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Yeah this is pretty normal for an underpitched (liquid) yeast as they are simply taking note of supplies and multiplying before commencing fermentation. As a result you'll finish with a lower FG with a higher number of fusels which the yeast will eventually convert to esters giving you a beer...

How come? Does the water skew the weight measurements by making it heavier?

I read that supposedly 5.2 is good in terms of the boil in terms of the formation of the hot break and the coagulation of proteins, which means it has benefits relating to stability and clarity. I can't remember where I read it, I imagine it was amongst the forum but even Brewer's Friend's Water...

Is that true!? I always bring it down to 5.2 like most people I believe but I haven't heard that before. That would amazing if it were indeed true although I need to triple check that just to be sure. Do you have any reference like BYO say? Thanks.

Well I've heard that it's good to try your beers after different amounts of time and see how it evolves, so it would be interesting to try it and see what those 'green apple' flavours everyone keeps talking about and then one next week as well. Other than that you should generally let it...

You will almost definitely have to pitch some fresh yeast for the carbonation process, I wouldn't know how much to be honest.

At 158f the gravity of my sparge (according to Brewer's Friend) will appear as 1.028 rather than 1.010. So do I stop at 1.028 or 1.010 to avoid tannin extraction?

Oh you'll want sparge anyway, it's just about soaking as much of the sugars out of the grain as possible, but only until the gravity of the second runnings reaches 1.010. When it falls below you'll start to extract unwanted tannins. This would mean taking regular samples of your second...

Hey I just bought cacao powder instead of nibs based on the fact it has 11g of fat instead of 52g but am wondering now if I made an unfavourable choice. I imagine it'll be impossible to remove from secondary or do nibs turn into a paste anyway? What do you think? Should I just roast the powder...

It'll be good to start a new thread on that and get some expert advice, I'm sure someone has had experience with it before. Salts are used only to attain the desired water profile, its phosphoric acid which you'll need to lower the pH/bicarbonate level of your sparge and mash water, you'll be...

EDIT: Turns out yes! I went and swapped the powder for nibs, supposedly it bestows an unwanted grainy flavour/texture

Yeah I did it with a hydrometer and my fermenter has been in the same place at the same temperature (20-21c) for 5 weeks now. My only explanation is that there is there is an inconsistency of sugars throughout the fermenter, perhaps due to its conical shape. Because strangely enough when I...

My airlock has been bubbling away about once every other minute for the past week and yet my gravity has remained at 25! I would love to bottle it so I can start brewing again but just seems like a recipe for disaster. I should also mention that I pitched Amylase (due to unconverted...

1.020 is more of an inconvenience really than any kind of devastation, notably because your ABV is around 4.0%, meaning it'll be like drinking a session imperial. The 3 standard ways to relieve a stuck fermentation are: 1) Adding glucose to get the yeast active again 2) Rousing the yeast...

I considered that too but after looking at my own report I realised that even that wouldn't give me an accurate idea just because of how much the mineral content and pH can vary. To be honest I think you have all the info you need. I imagine the best way to proceed is to simply add the malt to...

I second that, you only need to calibrate with the 4 and 7

Use amylase only as a last resort, I used it on my stout (stuck at 30) and now I'm starting to regret it because its been about 3 weeks, the gravity has hardly dropped (25) but the airlock is still bubbling, a right headf*ck. To be perfectly honest if your gravity dropped from 70 to 26...

Brewing salts only drop the pH of the mash by a little bit, they're almost exclusively used to give you the right water profile so you'll find you can never really use more than 1g or 2g of calcium chloride which promotes the thickness/sweetness of the beer, i.e. its more malty characters, and...

So to summaries... Calcium 67 (50 - 82) Magnesium 16 (10 - 20) Sodium 15 (12 - 17) Sulphate 105 (77 - 125) Chloride 19 ( 17 - 22) pH 7.3 (7.1 - 8.3) Yikes! Your sulphate is high which means it would be ideal for brewing IPAs and other bitter beers. That being said if you increase your...

Haha! I thought the same thing when I first joined, and now I'm doing it ;)