Recent content by dotsoncs

Thanks for the replies. Excellent information. Does it reduce the amounts of Calcium or Sulfates?

I was discussing water chemistry with a fellow brewer and he mentioned that he filtered (Pur, Brita, etc) his water prior to brewing but still based his water chemistry calculations off of his initial water report. He swears that it doesn't change the value of the important ions and that he...

TheChemist - That's exactly what I was looking for and what I expected. Appreciate all of the responses. Happy brewing!

Figured I could've done that, just wasn't sure. How would I need to adjust the hops?

I took my second shot at AG over the weekend, trying to brew an American Pale Ale. I barely hit the 70% efficiency on my initial AG batch so I put some time into to improving my process; working my water chemistry, having a friend crush my grain, etc. All of the work seems to have paid off...

To make sure I'm understanding this correctly, the RA of 12 would be considered too low for this style of beer (APA, SRM~8)? I've seen 'kettle' mentioned a few times and wasn't sure what it meant. This is basically the final wort prior to boil? In other words, I could hold off adding any of...

Thanks for the reply. Where would I find the resultant pH? On the Mash Acidification sheet? I reduced the Gypsum down to .5 gram/gal - half of my initial amount - and the pH listed on the Mash Acidification sheet didn't move at all (RA went from 12 to 34). I figure I'm looking at the...

I'm about to embark on my second AG batch and finally decided to suck it up and tackle the Bru'n Water sheet. My goals were to reach an RA that fell within the appropriate range for an APA (8.2 SRM) and an appropriate SO4/Cl ratio that favors the bitterness/hops. Water Input: Sparge...

Ran my first all-grain about three weeks ago and made a basic Heffeweisen with the crowd favorite Wyeast 3068. I hit my FG last Friday and bottled on Saturday. I noticed a relatively strong sulfur smell at bottling but figured it would condition out. After checking a bottle today...

I pitched 3068 this last Saturday evening into an AG Hefeweizen. Sunday morning there was a good 3 inches of krausen which - while nice and active - seemed manageable. I went off the buddies place to watch the playoff games and get a frantic call from the wife; the foam had climbed into the...

Didn't realize 'AJ' was the guy who wrote the stickied water guide. :-) Most spreadsheets I've worked with put my Mash pH (without treatment) around 5.96; higher than it should be. In order to bring it down to an acceptable range I'd have to cross the 3% barrier (7 oz, 3.8% to be exact) for...

Thanks for the reply - that goes a long way in helping me understand. Could you clarify on what you mean by AJ? Thanks!

Got my report back from Ward. Water is from a small community well. pH 7.1 Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est, ppm 157 Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.26 Cations / Anions, me/L 2.6 / 2.4 Sodium, Na 10 Potassium, K 4 Calcium, Ca 36 Magnesium, Mg 3 Total Hardness, CaCO3 103 Nitrate, NO3-N 0.1...

Oh I'm going to do it. And for exactly the reason that I shouldn't I suppose. :rockin: I've read a few threads from this forum on folks doing just that and having it turn out well. The worst that could happen is I'm out $1.50 in hops and have an odd-styled beer. Best case is I find...

I brewed an entire 5 gallon batch of Porter but as this is only my second batch of beer want to do some experimentation with dry hopping. I picked up 2 three gallon carboys and plan to split the batch. In one I'd like to leave it alone and the other I'd like to dry hop with Fuggles. I have...