Hermit
fuddle
I have a recipe I normally add raw sugar and Irish moss to at the 10 minute mark before I put my chiller into the brew pot. I just got a pH meter and started to take the water chemistry more seriously and it seems my water is a little calcium deficient. This is the second time I have done this recipe since getting my pH meter so I knew the pH would be about 5.4 without additions so I decided to add them to my brew kettle this time around. I added nothing to the previous brew.
I put some gypsum, calcium chloride and baking soda into the container with my raw sugar and Irish moss. When I added it to the kettle at the 50 minute mark I had a second 'hot break'. This never happened with the raw sugar and Irish moss addition before. I skim the hot break because I've tasted it and don't like the taste so I figure the sooner I take it out the better.
Completely subjective here but the yeast/trub cake seems to be less, probably just more compact. I can't see what I skimmed during the second break accounting for the difference in apparent volume.
It will be interesting to compare the two beers side by side when they are done. The first was done with calcium deficient water. Ca was about 30 ppm. They will be about 3 weeks apart in age and be bottle conditioned. It is a mild recipe so I'm thinking once the second one is in the bottle a couple months the age difference won't matter too much.
I put some gypsum, calcium chloride and baking soda into the container with my raw sugar and Irish moss. When I added it to the kettle at the 50 minute mark I had a second 'hot break'. This never happened with the raw sugar and Irish moss addition before. I skim the hot break because I've tasted it and don't like the taste so I figure the sooner I take it out the better.
Completely subjective here but the yeast/trub cake seems to be less, probably just more compact. I can't see what I skimmed during the second break accounting for the difference in apparent volume.
It will be interesting to compare the two beers side by side when they are done. The first was done with calcium deficient water. Ca was about 30 ppm. They will be about 3 weeks apart in age and be bottle conditioned. It is a mild recipe so I'm thinking once the second one is in the bottle a couple months the age difference won't matter too much.