I live in an area with very high alkalinity ~ 320 mg / l CaCO3. I am planing on using Carbonate Reducing Solution CRS to bring the alkality down to acceptable levels for pale ales. To lower the alkalinity to ~ 40 mg/l CaCO3 i will need to add roughly 1.5 ml of CRS for every litre of mash liquid. My question is, at this level Am i likely to taste the CRS? If there are likely to be off …
I had done some cursory digging online and found that at my elevation the boil evaporation loss was about 14% per hour. So to test this out I boiled 3785mL (1 gallon) of water for an hour in my brew kettle. If 14% is true, then I expected to be left with about 3221mL left (about 86%) at the end of the hour. An hour later, I was left with 1300ml!!! So more like an evaporation rate of 66% when …
I'm fairly new to brewing and for the first half-dozen batches I have just used packets of Burtonizing Water Salts to treat my water picked up at my local homebrew supply store. So far, per that store's owner, I've added 9 grams of the salts to my boil when there's 15-minutes left. Beers have turned out pretty decent. I now want to level up my water treatment game a bit. I'd like to start targeting specific water profiles based on …
I have done a few extract kit beers and now a few partial mashes. I am starting the process of ramping up to all-grain. In many online "brewing calculators", such as this mash water chemistry tool by Beersmith, they indicate that the total water volume is different than the mash water volume: I can understand that total water volume might be equal to mash volume plus sparge water volume, but is any other water (besides the sparge) added to the …
I'm starting to homebrew and noticed that during the cooling process A LOT of water is used going through the counterflow chiller. I'm on a well, and I'd like to minimize water usage, especially during the summer. I also don't have a drain near where I chill, so I end up having to fill buckets and dump them (sure some can be used for cleaning, but it's A LOT of water). My idea is to use a pond pump to …
So I got a Chinook IPA kit last Xmas from Northern Brewer and made my first ever home brew. I followed instructions except I think I made the mistake of steeping grains in boiling water. Everything about the beer ended up perfect except this nasty dry/bitter overtone that ruined what other wise seemed like a good beer. Color was amazing including a nice light brown head. I bottled some and kegged some and they were identical. 10 months later I …
first time poster (long time lurker) on these forums. Hope you'll are doing well. I am 6 months into this hobby and have brewed 3 Pale Ales which have ranged from disastrous to pretty bad :P I now am eager to brew a Porter (1 Gallon). All the 3 brews I have done so far have been using the Brewers Friend Windows Software which has stopped working. So I have tried Beersmith and the Brewfather app, must say, I found …
In chapter 22 of how to brew by john palmer there is a section called adjusting water for style. further down there is a handy brew cube: Across the bottom there is a vector called "beer structure" with measures of soft, medium and firm - this is based off the calcium in the water. there are no references to beer structure anywhere else in the book and everywhere else on the internet - it's like it's just been made up …
I’m new here, but wondering if any of you guys & Girls help! I’ve been brewing for about a year and done over 20 brews of various different beers mainly PA’s and IPA’s using a Grainfather. For about 8 months beers were coming out consistently using everything, when it came to tap water, raw ingredients, same supplier, same sanitisers, grainfather cleaner, vessels for fermentation (plastic) and exactly the same cleaning methods. Here comes the bad bit I’ve recently done 4 …
During the boil a lot of water is evaporated off. I have a 30L boiler and generally end up with around 22L in the fermentation vessel. After racking off from the fermentation and leaving the trub behind I can end up with as little as 19L worth of beer. To increase the amount of beer at the end or to intentionally reduce the ABV I occasionally add water (same sterile water used for mashing) to the fermentation vessel just before …
According to BYO malt absorbs roughly 1.04L of water per kg malt. Knowing this makes calculating things like mash and sparge water quite a bit easier. Is there a rough absorption rate for hops? I've searched round the web but cannot seem to find anything. I guess it may vary according to the hop size and density, but some rough figures will help with calculations like topping up water and rackable post-fermentation volume. Is there a difference between adding hops …
Does chlorine in tap water kill yeast? Does chloramine kill yeast? Specifically Lalvin 71B wine yeast? Is it OK to use filtered tap water (Culligan filter) to re-hydrate yeast?
OK, I actually know how to remove chlorine, but I'd like to have the pros and cons of each method spelled out. I will post an answer and mark it as a community wiki. Please edit it with your input.
I recently moved and my water here is quite soft with a very low pH. As such, I've taken to adding many of my brewing salts in the brew kettle and only using salts in the mash to balance the pH. However, with a very low pH in the water to begin with, brewing a very dark beer means I'm going to leave as much calcium out of the mash as possible (because calcium lowers the pH). I do add …
Back when I started homebrewing, I used a Pur filter. I've since moved and my kitchen sink won't accept any sort of filter. I've brewed a few batches with just Fairfax County, VA tap water, and not noticed any real difference. I was wondering what the consensus is: Do you use tap water? Filter with a faucet-mounted filter? Filter with a pitcher type filter? Pre-boil water? Sub-question: Take the water as you get it (whether filtered or tap), or add …
Recently I brewed two batches of a copycat Christmas Ale. You can ignore the recipe's water adjustments, since I didn't do them. Before fermenting, the wort smelled and tasted perfect - just the right amount of sugar and spice. I figured that it would turn out fantastic (both batches). The first batch sat in the bottle for 2 weeks, and when I tasted I was quite disappointed. It had essentially no spice characteristic in smell or taste, and it had …
I am thinking on buying an immersion chiller and from other threads I've thought of using the post-chiller hot water for cleanup, and I've also heard of using the water (after it starts to cool down) to water the garden. How much water does a wort chiller use to cool a 5 gallon batch of beer down to pitch temp? Does any one kind use significantly more/less than the others? EDIT Sorry, I worded the question poorly. I started this …
Everyone knows that reverse osmosis filter strips out the minerals from water, but no one on Google is telling the way to adding them back into the water. I have been drinking reverse osmosis water from a year and its tds rate is also 25 which is pretty good, but it is not hydrating me and I've seen many research on Google about stripped minerals. Can anyone tell me: what should be put in water and how? Is there any …
I used tap water for my first batch and it came out with a little off taste and flavor that I referred to as a bandaid. I looked it up and found it could be the water I am using, are there any good suggestions as to what water is best for brewing? The quickest and easiest solutions will be the best.