I've been reading this forum since I started brewing a few months ago but this is my first post.
I'm going to try my first AG brew (Northern Brewer's Surly Bender recipe) in a few weeks and I have several questions that I am still unsure about.
1) Water. I have a water softener so I have been using Ice Mountain and Absopure spring water for my extract batches. I can't find any good water chemistry data for these. I bought pH test strips to test pH but I haven't found any info on how I should correct pH once the mash has started. Should I just get 5.2 pH stabilizer and call it done or buy additives and which ones?
2) BeerSmith2 / Batch Sparging. I am trialing BeerSmith2 and the batch sparging calc is not totally clear. I have selected equal batch sizes which produces the line "Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.56 gal, 3.77gal) of 168.0 F water". Does that mean add 0.56gal after mash and then drain completely? If I select the drain mash before sparging option, then the line says, "Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.33gal) of 168.0 F water", which is no longer equal batch sparges. Any thoughts on what is the better method?
Any feedback is appreciated.
-Rich
I'm going to try my first AG brew (Northern Brewer's Surly Bender recipe) in a few weeks and I have several questions that I am still unsure about.
1) Water. I have a water softener so I have been using Ice Mountain and Absopure spring water for my extract batches. I can't find any good water chemistry data for these. I bought pH test strips to test pH but I haven't found any info on how I should correct pH once the mash has started. Should I just get 5.2 pH stabilizer and call it done or buy additives and which ones?
2) BeerSmith2 / Batch Sparging. I am trialing BeerSmith2 and the batch sparging calc is not totally clear. I have selected equal batch sizes which produces the line "Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.56 gal, 3.77gal) of 168.0 F water". Does that mean add 0.56gal after mash and then drain completely? If I select the drain mash before sparging option, then the line says, "Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 4.33gal) of 168.0 F water", which is no longer equal batch sparges. Any thoughts on what is the better method?
Any feedback is appreciated.
-Rich