Hi All,
First post here, new to all grain brewing (did about 10 extract/steep recipes over the past 4 years, so started pretty slow, finally got AG equipment), looking for water feedback from the first AG recipe I did a few weekends ago here in the Chicago suburbs. I have a few questions, which I number below as they are sprinkled in.
Water reports*:
http://www.mountprospect.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=3373
http://www.cityofchicago.org/conten...WaterQltyResultsNRpts/ccReports/cca14_1-2.pdf
*MP report was low on the info, luckily they said they get it all from Chicago which gets it from Lake Michigan, and Chicago does a detailed chem, and pages 3-4 of the Chi report have the most recent (2Q) info.
So I am looking at, out of the tap, more or less
Ca: ~35-40 ppm
Mg: ~12-13 ppm
Alkalinity as CaCO3: ~105-110 ppm
Na: ~7-9 ppm
Cl: ~15-17 ppm
Sulfate: ~25-27 ppm
1) What brew styles is this going to be good for right off the bat with no adjustment needed? (if possible at all)
My main info source up until I discovered these forums a few weeks ago right before the brew was Palmer's How to Brew, 3rd edition, and a lot of what I did for my first batch I based off that.
2) I made a stout (recipe at the bottom), and I am wondering what I should have done to the water, if anything?
(I still don't get a lot of the water chem stuff yet, much reading to do, and I have a copy of the new Water book from the Brew Elements series on the way that I plan on devouring when I get it).
My limited knowledge on water chem and the fact that I was making a stout from what I had read so far told me I needed more Ca (at least 50 ppm) and more Alkalinity (150+ for a dark beer, from Palmer). I ended up buying CaCO3 and putting a gram of it into the mash as Palmer recommended (math I did said it would put me at 65ish Ca and 165ish Alkalinity). Lo and behold all my post reading on the internet (mostly here) said the CaCO3 addition did nothing, so I think that was a waste.
I also bought pH strips because they were cheap but did no in depth reading on it ahead of time. Used these http://www.brewandgrow.com/brew/ph-test-strips-beermaking-range.html
I know now I did that wrong and I took a reading at mash temp (152-153) not room temp and guessed that the color told me it was about 4.9-5.0.
3) From my reading on here I saw pH at hot temp is most likely anywhere from 0.2 to 0.35 lower than it would be at room temp, so maybe my pH fell into the proper range of 5.2-5.6? I'd like to get a pH meter at some point in the future.
4) First taste of the beer after primary fermentation had a ton of delicious sweet, roast, and chocolate notes at the front end and it was delicious. The back end of the taste was....(harsh/tannin/astringent?) I am not sure the word but something was off, as we had a local stout there to taste next to it (Lucky Monk's Solitude Stout). Wondering if something with the starting chem and pH could have caused it? (I am assuming the CaCO3 did nothing from what I read)
Anyway, recipe, is below, as well as what happened on brew day and some of my own comments. Constructive criticism is welcome to it as well. I tried to keep the amounts even/simple for the first time
Target Efficiency: 65%
Calculated: 63.7%
Type: Batch Sparge
Target OG: 1.073
Measured OG: 1.071 (I'll take it for first AG batch ever)
Target FG: 1.018
Measured FG: 1.019
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 (2 smack packs, don't have starter equipment yet)
Boil: 60 mins
Grain Bill
-14 lbs Malteurope 2 row
-1 lb dark munich (I forget the brand)
-1 lb chocolate malt (breiss)
-8 oz Crystal 60L (cargill)
-8 oz Carapils (Breiss)
-8 oz roasted barley (Breiss)
-2 oz UK Black Patent (Pauls Malt)
(was originally gonna have 8 oz flaked oats in there, totally forgot to grab that out of the pantry on brew day...oops!)
Hops
1 oz Summit at 60 mins
1 oz Fuggle at 5 mins
Comments:
-Not as dark as I wanted next to that Lucky Monk stout....more black patent next time or roasted barley? It was more a deep deep brown color than black.
-Think I mashed out pretty poorly and didn't mix well and as a result added to much hot water and was above 170 F I think....caused of harsh flavor I mentioned above?
Thanks for any help and input....these forums are amazing!
