Search results

I think we'll need some additional details. Can you add anything along the lines of fermentation temperature, length of fermentation, and starting gravity of the batches? I'm not sure gypsum would affect the attenuation at all. At least, I haven't seen anything anywhere to suggest that.

A few months ago, a friend who raises honey bees gave me a pound of their honey and asked for an IPA. I made the mistake of trying to add a fairly good dose of Munich malt to try to compliment the honey flavors (I added the honey into the primary). It didn't work out all that well. I ended up...

Sure am. I've been sick, work was pretty busy this week, and I am going to be doing a fair bit of traveling soon so things have been hectic. But I saw the old thread get closed and I have been keeping up with this one. I don't have much to add yet; unfortunately (or fortunately maybe?)...

Was a bit under the weather over the weekend so I'm just getting caught up again now. LovesIPA, Looks like those Glacier machines might be clearing up based on the test you did with the TDS meter. Though, like you said, TDS doesn't pick up on a few things. Regardless, I'm close to feeling like...

Like the other people said: if your gravity reading is still stable, go for it. Beer has natural amounts of CO2 dissolved in it from the fermentation process; not all of it escapes. As the beer warms up more CO2 will come out of solution so you may see airlock activity that isn't related to...

If your gravity is stable, you should be fine. Airlock activity can mean different things. When the activity started, did the temperature of the beer or ambient temperature in the room rise at all?

Still have a couple bottles from it that you'd care to send me? I'd like to taste and see what I can detect, if anything. It might help matters.

Very kind of you to say. I'm sure you are as well. I don't care either way, to tell you the truth. If this is a legitimate problem to solve then I'm helping. If it is a troll, its not really a waste of my time because I'm also reviewing my own procedures in a mental exercise to make sure I...

Then it's completely irrelevant. Forget that as a potential cause and we'll move on.

You sanitized the auto-siphon between the two batches, right?

Awesome. I think this will really help shed some light on what's happening and you'll finally get some answers.

Don't blame me. I just got here. If you create a specific water profile for each batch then you should have known that it was bad advice to use that much gypsum and dismissed it. But if you're willing to follow advice which you knew was bad to begin with, why haven't you bottled a batch yet...

Thanks... I'm trying. :) I feel bad for the guy. I think he's genuinely frustrated. But like I just posted, I think it isn't one problem but several that he's created in his pursuit of the first which no longer even exists.

The reason nothing makes sense is he's been fighting more than one problem at different points along the way and doesn't know it. That's my opinion anyway. The first problem was his water. He had off flavors from the Glacier vending machines he was using. The article I linked to earlier pointed...

Sorry, I edited my response when I saw you mentioned it was an extract. From what I understand, extract brews in general struggle with head retention. I've heard people suggest adding a partial mash to the process with 1/2 pound of Carapils / Dextrine malt. It won't add much to the flavor and...

Can you outline your process a bit starting with the boil, addition of extract, etc?

LovesIPA, just for the record, these are the PDFs that show the water profile of the beer you made so you can see the low pH and the extremely high sulfate amounts that resulted. Because you made the same additions in the same amounts to the sparge water which was greater in volume, you...

LovesIPA, one of the big take-aways here is that additions to the water should vary greatly depending upon the style of beer you're brewing as well as the types of grain you're using. Roasted grains and crystal malts are acidic and will drive down the pH of the mash. You have a few of those in...

Now, hold up a second. Perhaps because I am joining this thread after months of frustration endured by others I have a bit more optimism, but this seems like an easy fix. A good pH meter will run $80-100. The scale is only $10-20. A quick lesson on how to use the Bru'n water sheet properly and...

Okay, so here's one issue: You're using a total of 6 tsp of Gypsum which is equal to 24 grams. In 8.9 gallons of distilled water, that gives you close to 400 ppm sulfate. Even in an IPA, that's going to give you off flavors. But it gets worse from there. After boiling for an hour and losing...