Brewing Again

[mhk56]

Getting started with new equipment and new location. When I brewed in Colorado Springs I had no issues brewing. Moved to south Texas and had 2 bad batches in a row. Job took me from brewing but I'm back. Would it be better to brew indoors with a partial boil or use propane burner in the garage and a full 5 gallon boil? Alot of pollen this time of year.Also my water is very hard ( 12.6) chlorine has been removed. Can I use the home water or buy bottled water? Thank you for your help.

 

[william.roy.c]

There’s 20 acres of pine trees right behind my house generating pollen right now, so I feel your pain! If you have a garage, maybe you can brew on a rainy day when the pollen count will be low. As for the water issue, I got a Berkey a couple years ago for drinking, cooking, and of course, brewing.
Also, I am not in Texas, but in the sunny South, so I made a pre-chiller with a copper coil in a bucket where I put a frozen jug of water and water to cool my tap water down before entering my wort chiller. I want to get the wort chilled down fast and closed up in the fermenter quick as can. Good luck!

 

[tracer bullet]

had 2 bad batches in a row

Bad how? Maybe there's somethign in particular to target.

 

[mhk56]

There’s 20 acres of pine trees right behind my house generating pollen right now, so I feel your pain! If you have a garage, maybe you can brew on a rainy day when the pollen count will be low. As for the water issue, I got a Berkey a couple years ago for drinking, cooking, and of course, brewing.
Also, I am not in Texas, but in the sunny South, so I made a pre-chiller with a copper coil in a bucket where I put a frozen jug of water and water to cool my tap water down before entering my wort chiller. I want to get the wort chilled down fast and closed up in the fermenter quick as can. Good luck!

Thank you for the tips. A pre wort chiller makes sense as the tap water isn't that cold.

 

[mhk56]

Bad how? Maybe there's somethign in particular to target.

Beer had a very bad taste. this was 20 years ago but i was thinking it may have been all the chlorine in the water here. When in Colorado I never did anything with the water, just used tap water and it was great.

 

[ncbrewer]

Would it be better to brew indoors with a partial boil or use propane burner in the garage and a full 5 gallon boil?

IMO stovetop partial boil is good if doing extract, and solves some problems, as you pointed out. You can get around the high gravity boil issue by using the late extract addition method.