First post here, new to all grain brewing (did about 10 extract/steep recipes over the past 4 years, so started pretty slow, finally got AG equipment), looking for water feedback from the first AG recipe I did a few weekends ago here in the Chicago suburbs. I have a few questions, which I number below as they are sprinkled in.
Water reports*:
http://www.mountprospect.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=3373
http://www.cityofchicago.org/conten...WaterQltyResultsNRpts/ccReports/cca14_1-2.pdf
*MP report was low on the info, luckily they said they get it all from Chicago which gets it from Lake Michigan, and Chicago does a detailed chem, and pages 3-4 of the Chi report have the most recent (2Q) info.
So I am looking at, out of the tap, more or less
Ca: ~35-40 ppm
Mg: ~12-13 ppm
Alkalinity as CaCO3: ~105-110 ppm
Na: ~7-9 ppm
Cl: ~15-17 ppm
Sulfate: ~25-27 ppm
1) What brew styles is this going to be good for right off the bat with no adjustment needed? (if possible at all)
My main info source up until I discovered these forums a few weeks ago right before the brew was Palmer's How to Brew, 3rd edition, and a lot of what I did for my first batch I based off that.
2) I made a stout (recipe at the bottom), and I am wondering what I should have done to the water, if anything?
(I still don't get a lot of the water chem stuff yet, much reading to do, and I have a copy of the new Water book from the Brew Elements series on the way that I plan on devouring when I get it).
My limited knowledge on water chem and the fact that I was making a stout from what I had read so far told me I needed more Ca (at least 50 ppm) and more Alkalinity (150+ for a dark beer, from Palmer). I ended up buying CaCO3 and putting a gram of it into the mash as Palmer recommended (math I did said it would put me at 65ish Ca and 165ish Alkalinity). Lo and behold all my post reading on the internet (mostly here) said the CaCO3 addition did nothing, so I think that was a waste.
I also bought pH strips because they were cheap but did no in depth reading on it ahead of time. Used these http://www.brewandgrow.com/brew/ph-test-strips-beermaking-range.html
I know now I did that wrong and I took a reading at mash temp (152-153) not room temp and guessed that the color told me it was about 4.9-5.0.
3) From my reading on here I saw pH at hot temp is most likely anywhere from 0.2 to 0.35 lower than it would be at room temp, so maybe my pH fell into the proper range of 5.2-5.6? I'd like to get a pH meter at some point in the future.
4) First taste of the beer after primary fermentation had a ton of delicious sweet, roast, and chocolate notes at the front end and it was delicious. The back end of the taste was....(harsh/tannin/astringent?) I am not sure the word but something was off, as we had a local stout there to taste next to it (Lucky Monk's Solitude Stout). Wondering if something with the starting chem and pH could have caused it? (I am assuming the CaCO3 did nothing from what I read)
Anyway, recipe, is below, as well as what happened on brew day and some of my own comments. Constructive criticism is welcome to it as well. I tried to keep the amounts even/simple for the first time
Target Efficiency: 65%
Calculated: 63.7%
Type: Batch Sparge
Target OG: 1.073
Measured OG: 1.071 (I'll take it for first AG batch ever)
Target FG: 1.018
Measured FG: 1.019
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 (2 smack packs, don't have starter equipment yet)
Boil: 60 mins
Grain Bill
-14 lbs Malteurope 2 row
-1 lb dark munich (I forget the brand)
-1 lb chocolate malt (breiss)
-8 oz Crystal 60L (cargill)
-8 oz Carapils (Breiss)
-8 oz roasted barley (Breiss)
-2 oz UK Black Patent (Pauls Malt)
(was originally gonna have 8 oz flaked oats in there, totally forgot to grab that out of the pantry on brew day...oops!)
Hops
1 oz Summit at 60 mins
1 oz Fuggle at 5 mins
Comments:
-Not as dark as I wanted next to that Lucky Monk stout....more black patent next time or roasted barley? It was more a deep deep brown color than black.
-Think I mashed out pretty poorly and didn't mix well and as a result added to much hot water and was above 170 F I think....caused of harsh flavor I mentioned above?
Thanks for any help and input....these forums are amazing!
