Recent content by NanoMan

For Helles, I have brewed Jamil's recipe and have been told by the judges in my club that it was a spot on fantastic helles (of course, I concurred!). It took first place several times if I recall. I'm thinking the Hofbrau Haus Oktoberfest is a "festbier", with alcohol at 6.2%. I found it...

I was given a small keg (1.3 gal?) of this beer and thought it was a fantastic festbier!. The underlying style appeared to be helles, but the alcohol was around 6.2% if I recall correctly. The malt was so soft and rounded and sweet (malty sweet). The IBUs could not have been over 20. It was...

The contamination consideration is a concern. Maybe using dry ice to prechill the water going to the immersion chiller (I have a an additional immersion chiller)...

Just a quick update. 70 - 80 batches later and using the Milwaukee pH meter from MoreBeer, the beers are turning out truly exceptional, the WaterCalc sheets have been very accurate in predicting mash pH, slightly better with paler beers, all pH values gravities and efficiencies hitting targets...

Let's say that you have just enough time to chill your wort to 100F but would really like to get to at least 65 to pitch. Any harm in throwing in some dry ice to rapid chill. Assume the CO2 off gases, and yes it's a few more pennies, but for the convenience, and yes, time can be that tight...

Would appreciate it if someone could explauin the general workings of a regulator. There is the regulator body, a valve assy. which screws into the body, a diaphragm that puts pressure onthe valve(?), and a a spring which controls diaphragmatioc pressure. My issue is that the regulator will...

I went ahead and purchased the Milwaukee 102 sold by MoreBeer and recommended by Kai Troster. Here is a comparison of data with the HM Digital PH200: Both meters calibrated per instructions. Assumptions: Calibration standard buffers are good. Base water pH is 7.1, per City testing at the...

There are a lot of resources that discuss the mineral/nutrient requirements for yeast (Noonan, Palmer, White-Zainesheff, etc.). I wold consult those. I don't use RO water, but if I did, I would make sure I had minimal levels of calcium, zinc, etc. Cheers! NanoMan

May I respectfully offer Conclusion 8 to AJ's article on Estimating Mash pH: 8. Relax. Have a homebrew!

Ok, lemme see if I can extrapolate for practical usages. Each first time I brew a beer, I might want to measure the resultant pH of the mash prior to salt additions, excepting that I probably want to ensure at least 50 ppm Ca++ for enzymes and other reasons. Once I have the pH value, I can add...

Has anyone done a validation/calibration of the EZWater Calc spreadsheet? Seems to me it would be easy to do by mashing say a pound of grain in untreated (no salt additions) water and comparing the resulting mash pH with that predicted by the software. I assume the software is based on a...

This here horse ain't dead yet so we'll a keep a whippin' 'er! Ran the manual cal procedure at the bottom of pg 4 for both solutions 7 and 4. Then back and forth between the two solutions. Only off by .03 at solution 4. Checked current mash. 5.58. EZ Calc predicted 5.58. Back to standard...

Hammer down! I'm open to recomendations.:drunk:

Well, like I say, and like beer, go to the source. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with a tech. He noted that the technology of this meter relies on Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and their impact on conductance to obtain readings. As my water has very little TDS (31 mg/L on average), the...

Hmmmmph. Not sure where this getting me. There are three different calibration methods: Factory Reset; Automatic Calibration, and Manual Fine Tune (going from memory here). I ran the factory reset and manual calibration. I got my "sow's ear" to where I could go back and forth between the...