5 years into this great hobby and I feel like giving up

[khillian]

So got the water report back, its even softer then last years city annual water report,

Guess I have to adjust ez water, anyone have any comments?

 

[morticaixavier]

pH is pretty high but as you say it's really soft. I'm not sure what that means in terms of buffering but it's not super high so it shouldn't take too much acid or dark malt to bring down within range.

 

[LovesIPA]

You are going to want to add some brewing salts to that water to make your beers come out better.

Download Bru 'N Water. It seems a little overwhelming at first but if you read the instructions on the first tab it makes sense. Once you play around with it some, it's actually pretty easy to use.

 

[khillian]

Anyone explain with such soft water why my star san turns cloudy quickly? I switched to Saniclean recently which seems to work better no clouding.

Is it because of the PH? Am I not rinsing PBW well enough maybe? Should I be lowering my water ph with acid prior to mixing star san?

 

[LovesIPA]

I noticed that as well. If I used RO water from one of the Glacier water vending machines, it stay clear forever. I believe the acid reacts with some of the minerals in tap water and it turns cloudy. I have no idea if it affects how well it works.

 

[icebob]

I always use the glacier water, at 2.49$ for 5 gallons and 0.49$ for the 1 gallon, why temp it..

 

[LovesIPA]

Wow, I pay $0.30 a gallon out of their machines. And it just went up a nickel.

 

[unionrdr]

Craigtube did a video about this a while ago. He tested a cloudy batch of Starsan & a new,clear one. PH was the same. I can't post it here,damn hacker crap took out some functions. But it's the dead microbes & such in the water that help it cloud up. It doesn't really hurt it at all.

 

[TimmyWit]

You are going to want to add some brewing salts to that water to make your beers come out better.

Download Bru 'N Water. It seems a little overwhelming at first but if you read the instructions on the first tab it makes sense. Once you play around with it some, it's actually pretty easy to use.

+1

The creator of Bru N' Water called it on the PH being high (post 57) before OP posted the water report. Mabrungard is the man with water!

BTW, he is running for the AHA governing committee.

 

[BigPicture]

I was right there too!

But variety is the spice of life. My issue was the fact that I had brewed so many losers in a row. I kept experimenting with this & that. Tried some pretty unconventional stuff.

The answer for me was getting back to the basics. Clean Everything! Brew some goodies that I knew I liked & were proven winners.

http://www.alternativecommutepueblo.com/2011/10/ahanhc-gold-medal-winning-recipes-for.html

Just taking a break was also worthwhile. Relax. Take a month or two off.

When you come back & try again, you'll be glad you did.

 

[khillian]

Wanted to update the thread, since I dislike so many brilliant threads that die young without conclusions or updates on HBT.

I have finally gotten a mini fridge with a controller for primary fermentations. Since not doing the swamp cooler with frozen soda bottles method I could switch to buckets with spigots. I have been keeping most beers only for 2 weeks in primary, healthy dry yeast pitches with re-hydration (ya i switched back for a bit to rule out starters)(mr malty liquid starters) then transfer to the purged keg.

I have had 7 successful batches, no dumping, drink every last drop with friends batches. 3 Session IPAs (to test my repeatability https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/stone-go-ipa-clone-490338/#post6360876 , one Wee Heavy aged on Hungarian oak in the keg for 2 months, a great english dark mild, pumpkin beer, and a breakfast stout clone thats still in the keg on heavy toast french oak cubes at room temp, tapping on my birthday in late December, the sample was incredible finished at 1.022 from 1.083.

The over all trend is going back to the basics, no more cold crashing with gelatin to rack into a keg to warm back up on hops with a messy racking cane splashing procedure. Going back to buckets with spigots, true temperature control. I have also switched to brew in a bag full boil partial mashes for most of my recipes of late. Take OG and FG readings for every batch! I only add a tiny bit of CaCl or CaS04 for my partial mashes, other wise I just filter my SF tap water with a carbon filter.

For the hoppy beers I really think spigots and careful racking (no racking in my case) are key. I also only dry hop 7 days into primary fermentation with loose pellets (keg 5 days later into keezer) for session ipas/pales, tilt bucket and turn the spigot off when you reach the floating hop layer near the end. I have bright incredible aroma doing this technique. I do think the storage and quality of hops are also a big factor in making Heady Topper/Pliny like beers. For Double IPAs I will do a secondary dry hop in the keg, but never cold crashing then warming backup, I think the risk of suck back of oxygen (unless you have a closed system or can hook up c02 at a low psi to a ported better bottle) is not worth the risk. Keeping the yeast alive and some in suspension helps protect against oxidation (so relevant for hoppy oily rich beers) in my experience. There are also sugars in hops which can only be released by yeast activity freeing up aromatic compounds that normally would not decouple.

Brewing beer is such a rewarding hobby, thank you all for this thread and the larger HBT community.

Cheers!
/me Drinks a sip of my 3rd re-brew incredible Galaxy Session IPA

 

[JohnSand]

I love a happy ending!