Been AG brewing (Denny Conn style, cooler tun, batch sparge) for maybe 4 years now. Over the past yr or more I've noticed my pale color hoppy beers being dominated by a flavor I couldn't figure out. Despite using a ton of late boil and dry hops, my hops were disappearing. To me the hops seemed masked by this new flavor.
A brewing in York ME was kind enough to try my most recent IPA and give me feedback and try to trouble-shoot it. The good: the "off flavor" I was tasting wasn't really an off flavor... more so I was just tasting the 2-row base malt front and center. I explained I had used about 3/4 oz of Warrior to bitter, and once each of Citra and Simcoe at 20 and 1 minute, PLUS Citra and Simcoe DH. They couldn't believe I'd used that much hops and they were so missing...
The head brewer's final suggestion: my water. So I got the Ward Labs home brewers test done to my private well water. Results are in and now that Denny Conn pointed me to the Bru'n Water site and spreadsheet, I think I'm figuring out.
pH 8.2
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 222
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.37
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.7 / 3.8
ppm
Sodium, Na 53
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 15
Magnesium, Mg 8
Total Hardness, CaCO3 71
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 14
Chloride, Cl 4
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 173
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 144
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.03
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit
After doing some reading, it appears my water is relatively soft, my residual alkalinity high. I plugged in all my results and started looking at the spreadsheet, aiming at the Pale Ale Profile as my goal for my happier pale beers. I'm planning on mixing in about 20% distilled water, and adding gypsum and a little magnesium chloride to boost the calcium, magnesium, sulfate, chloride, and drop the bicarbonate a bit. Using the same recipe as my last IPA, it appears I don't need to deal with any lactic for the mash to get down to about 5.6 pH.
Going to do a bit more reading on all this and then give it a go, brewing the same IPA as my last batch to see what a difference I can get.
A brewing in York ME was kind enough to try my most recent IPA and give me feedback and try to trouble-shoot it. The good: the "off flavor" I was tasting wasn't really an off flavor... more so I was just tasting the 2-row base malt front and center. I explained I had used about 3/4 oz of Warrior to bitter, and once each of Citra and Simcoe at 20 and 1 minute, PLUS Citra and Simcoe DH. They couldn't believe I'd used that much hops and they were so missing...
The head brewer's final suggestion: my water. So I got the Ward Labs home brewers test done to my private well water. Results are in and now that Denny Conn pointed me to the Bru'n Water site and spreadsheet, I think I'm figuring out.
pH 8.2
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 222
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.37
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.7 / 3.8
ppm
Sodium, Na 53
Potassium, K 1
Calcium, Ca 15
Magnesium, Mg 8
Total Hardness, CaCO3 71
Nitrate, NO3-N < 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 14
Chloride, Cl 4
Carbonate, CO3 < 1.0
Bicarbonate, HCO3 173
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 144
Total Phosphorus, P < 0.01
Total Iron, Fe 0.03
"<" - Not Detected / Below Detection Limit
After doing some reading, it appears my water is relatively soft, my residual alkalinity high. I plugged in all my results and started looking at the spreadsheet, aiming at the Pale Ale Profile as my goal for my happier pale beers. I'm planning on mixing in about 20% distilled water, and adding gypsum and a little magnesium chloride to boost the calcium, magnesium, sulfate, chloride, and drop the bicarbonate a bit. Using the same recipe as my last IPA, it appears I don't need to deal with any lactic for the mash to get down to about 5.6 pH.
Going to do a bit more reading on all this and then give it a go, brewing the same IPA as my last batch to see what a difference I can get.