getting artsy backfired

[Turfmanbrad]

I did a brew yesterday where I wanted some nice earthy grassy flavors. I'm a golf course superintendent and I wanted to reach to mother nature for some more ingredients, so I retrieved 5 gal h2o from a spring that is constantly bubbling in a well on the course. In the 1800s they actually bottled this water here (Chattolanee Bottled Water). I did my brew, an american pale ale. Beersmith estimated my OG to be 1.055. I couldn't believe my eyes when the hydrometer read 1.032. I've never been this far off! I used 9.5lb of 2 row and some other stuff. I'm assuming the pH was way off, which of course I didn't check. I even have gypsum in my arsenal but didn't remember to add it until after the mash (because I never need to use it). So much for using mother nature to help out. crap.

 

[Pie_Man]

That's a pretty cool idea. I guess you made golf course lawn mower beer.

It would certainly help to know the composition of the well water, and testing ph would have allowed for adjustments. At least you still made beer and you can always try again adjusting your process with what you've learned.

 

[Turfmanbrad]

The problem is, I used home malted tall fescue and it was such a pain I'm not sure if I'll do it again. Things are looking weird in the fermentor too...like a cold break cloud floating up top. This could get interesting.

 

[Pie_Man]

The problem is, I used home malted tall fescue and it was such a pain I'm not sure if I'll do it again. Things are looking weird in the fermentor too...like a cold break cloud floating up top. This could get interesting.

Wow, that's very ambitious. You potentially have another issue, the gravity potential of your home malted tall fescue. Did you just use the default values for yield and properties values in Beersmith? If so, those are probably not accurate for your malt. Did you perform a Congress mash on your malt? That's the only way to estimate the gravity potential.

My guess is the water and ph could have had an affect, but unless you did a Congress mash on your home malted grain, there's no way of knowing its gravity potential. You could have had excellent efficiency, but the malt just had lower gravity potential than you estimated in Beersmith.

You probably read up about malting your own grain, but here a few resources that I've come across (not that I've malted my own grain before):
http://***********/stories/article/indices/44-malt/1097-make-your-own-malt - Read the drawbacks section about the lower gravity
http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=basic-brewing-radio-2007 - March 1, 2007 episode of BBR about home malting.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I assume you checked and verified that grass seed is edible. If the spring has not been used for consumption recently, have you tested it? Water tables can shift over time and encounter various compounds, many of which are ot advisable for human consumtion. Yes, earth will eventually filter out most impurities, it depends on how far it has traveled from source to your little spring. In the 50's fungicides containing mercury were used in the golf industry. How long has your course been in operation?

 

[Turfmanbrad]

The water has been tested recently since we pump from the spring to irrigate the course. Everything was within an acceptable range (you'll always have some level of heavy metals).

As for doing a test on the fescue for a gravity, I didn't have enough to do so, however, I used 9.5lb of 2 row. I got about half of what I expected solely from that. I wasn't expecting much from the seed.

It's fermenting away so I'll give it a couple weeks then give it a shot.

 

[forstmeister]

Having worked at multiple courses for over 8 years, I can only ask why you would use stuff from the course? There are so many contaminants present, including geese, fertilizer, herbicide, fuel...i would be afraid to drink the water.

I did witness naked strippers swimming in our irrigation pond once, that was pretty cool...

 

[thughes]

is "naked stripper" redundant?

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Hey, when do we see the recipie for naked stripper beer?

 

[Pezedorado]

Is malted fescue a concern like malting rye?

 

[Token]

Ha! I like how this thread went off course.... Well, I mean...

 

[wilserbrewer]

Turfmanbrad, So you home malted 2 lbs of fescue grass seed and put that in the beer made w/ artisan well water from the golf course?

 

[Turfmanbrad]

Forstmeister- it's a small surface well that has a 450gpm spring inside of it continually overflowing it into a stream that starts at it. None of the contaminants you are thinking about are in it. Working on multiple courses, you should understand however, the amount of caution that goes into protecting any body of water on a course.

Yes, I malted grass seed as a specialty grain and used water from an awesome spring on the course. I should've done one or the other. The beer isn't done yet so we'll see how it turns out.

 

[forstmeister]

Caution schmaution! My supers didn't need no stinkin caution!

Kidding, I was concerned for your well being. I am glad to hear that you used the old noodle before mashing with pond sludge.

And no, naked stripper is not redundant. They are in various states of undress throughout their shows. This was a strip club outing at a course I worked at. It was a glorious day.

 

[Turfmanbrad]

Haha. Great point on the strippers! I'll see how the beer turns out in a few weeks