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“I drink the water all day, and I had read that if I enjoyed it, it was likely fine for brewing.” The above is one of the biggest fallacies in home brewing EVER, IMO — unless you’re just lucky to have good brewing water out of the kitchen tap. Even before I used pH measuring strips and then a...

I think some see a good head on a home brew as a sign of success in their final product, getting a result the big boy brewers achieve. I know I like the look of it.

Yes, your right! My pH meter was working after all, my mash pH ended up at 5.3 (corrected for temp) and now my airlock for my fermenting Belgian Dark Strong Ale is going nuts with wonderful aromas in my kitchen.

I’ll remember that next time 😉.

Sorry guys! I had a pH meter issue that I figured out after all and it was a “duh….” moment so I backed out of the question ☺️.

Cancelled

I still did a sparge. I don’t have my recipe specifics as Doug289z pointed out is good to know. The scenario was fairly typical for me — about 10.5 - 11.25 lbs of grain and shooting for gravity of 1.050 - 1.054. I sparge by trickling up to 2G of water over the grain bed by hand from a small pot...

I didn’t find bottling to be such a pain once I had a ”system” for doing it. I only brew for me so it isn’t like I brew more that 5 gallons at a time or 2-3 times a month. Nonetheless, kegs — actually, mini kegs have some appeal — I live in a smallish one bedroom condo so I brew in the kitchen...

I thought if you had mashed at the high end — 158, 160F — that might be a factor but you didn’t, so....

What about mash temp? High end of the scale vs. low end of the scale?

I started home brewing around ‘95 and did it for a few years and came back 3 years ago. IPAs were certainly gaining in popularity in home brewing when I started and that accelerated, as we all know. The interest in hoppier beers has sky rocketed with new strains and of course many new beers...

I’m a little jealous 😄. Bringing home gallons of water gets a little old.

For all the effort and money it takes to brew AG beer, I can’t for the life of me imagine using tap water out of a hose. I pay around .89 cents a gallon for RO or distilled water and ever since I bought a pH meter and mineral salts, my beers have turned out much better.

Not really any different for me from commercial bottled beer — but I bottle and am careful not to pour any yeast from the bottom of the bottle into my glass.

Agreed. Before my Mash & Boil, I used an 8 gallon induction ready Caribou Classic on an 1800 watt induction cooktop. By the way, one CAN do 5 a gallon batch with an 8 gallon kettle but a 10 gallon kettle makes sense for higher gravity beers. Adding a lb or two of DME to an AG brew can help.

Exactly!! For all the money I’ve spent so far on the hobby, I could’ve purchase a lot of fine beers at my local liquor store! The process is probably the biggest part of why most of us are brewing 😁.

I’d like to hear how the xylitol works out. I use Truvia and like that. I haven’t dialed in carbonation even after 4 batches. It doesn’t gush at all but I have to pour it slowly down the side — still a huge head but subsides reasonably fast. Last time I used 4 oz of corn sugar for 5 gallons and...

@matt_m — It looks good! Mine is darker but hazy as well. I let a bit of cherry sediment in the bottling bucket and the cherry flavor is very prominent along with a warm alcohol sensation anxious to see if it improves over the coming months. The couple of Belgian Dark Strong Ales I bought...

I wouldn’t sweat this. I’ve made it 4x with either 80L or 90L every time with gallon jugs of apple juice ant it turns out great.