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Calcium carbonate does not dissolve well. Better to use baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Do not use the 5.2 stabilizer product. Water chemistry tools can help with the quantity - Brun Water, Mash Made Easy, Etc.

Doesn't this mean that the mashtun is being drained then the boiling water is being added to saturated grains only - no thin mash remaining? Unless I am interpreting incorrectly - so not exactly. The practice of adding boiling water to a drained mashtun is new to me and seems like it would...

Wouldn't this result in tannin extraction? I know PH plays a more important role in tannin extraction but boiling water poured on husks is not considered a best practice?

The situation of having a boil kettle too small to capture adequate preboil volume and having a issues with lautering if you don't raise the mash temp to mashout temperature gives you four choices as far as mashing: Capture first runnings, add sparge water and capture second runnings - this...

Mashout to preserve mash profile. All you sacrifice is a little efficiency which can be mitigated by upping the quantity of grain to make up the difference in points if you want to hit your OG target. You will spend a wee bit more but totally worth it given the level of effort.

Tilt hydrometers measurements are not precise due to krausen and bubbles attaching to them during fermentation. They are very helpful for determine when fermentation has ended as there will be no more changes in FG as well as when to dry hop or spund. More than likely the beer is not at 1.003...

While updating my brewing program to account for volumetric changes in wort when adding candi syrups I asked the same question. While I learned that when pure sugar is added to water the sugar molecules fit within the water molecules so the volumes are not perfectly additive, I could not find...

Not if you use a blow-off. I ferment 5.4 gallons in a 7 gal SS Brewbucket, 1469 easily crawls out of it. You will be ok, but use a blow-off, and don't get fooled that after the first couple of days of vigorous fermentation that it won't be needed. 1469 comes back with a vengeance. In the...

No idea about open fermentation, but can't go wrong with either of these yeast - Timothy Taylor vs Fullers, both fantastic bitters. One very important difference that has not been noted - 1469 is capable of crawling out of any fermenter. Do not underestimate the krausenzilla this yeast will...

Despite 152 being near the peak of fermentability for single infusions (see chart below) as well as a max 75 minute mash, I do not think that these factors would explain your apparent attenuation of 82%, which is much higher than the 2112 range (67-71% per Wyeast). Furthermore, the crystal and...

Attenuation is very much impacted by the mash temperature & time, and yeast. Can you provide more details. From your notes, I think you started at 145 and raised to 152? How long did you hold it at 145? How long did it take to raise to 152? How long did you hold at 152? Did you do a...

What I find interesting is how infrequently it is mentioned as an ingredient, and that the caramelized version are absent from many of the largest US online retailers. They all carry Belgian candy syrups and sugars but not the English varieties. I found Becker's brand at AHB. Out of 204,000...

Always thought of invert sugar as being just sucrose that has been cracked into glucose and fructose. Never new it came in colors:). Kind of like the English version of Belgian candy sugars and syrups. Learned something new today. Thanks.

67F should work well from start to finish.

Just wanted to add - Carabohemian is a crystal malt in the 75 lovi range so your recipe is 15% crystal which is on the high side of the usage scale and if you mash at 68c (154.4) you will end up with quite a bit of sweetness with caramel / toffee flavors. If that aligns with your definition of...

Not sure it was caught by one of you that the Crystal 150 is EBC so about 57 lovi. Chocolate or invert would not be a substitute. Recipe looks good from a percentage perspective. Plenty of crystal for sweetness and fullness. Carafa 1 at 3% will provide a hint of chocolate.

My observations of doing decoctions (just did another on Saturday) Yes - the mash duration gets longer, depending on the number of steps, length of rests, decoction boil times, etc. Efficiency goes way up versus a single infusion or step as you experienced. Sparging gets more difficult, so it...

LME adds 36 gravity points per pound-gallon. When you mixed it with 4 gallons of water you ended up with 4 gallons + approximately another 30 fluid oz from the LME, so the gravity of your wort that you steep your grains in was approximately 1.033. The grain absorb approximately .135 gallons...

Your bicarbonates (alkalinity) are extremely high amongst other things and your water is poor for brewing light and amber colored beers unless you add quite a bit of acid. Even cutting it in half with RO water will still make it poor for brewing paler beers. You may want to considered using...

Thanks all, just trying to come up with a way to reduce oxygen with minimum effort - the 57 year old sciatic back gets sore quick. ^This is the approach I will be taking.