Poor efficiency from Poland Spring

[elgee]

Not sure if it is all the water or not but I brewed up a saison with a double crush just to make sure the grain was a bit finer then usual. OG should have been 1.060 ended up at 1.038. I even did a 90 minute mash at 148 and a 90 minute boil. Very annoyed that the beer will probably be under 4% but as long as it tastes good, I'll live with it. Using wyeast 3711.

 

[Callacave]

Not sure if it is all the water or not but I brewed up a saison with a double crush just to make sure the grain was a bit finer then usual. OG should have been 1.060 ended up at 1.038. I even did a 90 minute mash at 148 and a 90 minute boil. Very annoyed that the beer will probably be under 4% but as long as it tastes good, I'll live with it. Using wyeast 3711.

If you don't do anything for your mash pH, then efficiency can suffer.

 

[Oginme]

Without other information on your recipe and expected efficiency, it's hard to comment.

I do know that Poland Spring is fairly light on all minerals for brewing. My well water is fairly close to what Poland Spring publishes as their typical water analysis and I add Calcium chloride, Magnesium sulfate and Calcium sulfate just to get my hardness up to around 100 ppm Ca which is about minimum for efficient mashing.

 

[elgee]

I had 7 lbs Pilsner malt, 4 lbs white wheat and half lb Carapils. I asked the homebrew guy what he would do to compensate for Poland spring and he basic said it would be fine, maybe he would add half lb acid malt, but he didn't seem too convincing. Not happy with the lack of knowledge at the shop.

 

[kh54s10]

What is your process? I do batch sparge, never measure pH and have only made any chemical additions once. I don't say that my beer is as good as it can be, but it is very good. That is my friends opinion, not just my own. I use tap water that is run though a house charcoal water filter.

I have never tried fly sparging, partially because of what I have read about the need for controlling pH. So if you fly sparge the water might have contributed to your problem. If not I would say that the water would have only made a small degree of the problem.

I would not be so harsh on the LHBS. There are so many variables involved. It might be that most people have no problems with Poland Spring water and a little acid malt.

 

[elgee]

I fly sparse, never had an issue. I am going to say that there is an expectation that a homebrew shop is a source to go to for advice and when you ask them for some guidance and they have little to no confident answer, it makes one wonder if their advice is sound or not? Luckily, we have this site to reference!

 

[jerrya100]

I brew all my beers using Poland Springs Water. It is very soft. Most times as Callcave said the ph would be very high especially with a lot of Pilsner malt. Anyway before I started controlling ph I had the same issue. Get the EZ water calculator and start adding salts to get ph in range.