Recent content by shanman75

My keggle has 1.7G equipment waste. It's a lot of beer to waste on a 5G batch, but most of the trub is below the 1.7G mark. My question: How do you calculate IBU for such a batch? I assume you just include the "trub" in the calculation (5G + 1.7G = 6.7G) But, is that realistic...

So, how long is too long for batch sparging/no sparging? I've been doing pretty lengthy sparges (>1hr)

No, I measured pH at mash temp. I'm betting that that's wrong, and I need to account for it. And, the measurements were un-adjusted raw numbers based off of the color I saw. pH according to water report (cities "treated" report in the field) is 7.48. Sulfate's are 77.1 Chloride is 37.9...

Adding the water in small "mug" batches is a good idea...I might try that next time. I intended to use 1/4 oz of Nugget at the end instead of the 3/4 oz. I was targeting 20 IBU on hopville. Hopefully it will turn out fine since the screw up was on the flavor/aroma hops instead of the bittering...

When you say you sparge slowly, are you attempting to do a fly sparge? I've been averaging 85+% as well, and I'm ultra slow. I'm almost thinking that might be part of the issue as well. I've been very careful not to get above 170F during sparge. The last few, I've done a single sparge of ~180F...

Ryan, no your opinion's are just what I'm looking for...different people's experiences can definitely help when one gets stuck! I did about 10 extract batches before switching to all grain. None of them had this off-flavor (though, I learned plenty during that experience). What do you use for...

Yooper, I thought that as well. Especially since most of the advice out there seems to be around adding acids or salts that cause add acid to the mash. Maybe I should get a different brand/supply of pH strips to test with! I can say adding baking soda did increase the pH, according to the...

Samc, that is one of the experiments I intend to try. I was hoping to get some good pointers on what could be causing the off flavor I'm tasting, though. Water adjustments might not be the source. Ryan, the flavor mostly like hop bitterness, but it lingers for a few seconds and then tastes...

My first few AG brews used unmodified *filtered* tap water. Nearly all of them wound up tasting oddly bitter (I think astringent?). Living in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, my water is somewhat hard to begin with. NTMWD does pretty good tests, and my city does as well. Though, Bru'n Water says my...

Why not open ferment? You get to remove the krausen, and no risk of blow outs!

Another thought. Mash temp has a lot to do with the type of sugars converted. I've heard that mashing low can makes more simple sugars than mashing high. What temp do you target mashing at?

I've heard many people say...you either like Fuggles, or ya don't. Same with Northern Brewer hops. Shipyard's IPA gets pretty mixed reviews...mostly negative, and I cannot get Shipyard IPA in Texas from what I can see, so I plan on giving Fuggles another shake with a smaller ~2 gallon...

Yeah, I found Shipyard IPA while googling, but haven't found it locally. The hop bag reads UK Fuggle, so I'm pretty sure they came from UK. I wonder if they actually did get old, though. You can never tell how long hops stay is in a LHBS chiller. I just cracked another brew I made with 'em. It...

We've recently made a few batches of SMaSH brews with Fuggles hops in trying to make an English-style brew. I'm not sure if I really like the end result. Some say Fuggles tastes "earthy". I'm not sure how I'd describe the smell/taste, but it's certainly different than what I expected. Does...

Good suggestions. I'm still on the prowl, though. I really want some glasses with the red line for head, and metric markings.