Recent content by lightningbug

Hey everyone. I'm newish to the area and I'm looking for a homebrew club. I see a handful listed on the AHA website, but many seem to be pretty inactive online (no websites, broken websites, dead social media groups, etc). What's are some of the bigger and busier clubs in the area? I'd love to...

I brew every 2 weeks almost religiously. I’d brew more but I only have one fermenter and fermentation fridge. I make 2.5 gallon batches for new recipes (stored in small torpedo kegs) and full 5 gallon batches for tested and proven recipes. I generally have a hard time keeping the 5 taps on my...

A long soak in Oxiclean Free usually does the trick. I bought a vittles vault from a yard sale once that reeked of dog food, but a few days of soaking made it good as new.

I used to filter in the pressure transfer between primary and the keg, but I don’t do it much anymore. They get 90% as clear on their own after a few weeks and I don’t have to clean the filter or waste extra beer.

Any recommendation for a specific sensory kit?

I’m studying and practicing for the BJCP judging exam and I’m starting to get a little demoralized with my inability to discern different flavors, especially from malt. It’s extra bad that I can’t seem to find anyone else online with the same problem… it’s like everyone can pick up the moderate...

I was sure to include a caveat that it was an assumption. People assume it will be BIAB because it’s the cheapest and easiest entry into all grain brewing.

It’s closest true-belgian equivalent is called a quadrupel. It’s going to take some trial and error to replicate, since most of the characters comes from yeast esters/phenols and are subject to a lot of different variables. Fermentation temperature control is important for most belgians.

"First-hand knowledge" is also known as "anecdotal evidence" and is not evidence at all. Neither is "people have done this for decades". The simple point that everyone was dancing around seen in bold below: - We all know that mineral additions and mash selection impact the pH of the mash. -...

Make it now, drink it, and make it again in 3 more months. Problem solved

Is RO really that consistent that you can just trust the calculators? Like I said before, I don’t use RO but I always find my mash pH ends up considerably different from what the calculator in my software estimates. I’ll adjust my profile with mineral additions, but I’ll still use a pH meter...

You answered it. The question I had from the very beginning. I don’t know why we had two pages of “wtf dude read a book” when all someone had to say was “I dont bother with it because my calculator does it for me and it’s close enough that it doesnt matter”.

You have a problem with reading comprehension. Nobody has actually answered the question as to how you “adjust” a number you dont know to get mash pH. You in particular posted a book quote that said “the initial water pH doesn’t matter, the mash pH does” and for some reason you take that mean...

So are you saying the pH of the water is totally irrelevant as if it doesnt exist and all that matters is how much your recipe shifts the pH? If that were the case then wouldn’t we be talking about our mash pH as “ X change in pH” and not the “5.2-5.6” that we see everywhere, including in our...

How do you read or estimate the mash pH without the initial water pH or a pH meter? My initial question.