BrewinSoldier
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2015
- Messages
- 470
- Reaction score
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Hey guys! Alright so I've came a long long way in knowledge and equipment when it comes to homebrewing, since I first started.
I started off with a cheap aluminum 7 gallon kettle and a plastic bucket in the kitchen. Loved the hobby, and now 2 years later I have a full blown electric brewery I built with digital controllers, the works. I also have two SSbrewtech conical fermenters(with heating and chilling) and a glycol chiller to keep my fermenting temps dialed in to a tee.
So here is what boggles my mind. When I was still doing BIAB, I made a blueberry wheat that was phenomenal. Everyone that tried it was blown away. I did so many things wrong making it that it wasn't even funny.
I started out with 5 gallons of unfiltered tap water for a 5 gallon batch. Our tap water doesn't have chloramine but does have a lot of chlorine(mistake 1).
Brought temps to 150 to mash in and mashed between 150-170 for 60 mins. It's hard to keep a stable temp with an electric burner(mistake 2)
After mash I pulled out grains and water dropped to 4 gallons. I just poured more cold tap water straight in to bring it up to 4.5 gallons.(mistake 3)
Brought to a boil, well as close to as possible with an electric burner which took forever. Added hops for 60 mins. Then took off and cooled to 75°F. Then added more cold tap water to bring it back up to 4.5 gallons(mistake 4)
Then fermented in a plastic bucket in my room for 10 days at around 78 degrees using Safale US-05 sprinkled directly in.
After 10 days siphoned into a keg, added blueberry extract and carbonated.
With all of those mistakes and messed up temps, it is probably one of the best beers I've made to date.
Now with all of this fancy equipment doing all grain, precise temp controls on everything, and way more knowledge, I can't seem to produce it for the life of me using the same recipe.
Things I am doing differently.
-mashing in correctly and keeping at 152°F for 60 mins
-bringing to a legitimate boil
-have tried using filtered tap water from the same source, as well as 100% RO water built up from scratch and hitting the right pH.
-fermenting at 68°F
Should I go crazy on the next attempt and mash super high(like 160ish) and ferment at 78°F to try to duplicate?
Any opinions and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I started off with a cheap aluminum 7 gallon kettle and a plastic bucket in the kitchen. Loved the hobby, and now 2 years later I have a full blown electric brewery I built with digital controllers, the works. I also have two SSbrewtech conical fermenters(with heating and chilling) and a glycol chiller to keep my fermenting temps dialed in to a tee.
So here is what boggles my mind. When I was still doing BIAB, I made a blueberry wheat that was phenomenal. Everyone that tried it was blown away. I did so many things wrong making it that it wasn't even funny.
I started out with 5 gallons of unfiltered tap water for a 5 gallon batch. Our tap water doesn't have chloramine but does have a lot of chlorine(mistake 1).
Brought temps to 150 to mash in and mashed between 150-170 for 60 mins. It's hard to keep a stable temp with an electric burner(mistake 2)
After mash I pulled out grains and water dropped to 4 gallons. I just poured more cold tap water straight in to bring it up to 4.5 gallons.(mistake 3)
Brought to a boil, well as close to as possible with an electric burner which took forever. Added hops for 60 mins. Then took off and cooled to 75°F. Then added more cold tap water to bring it back up to 4.5 gallons(mistake 4)
Then fermented in a plastic bucket in my room for 10 days at around 78 degrees using Safale US-05 sprinkled directly in.
After 10 days siphoned into a keg, added blueberry extract and carbonated.
With all of those mistakes and messed up temps, it is probably one of the best beers I've made to date.
Now with all of this fancy equipment doing all grain, precise temp controls on everything, and way more knowledge, I can't seem to produce it for the life of me using the same recipe.
Things I am doing differently.
-mashing in correctly and keeping at 152°F for 60 mins
-bringing to a legitimate boil
-have tried using filtered tap water from the same source, as well as 100% RO water built up from scratch and hitting the right pH.
-fermenting at 68°F
Should I go crazy on the next attempt and mash super high(like 160ish) and ferment at 78°F to try to duplicate?
Any opinions and suggestions are greatly appreciated.