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Hmm. That's interesting - I had forgotten about this option. Glad to hear it's not full-on sour. Like I said, I'm not a sour beer guy, so the thought of having 5 gallons of something I'll have to choke down with gives me pause. Thanks!!

That's interesting. I would have thought that a typical ale would have finished much closer to the 5.2 - 5.4 I aim for at the mash. I didn't know boiling/hopping/fermenting dropped it that much. But, thanks, that gives me a pretty good frame of reference for what I should be shooting for.

Yes, I had planned to get pH meter just for fun anyway. Now I have an excuse. So what's a good pH to shoot for when I want an only "slightly tangy" beer? Somewhere in the 4.0-4.5 range? Higher? I see some of the really sour stuff is in the 3.2-3.5 range. Thanks!!

Hello All, I'm kicking around the idea of a Blood Orange Gose. I'm thinking something fizzy, refreshing, sweet, tart, and salty would be good for lounging on a warm day after the lawn is cut, and the kids are playing. I'll admit I am a little intimidated by sours. Not only the process, which...

Right - my last thread not only had poor efficiency, I missed my ABV targets, and got more into the fermenter than I had planned. Hence the reason I lowered the strike volume. But yes, I've found everything you've said to be true.

Yeah, it's no coincidence that I got higher ABV than your average hefe. I would've liked something at about a 6% or a touch lower. After the poor numbers of the last one - likely due to too much water, no recirculation, limited stirring, low temps, etc. - I was expecting a lower ABV. It's all...

Well, dumping from gallon jugs isn’t precise, so it was likely more than 7.5 gallons, but definitely less than 8. I measure my water in inches, using a calculator that takes my kettle diameter into consideration. The measurement in inches is also an estimation, because I’m not being super...

Thanks to everyone who chimed in to help with my poor efficiency numbers last time around. I had some much better results this time around. So, What did I change? As was suggested, I did the following: Shortened the hoses to and from the pump. I lost less heat through the silicone, though my...

I don't have so much of a problem with it, as it's a flooded market right now, and smaller breweries have to differentiate the product. What bothers me is when there's a name and a name only. I see an interesting label and a catchy name, only to pick up the bottle to find there's almost no...

That's me. I use a hop spider and hop bags, so everything goes into the fermenter with very little trub. I just started doing this with my new setup, so my loss numbers were way off. I also know a bit more about how much I'm losing in the fermenter, as it's mainly just yeast and break materials...

So here's the plan for the next brew day: Start with closer to 7.5 Gallons of strike water Shorten hoses a bit Recirculate through entire mash, with some occasional stirring extend mash by 15-30 minutes Mash out slowly to 170 before pulling the bag Squeeze like hell If that doesn't get me...

I'm going to have to look again, but yeah, if I remember correctly, the false bottom screen is just barely covered by the water at 3 gallons. I have a large 15 gallon pot, 16" diameter. Approx. 3.5" of water is 3 gallons. I'll go back to recirculating during the whole mash and seeing if this...

Yes, my water is built and thoroughly mixed before I mash. Yes, I stir at least two times, then I circulate with a pump for a few minutes after the mash to dump any escaped particles back on top of the grain bed. I haven't sparged, and probably won't. I brew in my garage and I don't have a water...

And herein lies some of my frustration - I put those numbers into Beersmith and get 62.5% efficiency. Again, I may not be using Beersmith correctly. If it is indeed 79.83% efficiency, it's more than enough for me. I want to target 75% as a minimum. I'm already planning on using less water to...

I’m using Beersmith mobile 3 on a tablet. I’m referring specifically to the brew day inputs tab, which never seem to save consistently when I click save. They sometimes revert to the yellow default inputs when I save out and go back in, sometimes they don’t.

I’m getting very different numbers in Beersmith, and am beginning to get very frustrated with it. I like it for building recipes, but there are so many inputs that dramatically alter the calculations. Again, I’m sure I’m not using it correctly and haven’t built my profile correctly, so it’s...

I’m driving myself crazy between all the calculations, and I’m not really even sure I’m using each one correctly. Between Beersmith, Bru ‘n Water, Brewers Friend, and others that have been recommended, I don’t know which numbers to trust. Frankly, it’s taking a bit of the enjoyment out of the...

Wow! Thanks so much for all this. So, without changing the crush- since I don’t have a mill and don’t control it- can I get higher efficiency by increasing to a 90 minute mash? I though most of the conversion happens in the first 25 minutes. Would I really gain more by mashing longer?

I think it’s right at about 3 gallons under the false bottom. I aim for my strike temp to be about 158, and my grains sit at 68 deg room temp for at least 24 hours before mashing. My pre-mash water volume is about 8.5 gallons. I use both a hop spider and hop bags, so the total volume of post...

Strike water volume was about 8.5 gallons. Maybe a hair less.