Recent content by ryan83

Maybe this is a stupid question / Instead of getting close with a spreadsheet, would it be accurate to assume making a mini mash, keeping water/grist ratios the same and then measuring ph to be accurate when adding adjuncts or a specific grain where there is no data on yet ?

Ok to simplify / a 9gram calcium chloride addition to 13gallons of water would yield 50ppm of calcium and 88ppm of chloride resulting in a -36 RA. From here i would measure my mash PH and if high add some quantity of lactic acid?

Thank you all so much for the replies - So based on those replies i have a few questions. Why not Gypsum? I blindly added minerals to get the results i thought i wanted and yes i was shooting for the chloride/sulfate Ratio so i guess i'm ignorant to what the minerals are actually doing. Secondly...

So I'm cheating a little bit because i'm not necessarily a beginner, however I'm a beginner when it comes to water profiles and I have not brewed since my divorce which was about 2 years ago so in a lot of ways i feel like a beginner (And this Forum had the most threads so i assume it get looked...

I did two extract kits when I first started and followed the partial boil directions, on the third I did a full boil. I used an online calculator to determine how much hops before I purchased beer smith. I did a few more kits this style and I think generally most calculations were roughly half...

We (My Dad / Who I Brew With) just built a HERMS with a march pump and two sanke's / We had a mesh false bottom and opened the valves fully and did not experience any compaction of the grains. We noticed without a good flowing circulation it was difficult to maintain temperatures. Once we opened...

I'm interested in how it turns out. Keep us updated.

My wort tasted like plastic and i find it hard to believe i got an infection from boil kettle to fermentor that would have such a profound effect. I use StarSan so chlorine wasn't a culprit and fermentation temp wasn't an issue because like I said it was straight from the chiller going into the...

I had this experience. The next batch will be fine because it most likely came from the cooler. I dumped mined. Somewhere i read (After the fact) that you should fill your cooler with heated water and drain before you mash for the first time. Anyway all my next batches have been great. Good luck!

Yes! this is a fact! I love all the opinions on this thread. Soon we will brew a pumpkin beer, but I have two scheduled before it and we're doing a build on a fermentation chiller this weekend. And I agree that Pumpkin and winter ales are the better seasonal brews but i may not have tasted the...

So in the past couple days I've had the opportunity to try a few different Pumpkin ales. Southern Tier - Pumking / Schafly - Pumpkin Ale / Dogfish Head - Punkin Ale. This was the first time I've had had pumpkin ale so I basicaly had no idea what to expect. Heres my thoughts but I'd like to hear...

I was scared of the astringency monster! I've read somewhere to stop sparging when 1.010 is reached. I've also read not to worry about it as long as mash temps were accurate / not above 170F and the filter bed is nice and set with a good vorlauf. My problem has always been reading to much into...

So I'm relatively new to brewing, I started in January and have seven extract brews under my belt. A couple weeks ago I leaped into all grain because i felt like a i had developed a good routine with sanitation an organization. So as of this weekend I have three all grain brews attempted and...

I just did my first all grain brew and I opted for copper. It was pretty easy and will probably last me a long time.

Found this on Amazon