay at 153°F. Typically, my mash drops to 152°F, 151°F, 150°F, and so on, until I break to 150°F barrier. Then, I add some boiling water to bring it back up. Most of the time, in the past, I've had to do this at least once in a hour long mash. This lack of temperature control means that I do not have complete control over the sweet vs. dry balance in my beer.

Up until now, it has not been too much of a problem for me. I've made fine beer that way for a long time. However, I upgraded my equipment at the beginning of this year, and the temperature problem has compounded. The MiniBrew Mash/Lauter Tun that I bought does not keep temperature very well. It drops too quickly, and I ran out of the two gallons of extra boiling water that I had, making multiple additions, just to keep my temperature up, making my mash very watery. I was not happy with the way my brew day went (though the beer turned out O.K. -- just dry).

Enter the HERMS stage left. The HERMS is primarily used to do multi-step mashes, where you can do something like mash in at 133°F, for a protein rest, raise the temp to 153°F for saccharification rest, and then raise to to 168°F, to denature the enzymes for a mashout.

It does all that like this: The mash tun has a false bottom with an outlet at the bottom and hose going to the top as an inlet. A pump then pumps mash liquid from the outlet at the bottom, through a copper coil immersed in a hot liquor tank (HLT), full of heated water, and then to the inlet at the top of the mash tun again, recirculating it through the mash. The temperature of the HLT controls the temp of mash. Adding heat to the HLT will heat the copper coil and the liquid circulating through it, which will in turn cause the temperature of the mash to rise, as the newly heated liquid circulates though the mash. See the figure below:The reason I want to do this in not so much to do step mashes, but rather to control my wild temperature drops better. I will no longer have to have boiling water standing by to raise temperatures.

I actually have most of the equipment to do this already. The only thing that I'm missing is some hoses, fittings, GFCI, and a pump.

This is the first in a series of posts that I plan to do on building a HERMS. Next time, I plan to get into some details on different types of HERMS, and what I plan to do.